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Play Review

Games I’ve Played, Spring 2024

Hey y’all, I am currently having a hard time writing about video games, so to break the block I’m just gonna straightforwardly tell you about some games I’ve played recently and, like, basic thoughts about them. I hope to be back at it normally again soon. Probably with a post about Destiny 2, though, let’s […]

Categories
Play Review

Complexity and Flatness

It’s weird to call a game in which your character avatar is climbing a massive tower “flat,” but that is what Chants of Sennaar – by Rundisc and published by Focus Entertainment – feels like out of necessity. The game’s principal mechanic is language learning, but how that works in practice bears little resemblance to […]

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Commentary Play

Do Games Need New Verbs?

Y’all, am I going crazy? Have I lost it? Is this what watching 500 trailers in four days does to a motherfucker? I feel like it has to be my problem, because all of a sudden I can’t seem to tell the difference between most of the video games announced during the ten press conferences […]

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Commentary Listen

One of the Balan Wonderworld Themes Sounds Awfully Familiar… But Is It Plagiarism?

Balan Wonderworld, a new game from former Sonic Team leaders Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima and published by Square Enix, hasn’t been getting very good critical reception. For my part, I played the demo and bounced off of it, but that’s not why we’re here today. Because now, whispers of allegations of MUSICAL PLAGIARISM have […]