GNOG
Imagine a monster made of bright colors and sour candy. Now picture the inside of its head; there’s no brain meat here, just a bunch of propellers, deep sea diving equipment, and dangerous amounts of electricity. For some reason it’s all slathered in brightly colored goop, and yet every piece is neatly arranged and separated. You’re driven to make sense of this. Welcome to Gnog. ...[Read More]
What Remains of Edith Finch
Every member of Edith Finch’s family is dead. Brothers. Uncles. Great Aunts. Parents. Some were abrupt, a few broke after years of tension, and others were radically stolen away. A common denominator across three generations; no one was ever prepared. This is a tragic irony for family publicly known by their calamitous fate, but also a determined resolve to escape an unhealthy definition. Ba...[Read More]
Yooka-Laylee
Yooka-Laylee accurately replicates what it was like to experience Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie. Rare’s troupe of turn-of-the-century platformers (with help from Donkey Kong 64 and Conker’s Bad Fur Day) pushed Super Mario 64’s approach to 3D platforming to amorphous extremes, imbuing gorgeous worlds with distinct challenges and incessant stuff to collect. Coming of age in the Nin...[Read More]
Dark Souls III: The Ringed City
The Ringed City continues Dark Souls III’s operating thesis; creativity isn’t climb to the tallest peak, but rather a journey with no particular destination on the horizon. Eight years has delivered five Souls-style games and eight unique pieces of downloadable content. Whether The Ringed City really is Dark Souls’ final installment or the beginning of a well-deserved sabbatical,...[Read More]
Everything (n): all things; all the things of a group or class
I can’t tell if Everything is either a poignant attempt to transgress the nature of play or another underhanded pitch from David O’Reilly designed to paralyze the neural activity of anyone who attempts to assign it with a definition. Everything is sincere in its message and competent in its assembly while simultaneously preying upon standard gaming conventions and coming up with deviou...[Read More]
Ghost Blade HD
Hucast is finally bringing their talents to 21st century hardware. You could be forgiven for being unacquainted with Hucast’s work. DUX, Redux: Dark Matters, Redux 2, and the oddball platformer Alice’s Mom’s Rescue are all modern titles from the low-key German developer. These games haven’t gotten much traction from the dedicated shoot ’em up / bullet-hell community b...[Read More]
NieR: Automata
Nier was a demanding and ambitious game undermined by the reality that it wasn’t much fun to sit down and play. Seven years later, Nier: Automata seeks not to sterilize Nier’s affable idiosyncrasies, but rather recast them in a mold forged to withstand the torrent of institutional mischief delivered through director Yoko Toro’s unorthodox approach to game design. Translating Toro...[Read More]
Flap Jaw Space: Episode 90 – Zelda Superlatives
Hi. Our weekly monthly quarterly whenever podcast convened to ask Steve Schardein about his 60+ hours with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Over the past week, Steve had been using some outstanding language to describe his time with the game. Chris and I sought to determine if his enthusiasm was genuine or if Steve was trapped in the reality distortion field that commonly envelopes mainlin...[Read More]
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
Staring at a rhombus isn’t too far removed from trying to make sense of Psychonauts. Double Fine’s 2005 debut was bursting with creative energy but burdened with frantic conduct, birthing a manic achievement that nevertheless enraptured an audience and qualified the odd experience as “worth it.” By comparison, a rhombi’s mixture of acute and obtuse angles preclude it ...[Read More]
Resident Evil 7: biohazard – Banned Footage Vol. 2
Banned Footage Vol. 2 continues Vol. 1’s mission of bending Resident Evil 7’s premise to suit its baleful will. Three pieces of content compose Banned Footage Vol. 2. “21,” is Resident Evil’s take on blackjack, a proposition that inspires are-you-kidding levels of insipidity, but, in practice, comes off as enjoyably madcap and mechanically principled. “Jack̵...[Read More]
Uncanny Valley
Uncanny Valley’s style makes a strong case for low-fidelity horror. Coupling blown-out pixel art, where simple insinuations of malevolence can be seized and twisted exponentially by a subconscious mind, with meaningful consequence is a blueprint for a trepidatious afternoon. Lone Survivor and Back in 1995 have taken similar routes with dramatic results, proving a low-fi aesthetic has a plac...[Read More]
Resident Evil 7: biohazard – Banned Footage Vol. 1
Resident Evil 7 was an idol built to honor the philosophy of survival horror. Banned Footage Vol. 1 is an experiment where that idol is removed, attacked with a hammer, and then methodically reshaped to facilitate the needs of three divergent systems. Genre hopping is dangerous, but Banned Footage Vol. 1, performing with a mixture of passion and duty, doesn’t collapse under pressure. Two thi...[Read More]