Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is the strategy RPG I have been waiting for. I’ve been a Final Fantasy girlie ever since I discovered Final Fantasy VIII on my brother’s PSX demo disk when I was a teenager. While I have loved, or found something to love, in every title since the original PlayStation […]
There are only two things that Nate really wants to do: use the toilet (one that, he emphasizes, comes with three walls and a door) and go home. He also walks with a strange gait, with one tiny foot raised awkwardly in front of the other, before landing with a gentle plop. At times, he […]
Even suffused in otherworldly fog, Silent Hill F’s picturesque period setting gleams with authenticity. Traditional hardwood buildings line narrow alleyways, while babbling brooks and small footpaths crisscross soaking paddy fields. The ephemera of 1960s everyday life is everywhere: glossy magazines, vintage toasters, exquisite flower arrangements. Yet beyond this moody sense of place, the details that […]
In Henry Halfhead, you play through the life of a person named Henry. But there are a couple twists. Henry is only half of a head – just eyes, ears, nose, and the top of their head – meaning they move around by sliding on the floor and jumping up and down. Also, Henry can […]
In case it wasn’t clear, The Last of Us made it obvious: at their very best, big-budget video games should be comparable to prestige television, so much so that adapting one for HBO is a relatively straightforward affair. This bar-setting exercise is further exemplified by other PlayStation franchises marching toward adaptation: Ghost of Tsushima is […]
I would not call the time I’m having with Hollow Knight: Silksong “fun,” and yet I’m still playing. In the depths of The Marrow, the second major area of Silksong, there’s a particularly nasty midboss. I eventually beat him, but my reward wasn’t a new ability, item, or a bench where I could rest and […]
I love me a stupid-ass action movie. Something where the plot is thin while the muscles and accents on all the henchmen are thick as hell. Think Broken Arrow or Eraser – movies that were artistically and sometimes commercially terrible but nevertheless thrilling watches that you forgot about almost immediately after leaving the theater. Borderlands […]
Herdling is a slow game about herding fuzzy animals through a vibrant natural world. That may not sound particularly exciting, but I found it to be a perfect game to unwind with after a stressful day. In Herdling, you play as a kid who makes friends with and shepherds large fluffy creatures called Calicorns, which […]
The opening hours of Hell Is Us are brilliantly confusing. The game tasks you with getting up to speed on a complicated civil war between the Palomists and Sabinians. A deluge of proper nouns is unleashed: Lymbic weaponry, Guardian Detectors, and more. But the clearest way the game communicates that you should feel utterly dumbfounded […]
There’s a pleasing rhythm to cozy life sims. The virtual days pass, filled with chores of tending crops or running a business, punctuated by strange mysteries or evolving relationships. At their best, these games merge busywork with exploration and storytelling, in a way that makes them hard to step away from. Discounty, from developer Crinkle […]