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Feature: Just like old times
The Gardens Between is all about reminiscing. It plays like two friends talking about all the adventures they've had, with the conversation flowing as they remember details and go back over stories that’ve grown with the telling. “Do you remember...?” it seems to say. “Oh yes, but before that-!” “And of course there was the bit where-!” This is not a feeling that comes from…
Feature: Not Messi
For a series that’s been running for over 20 years, it’s no minor statement to say that the latest iteration has brought back the fun. You already know how enormous the series is, you are likely aware of how much it’s become “Sky Sports Presents FIFA” over the years, and you certainly know how much of a heaving beast it is in terms of #content.…
Feature: Ice ice, baby
Frozen Synapse 2’s campaign puts you in charge of a security force in a sprawling, cyberpunk metropolis where a rogue AI threatens the safety of the populace. It also lets you choose your character’s name, honorific, and organisation. So, naturally, it was time for Grand Moff Godzilla Johnson to lead the CyberBois to victory. This is, of course, the sequel to 2011's Frozen Synapse. Through…
Feature: It looms large
Update: We've made some substantial changes to this review to reflect the dramatic technical improvements made by the day one patch released on the 12th. Shadow Of The Tomb Raider is, we're told, the final entry in the latest trilogy of Lara Croft adventures. And is, I'm pleased to report, by far the best of the three. It remains a muddled affair, never quite sure…
Feature: Take a knee
I’ve got a lot to thank the Madden NFL franchise for. My first copy of it was the 2002 edition, featuring Daunte Culpepper as cover star, Kerry Collins as quarterback for my now beloved New York Giants and a host of other athletes now labelled ‘vintage’. It was the perfect way to learn and appreciate the complex rules inherent to American football and it sparked…
Feature: The doctor will see you now. Again.
One of the many malicious maladies that can befall your patients in Two Point Hospital is ‘8-bitten’. You’ll know when you’ve got an epidemic on your hands, because you’ll start to notice dozens of low-res, pixel-stricken ill flickering about your corridors. To treat them, you’ll need to research and build a Resolution Lab complete with Debugger. As with many of your accomplishments, the local radio…
Feature: The Hole Truth
After more than five years in development, gorgeous-looking hole-based puzzler Donut County is out today. It's definitely not everything I had hoped for. Here's wot I think:
Feature: A pinball-platforming palate cleanser
There's an easy grace available to you in Yoku's Island Express. Steer the main character onto any of the pinball flippers embedded in the floors and walls and you can punt him into the air as predictably as a jump in any other platformer. Use those paddles to aim Yoku into one of the other pinball-inspired mechanisms, however, and the game takes hold, shooping Yoku…
Feature: A bigger, prettier game that overstays its welcome
The sequel to Mexicana-meets-Metroidvania game Guacamelee has the same slick art, bonkers brawling and deadpan silliness of its predecessor. But despite its many charms and visual prowess, Guacamelee! 2 drags due to its length and over-wrought meta-references.
Feature: Paradise Rediscovered
Burnout Paradise is one of my all-time favourite games. It's always in my top 5. I've bought it on multiple systems, multiple times. I come back to it more than any other game. And bloody hell, there are things I hate about it. Things that, for reasons beyond comprehension, EA have chosen to leave in the Remastered version.
Feature: Death becomes her
If the humor of Psychonauts, the mechanics of Paper Mario, and the wacky, noodly designs of Dr. Seuss had a love child, I think it’d look a lot like Flipping Death. A platformer, puzzle, and adventure game all in one (to various success), the developers have been so inspired by Tim Schafer's work over the years that Double Fine Productions are thanked in its credits.…
Feature: Cyberpunk is so hot right now
For me, cyberpunk fiction has two tropes which shape pretty much everything about its stories. Firstly, the protagonist is always on some kind of fake quest, trying to discover something about their world; they then instead end up discovering their own values, history, past; their very self. Secondly, robots, AIs, cybernetic hybrids etc are almost always revealed to have some fundamental humanity that none of…
Feature: Sir You Are Being Stunted
We Happy Few has an enormous amount of ambition, a game that sets out to join the pantheon of sneak-based grandchildren of Looking Glass, but in a more open world. And while it keeps looking like it's going to deliver, it really serves to demonstrate just how astonishingly good the games on whose shoulders it wobbles really are.
Feature: Stinker tailor soldier spy
Everything I'd read about Phantom Doctrine excited me. Unravelling Cold War conspiracies in a spy-flavoured XCOM was an enthralling elevator pitch, and the details seemed to back up that promise. Yes, you can brainwash enemy agents and yes, your enemy can do the same. Yes, there's an emphasis on stealth and deception, employed on both a strategic management layer and through tactical turn-based missions that…
Feature: Spice kills - quit now
Star Traders: Frontiers is a huge stellar sandbox with an evolving galaxy that moves forward with or without you. It’s liberating, not being on the hook for every little problem. As a free-wheeling captain, you can ingratiate yourself with the most important galactic players, becoming embroiled in the highest level of politics, or you can just enjoy the life of a scoundrel, smuggling and stealing…
Feature: Possessing
Unavowed is unquestionably one of the most impressive point and click adventures made in many, many years. It's of a scale I wasn't at all expecting, with layer upon layer of complexity and variety in a way the genre has genuinely never seen before. It's also a darned fine yarn of demonic battling across the streets of New York, that tells its story in a…
Feature: It caught on in a flash
“The plural of ‘monster’ is ‘monst’.” Nietzsche, probably. Welcome hunter. If you’ve already got a decent idea of what the hunting of monst is all about, and you’re just here to make sure the rescue from the darkest recesses of console exclusivity went smoothly, you’ll want to head over to Katharine’s rundowns. For the record, my own experience has been largely positive since the latest…
Feature: Fast food
Co-op chef-‘em-up Overcooked 2, much like its predecessor, is less about cooking and more about chaos management. The sequel builds on the solid foundation of the first game, bringing in new recipes, hazardous levels, and online multiplayer for maximum pandemonium. Oh, and you can throw ingredients now, which can be incredibly slick if you sling them across the kitchen and directly into a pan, but…
Feature: What a handsome rogue
Dead Cells gets into your nervous system like a wonderful toxin. If it wasn’t so fast-paced, you could almost feel the electro-chemical effects pulsing through your body, from hand to eye to screen to brain, as your panicked flurry of knife strikes eviscerates another sewer worm. The game began as a “roguevania”, and it was strong even in its early days. But the final version…
Feature: Whip it good
This might just be the strangest game I've played in years. A peculiar mix that, while frustrating in plenty of areas, managed to charm me with its sheer absurdity. Like any good archaeologist though, let's start at the surface and work our way down (I think that's how it works anyway; everything I know about archaeology I learned from Dr Grant* in Jurassic Park).
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