Tag: video games

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R.I.P. E3 2023 [Showcase Ranking] – Who Won This Whole “Summer of Game Fest” Thingy?

@travmoody

Kids.

This is complicated.

This time of year for us crazy hardcore gamers used to be called “E3 Season”, named after the now seemingly deceased annual mega video game convention — Electronic Entertainment Expo (better known as E3). Every bit of gaming reveal news, trailers and gameplay was always grouped under this easy as hell to remember, reference and say moniker.

Now, these past 10 days have been labeled or awkwardly described as a cross between famed games journalist Geoff Keighley‘s Summer Game Fest and IGN‘s Summer of Gaming. Then you’ve gotta throw in a 2 week early PlayStation Showcase from Sony (thanks for that…), Microsoft‘s annual Xbox Games Showcase and smaller digital pressers like the Ubisoft Forward, Capcom Showcase, and, heck, a full blown Final Fantasy XVI Pre-Launch Celebration that felt like an entire evening on its own.

There are others (PC Gaming Show, Devolver Digital, etc.), but the aforementioned video game showcases and digital pressers are the ones I watched and shall rank. Strangely, there’s no Nintendo Direct this time of year, but they likely own 2023 already with landslide GOTY winner, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, so there’s absolutely no need.

1. XBOX GAMES SHOWCASE x STARFIELD DIRECT

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK: Bookended by arguably the greatest deep dive E3 presentation of all time (yeah, hyberbole, I’m going there), Xbox gave their players the summer Showcase they so desperately needed to give.

They opened with Playground Games’ long-awaited Fable (Day One Game Pass) and finished with 45-minutes of Starfield. Unless you’re a Sony fangirl/boi and keep trolling on the 8 years in the making Bethesda title being console locked at 30 fps, you’ve got to take your NASA helmet off to Bethesda Softworks and God Howard. Starfield looks like 5 games in one with its interplanetary exploration, spaceship travel/dogfighting, intense character creation/progress, mega Mass Effect-level dialogue decisions, much improved FPS/3PS combat, ship building, base crafting/farming, etc. Speaking of Todd, he was especially candid in a near 30-minute follow-up interview with IGN. Even if you don’t YET own an Xbox Series console, don’t miss ANY of the Starfield Direct.

LET’S NOT FORGET: a yearning to play Cyberpunk 2077 (again, or for the first time), thanks to a hella impressive Phantom Liberty expansion, starring Idris Elba and a returning Keanu Reeves (out September 26); Obsidian’s Avowed wasn’t set to be a star in this showcase, but I still wouldn’t sleep on it (Game Pass, baby — out in 2024); Compulsion’s South of Midnight received Microsoft’s seal of approval from the jump, so let’s hope it leads to more jeers from just a “Happy Few” on Game Pass; and inXile’s Clockwork Revolution turned some heads (or is that hands?) with its new steampunky, Bioshockesque Game Pass manipulator.

XBOX FIRST: to show off Massive’s Star Wars Outlaws (2024), a surprise new IP from Persona devs with Metaphor Re Fantazio (2024) and Persona 3 Reload (next year on Game Pass), RGG’s Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was the funniest trailer of the season, too. In all, Xbox showed off more “Sony” type games than Sony did less than 2 weeks prior. Way to go, Phil. We forgive you for RedFAIL and all of 2022.

Xbox Showcase = 4.75/5 Whiskeys
Starfield Direct = 10/5 Whiskeys

2. FINAL FANTASY XVI PRE-LAUNCH CELEBRATION

Yeah, a singular game earned my second spot in the Summer Gaming of RIP E3 Game Fest thing. Actually, almost a single man won this spot. I give you new Square Enix CEO, Takashi Kiryu — whom I wish every other CEO was like on the planet. If so, we’d be living in so much happier times! Kiryu took to the stage at the tips of this FFXVI pre-release shindig and won the crowd over with childhood stories that have never been more relatable or even flattering from CEO-to-peasant. “One of us! One of us!” should have been the chant following the hardcore gamer/school-slack turned Square Enix success’ amazing opener.

That said, the Square Enix team did a wonderful job deep diving into every important aspect of the next Final Fantasy — from gameplay details to an incredible live-action trailer to the title’s score — kicking off with Creative Director Kazutoyo Maehiro and Localization Director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox.

FANTASY OF THRONES: the art direction and dialogue tone inspired by HBO’s Game of Thrones, Active Time Lore — a new system that allows players to gain information/lore on the current characters/setting in the current scene, and the fact that PlayStation players were able to download the FF XVI demo just hours (!!) after the celebration. I’ve consumed, finished, and ultra loved the 2-hour Prologue and I cannot wait to head over to Best Buy on June 22nd to pick up my steel case edition.

If only that super, huggable, loveable and stupidly expensive Torgal were 50% cheaper ($120 for a PLUSH! DUDE!), I would’ve been hard-pressed to give this game showcase a higher grade. All in all, a big recommend for modern day Fantasy fans.

