Top 5: The Grind to Unwind

When it comes to most games that don’t involve action sports, “grind” is typically a bad word. It means that players will have to spend hours upon hours slogging away at routine tasks and combat to obtain necessary (and sometimes unnecessary) levels and gear to progress. It can also be applied to the act of…

Forspoken SteelBooks Found In the Dump

I suppose this isn’t exactly breaking news, but I still find it interesting because of just how much Sony and Square Enix were banking on Forspoken’s success. It was supposed to be one of the PlayStation 5’s killer apps, with all kinds of resources thrown into its development and promotion, and somehow this is still…

I and Me: Demo Review

I and Me is an obscure puzzle game for which I could find very little information.  You control two cats who move in unison with each other, and the goal is to figure out how to get both of them into these…boxes?  Picture frames?  Playing demos has exposed me to games of a wide range…

Atomic Heart is Flawed But Fun

I got pretty excited for Atomic Heart almost as soon as I heard about it back in 2017. I was already a big fan of games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Prey (2017) and BioShock, so a new game in a similar vein was a slam dunk for me. I didn’t think I’d have to…

Survival of the Somewhat Competent

When Valheim was first released in early access on PC early 2021, it took over my news feed for several weeks. A number of bloggers I followed jumped on Valheim and seem to take to it very quickly and very positively. Like any new live-service game, it apparently came with its share of issues, but…

Hunt: Showdown is Getting an Engine Upgrade

Once an online game hits the five year mark, it’s usually either run its course or has just settled into a regular content schedule with no more earth-shaking changes planned. There are exceptions like Warframe of course, and now it seems Hunt: Showdown is one too. In fact, according to PC Gamer, the grim battle…

A Short Hike: A Relaxing Adventure on Hawk Peak Island

As the stresses of life continue to pile up, I’ve been finding myself more and more drawn to relaxing games that are more about a casual experience than strenuous gameplay.  One such game that I recently got on sale was A Short Hike, where you play as a bird named Claire who’s vacationing on Hawk…

I’m Torn On Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

With all the posts I’ve made here over the years, I’m pretty sure I’ve made my distaste for free-to-play / live service games pretty clear. I think that a lot of the problems in the video game industry stem from the proliferation of these business models, and I’ve been feeling rather concerned about their growing…

The Prosaic Life in Games

The routine task. The boring chore. The mundane errand. Each day we’re faced with tackling these things, sometimes on their own and sometimes in groups. They are never something that would be categorized as “fun,” but they need to be done regardless. Grocery shopping. Picking up prescriptions. Standing in line to pay bills. True that…

Dead Space 2 and 3 Might Eventually Get Remakes Too

To almost no one’s surprise, the Dead Space remake has been selling incredibly well. I mean, who would have thought that a remake for an iconic, award-winning and currently dead series would be popular? Well apparently not EA, because the company is now sending out surveys asking people if they’d be interested in remakes for…

Arietta of Spirits: Demo Review

Arietta of Spirits follows the story of Arietta and her family as they visit the island where her grandmother once lived before her recent passing.  The demo covers a short jaunt into the woods to gather apples for dessert, which includes a boss fight against a giant bee.  According to the game’s official description, Arietta…

Pre-ordering is a Garbage Practice

You know, I’ve probably spent my entire period of writing about games, about 10 years now, railing against the garbage practice that is video game pre-ordering. It was, is, and always will be something that’s absolutely terrible for the average gamer, and yet everyone seems hellbent on doing it no matter how badly the major…

Persona 5 Royal: Let’s Do This!

When I played my first Persona game, Persona 3 Portable, it was an eye-opening experience. Part turn-based, world-saving combat, part life simulator, it was unlike anything I’d ever played before. At the time I completed it, this “newcomer” to the series, Persona 5 Royal was about a year from release. It’s original version from 2016,…

Pokken Tournament DX: Demo Review

I don’t think I’ve played a Pokemon game since the Nintendo 64 and GameBoy Color era.  That finally changed when I tried the demo for Pokken Tournament DX, a Tekken-inspired Pokemon fighting game originally released on the Wii U and later re-released on the Switch.

