Evil Dead: The Game
Thankfully, Evil Dead: The Game is not a mediocre game glued together solely by its use of a beloved license. Evil Dead is an undeniable classic. An important piece of independent film-making. Its sequel a brilliant swirl of grotesque horror and slapstick comedy. The third film, Army of Darkness, is a middle finger to big budget films and a wonderful twist on the fantasy genre. Directed by Sam Rai...[Read More]
ScourgeBringer
ScourgeBringer delights itself in pulling no punches. Players will die at a furious, brutal pace. Whether it be a massive beam of energy, undodged bullet, or the bite of a lowly insect, dying feels bad. ScourgeBringer doesn’t care. Your angry tears and tightly gripped controller mean nothing outside of a lesson that this was your fault and you could do better. Being moderately experienced wi...[Read More]
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising Review
Taking Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising at face value may be difficult for some. Meant as a spin-off or prologue or introduction to players before the arrival of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes potentially sometime next year, Rising sets its sights as a “full game” despite its initial appearance. There is a world where I could imagine Rising as a free-to-play mobile game that gatekeeps prog...[Read More]
Weird West
The five interconnected stories of Weird West will have players’ choices rippling throughout the narrative. In this world of cannibalistic tribes, occult magic, and eldritch horror, tumbleweeds and dusty saloons hardly feel significant. Yet a strength of Weird West is its ability to balance both the Weird and the West. Packed with Arkane veterans, it’s little surprise that WolfEye Stud...[Read More]
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo thrives on pushing the malleable boundaries of open world games. I’m unsure how many players will go into playing Ghostwire: Tokyo expecting a wide, open city packed with collectibles. How many playing this will have experience with Tango Gameworks’ The Evil Within series and its rapid emphasis on larger explorable spaces? Within the first hours, Ghostwire: Tokyo provi...[Read More]
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Review
Final Fantasy has been a series of constant evolution. Whether those changes be incremental or borderline genre shifts, the beloved RPG namesake feels virtually timeless. In the past 15 years, the fluctuating expectations of what makes a Final Fantasy game have been stretched to their breaking point. Is it a turn-based RPG? Is it a hybrid MMO? A buddy roadtrip adventure? I often think players over...[Read More]
Lifting the Fog from Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo has remained elusive since its slick, stylish E3 2019 debut. In the three years that have followed, the handful of moments where Tango Gameworks’ first non-The Evil Within game has appeared did little to lift the veil. This is from the studio founded by Shinji Mikami, the name behind Resident Evil. It looks steeped in Japanese folklore and horror. And the main character̷...[Read More]
A Musical Story
In my time interacting with A Musical Story I constantly wished to refer to it as A Musical Journey. A journey, while not inherently long, may take the player or reader or listener or viewer through a range of emotions and experiences. The acclaimed Journey, while brief, navigated players through a whimsical world and a silent, beautiful narrative. A story, meanwhile, may unfurl in a few moments a...[Read More]
Gran Turismo 7
Gran Turismo 7 is not a game made for me. And yet, strangely, it is. In 2003, I bought my first car, a ’98 Chevrolet Malibu LS for $3500. A week or so after I had the car, I got into a fake drag race with someone else. My car was actually in reverse, so I went backwards while my opponent skirted forward. Laughter ensued. In the summer of 2005 I drove the car to Chicago to go to Lollapalooza ...[Read More]
Infernax
Weren’t Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest weird anomalies? Two classic series, two polarizing games. But keep in mind… there was no standard in place after the first Zelda and Castlevania. Nintendo and Konami had no blueprint to follow from. A sequel could have literally been anything. A carbon copy. An educational game. A racer. A turn-based RPG. ...[Read More]
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
Dying Light 2 Stay Human‘s biggest triumph is that its open world feels both dangerous and highly exciting. As a fan of Dying Light and, by extension, Dead Island, Dying Light 2 checks the boxes of what we’ve come to expect of a game spawned from the popularity of The Walking Dead franchise. In 2022, zombies don’t feel as potent as they once were but that doesn’t mean a gam...[Read More]
OlliOlli World
OlliOlli was one of the first games I fell absolutely in love with at my first E3 in 2013. For the first time I had the opportunity to play games in their early-ish stages and, hopefully, speak with developers to form a picture of their aspirations. Roll7’s oddly brilliant idea of a 2D skateboarding game where tricks were dictated by flicks of the PlayStation Vita’s thumbsticks became ...[Read More]