4/5 Highball Whiskeys

3. UBISOFT FORWARD

Ubisoft seems to have the most bizarre Summer Games/E3 presentations, pressers, digi showcases year in and year out. While 2023 for Ubi was certainly no exception, beginning with a Just Dance thing and having some good ol’ boys drone on about Skull & Bones (which, I don’t even know what is anymore.. is it out?), there was a lot of decent to unpack here in the near hour and a half of hard-to-understand French accents and continuous push to do too many things at once.

SPEAKING OF TOO MANY: Why there gotta be so many Assassin’s Creed games, yo! We have Mirage, which I think is the mainline title, since looks like a 4K update of the old AC games. Then you have the long-awaited set-in-China Codename Jade, which is.. a mobile game. R.I.P. And Nexus is a VR game. Also R.I.P. Okay, okay — I know there are audiences for that; it just ain’t me, pimp. I’m also not sure if Mirage is for me, because I suck at stealth, and this is a return to stealth, and I really loved the intense open world combat of Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla (although, I didn’t dive in that one as much as I wanted). Sorry, but this is the least excited I’ve been about the franchise pre-Origins.

OUTLAWS WE RIDE: Really digging the Watch Dogs/GTA vibe set in Star Wars galaxy of Star Wars Outlaws. Without this game, this year’s Ubisoft Forward might be better off called Backward. But, I’m real thrilled for Massive (The Division devs) because this is the Star Wars game we never knew we wanted–and supposedly you can fly anywhere whenever within reasonable limit. Gameplay looks solid with cutesy alien companion assists and commands, and the dogfights certainly aim to rival that of Starfield.

TIDBITS: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is at least something new, a cartoony Metroidvania whose art style didn’t overwhelm; And, what in the DUNK was that presentation for the Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix anime? Great ambition, love the look of Netflix Castlevania appeal, Adi Shanker — but, man. But at least the Forward kicked off with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. I’ve never been an Avatar person, but this looks solid and far more ambitious than we imagined for a movie tie-in title and features online co-op. December 7th is a safe release date, too.

3.25/5 Blue Milk Whiskeys.

5. PLAYSTATION SHOWCASE

Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Literally, the only thing worth top-billing from the typically strong Sony summer shows this side of a surprise remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which, when released, will be 20 years after its original iteration. Awesome. But, past Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (which looks amazing, spectacular, sensational thanks to Insomniac), there was NOTHING from Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, or even Bluepoint and Housemarque. Just.. weird. Maybe they saw their chief competitors so extreme on both sides of the spectrum (Nintendo winning the year no matter what with Zelda, and Microsoft losing forever with.. everything) that they took this “Summer of Gaming” for granted. And, releasing a “Showcase” 2 weeks before the usual E3 time is further proof of that.

Like I said above, Microsoft out-Sony’d Sony in this year’s summer of digi-pressers. That said, Sony has God of War, Horizon, Final Fantasy, Spider-2, Ghost of Tsushima, and 8 million other exclusives, while Microsoft has a dominant racing series and.. a whole lot of catching up to do.

3/5 Glasses of Spidey-Sauce

6. SUMMER GAME FEST

This show has “long covid” been an exhausting far cry replacement for the more appreciably compartmentalized E3. Back in the Before Times, you had Xbox Showcase kicking it off, typically followed by Ubisoft Forward, with EA Play (like, wtf happened to that?), Sony and Bethesda closing off the second day, with Nintendo owning that Tuesday morning as we wait behind hundreds of smelly gamers dying to crash the LA Convention doors to get 40th in line for a game they have to wait 6-hours to play. Oh, those were the days! Toss in a pointless Square Enix or Capcom stage direct here and there, and you had your E3.

Now, E3’s substitute, Summer Game Fest, I guess is.. a bunch of games — mostly small/unknown/indie schmindy stuff — from all developers, consoles (including the always annoying Mobile and PC-only), a bunch of celebrities, commercials/ads, interviews, movie things and celebrity/influencer jockying.

I DON’T HATE: The Game Awards, Summer Game Fest or Geoff. It’s just always AIGHT. This year, Mr. Keighley had the benefit of having Ed Boon on stage to show off an incredible Mortal Kombat 1 — a sequel/reboot that already has me forgetting about Street Fighter 6, which, like, just came out. Then, sure, he had Nic Cage talk to folks but it was a Dead By Daylight chapter, so meh. The Witcher Season 3 trailer was both sad and fantastic (yeah, I’m not happy about Henry either), but it’s not a game so there’s that.

BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT: there was a great pop from the crowd for Sonic Superstars — a 2.5D retro Sonic reimagined out this Fall; Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a return to the classic beat ’em style Yakuza, set between Yak6 and the hit Like A Dragon (November 9); a teaser trailer for the Twisted Metal tv show; and, finally, the game that saved Summer Game Fest — Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Holy heck, Geoff better praise Square Enix for loaning him this one. Not only is it gorgeous and dreamlike and everything we wanted it to be, the game will also release on 2 discs — unheard of in current day gaming.

