Top 10 Video Games of 2017...(That I Played)
To be honest, I haven't played many video games released in 2017 but I have played a lot of great games! So here's a list of 10 video games that impressed or surprised me this year.
Jamie Dunlap | South Park | Interview with the Composer
I interviewed Jamie Dunlap who has been composing music for the South Park TV show since 2000. He also composed the soundtrack to the Ubisoft/Obsidian South Park video games The Stick of Truth & The Fractured but Whole. We chat about his workflow on the show, his influences for the video games & a bit about his other work too.
Kingdom Hearts III: Should You Be Worried?
Kingdom Hearts, what a unique video game franchise. Despite only having two numbered games in the series so far, Kingdom Hearts has a mind boggling amount of entries across an equally mind boggling amount of platforms many of which are essential to understanding the overarching plot. Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is the latest piece of the puzzle and all of it is meant to contextualise and precede the highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts III.....It’s also a load of old bollocks!
South Park: The Fractured but Whole | Review
South Park: The Fractured but Whole, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Stick of Truth is here at last to coincide with season 21 of the South Park TV series. A lot has happened in the humble town of South Park since The Stick of Truth: PC Principal took over South Park Elementary, SodoSopa brought gentrification to the town and the Canadian Devil Beelzaboot released his freemium Terrence & Phillip game to exploit children for money. So, has South Park: The Fractured but Whole changed and matured along with the show and how has Ubisoft inevitably managed to mess it up?
When It's Not Fair Use | Copyright & Plagiarism on YouTube
‘Fair use’ law is the backbone of the vast majority of gaming focussed channels on YouTube, so it stands to reason that there have been a whole lot of videos explaining just what fair use is...but unfortunately, sometimes it’s really not fair use.
Great Games With Bad Endings | The Retro Perspective
Here's a list of 5 great games that kept us on the edge of our seats right up until their bad endings. Some of them not just bad, but utterly terrible.
The King of Kong | Documentary | Reel Talk
This time on Reel Talk we review The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, the documentary about previous Donkey Kong record holders Billy Mitchell & Steve Wiebe. We discuss how this relates to modern gaming and the similarities of the arcade scene to the eSports of today.
Silent Hill | PS1 | Review
It's generally agreed upon that Silent Hill 2 is the definitive fan favourite of the Silent Hill series. Whilst I am still undecided on which game is my favourite, after replaying the original game there were many little details about it which I felt were worth covering in a Retro Perspective review.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT Beta | First Impressions
Square Enix have allowed me access to the closed beta of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT for the PS4 so here are some thoughts and first impressions from a long time Dissidia fan.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice | Review
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is the latest game from English studio Ninja Theory. The studio is perhaps best known for developing the absolutely fantastic DMC: Devil May Cry which dragged the hit and miss Devil May Cry series out of the disappointment of Devil May Cry 4 and the general awfulness of the series’ plot to tell a genuinely intriguing story through beautiful & surreal imagery. DMC was excellent and it wasn’t even their best game, but as much as I love talking about the absolute fact of the excellence of that game, it’s now time to talk about Hellblade and how it might possibly be even better than DMC: Devil May Cry...which is a really great game by the way.
Beyond Good & Evil | PS2 | Review
You know, Ubisoft wasn’t always the god-awful company it is today, shovelling out the same old garbage year upon year. Ubisoft has been responsible for a lot of great games but perhaps most notable of all, is Beyond Good & Evil due to it being both critically acclaimed and a commercial failure. So let’s take a look back at Ubisoft’s cult classic.
Injustice & the Creative Bankruptcy of Modern Fighting Games
Mortal Kombat managed to weave an engaging story between its gameplay which was continued in all of NetherRealms preceding games, it is right that the developer should receive lots and lots of praise. However, as good as this improvement is within the genre, it’s still not good enough. Because if we look back at the most feature rich fighters of all time we find that NetherRealm’s formula is tiny in scope compared to some brilliant features and gameplay systems that seem to be taken for granted nowadays.
