Video Games

We still don’t know when Cyberpunk 2077 will finally land on retail shelves. Developer CD Projekt RED have indicated 2019 at the earliest, but they don’t want to rush it. Frankly, good choice, nobody likes a rushed game. But after that Gamescom trailer from a couple of weeks ago, we’ve got Cyberpunk 2077 on the…

At this point in time, Epic Games’ Fortnite needs no introduction. Frequently demonised and lambasted in mainstream media, Fortnite‘s PvP Battle Royale mode has become a scapegoat for everything wrong with modern gaming. Tales of addicted children, provoked violence and money lost to microtransactions are rampant, and it paints a picture of an incredibly violent…

As a game, Insomniac’s Spider-Man is a bit like it’s hero. Spidey is good (but not great) at his job, and you forgive him his missteps because his heart’s in the right place. If you created a checklist of tropes and mechanics found in open world adventure games, Spider-Man would tick every box. It doesn’t…

Gaming Matters – part of the annual All That Matters conference – took off in Singapore yesterday with Kevin Lin, co-founder of the ever-growing streaming platform, Twitch, having a chat with CH Kim, the producer of one of the biggest battle royale games today: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, better known as PUBG. Being in game development for…

When Bethesda first teased Fallout 76 earlier this year, people were absolutely thrilled. A new Fallout game within just three years of a mainline title? Unheard of. Was this a follow up to Fallout 4 or a project by an external developer, like Fallout: New Vegas? But then the game was announced. An online, multiplayer-only version…

Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Strikers feels like a massively missed opportunity for a fun and robust multiplayer Naruto game. Building off the success of the Ninja Storm series, Shinobi Strikers is a weak follow up that rarely capitalises on the unique appeal of the Naruto franchise. Essentially, Shinobi Strikers is a multiplayer fighting game that…

The Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 is a warts-and-all look at a series that began with an instant classic and ended with a sad trombone sound in the mid-00’s. I don’t think it was Capcom’s intention when they created a retro package of all eight games in the X series, but it’s…

An Immersive, Interactive experience brings with it the opportunity for Players to make  their own decisions, choose their own paths, play with the freedom they want – but is it problematic when the player is thrust into playing an Angry Protagonist? The above video is from the gameplay showcase of DOOM Eternal, developed by id…

‘Have you ever wondered how the mind of an assassin works?’ HITMAN 2‘s newest trailer gives us a glimpse of what goes through the assassin’s mind. Let’s give it a look. It looks like the new game will feature a new mechanic called “Picture-in-Picture”, which “Alerts you to important events as they happen”, as the…

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate was a game never intended to release in the West. This was all but confirmed by Capcom at E3 2017, where a company representative stated that there were no plans to bring the original Japanese-only port, Monster Hunter XX, to English audiences. Following the global release of Monster Hunter World, which…

Described as the most transformative moment in Destiny history, Forsaken changes the way players fight and broadens character progression, giving the player more freedom of choice. Receiving global acclaim since it’s release in 2014, the franchise’s latest offering tells a dark and vengeful story in the Destiny universe. Featuring a new frontier, untold mysteries and an all-new cooperative and…

Xbox Australia are celebrating the launch of PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Battlegrounds 1.0 with an extremely limited new Xbox One controller. On the surface of it, it doesn’t appear different to any other themed hardware — new colour scheme, limited run tied into a popular title — but there is a difference. It’s greaseproof. Yeah, no, you read…

This year at Gamescom, the Video Games Live orchestra performed selected arrangements from the Overwatch original soundtrack. The performance was amazing, its heroic themes accompanied by some of the game’s iconic cinematic shorts. A video game soundtrack played live, particularly by a full orchestra, is something that’s only come into vogue in the last decade…

It will help if you read this introductory par in the voice of a 1930’s movie serial announcer. Greetings fellow adventurers, and welcome to Strange Brigade, the new cooperative shooter from developer Rebellion. Right out the gate, Strange Brigade prides itself on blending Indiana Jones with Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy franchise in order to create…

