PlayStation 5: FOMO No Mo!

I few weeks ago, I spent some time talking about the PS5, specifically the somewhat irrational desire to buy one. As always, new consoles are exciting, so many of us can’t help but want to get our hands on the newest tech as soon as possible. I managed to keep my excitement controlled enough to…

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Lots of New Video Released for Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139

The Nier remake: Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139 (referred to as “Neir Remake” from here on), is only a couple months away from its April 23 release date. This probably wouldn’t have been all that exciting back in 2016, but then that was before Nier Automata hit the gaming scene. That game really stuck a chord…

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Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie Animated Short

Just a few days ago, completely without warning, a 23-minute Ratchet & Clank short aired on Crave, a streaming service in Canada.  Created by the same company who made the 2016 movie, Mainframe Studios, it follows Ratchet and Clank as they stop Dr. Nefarious’ newest scheme, which involves a gun called a Portalizer that can…

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Diving Into Resident Evil 7 (Finally)

For the longest time, I’ve lived as a quasi-fan of the Resident Evil series. With the exception of Resident Evil 6, I’ve always found myself excited whenever a new one was announced and more than happy to watch friends play through them. However, I’ve never been of a mind to actually play a Resident Evil…

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YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #187

Up this week: The Last Campfire (PS4, 2020) – in this pretty game, you play as a lost ember, solving puzzles, and helping those who have turned forlorn as you seek a way home. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PS4, 2019) – line up for some side-scrolling action as Yooka and Laylee help members of…

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Resonance: White Orchard

Inasmuch as Fallout 76‘s version of apocalyptic Appalachia has captured my attention, I’m still trickling through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. My efforts to remain focused on the main story were so strong there for awhile, and yet…the tug of side-questing and monster hunting has simply been too incessantly interesting to pass up. (Needless to…

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Maquette Has a Release Date!

Maquette was first-announced almost a year ago now, and I honestly kind of forgot about it for awhile. With the usual packed release schedule and the general craziness of 2020, I suppose it was rather easy for a quirky indie game to get lost in the hustle of it all. All that said though, Annapurna…

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Ni no Kuni for the DS vs. PS3 – What’s the Difference?

As a big fan of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for the PS3, it was only a matter of time before I discovered that there was actually an earlier version of the game for the DS called Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn.  Unfortunately, this version of the game was…

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Finding the Drive to Play

I’ve been blogging about games for about 10 years now (holy cow!) and I can definitely see myself going for another 10. It’s kind of amazing how much has changed in gaming over those 10 years, and honestly I can hardly believe it sometimes. I’m also sometimes surprised that I’m still into gaming enough to…

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YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #186

Up this week: The Last Campfire (PS4, 2020) – in this pretty game, you play as a lost ember, solving puzzles, and helping those who have turned forlorn as you seek a way home. Seasons After Fall (PS4, 2017) – in this unique puzzle-platformer, we must have our wits about us to guide a fox…

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Building a Brotherhood, and Just Building in Fallout 76

When I decided to bid adieu to roaming Fallout 76’s Appalachian wilderness last November in order to spend more quality time with Geralt of Rivia, I didn’t really think much about returning to the wastes. At the time, the release of Fallout 76’s latest expansion, “Steel Dawn,” was just a few weeks away. I was…

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DT Project Looks Interesting If Nothing Else

Digisky, a relatively new developer based in China, has announced “DT Project,” their very first AAA game. Now to be totally honest, my impression of China-developed games isn’t very good. The only stuff I’ve noticed come out of that space is mobile gacha-style games to stuff like Genshin Impact…another gacha-style game that also happens to…

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Balan Wonderworld Free Demo Now Available

Yes, it’s Wonderworld, not Wonderland, as I had initially believed. Ahem, there is an unreleased game I noticed a few months back on the Switch eShop that caught my attention, Balan Wonderworld. Though I knew very little about it, I was instantly intrigued. After all, people are saying this is Square Enix’s first platformer, plus…

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Animal Crossing is Kind of Amazing

The rain is already back in my (current) part of the world, and rain always gets me thinking about Animal Crossing. Well, not Animal Crossing itself, but the rainy day theme from the original game. I can’t help but wander back to it whenever the first rain of the year shows up, and that’s usually…

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YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #185

Up this week: Seasons After Fall (PS4, 2017) – in this unique puzzle-platformer, we must have our wits about us to guide a fox that must save his forest. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PS4, 2019) – line up for some side-scrolling action as Yooka and Laylee help members of the “Beetallion” and save the…

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[REVISITED] I Wish I Didn’t Know How to Rage-Quit You

For a moment I was thinking of typing “I didn’t rage-quit a single game in all of 2020! #humblebrag” But then I remembered more than few very unhappy Fallout 76 sessions, so…yeah. I’m not perfect. But, in an among the loving mess that is Fallout 76, I don’t think any of the anger it produced…

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Konami To Mostly Stop Developing Games