How Nobody Absolutely Dominated E3 2017
A very mild E3 wouldn't you agree? Microsoft's new Xbox One X is set to be "the most powerful mind control device ever" but does it have any games worth playing? Bethesda seem content to re-release Skyrim til the end of time. Nintendo wants us to be excited for games that will come some time between now and the end of time...but at least Ubisoft got rid of the terrible, annoying Aisha Tyler!
South Park | PS1 | The Retro Perspective
Tom joins me once again to enjoy some tasty member berries. This time we play Acclaim's South Park first person shooter from 1999. That's when games were great! Video game journalism was just as bad though....
What Can Ride Along 2 Tell Us About the Games Industry
I know, I know. Another article about sexism, I'm as tired of it as you are but having just seen Ride Along 2 I was struck by a wave of inspiration. I found it surprisingly relevant to many recent events in the video game industry regarding censorship and representation. It got me thinking just to what extent Video Games are scapegoated and vilified as the cultural representative of "offensive" violence and sexism, while the film and music industries can do whatever the hel they want with not even a squeak of protest from the majority of people.
Resident Evil's Fall From Grace Part 3: Resident Evil 6
Previously in the series we took a look at Resident Evil 4 & Resident Evil 5 but nothing could have prepared us for Capcom's descent in to the pure madness that is Resident Evil 6. For the very first time we play the game and give our thoughts on one of the worst games ever created. Everything from the animations & textures to the characters & inventory, we lay it all bare in this in depth review. Resident Evil 6 truly is one of the markers of the decline in quality of Japanese games and things only seem to be getting worse. Whether by creative bankruptcy, laziness or pure greed, this game series has fallen from a true icon of the gaming industry to a broken, zombie corpse, shell of its former self. At the very least Resident Evil 6 is in fact the scariest game of all time...scary how horrifyingly bad it is.
Enderal | Skyrim Mod | Review
The Skyrim Creation Kit, possibly the greatest video game creation tool ever that isn't designed for that specific purpose. Through it, modders have developed whole systems within Skyrim such as real time strategy, setlement building, tower defense, sex slave simulator...you name it, someone has modded it in to Skyrim. And now, developers SureAI, the same people who brought us Nehrim for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion have created an entirely new game using Skyrim's 'creation engine.'
Rise of the Tomb Raider | Review
If you enjoyed Crystal Dynamics' 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider series then I have some good news, some bad news & some worse news concerning Rise of the Tomb Raider. The good news is that this sequel is the exact same game in almost every conceivable way. The bad news, is that it's the exact same game in almost every conceivable way. The worse news is that all the things that are different about Rise of the Tomb Raider are significantly worse than what's come before.
Simone Bernacchia | Amiga Homebrew | Composer Interview
Simone Bernacchia is an Italian composer now living in LA since 2005 when he married his wife. He has been composing music on the Amiga platform since the 90s, with his first commercial title, arcade shooter 'Powder' released in 1998. Currently working as a web developer, he is now part of the Amiga homebrew community, contributing music to a variety of games from independent studios. In this interview we talk about his recent projects, the most well-known being Blocky Skies. The homebrew community as a whole and how Amiga homebrew compares to other homebrew communities. The hardware and software behind composing for Amiga such as the open source Milky Tracker and the limitations of the platform. All this, and more:
Demon's Crest | The Retro Perspective
Demon's Crest, a Ghosts & Goblins spinoff and a a game literally everyone should play. Because in the age when indie platformers are being thrown out left, right and centre and a "retro aesthetic" is seen as an instant positive as these indies attempt to be throwbacks to a better era. It takes us a trip back to play an absolute masterpiece (Demon's Crest) to realise that not many of these modern games have actually lived up to their influences. But enough cynicism, let's chat about Demon's Crest for the SNES!