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What Was Worth A Damn About Gamescom 2025?

We’re back again to take a look at the highlights of a gaming showcase. This time, we turn our attention to Gamescom, the gaming trade show in Germany whose “ Opening Night Live ” presentation happens to be hosted by Geoff Keighley . Can’t so much as walk five paces without bumping into a show that that man is hosting. Anyway, same principle as before - just the good-looking and interesting projects, keeping the pessimism and negativity to a minimum. Bubsy 4D Developed by: Fabraz Someone made the call to stick this in the pre-show before the main presentation, and that’s baffling to me because it’s one of the most interesting nostalgia revivals I’ve seen in a while. Immediate takeaway: Fabraz seems to be leaning hard on self-aware and self-deprecating comedy here. An understandable creative choice, given both Bubsy’s wisecracking persona and the series’ charms having been overshadowed for three decades by this game’s infamous predecessor Bubsy 3D. The jokes in the trailer are amusi...

The Post-E3 Games Showcase Era, Summer 2024 Highlights: Part I

In the ashes of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, amid the bloat and pretense of the games industry, always must there be a presentation... always must there be game trailers... and always must there be those who commentate. So it is we find ourselves in the aftermath of this year's collected summer showcases, a cavalcade of announcements and information to parse in its wake. For my part, I set forth to once again note the games (and, occasionally, people or moments) that stood out - for good or ill. Today, we tackle that which was displayed at Sony's State of Play, the OTK Games Expo, and the Summer Game Fest... Sony State of Play The High Point: Astro Bot Is it nakedly playing off of lingering nostalgia for various Sony properties, current and forgotten? Yes.  Is it unmistakably taking cues from other more successful platformer series? Absolutely. Nevertheless, the team at Sony seem to have nailed the charm when it comes to their robot mascot, which is half the battle for cr...

Contradiction: A Review

Once, in a bygone era called the 1990s, full-motion video was the latest fad sweeping the games industry. Wing Commander, Night Trap, Command & Conquer, The 7th Guest – many a studio saw potential in recordings of live actors performing scenes as a foundation for their games. Alas, between the relentless advance of technology and the inherent cost in building a game around FMV sequences, the practice would fall out of favour by decade's end.  Still, from time to time, games emerge that tap into that peculiar moment of history to interesting effect. So it is that we have Contradiction: Spot the Liar! , a crowdfunded murder mystery game wrapped in the FMV aesthetic. Though peculiar in some of its creative choices, the passion for the craft and the novelty of its main conceit do manage to shine through. Developed & Published by: Baggy Cat Ltd. Released for PC Set in a village in the UK, Contradiction follows the efforts of one Detective Jenks as he attempts to uncover the cir...