Fuck AI. Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it. Kazuma Kaneko’s Tsukuyomi is a good example of why game developers should never touch Gen AI. It’s an actual insult to the intelligence that Kazuma Kaneko would actually put his name to this and believe that people would just accept it. For this game alone, my respect for the guy and his…
On a recent trip to Japan, I spent a very pleasant week in Hiroshima. When I say “Hiroshima”, for most Western readers it’ll bring to mind one single reason to visit. Specifically, most tourists heading to Hiroshima do so for the sake of atomic bomb tourism, taking in the Atomic…
Read MoreDDNet contributor, Alex Kidman, recently took a trip to Japan and, out of incredible jealousy, we asked him to drop us a couple of stories of highlights from his trip. Here’s his first! Wander the streets of Akihabara, and you’re beset on all sides by anime, video games and, increasingly,…
Read MoreFor some decades now, wrestling game fans have been seriously limited in game choice, with only titles produced around the dominant brand, WWE – such as WWE 2K23 easily available to Western audiences. However, the publisher of WWE made a huge misstep with WWE 2K20, dropping Japanese developer, Yukes, in…
Read MoreEver since I first laid eyes on Bullfrog’s classic Theme Park, I’ve been equally smitten by theme park simulators and also terrified of what they make me do. Don’t get me wrong; the classic blend of management simulation – like it or not, you’re more or less balancing an Excel…
Read MoreThere’s absolutely no shortage of affordably-priced gaming headsets on the market. For not that much money, you can pick up a wired set with some kind of flexible microphone, a braided cord and an aggressive-looking logo on the earcups. Which is all well and great, but I have a very…
Read MorePuzzle Bobble is an amazing puzzle game. I use that tense specifically because it’s one of those concepts where the developers got it absolutely plumb right from the get-go, all the way back in 1996. Yes, that was a long time ago. But I’m right. Fire up a copy of…
Read MoreThere’s no way I can start this article without acknowledging that professional wrestling, the one “sport” that I properly follow, is a staged performance. “Fake” is often thrown around, but that’s not entirely accurate when you’re talking about a performance that can involve being thrown off a ladder through a…
Read MoreAnnual sports game refreshes all tend to get a little stale over time, but few have had such a fall from grace as we saw out of 2K Games’ WWE line of games back with WWE2K20. The shift from Japanese developer, Yukes, to US Studio, Visual Concepts, led to one…
Read MoreI am, in many ways, the worst possible person to review a Raiden game. It’s not because I hate the series, or can’t appreciate the beauty of a vertical shmup. Quite the reverse. I’ve loved Raiden ever since the first time I lined up a 20c piece against a grubby…
Read MoreWonder Boy is one of those classic gaming icons that you’ve probably encountered at some point in your gaming life, whether it’s the classic arcade game or the more recent remakes of titles such as Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap. I say “recent”, and then I look it up…
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