The rest of the show has several hours.. hell.. days of filler.

2.75/5 Whiskeys.

7. CAPCOM SHOWCASE

“What the hell was THAT?” was the immediate response IGN game journo dude Max Scoville shouted when his Podcast Beyond hit the air post-Capcom Showcase. Yeah, man. Exactly. I have no idea. Pretty sure Capcom just wanted to be relevant in this Summer Games space, but this was.. nothing. No DMC. No Resident Evil. And barely a blip of its just recently released hit Street Fighter 6. They could’ve at least teased some future DLC or something for it, rather than a 2-minute recap of what we already knew. At least we saw more of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (or, as my buddy Felipe labels the game: “Flowers May Cry”). I love the art style, it’s powered by the RE engine and seems like a very cool way to sink a few hours.

WE ALREADY KNOW, BRO: almost every game “showcased” here was already announced. Dragon’s Dogma 2 definitely had the most intrigue, with a lengthy gameplay reveal featuring NPC Pawns and details of the sequel’s sizable world. Dino hunter mech thing Exoprimal is out next month, but do you really care? It doesn’t look bad, but it’s not exactly pushed like the machine it could be. But what did look bad and incredibly boring (even one of the Beyonders claimed to have fallen asleep during this portion) was Ghost Trick. Yowzers. And before all that we got a moment of sadness with the announcement delay for Pragmata — a straight up hand-written apology, nonetheless. Classy, but I’d rather Capcom gave us a hand-written apology for this entire hour.

1.75/5 Whiskey Sours

8. XBOX EXTENDED SHOWCASE

Naw… I’m not even going there. Does this extended thing even count? The Games Showcase and Starfield Direct went SO GREAT that I’ll let this entire hour slide. At least Forza Motorsport had their own little mini demo direct on the side…

N/A/5 Whiskeys.

-Travis Moody

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THE GHGAMER AWARDS [Best Video Games of 2022] – The ‘Ring’ of Power.

Dee Assassina
@assassinasan

1. Elden Ring – When I was becoming fatigued of open world games, Elden Ring somehow managed to refresh the genre. I haven’t felt this much freedom in a game where my path and interpretation of the story was completely different from everyone else who played. It improved the Souls formula by a tenfold while creating an expansive environment where every inch felt like a painting and every sound evoked an emotion, without spouting a single word. This took the crown as my favorite game of all time. – 5/5

2. God of War Ragnarök – Kratos Saga has become an incredibly emotional experience that tugs at my heart strings by developing a character I’ve been familiar with for about 17 years. I was constantly laughing and crying in this game. It’s a premium title that checks all of the boxes with top tier combat, graphics, story, characters, beautiful environments and impactful music. My only issue is that it feels extremely formulaic next to other Sony first party titles and I really need a break from it. It’s one of the best in its class but it is held back my unnecessary RPG mechanics and lack of innovation. I still absolutely adore it though. – 4.75/5

3. Sifu – This game surprised me! Not only did it innovate with its implementation of an age system upon death but it also redefined the beat em up formula, and became my favorite beat em ups of all time. The combat is so fun and challenging. It’s pulls direct influence from martial arts which really enhanced combat, but made the story a bit too surface level. The art design is top tier and coupled with some amazing music. This game is special and I wish it was nominated for GOTY 2022. – 4.5/5

4. Cult of the Lamb – This game was an immediate buy just due to aesthetics. What’s not to love about cute little animals that are part of a satanic cult? What I didn’t know is the gameplay loop would innovate so hard and make me addicted. It’s basically Animal Crossing for dark minds by melding roguelike dungeon crawling with farm sim elements. This is one of those stay up until 3am mindlessly playing as if I was under the spell of this cute ass satanic cult. – 4/5

5. Stray – I love cats so I’m biased but cats are statistically one of the most entertaining creatures to watch. Like a cat, you use your agility to traverse a post-post-apocalyptic Cyberpunk-like city and do cat shit like knocking down things or scratching on rugs. It’s so frikkin’ cute but it also had some emotional story moments, though some story threads left a lot to be desired. It also had some interesting puzzles that forced you to think like a cat, and the gameplay loop introduces different mechanics that don’t overstay their welcome, providing some excellent pacing. Plus, the graphics are really amazing, the environments are super detailed and the music is a bop. I can stare at my cat do nothing all day and be entertained so this game was an extra treat. – 4/5

Honorable Mentions: A Plague Tale: Requiem, Horizon Forbidden West, TMNT Shredder’s Revenge, Vampire Survivors.

