It’s that time of year again! We’re counting down the days to Christmas with our own little “advent calendar” – one new game to play over the holiday season each and every day. As the year winds down, things get really busy. We’ve got Christmas parties to attend, the end of year rush on work, and all the rest of…
This happens every year. As the Christmas season arrives, and I finally knock out all the major game release reviews that I need to, I look forward to things easing back a bit and that I can spend a bit of time doing other things (this year in partar I…
Read MoreAs part of the celebration of 20 years of Xbox, Microsoft has today announced that some 70+ new Xbox and Xbox 360 games have been added to its backwards compatibility list, allowing you to continue playing those games on the newer generation devices. This list has some real hits in…
Read More“Frivolity” and “humour” are not usually things that you associate with Otomate’s otome visual novels. Whether it’s classics like Hakuouki and Amnesia, or more modern games like Piofiore: Fated Memories and Olympia Soiree, with Otomate, you expect some pretty powerful romances with some very dark edges (especially if you wind…
Read MoreProject Zero is the most Japanese of horror properties. Capcom’s Resident Evil series is developed by Japanese artists and is great fun but closely intertwined with western B-grade horror traditions. Konami’s Silent Hill is (for the most part) intelligent and artful, but it was heavily inspired by western psychological horror…
Read MoreI’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive,…
Read MoreMel Kishida wants his career to be defined by his work on the Blue Reflection series. If you remove this particular series, he’s still an enormously accomplished artist, but Blue Reflection in particular is something that he is deeply and personally involved with. Related reading: My preview of the upcoming…
Read MoreXuan-Yuan Sword VII is exactly why I am glad that Taiwanese game development is becoming as robust as it is, and the involvement of EastAsiaSoft in this global release is an incredibly positive development. I first played Xuan-Yuan Sword VII when it was released in English in Hong Kong –…
Read MoreI’ve thought long and hard about what the first sign that society is genuinely irredeemable might be. The event horizon. The point of no return. And I think this is it: The point where we cede control of the education and knowledge transfer from parents, educators, museums and the arts…
Read MoreCaravaggio (the Italian painter) has become famous to history for being a bit of a thug. He killed someone sometime around 1590 (the greatest of his crimes, but by no means his only one). A decade later he was decorating the Contarelli Chapel. Today, a few centuries later, if you…
Read MoreNote: This is a review of both Famicom Detective Club titles released together: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. Though they have different narratives, they are functionally and mechanically the same, and since this will be a spoiler-free review that won’t talk about the narratives at any…
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