Undertale | Review
Undertaleis a predominantly one man project created by Toby Fox. Funded with a successful Kickstarter campaign which far surpassed its $5,000 goal, Undertale managed to raise a total of $51,124 and took over 2 and a half years to complete. Earlier in the year I cited Boot Hill Heroes as a perfect example of how the classic RPG genre accredited to games such as Chrono Trigger & Earthbound are both utterly timeless and just bursting with unexplored potential. Undertale takes a sledgehammer the size of the sun and just hammers that point home with the force of a billion stampeding chocobos.
Shuffle or Boogie? | Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Seen by many as a massive return to form for the series, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag puts you in the shoes of pirate Edward Kenway, sailing the West Indies in pursuit of his fortune. Black Flag manages to portray the sights of the Caribbean beautifully, the ocean in particular is probably the best looking thing I've seen in a game to date. The sounds however, fall so badly short of what we should expect of a so-called "AAA" game and consistently took me out of the experience of what should have been the most immersive pirate themed video game in history.
Metal Gear Solid 4's Terrible Boss Fights
"If we're really gonna discuss how good Metal Gear Solid is, we have to discuss the boss fights, in serious depth because Metal Gear Solid 1, 2 & 3...all have exceptional boss fights..."
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain | Review
When I was 14, for a high school show and tell style project, I decided to do a review of Metal Gear Solid 3. I recorded gameplay on to a VHS tape and used this to deliver a presentation to the class. The opening line of the presentation went something like: "This video game, created by the genius mind of Hideo Kojima..." Do I still think Hideo Kojima is a genius? Absolutely, he is still one of the few game directors out there who really knows how to put the player directly in to a video game character's shoes. Is everything he's ever done perfect? Definitely not. Is Metal Gear Solid V a 10/10 game? You'd have to be riding its gargantuan hype train to believe that to be the case but...on the other hand...is it not the greatest, purest stealth game ever created? It probably is. Apologies if you're getting mixed messages so far but, from beginning to end, that's exactly what Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has given me.
Evil Blue Koala | Interview With The Composer
Arne Goyvaerts, AKA 'Evil Blue Koala' is a composer and sound designer from Antwerp, Belgium. In this interview with the composer we discuss his work on the Skyrim 'Additional Music Project,' the upcoming game 'Revolve' by Rusty Bolt Studios and his improvisational album Seaside Piano.
Triple Triad Mobile | Review
For me, Final Fantasy VIII is not a game, it is a biennial event...Once every couple of years I'll visit gamefaqs.com for the brilliant walkthrough by Alex and proceed to go through every inch of Final Fantasy VIII, max out the stats, beat every boss, whistle at every chocobo...and of course, collect every card for the unique Triple Triad mini game. So it was with equal parts optimism and absolute dread that I decided to play Triple Triad Mobile. Thankfully the Triple Triad collectible card game has made its move to mobile quite gracefully though not without problems
Metal Gear Solid V & The Bizarre Practice of Early Reviews
Gone are the days when we could play a game without knowing everything about it beforehand. When my 14-year-old self popped Metal Gear Solid 3 into the Playstation 2, do you know what I thought? “Damn, I can’t wait to see what Solid Snake and Otacon are gonna' get up to in this game." I was in for a big shock! I hadn’t tried to avoid any information about the game, nor did I actively seek it out...yet here we are years later and some people literally cannot avoid Metal Gear Solid V spoilers when the game is not even out yet.
Metal Gear Solid 4's Terrible Gameplay
It's fair to say that the hype surrounding Metal Gear Solid V has reached historic levels but I have a confession to make, I promised myself I would not get excited for Metal Gear Solid V because In 2008, Metal Gear Solid 4 was released with a legacy so gargantuan people tricked themselves into believing it was the greatest game of all time. It's time to stop kidding ourselves about Metal Gear Solid 4...
Is Lara Croft's Character Taken For Granted?
I’ve been a big fan of Lara Croft since Tomb Raider first hit the shelves in 1996 but more recently I’ve noticed an alarming number of articles hinting that Lara is part of the "problem" of the male demographic dominating gaming.
Mother 4 | Interview With The Composers
Following my Shuffle or Boogie article on the music of the Mother series, I had a chance to interview Shane Mesa & Dani Person who are hard at work on the music for the upcoming fan-made fourth entry in the series, Mother 4. While I decided not to badger them for a release date, the answers they gave were both promising and inspiring. It seems the music of Mother 4 is in safe hands.
Wonder Flick | An Empty Promise & A Missed Opportunity
Shortly after completing Level 5's JRPG masterpiece Ni No Kuni, I was left awestruck by how a company could deliver such massive scale, beautifully rendered, gripping tales so consistently. In Dark Cloud and it's sequel Dark Chronicle, they seamlessly melded action RPG combat with tactical city building and time travel. They took Enix's popular series Dragon Quest and pushed it, possibly to its limit, to create one of the biggest scale open world RPG's in history. Then, they did what Nintendo fans have been asking for forever, they created a fully 3D, console quality Pokemon game, only better!
Crypt of the Necrodancer | Review
While Crypt of the Necrodancer comes dangerously close to being repetitive, it's (mostly) fair balance between gradual upgrades and increasing enemy difficulty keeps it fresh, at least until you've seen all there is to see. The incredibly strong melodies of the soundtrack mean you don't get tired of hearing the same tracks a lot and the merchant found on each level sometimes sings along in a hilarious midi voice which is always a treat.
Shuffle or Boogie? | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Mods
I have recently purchased my first gaming PC and so, of course, I was looking forward to re-visiting one of my favorite video games, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and modding the hel out of it! One of the options for modding Skyrim is the customisation of sound and music so I thought it would be a great opportunity for a Shuffle or Boogie article.
Shuffle or Boogie? | Frank Klepacki & Grey Goo
Grey Goo was one of my most anticipated games of 2015, so this time I'll be talking about Frank Klepacki, his work up until now and how this new game's audio shapes up. Frank Klepacki is a Las Vegas based composer and sound director. His story begins at only 17 years old when he joined the company that many might describe as the masters of real-time strategy: Westwood Studios.
Shuffle or Boogie? | Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
When thinking about video game music, it might be easy to get caught up in the idea of the epic orchestral style we might expect to hear in Hollywood movies such as Spiderman, Batman, or Transformers. Whilst orchestral composers such as Harry Gregson-Williams have had their hits (Metal Gear Solid) and misses (Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare) I find that the most memorable soundtracks are often written by someone who has worked with the rest of the team to create something from the ground up that fits the tone and setting of the game.