If it weren’t for a few other amazing multiplayer games released this year, Heroes of the Storm may have never let me go. Blizzard almost had me. It’s no knock on the game, but I”m glad I’m free enough to enjoy some casual HotS. MOBAs are not my thing, they still terrify me from both… Continue reading
GO Team is onto something. They got to the core of Hitman, but I wasn’t sure how distilling down Tomb Raider would turn out. I figured it would be too slow or other turn-based issues would get in the way of it actually feeling like Tomb Raider. Before the end of the first stage it… Continue reading
Running into a building with guns blazing and a mask on one second, and the next second I’m cowered around a corner hoping no one knows I’m in the room. My head is spinning. I thought I was the aggressor, so why do I feel like the victim all of a sudden? Hotline Miami 2:… Continue reading
I always figured that there was a reason that I haven’t been able to fly through space very often in video games. That’s why the make or break moment for me in Rebel Galaxy was so simple – how does it feel to jump to lightspeed? Double Damage figured that out and then some. Point… Continue reading
One of the benefits to growing up in small towns in the midwest is that you don’t have to drive very far to get away from it all. When I was stressed out, I used to just pick a direction and a new CD and drive until the album was done (gas was a bit… Continue reading
We’ve all be coddled by the maturation of various game genres which makes the nostalgic design choices in games like Castle in the Darkness so damn interesting. Older games made a lot of their design choices based on technological limitations. When those limits are gone it is fair to question why some old school… Continue reading
Not all zombies are created equal. It’s actually kind of crazy that we now live in a time where pop culture can quickly identify the differences between zombies from different franchises. Dying Light’s zombies don’t mess around. They are oppressive, hungry, strong, and way too fast. It’s actually the first time that the hopelessness of a… Continue reading
I should apologize to Downwell, as I had the most convoluted excuse for not playing it when it came out. Long story short, its core mechanic was similar to a game my friends and I had started working on right before it came out. The joke’s on me though, not only did I waste time not… Continue reading
The premise worked. Four versus one. Five friends playing one vicious game of hide and seek, except this time the person hiding wants to destroy the planet. Evolve nailed it. After every battle the voice chat would be filled with stories. The team would be going on and on about the mistakes they made or the… Continue reading
We get it, games can go hard again. I couldn’t be happier that difficult games come in all kinds of flavors these days, but Titan Souls stepped onto the scene quietly and asked all of us, “But can you beat me with one arrow?” Huh. I never thought about that before. 12 year-old Justin would have dominated… Continue reading
Pequod is…I can’t entirely quantify Pequod other than to tell you that it got me (momentarily) past my pixel-art-indie-game fatigue and flipped some sort of switch in my brain that dumped the same dopamine rush I got the first time I saw a Water Bear (tardigrade) in a drop of pond water. It’s supremely weird… Continue reading
I actually don’t know how Galak-Z ended up on my list of games that I ignored all details about before release, but it just made my jaw go through more floors with each layer I peeled away in its design. You are immediately hit by the 80’s anime presentation that is so well done it’s… Continue reading