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OpinionImpressionsLife Is Strange 2 Is A Heartbreakingly Accurate Brotherhood Simulator
I’ve been playing a lot of Life Is Strange 2 lately. While I’m mostly doing this to catch up for the final episode dropping on December 3, I also find that it’s a very good game to play around this time of year—a slow, soothing contrast to the harried pace of the holiday season. It’s…
By Joshua Rivera Published November 27, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsI Never Knew Dying In Borderlands 3 Could Feel So Brutal
Sometimes you really need to kill a dude, and you just can’t, and it sucks. Borderlands 3 is not a heavy game. It’s full of bright colors, fun sounds, and jokes (even if most of them aren’t very funny). I would no more liken it to a Dark Souls game as put orange juice in…
By Ethan Gach Published November 26, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsSims At College Drink Too Much
Addison, a Sim I made to check out The Sims 4’s latest college-themed expansion was tense. She was almost always tense on campus, given how much work she had to do to graduate. At the Britechcester University campus, there’s pretty much only one option to unwind: go to the bar. Sims don’t drink alcohol—they drink…
By Gita Jackson Published November 25, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsBlack Future ’88 Is A Fun, Bite-Sized Cyberpunk Roguelike
Black Future ’88 is uncompromisingly hard, often repetitive, and very short, but those things haven’t stopped me from having a blast tearing through it. Released last week on PC and Switch, the game takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse engineered by the architect of a giant skyscraper. Everyone’s lost track of time…
By Ethan Gach Published November 25, 2019 -
OpinionIt Sucks That Half-Life: Alyx Is VR Only, But I’m Still Excited For More Half-Life
Half-Life 2 is probably my favorite game of all time, with my other option being Half-Life 1. I wanted to start with that sentence because I think it really helps explain my love for the Half-Life franchise. And as a lifelong, hardcore, super Half-Life fan I’m excited to play Half-Life: Alyx, even if it means…
By Zack Zwiezen Published November 24, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Touryst Is A Simple But Endearing Puzzle Game On Switch
Every clubby beach bar I’ve ever been to has a sign outside with a strict dress code. No shoes? No collared shirt? No overpriced drinks for you! Inevitably there is some Jersey Shore casting-call hopeful in violation of these commandments being told to get lost by an exhausted bouncer. In The Touryst, a puzzle adventure…
By Ethan Gach Published November 22, 2019 -
OpinionThe Poké Ball Guy Is Not Your Friend, Friend
Among all the controversy that’s arisen around Pokémon Sword and Shield, one new feature has stuck out to me as particularly egregious: the Ball Guy. You know the one. He pops up at every Pokémon League stadium, shilling exotic Poké Balls and cheerfully spreading his propaganda. His face, like that of many mascots, is agonizingly…
By Natalie Degraffinried Published November 22, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsPokémon Jobs Are Kind Of Messed Up
There is so much dumb bullshit in the Pokémon universe that is not explained and will never be explaned. What’s it like inside a Poké Ball? Do people eat Pokémon? These are questions that, when we have asked the developers, they have been unable to answer. Not helping are a new addition to Sword and…
By Gita Jackson Published November 22, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsMario Kart Tour’s Winter Update Is A Bust
Mario Kart Tour’s big winter update went live yesterday and it feels underwhelming, making me question whether or not it’s really worth it to keep subscribing to the game’s $5 monthly subscription. The game’s Winter Tour is meant to be a festive bit of seasonal fun to close out the year. It sports Mario in…
By Ethan Gach Published November 21, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Sims 4‘s New College Expansion Is As Stressful And Gratifying As The Real Thing
Addison, the Sim I made to check out the latest college-themed Sims 4 expansion, has had a very bad week. She’s a Fine Arts major, taking a class about video games as an elective. Her schedule, as such, was a complete mess. Monday and Wednesday she had three classes, with barely any room in between…
By Gita Jackson Published November 21, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsA Day Of Trying To Stream Xbox One Games While On The Go
When Microsoft’s video game streaming service, Project xCloud, began its beta last month, there were only four games available to test. Now there are over 50. I spent a day taking the service on the road with me to see how it’s working. Currently, the service streams games from Microsoft’s servers to a smartphone or…
By Ethan Gach Published November 20, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsChildren of Morta Is A Solid Roguelike
Children of Morta is a roguelike RPG by Dead Mage, published by This War of Mine studio 11 bit. It’s out on September 3 for PC, with PS4, Xbox, and Switch versions coming in October. I’ve played pieces of it over the years, and now that I have the full game, it’s as solid and…
By Riley MacLeod Published November 20, 2019 -
OpinionPokémon Fans, I Need Y’all To Shut Up About Dexit
I’m not new to this Pokémon shit. When I was a knuckleheaded young master, high off Black Radberry Now & Laters and bedeviled by the vicious thrill of the Safari Zone, I decided that I would catch them all. Years before Katamari Damacy would turn my capitalistic greed on its head, over a decade before…
By Natalie Degraffinried Published November 20, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsShenmue 3 Feels Like A 90s Throwback, For Better And For Worse
Clumsy, awkward, and stiff. Those are some words you can use to describe Shenmue 3. Rustic, charming, and cozy. Those are also words to describe Shenmue 3. The long-awaited third entry in Yu Suzuki’s adventure epic has all the quirks of the 1999 original, good and bad. You will either love it or be left…
By Heather Alexandra Published November 19, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsGoogle’s Stadia Just Ain’t It [Updated]
Google’s game-streaming platform Stadia is finally here tomorrow. I’ve had a week to tinker around with the Founder’s Edition. It has the Stadia controller, a Chromecast Ultra, and a charger with a USB cable you can also use to plug into your PC or laptop for playing inside of a Chrome browser. Most of my…
By Paul Tamayo Published November 18, 2019 -
OpinionIn The Era Of ‘Live’ Games Like Fortnite And Overwatch, Sequels Are Changing
There was a time when a sequel meant something. I don’t mean that in a wistful, “back in my day” sort of way. I mean that it largely meant one thing: A separate, new game with a shiny “2” somewhere in its title. Then expansions blurred the line, and patches blurred it even more. Now…
By Nathan Grayson Published November 18, 2019 -
OpinionDeath Stranding Chapter Four Is So Freaking Cool
Death Stranding is, in its early hours, a slow but beautiful game about exploring an open world and delivering packages. You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s all the game had to offer, but pushing forward reveals more dangerous situations. The first and perhaps most shocking is Chapter Four, where things finally take off at a…
By Heather Alexandra Published November 15, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsFallen Order Takes Star Wars Music In A Fun New Direction
No one can really bullshit their way through Star Wars.The Star Wars universe is one of the most fully-realized and obsessed over fictional settings. It’s also one of the most tightly managed, with an astonishing level of minutiae known by both franchise stewards and fans. The engines and blueprints of starships, droid models—you name it,…
By Joshua Rivera Published November 15, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsObsidian’s Next Game Is A Survival Adventure Where You’re The Size Of An Ant [Update]
Today, as part of Microsoft’s XO19 conference in London, Outer Worlds developer Obsidian announced its first project under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella: a survival adventure game called Grounded Grounded, which is releasing in early access on Xbox One and PC in spring 2020 (digitally and as part of Xbox Game Pass), is an up-to-four-player…
By Nathan Grayson Published November 14, 2019
