This past weekend, at Summer Game Fest: Play Days in Los Angeles, the good people at Evil Raptor and Plaion Games gave me some time to play the third-person sci-fi action game Akimbot, which will be released August 29th for PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, and PC.
What follows are my impressions of my brief time with the game.
This past weekend, at this year’s Summer Game Fest: Play Days event in Los Angeles, the good people at Cozy Game Pals and Blumhouse Games gave me an opportunity to play their old school, third-person survival horror game Fear The Spotlight, which is coming to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox X|S, Xbox One, Switch, and PC later this year.
What follows are my impressions of this game.
Though he’s best known for his quiet demeanor, meat carving skills, and appreciation for landscape architecture power tools, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was also a big fan of pinball.
Okay, not really. Though had there been an old pinball machine in the corner of his house, especially in the first movie, no one would’ve batted an eyelash. It was the ’70s after all, and he’s clearly a hoarder.
Still, given how many of his fellow horror movie icons have gotten their own pinball tables (Freddy Kreuger, Chucky, Elvira), it’s fitting that Leatherface would now be similarly honored by the good people at Zen Studios, who’ve just released Texas Chainsaw Massacre Pinball for their virtual pinball platform Pinball M (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, Switch, PC).
In 2017, the good people at Zen Studios celebrated the launch of Pinball FX3 by teaming up with Universal Studios to release Universal Classics Pinball, which boasted virtual pinball tables inspired by the movies Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and the Back To The Future films.
Now fans (and stockholders) of Universal have reason to celebrate again thanks to the Universal Pinball: TV Classics Pack for Pinball FX (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), which includes virtual pinball tables based on the TV shows Xena: Warrior Princess, Knight Rider (the original), and Battlestar Galactica (the second one from the 2000s).
At first glance, the sci-fi hack & slash action game Stellar Blade (PlayStation 5) seems like it was made by people who really love the Devil May Cry games, the Bayonetta series, and other games in which someone uses sharp instruments and expert gymnastics to take down monstrous enemies.
But the more you play Stellar Blade, the more you realize that the good people at Shift Up love other games, too, and it’s that love which has led them to create a compelling and engaging game of their own.
Given how often we hear people talking about books and stories transporting us to other worlds, it’s curious how infrequently it’s used as a story device in video games.
But that’s exactly what happens to Zau in Tales Of Kenzera: ZAU (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), a new side-scrolling action game in which a young man grieving the death of his father reads a Bantu tale written by his dad, only to find himself transported to the land of Kenzera, where, he hopes, he can bargain with Kalunga, the God Of Death, to bring his Baba back to the land of the living.
If only it was that easy.
Or that unique.
As part of the newly released Season 3 content for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Call Of Duty: Warzone, and Call Of Duty: Warzone Mobile, Activision, Sledgehammer Games, and Legendary Pictures have announced that the game will include some fun add-ons connected to the new monster movie Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, including skins with abilities for the two stars (and two co-stars that I won’t spoil for people who haven’t seen this monster mash).
At an event held last week at the offices of IMAX — during which people got to see the Season 3 trailers, play Modern Warfare III on an IMAX screen, and then see the movie — I had the chance to speak to Sledgehammer Games’ Senior Development Directors Adam Iscove and Michael Liu, who oversee the Multiplayer team and the Live Operations Team, respectfully, about this monstrous collaboration.
It’s always struck me as odd how some video game fans — and some video game critics — get annoyed when you compare a game to another game in a review. Or even just mention another game in passing.
Well, those people are going to be really annoyed by this review of Rise Of The Ronin (PlayStation 5), an epic, third-person, open world, hack & slash action / adventure game set in ancient Japan that’s a lot like 2020’s Ghost Of Tsushima, an epic, third-person, open world, hack & slash action / adventure game set in ancient Japan (and which, by the way, is coming to PC on May 16th).
Except that once you get deep into Rise Of The Ronin, you realize it’s as different from Ghost Of Tsushima as it is similar.
Sometimes you really shouldn’t see how the sausage is made. Say, with sausage.
But sometimes it can be fun. Maybe not as fun as eating sausage, but still a lot of fun in its own way.
Which brings me to The Art Of Psychonauts (hardcover), a new making-of book about the titular 2022 platforming video game, which was the sequel to 2005’s cult classic Psychonauts.
In the following email interview, Ashley Esqueda — who wrote the text and assembled the art (and who is one of my video game journo buddies) — talks about how this book came together, as well as what sets it apart from other video game art books.