Review by Matt S. What a game. What an absolutely delightful shot of retro goodness right through the arteries and into the heart. No waiting for the stomach acid to dissolve this drug into the system, no sirree. Star Ocean: First Departure R is direct into the veins. Related reading:…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. In recent years we’ve seen some impressive efforts to take the gamebook format – a popular kind of “game” that largely predates video games – and revitalise it for a modern audience. Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf was given an invigorating combat system and 3D presentation. Australia’s…
Read MoreReview by Lindsay M. If you found a lost phone on the ground, what would you do? Would you pick it up? Would you actively try to find the owner, or passively wait for someone to ring it? Now what if that phone was left at your doorstop, and when…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Amazing Brick Breaker is shovelware, just so we’re clear here. This is a game with no fresh ideas, it’s not presented in a way that could be called “interesting”, and it probably took around a month to make. But on the other hand it works and…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Damn it, I so badly wanted to love Lost Ember. It’s a beautiful and heartfelt project that weaves together concepts of ancestry and memory, nature and preservation, and does so in a completely non-violent manner. It’s a game of exploration and discovery, and it is truly…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Setting out to make Dark Zelda: Breath of the Souls, and then throwing a dash of Princess Mononoke in there, is certainly a brave and bold move. Portugese-based developer, Amplify Creations, is probably better known within the industry than it is within the gaming community, as…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Yes, I’m reviewing a shooty shooty bang bang. Perhaps an even bigger shock is that it is one that I genuinely enjoyed. Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts is not even the most high profile or critically lauded in its genre this year, but then given that so…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Just yesterday I wrote a review for Black Future ’88, a game that I criticised for being far too beholden to the indie trend of making everything into a “roguelike.” Well, Black Future ’88 looks like a masterpiece of innovation when compared to Labyrinth of the…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. It’s not always fair when a video game – or any other art work, for that matter – belongs to a genre that has become so saturated that it’s hard to muster up enthusiasm for it. It’s often not the game’s fault, in isolation, and many…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I have played a lot of video games over the years. According to Metacritic, in the half decade or so that DDNet has been listed there, we’ve reviewed 2,333 games, of which a big percentage was my doing. Across all of those games I don’t think…
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