Lords Of The Fallen: How Not To Design A Soulslike

in

I’m a big fan of From Software’s Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro/Elden Ring sort-of-franchise. If you’ve been closely following the Ronan Extended Universe for a while this might surprise you, as I’ve said before that my migraines prevent me from playing games that are too complex and the From ouvre is known for being difficult. The thing is, while it’s true that the games are hard, the moment-to-moment gameplay is actually pretty simple, and combined with the strictly optional storytelling, that makes them surprisingly brain-compatible.

I could have simplified that opening paragraph by simply referring to these games as “soulslikes”, but that wouldn’t be accurate. You see, I’ve never liked any of the games made by other developers that try to use the Dark Souls formula. There’s been a lot of them over the years, and they’re all bad (I don’t count 2D versions like Hollow Knight or Blasphemous). It turns out, making games like this isn’t as easy as it looks.

For a while, I thought Lords Of The Fallen would change that. It did not, and here’s why.

Read More

Metroid Prime Remastered

in

Well, we all knew this was coming. My decision to cover this game will, of course, be controversial to some of my readers, but for reasons I will refuse to elaborate on, anyone criticising me for my media consumption is violating my freedom of speech and also bullying me. I must live my truth.

I scarcely need to name the game in question. After years of rumours and feverish speculation  this game, part of a storied media franchise and a universal keystone of millennial nostalgia everywhere, is finally here. It’s by far the biggest, most highly-anticipated game of February and quite possibly the year.

That’s right: I’m talking about Metroid Prime Remastered on the Nintendo Switch. 

Read More

Dying Light

in

I recently had a sudden urge to play some games about zombies—as you do—so I decided to go back and finish Dying Light, the zombie parkour game that came out in 2015 and got a large amount of free and paid content updates over the next five years. You can now buy all of the significant content (minus cosmetics and overpowered DLC weapons) for cheap, which is a pretty good deal if you want a lot of zombie-killing action.

Read More

The Silent Hill Transmission

in

Silent Hill is back, baby! It’s good again!

Maybe.

I have written before about my obsessive love for the Silent Hill franchise of video games, most notably in a big multi-part series of essays I did years ago on my old blog (look out for those getting ported over here at some point). As such, I have been keenly following the rumours of a series revival that have been swirling around for quite some time. A few days ago Konami finally lifted the lid on that revival, and boy howdy, us Silent Hill fans are going to be feasting in the years ahead.

First, a quick primer for people who have no idea what I’m talking about.

The Silent Hill series launched on the Playstation back in 1998, rose to prominence with a handful of sequels on the Playstation 2, entered a decline period in which the original development team broke up and new games were farmed out to third parties on an apparently semi-random basis with decidedly mixed results, then appeared to die for good when Konami acrimoniously parted ways with Hideo Kojima, who was developing a new entry with Guillermo Del Toro, amidst a major pivot away from video game development.

In the years since, Konami’s pachinko and fitness club enterprises have waned due to factors largely outside their control (primarily changes to Japanese gambling laws and the Covid pandemic), and management shakeups have ousted the anti-games faction and brought in executives who want to re-pivot back to videogames as a core business, with a particular focus on exploiting Konami’s classic IP stable. Silent Hill isn’t quite the top tier of that stable—that would be Metal Gear—but as a franchise not connected to a particular auteur creator who’s unlikely to ever work with them again (reportedly Kojima and Konami have smoothed things over, but Kojima has since launched his own studio and is unlikely to come back), it makes an obvious choice for a big return, especially with high-budget horror getting a huge boost via Capcom’s wildly successful Resident Evil efforts of late.

So we knew for a while that Silent Hill was coming back. We just didn’t know how much it was coming back. It turns out the answer to that question is: all the way. It’s coming back all the way.
Specifically, during their “transmission” video Konami announced five major Silent Hill projects, consisting of three video games, a movie and one…thing (I’ll get into that more later). In order of announcement, here’s what we have to look forward to in 2023 and beyond.

Read More

The Big Bioshock Repost

in

With rumours and leaks about the fourth Bioshock game swirling, I was going to repost the long Bioshock ramble I wrote for my old blog back in 2015. Then I read through it and realized that I both don’t agree with some of it anymore (especially on the heels of a recent replay of Bioshock Infinite) and have more to say than I originally put down.

