The Silent Hill series has always been at its best when it’s been at its most innovative. Its experiments (e.g. Silent Hill 2, The Room, Shattered Memories) are trusted to be, at their very least, conceptually interesting, and thus refreshing and exciting. All three remained loyal to their past- each took a core fragment of what had come before- but the developers would... (more...)
The recent XBLA release ‘Alan Wake’s American Nightmare’ takes the plot of the original 2010 game, and continues it- but through the filter of a different genre. The camp schlock of pulp fiction is being celebrated here; a natural progression from the love-letter to horror that was this game’s predecessor. A transition from the moody, drizzly dark greens and blues... (more...)
30 Second Life is a highly original, very funny little iOS game I’d briefly like to draw your attention to- briefly because a) I don’t want to hold you back from buying it for any longer than necessary, b) It’s very well made but pretty insubstantial, so there isn’t much for me to say, and c) I’m a writer, a gamer, a student, and Scottish, so obviously I’m... (more...)
ICO: the game whose strength relies on restraint. It relies on a sense of mystery, ambiguity, a disciplined minimalism, your interactivity, physical communication as opposed to heavy use of dialogue, an immersion within a carefully crafted world, and a very personal connection with its characters that only gameplay can bring about. Yeah, well let’s make that a book.... (more...)
Released over a decade ago in early 2001, Shadow of Memories is a deeply flawed, deeply rewarding game that just SHOULDN’T work. Its story is told entirely through cutscenes. The gameplay consists of running around an overcast German town trying to trigger these cutscenes. It controls poorly, the graphics were considered dated a decade ago, and the voice-performances,... (more...)
Have you ever enjoyed any Sonic game, ever? …Right, well there you go, that’s that decided- this game’s for you. Have you no experience of any Sonic game, ever? …Right, well there you go, that’s that decided- this game’s for you. SEGA has released Sonic Generations, a compilation of Sonic’s best stages from his twenty year history. Each stage has... (more...)
