It’s that time of year again! The Game Awards 2021 airs on December 9th at 8PM ET / 5PM PT. Join us on this page to watch the full stream and check out the major highlights if you’re in a hurry. It is a three hour show, after all. Check out the full stream and our highlights below! Game Awards 2021 Full Event and Highlights During the preshow we saw a few announcements, but Telltale’s new game based on The Expanse was a nice surprise! Kena: Bridge of Spirits wins best Independent Game! Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga shows us a new gameplay reveal, and the graphics are absolutely stunning. This is the closest we’ve come to CGI that I can think of in recent memory. The gameplay looks similar, but this particular combat encounter is incredibly intense. Star Wars: Eclipse is the new game from Detroit: Become Human developers, Quantic Dream! They have a history of very interesting story-focused titles with lots of decisions to make, so this will be one to watch! A new Wonder Woman game is coming from Monolith, who brought us the Lord of The Rings: Shadow of War game. I could see that format working well here! Alan Wake II is finally official! It’s coming in 2023, and OH BOY AM I EXCITED! A new trailer for Horizon: Forbidden West showcases some excellent new biomes and gameplay, along with new enemy types. Sounds like we’re still on for February as well! Best Action Game award goes to Returnal! Now, if I can just get good enough to beat it… A new trailer for the Destiny 2 expansion, the Witch Queen, showed off some interesting stuff with the Hive. It’s out in February 2022. A new game from the creator of Silent Hill called Slitterhead was announced, with some truely crazy monster designs. Nightingale looks to be a new survival game from the new Inflexion Studios that looks like a steampunk type of setting but also within a network of fairytale worlds. The combination of the two styles is awesome and it comes to PC Early Access next year. Cuphead The Delicious Last Course finally has a date. June 30th, 2022. A new Sonic game is coming in 2022, and it looks to be inspired by Breath of the Wild? The trailer makes it seem open world. It’s called Sonic Frontiers and it comes holiday 2022. Best Art Direction goes to Deathloop! Best RPG goes to Tales of Arise! Best Score goes to Nier Replicant! Best Multiplayer Game goes to It Takes Two Best Narrative goes to Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy Tchia looks like an interesting action adventure game coming to PS4 and PS5 in 2022 New gameplay from Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is sleek and colorful. Gives me Sunset Overdrive vibes, which is absolutely a compliment.It’s coming in 2022. A new trailer for Forspoken looks very good, and I’m a big fan of the modern day heroine getting transported to this fantasy … Read More
Happy’s Humble Burger Farm Review – Much More Than Just Flipping Burgers
There are games so prominent that they create their own subgenre on arrival. A perfect example is Dark Souls, which gave rise to the “Soulslike” term used on all manner of hardcore RPGs. Similarly, regardless of the creator’s shortcomings, Five Nights at Freddy’s spawned its own subgenre of horror punctuated by cutesy mascots that hide a deeper, more diabolic intent. Not only that, but these types of games often place you in a mundane setting, like a restaurant or fast food joint. Welcome to the latest entry in this subgenre of horror: Happy’s Humble Burger Farm. This title combines restaurant management with a wider setting that seems to hide something sinister beneath its surface. Does this unique combination produce delicious horror, or is this burger undercooked? Let’s find out. A Solid Cooking Game Wrapped in an Insatiable Mystery When I first booted up Happy’s Humble Burger Farm, I thought I knew what to expect. I figured I would be confined to the titular restaurant and would be subjected to jump scares while making sure some exhausted and hungry customer gets their burger and fries (or possibly salmon nuggets, which I didn’t know were a thing). Instead, Happy’s Humble Burger Farm (HHBF?) immediately opens with something unexpected, tossing you into your apartment and into the wider environment of New Elysian City. From the onset, the game has this aura of mystery about the town you’re in and the nature of your place within it that I found irresistible. Whether it’s the locked doors in your apartment building that possess keypads, the fever-dream content that plays on your television, or the buildings that loom just outside your reach as you walk through the city streets at night on your way to a shift, everything in Happy’s Humble Burger Farm seems to belie a deeper mystery, and as you progress, you’ll find that these instincts are correct. A brochure menu that you can pull up at will gives you some basic information on the cooking mechanics, and quick tutorial brings you up to speed when you first arrive at the restaurant, but things like being able to pick up multiple ingredients and distribute them across the grill or onto a bun weren’t immediately apparent to me. Part of that comes down to how things in the world are presented. While I loved the in-game representation of mechanics and story, stylized on colorful backgrounds and featuring the mascots that you’ll soon content with as the game goes on, without any kind of text or zoom option, it was very difficult to read items I found in the world or messages written in my brochure menu. I imagine this would be easier on a monitor, but I was sitting on a couch in front of a 65-inch TV, so the readability here was an issue for me, doubly so because you need to read a lot of things to gather story elements and when using the game’s vending machines to buy collectibles or healing items. … Read More
