There was a time when point-and-click adventures ruled the roost, with companies like LucasArts churning out hit after hit between Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. Since the 1980s, video game technologies have advanced unbelievably, opening up a diverse range of options for gameplay, allowing sprawling open world adventures…
Over the last week, I’ve been playing God Eater 3. It’s a snappy, mayhem-filled romp where you take down titanic beasts called Aragami with your team of fellow God Eaters. The game is filled with cool swords, cool guns and cool combat. One might say it just oozes cool. But, I’m not actually here to…
It’s been 16 years since the release of Intelligent Systems’ Advance Wars 2, widely considered one of the greatest turn-based strategy titles ever made, and 11 years since Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (titled Days of Ruin in the US). The intervening period saw the popularity of Intelligent’s Fire Emblem series explode in the West, an unexpected turn…
Pikuniku is an absurd, charming little game from the folks at Devolver Digital, and one that is absolutely fascinating. Styled after the whimsical platformer titles of the PS2 era like Loco Roco and Katamari Damacy, Pikuniku follows the struggles of a little red blob as he awakens in a strange land filled with shiny, happy…
Relationships are messy and fragile, and harsh words have consequences. Rainswept dives into this fragility wholeheartedly, and presents a grounded, if occasionally heavy-handed, tale about life, loss and the complications of love. Rainswept follows Detective Michael Stone as he investigates the seeming murder-suicide of a couple Chris and Diane. Their struggles mirror his own as…
The following admission may be considered scandalous by Resident Evil devotees: My first experience with the series was when Resident Evil 2 was first ported to the Nintendo 64. It was no small feat getting the game to run on the N64, given the storage limitations presented by its cartridges. FMV cutscenes and large amounts…
Very few Nintendo DS games ever fulfilled the potential of the console’s unique dual screens, but one title came incredibly close. That title, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, has finally gotten the recognition it deserves with a brilliant new remaster for the Nintendo 3DS. Originally released in 2009, Bowser’s Inside Story is an RPG…
Gris is pretty special experience. It’s a game with a lot to say, but never actually says a word out loud. Instead, Gris uses its strident, beautiful art style to convey its every thought — linework, animation and colour all have a part to play in this story about finding your way back from a…
If you don’t own a Death Drive Mk II then who even are you? Don’t answer that question; one should not feel guilty if they haven’t heard of the latest gaming console to take the world by storm. That’s because the DDMKII is a fictitious, Black Mirror-esque beast of a machine that doesn’t exist; at…
When we think about game design that could be considered “timeless,” the classic Super Mario Bros formula still leaps readily to mind. 34 years after its first appearance on the NES, Shigeru Miyamoto’s original push-forward platformer design remains as compelling as its ever been. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe only proves this further, taking…
I’ve had a rocky relationship with PSVR, to put it as kindly as possible. From mild headaches and blurry vision to a nauseating journey through Skyrim, I feel like I’ve been through the wars with the device. Honestly, it’s not had that much use at all, and I was ready to give up before Borderlands…
It’s been 20 years since Masahiro Sakurai became the architect of one of the riskiest experiments in Nintendo’s history. Super Smash Bros‘ dramatic origin story is well known — Sakurai had an idea for a four-player fighting game featuring Nintendo characters. Sakurai was acutely aware that getting Nintendo to approve a game about their beloved…
Only two years ago, I reviewed Just Cause 3 for what was then the AU’s film and TV masthead, The Iris. In writing that review, I learned an important lesson about the link between taking your time and offering responsible critique. What a great opportunity to reaffirm that lesson, I thought when our review copy…
Civilization VI was already complicated game long before the decision was made to port it to console. A great game to be sure, but a very complicated one. Civ has long made its home on the PC. The game’s overall complexity and forest of nested menus made a jump to console seem all but impossible….
