Not Broken Anymore: Broken Age was a chance for developer Double Fine to return to their roots, prove that the point and click is still an engaging experience and – potentially – revive an entire genre. For such lofty ambitions you can’t really ask for a better group of people than Tim Schafer and company. Whilst Broken Age may not bring around a new age of adventures games to click our way throug...[Read More]
For Shovelry! It’s easy to compare Shovel Knight to the numerous retro classics it’s cribbing from. To do this, however, is to do Yacht Club games a great disservice to what they’ve achieved here. There are obvious inspirations that shaped Shovel Knight and its many design choices, but none are more important than the verve and care that the developers have poured into every aspect of this wonderf...[Read More]
Return to Form: Titan Souls might just be my favourite game of 2015 so far. Whilst that might not sound like such a big deal with it only being April and all, please keep in mind that Bloodborne came out recently – a game so good I’ve been recommending people buy a PS4 for the sole reason of picking it up. So yeah, when I say Titan Souls is my game-of-the-year-to-beat, it’s a pretty big deal. Tita...[Read More]
A bloody good time: I grew up playing Mortal Kombat. I probably shouldn’t have, but I did. I still own my worn-out VHS copy of the camp movie adaptation, and somewhere I still have a pad with all the fatality inputs hastily scribbled down. Suffice it to say NetherRealm’s gory fighting franchise has always been close to my heart. Over recent years the series has been getting back to bloody basics a...[Read More]
Bigger is sometimes better. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that relies on scale like no other. The world and locales that Shulk and company run through during the games massive campaign are built to impress, with a breadth of vision and scope that blew people away when the game first hit Wii consoles. Now, years later, after the original has exploded into popularity and importance, Nintendo have p...[Read More]
More than the sum of its parts. I wasn’t expecting much when I sat down to play the Handsome collection. That’s not to say I didn’t love the original games that are packaged in with this beefed up remaster – a package that collects both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – but I didn’t quite see how the games could be retouched in any significant way. Their cartoony, cel-shaded st...[Read More]
Too little too late? It’s easy to say that Square Enix’s gesture of finally bringing Final Fantasy Type-0 to the west is a case of too little, too late. Four years after it landed on Playstation Portable in Japan, Type-0 has brought with it some problems. If one can overlook these shortcomings, however, this particular outing might just be Final Fantasy’s best in years. Storyline Type-0 focuses on...[Read More]
Middle-Child Syndrome. Middles have it rough. Beginnings are interesting because we’re learning about the world and the characters we have to get to know for the rest of the story. Endings are climactic and – hopefully – satisfying. But middles? When it comes to a Telltale episodic adventure, even these traditionally troublesome parts of a narrative become even more difficult. A certain amount of ...[Read More]
Nightmarish Nostalgia. When I first wandered into Termina for the first time fifteen years ago, I did so alone. It was around 2000 that a lot of my friends and family fell out of love with gaming. People who had been with me through previous Zelda titles were suddenly missing; ignorant or uncaring that Link had a new adventure to explore, a new kingdom to save. As such I’ve got incredibly bittersw...[Read More]
More than a few surprises. Telltale’s newest episodic series, based on the massively popular Game of Thrones franchise, hit the ground running in 2014. Thanks to an established property and razor sharp writers episode one ensured this was going to be a vital part of the expanded universe rather than a simple side story, and I’m glad to say that episode two delivers on that promise – and then some....[Read More]
Bringing the Land of the Dead back to life: In 1998 Tim Schafer and LucasArt released Grim Fandango, a stunning and hilarious adventure game that travelled through the Land of the Dead. For my money it’s still his best game to date, so when the HD Remaster was announced at last year’s E3 I whooped louder than I had for any other reveal that day. Grim Fandango holds a truly special place in my hear...[Read More]
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