So here’s a remastered, expanded and partially re-written review of all three Bioshock games.

Remember Bioshock? It’s back, in blog form.

(Full spoilers ahead)

Read More

Resident Evil Village

in

After I played the demos, I was left wondering what direction Resident Evil Village (aka Resident Evil 8 or RE8) would take the series in: a revival of Resident Evil 4’s frenetic “action survival”? A continuation of Resident Evil 7’s horror emphasis? A retread of the over the top Hollywood nonsense that got the franchise into trouble with Resident Evil 5 and 6? Or something entirely new?

As it turns out, the answer is: “Yes.” RE8 isn’t so much the next Resident Evil as it is all of Resident Evil, past, present, and future, offered up in a selection box of bite-size chunks that taste great separately but don’t always sit well together.

Read More

My thoughts on the Resident Evil Village demos

in

Note: I’m going dark for the entire month of May while I undergo some fairly heavy treatment for my migraines. Blogging will resume some time in June.

This is going to need a bit of explanation for my non-gamer readers.

In 2017 Resident Evil VII: Biohazard (which I’m going to refer to from this point on as simply Resident Evil 7 or RE7) came out and restored the venerable Resident Evil franchise to something approaching its former glory. Having established the modern survival horror genre back on the Playstation 1 and then reaching a second apotheosis with the “action survival” reinvention of Resident Evil 4, the series started to go downhill with Resident Evil 5, which took things even further in the action direction; while a fun romp, especially in co-op, it pretty much completely abandoned all pretense of horror. Then the series went totally off the rails with Resident Evil 6, a ridiculous Micheal Bay-esque spectacle that’s more or less universally reviled. Throw in a glut of spin-offs that received mixed-to-negative reception, and you’ve got a franchise in trouble.

Capcom needed to do something drastic to right the ship, and that something was RE7, a return to the series’ horror roots that was critically acclaimed in general and won over most of the hardcore fans after some initial skepticism. It also, helpfully, sold like gangbusters. Resident Evil is back, baby! It’s good again!

I am primarily a fan of Resident Evil 7, not of the franchise as a whole. I played RE3, 4 and 5 when they came out, as well as some of the beloved Gamecube remake of the first game, and while I liked them well enough, I never got infected with the Resident Evil virus the way a lot of people did. Silent Hill was always my horror gaming jam.

Until RE7. I absolutely love RE7. I think it’s the best horror game of the modern era. That’s why I’ve been a bit nervous about the upcoming sequel.

Read More

Games I Didn't Finish: Breathedge

in

At some point I’ll have to do a blog about my love of Subnautica, an underwater exploration/survival/crafting/base building game. I think it’s one of my favourite games of all time, and I’ve been eagerly waiting for developers to look at its popularity (not to mention financial success) and start copying it. There are many craft-and-survive games out there, but most take place in randomly-generated environments that can’t match Subnautica’s meticulously hand-crafted alien ocean.

This is all a preamble to explain both why I was really looking forward to Breathedge--described by many as “Subnautica in space”--and why I ended up dropping the game in disappointment very quickly.

Read More

The Themes and Imagery of Little Nightmares

in ,

I somehow failed to notice that Little Nightmares II, a game I’ve been quite looking forward to, is releasing tomorrow. After realizing this, I decided to slap out a quick blog about some issues I had with the themes and imagery of the first game, which is something I’ve been meaning to write about but hadn’t gotten around to yet.

Read More

Games I Didn't Finish: Days Gone

in

There are many ways one could describe Days Gone, the open world survival game from developer Bend that came out for the PS4 last year. “The video game equivalent of a Nickelback song” would be one way. “The direct to DVD knock off of The Last Of Us” would be another. Both of these are completely accurate, but I prefer to compare the game not to music or other video games, but to food. Days Gone is a big cake that looks delicious on the outside, but is severely underbaked on the inside. With each bite the problem becomes more and more apparent, until eventually you take another look at that fabulously-decorated exterior and see the dead cockroach that you somehow failed to notice at first glance.

