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Today
Feature: Head banger
I’m almost tempted to celebrate the appallingly named MO: Astray for not being a Metroidvania. I loves me some Metroiding, but it’s proved a real pleasure to play an action-platformer that focuses on continuous progression without a trace of backtracking. It’s especially a pleasure when it happens in a game as precisely designed as this.
Feature: Lights on, lights off
The full title of this is Starman: Tale Of Light, apparently. I used to think the little person in this was an astronaut, because the title is Starman, but looking at it again it could also be a beekeeper. Or possibly a lepidopterist, because the lights you collect turn into butterflies.
1 day ago
Feature: If you go down to the woods today...
“It’s hungry mother. It’s trip to the fair. It’s bad trade. Magic beans. Jack’s cow, angry mother. It’s surprise beanstalk. It’s climbing the beanstalk, giant’s castle, giant’s wife, golden goose, self-playing harp, escape with the goose, chop down the beanstalk.” Mark Rosewater has been head designer on Magic: The Gathering since 2003, overseeing the creation of thousands of new cards in the collectible card game…
Feature: Two doesn't need to be
Overwatch 2 doesn’t look like a sequel, but a true sequel would be doomed to disappoint
Overwatch creative director Jeff Kaplan says he wants to "redefine what a sequel means", but I'm loath to let him get away with that. When he talks about Overwatch 2's focus on co-operative missions, essentially expanded versions of the first game's underwhelming seasonal PvE events, I just hear a man telling me I should lower my expectations. The more I think about it, though, the…
Feature: Beware negative splendor
Crusader Kings 3 is basically a Game of Thrones RPG in disguise
The Crusader Kings franchise has always had a massive Game of Thrones vibe. Indeed, the first two games in the series got their own Westeros mods, and our own Adam Smith called CK2’s “such a blindingly obvious combination of worlds and mechanics that it simply had to exist”. Now, however, looking into the new dynasty mechanics for Crusader Kings 3, it’s clear what Paradox are…
Feature: I haven't
Robocode is a coding game about telling your little robot exactly how to move, dodge, aim, shoot, and assess its situation so that it can destroy all opposing robots in the arena. It's also a game I've never played before in my life. You know what I did play though? Robot Battle. Robot Battle is the 1992 coding game by Brad Schick that inspired the…
3 days ago
Feature: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck...
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge will always be among my favourite LucasArts games. The sequel to The Secret Of Monkey Island was where things got a lot more Pythonesque. But it's a lot more than just a treasure hunt and a barrel of laughs, it was very clever for its time.
Feature: But protesters still hope they raised awareness
It was business as usual at Blizzcon despite Hong Kong protests
It wasn't possible to ignore the protesters directly outside Blizzcon's gates this year. They were drawn by Blizzard's ongoing failure to respond appropriately to Hearthstone pro Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai calling for the liberation of Hong Kong in an interview. They clustered right outside, handing out shirts, placards, and information. But inside, it was easy to forget. In a sea of people wearing Blizzard merchandise,…
Feature: Lukewarm takes incoming
Don't come any closer, pal. I've got a gun. Oh wait, maybe I don't, because I pawned it when I was extremely drunk, and I didn't do a deal with the corrupt union boss to get it back. Oh dear, now a voice in my head that says it's Electrochemistry is trying to convince me to get drunk. I must be in bleak but lovely…
Feature: Dream Hearts
There is nothing worse for a world-leading chartologist (PhD) like me than a Steam sale. All sense is lost, all decorum thrown to the wind, as the same few games come stamping all over everything like an uninvited six year old whose parents let him go to bed whenever he wants. And we're entering Sale Season, people. It's going to get stampy.
Feature: Now listen, see
I understand that Obsidian fans are sort of using the existence of The Outer Worlds to dunk on Fallout 76 (because OW is the real successor to New Vegas, right?). But before it was ammunition in a weeing contest, the game was a first-person space RPG where you did a shoot at extremely angry lizards. And, much like that one friend we all have, I…
4 days ago
Feature: Climb every mountain
Celeste has three core moves: Jumping, climbing walls, and dashing. But it's also a game about a lot more than that. It's about overcoming obstacles.
Feature: Read more
Sundays are for recovering from a Halloween party. Perhaps by reading the best writing about videogames from the past week. Most writers for (ostensibly) sports website Deadspin quit on Wednesday, after its recently acquired buyers G/O Media insisted they "stick to sports" rather than write the kind of personal and political articles people liked them for. I've never been a reader, but the suppression of…
5 days ago
Feature: A new way to tell the same story
Overwatch 2 focuses on the story, but doesn’t seem to correct any of its issues
If you’ve played one of Overwatch’s lore PvE events, you probably know what to expect from the bulk of the new stuff that’s unique in Overwatch 2. The mostly-sequel format of its release means that a cleaner UI, new heroes, and a new map type will be added to the first game at the same time that the sequel launches, leaving a new look for…
Feature: It's always online again
Diablo 4 mixes up the darkness of its dungeons with a varied overworld
Diablo 4 was revealed yesterday in a swirl of blood and grime and men talking about the lure of the darkness both in the trailer and onstage. I chatted with a couple of the developers about the new world they’ve created, the monsters they filled it up with, and their painterly inspirations. And I played a bit. It was surprisingly well lit.
Feature: Games about food to bring us together
I love food. To me, food isn't just something I have to consume periodically throughout the day in order to survive -- it's a crucial part of my understanding of the world. I'm a food-oriented tourist (burrata in Florence! smoked fish in Copenhagen!) and a food-oriented friend (come over for dinner! let's go out for brunch!). Because of my penchant for produce and fervor for…
Feature: Well?
Here we are, Halloween is over, and video games are still fun of Halloween events. Bit weird. Feels a bit sad. Get over it, yeah? Okay, I did once keep a Christmas up until April because I missed the council's pick-up days and came to quite like having it around. Maybe this Halloween will regrow on me. Even if the shops are quite loudly insisting…
6 days ago
Feature: The worthiest reticules of all time
The best shooters endure. While other genres warp beyond recognition, there is something solid about the first-person shooter that makes it as dependable as a nice big AK-47. Maybe it’s the gung-ho simplicity - look down a barrel and pull the trigger. It's as fun to fire a double-barrelled shotgun from an early 90s FPS as the slick shotties of today. For that reason, this…
Feature: War is hell, if you haven't heard
Of course Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare has nothing interesting to say about war. Of course its guns feel good, and its explosions are many and impressive. Of course the multiplayer is essentially the same game we've been playing for over a decade, only prettier and in more flavours. Of course a part of me likes it, and of course part of me is jaded…
Feature: Conflicts confronted
After decades of stasis, the landscape of computer wargaming is beginning to change. Here and there desert hexagons are greening... dry arroyos are becoming rivers again... the accumulated dust and debris of forty years of conservative thinking is being sluiced towards the sea. Tired of threadbare, truth-blurring conventions, imaginative devs are looking at war and warriors in fresh, arresting ways. In today's column, I talk…
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