Souls used to be a challenge to convention; now it is convention — Something’s wrong in The Lands Between, and I’m not talking about the curse that’s brought down a kingdom. It began a mere few hours in, when I found myself scaling the dilapidated steps of Stormveil, the first of Elden Ring’s castle “levels” — gruelling infiltrations of concealment, wayfinding and swordplay…

This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/RELpoW2Ob6Y Have you ever loved a video game so much you could just live and breathe it forever? Have you ever encountered a series that climbed under your skin and became part of you? …

This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/gt9oykhTR5E “The SF writer sees not just possibilities but wild possibilities. It’s not just ‘What if’ — it’s ‘My God; what if’” — Philip K Dick If you have a dark and twisted soul like me, you’ve…

Watching footage of Sable, you’d think it was an exploration game. Glittering purple skies preside over the gently hushing flurries of the desert, your glider cutting a smooth line across the dunes as the wind whips your cloak behind you. With its Moebius-inspired line art and seductively earthy colour palette…

This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/Rt0h6wEvCkM FAR: Lone Sails belongs to a class of postapocalyptic fiction I’m increasingly appreciating — one that doesn’t offer any explanation, that resists the pull of exposition and lets the past be as distant as a forgotten…

We now have sequels to two of the most well-known “dad games”, but only one of them feels like a mature meditation on what the role of a father should be. — This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us 1 and 2, God of War (2018) and God of War: Ragnarök. The God of War franchise has always been about the rage-fuelled demi-god Kratos and his fantastical giant-slaying feats, and the latest iteration gives us plenty of opportunities to murder…

This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/QYijbqLSqL8 Imagine an island, wistful and dreamlike. An island of chrome and moonlight passion and long hot summers and endless cocktails under the palm trees. Imagine a perfect sphere of ice slipping into your favourite glass, the…

This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/gwaZQ9JO2dM “Not till we are lost, in other words, not til we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations”. -Henry David Thoreau …

This is the transcript of a Youtube video, which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/UY9n4CuwzKE I’d like to share something that happened to me while playing Ghost of Tsushima, a game I picked up a few months ago. Despite my well-documented reservations about AAA open world games, I liked this one…