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OpinionImpressionsOthercide Is A Goth Tactical RPG That Embraces Death
Most tactical games condition you to avoid failure. In XCOM, once a character dies, they’re gone. Same for Fire Emblem (at least in Classic mode) and others of its ilk. Othercide isn’t like that. Playing Othercide means rewiring your brain to tolerate and even seek out failure. Death comes quickly and brutally and recurs ad…
By Ari Notis -
OpinionImpressionsPumpkin Jack Is Colorful Halloween Action Game
Fall is nearly here, and I’m fully ready for the spooky season. With perfect timing comes a demo for the upcoming game Pumpkin Jack, an action platformer heavily inspired by Medievil and other PS1 and N64 era games. The Pumpkin Jack demo is available on Steam as part of PAX Online. It features one level…
By Zack Zwiezen -
OpinionImpressionsThe Outer Worlds’ First DLC Is Too Cynical For Its Own Good
Peril on Gorgon is a good excuse to return to the Outer Worlds’ retro-futurist dystopia. I only wish doing so had finally given me some hope that its neo-feudalist colonies might someday be saved. Out last week on PS4, Xbox One, and PC (it will arrive sometime later on Switch), Peril on Gorgon is the…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsHands-On With Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Multiplayer Alpha
An early look at Black Ops: Cold War’s multiplayer unveils new game modes, promising maps, and plenty of opportunities for scorestreaks. Thanks to an online preview event held by publisher Activision, I was recently able to get hands-on with the multiplayer for this year’s upcoming Call of Duty. Developed by Treyarch Studios and Raven Software…
By S.E. Doster -
OpinionImpressionsAvengers’ Story Campaign Is Bigger And Better Than I Expected
When you start Marvel’s Avengers, the in-game menu suggests you complete the single-player campaign before diving into online multiplayer. Now I’m over six hours into the campaign and only just unlocked Black Widow, my fourth of the game’s six playable launch characters. This might take a while, but I’m not irritated. I’m having a great…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsWindbound Nails The Terrifying, Calming Peace Of Being In Open Waters
Six minutes into Windbound, I died. Shortly after the game started, I found myself stranded on an island with nothing but my wits and a knife. I saw a boar-like creature. It wasn’t bothering me, but it had something I needed. So I did what video games have taught me to do and struck it…
By Ari Notis -
OpinionImpressionsHere’s The Prettiest Purple Gaming Headset I Ever Did See
Normally I turn to pink hues when I am looking for new gaming accessories, but the lilac Logitech G’s G733 Lightspeed wireless gaming headset, part of the company’s new Color Collection, is pushing me in a purple direction. Logitech G makes good gaming gear. Now it makes good gear in fancy colors. The new $130…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsFinal Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Doesn’t Fix What Needed Fixing
I’ve been waiting 16 years to finally enjoy playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. But after sinking five hours into the remaster, the fun still eludes me. I’ve wanted to play a Final Fantasy party game that combines arcade co-op with RPG customization ever since I first read about Crystal Chronicles in a 2003 SquareSoft brochure,…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsThe Last Campfire Is A Totally Chill Puzzle Adventure
The Last Campfire, the latest from No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games, is a perfect game for unwinding. There’s no urgency to hero Ember’s journey through the mysterious world they’re trapped in at the beginning of the story. It’s about wandering lush fantasy environments and solving puzzles as lovely music plays. Push some blocks, light…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsFinally, A Video Game Worthy Of Samurai Jack
Samurai Jack, Genndy Tartakovsky’s excellent animated martial arts drama, debuted on Cartoon Network in December of 2001. It ran until 2004, returning for a fifth and final season on Adult Swim in 2017. In all that time only two games were made based on the series, and they weren’t great. Now, three years after the…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsRaji: An Ancient Epic Is A Beautiful Exploration Of Love And Gods
Raji: An Ancient Epic plays like an epic poem. Shadow puppet cutscenes help tell the story of main character Raji and there are murals all over the world displaying stories from Hindu mythology. The music aids the grandness of the storytelling, with a sitar frantically strumming in time with Raji’s spear swipes or the wail…
By Ash Parrish -
OpinionImpressionsChill Out, Battletoads
I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to call Battletoads 2020. A long-awaited sequel? A spiritual reboot? A love letter to an old classic whose most memorable quality was that hardly anybody could beat it? In any event, it feels good to play in short bursts, but its humor and chaos overshadow it. I wanted…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsSpiritfarer Is A Chill, Touching Take On A Stressful Genre
Spiritfarer, which is described by developer Thunder Lotus Games as a “cozy management game about dying,” came out yesterday for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. I’m only a few hours into this massive, striking game—it’s reportedly 30 to 40 hours long—but those words seem remarkably accurate so far. To play Spiritfarer is…
By Ari Notis
