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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 Published September 15, 2020 -
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 Published September 14, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSpelunky 2 Doesn’t Mess With A Good Thing
In the original Spelunky, every run is different, but it’s also always the same. Your objective never changes; enemy behavior is always predictable. In the 100 hours I’ve spent with the first game, my skills, mistakes, and choices are what make every run unique and exciting. Spelunky 2 keeps the original’s winning combination of change…
By Riley MacLeod Published September 14, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsMobile Game Crux Lets You Rock Climb Without Going To The Gym
My climbing gym reopened recently, but thanks to the coronavirus, for the first time in my rock climbing life I’m not in a rush to spend every available second there. New mobile game Crux almost scratches my climbing itch: the climbing gym simulator gives me the problem-solving fun of rock climbing, but without the sore…
By Riley MacLeod Published September 11, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSpellbreak Is Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Battle Royale, And It Owns
I am, by nature, regrettably competitive. I like winning—big fan of not falling on my face and eating shit, here—but win/lose scenarios fill me with anxiety. Spellbreak sank its hooks into me the moment I realized that it made me stop caring about that. I was in the middle of a wild, multi-person melee. Gouts…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 9, 2020 -
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 Published September 9, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsIron Harvest Has Some Problems
Iron Harvest should, by all accounts, be just the game for me. It’s set in a universe I dig, and has a lot in common with Company of Heroes—a game I’m on record as saying is “the perfect RTS” And yet every time I force myself to sit down and play it, something just feels…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 3, 2020 -
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 Published September 1, 2020 -
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 Published August 31, 2020 -
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 Published August 31, 2020 -
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 Published August 28, 2020 -
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 Published August 28, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsTell Me Why‘s First Episode Is Too Real
In a way, the first episode of Tell Me Why wants to convince you that people aren’t as bad as you think. It’s a weird message for me, a trans man playing a video game, to hear—both video games and the people who surround them can be worse than I think, and I’m constantly braced…
By Riley MacLeod Published August 27, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsControl’s AWE Expansion Leans Into Horror, And It’s Rad
Horror has always seemed right around the corner in Control. There’s a refrigerator that always needs to be looked at or it’ll kill you. A rubber duck teleports around maliciously. Your double is plotting your demise in a mirror world. Even so, horror was always the game’s selective spice, used sparingly to break up the…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published August 27, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsWarframe‘s New Flesh Planet Is A Wild But Disjointed Ride
Warframe’s greatest strength is also its most intangible: It commits. Whether it’s the core idea of outer space ninjas who front flip down hallways at a million miles per hour or a full-on Hadestown-style musical intro for a planet focused on labor issues, Warframe is 100 percent all-in on everything it does. So when developer…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 26, 2020 -
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 Published August 21, 2020 -
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 Published August 21, 2020 -
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 Published August 20, 2020 -
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 Published August 19, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsRogue Legacy 2 Is Definitely More Rogue Legacy So Far
Rogue Legacy 2, now available in early access on Steam, leans heavily on the first two nouns in its title. It’s a roguelike in which the player guides generations of adventurers through a grand castle in search of fame and fortune, leaving behind a legacy for the next family member to take up the cause.…
By Ian Walker Published August 19, 2020