-Dee Assassina

Felipe Crespo

Happy End of the Year times, people! I apologize for how brief some of my input might be, but I’m feeling a bit under the weather. I still wanted to chime in with what we think are the Best Games of 2022, though…

1. Marvel’s Midnight Suns – What I expected was simple — X COM with Marvel characters. That’s honestly all Firaxis had to do and I would’ve been happy. What I got was an innovative roguelike card strategy game that’s nothing like X COM‘s combat, and highly addictive. Mixed in is a sprawling, surprisingly story-heavy epic that mixes in relationship-building mechanics akin to Mass Effect and Fire Emblem: Three Houses (though people’s enjoyment of this has been divisive, I’ll admit). As a bonus to long-time Firaxis fans, you can see the X COM DNA baked into a lot of the Abbey’s (HQ) upgrade systems. – 5/5

2. Triangle Strategy – A lot of people still won’t shut up about Final Fantasy Tactics. And I get it. It was amazing. I loved it too. But a lot of them also haven’t played this. It’s time to move on. – 4.5/5

3. Nobody Saves The World – Fantastic humor and next to Darksiders 1 and 2, it’s one of the best Zelda games ever made not developed by Nintendo. Do with that comment what you will. – 4.5/5

4. Elden Ring – I’m not a Soulesbourne guy. Hell, the gatekeepy surge of “nO! dOn’T uSe SuMmOnS! oNlY uSe BiG sWoRdS” of veteran fans made me even less interested in that whole scene. But something about Elden Ring just reels you in. It’s vast, brutal, engrossing, draining, and deserves to be on all the GOTY lists. – 4.25/5

5. Vampire Survivors – If your first reaction when you saw footage of this game was “really? This is what people won’t shut up about?”, then you’re not alone. Then you decide to give it a shot and realize 4 hours have gone by. It’s crack. Digital crack. For like 5 bucks! – 4.25/5

Honorable Mentions: Horizon Forbidden West, Pentiment, As Dusk Falls.

-Felipse Crespo

Michelle “Magdalene” Kisner
@MichelleKisner

1. Tunic – The story drops you right into the world with no exposition. The main character is an adorable little fox in a green tunic with no weapons or items. The only help you have is an instruction book that you can refer to at the click of a button. The catch is that the instruction book is in a different language (one that you can translate yourself if you want to put in the time) with a few English words scattered here or there for context clues. The manual is missing a lot of pages, and these are hidden all over the world. The book is very reminiscent of the manuals in the NES and SNES Legend of Zelda games. The manual is something they created in real life and scanned to put into the game—it even has coffee stains and handwritten notes in it!

Literally, all of the progression in the game is reliant on the player’s ability to parse context clues and explore. It will probably get a lot easier if one is intimately familiar with retro gaming and basic game design. The gameplay is a mixture of top-down action adventure like A Link to the Past, mixed with the dodge/roll mechanics of a Dark Souls game — and, yes, it can be quite difficult, especially with boss fights. The graphics and music are absolutely fantastic, as I played it on PS5 so it ran at 60fps and had gorgeous lighting. The amount of secrets in this game is ridiculous, there are super ambiguous puzzles like Fez, hidden fairies to find, a language entirely comprised of music (!), and another separate written language that can be translated by the player. – 5/5

2. Elden Ring – Hard as nails, obscure, soul-crushing, maidenless, I was equally frustrated and amazed playing my first FromSoft game. Once I figured out the flow thanks to some help from the fan community, I was obsessed. The world is haunting and an exercise in extremes. One can wander in an ethereal underground galaxy and then find themselves in hell on earth surrounded by poisonous swamps and abominations. I would love to see a few QoL improvements like a damn quest log, but outside of a few technical issues, this is gaming in its purest form. – 5/5

3. The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe – I have always wanted to play this now console port (Switch), and it comes complete with a bunch of new material! The story follows Stanley, an office worker who is surprised to learn while he was typing away on his computer that all of his coworkers have disappeared. Luckily, there’s a disembodied narrator who will tell him everything he needs to do to escape! You don’t have to do whatever he says though, and when you go “off-script” and make your own decisions it gets…weird. The writing is hilarious, and the game is fantastic at switching from humor to existential horror at any time. Runs fine on the Switch too. Pretty short, it took me around four hours to see all the endings and branches (there are around 20 endings). THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END. – 4.5/5

4. Stray – The basic premise is you play as a cat in a post-apocalyptic city where all humanity has died out and there’s nothing left but robots. You gain the companionship of B12, a little flying drone robot that is trying to recover its memories from the past. At 5-6 hours, Stray is packed with a whole lot of detail, endearing characters, and a fully realized environment, and it will make you want to look around to find hidden areas! The graphics are gorgeous on PS5 and it runs at 60fps with very few dips. I found the story to be quite touching and may have shed a few tears at the end. Great game for casual gamers too, I would recommend this to anyone just for the story alone. – 4/5

