Valve Releases Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Documentary

Half-Life has enjoyed legendary status for basically twenty years now. The original was a benchmark in FPS gameplay, and Half-Life 2 topped it not too long after when it launched in 2004 thanks to its advancements in game physics and immediately iconic characters. It’s also helped that the series ended on a cliffhanger, one fans…

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Ranking the Bosses from Donkey Kong Country 3

Donkey Kong Country 2 already had some perfectly memorable boss fights.  But the third game’s penchant for gimmicks meant the bosses tended to vary even more in their mechanics, from a snowball fight with a nightmarish snowman to feeding bugs to a giant sentient barrel until he burps himself off the stage.  Frankly, I found…

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I Can’t Stop Playing Balatro

A few weeks ago, I picked up Balatro on the recommendation of a friend. It looked interesting enough thanks to its throwback visual style and seemingly simplistic gameplay loop. But I still figured that I wouldn’t actually end up spending a ton of time on it. After all, it was just a poker simulator with…

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The Talos Principle 2: Better, Bigger, Brilliant

SPOILERS from the get-go, while my complaints about The Talos Principle 2 are mostly minimal, when I discovered late in the game that I could not return to New Jerusalem, essentially the game’s “home base,” before reaching the endgame, I felt decidedly sour. If something or someone had indicated a point of no return earlier,…

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Silent Hill 2 Art Director Drops Major Piece of Lore

One of the great things about Silent Hill 2 is that just about the entire experience is open to interpretation. You can read almost anything you want into it and can interpret the symbology in almost anyway, allowing everyone to make the story their own in a way. Still, there are interpretations that are more…

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Alisa: Demo Review

Making modern games in a retro style has become rather common practice lately.  A major trend I’ve noticed lately are PS1-style horror games.  Perhaps those grainy graphics just lend well to a spooky atmosphere in the same fashion as creepy VHS-style videos.  Wanting to try one of these games for myself, I was pleased to…

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Revisited: There’s Always Time for Animal Crossing

With the holiday season approaching and scehdules getting tighter and more hectic, I thought now would be a good opportunity to take a moment and think about those games that you can always find a little time for, one of those being Animal Crossing!

Dragon Age: The Veilguard First Impressions

While I count the Dragon Age games among my most favorite RPGs of all time now, it wasn’t always like that. My first playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins was distracted, at best. I had a false start with Inquisition, and I held the second game in contempt for far longer than was warranted. While I…

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