This first-person psychological horror sounds far more meaningful than its peers. Conceptually, at least. It’s intended to highlight the horrors of war, with a special focus on life within WWI trenches. Being trapped in No Man’s Land while in cramped and unsanitary conditions is definitely one of the more harrowing settings imaginable. And while the …
If you’ve kept an eye on this pixel art adventure, you’ll know that it’s centered around a cataclysmic event. To the developer’s credit, it does such a good job of absorbing you in the pursuits of high school teens Atma and Raya, that it’s easy to forget the said event will inevitably occur. Instead of awaiting …
Do you ever find yourself stumbling into an ancient tomb and unleashing an evil genie? Me too. All the bloody time. It’s an issue that seems to be affecting our protagonist, Izzy, too. They should really do something about those tombs. They’re a health and safety nightmare. Of course, when I inevitably unleash another ancient …
This point ‘n click style adventure takes us back to a simpler time. The children within a ramshackle village play outdoors together, and the humble townsfolk share both a well and a communal food store. Most have a role within the community too, be it a baker or a farmer. All the more peculiar, then, …
Also known simply as ‘Ships’ on the title screen, this is yet another simulator with a name that fails to give much away. Well, other than the fact that ships feature in some capacity. Are we fixing them, salvaging them for parts, or voyaging across the ocean waves? If a publisher launched games called ‘Cars’ …
It must be risky pitching a comical experience to a publisher. Humour is vastly subjective – it can take all sorts to make an individual laugh, be it something clever, droll, sarcastic, or crude. Then there’s the matter of humour not travelling well, or being impossible to translate into different languages. Indeed, the fact that …
This short space-themed adventure is billed as an experimental experience. What that means, in this instance, is that it doesn’t look or play like a conventional video game. Think of it as an interactive abstract art museum, or a virtual kaleidoscope filled with particle effects and deep space scenes. If the sound of that doesn’t …
Film reviewers don’t have this issue. When film critics talk about ‘challenging’ films, they’re usually talking about films that have shocking content, ones that have disconnected dreamlike narratives, or ones that touch on difficult subjects. Mulholland Drive is a challenging film. But I still managed to watch it all the way through. Donut Dodo on …
We’ve seen half a dozen simulators arrive on consoles this past month. Because it’s hard to tell who the majority are aimed at, it seems that publishers are simply hedging bets on their titles becoming the next surprise success. PowerWash Simulator cleared 3 million sales recently, so you can see why developers are keen to …
This combat-free third-person adventure introduces us to Mia Lorenson, a young female researcher employed by a science facility. After waking in a hospital, with only a hazy recollection of events prior, Mia begins to explore the empty wards and labs while slowly piecing together recent events. Her colleagues are nowhere to be found. In fact, …
I had an infatuation with Rampage growing up, first discovering it on the ZX Spectrum at a friend’s house before renting out the surprisingly slick Master System version, and then later discovering the excellent Lynx iteration – which added a new character. The focus on destroying a city instead of protecting it was novel for …
This is D3 Publisher’s latest attempt at the over-the-top action game series, following cult classics such as Earth Defense Force and Oneechanbara. On the surface it shares far more similarities with that latter series, though, sporting a combination of hack-and-slash gameplay and a purposefully out-of-place high school protagonist. Thus it may somewhat come as a …
Our last review was of Evil West – a game that felt trapped in 2010, evocative of Xbox 360/PS3 era third-person shooters. Gungrave G.O.R.E takes us back even further, being a sequel to a 2004 PS2 shooter that achieved cult status. It’s so true to that era that we even had to double check that …
The third-person shooting genre was one of the most popular during the PS3/Xbox 360 era, yet it seems to have fallen out of favour recently with developers and publishers turning their attention to newer trends. Even the last Gears of War seems like a distant memory. Enter Evil West, a potential stand-in. We wouldn’t be …
I never quite got around to Inertial Drift when it was first released in 2020, so this pumped-up version for next-gen consoles is mighty welcome. Even two years later, its twin-stick set-up remains an unusual proposition: left to steer, right to drift. It takes a good few laps to get the feel of it – …