2021 Game Awards Nominees Announced! Did Your Favorites Make the Cut?
We’re less than a month away from the annual Game Awards, hosted by Geoff Keighly, and as part of the announcements leading up to the event on December 9th, a livestream today revealed the nominees for each category! Not only do we know the nominees, we’ve also been told that the actual event will include announcements that number in the “double digits,” which is always exciting. Let’s dive in and find out which games were nominated this year. See if your personal game of the year is one of the contenders! Nominees For The Game Awards 2021 Best Performance Erika Mori – Life is Strange: True Colors Giancarlo Esposito – Far Cry 6 Jason Kelley – Deathloop Maggie Robertson – Resident Evil Village Ozioma Akagha – Deathloop Best Multiplayer Back 4 Blood Knockout City Monster Hunter Rise New World It Takes Two Valheim Best Ongoing Game Apex Legends Call of Duty Warzone Final Fantasy XIV Online Genshin Impact Fortnite Best Art Direction Deathloop Kena Bridge of Spirits Psychonauts 2 Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart The Artful Escape Best Score and Music Cyberpunk 2077 Deathloop Nier Replicant Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy The Artful Escape Best Audio Design Deathloop Forza Horizon 5 Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart Resident Evil Village Returnal Innovation in Accessibility Far Cry 6 Forza Horizon 5 Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart The Vale: Shadow of the Crown Best Narrative Deathloop It Takes Two Life is Strange True Colors Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Psychonauts 2
Sony Officially Acquires Remake Powerhouse Bluepoint Games
Remasters and remakes have been a major part of Sony’s success, and a large portion of their most successful efforts have come from studio Bluepoint Games. Given this, it’s not too surprising that today’s announcements confirm what earlier rumors already revealed. Sony acquires Bluepoint Games for real this time (we’ll explain in moment), and it’s a clear move from a studio that has proven themselves time and time again. Let’s take a look at the road that led to this announcement, and discuss a few wishlist items we’d like to see from Sony’s latest studio acquisition. Bluepoint Games Acquisition Has Been in The Cards Since June With both Microsoft and Sony acquiring new studios, Sony’s acquisition of Bluepoint Games isn’t too surprising, but let’s also recall that nasty mistake PlayStation Japan made back in June of 2021: ..so apparently PlayStation Japan uploaded the wrong image with their first tweet on Housemarque's acquisition, and it actually mentions a Bluepoint acquisition pic.twitter.com/yQBHtLbG5c — Nibel (@Nibellion) June 29, 2021 This was back when Sony acquired Returnal’s studio, Housemarque, but the image uploaded for the announcement mentioned Bluepoint Games? I hate to say it, but someone probably lost their job over this slip-up. The tweet was soon deleted, but nothing on the internet is ever truly gone, as you can see. A Studio With Plenty of Experience Now, those unfamiliar with Bluepoint Games should know their pedigree. These remakes and remasters you know and love all came from this talented studio: Demon’s Souls on PS5 Shadow of The Colossus Remake on PS4 Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection on PS4 Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on PS3 Gravity Rush Remastered on PS4 Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD on PS3 The PS4 port of Flower from That Game Company This studio has either remastered or otherwise remade some of the most beloved franchises in gaming, so it really is a no-brainer for Sony to acquire them. While this means we’ll probably seen more remakes and remasters, a statement from Blupoint Games to IGN revealed that they will be working on something original next: “Our next project, we’re working on original content right now. We can’t talk about what that is, but that’s the next step in the evolution for us.” Given their talented team, I would be very interested to see Bluepoint try their hand at something original, but once that’s done, maybe we could knock out a few requests for PlayStation classics to be remade? Metal Gear Solid anyone? I wouldn’t mind seeing a remake of the original God of War trilogy either (or even just a PS5 port of the HD collection from PS3). There’s a lot of places Bluepoint Games can go from here, but one thing I’m certain of is that I will most certainly be along for the ride. It’s official: Sony acquires Bluepoint Games! Which title would you like to see them work on next? Let us know in the comments! Article by – Bradley Ramsey Insert date … Read More
PS5 Showcase September 2021 Highlights!
