While Spyro wasn’t the first game to make me sit and take stock of game music (The first two Ace Combat games probably beat it by a year), ti stands tall as one of my favourite soundtracks to date. For me it’s the ethereal synths, organs and chimes, juxtaposed against the kicking basslines and syncopated drumwork that…

Arnaud Roy is an incredible composer whose work brings Amplitude’s games to life. Every strategy game needs a tune that say “aw yeah, this shit’s all coming together”, and for Endless Space I reckon that’s Bleu Argon. It’s a good time to try some of these games out; Endless Space 2 just received some patches to polish…

See also: Washington Football Team.

I really hate Battlelog.

Frictionless and fast would be nice, but I’ll settle for “basically functional”. Origin’s problem isn’t that it’s not Steam, it’s that it’s incredibly unpleasant to use. From the overlay that you have to turn off half the time to get games to function properly, to the horrifying UI that contradicts itself and gets in…

The game plays fantastically and is an easy recommendation to anyone who enjoyed the earlier games or has a remote interest. It even has multiplayer splitscreen, with all the classic modes like Horse and Graffiti. My only criticism is that this form of multiplayer does not persist online, where instead are a mishmash…

The game plays fantastically and is an easy recommendation to anyone who enjoyed the earlier games or has a remote…

I mean, games consoles are getting closer and closer to being proprietary PCs; particularly Xbox. I’m struggling to see the advantage to owning one these days beyond an exclusive or two.

I don’t think it’s the size so much as the shape. The volume doesn’t look all that different than the PS4's, but the cross section is 2x2 instead of 4x1. That’s a lot harder to fit somewhere.

I only got to play the PS1 version of TH3, and it was like a clunkier TH2 with a worse soundtrack. THUG has a special place in my heart though.

It also features newer additions like reverts and changing manuals/grinds/liptricks with a couple of face button presses, if you want it. The game lets you switch to classic THPS 1 or 2 ability sets in the options. This is good, because I can see myself using that trick-switching malarkey as a crutch.

I dunno, the Second Dream was cool, but the community really oversold it. It wasn’t some seminal moment in gaming; it was a pretty interesting story that doesn’t change the way the game works and half-introduces a new mechanic that wouldn’t actually add anything until the next big cinematic quest. It might have had a…

Let me try: The Spiderman IP is owned by Sony, so they have the right to make it Playstation exclusive. Deal with it.

I agree. Amazon needn’t have jumped into the gaming arena if they weren’t going to take some risks. We already have EA for bland, market-researched production philosophy, and even they did something just different enough with APEX to find some resonance.

I came to Unity over three years after its initial release, and I bloody loved it. Classic parkour, a beautiful setting, gameplay to match and sweet, sweet customisation. For me it easily takes the 6 spot of Syndicate, which I bounced right off of.

Heather, I haven’t always agreed on everything you’ve said but I’ve found you to be one of the most insightful journalists I’ve read in years and you have consistently challenged the way I think about gaming. From the comments it looks like “insightful” is about to become a cliché, but it’s a well-earned one. Best of…

Ori and the Blind Forest was one of my favourite games of the decade and so far I’m loving my time with Wisps. I’ve been lucky enough to only experience one bug so far (which double-binds buttons on a wired Xbox 360 controller) but switching to a DualShock bypassed that issue.

Uh yeah, this sounds like something I’d be interested if the pricing is right, and they expand to the likes of Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings, Stellaris, etc. with the DLC. I love strategy games and feel I’m missing out on some of the best ones thanks to that insurmountable storefront.

I stopped to consider whether adding years to expected development cycles would help cut down on crunch. Then I remembered that Cyberpunk 2077 has been in development for about a decade and still hasn’t escaped it. What is the solution here? Short of just not making ambitious games?

Just for posterity, the 1997 special edition used “Star Wars” on its artwork, etc, but was “Episode IV A New Hope” in the opening crawl.

I totally agree with you. Jedi are just one part of the Star Wars mythos and there are ample examples of great Star Wars media without them, Rogue One being the most prominent. I remember a time when people hoped the newly-announced Rebels would leave that side of it alone. What my mind runs to straight away is…