I did eventually make it through the desert, camel reluctantly refastened to my carriage as I entered the city I’d been searching for. The journey was over, I’d found what I’d been looking for, and for a moment I was content with that. And yet, it still felt as if this was another con; as if the storm was attempting to fool me again to hide what was really hidden within it. I returned to the desert.
Read MoreIt's a game so precisely tuned and refined that I found myself becoming lost for hours at a time repeating levels attempting to best my prior run. It gave me a sense of accomplishment and elation at expertly executing a sequence of tricks I haven’t felt in a decade, and reminded me why I’m so sad games of this nature were killed off by their own insistence on flooding the market and deluding themselves with features nobody wanted. OlliOlli suffers from none of that. It’s pure, sublime skating perfection.
Read MoreFirstly, I'd just like to take a moment to recognize that Fantastic Witch Collective as a name for anything is already pretty brilliant. That that something happens to be a delightful 16-bit RPG from indie developer, Lulu Blue, only makes it more, well, fantastic, and though it's still incredibly early in development, the little I've played of FWC has me convinced it's going to live up to its title.
Read MoreThe original Shelter was a poetic, intense journey through the life of a momma badger and her journey to find safety for her cubs. It’s one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had with a game, relentless and beautiful in its raw exploration of the brutality of nature, and one that I felt stood alone without need of a sequel. To its credit, Might & Delight’s Shelter 2 has arrived full of big ideas and drastic departures from the first; an artistic and emotional feast of burgeoning ambition and creativity. I only wish it had been aware enough to know when to stop the flood.
Read MoreWhether as a witty cyberpunk detective tale or a deeper commentary on our tendency to conform to society’s wishes and expect the same of others,Gwaltney and Horrorshow’s Twine excursion gave me cause to think and further appreciate a genre which seems unequaled in its ability to simultaneously exist as entertaining escapism and thoughtful commentary when given to the right artist.
Read MorePlug & Play is delightfully bizarre in ways that are as unsettling as they are endearing.
Read Moreitch.io is the latest of these, or at least the one I’ve been hearing about the most. It’s a site dedicated to independent games with a focus on developers and flexible monetization. It doesn’t sound too radical when you put it that way, but as I dug deeper into the site, I began to see how itch.io drastically differs from other distribution platforms; in ways that significantly alter the message the site seems to driven by, and the impression I got of how it chose to present it. Though in some ways the site still feels as if it's in its infancy, these differences are exciting and noteworthy enough to warrant discussing.
Read MoreMy biggest concern would be how Turbogun balances its difficulty as later levels become more complex, but the small slice I experienced has me eager to see where the project heads. Even with my limited exposure to the game, there's a clear feeling that Master Spy knows what it wants to do, and even if it doesn't quite achieve its goals I have no doubt it will still get there with ample amounts of style.
Read MoreI’ll be the first to admit that I cringe a bit anytime someone tells me about a free-to-play game. It’s a reaction I’ve seen among a lot of people lately, and it’s frustrating because I don’t think F2P as a monetization system is inherently bad. In fact, I feel it’s the inevitable and ideal future of a lot of games, allowing for greater financial success and longevity for developers, and the ability for players to try a game before spending a dime in a way demos can’t provide.
Read MoreIn a medium that almost always shies away from sex or uses it for solely exploitative titillation, a game that actually has something to say about sex and how we view it deserves at least the minute of your time this takes to complete. You might even learn something.
Read MoreAs I toddled around in the snow as its adorable monster, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build’s focus on companionship, and my consistent inability to find it in my own life.
Read MoreBuried under its tortuous level designs, needlessly convoluted mechanics, and overly ambitious plot, there’s the game Hot Tin Roof wanted to be.
Read MoreIf you’re an economically conscious gamer you’ve likely noticed as of late that we seem to have fallen down a rabbit hole of continual discounts, bundles, and money saving subscription services to the point it’s becoming difficult to even keep track of them all.
Read MorePapo & Yo might not be the most polished game, and its puzzle design is rife with unnecessary backtracking and tedious solutions, but it’s overshadowed by what the game represents and is trying to convey to the player.
Read MoreIt took a long time to get here, folks, but we seem to finally be entering a stage of video games being taken seriously as a medium for storytelling.
Read MoreMedal of Honor presents itself entirely as it is, as if it hasn’t even enough pride to try and hide its mind numbing tediousness and genericism.
Read MoreIt's not easy to properly comprehend the effect debilitating diseases have on people until you experience their effect yourself. It's easy to see them as terrible but improbable occurrences, something that clearly happens but is impossible to envision yourself suffering from. And yet, dementia scares the hell out of me. The idea that there's this invisible force that has no cure, no prevention, that will almost certainly effect you at some point in your life and only becomes more likely the longer you live somehow feels so much more real to me than cancer, or Ebola, or any other life threatening disease that I could come in contact with.
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