Dying Light: The Beast Review
As big and expansive as Dying Light 2 Stay Human was when it released in 2022, I am sympathetic towards players who eventually became exhausted by Techland’s parkour playground. One of the major caveats with open-world games is their ability to keep players anchored to the bountiful amount of side quests, checklists, and things to do. We’ve all seen the criticism of overly packed world...[Read More]
Ghost of Yōtei Review
At what point do we wish to abandon reality and blissfully exist inside a game’s world? No matter how fantastical or violent or absurd or realistic or impractical, a rich world teeming with personality so frequently provides more than just meager escapism. And while becoming lost in a game and submerged in its fiction is intoxicating–especially when the outside world is particularly vi...[Read More]
Baby Steps Review
Calling Baby Steps an anti-game is not an indictment of its expert ability at infuriating the player with punishing regression of progress. Nor is it a way to shield this absurdist piece of entertainment from legitimate criticism from players who will never acquire a taste for the buffet of bitter pills it jovially wishes us to gobble down. Yes, Baby Steps is a video game. A videogame. A game. It&...[Read More]
Wizordum Review (PS5)
Wizordum is a standout entry in the renaissance of what has become colloquially known as boomer shooters. But 30 years ago we would have called them first-person shooters. Or arena shooters. Or, perhaps, just an action game. Look, I’m not a boomer. And honestly, I kind of hate the slang “boomer” being applied to anything not preceded by an “okay.” Still, it’s a ...[Read More]
LEGO Voyagers Review
Take this fact with a grain of salt: I completed a large portion of LEGO Voyagers by myself. While it seems almost cruel to conduct such an experiment on what is meant to be a cooperative experience between two players, I was curious as to what would ultimately happen if I tried it. On a couch I sat with no other partner able to take the second controller in their hands to assist me in this humble...[Read More]
Heading Out Review
Heading Out is, perhaps, a game that seeks to defy both expectation and definition. A cursory glance would make the game appear to be an overtly stylish driving game. Not a racer. Not a simulation. Some random “roguelike” elements are seemingly peppered in. Is it a road trip game? A thriller? A high-octane piece of action? Like some art house flick, Heading Out unabashedly does not for...[Read More]
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance Review
While the DNA of more recent titles can be seen in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, it is unequivocally rooted in the framework of classic action games. Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise from Lizardcube, the team that worked on Streets of Rage 4, the first entry in that classic beat ’em up series in 25 years. Why wouldn’t Sega ask the team behind that well-received revitalizati...[Read More]
Dead Take Review
Whiplash is one way to describe the sensation I had upon first discovering that Dead Take was created by the same developer as Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Surgent Studios head Abubakar Salim first came across my radar as one of the leading roles of the egregiously cancelled Raised By Wolves, a bizarre, fantastical show that had no right to be as good as it was. Of course it was short lived. Some of the...[Read More]
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Review
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound effortlessly replicates the old-school fangs of Tecmo’s 1988 classic not by innovating but by staying true to form. Developer The Game Kitchen–who is also responsible for the fantastic Blasphemous series–understands that the path towards creating a “classic” 2D Ninja Gaiden game isn’t by layering complexity on an already tried and true fo...[Read More]
RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business Review
As I wrapped up my review of RoboCop: Rogue City back in 2023 I wrote the following: “Rogue City deserves a sequel. I’ll go ahead and say it. Teyon has proved their knowledge and skill at replicating the world and feeling of RoboCop. A few times, I felt like I was playing a spin-off of Deus Ex with its small hub areas full of side missions and things to discover. The game feels like this suc...[Read More]
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 Review
Tony Hawk’s cultural flashpoint happened during my impressionable middle school and high school years. The fever pitch around X-Games, professional skating, and other “non-traditional” sports hit in the late 90s and early 2000s. And as a kid who just wanted to be cool, it was only natural that myself along with millions of others became attracted to a movement that felt against t...[Read More]
Ruffy and the Riverside Review
When Yooka-Laylee released a lifetime ago back in 2017, I couldn’t help but be charmed at its blatantly obvious bid for nostalgia. Comprised of former Rare developers, Playtonic Games wasn’t trying to hide that Yooka-Laylee was a callback to the wave of collectathons from the Nintendo 64 era. While a number of critics admired Playtonic’s ability to capture the look and feel of wh...[Read More]