Kurt Of Cambridge

Fifty minutes or so, out of a live stream that went on for over two hours. Yeah, sure, there's been more strenuous ways to justify churning out several hundred words about an assortment of game previews. (The 1hr5 mark, for those looking to cut to the chase.) FINAL FANTASY XVI I am entirely convinced from this trailer that the background for this game's development was that someone at Square got really into Game of Thrones a decade ago (oh god...) and made the connection that it could work for Final Fantasy . I certainly buy that it'd take them approximately that long to move this game down the development pipeline, both because game dev is a messy and uncertain process and because Square Enix. That said, as "Japanese takes on moderately-grim Europeon medieval fantasy" go, this doesn't look half bad. XVI seems to be carrying over the quasi-real time combat system that worked for Final Fantasy XV , and the choice of high-fantasy aesthetic and setting after seve...

Yes, I'm doing this again, running down the games set to release in a given year that are (from my perspective) the most immediately compelling based on their marketing and thus have me convinced that they could turn out well. Yes, I recognize that some of the following games don't have firm release dates, just general windows for release like "Q1" or "Q3" or "sometime in 2020". Still, we're doing this because I have some thoughts, this has proven the best format for expressing said thoughts, and it's January March, what else have you got going on? So, without further ado... 9) Carrion , by Phobia Game Studio (??? 2020) An entire game whose premise seemed to have emerged from watching 1982's The Thing and thinking "This is cool... but what if we let you be the monster?" I'd already be onboard with the concept and its apparent embrace of lurid, pixelated brutality, but Devolver Digital's been on a tear thi...

  As other, brighter folks have pointed out, 2019 seems a key transitional year for the games industry as all hands prepare for the next (maybe last?) console generation. Questions abound about the future, about the culture in and around the medium, and about the responsibilities those in power must face. Let us turn, then, to the titles I felt stood strongest (in my own experience) during this past year. These works not only impressed and endeared themselves to me, they illustrated the thankless labour and dedication of people in the industry who - let's not beat around the bush - deserve far better. 5) Blazing Chrome Is it shameless in building itself upon the foundational gameplay and sci-fi action imagery of the Contra games? Yes. Does that make it any less of an impressive r endition of that same style of run-and-gun action? Not one bit. Blazing Chrome starts off with absurd excess and never really lets up, thoroughly basking in over-the-top frenzied gunfights agains...