While E3 is still a sore subject, Sony hosted a massive PS5 showcase online, bringing out the big guns for gamers looking to see what’s next for this hard-earned PS5 consoles! Check out the stream and our highlights below! PS5 Showcase September 2021 Full Stream and Highlights We’re kicking off with a sleek PlayStation commercial starring fast cars, crazy costumes, and a chess match? PLayStation always keeps it weird, and I am here for it. Knights of the Old Republic is getting remade for PS5! This classic RPG is one I would be happy to replay. The next title is a sleek looking third-person action game with a sci-fi setting, unique monsters, and a postapocalyptic setting. It’s called Project Eve, but nothing else is known at the moment. Next we’ve got a gameplay trailer for the next Borderland’s spin-off, and the gameplay looks intact, with some excellent new areas and fantasy elements to explore. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands comes out March 25, 2022. Forspoken gets a new trailer, showing off some truly incredible graphics, and a women who gets transported to a fantasy realm from a modern day one. The gameplay has the usual fast-paced navigation, but the spells get some attention, along with footage of some story. All ofit is looking excellent. Spring 2022 is the latest date. Rainbow Six Extraction, the sci-fi themed version of the shooter, comes out spring 2022, and we got a new trailer for build the hype up for fans of the series. Alan Wake Remastered, confirmed this week, is coming to PS5 on October 5th! This is an instant buy from me, loved this game. Ghostwire Tokyo got a new trailer and the first-person survival horror is looking good, but no release date yet. Guardians of the Galaxy, coming out soon, got a new trailer as well, highlighting the humor. and the scope of the upcoming action game. There looks to be potential space flight combat, alongside the third-person action. It’s coming October 26th. The free-to-play Bloodhunt game set in the Vampire The Masquerade universe, got a new trailer, and the combat looks solid, but it will need a playerbase to really be successful as it’s only online multiplayer. It’s coming to PS5 this year. A new Deathloop trailer gives us some new insight into the world of the game and some hints towards the origin of the time loop. It’s out next week on September 14th. There’s a new experience coming from Epic Games and Radiohead in November of this year, but the teaser was brief. In the next trailer, you can explore a vibrant world and ocean, but you can also take the form of animals, and there’s at least one guitar mini-game. It’s called Tchia and it’s inspired by a world world location. No release date yet. Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy are coming to PS5! No word on the release date just yet. A new Wolverine game is coming to PS5 from Insomniac! I loved their work on Spider-Man (and … Read More
Monster Harvest Review – Farmer’s Déjà vu
Like so many others, I was one of those gamers who sunk a ton of hours into Stardew Valley, the breakout farming sim that revitalized the genre. Having spent about 100 hours in that charming world, I found myself on the hunt for more games that hit the sweet spot between farming routines, making friends, and exploring dungeons. You can imagine my excitement then when I saw Monster Harvest. A game that combines farming, dungeon crawling, and creatures not unlike Pokemon that you can bring with you for turn-based battles. It’s a winning combination on paper, but does it translate into the ultimate monster mash? Let’s find out. A Familiar Set of Ideas With a Slow Start While Monster Harvest combines several great ideas in its premise, it also borrows heavily from the games that inspired it. Upon first starting the game, you can choose from a few character variations, but there’s not much customization to be found. You arrive on your Uncle’s farm after receiving a letter from him (sound familiar?), but in Monster Harvest your Uncle is alive and well. He’s been experimenting with slime, which is an integral part of the town, and no longer has time to run his farm. After a simple introduction, you’re sent off to begin the process of breaking rocks, chopping logs, cutting down trees, and the usual first steps in any farming sim. It’s all very similar, but it is possible to get a glimpse of future opportunities as you explore your farmland. Specified locations for various structures give you a glimpse of what’s to come. Of course, you have al limited pool of stamina, so those early days in the game are going to be short and very similar to one another. When you go to sleep, you’ll have the option to sleep until nightfall and regain a portion of your stamina, or you can sleep until morning. The reason for this choice comes down to the game’s other half. As part of the storyline, you soon find out that the local slime that’s used for all manner of things also has the ability to mutuate your crops into “Planimals.” Slime comes in three colors, Red, Green, and Blue. Red slime will turn your crops into Planimals when they’re full grown, based on the plant. Green slime will speed up the growth process so you don’t have to wait, and blue slime will turn your crops into livestock or a mount depending on whether it’s the upgraded variation. There are a respectable number of Planimals to mutuate and harvest, though again, things start fairly slow. Eventually you’ll be able to take six of them along with you into the dungeon, but you can only enter it once per day and at night, hence the option to sleep through the daylight hours. Interestingly, Planimals die permanently when they fall in combat, but they do drop a sort of essence that allows you to upgrade your soil, and progress carries over to … Read More
Gamescom Opening Night Live – All Major Announcements and Trailers!
