Synduality Echo of Ada review
Synduality Echo of Ada is one of those games that feels custom-made for me. A third-person mech action game that takes the extraction shooter formula and twists it into something more social and accessible, with an unusual structure hiding a wealth of optional story tied into a recent anime series. It aims high, but an […]
Ascend through ‘ten thousand meters of concrete and decay’ in this horrifying ‘first-person roguelite speed-climbing game’
White Knuckle – Announcement Trailer – YouTube Watch On If you’ve ever thought to yourself, I wonder what Jusant would be like if David Szymanski made it, you’ll be thrilled to hear about White Knuckle, “a first-person roguelite speed-climbing game” being developed by three-person indie studio Dark Machine Games. Even better, you can partake in […]
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is Team Ninja making a statement of intent, and I am here for it
I wasn’t expecting much from Thursday’s Xbox Direct, but then isn’t that always the way: It turned out to be the most laser-targeted assault on my gaming desires in years. What Microsoft is calling “The Year of the Ninja” saw the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 4, a mere decade after the disappointing Ninja Gaiden 3: […]
Assassin’s Creed Shadows started with a single Ghost of Tsushima-like protagonist, but ‘it’s not representing what the samurai and shinobi are if it’s the same character’
I bet some of you had the same reaction I did when Ubisoft first told us that Assassin’s Creed Shadows would have two protagonists: Why do you need sneaky shinobi Naoe and stalwart samurai Yasuke when you could just make one character who’s super stealthy and a master swordsman? It worked well enough for Ezio […]
By opting out of an open world for Avowed, Obsidian says it can give players more interesting choices to make: ‘Pacing is really tough in open world games’
Earlier today, Xbox Wire published a lengthy interview with Obsidian, in which the studio laid out its philosophy for storytelling, narrative design, and handling player choice in Avowed. Given that it’s a Microsoft-published story about a Microsoft-published game, it’s a bit fawning, but it’s worth a read to see Obsidian explaining how it works to […]
While I’m trapped indoors by one of the UK’s worst storms, I’m enjoying one of my favourite pastimes: trudging through gnarly weather in videogames
Yesterday afternoon, my local medical centre sent me a text warning me that going outside the next day might prove to be fatal. A couple of hours later, my phone started going nuts, scaring the heck out of my dog and, frankly, me, as an alert prepared the country for Storm Eowyn. This morning, as […]
‘When the world ends, people just dance’: As another MMO comes to an end, players come together for a final farewell rave
Bandai Namco announced the end of the anime MMO Blue Protocol in August 2024, setting the date for its demise as January 18, 2025. Fans made their displeasure known, but when the sad day finally arrived they met it with grace and style, dancing and partying into their final oblivion. As reported by Automaton Media, […]
FF7 Rebirth Aerith romance guide: Side quests, dialogue choices, and dates
Oh, Aerith. Even after all this time, the kind-hearted flower merchant we first met in Midgar’s Sector 5 slums still has my heart. And though Cloud’s completely oblivious himbo personality is pretty charming, he can’t be trusted to always say the right thing, so I’m here to play the role of matchmaker with an FF7 […]
Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s latest update sure sounds like its last
Electronic Arts says thanks and farewell in a new patch for Dragon Age: The Veilguard that sounds very much like it will be the last. “Thank you all for playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard; we were so happy with the game’s stability at launch and hope you have enjoyed our Quality of Life patches since […]
The team behind one of 2024’s hidden gems is following it up with a stop-motion ‘relaxed digging and discovery’ game about a happy robot’s underground adventures beneath a lake of slime
One of last year’s biggest pleasant surprises was Judero, a surreal little adventure by a two-man team whose art consisted entirely of action figures and other handmade, physical objects digitized as sprites and textures or animated in stop-motion cutscenes. Developer Talha & Jack Co. is already working on what’s next: Mashina. “A little robot digs […]
Metadox Ombra soundproof mask impressions
My fellow gamer husband will always have me beat on two metrics: KDR, because I’m awful at shooters, and DPS—which I’m temporarily repurposing to mean Decibels Per Second. The man’s loud on an average night in the Discord call and louder still on Rainbow Six Siege nights. I’m accustomed to sleeping through the antics of […]