5. Infernax – This is one of the best retro-inspired indie games I have played in a long time! Fantastic from start to finish. It’s a super brutal and gory combo of Castlevania II and The Adventure of Link. You play as Alcedor, a knight who has returned from the Crusades to discover that his homeland has been infested with demons and evil magic. I love evil routes in games and you can be absolutely HIDEOUS in this one, it’s very well implemented! Lots of hilarious Easter Eggs for other NES-era games are hidden around and the music is hot fire. The controls are tight (I found the jump to be a touch floaty personally, but it’s easy to get used to it). – 4/5

-Michelle Kisner

Keiko Fukuyama

1. Elden Ring – Take the tried-and-true Souls formula, mix in a vast almost-endless open world, and you have an amazing experience from start to finish. No matter how much or little you put into Elden Ring, you will find a rewarding Souls experience. Want to just play it linear like Souls? Enjoy! Spend hours exploring? Go for it! Just a magical game. – 5/5

2. Sifu – Roguelike beat ’em up? Bringing some unique mechanics to the table, where your character ages as you play, and some smooth as butter controls. What was produced is just a joy to behold and play, where you just want to keep doing one more run, to get further, or pass stages younger. Do not miss this underrated gem! – 5/5

3. Chained Echoes – One of the two games that came out of left field for me this year and completely engrossed my life for days on end. My biggest passion in games still is turn based Japanese RPGs and what Chained Echoes does is simply outstanding, giving us one of the deepest and just sheer fun turn-based combat systems in a while. And I can’t leave without mentioning the beautiful pixel art and one of the best stories I’ve played through in years. – 5/5

4. Infernax – Do you like Simon’s Quest? Do you like Faxanadu? If you answered “yes” to either of those, or both, you owe it to yourself to look into Infernax. Written like a love letter to Simon’s Quest, it exceeds that masterpiece in every single way imaginable, producing one of the best retro style games I’ve played in ages. It may be a horrible night for a curse, but it is a great day to own this game. – 4.75/5

5. Cult of the Lamb – The other game to come out of left field and take me by surprise. Take smooth combat from some of the best action roguelikes like Hades, mix in some city building, some Animal Crossing, and you have a weird mix of perfection. Held down by some bugs, if you can overlook them the game is almost perfection. – 4.5/5

Note: I have not finished God of War Ragnarök nor Horizon Forbidden West, not going to include, obviously, games I have not played or games I have gotten less than halfway through.

Honorable Mentions: Xenoblade Chronicles 3, High on Life, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Kaiju Wars, Vampire Survivors.

-Keiko Fukoyama

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CULT OF THE LAMB [Review]:

Dee Assassina @assassinasan

Move aside, Lampchop! You’re no longer everyone’s favorite lamb. Now, we prefer this cute little lamb who is the leader of a satanic cult. Seriously! Imagine a cult full of adorable cartoony animals that you provide with shelter and food, only to eventually sacrifice their bodies so that your little lamb can become more powerful and rich. An adorable little wolf joins your village but you sacrifice it to turn it into a pile of bones and meat. In Cult of the Lamb, you’ll have to decide if you’ll use that cute little wolf’s meat to feed your remaining cultists to keep them satiated and potentially turn them into cannibals. You’ll also use the wolf’s bones for future satanic rituals or to build bone walls in your cult village. 

Cult of the Lamb is pretty much Animal Crossing for dark minds. The farming sim elements aren’t nearly as deep, but in this game you’re still cooking, fishing, farming, building homes, decorating your village, caring for the sick, and doing quests for your villagers called “followers”…

Any dissenting followers can be jailed and re-educated on the doctrines of the cult. You can also feed your followers bowls of poop, meals that will increase their loyalty, or cook the bodies of sacrificed followers. The Lamb you play as can extort money, inflict fear to raise devotion, or perform rituals that makes everyone work without sleep. It’s really sick and twisted, but also really adorable.  

I’m not even a person who typically likes farming sim games. What kept me engaged in Cult of the Lamb (aside from the cute satanic aesthetic) is it’s not just a sim game, but it implements rogue-like, dungeon crawling elements. There are 4 dungeons you unlock once you get enough followers and each dungeon has 2 mini bosses and a main boss. These dungeons aren’t just important for the main story, but also to gather resources and gain more followers to build your village. The village continues to function while you’re dungeon crawling as the followers continue to work, get hungry, and age.  

The combination of dungeon crawling and farming sim building was extremely addictive. It kept someone like me, who doesn’t typically like farming sim games, really engaged. I spent hours staying up late and going through the motions. It was as if I was a follower under the spell of this satanic lamb’s cult. 

If you’re someone who is in it just for the farming sim elements, you may be wondering if the dungeon crawling will turn you off. The mechanics are simple and satisfying enough to get you through, and there’s a variety of cool weapons and curses you unlock. The weapons could be quick poison daggers or a giant freeze axe coupled with a curse that can do a giant AOE attack to knock back enemies or a projectile that seeks enemies out. Each dungeon is randomly generated, so the weapons and curses that spawn will also be random. You’ll revisit the dungeons for side quests, to gather resources exclusive to that dungeon, or if you failed to complete it the first time; hence the rogue-like features.  

