Ugly. Confusing. Mechanically unintuitive. Designed by a madman. These are the comments I’ve received on Hinge dates, but they’re also how I’d describe Brigand: Oaxaca , a baffling but brilliant immersive sim from 2017 whose emphasis is on “total freedom of action” and murdering you repeatedly. It’s hard, and has an uncompromising old-school design approach…
“Pssst! Hey kid… Want to go on an adventure?” asks the store-page for The Edge Of Allegoria, an upcoming Game Boy-styled retro RPG. It might look like an old Pokemon game (and play like one, too, minus the creature collecting part), but this one’s for GROWN UPS. Or at least teenagers discovering the siren song…
The 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 saw Valve release a major surprise update for the PC gaming hall-of-famer (as well as an excellent two hour documentary). It integrated Episodes 1 and 2 with the base game (so you can now play through the entire experience seamlessly), added a new commentary track from the old gang,…
A rarely-mentioned risk of games news writing is the threat of covering a game like Just Grill the Steak in the wee small hours of the morning, where the stores are closed and it’s hard to justify doing anything in the kitchen. I am extremely hungry now, and it will only get worse as I…
A chat with Simogo. You walk into a poorly lit, seemingly empty hotel. In desperate need of someone to speak to, you hesitantly wander just a single room farther from the entrance, down a serene walkway. You are funnelled into a similarly poorly lit library. You’re second-guessing why you are in this hotel, and why…
Devilated makes me feel drunk. With power or Everclear, I’m not entirely sure—possibly both? Looked at from a clinical distance, it’s pretty clear that this was intended to be a hybrid of Doom Eternal’s cooldown-heavy arena combat and key hunting with some light Borderlandsian lootin’ and shootin’ mechanics on top. But something went wrong. Perhaps…
The Stern of the Union Address, your monthly resource for news, information and highlights on all things Stern Pinball. Without further ado my fellow pinheads: San Diego Comic-Con: This year’s San Diego Comic-Con was the biggest and best to date with none other than Keanu Reeves, Mr. John Wick himself, playing the game. In addition…
Monkeying around. The weekend is here, which means it’s time to relax and dive into a few games after what has no doubt been another busy, busy week. Before we do, however, let’s recap some of the week’s biggest stories. First up, it was revealed that Tencent would be bringing an end to online services…
It apparently wasn’t suitable for the LEGO brand. The LEGO video games have tapped all sorts of IP over the years, but one project that never did see the light of day was a James Bond entry. TT Games was at one point working on its own brick-based spin-off of the 007 franchise and now…
It’s the weekend—time to put your feet up, relax, and look forward to winning today’s Wordle. Spend some time with it if you like, using our tips and today’s clue to gently guide you in the right direction, or turn a struggling game around. Or click your way to the November 30 (1260) answer instead…