Playing to Get Better

As much as I’ve enjoyed games over the course of my life, I don’t think I’ve ever considered myself a “hardcore” gamer. They’re fun, and sometimes it’s fun to do everything or try to get a little better at something like Halo multiplayer. It’s also nice to talk about games like this too. Is that…

Oops…I Skyrim’d again

I really don’t know it is with me and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I know that for some players out there, Skyrim has become a lifestyle, a mode of being, a gaming paramour, of sorts. For me, however, Skyrim has become analogous to…well, I want to say “climbing Mount Everest.” That’s overdramatic, but that’s…

Apparently, Metroid Prime Remastered Finished Development a Long Time Ago

According to TheGamer.com, there’s some evidence floating around that Metroid Prime Remastered finished development all the way back in 2021. See, it seems that Nintendo submitted the game for classification to the German Rating Organization in July of 2021. If this is true, then that means Nintendo has been sitting on the game since then….

Coming to Terms with Death in The Almost Gone

The Almost Gone is a puzzle game that follows the spirit of a girl as she attempts to piece together what happened to her.  The game features a muted color palette and subdued soundtrack that fits well with the uneasy atmosphere.  At the start, your character wakes up in her house, but something is decidedly…

Hi-Fi Rush Was a Nice Surprise

It’s not often that a game gets released on the same day it’s announced, and such games actually being good is even more rare. Still, as much as I think Bethesda is weak in certain areas of the gaming business, I’m really liking their trend of announcing their games close to the actual release dates….

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Demo Review

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a relaxing puzzle game that was released on the Wii U, 3DS, and Switch.  The titular Captain Toad can explore various floating environments that you can view from various angles, with the goal of collecting three gems and a star, alongside one other optional task, like finding the golden mushroom…

New ‘Lords of the Fallen’ is Both a Sequel AND a Reboot

When CI Games and HexWorks announced Lords of the Fallen back in August, one could be forgiven for being a little confused. See the previous game in that series was also called “Lords of the Fallen.” So, the assumption from most of us was that this new game was supposed to be something of a…

Top 5 Stages from New Super Lucky’s Tale

New Super Lucky’s Tale is an adorable platformer starring a young fox named Lucky who must collect pages for the Book of Ages and defeat the sorcerer cat Jinx and his naughty children, the Kitty Litter.  The game boasts a healthy assortment of levels, including both 2D and 3D platforming stages, along with sliding puzzles…

Stop Telling Me What To Do!

There’s a certain pet peeve I have when it comes to games, one that has been coming up more and more as the years go on: over-tutorializing. I don’t know what exactly developers think of us, but they must not think very much considering their absolute refusal to just let us play their games. The…

Fans Won’t Be Able to Go Everywhere in Hogwarts Legacy

For the most part, it’s looking like Harry Potter fans are going to have their run of most of the wizarding world’s iconic locations. From Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, to Gringotts and Diagon Alley, players will be able to check it all out as it was in an era prior to Harry and Voldemort. That said,…

New Super Lucky’s Tale: A Charming Platformer with an Old-School Feel

I’m always on the lookout for some quality platformers that remind me of the good, old days.  Whether you’d prefer side-scrollers or something of the more open variety, you’re in luck either way with New Super Lucky’s Tale.  This adorable platformer stars a young fox named Lucky who must collect pages for the Book of…

Returnal is Great, But It May Too Old School for Its Own Good

During the Christmas season, I had the incredible good fortune of obtaining the ever-elusive PlayStation 5, and immediately dove into a game that’d been on my mind ever since it released: Returnal. As you might’ve heard (and I quickly discovered), Returnal is decidedly not an easy game. It gameplay is wonderfully fast and fluid, but…

Valve Suffers Massive Asset Leak for All Major Games

It seems Valve has been hit with what is perhaps the worst leak in the company’s history. According to PC Gamer, a ton of the developer’s asset repositories got released online, and they include things for Portal, Counter Strike: Source, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episodes 1 and 2.

Hat’s Most Anticipated Games for 2023

Another year has come and gone, and once again we got to enjoy a lot of great games. Still, the releases never stop coming, and there are always plenty of cool and interesting titles to look forward to this year! I’m mostly sticking to major releases on this list, but I’m thinking there are a…

Fans Are Working to Translate Sakura Wars 2

Fans of the Sakura Wars series might finally have the chance to play 1998’s Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die in English at long last. This would be due to a new fan translation project that’s about to get under way. No estimate on time yet of course, but it looks like the team…

Elden Ring is My GotY Too!

A little bit ago, the annual Game Awards show did it’s thing with the world premieres and the celebrity cameos and such. I usually don’t care all that much for the show as it seems to be more about spectacle than the actual games. This time though, they did one thing that I actually agreed…