The only thing about Cult of the Lamb that I can imagine being a turn off for hardcore farming sim fans, is the building is very limited. I 100% the game, unlocked all decorations and upgrades, found all the different follower skins, and completed all the core quests in less than a week. Although at this point I was done with the game, you can still continue to do repeat fetch quests, redecorate your village, and revisit dungeons (though at this point, I didn’t feel there was any good incentive to continue). I was more than satisfied ending my time with the game after 100% completion, but it may fall short for those looking for a substantial farming sim experience. It was perfectly structured for me though and I really loved my time with it. 

The only real complaint about Cult of the Lamb— it’s very buggy. Too often the game would lag or freeze if there was too much going on in the screen. I could’ve had a perfect dungeon run with a God weapon, good card perks, and a strong curse; but it all went to shit if the game bugged out. Unfortunately, you can only save progress in the village, so any dungeon progress will be lost if it bugged out. Thankfully the dungeons are short and simple enough to run through again. The most frustrating bug that I encountered is that I couldn’t edit some things I built, thus removing my autonomy over my village aesthetics. I believe the developers Massive Monster are aware of these issues and working on fixes. 

Cult of the Lamb isn’t really a story-based game, but I was still surprised to see story twists and choices that made me go on You Tube after beating the game to discover alternative decisions and their outcomes. Even some core side quests leave the cute little lamb to make some sadistic decisions. I really enjoyed the simple, but good story. I totally vibed with this games aesthetic and that’s partially due to the music being an absolute bop. You sacrifice your villagers, slay enemies, and impose your doctrines to this chill low-fi music.  

Another element adding to this game’s success is the Twitch integrations, but this was limited to PC versions only. If the Cult of the Lamb Twitch extension is enabled, a streamers viewers can have one of the Lamb’s followers be named after them. Twitch viewers can also contribute to the totem to increase the streamers devotion and money. It’s a really cool engagement tool that only adds to the games experience. I just really wish the developers found a way to enable this integration for other platforms. Massive Monster created a gem with Cult of the Lamb. They combined genres together and made it work in a way that is extremely addictive. This rogue-like, dungeon crawling farming sim is absolutely one of my favorite games of 2022 so far.  

4/5 Bibles.

-Dee Assassina

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STRAY [Review] – A Surprisingly Purrty Fun Affair.

Disney once sang that “everybody, everybody wants to be a cat”, and now we finally can in a video game called Stray. This game is by far the game where you can be the most “cat you’ve ever been, who knows where it’s at”…

On the surface Stray is a cat simulator where you scratch on things, knock down objects just because you can, meow, purr, nap, and gracefully traverse around platforms. There’s even a trophy to nap for an hour, and it’s one of the most chill trophies I’ve ever achieved. The cats movement, gait, sound effects, and behavior accurately mirrors a real cat. It’s almost impossible not to say “awww” every few seconds…

Okay, so maybe you’re not a “cat person” (wtf is wrong with you they’re cute af), and you may be wondering if this game is for you. I would say, probably yes. The game has simple but satisfying puzzles and implements gameplay elements that force you to think like a cat. There’s so many times where I tried to solve a puzzle as a human and failed, then remembered something as simple as being able to crawl under something to get an advantage. The gameplay is chill and simple, thus making Stray a perfect game to complete over a weekend. 

It’s really short — which I appreciate — because it didn’t dwell on gameplay mechanics and very quickly moved onto the next thing to keep the pacing refreshing. I love when games don’t bloat the time with repetitive gameplay actions and this game truly respected my time. For instance, Stray introduces a splatter type weapon that wipes out the infected creatures plaguing this world called Zurks. This weapon was introduced and utilized creatively in one chapter and then taken away and allowed the player to move on to the next creative gameplay mechanic.  

The most impressive aspect of Stray is the environments. This gorgeous Cyberpunk city influenced by Japan was a delight to explore. The neon lights, claustrophobic alleyways, and wet grounds made for really good screenshot material. Coupling this gorgeous environment is a dope ambient soundtrack. “Everybody is picking up on that feline beat”, because this soundtrack is a bop.  Short games don’t bother me especially when a game is included in a service like PlayStation Extra. If you have that service, why not give it a try? The only flaw to this shorter experience is it made certain story beats feel unexplored.  

The premise: You play as a Stray cat who got separated from his cat family as he falls into this underground city. As he tries to find his way back outside, he meets a colony of robots who adopted the behaviors of their human masters who have gone extinct. Now the robots live as if they were human but there’s this apocalypse where parasites called Zurks are eating everything and everyone, including robots. These robots aim to get out of the city and to the outside, and somehow this cat is the hero of this story.

