Author: Zach Barbieri

Allow me to be vulnerable for a moment. It is always hard for me to review remasters, especially for games from over two decades ago. Where does one start? Do you grade these games by today’s standards, or try to put them into perspective of when they were originally released? How much does nostalgia factor in, and is that fair? I remember spending more time than I wanted to putting my thoughts in line when I had reviewed City Hunter, and mentally, I feel those same conflicts reviewing Tales of Eternia Remastered. Despite it having a different name at the…

Things to know about me: With the holidays coming up and all, I enjoy a good rhythm game. Something with a beat and some button-pressing action. Even better, if you take the idea of a rhythm-based game and mix it with something else entirely, something akin to Unbeatable. This brings me back to my childhood when Patapon came out on the PSP, this weird little music battler that could. Sony, being Sony, has been sitting on that IP forever, not doing a thing with it, so the creator stepped in and brought it back, hooray! Hence, Ratatan, a game with…

While this has seemed like a possibility for a while now, EA has officially announced that famed RPG developer BioWare will be shutting down. Bloomberg reports that the studio is closing amid mass layoffs across Electronic Arts, amounting to around 400 people losing their jobs (3% of EA’s overall workforce), with 50 of those jobs being at BioWare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg-Ctg6k_Ao BioWare has spent the better part of the decade struggling to deliver on several promises. The first was the live-service title Anthem, which underperformed. The studio was also working on a new Dragon Age title for much of that time as…

The first time I loaded into Mycopunk, while attempting to adjust my screen settings so I could multitask on my computer. This ultimately resulted in me accidentally skipping the tutorial. At the time, I couldn’t remember how to backpedal back into it, so I figured I would just hit join game, and piece it together while I go. This loaded me into somebody’s game, and the first thing I saw was them running for their lives past me as a gigantic amalgamation of tendrils and kitchen appliances started blasting me in the face. They just left me there to die…

For whatever reason, I slept on the original Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. There were plans to return to play it at some point, but for whatever reason that never happened. This brings us to now, when I in fact did get the opportunity to play its sequel, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2. This is something I rarely get to do: approach a sequel with no preconceived notions for what to expect. So, this is a good thing because damn, does the game leave a lasting impact. Boltgun 2 is a boomer shooter in nature and arguably the closest take on the genre…

Saros has received a new update to the game today, entitled the Zenith Update. Announced last month, the update adds a plethora of new features, but perhaps most importantly, brings a New Game + mode to the third-person shooter roguelike. The update is completely free for all players who own the game to download so they can start the cycle of death and resurrection all over again. https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2112153228703846746?s=20 Other features that this new update brings to the game include a boss rush mode known as the boss gauntlet, as well as additional modifiers to adjust the overall difficulty of the…

Over the years, I’ve found that first impressions in gaming aren’t everything. This year, at least one game was held up as the pinnacle of putting 50 hours into it until it gets good, or else you don’t get it, and the sentiment rings even more true. Games are a slow burn of mechanics and difficulty that, if you aren’t grabbed right away, the moment you finally do, might be right around the corner. I so badly wanted Gear Club Unlimited 3 to be that game for me, especially when you look at how classic an arcade racer it feels…

Footage has been released online, reportedly showcasing a cancelled Assassin’s Creed title set in China, allegedly known as Assassin’s Creed Destiny. This is not to be confused with the currently in-development mobile title Assassin’s Creed Jade, which also uses the setting of China, or Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, a side-scrolling spin-off of the franchise released in 2015. This news comes via MP1st, which stated the video originated from a developer’s portfolio, showcasing a prototype build of the game. According to them, Assassin’s Creed Destiny was meant to be a mainline title in the series, rather than a spin-off title like…

Expansions in RPGs are always the worst because, before starting them, there is always this question of when and where you can encounter them. Sometimes they start popping up the second the tutorial is done; other times you have a solid 20 hours until you encounter them, which I imagine can be good or bad depending on how much you have already played the game previously. In the case of Dragon’s Dogma II: Dark Arisen, it’s even odder. This is because Captain Brant offers the player most of their quests from the start of the game and has them available…

Dragon’s Dogma II reminds me a lot of that meme. You know the one. The one that says you wake up in the world of the last video game you played. How screwed are you? The thing is, in a classic Dark Souls game where it’s sadness all the time, you kinda obviously know you are going to die; it’s just a matter of whether you’re special or not. In Dragon’s Dogma II, though, there is a functioning, in fact, high-functioning society that can convince you you might be able to build yourself a life here. Then a dragon or…