Search
Steam Breakout V Rising Is A Stellar Survival RPG
31.5.2022
I have complicated feelings about the modern vampire story. Violence is cheap. Tasty humans are plentiful. And skyscrapers provide ample shelter from the sun. The sanctity of human life doesn’t mean much to creatures that will kill people over a simple meal. It can feel powerful to be so...
V Rising's Huge Success Has Even Taken Its Developers By Surprise
25.5.2022
V Rising came out on May 18, and I would bet that on May 17 almost none of you would have ever heard of the game in your lives. One week later and it’s sold over 500,000 copies, and as I type this is being played by more people on Steam than Elden Ring.Read more
Bloodborne Is Scarier Than Ever In 2022
9.5.2022
Somewhere, a baby is crying. Their lonely yelps stick to the air like mist sticks to glass. The sound stretches out over the mirror of water upon which Rom, the Vacuous Spider just died as the nightmare moon descends. It trails you through every unlit building, but melts into happy giggles when...
Elden Ring Summon Has A Cool Secret Ability Most People Won’t See
13.4.2022
While handy as backup against bosses, Elden Ring’s summons can be pretty brainless for the most part. But one particularly crafty spirit ash is worth finishing a short quest to acquire, if only to see her unique interactions with the wildlife of the Lands Between.Read more
Damn, Elden Ring Doesn't Even Let You Die In Peace
29.3.2022
I should know better by now; I should expect that anyone I meet in Elden Ring will either straight-up suck or have some kind of tragic storyline that will desiccate my bones in existential dread. Probably, I should be killing every NPC I see just to save myself the anguish, leaving only the Turtle...
Elden Ring Bleeding Glitch Makes Some Dogs Its Most Dangerous Enemies
25.3.2022
I previously went on and on about the wildlife in Elden Ring, explaining how its bears, wolves, and birds often pose a larger problem for me than its otherworldly bosses. But a group of bloody dogs put everything else in the game to shame.Read more
Excuse Me While I Gush About Starscourge Radahn, Elden Ring’s Best Character
11.3.2022
I’m nearing 60 hours with Elden Ring and, frankly, I still have no idea what’s going on story-wise. Like previous Souls games, the lore FromSoftware crafted with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is a mess of proper nouns and vague insinuations. One thing I do know, however, is that a boss...
Does Valve’s Steam Deck Really Offer The Power and Versatility Of PC Gaming?
9.3.2022
I was, I am happy to admit, a Steam Deck skeptic. Valve’s history with hardware does feel an awful lot like Captain Ahab’s history with Moby Dick. While all have their passionate defenders, the Steam Controller, Vive VR, and Steam Link can reasonably be chalked up as something short of colossal...
Elden Ring Beta's Most Notorious Jerk Has Chilled Out Now
24.2.2022
Early Elden Ring players were shocked when an NPC in the closed network test called their character a “bit player” who should “die in a ditch somewhere.” His outright and immediate hostility was seen by some as a personification of the Souls-like genre’s brutal difficulty, but I’m here to report...
FromSoftware's Notorious Poison Zones Appear 90 Seconds Into Elden Ring
23.2.2022
Last week, I said FromSoftware was “back on its bullshit” in response to the moody Elden Ring cinematic that introduces the game’s world and major characters. I wish I’d saved that particularly evocative phrase for today’s story instead because, if finding a way to poison the player in less than...
Dying Light 2's Post-Apocalypse Would Be More Fun If It Just Let You Hang Out
21.2.2022
I’ve started Dying Light 2 twice now, once on PC, and once on PS5. Both times I’ve had the same struggle: I don’t want to leave that starting location. A few rotting skeletons aside, it’s perfect—it’s where I want to be in an apocalypse. Screw this guy’s missing sister, she’s probably long dead....
13 Years On, Mirror's Edge Is Still A Masterpiece
21.2.2022
I don’t tend to replay video games very often. The demands of this job mean I’m normally straight onto the next one as soon as the credits roll on the last. But every year I try to find the time to revisit one of my all-time favourites: EA’s Mirror’s Edge.Read more
Halo Infinite’s New Mode Is So Good It Should Be Permanent
20.1.2022
Step aside, Slayer. There’s a new deathmatch in Halo Infinitown: Attrition, a team-based mode wherein teammates share a limited pool of lives. It’s a total blast, an easy way to spice up Halo sessions, and a terrific addition to the first-person shooter’s arguably sparse range of playable...
Sisi Jiang’s Top Ten Games of 2021
29.12.2021
I’m not an accommodating video game critic. A game either sinks its hooks into me within the first hour, or I immediately bounce to something else. I’ve never had any patience for this “it gets good after ten hours” nonsense. A game either understands its own brilliance, or it doesn’t. And only...
Elden Ring May Just Reinvent The Open-World Genre
19.11.2021
From Software, as you may already know, has a new game coming out early next year. It’s called Elden Ring, and after spending a few hours with it during last week’s preview, I’m here to say that it’s shaping up to be something really special.Read more
A Simple Hole Killed Tons Of Elden Ring Players
15.11.2021
Among the scores of monsters and traps designed to kill Elden Ring players, an inconspicuous hole in the tutorial area proved to be the deadliest aspect of the game’s preview build.Read more
The New Tales Of Action-RPG You Probably Don't Know About
12.11.2021
The Tales series returned in flashy fashion this September with Tales of Arise, the 17th mainline title and one that breathed some life into the long-running action-RPG franchise. That’s a proper Tales game, replete with an anime opening and fast gameplay and all the good stuff series fans love....
Six Hours With Garden Story, A Zelda-Like For The Stardew Crowd
30.8.2021
When I first watched the trailer for Garden Story, I was reminded of one of my favorite Game Boy Advance games from my childhood. I wasn’t given much money as a kid, so I would stand at the GameStop demo booth and play The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for hours on end. I wanted Garden Story...
Boyfriend Dungeon Director: Despite The Bad Faith, It’s Good That We’re Talking
25.8.2021
The recent discourse around Boyfriend Dungeon has distracted from something important: That it is a very good video game, which I like a lot. I hope to remedy that now. In fact, I like it so much that I felt the desire to sit down with the game’s director, Tanya X. Short. After a short conversation...
The Ascent Looks Fantastic In First-Person
11.8.2021
The Ascent is an isometric shooter, and a beautiful one at that, but I’m honestly surprised at how good it looks once you break the camera off and zoom it down to ground level.Read more