There’s some really cool philosophical dialogue among the robots that reminded me of some themes in Nier: Automata but not nearly as deep. The cat gains a bond with these robots and there’s truly some heartfelt moments, but I didn’t get the closure I wanted with the cats family. I’m hoping they’re leaving this for a sequel which seems immanent at this point. With a more than serviceable story, overall Stray is a very chill cat exploration. 

4/5 Kitty Whiskeys.

-Dee Assassina

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E3 2023 [News]: ReedPop Set To Assist E3’s Return.

E3, the world’s premier celebration of interactive entertainment, will make its long-awaited return to the Los Angeles Convention Center in the second week of June, 2023. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) will partner with ReedPop, the veteran event production company behind PAX, New York Comic Con, Star Wars Celebration, and other acclaimed celebrations of pop culture, to reunite the global video game industry for a week of titanic AAA reveals, earth-shaking world premieres, and exclusive access to the future of video games.

E3 2023 will welcome back publishers, developers, journalists, content creators, manufacturers, buyers, and licensors. The event will also highlight digital showcases and feature in-person consumer components.

“It is a tremendous honor and privilege for ReedPop to take on the responsibility of bringing E3 back in 2023,” said Lance Fensterman, President of ReedPop. “With the support and endorsement of the ESA, we’re going to build a world class event to serve the global gaming industry in new and broader ways than we already do at ReedPop through our portfolio of world leading events and web sites.”

Kyle Marsden-Kish, ReedPop Global VP of Gaming who will lead the newly formed E3 team along with his global gaming live event responsibilities added, “For years, we’ve listened, heard, and studied the global gaming community’s feedback. E3 2023 will be recognizably epic—a return to form that honors what’s always worked—while reshaping what didn’t and setting a new benchmark for video game expos in 2023 and beyond.”

“We are thrilled to bring back E3 as an in-person event with ReedPop, a global leader in producing pop culture events.” continued Stanley Pierre-Louis, President and CEO of the ESA. “The past three years have confirmed that E3 convenes our industry like no other event. ReedPop brings world-class talent and a keen understanding of the video game industry, which will serve to enhance the E3 experience for years to come.”

A streamlined and secure media registration for E3 2023 will begin in late 2022. Confirmed exhibitors, hotel and travel guides, event schedules, and more will be shared in the months to come via media releases and the official E3 website. Media, creators, industry professionals, and fans are encouraged to visit this website often for updates, and to follow E3 on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

-Press release provided by ReedPop

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SIFU [Review]: You And I Have Unfinished Business!

Dee Assassina
@assassinasan

I thought my time with challenging games were reserved for Elden Ring, but here comes Sifu making my hands sweaty. This is a game where you’ll need to repeat levels and bosses to perfection. At its core, Sifu is a beat em’ up game, but you won’t just be spamming punch or kick, and eating chicken for health. Instead, it pulls elements from a variety of genre’s like rogue-like’s, fighting games, and even Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

This is a tough game, for sure; but what’s most appealing is the satisfying combat, painterly art style, fantastic soundtrack, and detail-oriented level design. Sifu will no doubt be a contender for Game of the Year in 2022. 

This game’s story is basically a Kill Bill vol 1 revenge story. Your father is killed by a group of people who each have a distinct martial art’s style, and your character is on a path of revenge. You get to choose a male or female character, but this has no influence on the story or gameplay. Although, the male character model looks better.

This sets the stage for the remainder of the game where you’ll be visiting five different locations, each with a boss at the end. There’s very few cutscenes and some of the lore is baked into the few collectibles found in the game. The story and characters are definitely the weakest points of Sifu. It’s a basic story that takes influence from many classic kung-fu films. Is revenge the only way? You get to choose.  

Even though the story felt too safe to be remarkable, I didn’t even care. From the moment you experience Sifu’s intro, it’s vibe and creativity shine. It so seamlessly melded the introduction and tutorial together. It was at this moment that Sifu had its hooks in me. My admiration of this game accelerated as I hit the first level, a run-down drug house within a garden. The environments are littered with details and color.

The other levels include a club full of neon lights, a museum full of paintings and colorful exhibits, a tall office tower with sandy underground caves, and a sanctuary full of hot springs and massage parlors. Each location has their own vibe, color scheme, and, most importantly, music.  

“You Can Catch Me In the Club, Bottles Full of Bub”

The music in Sifu is outstanding. Not just because there’s intense electronic bass reverberating throughout the club level, but because the music modifies as you traverse through the level. It’s as if a new tune is added to the song as you get deeper into the level. More importantly, the music intensifies when you’re in the middle of combat. The music supplements the combat so well. 

