This is really great to hear! I still haven’t invested in an Apple device for games but have been getting some serious FOMO on account of Fantasian. Seems like the iPad Mini is the way to play.

I absolutely loved the aforementioned section in Resident Evil: Village, which also happens to be what I’m still playing this weekend after beating it last week. Really grooving on Mercenaries Mode and completing challenges in a second single-player run to unlock cool bonuses. Speaking of which, pro-tip for others:…

RDR and RDR2 are weirdly human stories from a studio that is best known for its nihilism. Love ‘em.

I have nothing but good things to say about Ys - really hoping they open the floodgates and bring the series’ back catalog to Switch at some point since Ys Origins sings there.

I’ll continue making my victory lap on the extraordinary Bravely Default 2. I’m in Chapter 6 and will finally be getting back on track after doing some grinding and taking out a bunch of optional bosses - if you’ve gotten to Chapter 6, you know the ones I mean.

Per the header image, I’m playing a lot of Bravely Default 2. It’s incredible. Much better than I was anticipating, actually, and I love the first two series entries (awful pacing issues aside). I’m in Chapter 3 but have sidelined the plot in favor of the game’s best-kept secret: a collectible card game in the vein of…

I was shocked by the same thing when I first played Sonic Generations last year! It’s one of the few non-Game Pass games I now have on my XSX for that reason. Just a lot of light, breezy fun with some slick reimagined setpieces.

Thank you, great review. The issues you’ve cited - especially the map screen quest shenanigans - have tempered my expectations that I’ll enjoy this as much as the previous Hyrule Warriors. Shame they couldn’t capture lightning in a bottle twice.

Oh boy, I want to play Crash 4 so bad. I feel like I should probably finish Crash 3 first though. That 60fps Crash is calling my name though! Looks like they nailed it.

That Arthur game looks pretty great. Not a setting I tend to enjoy, but the art style is A+.

A Machine For Pigs was developed by a different studio than the entries on either side of it - The Chinese Room, which made Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture - and is mechanically distinct. It’s more of a scary ‘walking sim’ rather than a survival horror oriented around puzzles, for better or worse.

I’m very intrigued by what I’ve heard of Amnesia: Rebirth - not least because the studio is so good - but light management in Dark Descent really grated on me and led me to quit relatively early. Are you finding that onerous or a compelling wrinkle in their new game?

Great writeup - I’ve only distantly heard about this game but it reminds me vaguely of the team dynamics in Dead by Daylight? Not sure if the two are otherwise that similar, but DbD did let you suss out which of your buddies was primarily in it for themselves and who was a team player, haha.

Those instances in which you stumble into an under-rendered environment are so precious and bizarre. I think MMORPGs lend themselves to that because of the vastness and persistence of their space, but I had a similar thing happen in Skyrim once. A door out of a town failed to load, so I was free to walk through where…

This is one of my favorite AVClub articles right here, as it puts words to a feeling that I’ve struggled to express. Especially the bit about the difference between game worlds and cinematic worlds (or other forms of media). Interestingly, it’s arguably only a portion of game worlds too, since 2D environments don’t…

Thanks for saying this - I have a pretty reliable connection but still got nervous when I heard about needing a constant one to play games I ‘own.’ For the Games Pass thing it doesn’t bug me since it’s inherently a subscription service.

Kudos on playing Subnautica, Will - it’s the scariest game I’ve ever played, and I say that as someone who’s played plenty of traditional horror. It’s just so big and unknowable and speaks directly to my fear of the IRL ocean. I played for about ten hours but just couldn’t past that. I never even saw most of the…

I’ve never been able to figure out the Kinja system, haha. I’m mostly active at ‘the other site’ but still show up in the comments for a Will Hughes joint.

I got all 120 stars in Mario 64 last weekend for the first time ever, so I might move along to Mario Sunshine this weekend. I’ll also continue dumping hours upon hours into Spelunky 2 and Hades, which really shouldn’t have launched in the same week! So far I have a slight preference for Spelunky 2, but they’re both…

Double boss fight?! Good lord, I struggled with the single ones. Still looking forward to it, though, as I seem to be able to regularly beat Meg now.