FTL: Faster Than Light

In the decades that I’ve been a gamer, I’ve experienced many emotional highs, many in-game moments that delivered many personal exultations and reminded me why I’m a gamer. There have been perfect multi-player matches and beautiful executed single-player experiences. There have been well-prepared strategies that went exactly according to plan, and others which were complete…

Undertale

Close to greatness, except… Before I begin, let me say that I’m not a contrarian. I didn’t start this blog to tell people that their opinions are wrong. It’s my intent to celebrate video-games that have unified and delighted gamers. There are, however, certain games conflict me, games that convince me of their brilliance while…

Mark of the Ninja

  Mark of the Ninja is, in my opinion, the ultimate stealth game. By this I don’t mean it’s the best stealth game I’ve ever played (though it’s certainly a contender). I mean no other game I’ve played has displayed such a competant understanding of the mechanics that inform a stealth game. Stealth is, when…

This War of Mine

When questionable game-mechanics can improve a game There’s a certain mechanic in This War of Mine, a strategy game that depicts an all-too-real struggle to survive in a war-torn environment, that really stuck out for me during my first playthrough. During the game’s scavenging sections, where the player must search for supplies at night to support…

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Family Disappointments We all have that game, or for that matter that book, movie or that album. The kind of book/movie/etc that’s revered as a fantastic example of its medium and we owe it to ourselves to try it, yet try as we might we cannot even come close to enjoying it the way the rest…

Euro Truck Simulator 2

A simulation can still be fun Simulator games are an enigma to me. And just to be clear, I’m referring to actual simulator games rather than jokes titles such as Goat Simulator et al that have somehow become the defining standard of the term “Simulator game” these days (though I can’t quite get my head…

Portal/Portal 2

Because it’s original.  I think the key element that makes a video-game more than something great, something that receives such a reaction from gamers that it earns the coveted “Overwhelmingly Positive” distinction from Steam reviews, is originality. You can create the greatest FPS or greatest strategy game ever, but if despite all its excellence its…

Thomas was Alone

A great game, though perhaps not a good game.  Thomas was Alone, a puzzle platformer where the player controls several cuboids with widely different skillsets, is an amazing experience. I wish to apologise for the possibly pretentiousness of the use of the word ‘experience’, but I honestly believe it’s the best way to describe the…