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ReviewsYear in ReviewJohn Walker’s Top 10 Games Of 2020
The eternally burning tire fire that is 2020 hasn’t exactly been a laugh riot. And yet, as I reflect on what have been some of the most gruelling times I can remember, it’s interesting how much video games have played a part in getting me through. As pure colorful distraction, or even daily pursuits completed…
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CultureThe Best Games Of 2020 That You’ve Never Heard Of
There are so many games. The Nintendo Switch sees 30 releases a week. More than 50 PC games come out a day on Steam. Fifty. A day. And yes, most of them are shovelware or just plain drivel, but that only makes things worse for the little gems that are hidden within. In such a…
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Culture7 Games To Play With Your Kids Over Christmas
For parents, the Christmas vacation is, at its best, a fortnight of Sundays. No school, but also everything else is closed, too, and everyone you know is busy seeing family. 2020’s holiday break is, as is only proper for 2020, all of that but even harder. Two weeks of being at home, unable to go…
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CultureControversial Taiwanese Horror Game Returns, GOG Immediately Pulls It [Update]
In February of last year Devotion, a Taiwanese horror game, was pulled from Steam after a controversy regarding a hidden Easter egg. Today GOG, the online PC gaming store run by CD Projekt, announced it would be selling Devotion. Then, hours later, declared it would not “Earlier today, it was announced that the game Devotion…
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OpinionThe Cyberpunk 2077 Review Drama
Cyberpunk 2077 is out in the wild. After eight long years the whole world can now judge it for themselves, through whichever perspective or tint of glasses they so choose. And best of all, for 99.9% of those players, they won’t ever have to justify their feelings to the rest of the audience. However, for…
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CulturePS5 Owners Say They’re Receiving Bans After Selling PS4 Users Access To The PS Plus Collection
If you’re one of the lucky ones to have been able to buy a PS5 already, you’ll know that with a PlayStation Plus subscription you also get access to the PS Plus Collection, 20 well-loved, properly good PS4 games. But if you’re still on PS4, that bundle isn’t available to you. Well, it didn’t take…
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OpinionImpressionsThat Night, Steeped By Blood River Looks Like Nothing Else You’ve Played
That Night, Steeped By Blood River is one of the most interesting-looking games I can remember This surrealist exploration game has an aesthetic so unique that I’m convinced I’ll dream like it tonight, and as such am somewhat put off going to sleep. Created by Taylor Swietanski, TNSBBR is on one level a fairly standard first-person…
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CultureAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez Vs. Jagmeet Singh At Among Us, Streamed Tonight
Last night Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, challenged US Democrat Ocasio-Cortez to a streamed game of Among Us. AOC agreed, and it’s on, tonight at 4 pm PT/7 pm ET. USA vs. Canada. Pick a side. This really does seem like the ideal way forward for international politics Although what if it…
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CultureThere’s A Bridge In Red Dead Online That Can Fling You To Mexico
The excellent trampolinists at Eurogamer report there’s a bridge in Red Dead Online players are using to fling themselves out of the map. Bear with me a moment, I’m workshopping Facebook taglines: A Bridge Too Far The Bridge Over Troubled Slaughter An Occurrence At Shit Creek Bridge Nailed it. The denizens of Reddit have been…
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OpinionImpressionsSuper Cable Boy Is A Precision Platform Game For Normal People
Imagine for a moment a precision platformer that is not only amazing-looking and smartly designed, but also accessible to regular human beings. Dizzy? It’s possible! I found it! It’s Super Cable Boy I understand the purpose of precision platform games. They’re for a select group of people whose gaming skills far exceed my own. They…
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CultureIn The Console Wars, Astro’s Playroom Is Extraordinarily Effective PlayStation Propaganda
As I finished the short delight of Astro’s Playroom, sitting back in satisfaction at having defeated those daft dinosaurs, I found myself bathing in the warm glow of affection for a quarter-century of Sony technology, reminiscing about the days of… wait, hang on? I’ve never given a toss about PlayStations before. What is happening to…
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CultureCyberpunk 2077 Is Very Definitely Coming Out December 10, Probably
You would be forgiven for being dubious. Cyberpunk 2077 was originally due to come out in April 2020, and while some certified geniuses entirely correctly stated this would never happen, many were convinced. Come January the release date was enormously extended until September, then by June it was bumped to November. So in October, a…
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CultureFall Guys Reveals Inevitable Season 3 Theme In Laborious Manner
If you’re in the Northern hemisphere, you’ll likely have noticed it’s getting chillier. That’s because of a global phenomenon called “winter”. Winter, as they said on the popular soap opera Game Of Thrones, will be popping its icy head around the door any time now. And if you’ve ever played a video game, you’ll know…
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CultureI Cannot Tell If Flat Earth Simulator Is Real Or A Prank
Flat Earth Simulator recently appeared on Steam with no fanfare at all. Costing $5, it’s a beautifully presented—if extremely slight—depiction of a proposed model for a flat Earth. There’s interactive recorded narration explaining the theory, which posits that our planet is a floating disc, surrounded by a wall of Antarctic ice, and set beneath a…
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OpinionImpressionsThere’s A Sequel To Fruit Ninja For Some Reason
There’s a sequel to Fruit Ninja now. Remember Fruit Ninja? It was 2010, you’d just got your first touchscreen phone, and you were desperate for anything to need it for. There, for just three little dollars, was this game about swish-swooshing about the shiny surface, chopping up fruit until fruit could be chopped no more. It…
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CultureLet’s See How Accurate Watch Dogs Legion’s London Really Is
Watch Dogs Legion is set in a near-future central London, and unlike so many other games supposedly located in the United Kingdom’s capital, it often actually looks—and sounds—an awful like the city. While there are unquestionably some odd mistakes, some assumptions that don’t quite work, and something not quite right about the overall atmosphere, it’s…
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CulturePlaying Pokémon Go With My Son Is My New, Unpaid Part-Time Job
I have a new part-time job. The pay is terrible. I am the unpaid secretary and bookkeeper for my son’s game of Pokémon Go. I’m apparently a tutor for others, too. A month ago I wrote about my struggles learning to play Pokémon Go with my five-year-old son Toby. Despite over twenty years of working…
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OpinionWhy Would I Buy A PS5 Now If Its Best Games Are Coming Out On PS4?
I was going to buy a PS5. As someone who’s primarily been a PC games player, with Nintendo handhelds on the side, picking up a console at its launch is something I’ve never done. I drift in later, when availability isn’t an issue, and there’s already a pile of games to plunder. But I was…
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CultureIt’s Mario Picross’s 25th Anniversary-Ish! Come Celebrate!
As Nintendo extravagantly celebrates Super Mario Bros.’s 35th birthday, I keep coming back to one thought: But what about the greatest of all the Mario games, Mario Picross? 2020 isn’t only the 35th birthday of Mario’s Super era—and what kind of anniversary is 35 anyway?—but it’s also the 25th anniversary of one of the finest…
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CultureAs Sonic Turns 30, Sega Plans Multiple New Games
As Mario turns a positive decrepit 35, the young, sprightly (spritely?) Sonic next year celebrates his 30th birthday. And news has slipped out that Sega is planning to celebrate the anniversary with multiple new Sonic games. It seems an advertisement was sent from Sega to investors (thanks Tails Channel) that as well as rather boldly…
By John Walker
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