Anytime a game comes along that purports to take an otherwise complex and inaccessible genre and make it more welcoming toward newcomers, I’m usually at least somewhat interested. Anything that can make games more widely accessible is always a good thing, especially when it applies to genres that traditional have a high barrier to entry….
Calling Absolver a martial arts Dark Souls would be to do a huge disservice to the incredibly unique experience that French studio Sloclap has crafted. Absolver’s deep combat system is only one of the many elements that make it one of the most fascinating games I’ve played in a long time. Structure-wise, anyone who’s had…
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is an excellent game that against all odds manages to be something more than a mere cheap knockoff under the guise of a franchise crossover. Try as the haters think they might, Ubisoft’s infamous Rabbids don’t ruin the overall experience, and regardless of whether or not you’re a fan of…
I’ve always had a secret love of the London Underground. True, the Tube can be ridiculously overcrowded, confusingly laid out and a nightmare for tourists to navigate, but for the canny commuter or regular visitor, the Underground can feel like an old, reassuring friend. The usual familiarity of the stations with their varied designs; the…
Nidhogg was a perfect distillation of local competitive multiplayer games at their best. Where most of its peers focus on four-player mayhem, Nidhogg was more interested in tense one-on-one duels. But even with the lower player count, it was just as tense and thrilling — both to play and to watch — its game of…
For as popular as side-scrolling shooters are, it’s tough to pull them off well. Not so much the basics, but the finer points — the feel, the difficulty curve, the action itself. It’s easy to make one that has strong fundamentals, but doesn’t quite nail the fine tuning. Graceful Explosion Machine, from developer Vertex Pop,…
Chess is a rather unique sub genre of gaming, especially in the console gaming sphere. When we think about playing chess against an A.I. opponent, we naturally think about playing chess on a personal computer of some kind. Historically, chess has been a staple of personal computers, almost to its earliest days. Chess on consoles,…
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 is an inherently inferior compilation in comparison to the first, mainly due to its lineup of games, but it excels in bringing back to light some my least favorite entries in the franchise. In fact, Capcom has done an admirable job putting this new collection together. Although neither Mega Man…
Never a stranger to less than realistic portrayals of classic moments in history, I was very intrigued by the prospect of playing West of Loathing, a game that by name alone already had me chuckling. Set in a crudely drawn but incredibly charming world of stick figures making a living in the Wild West, you…
Released back in 2015 for PC, Victor Vran has recently made its way to console. The PS4 version boasts a variety of creepy locales, hordes of monsters just waiting to be slain, and last, but certainly not least, piles and piles of loot just waiting to be collected, provided you have the patience. Victor Vran…
