Artistic shot from The Last of Us Part II
Clearing the Backlog – The Last of Us Part II

Clearing the Backlog – The Last of Us Part II

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Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II might have launched last year to critical acclaim, and plenty of in-depth critique, but I purposefully left it to one side. I didn’t want to rush into what I knew would be an emotionally draining game, especially not in the middle of a global pandemic. I did eventually make a start on it towards the end of 2020, with my PlayStation 4 straining at the seams to run the game.

A house move later and an upgrade to running TLoU2 on a PlayStation 5, and I finally found the time, and mental energy, to finish it. And what a roller coaster ride of a game it is.

What follows will include major spoilers, so please don’t read on if you intend to play this afresh.

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Our Week In Games – Week 152

Our Week In Games – Week 152

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Well, that was a lot of drama wasn’t it.

CEO of Tripwire Entertainment making public comments on the Texas Supreme-court ruling (preventing women from having autonomy over their own bodies), and then paying the inevitable price when he ‘moved on’ from the role shortly after. One can’t help but wonder, given how often this sort of thing happens, why those who decry games for being “political” are the same people making comments like this. Hopefully the damage to the developers under the Tripwire umbrella wasn’t too severe and we can all just move along now.

In other news the Knights of the Old Republic remake has been announced to much squeeing (it’s a word) on the internet. Interestingly Bioware, the original games developers, appear to not be involved. Watch this space for more on this as and when we get it, but colour us very excited.

Feel free to make the lightsaber swoosh/vroom noise in your head now.

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Our Week in Games – Week 151

Our Week in Games – Week 151

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This week saw Blizzard confirm that Overwatch’s Jesse McCree, the wise-cracking DPS cowboy, would be renamed following fallout from the sexual harassment suit filed in the state of California. McCree was named after real-life Blizzard developer Jesse McCree, who was shown to be aware of the heinous ‘Cosby Suite’. McCree has since been terminated by Blizzard.

It’s something many fans were clamouring for in the wake of the damning revelations, painting a toxic workplace rife with discrimination and sexual harassment. Good riddance, we say.

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Quake – Dimension of the Machine

Quake – Dimension of the Machine

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“Yet again being a cog in the machine…”

The dimension of Quake’s evil has the power to possess. We see its dark influence in the corrupted soldiers of fallen portal stations and the Eldritch structures that blot a netherworld beyond space and time. That dark influence has now taken possession of Machine Games, and they have channelled it into the game’s fourth official expansion, Dimension of the Machine.

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Quake Remaster Released

Quake Remaster Released

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QuakeCon got off to a fantastic start today with the release of a remastered Quake, available on digital storefronts for just £7.99 – and free too those who already own it. Long-rumoured and much anticipated, this remaster comes courtesy of Machine Games Nightdive Studios, and id Software.

Machine Games had already proven their Quake bona fides with the 2016 release of Dimension of the Past, a third expansion pack to the original game that was released on Quake’s twentieth anniversary. That expansion pack is now available in the remaster package, along with plenty more to be excited about.

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Our Week in Games – Week 149

Our Week in Games – Week 149

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Idris Elba being cast as Knuckles in the next Sonic film, rumours of Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City and San Andreas remasters, plus the announcement of Frostpunk 2 have made for a very busy week of gaming news. In a different world, we’d be covering some of these big news items…or at least the Frostpunk 2 news as that is brilliant, but sadly we all have busy day jobs. Apart from Ross who floats around as Editor making all of our words sound so much better.

If you haven’t checked out Jon’s impressions of Back 4 Blood, then before reading on for Our Week in Games, do check that out.

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Discovering Super Metroid

Discovering Super Metroid

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“The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace…”

The start of last summer was special, in spite of everything: I completed System Shock for the very first time. I had long been acquainted with its sequel, but the original eluded me. To my surprise it was unquestionably the best gaming experience I had throughout 2020, save Half-Life: Alyx.

Not bad going for a game close to thirty years old. I didn’t much expect anything comparable in 2021, but 1994 wasn’t done with me yet.

Enter Super Metroid.

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