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Life has been pretty good in the world of licensed games for the last decade or so, but it wasn't always that way. If you've been around long enough you might remember when the term "licensed" could be synonymous with "rushed" or just "crap". Thankfully though, these days when a licensed game is released, fans of whatever franchise is being given the treatment can look on with interest and expect something worth diving into.
When I finished playing Life Is Strange 2, I didn't really have much to say that I hadn't already touched on when I wrote about the first game. While the story was something new, everything else was just more of the same, including the nauseating and oh-so-hip characterisations that kept me at arm's length for the entire game. However, now Dontnod are back with their latest take on the formula that has kept them going for a while. Could this be a breath of fresh air, or just another dredge through niche cultural hipster life?
I feel like at this stage, I could ask any regular reader of this blog for a short list of things that I really like to see in games and anyone keeping track would have an easy time figuring it out. Perhaps you might start with a narrative, or some king of story-telling device that plays a central role. You might then add in some kind of aesthetic importance, where the graphics can be considered art, and they play an important role in telling the aforementioned story. Finally, even though it's not as obvious as the others, you might think to shape the game mechanically as a traditional point-and-click adventure. If you did all that, you'd undoubtedly be pretty close to a game that really can't fail to impress me.
I've never gone back to a game that I've already posted about before, but I also didn't think I'd be going back to Spiritfarer after the technical difficulties I faced last time around. In fact, it should be a testament to the game's success that I even went back at all, because after hitting a game-breaking bug ten hours in, I would usually uninstall with glee and never give it any more of my time.
It wasn't so long ago that I delved into Remedy Entertainment's odd sci-fi experience, Quantum Break, which now seems like an interesting experiment along the way to much better things. In fact it seems like they studio have learned a lot of useful lessons from some of the key successes and failures from this troubled entry in their development history.
I've never been one of those people who believes media classics to be untouchable and something pristine and perfect. Perhaps I'm not that sentimental when it comes to the things I remember enjoying as a kid, or maybe I've seen nostalgia used far too often in marketing empty promises. Actually, I put it down to being a fan of Blade Runner.
After the success of Grand Theft Auto V and the previous Red Dead Redemption game, the avalanche of Red Dead Redemption 2 hype was not unexpected. It seems like whenever Rockstar get around to releasing another game, there's reason to be excited. Few publishers manage to carry that kind of reputation, but is the weight of previous success beginning to weigh them down.
It's no secret that I’m a big fan of the big budget open world games we've come to expect from some of the most popular series in gaming. What I love most is the amount of detail and deliberate effort that has gone into creating a world. It's something unique to 'triple A' games in particular, as they have the team and budget to make it happen in a way that wouldn't otherwise be possible.
Please don't ever let me move to Midsomer, or any other town that features murder after murder. I often spend an evening watching some murder mystery or another, trying to guess the culprit and piece together the puzzle. It should come as no surprise then that I'm a fan of Agatha Christie's stories and in particular, the character of Hercule Poirot.
