I hate to say it — and hate that it’s making me say it — but Need For Speed Unbound (Xbox Series X / S, PlayStation 5, PC) gave me some serious “so what” vibes. While it’s not terrible or anything, this open world, arcade-ish illegal street racing game is just kind of…basic.
If you grew up playing video games, then you grew up with the frustration of some well-meaning relative buying you a terrible game you didn’t want and not the one you did. But while that’s also the indignity that Dul suffers in the graphic novel Super Trash Clash (paperback, Kindle), Clash writer and artist Edgar Camacho says in the following email interview that you need not be a frustrated gamer to understand, and enjoy, this heart-wrenching story.
As the very public face of such iconic video game franchises as Gears Of War and Unreal Tournament, designer Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski was, for years, one of the most recognizable faces in videos games. While fellow designers Shigeru Miyamoto (the Mario man) and Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) were called auteurs, Bleszinski was considered a rock star designer, one that earned the nickname “Dude Huge.” But while the game industry is usually as tightly controlled as the opening mission in a Call Of Duty game, Bleszinski is being far more open, and honest, about himself in his new memoir, Control Freak: My Epic Adventures Making Video Games (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Bleszinski — who I know from my own career covering games — talks about why he took this approach to telling his own story.
Some people think every new installment of a thing should be a reinvention, or at least add a lot of new stuff to the mix.
It’s why there will undoubtedly be people who’ll criticize God Of War: Ragnarok (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4) for not being as innovative as the previous God Of War, which rebuilt this long-running, third-person, hack & slash action / adventure game series from the ground up.
And while yeah, it’s not as huge of a leap forward, this sequel is still so epic, exciting, and effortlessly engaging that you probably won’t notice.
If there’s one word that best describes the original Bayonetta it’s “ridiculous.” The action was ridiculous; the story was ridiculous; and the character was so ridiculously sexualized that, over the course of the game, she went from being offensively sexist to a parody of sexist characterizations to being practically misandrist (i.e., man hating) in how her overt sexuality seemed to mock those who found her behavior sexy. It was utterly, gloriously, unrepentantly ridiculous — and also ridiculously fun. Which is also where we find Bayonetta 3 (Switch), which has the same ridiculous kind of combat, story, and capering as the first game.
“The Deadsuit. Quiet for many years… On this day, something stirs within. Something new…” And with these ominous words, the adventure that is Ghost Song begins. A sci-fi, third-person, side-scrolling shooter for Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, and Switch, Ghost Song is a modern version of a classic kind of game that manages to be as unique as it is familiar, and as flawed as it is fun.
One of the hallmarks of the Call Of Duty series is that these first-person shooter games’ annual installments usually only makes incremental changes, not big ones. Not since 2007’s Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, anyway. And while that’s certainly true of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PC), some of the changes they have made in this installment make things rather interesting.
As an old fool, I often like it when people kick it old school. Especially when those people are game designers making a first-person sci-fi shooter. But I also love modern conveniences. Which is why I was excited to try out Prodeus (Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC), which the good people at Bounding Box Software have described as being an old school shooter with modern touches.
The rhythmic first-person shooter / hack & slash action game Metal: Hellsinger (Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC) has been billed as a cross between Doom and Guitar Hero, in that you shoot demons to the beat of heavy metal music. But having played the game — and, more importantly, experimented with different ways to play it — trust me when I say that while metalheads with a sense of rhythm will enjoy this the most, so will people who aren’t into heavy music or who have two left feet. Disliking Doom however…