Kurt Of Cambridge

So! I've been a busy fellow, it seems. Yes, in addition to continuing to work on QueueTimes pieces behind the scenes (one's coming up soon, keep your eyes open) I've also been asked to join the Review team for MojoPlays , an off-shoot of WatchMojo.com .  My first review , for the first episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Final Season: And review number two , for the indie puzzle-platformer Planet Alpha:

Yes, I have indeed begun reviewing for QueueTimes.  First up: my take on the delightful retro platformer Squidlit.   Read on...

Some Background, First Much like a lot of folks I know, and I imagine a significant portion of the populace, I grew up with Star Wars. I distinctly recall being in the theatre as a toddler, back in 1999, seeing The Phantom Menace for the first time. I also remember being woken up in the car by my mother, having (apparently) fallen asleep while watching The Phantom Menace, soooooo… yeah. The prospect of a Sequel Trilogy excited and thrilled me in a way I’d not felt in a long while - seeing that first teaser of The Force Awakens, where the Millenium Falcon comes swooping into frame over the deserts of Jakku, was nothing short of breathtaking. I’d loved the Original Trilogy, I had a certain abiding fondness for the Prequels, I adored the games, I liked the spin-off books I’d read (Tales of the Bounty Hunters and the early Rogue Squadron books, primarily). Point is, I cheer at the mere thought of new Star Wars.  The Force Awakens was quite pleasant, all told; not quite EMPIRE-leve...

Not exactly the usual content for this blog o' mine, for sure. This is a piece I'd been working on for a while and felt would serve well as my inaugural article for QueueTimes. DARK FORCES TALK AHEAD Incidentally: go check out the lovely videos and articles on their site (no I was not paid to say that, this is of my own free will, et cetera, et cetera). I'd recommend starting with Zach Murphy's ongoing Treasure Trove series , aimed at highlighting what he feels to be the underappreciated or forgotten games of days passed. It's a fun series, and he's got a solid voice and interesting perspective on what constitutes a "hidden gem".

Nintendo Rather Interesting - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Don't care if it's "just" all the old fighters in a new package (which, as the footage made clear, it isn't). Don't care if it's functionally a high-definition port of previously-showcased Smash Bros maps, items and game mechanics. It's the biggest in scale, the largest in roster, and potentially the most ambitious in terms of detail and design. And can we just appreciate for one goddamn second that every fighter in Smash history is coming back for this game! No question, this is awesome. Runner-up - Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee GAH! Your starter Pokemon follows your player character outside of its Pokeball. You catch wild Pokemon not by battling it, but with luring it and carefully tossing Pokeballs a la Pokemon Go. All of the original 150 Pokemon, rendered as 3D models, in what appears to be a lovely recreation of the Kanto region. Okay, I dig where this is goin...

PC Gaming Rather Interesting - Maneater You're a shark in this one, you eat people. It's the reversal on Jaws I never expected nor thought I needed in my life, yet cannot imagine a world without. Silly malarkey, but of a breed that I appreciate thoroughly. Runner-up - Sable Drawing upon much more offbeat influences than many in the post-apocalypse genre (Belgian comics and Studio Ghibli films were specifically name-checked), the unorthodox look of Sable's world   makes me positively eager to see more of it in action. Has Potential - Two Point Hospital My biggest hang-up here is not having familiarity with Two Point Hospital 's spiritual predecessor, Theme Hospital . Beyond that, everything I've seen and heard tells me this'll be a quirky and charming hospital sim with a lot of fun scenarios to play through. Runner-up - The Walking Dead: The Final Season Not having followed up with Telltale's run of Walking Dead titles since Season 2 , I fi...

Square Enix Rather Interesting - Kingdom Hearts III Okay, I'm not so much of a grump that Disney's big, flashy, multi-million dollar exercise in nostalgia pandering - and also some Square Enix role-playing - can't warm my weary heart. Sora and company look swell in their new costumes, the mix of Disney's cartoon fantasy aesthetic and  Final Fantasy 's anime influences positively shine in high-definition, and by god (all the gods) the worlds on display are astounding. Monsters, Inc.! Tangled! Frozen! Wreck-It Ralph!  That third  Pirates of the Caribbean  movie that went on a bit too long, yet still managed to be the last time one of those films was any good! Whatever weird and borderline convoluted turns the game takes, I sense that  Kingdom Hearts III  will pack more than enough charm and splendor in its every seam to keep people hooked. Runner-up - The Keith David narration Spoiler: the Square Enix presentation was bad. Said very little, only s...