The combat makes you feel cool. Your characters stance looks so bad-ass when executing attacks, dodging, parrying, weaving, backing up, or even standing still. The amount of unique animations poured into the combat is outstanding. You perform attacks in a more simplified way than you would in a fighting game. For instance, flicking the analogue up twice and then pressing light attack or heavy attack. Additionally, performing a combination of light and heavy attacks together, or holding down the heavy attack button for a devastating charge attack. You’ll be able to get through the first level button mashing the attacks, yet later areas will require a more sophisticated execution of attacks, parries, dodges, and weaves.  

Notice how I mentioned not only dodging, but also parrying and weaving. The game doesn’t do a good job in explaining the difference and you’ll have to keep dying and retrying to see which is most effective. I started playing the game like Sekiro, parrying every attack in quick succession. That got me through for the most part, until I faced the 2nd boss who’s attacks quickly broke my structure. Structure is basically stamina (or posture in Sekiro). This is when I discovered the art of weaving because dodging pretty lead me to putting my face into some unforeseen attack. For the sake of clarity and because the game doesn’t explain it, let me break it down: 

  1. Parrying – Tapping block at time of attack.  
  1. Dodging – Tapping dodge and flicking analogue in the direction you want to move. 
  1. Weaving – Holding down block and flicking the analogue in the direction you want to avoid (side, down to duck, or up to jump over a low attack).  

I found little benefit in dodging, except when I needed to get space in between me and the enemy to regain structure or to avoid getting surrounded by hordes of enemies. Parrying was most effective against big groups of enemies and against specific phases of bosses. Weaving is probably the most effective tool against elite enemies, mini bosses, and main bosses since you can scale successful weaves to regain structure or focus (unblockable special attacks). It’s also a lot easier to hold down block and flick the analogue in a direction, than it is to properly time parries.

I got beat down a lot before I wrapped my head around these systems, and each enemy has a different kung-fu dance to master and exploit. I wish the game tutorialzed the combat more deeply, but there is a somewhat helpful training room in the main hub area if you want to test out different moves. The combat is very satisfying once you get into the flow.  

The crazy thing is, the combat isn’t unforgiving because you need to figure out when to properly attack, dodge, weave, or parry. It’s unforgiving because every time you die, you age. The more deaths you have stacked, the older you age upon your next death. For example, if you’re 25 and you died 3 times, the next time you die, you’ll be 28 years old. As you age, your attacks become stronger, but you have less health. Once you reach around age 70, it’s game over and you’ll have to start all over again.

“Be my Valentine.”

The cooler part of the age system is your character model’s appearance changes. Your character becomes less muscular, hair turns white, and wrinkles form. I hope I look that cool and move that well when I’m 70 years old. In other unforgiving games like Souls games or Returnal, once you defeat a boss, you can take a sigh of relief and enjoy your victory. In Sifu, you’ll have to face the enemies and bosses over and over again in hopes that you complete it at a younger age. If you beat the first level at age 55, you’re not likely to even make it through the 2nd level before game over. Therefore, you have to replay the first level again and hope that you’re young enough to make it through the next level.

Thankfully, the game saves the earliest age you completed a level. For example, if you beat the first level at age 23, you can always start the 2nd level from age 23 and that progress doesn’t go away. Your goal is to complete each level at the earliest possible age, just so you can get closer and closer to completing future levels, and completing all 5 levels before game over. I loved the game so much, that I practiced until I beat Sifu at age 23. 

Artsy, Fartsy

This repetition of re-playing levels, makes Sifu feel like a rogue-like. Another reason it feels like a rogue-like is you can unlock skills after every death, but you only keep the one’s that you permanently unlock. You have to pour in points to a skill 5 times before you can permanently unlock it, and even then, you have to pour in another 5 permanent unlocks before the skill is there forever. That sounds confusing right? That’s because it is, and the game doesn’t explain it at all. Rule of thumb, focus on one skill per run, so you can permanently unlock it for future runs. Leg sweep for the win.  

Going back to level design, not only is it aesthetically cool, but there’s secret rooms to discover and shortcuts to unlock. Granted, some of these secret rooms only have harder bosses that are protecting a key to open a door in a previous level, but it’s still really cool. You will have to progress within a level or in future levels to collect items to unlock shortcuts or hidden rooms.

I love shortcut systems in games and for a game like Sifu, it’s really handy to skip an entire area of enemies and get to the boss quicker. In the museum level, you can skip the entire level and take an elevator straight to the boss. The only downfall to this is there’s an entire sequence in the museum that uses colors and silhouettes in a really breathtaking way, but I’m not going to complain.  

Sifu isn’t a passive game. You’ll need to keep at it, focus in, trial and error, repetition, GIT GUD. If you don’t like that kind of experience, there isn’t an easy #MoodyMode or accessibility features to bypass some of the more intricate combat features. Considering the combat is the main focus of the game, I don’t think you’re missing out if you skip this game to avoid the stress. The only thing I wish everyone could experience is the artistic level design, amazing music, and some really awesome set pieces within levels. 4.5/5 Suntory Whiskeys.

-Dee Assassina