I’ve been making my way through the surprise-dropped Tomb Raider Definitive Edition that landed on the Switch a few weeks ago, and with two new Tomb Raider games just announced (albeit with a new publisher), that turns out to have been good timing to remind myself of the direction that Crystal Dynamics has been taking the character and her adventures.…
Octopath Traveler 0 isn’t really Octopath Traveler. It’s good. It’s even excellent, frequently and for long stretches of time. But it’s not Octopath Traveler for this very simple reason: Both the original Octopath Traveler and its sequel told the stories of eight (“Octo”) different people, who would eventually come together…
Bubble Bobble is one of the greatest games ever made, and it’s…
I first heard of Demonschool about three and a half years ago,…
There is a problem when you make something subversive: how do you back it up with a sequel? If the sequel is too familiar and follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, it is no longer subversive by definition. It has lost its creative identity. This is unfortunately the case…
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We don’t hear as much about the Eastern Front during World War 2. This is, of course, largely because the heroes of the piece were Soviets. Anything that could be perceived as lionising the heroics of Soviets doesn’t play well with the West’s official propaganda line on what happened during…
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I love real-world escape room experiences. You’ve got an hour or so to sort out an extended puzzle, find your way through a couple of different challenges and, ultimately (and usually with the assistance of a group of friends), make your way out in time. Escape rooms prove that a…
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There are so many ways that Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon could have fallen flat. Being so utterly different from the existing Bayonetta trilogy it could have disappointed players. It also offers a form of gameplay that is very hard to get right, too. And yet, it is…
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Catan’s trajectory has been incredible, given that it’s only 28 years old. Initially, it was something of a disruptor, helping the “Eurogame” become a dominant approach to board games. From there it became a Monopoly-like thing – a game that absolutely everyone owns a copy of and is aware of…
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It’s a rare treat when a major publisher like Square Enix produces a visual novel like Paranormasight. I can imagine how it happened, though: A small team within the publisher had a cracking idea for a spooky story and, after seeing just how great the concept really was, Square Enix…
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Finally. We have finally had the chance to play Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. A game that was previously exclusive to the Nintendo Wii in Japan is now available on just about everything and globally, in English, for the first time. I won’t say it was “worth the…
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Ruku’s Heart Balloon is right up there with the sweetest games I’ve ever played. The developers set out to make something treacle-sweet, to the point where prolonged exposure to it may well sicken you, and they succeeded. I just wasn’t able to play it for long before desperately needing to…
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Koei Tecmo is no stranger to the classic Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The entire Dynasty Warriors series is, of course, based on that classic text. In many ways, it’s what makes Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty such a captivating game, because it’s such a different creative take on…
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I do feel for indie developers that take a crack at the horror genre. I know that they’re typically passionate fans of the genre, that they go into projects with the best of intentions, and they’ve got plenty of peers that have done amazing work within horror. Many of the…
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