Gamescom Opening Night Live is here! This two hour stream, hosted by industry veteran Geoff Keighly, prommises to have new announcements, trailers, and all manner of gaming goodness. If you’re like me, though, you were probably in a Zoom call or reading an email during the event, so what did we miss? Join us as we recap the major announcements and compile all the new trailers in one place: right here! Read on to find out what transpired during Gamescom Opening Night Live! All The Major Announcements from Gamescom Opening Night Live We’re once again watching virtual event, but the hosts promise plenty of trailers and even more content than last year, so let’s dive in and see what’s new, shall we? As always, these will be announcements and trailers for confirmed PlayStation games, so if you don’t see something, it’s most likely because it’s an Xbox or PC exclusive at launch. King of Fighters 15 Receives a Release date We’re opening with announcements from the pre-show and the first trailer is for King of Fighters 15, promising an early 2022 release date. Bus Simulator 21 is Coming September 7th I reviewed and enjoyed the last iteration of Bus Simulator! The new version is coming in September, but doesn’t seem to be for the next-gen consoles, which is a shame. That doesn’t mean it won’t get an update down the line, though! A New Trailer for House of Ashes, the Next Game in the Dark Pictures Anthology I’ve enjoyed the first two titles in the Dark Pictures Anthology, and I’m all about a Halloween release of their next entry, House of Ashes. Check out the new trailer! Dolmen Brings Cosmic Horror to PS5 Cosmic horror shooter RPG? Yeah, absolutely. This PS5 title has a great first trailer and is coming in 2022. Soundfall combines bullet hell with rhythm combat, and yes please Soundfall’s mixture of fantasy elements, tech, and rhythm combat are ticking all the boxes for me. Check out this full trailer. Saint’s Row Reboot Saint’s Row is back! New setting, new characters, the same old attitude and humor. I’m liking the new look! It comes out early next year. Midnight Suns X-COM developers making a Marvel game? You know it! The new title is a tactics RPG where you get to make your own character and command classic characters like Wolverine, Blade, Ghost Rider, and Doctor Strange. I am all about this one. Call of Duty Vanguard Campaign Gameplay We got our first look at Call of Duty Vanguard’s new campaign, featuring true stories surrounding the origins of the special forces. The gameplay looks solid, and Laura Bailey as one of the main characters is sure to be a win in the story department. Cult of The Lamb is Devolver Digital Doing its Thing In classic Devolver Digital fashion, the publisher has signed an animated game with adorable animals, cultist rituals, and eldritch horrors. Never change. Midnight Fight Express is Another One-Developer Miracle It’s truly amazing to see … Read More
Psychonauts 2 Review – A Mental Magnum Opus
As someone who is almost entirely defined by the terms “gamer” and “writer,” games are a huge part of my life, my personality, and my outlook on life. We all have those games that truly changed us in ways both major and subtle. For me, that game was Psychonauts back in 2005. Now, in 2021, Microsoft graciously provided me with a review code to play and review Psychonauts 2 on PS5. It’s a surreal feeling, to have finally played a sequel I was convinced would never exist. Not only that, but to have it live up to my almost impossible expectations, is nothing short of a miracle. Grab your Psi-pops and your dream fluffs, let’s get started. After All These Years, it Feels Like Raz Never Left The year was 2005. I had just left the mall after visiting the local EB Games. With little to no funds to speak of, I just bought the latest copy of OXM magazine to get a demo disc that I could use to fill up my gaming time until I could afford a new game. That demo disc contained the first level of a game called Psychonauts, and I honestly cannot remember how many times I played that demo and loved every minute of it. I spent countless time and hours working on chores and the like to save up for a copy of the full game. As someone who played any and all games I could get my hands on, it was truly a unique experience. Name one other game that features a psychic summer camp, levels deep