Hopefully using his last name instead of his first name helped with the spoiler tags. If you want to find out who the boss is for yourself now is the chance to avert thine eyes. Silent Hill 2 came out in 2001, and there are simply too many medias influenced by the legend itself, so I was one of those people who knew about the boss beforehand without playing the original.
Tagged PlayStation
Superliminial Spiel
I don’t know what makes puzzle-solving as a genre so ripe with indie games. The Portal franchise started as an indie project until Valve scooped them up, more recent Baba Is You is a literal indie game filled with programmer jokes. Perhaps it’s the financial limitations that translate into developments, or the metas and homages the indie developers wanted to play with. But ultimately what makes your game independent from its heritage should not be the money nor amount of respects it’s paying.
PS5 Pro, 4K TV, and HDR
The new PS5 Pro is released at $699.99, and I’m here to ask a question: Is a gamer not entitled to sweat of —I meant— pixels of his consoles? Enough Andrew Ryan quotes, but it is a serious question nonetheless. At $700, PS5 Pro has a tough battle ahead of it to win the spotlight in the entertainment room. And that rivaling champion is no other than the TV itself.
Diablo IV, Console Support, and DualSense
Part 2 on the most recent title from Diablo franchise, and frankly found more often on the indie games, the dubious controller support and lack of documentations thereof. As strange as it sounds, there are aspects of a video game where a spec is necessary. Not just “minimum requirements” and “recommended” specs of your hardwares, but specs of what a game includes. You could, in theory, play an 8 bit retro game on a surround sound system, but that would be an overkill.
Astro Bot Spiel
If current generation consoles didn’t have that kicker exclusive, now we have one; and it’s called Astro Bot, and it’s on PS5. The game takes advantage of all the features introduced with the new controller and the console, most notably haptic feedback and seamless loading. It’s quite literally so good it should be illegal to be a first party game.
How to Astro Bot: Splashing Sprint
While Astro Bot is truly a GOTY contender for 2024, there are several quirks the game didn’t iron out. I think “Splashing Sprint” level is the epitome of such issues. Here is how I managed to get past the level, perhaps the hardest level I have seen so far in the game.
Romancelvania Spiel
Ever thought of serious Dracula dating sim? I have read some fan fictions, but I certainly did not think of putting dating sim and Metroidvania together. It immediately peaked my interest as Romancelvania encompasses most of Halloween favorites and then some. What I didn’t realize was that this is a crowdfunded game, and just like many other crowdfunding projects, it overpromises and underdelivers.
Silent Hill: The Short Message Spiel
Silent Hill is finally back with a new game after a fumbled P.T.. With Silent Hill 2 Remake on the horizon, The Short Message is a good starter for any players to get back to the series, what it meant to play a Silent Hill game and what that town held for characters. The Short Message does not ask for all prior knowledge of the series as this is free and too short to be a full-priced game to begin with, but fans of the series can find trivia of the town Silent Hill and the game franchise in the…
Still Wakes the Deep Spiel
A lengthy name must be a thing for a horror game this year. Still Wakes the Deep, released only few days prior to the Elden Ring DLC, is set on an oil rig in the North Sea, on the Christmas of 1975. Stars were quite aligned for this moment. Starring Scottish characters in Lovecraftian horror, the game could not be released at better time for gamers in South Korea.
Pacific Drive Spiel
If driving through tense situation is up your alley, Pacific Drive may have been on your radar. Contrary to what many reviews warned, the brutal RNG of rogue-like setting, the touch of survival car maintenance, with the flavor of sci-fi horror, the game slugs through them like a checklist. None of them truly mean anything aside from it exists.
Detroit: Become Human Spiel
Sci-fi has a weird tick. Sci-fis I’ve read, watched, and played usually begin with a genius —a genius who makes the breakthrough. It is a breakthrough none has ever witnessed, and it is a breakthrough that will be a new founding of a future society. And the story arc of the world builder often correlates with the quality of the said sci-fi universe.
Death Stranding Spiel on FMV Games
Death Stranding is, without a doubt, “interactive entertainment”, to quote Bill Gates. Good Bill didn’t say those exact words, but that’s how he viewed a certain FMV game. And I believe his approach to understanding what a video game is in the 90’s had run its course. Being realistic is not a virtue of any games. I came to that conclusion that bad games are often hidden behind the well known Hollywood faces after playing Callisto Protocol. Popular celebrities and hyperrealistic graphics don’t rectify a disaster. It just makes it more expensive disaster, just like Hollywood.
Amnesia: the Bunker Spiel
Amnesia has finally ran out of excuses it gives the protagonist why you are in the middle of nowhere. With all the reasons the franchise has thrown at us thus far, the Bunker throws us possibly the most realistic, yet the most boring, reason why you are stuck underground: you are there because you were sent there.
God of War: Ragnarok Spiel on Huldra Brothers
Have you finished latest GOTY contender God of War: Ragnarok? Because if you didn’t this might be a good time to pause for a moment and come back with visions of freshly destroyed family feuds. God of War franchise, in its Norse sequels, is shifting the focus from pure hack-and-slash fun to family drama. Huldra brothers, or just Brok and Sindri, probably the only family they have to each other, are the latest soap opera material we have.
Haven Review
“Haven is not a difficult game” says the game’s intro. It’s a bold statement coming from a game published in 2020. Difficulty is now accepted as an integral part of the experience, and the people’s expectation differs greatly from the eras of —per se— Gameboy Tetris. More contemporary “easy” games are usually scolded as walking simulators. It is truly a fine line between a game with wide berth or a visual novel in disguise.