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OpinionImpressionsTactical Strategy Game Mutant Year Zero Looks Like A PS2 Game On Switch [Update]
What the duck am I looking at? Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden was one of last year’s surprise delights. Now it’s out on Switch, which should be a great thing. There’s just one problem: It looks really bad. [Update – 10:23, July 31]: The Switch version of Mutant Year Zero got a patch yesterday…
By Ethan Gach Published July 30, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsVivid Painting Adventure Concrete Genie Will Release On PS4 In October
After being delayed earlier this year, Sony’s painterly puzzle platformer Concrete Genie will finally come to PS4 on October 8 for $30. Kotaku first previewed Concrete Genie, created by one of Sony’s tiniest first-party studios, PixelOpus, back at E3 2017. At the time, the game’s creative director Dominic Robilliard said the idea was originally born…
By Ethan Gach Published July 30, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsMadden NFL 20’s Replacement For Story Mode Falls Short
For the past two years, Madden games have included story modes about a fictional up-and-coming NFL quarterback named Devin Wade. In Madden 20, you can still play a single-player story about a would-be quarterback, but this time you design him yourself, from his facial features to his strengths on the field. It’s a fun mode…
By Maddy Myers Published July 29, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsGloomhaven’s Video Game Version Is, So Far, Just Fine
Gloomhaven, the biggest board game (both literally and figuratively) in years, is coming to the PC, and is currently playable in a limited form as part of an early access deal. With only a few options presently available to players (in terms of both gameplay and party composition), Gloomhaven is not really interested in making…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsTeam Rocket Has Invaded Pokémon Go, But They Sure Are Hard To Track Down
Pokémon Go players booted up the mobile game today to find the world invaded by the franchise’s original baddies, Team Rocket. In addition to taking over Pokéstops and challenging trainers to fights, the dastardly villains have also disrupted the local ecology, changing the kinds of Pokémon that players are likely to find. The theming is…
By Ian Walker Published July 25, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsMario Maker Level Locks You In A Room With A Goomba And Your Darkest Thoughts
A lot of the Mario Maker levels that go viral are pretty universally deranged. They’re usually levels made in the “kaizo” style, impossibly hard courses for expert-level Mario players to speedrun. It’s easy to see why these are widely shared online: We like spectacle. Mario games are easy to parse—a tiny plumber is running from…
By Joshua Rivera Published July 25, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsMarvel Ultimate Alliance 3’s Inhumans Level Is Just Sad
Most of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3’s story chapters are lengthy affairs filled with enemies to fight, puzzles to solve, characters to recruit, and multiple boss battles. Chapter seven, set in the moon-based Inhuman city of Attilan, is a ten-minute trip to the most boring place in the Marvel universe. Of all of Marvel’s properties, the…
By Mike Fahey Published July 25, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsA Game Where You Try To Prevent A Shakespearean Murder In Real Time
Aside from the Bible and other great religious works, it seems fair to say that William Shakespeare’s plays are among the most far-read stories in the world. Of those, Hamlet might be the most well-known. A murdered king, a brother who marries the widowed queen, a woe-stricken son who plots revenge and everyone dies. Or…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 25, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Division 2’s Big New Update Is As Promising As It Confusing
Ubisoft’s sprawling loot shooter The Division 2 just received its biggest free update since its March launch…except most of it isn’t really free until next week, except for two parts that won’t even be free then, but some of the free stuff won’t be out until the week after next, and one promised part is…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 24, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsOverwatch‘s New Hero Sigma Is Slow But Scary
What would you do if you could control gravity? Would you float everywhere? Hurl boulders at people? Yell all the time about a mysterious melody that haunts your every semi-lucid moment? Overwatch’s newest hero, the unhinged, accidentally evil astrophysicist Sigma, can do all of that and more. He’s fun to play, but he definitely takes…
By Nathan Grayson Published July 23, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsBlood Pact Does ‘Sexy Succubus BDSM Game’ The Right Way
I quite enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey, in the way anyone enjoys trashy novels: secretly and shamefully, with the kind of guilty glee you feel when you eat a whole box of chocolates just because they were there. But its depiction of BDSM in a relationship is incredibly flawed. NSFW warning: Images of nudity and…
By Kate Gray Published July 23, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsOninaki‘s World Might Be Enough To Get Me Past The Repetitive Gameplay
Oninaki, an action role-playing game from the developers of I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, now has a free demo on Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Playstation 4. I entered into the play experience expecting something generic, and while the combat is a bit mindless, Oninaki’s world is a fascinating place. This short tease has left…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 23, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsAssassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Final Paid Expansion Is Terrific If You Like The Weird Stuff
The most dedicated players of 2009’s Assassin’s Creed II could stray from the Italian Renaissance adventures of Ezio Auditore to solve puzzles that unlocked a 37-second video of a naked Adam and Eve running through a high-tech city in some unknown year BC. That’s the kind of stuff they used to put in Assassin’s Creed…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 22, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsThe New Sims 4 Stories Feature Has Me Making Sims I’d Never Create On My Own
Making Sims can take a long time. You have to hand-pick their personality traits and lifetime ambitions, which means you actually have to sit down and think about a particular character to play. That can take a while, and when I’m feeling particular, it’s taken at least an hour. It can be really easy to…
By Gita Jackson Published July 22, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsThe New Game From Journey’s Creators Feels Like A Dream
In the new game Sky: Children of the Light ethereal figures prance and soar through gorgeous landscapes and crumbling temples. These characters hold candles and spread light throughout the world. At least, I think that’s what’s going on in ThatGameCompany’s first new game in seven years. It’s abstract. Out now on iOS and coming eventually…
By Mike Fahey Published July 19, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsIn Night Call, You’re A Taxi Driver Who Has To Find A Killer
There’s a serial killer on the loose in Paris. The taxi that you drive is running low on gas, the police detective in your back seat is strong-arming you into gathering information, and if you don’t make rent, you’re gonna end up on the streets. This is Night Call, a slice-of-life mystery game that mixes…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 18, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsForget Everything You Know About Gravity In This Beautiful Puzzle Game
Playing Etherborn is like taking a hike through a series of colorful terraria that have been warped and torn apart by mysterious cosmic forces, causing gravity to shift like the sides of a Rubik’s Cube. It can be bewildering, but it’s never unpleasant—like a dream you can’t quite make sense of, but don’t want to…
By Ethan Gach Published July 18, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsSplatoon 2’s Final Splatfest Begins, Though The Stakes Are Unclear
Splatoon 2’s final official Splatfest popped off today. It’s pitting order against chaos in what Splatoon 2 is calling the “Splatocolypse.” Splatfests are multi-day events that invite the Nintendo game’s player base to choose a faction and then earn points for their side by playing multiplayer matches of the paint-based shooter. Splatfests are usually just…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published July 18, 2019 -
OpinionGet To The Orange Door Is Basically 1980s Titanfall 2
When it comes to first person shooters, my preferred style is super fast and acrobatic. As much as I love throwbacks like Amid Evil, I’ve been wanting something that feels like Titanfall 2. Get To The Orange Door is an early access shooter with a 1980’s aesthetic and all the wall running, double jumping chaos…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 17, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsAssassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s New Atlantis Expansion Is Jaw-Dropping
I’ve spent 20 minutes playing the new Judgment Of Atlantis add-on to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and already just as much time snapping pictures in photo mode. As a colleague said, Ubisoft’s art directors are just showing off now. Everywhere I turn, I’m seeing something cool. There’s this spot… There’s this one… And there’s this! Everything…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 16, 2019