within the minds of its characters, and psychic bears? You can’t, but the true charm of Psychonauts was how it balanced unmatched creativity with heartfelt characters and deep dives into mental health long before the subject became commonplace in video games. It was and still is one of my favorite games of all time, so you can imagine my sheer shock and excitement when Psychonauts 2 was announced in 2015. I was like a fan at the super bowl, throwing tables stampeding around my living room like a giant nerd. I regret nothing. Since then, I was privileged to review the PSVR title set directly after the events of the first game called Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin. It was the first time we had seen anything past the ending of the first game, but it only made me more excited for the full sequel. In the time since, Double Fine was purchased by Microsoft, which led to concern about whether the game would still come to PlayStation consoles. It will indeed, and Microsoft provided me with a PlayStation review copy to test on PS5, which features a higher resolution and 60 FPS gameplay. The Xbox version has a few exclusive features that we’ll discuss later on, but the PS5 version is excellent, so no need to worry there. Now, my fellow gamers, it’s finally here. For those who are fans, and those … Read More
FORECLOSED Review – Putting The Punk in Cyberpunk
While the term “cyberpunk” may remind most people of the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077, other games have leveraged the sub-genre over the years to great effect. It goes beyond a style, however, and invokes a deeper look into futuristic societies and the things that can happen if we’re not careful to keep the powers that be in check. FORECLOSED, a new comic book style cyberpunk action game, leverages the style to great effect, but does this sleek look translate to compelling gameplay? Let’s find out. Stylish Looks Can’t Hide Less Than Ideal Story and Gameplay One thing no one can fault FORECLOSED for is its style. The game oozes comic book cyberpunk style that’s immediately eye-catching. The premise too is interesting. You play as Evan Kapnos, who wakes up one morning to find out his company has gone bankrupt and as a result his entire identity has been, you guessed it, foreclosed. While he starts out trying to do the right thing, Evan is quickly pulled into a conspiracy that has him on the run and dodging bullets very quickly into the story. The story itself is solid, but not incredibly compelling. There are some moments of downtime where you can choose dialogue options, but the game goes through long stretches of fighting rooms of enemies between exposition, so it doesn’t quite have the narrative-focused feel the game’s official description would suggest. One thing that’s really exciting in the opening hours of the game, are the ways that it transistions between comic book styled cutscenes and gameplay. For example, you’ll often see the screen split into panels before transitioning seamlessly into gameplay. An early chase sequence also has you running from armed enemies through the perspective of security cameras, allowing for a visual treat beyond the standard third-person gameplay. FORECLOSED is stylish, and it knows it. For a while, that was enough for me to look past some gameplay issues, but when we stop and break it all down, there are a number of problems with how the game plays. For starters, there’s a sort of hacking minigame that involves pressing directional buttons in sequence. It works perfectly fine, but it never gets more complicated than that. The same goes for these hidden switches you can find inside of walls using your vision, or ones that are scattered across an area. You’ll need to find and hack them all to move forward once the enemies are down They’re interesting at first, but soon become a repetitive aspect of progression. Combat is a mixed bag as well. No matter how much I adjusted the aim sensitivity and aim assist in the options, I could never get the gunplay to feel responsive enough. It was always a little sluggish and difficult to make precise movements. More often than not, I would just resort to strafing to line up my shot. Enemies also flood areas and just stand in place, which leads to simple shootouts. On the default difficulty, you’ll also find … Read More