Trackmania
Few racing games are as simple in execution as Trackmania. Abandoning the complexities and realistic slant of simulators like Gran Turismo or Forza and stripped of the wild mechanics of arcade racers like Need for Speed or Mario Kart, Trackmania primarily wants players to go fast. And faster. And faster. On PC, I can play Trackmania with one hand. My fingers on the WASD keys turn the sleek car, pr...[Read More]
Those Who Remain
Over the course of Those Who Remain, the player should feel a strong bond with lead character Edward. His dialog often acts as a sort of catharsis for players, his words expressing similar thoughts racing through players’ heads. Many play horror games to be swept up in tense, fearful situations and allow a rush of adrenaline to spike them through breathless chases and eerie moments. A lead c...[Read More]
The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II does not need to exist. Naughty Dog’s masterpiece serves as a generational culmination and capstone, exposing players to profound storytelling only possible through this interactive medium. In the years since, The Last of Us has been dissected and revered, achieving universal acclaim and reverence for its accomplishments. By all accounts, it is a special game. Not perf...[Read More]
JBL Quantum 800 Wireless Headset
Tuning out the world. It’s something I often do when playing games. Theme music plays, press the start button, begin a journey into a new place that isn’t your own existence. This blissful form of escapism is possible with other forms of media but none resonate with me like gaming. Not only can you play games–see the movements of your fingers translated into movements on the scre...[Read More]
Huntdown
Huntdown‘s near-impeccable distillation of classic arcade shooting is a thunderous endorsement of a seemingly bygone era, one where raw skill was often only matched with the amount of quarters lining your pocket. Its 16-bit shooting style mimics what a player might find in Contra or an odd gem like Blizzard’s Blackthorne. The game is drenched in the 80s overtones of the best dystopian,...[Read More]
Trackmania Preview
Being only a casual fan of racing games, I’m very much new to the Trackmania series. Despite several installments being released since 2003, none of them have ever come up on my radar, which might be due to the fact that they are primarily PC games. If I’m going to be behind the wheel of a virtual vehicle, it’s usually on the run from cops in Need for Speed or tearing up the pave...[Read More]
Fury Unleashed
Despite the roguelike genre’s tendency to recycle many of the same elements, I rarely tire of its structure. There’s an eagerness to dive back into a randomly generated cloud of levels, equipped with the knowledge of past deaths and the determination of a few invested upgrade points. In the time since playing Rogue Legacy–a title I didn’t initially grasp or appreciate–...[Read More]
Kingdom Two Crowns
Build, explore, defend. The tenets of Kingdom Two Crowns should be familiar to any player who has spent a handful of minutes in a game where success is based on the ability to harvest resources and expand your influence. A small base of operations will soon becoming teeming with life as tendrils of economy allow the player to stretch farther into the given map. You may recognize the pattern in any...[Read More]
XCOM: Chimera Squad
XCOM: Chimera Squad is a bold move on the part of developer Firaxis Games. After the franchise laid dormant, I dabbled in XCOM: Enemy Unknown and was impressed with how brutally difficult the game was, especially as it was widely released on console. I think a generation raised on Dark Souls was ready for the kind of challenge that was commonplace in the early days of PC and console gaming. I felt...[Read More]
DOOM Eternal
Few games can compare to the raw splendor of DOOM‘s violence. The series flourishes in its homages to hellish gore and brutal violence. For decades, DOOM has reveled in pitting players against hordes of demons, watching their pixelated, polygonal corpses dissolve into bloody mush as a result of a sole aggressor’s relentless assault. For PC players in the 90s, DOOM was a revolution of m...[Read More]
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint: Episode 2 Early Impressions
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint needed Episode 2. Since release the game has suffered a kind of identity crisis for many players. At release, I was was one of the few reviewers who enjoyed the game for what it was attempting to accomplish, including merging several ideas implemented across Ubisoft’s stable of games. Regardless, I understood why many did not enjoy it. Breakpoint att...[Read More]
The Division 2 Warlords of New York
Before the announcement of The Division 2 Warlords of New York, it had been several months since I had set down and played a hearty amount of my favorite “living world” “games as a service” open-world looter shooter. Unfortunately, my large group of friends who bought the game at launch and played semi-religiously had dwindled away. We all did. Time and the allure of countl...[Read More]