Umurangi Generation
It is difficult to look at Umurangi Generation’s lush presentation and listen to the energetic melodies of its soundtrack and not immediately think of Jet Set Radio. Smilebit’s cel-shaded skate-and-spray-paint sensation captured Japan’s youth culture (and its innocuous insurgency) at the apex of the year 2000. Two decades later, Umurangi Generation uses a similar blueprint to bui...[Read More]
Saint’s Row: The Third Remastered
Grand Theft Auto IV was a gift to Saints Row. Rockstar’s debut on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 shifted Grand Theft Auto’s priorities away from the madcap open-world omnibus of San Andreas and toward a more Serious and Important direction with its narrative and content. Saints Row 2, while full of goofy jaunts, wasn’t technologically or inspirationally prepared to capitalize on ...[Read More]
Tales From Off-Peak City Vol.1
It’s time for my first pizza delivery. I climb the stairs of the apartment building and enter the delivery address to see a well-dressed man sitting on a couch. Next to him is an infant in a crib with an identical version of his face, complete with beard and sunglasses. In his kitchen is a giant sign that says ASPARAGUS and a poster of an onion that is also a tree. He has arranged the books ...[Read More]
80’s Overdrive
Out Run was a foundational moment for racing videogames. Yu Suzuki’s 1986 classic used Sega’s Super-Scaler technology to produce one of the most visually arresting games of its age. On top of its novelty cockpit cabinet and player-selected soundtrack, Out Run also offered the fantasy of driving one hundred miles-per-hour in a Ferrari through the European countryside. Gliding through tr...[Read More]
Defective Holiday
Everywhere feels special when you’re on vacation. A change in scenery and a break from normalcy can render even the most prosaic location memorable and conspicuous. It could be something as simple as a different variety of trees next to a highway or as stunning as a nice beach at sunset. When an environment is framed as on vacation, anywhere you go carries the potential to be celebrated and ...[Read More]
Pattern
Pattern thrives on the orchestration of impulses. It’s a game about the shifting nature of the familiar world and the drive to capture the moment before it fades away. The objective is deciding which moment is most perfect while the thesis suggests that knowing this moment may be impossible. The product is a metaphor for the process of following imagination and acting on inspiration. With li...[Read More]
Final Fantasy VII Remake
How do you remake Final Fantasy VII? It’s a question that challenged every videogame discussion forum in existence after an otherwise routine PlayStation 3 technology demonstration in 2005. It’s a consideration that Square-Enix, in the midst of Tetsuya Nomura losing his grip on Final Fantasy XV and regaining it on Kingdom Hearts III, finally decided to take seriously with an electrifyi...[Read More]
Resident Evil 3
2020’s rendition of Resident Evil 3 is actually a remake of two different games. The most obvious is Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, first released on PlayStation in 1999. The other is last year’s complete overhaul of Resident Evil 2, which was as monumental to 2019 as its namesake was to 1998. Today’s Resident Evil 3 is not an ambitious survival-horror revolution; it is a practiced pe...[Read More]
Paper Beast
There’s a moment in Paper Beast’s opening act where I was dramatically unsure if a large, eight-legged creature was either going to befriend me or eat me. A body constructed of twisted, paper mache and a presence of menacing predation suggested Paper Beast was using virtual reality as a pathway for fear and intimidation. I braced for impact, but the creature simply passed me by. As a p...[Read More]
Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
Nobody minds having what is too good for them. At its release in 2013, at the end of a console generation, Saints Row IV was a chaotically stupid and enjoyable open world. It was pure delirium in a manner afforded exclusively to videogames. Its scenarios indulged in contemporary gags and references while providing the player with plenty of agency inside of its jokes. Volition, perhaps more so than...[Read More]
Persona 5 Royal
Persona 5 was not a game left wanting for content. Traversing seven Palaces throughout the Metaverse and forging bonds with sixteen Confidants across eight months consumed an enormous amount of time. These proper nouns only make sense if you have already been absorbed into Persona 5’s world and are prepared for its studious blend of visual novel story sequences and dungeon crawling deep dive...[Read More]
Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash!
It is impossible to look back at the Dreamcast and not think about Space Channel 5. Sega’s final console was a momentary blip on gaming’s timeline, but Sega’s wild last-ditch creativity connected the Dreamcast to color-soaked games like Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Samba de Amigo, Rez, and Space Channel 5. There weren’t blockbusters, but rather idiosyncratic oddities beloved ...[Read More]