Electronic Arts Rather Interesting - Unravel 2 I'm not personally familiar with the original Unravel, so I can't speak to its quality. But I found myself drawn into the latest plight of the little yarn creature Yarny with surprising ease. The exquisite naturalistic environments shown in Unravel 2's trailer - staggered terrain obscured by plentiful long grass, moss-coated trees that could be clambered using the twin Yarny's connective string - beautifully contrasted with the brighter, simpler style of the red Yarny and his blue companion. That they went a step further and announced it was available for sale the day of the conference  is especially astounding. Okay, y'all have grabbed my attention, well played. Runner-up - Sea of Solitude I want to see more before I draw any further conclusions, but the nervous excitement of the on-stage writer/director (Cornelia Geppert) coupled with the artistry of what footage was shown gives me hope. I can appr...

Developer/Publisher: Penumbra Games Release Date: January 26, 2018 Version Played: PC Copy purchased for review There’s a definite hole to be filled where once stood classics like Silent Hill, Siren and Alone in the Dark .  Those seminal works of the survival horror genre knew better than most how to toy with audience expectations, using a synthesis of cutting-edge audio-visual technology and compelling writing to scare the living crap out of you.  Everything from the underplayed cosmic horror of Lovecraft to the familiar yet grotesque extremes of Barker was drawn upon for inspiration, and it enriched rather than undermined these vital entries in the genre. Later On doesn’t quite hit that same level of quality or cultural relevance, not by a long shot.  It’s constrained very much by the tools and scope of its construction, and feels like it pulls punches or avoids essential detail where such elements would do the most good.  Yet there’s a hard-to-resist a...

Developer: Turquesa Studios Publisher: Turquesa Studios Release Date: January 17, 2018 Version Played: PC Copy purchased for review Some games break my goddamn heart, that's for sure. I see their potential, I recognize full well that there's genuine effort and care being put into (some aspects of) the production, and I brace for the inevitable realization that this work in question just isn't very good. Alma has wound up being one such game. It drew me in initially with a compelling premise and visual style, before grinding me down to seething contempt with game mechanics as infuriating in practice as they are half-baked in conception. Every time it seemed like something might potentially work - rare as the prospect was - the game ended up pulling out the rug from underneath me. After the first few instances of this, it soon became clear nothing would redeem the failings of Alma . Not. One. Damn. Thing. The setup's not half bad, though. Our heroine of c...

Developer: Rusty Lake Publisher: Rusty Lake Release Date: January 11, 2018 Version Played: PC Copy purchased for review When talking of horror media, the concept of fearing the unknown is key. It’s not exactly a novel sentiment, but I nonetheless maintain that it’s vital to understanding why a given work - film, literature, video game, et cetera - works at provoking a terrified response. For many, there’s an innate impulse to draw back and flee when faced with grotesque and incomprehensible imagery; we retreat to safety in a bid to keep calm whilst trying to make sense of our observations. This feels pertinent since, on top of everything else, Rusty Lake Paradise is remarkably adept in its usage of horror iconography to evoke fear in the audience. It’s unsettling in mood, slow-burning in narrative progression, and quite effectively builds in suspense up to its finale. For the uninitiated: Paradise represents the latest work in the Rusty Lake series, sharing its name with t...

Release Date: January 12th, 2018 Developer: Daniil Titner Publisher: Daniil Titner Version Reviewed: PC Copy Purchased There's a saying in certain circles that you can make a good movie out of anything, but to do it sometimes you have to rip out the source material's guts.  The intent of that saying is, I feel, quite clear in its central focus - highlighting how some projects have to work harder than others to hammer competency out of flawed material - but I think the sentiment can also apply to other mediums, like gaming. Take, for example, the first-person platformer, a sub-genre which exists primarily as an extension of the first-person shooter genre being so prevalent for sooooo long.  Make no mistake, I like works like Mirror's Edge (or, say, Jumping Flash ) for at least trying to offer something different from the gun-toting norm, but the execution of such works tends to leave a lot to be desired (no matter how much time, energy and money is thrown at the d...