Konami just recently announced that they’re shuttering their 3 game development divisions and consolidating the remnants into a small part of the main production wing of the company. This is basically the news in a nutshell, and I wish I could say that I didn’t see it coming. It’s kind of an end of an…

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Seasons After Fall is Beautiful, Yet Boring

There seems to be a plethora of games out there where you play as an animal (usually a fox, but sometimes a wolf) exploring forests and other natural environments.  Seriously, it should be a genre all its own.  Fe, The First Tree, Spirit of the North, and Lost Ember are all examples of this, and…

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Top 5: 8th Generation Disappointments

With the ongoing craziness surrounding CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077, I could help but think of all the other times I’ve been disappointed by video games. In fact, it seems every console generation has its share of disappointments. Some are downright awful. Some are just bad, and some of aren’t necessarily bad at all….

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YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #184

Up this week: Seasons After Fall (PS4, 2017) – in this unique puzzle-platformer, we must have our wits about us to guide a fox that must save his forest. [NEW!] Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PS4, 2019) – line up for some side-scrolling action as Yooka and Laylee help members of the “Beetallion” and save…

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More STALKER 2 Info Drops

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl ( and Call of Pripyat) have been gaining ground for years as PC cult-classics. The following was enough to inspire the developer, GSC Game World to announce a sequel last year. Since then, new about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been scarce, but the developer finally dropped a bunch of new information a…

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The First Tree is Something Truly Special

The First Tree is an interesting sort of game that I have to approach a bit differently than I would my usual game reviews.  The big difference here is…The First Tree is not really a video game.  It is, but it’s not.  It’s more like an interactive story than anything else.  So if it’s a…

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I Definitely Don’t Need It, And Yet…

I like to think that I’m fairly resistant to the video game hype train these days. I’ve been in the gaming world for decades at this point, so I should have some sort of a resistance built up to it all by now. In practice though, I’m not so sure that’s true. I don’t pre-order…

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Killzone Website is Retired

Sony and Guerilla Games have retired Killzone.com. If you go there right now, all you’ll find is a short notice explaining what services are still active for the most recent Killzone games: Killzone Mercenary and Killzone: Shadowfall. It’s been about 8 years now since the release of Killzone: Shadowfall, so it’s about time I suppose,…

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Listmas 2020: Hatmonster’s Most Anticipated Games

Well, we’ve made it. 2020 is finally gone and 2021 is here at last. Will it be any better than its predecessor? Who knows? I hope so. At the very least there are many interesting games on the horizon, and these are the ones I’m most looking forward to!

Listmas 2020: Hatmonster’s Top Games of 2020

With the closing of each year, it’s always good to take a look back at how the past 365 days went. In terms of gaming, I’d say 2020 was a little below average. There was some good stuff released, but nothing outstanding. There was also at least one major disappointment depending on who you ask….

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Learn More About Wiswald in Bravely Default II Trailer

Bravely Default II is still a couple of months out, but between the demos available on the Switch and trailers like this one, fans can already get a pretty good sense of what the game is like. In this trailer in particular, fans can get a better look at Wiswald itself and some of the…

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Listmas 2020: Making a Merry In-Game Christmas

Video game Christmas events come in all kinds of flavors. Some are sweet and savory, dripping in fun and Christmas cheer. Others though…others are bland and chalky, putting forth the barest effort and only marginally acknowledging that there’s something to celebrate. While there’s definitely no single recipe for a great Christmas event, I believe there…

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Listmas 2020: All I want for Christmas (events) in games is…

This week’s Listmas question is a simple one: what makes a great holiday event? Or, maybe it’s not so simple, since we all enjoy the holidays, and holidays with gaming in our own way. My experience with holiday gaming events is quite limited, unfortunately. Outside of some holiday-themed DLC, the only one I’ve actively participated…

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Among Us is Coming To Xbox! Is PS Next?

Alright, so this isn’t exactly breaking news, but I wanted to take a minute to bring more attention to it anyway. First, I’ve become a huge Among Us fan in the past couple of months, so I’m excited that other people are going to get the chance to play it! Second, I just think this…

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Listmas 2020: Three Excellent Bonuses

You know, I’ve really been feeling like an old gamer lately. While there are still plenty of great games coming out every year, I still can’t help but notice more and more of the conventions I grew up falling away in favor of increasing monetization. These days, I’m finding myself wondering whether or not proper…

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YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #181

Up this week: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (PS4, 2020) – it is about time we see what Crash and the gang have been up to in this newest entry in this beloved series. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4, 2017) – who is Aloy and why are her lands overrun by machines? We find out…

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Scarlet Nexus Looks Cool, Sounds Interesting

There were plenty of new reveals shown at The Game Awards this year, and plenty of those are really exciting. Scarlet Nexus is one of those games. I’m not sure if I’d call it exciting per se; its scenario is pretty familiar in the broad strokes. Still, it looks cool and this dual-perspective idea sounds…

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