Battlefield V is goddamned pretty. It’s something I’ve continually murmured to myself while reviewing DICE’s latest entry in their longrunning shooter franchise. Nobody is capable of squeezing the visual juice out of EA’s Frostbite engine quite as well as they can. The game they have constructed with it isn’t just one of the best Battlefield…
The biggest fear I had following Bethesda’s announcement of Fallout 76 was that the move to an online would blow up in their faces. Adding real people to the equation has always been one of fastest ways to ruin any gaming experience. But, from time to time, it’s also the best way to create unique,…
When your company, a video game developer known for a very niche, though long-running series, is cut loose from its home at a well-known publisher, there is good reason to believe you’ll never make a game again. This was the nightmare scenario that played out for Hitman developer IO interactive when Square-Enix decided to remove…
Everybody’s favourite flaming 90’s mascot is back (again) in Spyro Reignited Trilogy, a collection of the first three entries in the franchise (and the only ones worth playing). Charting Spyro’s adventures across the Dragon Kingdom, Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds, the trilogy is presented in shiny remastered format, breathing life back into what had become…
Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee had its fair share of doubters when it was first announced. A very small but very loud minority decried every new announcement, complaining that the new title would be too easy and kid-friendly. Ironically, it’s this ease and accessibility that makes the title shine so brightly. Essentially, Let’s Go is a…
Tetris Effect is extremely good and you should play it. I’m not burying the lede on this one. Tetris Effect is one of the best and most inventive entries the long-running puzzle series has seen in years, and if you are in any way interested in Tetris then you need to pick this up. Tetris…
Armello, the fantasy-steeped digital board game by Melbourne studio League of Geeks is very, very good. We’ve known this for a while. The game is available on almost every platfom there is and if you haven’t availed yourself of its strategic, card-based suspense and dice-roll intrigue since its launch 2015 then you really should. Conveniently,…
The Lego Harry Potter game franchise first launched in 2010, and has since been adapted and remastered for nearly every device imaginable. This includes, but is not limited to, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, iOS, OS X and Android. To be made available on literally everything is the mark of a true great, and with the release…
My Hero One’s Justice is a game designed purely for the My Hero Academia faithful, not because it’s inaccessible, but because the story begins at the halfway mark, picking up our protagonist Midoriya’s journey from his internship with hero Gran Torino – about the halfway mark of season two for those that follow the anime….
Call of Cthulhu is not a game that belongs on the modern generation of consoles. It’s clunky, muddy and technically unpolished – yet, there’s something surprisingly cunning about it, because it uses its own murk to great effect. When textures cut in and out of focus or objects seem to disappear, it only adds to…
I don’t exactly know how one reviews a piece of media as expansive as Red Dead Redemption 2. To call it a game is the correct descriptor, but it also doesn’t feel like it quite encapsulates the enormity of what Rockstar have accomplished. Red Dead Redemption 2 is an open world Western set in the very…
The NBA Playgrounds series is back once again for its second attempt at a slam dunk, with a fun, charming and old school approach rarely seen since the good old days of NBA Jam. I’m happy to say that NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is an improvement over its predecessor in almost every single way, with…
Dark Souls Remastered finally makes its way onto the Nintendo Switch after bringing its most polished iteration of the game to date on those respective consoles. I am glad to say that Dark Souls Remastered’s latest outing is as good as it’s ever been, bringing players back to the world of Lordan; and being able…
For Honor made a few splashes when it debuted in early 2017, showing off some impressive combat mechanics topped off with a varied and intriguing mix of knights, vikings and samurai all duking it out for territorial supremacy. While I had enjoyed For Honor immensely, I won’t lie when I say I fell off the…
And now, a take that may be controversial: Diablo 3 is way better on console than it is on PC. No seriously, hear me out on this one. While Diablo 3 has been available on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for some time, this is the game’s first appearance on the Nintendo Switch or,…
The LEGO franchise has become one of the least surprising in gaming – not because it’s become stagnant, but because it’s managed to hit the perfect balance of action, adventure and comedy within its titles. The franchise’s newest entry, LEGO DC Super-Villains hits all the same notes as usual, alongside some welcome new ones. Character…
