GameCritics

HIGH Metatextual levels are off the charts. LOW Occasionally frustrating puzzles. WTF Incorporating real life footage into what seems like a game from the ’90s. Lucas Immanuel held a microtalk at the Game Developer’s Conference this year on an oddly metatextual topic — Games About Games. If that wasn’t meta enough, he also introduced the project that he and his co-developer jucobee had been working on for the past two years, The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time.

Canon is not the enemy of Star Wars games. That feels worth saying up front, because any argument about Star Wars and canon tends to turn into a bar fight within three minutes. Someone brings up the old Expanded Universe. Someone else brings up Disney. Someone says the word “timeline” with the weary tone of a person who has seen too many flowcharts. Then everyone gets angry about whether a helmet, a bloodline, or a background alien technically matters. But canon itself is not the problem.

HIGH It’s the most time-efficient roguelike I’ve played in a while. LOW The final biome’s difficulty spike. WTF The character names for each hero. TRANSCRIPT: Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com. There are lots of roguelike games out there that allow players to dive deep into nuanced strategies and tricky builds while getting absorbed into lore-rich worlds.

In this episode, Brad covers: Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut Somber Echoes Dead Estate Intelligent Qube Bellwright Black Flag …And more! You can also hear the show on iTunes Please send feedback and mailbag questions to SoVideogamesPODCAST (at) gmail (dot) com, or post them in the comments section below. Thanks! Senior Editor of GameCritics.com and host of the So Videogames Podcast. Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist. Latest posts by Brad Gallaway (see all)

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to 007: First Light on the So Videogames Podcast, Episode 493: British Invasion. BRAD: Carlos, let’s go over to you, uh, for a little game that’s been keeping all of us busy in one way or another. 007 first light. One of the biggest games debatably to come out this year so far.

HIGH Christie absolutely rocks in this iteration. LOW It’s more of a rerelease than a real upgrade. WTF I hope Dead or Alive 7 shows more ambition than what’s on offer here. It’s been just over seven years since Dead or Alive 6 first limped onto the market. That might sound somewhat cruel, but even as a fairly entrenched fan of the series it’s hard to ignore that it was an entry that just didn’t seem to be trying too hard.

In this episode, Brad covers: Rune Dice Hyperwired Gargoyles Remastered Kabuto Park Roadout …And more! You can also hear the show on iTunes Please send feedback and mailbag questions to SoVideogamesPODCAST (at) gmail (dot) com, or post them in the comments section below. Thanks! Senior Editor of GameCritics.com and host of the So Videogames Podcast. Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist. Latest posts by Brad Gallaway (see all)

With so many games on the market and more coming every day, it’s hard to decide which titles to zero in on. In an effort to get eyes on promising new projects, GameCritics.com is now featuring First Look pieces like this one, which show the opening chunk of a game and share thoughts and impressions on gameplay, narrative, lore, and more. Want to suggest something for us to check out? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know! The subject of today’s First Look?

HIGH A wonderfully imaginative narrative undergirding the whole experience. LOW The narrative (and its key concepts) might be a bit too mysterious at times. WTF The entire central conceit, I suppose.

HIGH A cute hedgehog ranting about the worthlessness of AI. LOW Too many cosmetics, somehow. WTF Why is there so much lore in the codex entries? A secretive corporation doing some kind of nefarious research while a mysterious quantum ghost cat urges the protagonist forward, and there’s plenty of pseudo-science technobabble to explain how one cat can become two. The world of Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar is as eccentric as its punny name would imply.