Let's talk games.
God of War IV is the latest example of a welcome trend in the modern game industry, where an established gameplay model is used as a vehicle to tell a moving, emotional story. It works for Spec Ops: The Line (third person shooter), Horizon Zero Dawn (open world action/adventure), and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (hack’n’slash action) and it certainly works here.
A certain kind of player will absolutely relish this challenge. You probably already know if you’re the kind of player I’m talking about–and if you are, by all means, buy this game.
Now, you’re probably wondering what about this game makes me so conflicted–since so far so good, right?
A YouTube search will show you rage video after rage video after rage video of people trying to get over the mountain, swearing like sailors as they try to claim that sweet, sweet reward. From a voyeur’s perspective, their pain is wildly entertaining. But I wanted to know what it felt like as the player.
It doesn’t matter if Finding Paradise fundamentally needs to be a game— what’s important is that artists like Kan Gao are starting to tell more mature stories using the medium. There’s a real emotional heart to Finding Paradise, and it’s every bit as resonant a mediation on the human condition as any novel, film, play, or other form of “high art.”
While the big N is being light on details, a totally real and in no way fictitious leak on /v/ today revealed that Nintendo was going back to the same source material as Odyssey. Considering the immense success of their previous literary tour-de-force, the next game in the much lauded Super Mario series will be a prequel entitled Super Mario Iliad.
The developers of the Devil May Cry remake have provided something that is, in my opinion, a massive and significant rarity in the video game medium; a well thought out, accurate, and deeply respectful portrayal of mental illness, specifically psychosis or psychotic mental illness (or some symptoms of it at least) in this case.
The scavenger hunts also demonstrate why Nintendo deserves the best game direction award, as The Champions’ Ballad is a virtuoso demonstration of non-combat difficulty.
Netflix has already renewed Castlevania for an eight episode second season, which I’ll definitely be bingeing on release day. Hopefully it won’t take an entire year, as we’ve been given barely a taste of things to come. What we have is bloody intriguing though, so I recommend you check it out. It won’t take too long and it’s a great time while it lasts.
Instead of being greeted by the typical still image of the game’s anime protagonists, Jackson found a manifesto composed by the game’s random number generator on the title screen.
Choo-choo, everybody! The E3 hype train’s roaring full steam down Rainbow Road, bringing exciting news, reveals, trailers, demos, and so much more!
I just think that Little Nightmares had an ocean’s worth of potential and it only gave me a rowboat’s worth of payout.
Written by Dyllan Rodrigues-Miller // Header Image from Hinterland Studios Five days ago, I finished writing an article that I was sure would remain relevant for quite some time. I was in the midst of the longest dark ever, patiently waiting for the sun to rise and then quickly descend on the Canadian wilderness. My little survivor sandbox heart was […]
First Time Long Time is about making the effort and experiencing some of these classics that might have slipped us by and seeing how they hold up so many years after their initial release. This week it’s time to talk about ActRaiser!
Written by Dyllan Rodrigues-Miller // Edited by Drew Beyer // Header Image courtesy of Hinterland Games A few months ago, my boyfriend and I were sitting on our couch, browsing through various games available on his Xbox One. We were discussing our preferences, weighing our options, and generally coming up empty… until we stumbled across something intriguing. It was titled […]
Written and uploaded by Drew Beyer // Edited by Andrew Busch // All images from Snake-Pass.com I’m not very good at being a snake. I add this to the ever-growing list of strange life lessons I’ve from gleaned from video games thanks to Snake Pass, a recent indie title. I’m not entirely sure what to do with this information, but […]
I blame Hidetaka Miyazaki for the countless hours of my life I’ve spent seething in anger, awash in the dull light of a tv, equal parts spellbound and infuriated by his incredible Dark Souls series.
