Do not buy Returnal. This beautifully-crafted, bullet-hell, third-person sci-fi, action-horror adventure game from the masters at Housemarque is carefully crafted. You play Selene, a scout who crashes on a mysterious, hostile alien planet. Selene is seeking the source of a mysterious signal called “White Shadow”. The game begins where Selene’s ship has crashed and she … Continue reading Returnal Review: A gorgeous, incredible game you should not buy
Disco Elysium impressions: Weirdness as benefit
Studio ZA/UM’s (sic) award-winning game, Disco Elysium, is one of the strangest games I’ve ever encountered. I don’t just mean in terms of story but specifically in terms of both mechanics and categorisation. If you had to ask me what type of game Disco Elysium is I’d have to take a minute to answer. But … Continue reading Disco Elysium impressions: Weirdness as benefit
Hitman 3 Review: Brilliant but a little broken
Hitman 3 sees developer IOI bring their reboot of the assassin simulator puzzle game to a close. Or, to be technical, their World of Assassination trilogy. Players once again take control of the bald, monotone apex predator, Agent 47, as he travels around the world eliminating the One Percent – and that’s not me making … Continue reading Hitman 3 Review: Brilliant but a little broken
Watch Dogs: Legion – About everyone and no one
Watch Dogs: Legion is a strange game. It’s a third-person, open-world game without a central individual character, but rather a single conglomerate – hence the name “Legion”. You take on the roll of the hacker collective known as Ded-Sec, which has been long established since the first Watch Dogs game My plucky all-female Ded-Sec collective … Continue reading Watch Dogs: Legion – About everyone and no one
observer: System Redux review
OBSERVER: SYSTEM REDUX review Observer: System Redux is a remastered version of Bloober Team’s 2017 first-person horror, set in a dark, cyberpunk future Krakow. It’s a future where it’s strange to not have implants and the world is often reduced to digital analysis and numbers, rather than the actual material or world as it exists. … Continue reading observer: System Redux review
Cyberpunk 2077 and the already broken media landscape
CD Projekt Red’s long anticipated open-world RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, has been a colossal failure at launch. More hours and words have been spent detailing how the game is a buggy broken mess than discussing the themes and game's story; console players and reviewers were duped, and despite warnings from their own developers, leadership at CDPR … Continue reading Cyberpunk 2077 and the already broken media landscape
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Review Part 2
Valhalla, Part 2. A dichotomy runs through it all There’s something quite magical about a large, powerful character like Eivor who is also a renowned, gifted poet and animal lover. This dichotomy plays well into this game that itself wishes to be a many-faced entity: At once a stealth-em-up, but also a brutal viking simulator; … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Review Part 2
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Review Part 1
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is fascinating in its gradual erosion of the very concept that made it initially unique – the titular aspect that has, through time, diminished in its impact and import: being an assassin. The first game leaned very much into the nature of being an assassin, having you play as perhaps one … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Review Part 1
Deaf Accessibility in Video Games
by Melanie Jayne Ashford Accessibility is a hot topic, and with all the technology involved, there’s nowhere better for accessibility than video games. Sadly, though, the world of video games lacks support for deaf and hard of hearing players. The gaming industry provides the most consistent captioning that I have seen, but there are still … Continue reading Deaf Accessibility in Video Games
The importance of next-gen speed
The embargo on Xbox Series X previews have lifted, where professional (US?) reviewers got their hands on next-gen consoles. What has most excited me, even during the early stages, for both next-gen consoles was not the potential graphics but the speed with which games are loading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elP0Eeu9BtE While naturally we want games to look beautiful, … Continue reading The importance of next-gen speed
I Need Diverse Games 