Witch Strandings (PC/Steam)
It feels really weird to recognize the existence of a genre that apparently began with Hideo Kojima’s most recent experiment. Whether or not you consider DEATH STRANDING the pinnacle “strand-type” game and a worthwhile experience is a test to what you value from gaming. Should you value making your way through a world of obstacles and connecting folks together, you may appreciate...[Read More]
Sonic Origins (PS5)
Childhood summers in Chicago were memorable for a few reasons, one of which was Sonic the Hedgehog. Every July/August I would visit my Grandmother for a week, and upon getting to her house I would take out her SEGA Genesis and hook it up in my bedroom, where I would spend every morning/evening of my Chicago vacation playing Sonic 2, 3, and Pinball. My cousins and I would pass the Genesis controlle...[Read More]
APICO (PC)
Farming simulations are fun games when done right–especially when the “chore” of maintaining a homestead becomes second-nature to the primary goal of something bigger. In Stardew Valley, all my hours spent on my (several) farms and in the mines were for the purpose of restoring the community center. During my summers off from grad school, I found solace in playing games that reli...[Read More]
Conan Chop Chop (PC)
Not enough roguelites are co-op friendly, although they should be. While some of you armchair gameplay developers may argue that this is by design for the genre, there are two examples that do co-op well and are recent releases: Returnal and Conan Chop Chop. The difference between these two games is that Returnal is locked to the PS5 and has a ridiculously steep difficulty curve. Conan Chop Chop, ...[Read More]
Young Souls (PC)
Young Souls is a promising indie 2D brawler/dungeon crawler featuring RPG elements that break up your average beat-em-up gameplay loop and subtly push you toward revisiting and replaying content as you become stronger. At first glance, Young Souls seems like a simple brawler, but the deeper you delve into the dungeons, the more details you’ll find tucked away in between waves of goblins and ...[Read More]
Death Stranding Director’s Cut (PC)
“Hideo Kojima is a GENIUS!” My friends, B and Y, would often yell that to each other whenever we would play League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm. The origin story of this phrase is nonessential, but the sentiment and meaning behind praising Mr. Kojima for seemingly benign minutia is important. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut (DSDC) is out on the PC, and it is in every way GEN...[Read More]
Grand Theft Auto V (PS5)
Update 4/30/2022: A prior version of this review mentioned my difficulties with playing the campaign and restoring my save from the PS4 version. This was because I had not uploaded my PS4 save to Rockstar’s Social Club. I downloaded the PS4 version onto the PS5, downloaded my save from PS+, opened the PS4 version, uploaded the save to the Social Club, and was successfully able to resume my P...[Read More]
30XX – Abyssal Armory Update (Chumps Preview)
Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess, and...[Read More]
Warp Frontier (Switch)
The point-and-click genre of PC gaming is what made my elementary schooling tolerable during the long afternoons I would spend at daycare. The fanciest computers at my school could run Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish, which were MUCH more fun than Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Rodent’s Revenge. As a 30-year old who pines for the simpler days of 1990s gaming, it’s not often that a point-and-cli...[Read More]
Grapple Dog (Switch)
I fondly remember my summers as a kid: I would go to Grandma’s house in Chicago and play Sonic the Hedgehog on her Sega Genesis. I owned a Sega Genesis in Los Angeles, too, but playing Sonic at Grandma’s felt so different in all the nostalgic ways. A few weeks ago, I saw a trailer for Grapple Dog, and right from the jump I got all of those nostalgic feelings back again. Grapple Dog is ...[Read More]
Aeterna Noctis (PS5)
The first game I played on my shiny new PS5 (on release day, no less) was not Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales or Astro’s Playroom. I played Hollow Knight, which was part of PS+ for the month of November 2020! My knowledge of Hollow Knight was limited; I knew it was fun, hard, and charming. I sat down…and played through the entire thing in about a week. While I couldn’t b...[Read More]
Clid the Snail (PC) Review
It’s January, and we all know what that means: Dry January! You betcha, it’s the one month of the year where we pre-game giving up drinking alcohol to prepare us for the inevitable social media Lent, where some of us give up social media and tell everyone we know through a snarky tweet. Of course, not all of us practice that, but then again, who does? It’s the anticipation that c...[Read More]