Crash landing on an alien planet, Stellar Blade’s protagonist Eve is pulled from an embryonic escape pod – fluid and all – as her hair sweeps through the air in slow motion, skintight, flesh-colored body suit glistening, while an explosion fills the frame behind her. Stellar Blade is one of those games. It’s marginally unique,… Continue reading Stellar Blade (PS5)
There was a charm to Final Fantasy VII in its original form, where angular characters that looked like (out of technological necessity) angular papercraft wandered worlds that from above, looked almost delightfully miniature. There was style, aesthetics, and handmade texture spilling an obvious teen-focused climate/capitalist allegory from, appropriately, videogaming’s late teenage console era. This remake… Continue reading Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)
I find the funniest complaint in modern gaming to be against quick-time events. It’s not interactive enough to just press a button at a prompt, so goes the purported flaw, ignoring the reality of games like Suicide Squad. To use a jetpack – or rather, a function OF a jetpack – requires multiple trigger buttons,… Continue reading Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (PS5)
It’s difficult to take Horizon seriously – this is dopey sci-fi fiction, filled with robot dinosaurs, flying people, and an allegory that’s insufferably on point. Even its heroine Aloy represents a confluence of the modern liberally-inclined generation, accepting other cultures, if arrogantly rolling her eyes at their conservative religious beliefs, all while saving Earth from… Continue reading Horizon: Forbidden West (PS5)
A rousing, smart distillation of western society over the past few years, Ratchet & Clank’s return fits complicated world events into a comfortable platform/my-first-shooter frame. Rebellion against a bumbling authoritarian leader, multiverse traveling akin to Marvel, and genuinely nuanced approach to character drama allow A Rift Apart to eclipse the seemingly perfect predecessor. Where that… Continue reading Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart (PS5)
The world is literally in pieces when World Brothers begins. Ignore the physics of this situation – the EDF team seeks to put these individual blocks back together by defeating alien motherships. For some reason, that works. Just go with it. World Brothers does. Don’t arrive at World Brothers looking for a formula twist; this… Continue reading Earth Defense Force: World Brothers (PS4)
It’s odd to see lycanthropy lore warped from a tormented curse, with the afflicted forced to live with their uncontrolled murder, into something celebrated for its brutality, cruelty, and viciousness. Rather than fear, Werewolf: The Apocalypse treats the primal and instinctual bloodlust as a defensive means against a comically crude oil corporation. In its own… Continue reading Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood (PS5)
Originated in the early ’80s, the term cyberpunk (and resulting genre) rooted itself in anti-Japanese phobia, arriving in mainstream fiction as Japan became a technology-centric export economy. Cyberpunk 2077 looks the part, as does most cyberpunk. The neon signs, the noodle vendors, skyscrapers. A murder mystery too, revolving around a vicious generational divide and rebellious… Continue reading Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4)
Spider-Man’s Peter Parker fought alongside the police. Miles Morales fights against them, or, is rejected when entering a battle. Morales lives and fights in Brooklyn. It’s a different New York. Culture breathes compared to Parker’s more static, Hollywood-ish good white guy approach. As an immigrant, Morales is an immediate underdog. Still righteous, but from a… Continue reading Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)
In Godfall’s fantasy world, two brothers war with one another. Like everything else in Godfall, it’s stock fantasy fluff. Looking only at the in-game story, whether the hero and villain are human, robot, anthropomorphic animal, alien, or whatever else isn’t made clear. They just exist as tropes and it never matters. If this is someone’s… Continue reading Godfall (PS5)
Review 'Em All 