Every year, I tell myself to make more time to hang around the IndieCade showcase at E3. Where so much of the show is overtaken by the same big-budget, blockbuster franchises, the IndieCade booth is an oasis of creativity and originality. Games both digital and physical, traditional and experimental, and so on line the modest…
Fell off a cliff and died in an explosion. Caught by the cops and executed for crimes I didn’t commit. Eaten by wildlife after surviving a crash. Struck with amnesia, living a peaceful life as a baker. These are a few of the ways my career as a smuggler came to an end in SmuggleCraft….
Honestly, I didn’t have any expectations when I took an appointment to see The Surge at E3 last year. Given that Deck 13’s last game, Lords of the Fallen, didn’t really sit well with me, there was little reason that yet another Souls-like game, this time set in a sci-fi world, would garner any attention….
The underlying concept of Flat Kingdom’s gameplay is really neat: you control a character that can’t directly attack enemies, but by changing shapes, it can counter their attacks and defeat them. Unfortunately, due to bad hit detection, confusing art design and unbalanced difficulty, Flat Kingdom never quite takes off. Set in a two dimensional world that’s…
In the time since finishing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I’ve occasionally loaded the game up and just wandered around Hyrule. I’d take a quick survey of where I was and pick a direction to set off in, never using the map to chart my path or scout for any particular destination….
My time with Rain World has been a series of ups and downs. The early hours were rife with frustration as I stumbled around, struggling to gain any sort of understanding of what I should be doing and where I should be going. Every path I took seemingly led to death. I’d explored the entirety…
Hollow Knight embodies the sort of excitement and mystery I’ve always wanted out of metroidvania-style games
Just on its aesthetic alone, Desync had me hooked. It drops you into its neon-cyberspace with nary a clue as to where you are or what your purpose here is. Static and interlace effects dance across the screen as you make your way through the hub, grungy synth scoring the scene. It’s a very striking…
For a genre that seems tailor made to unwind with, I wouldn’t call most of the puzzle games I’ve played over the years relaxing. Tough, taxing; sometimes frustrating, but ultimately rewarding: those are the words I’d use to generally describe them. I love puzzle games, but they always have a habit of driving me up…
With how much personal data cell phones carry these days, the thought of losing one is terrifying. There’s a lot of damage one can do with even just a bit of access to someone’s life. With full access? I don’t even want to think about it. A Normal Lost Phone from developer Accidental Queens plays…