Seasons is one of the latest expansion packs for 2014’s The Sims 4, and much like its predecessors, it integrates brand new, year-round weather features, new activities, career paths, furniture and more. In terms of added features, Seasons is an essential expansion, providing a structured calendar complete with themed seasonal events such as Love Day,…

Anyone who tells you esports aren’t real sports hasn’t met an Australian. We can turn anything into a sport. We’re the country that turned waiting in line at PAX into a sport (you’re welcome, other PAXes). If there’s competition afoot, as a nation, we want in on it. Held across two of Australian tennis’ most…

The BenQ Zowie range of esports monitors has become something of a quiet achiever in the world of PC gaming. They represent a viable alternative to bigger, sometimes much more well-known brands and place a higher premium on user consideration than any of them. The Zowie XL2546’s full name, the “BenQ Zowie XL2546 240Hz DyAc…

I don’t know when it happened precisely, but at some time in the last few years I became a huge fan of the Yakuza series. If I weren’t working as a games critic, it’s likely I never would have played them. And to not have played them would have been a tremendous shame. The Yakuza…

Sony’s had a few up-and-down months with their PlayStation Plus freebies. After the 2018 high water mark of Bloodborne, they’ve haven’t really had another title come through that lives up to the same lofty stature. Until now. September’s offerings bring both Destiny 2 and God of War 3 Remastered into the PlayStation Plus freebie fold. That’s…

This month’s free game haul for Xbox Live subscribers is a pretty solid one. This month sees the usual drop of four free titles, ranging from strategy to indies, family games and retro gems. So here’s what you get: Xbox One: Prison Architect — available Sept. 1 to 30 Livelock — available Sept. 16 to…

A few days on and the dust has finally settled from Hong Kong’s most lucrative e-Sports event to date, the ICBC (Asia) e-Sports & Music Festival. The event, which was officially organised and promoted by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) and title sponsored by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, was significant as…

Multiplayer is something that, over the years, has moved further and further into the online-only space. All but gone are the days of friends or family paying with (or against) one another on a single console. The days of couch party titles like Mario Kart 64 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 are gone, replaced…

The games that make the biggest splash at E3 are the ones that debut a big, bombastic trailer to the public. What was remarkable about CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 was that it didn’t do any of that, and still became the talk of the show. The game didn’t even have a trailer that was…

As Gamescom wraps up for another year, we’ve put together a list of the most exciting trailers Europe’s biggest gaming show had to offer. Fallout 76 You will emerge! But only after spending two months eating nothing but Doritos in your dark bedroom trying to finish this game. Fallout 76‘s latest trailer, “A New American…

Untitled Goose Game, the goose vs farmer trolling simulator from Melbourne developer House House, captured the internet’s imagination last year with its hilarious debut trailer. The biggest question that trailer failed to answer was “When can I play this, and why isn’t the answer ‘right now’?” The answer might be sooner than you think. House…

You want a new game to play but when trying to decide are just overwhelmed by the choice and brutal opinions being thrown at you by the gaming world? Sometimes you need to step back and look through a different lens. We have put together a list of some of the most anticipated games still…

While Asia is certainly not lacking when it comes to regular events for eSports fans, Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) are throwing their sizable hat in the ring this weekend with the return of the now annual ICBC (Asia) e-Sports & Music Festival (EMF). Kicking off last night with a fluffy of dramatic bass drops…

I’ve brought this up before but it bears repeating: while it’s easy to think of sports sims as lazy annual rehashes, upgrading or altering a few aspects of a game to justify their existence, the truth is that that’s rarely the case. Madden NFL 18 strode boldly into new territory, finally making the jump to…

Okami was a work of art before it was ported to numerous modern platforms, inspiring a new generation of players with its mythic take on the old Zelda formula, but this Nintendo Switch port in particular gives it a necessary new life.

The final DLC expansion for Ubisoft’s acclaimed South Park: The Fractured But Whole has arrived. The Bring the Crunch DLC introduces Mint Berry Crunch to the story, a character who appeared in early promo shots but didn’t make it into the base game, a brand new part of town (Lake Tardicaca) and a new class…