Review by Matt S. Dontnod’s modus operandi is to put players through difficult moral choices. It was brilliantly executed in the masterful Life is Strange, but then that game was effectively a choose your own adventure. And as we all know, games without “gameplay” are immediately relegated to the hyper-niche.…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. One of the big successes over at Kickstarter in recent times has been Wild Mage: Phantom Twilight, a an open world action/adventure RPG from Luna Orion studio. It managed to meet plenty of stretch goals beyond its initial funding, and because of this PS4, Xbox One,…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I have a long history with Kingdom of Loathing (or KoL, as fans fondly know it by). It sustained me through my student years where I couldn’t afford much of anything, let alone games, by being both genuinely free, and online multiplayer focused and therefore endless…
Read MoreReview by Ginny W. There’s a certain appeal to brutality from both an aesthetic and a mechanical perspective. Unforgiving yet pristine landscapes feature heavily in video games, like I Am Setsuna and Horizon: Zero Dawn. It’s not solely because of their deadly beauty. It’s more likely because of the psychological…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I love Conan the Barbarian. The sheer pulp fantasy of the brutally dark world sung out to me as a Dungeons & Dragons-loving child back when I first discovered the Weird Tales literary magazine, and with it the likes of Robert E. Howard (the author of…
Read MoreReview by Pierre-Yves L. Choice. Do you chose to give the starving person you come across a bit to eat from what you have? Do you give them money to buy something? Or do you walk away? This is a small decision when compared to the larger one of deciding…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Nostalgia’s a tricky beast. Not only do you need to tap into the memories and emotional response that people have to the thing you’re waxing nostalgic about, but you need to do so in a way that doesn’t also capture all its problems. And when you…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Spiderweb Software isn’t a household name, but for years (and years) now the tiny outfit has managed to achieve something that most other indies will die dreaming of: establish a workable and sustainable business model. Spiderweb games are brilliantly niche, don’t overstretch themselves, and don’t get…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. I’ve got my eyes very closely watching Underworld Ascendant, and that’s mostly because of the talent behind it. Warren Spector (Deus Ex), Paul Neurath (Thief), Joe Fielder (BioShock Infinate), and Tim Stellmach (System Shock) make this a development team that has real pedigree and talent behind…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Let’s talk about Diablo clones. It’s rare for a game to be so influential that it becomes a genre title in itself, but that’s certainly the case for Diablo. That original masterpiece, released far back in 1996, has joined the ranks of the likes of Rogue…
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