Read More

The Last Of Us Part II

in

Note: This was going to be longer and more in-depth, but unfortunately migraines

The Last Of Us Part II (it’s called “Part II” instead of “2” because this is a Serious game) arrived with a lot of baggage. The first game was a beloved classic that many people--myself included--were deeply skeptical about the idea of a direct sequel to. The game’s developer, Naughty Dog, had its abusive working environment laid bare earlier this year in a devastating expose by Kotaku, leading many to question not just whether the game is good but whether it’s worth the human toll of its development. And finally, some of the game’s cut-scenes leaked in April, and while some of the story conclusions people jumped to on the basis of that turned out to be incorrect, the content revealed in the leaks turned a lot of potential players off.

I think the final product would have been divisive either way, but maybe these circumstances contributed to the polarized response it’s received since release. Some people truly hate this game, while others are proclaiming it as a masterpiece. Personally, I’m floating somewhere between those two extremes. TLOU2 is astonishingly, masterfully good at most of the things it tries to do; I’m just not always sure if the things it tries to do were worth doing to begin with.

Spoiler warning: This game was released under a ridiculous veil of secrecy, wherein reviewers were forbidden under pain of being fed to clickers from talking about core elements of the story, like the inciting incident of the plot or the game’s basic structure. I’m going to “spoil” those things because it’s impossible to talk about the game meaningfully otherwise, so if you want to experience the story like the developers intended then don’t read any further.

Read More

The Last Of Us Remastered and Revisited

in

The Last Of Us Part II (henceforth referred to as TLOU 2) came out recently, and the internet has been positively abuzz with chatter about Naughty Dog’s latest fungal zombie adventure. Everyone, relax: I’m going to play the game soon and review it, and then the matter will be settled for all time.

But before I do that I decided to replay the first game, which I haven’t revisited since it came out in 2013, via the PS4 remastered version. This isn’t going to be a full review since I already did one of those ages ago on the old blog, but rather a look at whether the game still holds up today.

Spoiler warning for the entire first game. Also please note that I haven’t looked at any of the leaked plot details of TLOU 2, so don’t talk about them in the comments.

Read More

Play my Mario Maker 2 levels

in

I’ve been playing a lot of Mario Maker 2 for the Nintendo Switch. Here are some levels I made.

Airship Infestation - YLK-8W6-5HF

A fleet of airships has been infested with dangerous spiky bois! Can you survive to the end? Short and slightly tricky.

Mysterious Pipe World - MCV-9K3-WJG

Enter the mysterious world of pipes and uncover the many wonder contained therein.

One small step for a plumber - 0MW-TPQ-XGF

A hitorically accurate recreation of the Apollo 11 mission. Defeat the low-orbit space turtles that guard the upper atmosphere and dodge lunar squid to plant your flag.

Have you been making Mario levels? Leave your level codes in the comments if you have!

Far Cry 5

in

Picture this: an underground bunker, stuffed full of military-grade weaponry and bedecked with American flags. A middle-aged man with a beard sits at a table, pouring over maps. Red lines and circles criss-cross the maps; targets, avenues of attack. A radio mutters quietly in the corner.

How do you react to this scene? What kind of emotion does it instill? Fear? Uneasiness? Is the idea unsettling? Or do you identify with the bearded man and his bunker? Does this image fill you with patriotic fervor and resolve?

If your answer is “Who cares, let’s go WRECK SOME SHIT DAWG HELL YEAH” then congratulations on your new role as a Ubisoft employee.

Read More

Historical accuracy in video games

in ,

The first trailer for Battlefield 5 (or V) released yesterday. In case you're not familiar with the series, it's considered to be the somewhat more complex, "realistic" counterpart to the Call of Duty games, emphasizing team and squad-based tactics over personal glory. The last installment in the series, Battlefield 1, went back to WWI. The sequel (Battlefield 5, are you confused yet?) is set in WWII, that conflict which is famously under-represented in video-game shooters.

Cue the trailer, which features four outlandishly-dressed super-soldiers leaping through windows, getting shot multiple times without apparent injury, blowing up a plane with an enemy grenade, and other ludicrous acts of cartoon violence. At the end, a British women with a Furiosa-style prosthetic arm clubs a Nazi to death with a cricket bat wrapped in barbed wire.

Can you guess which part of that has The Gamers all riled up?

Read More