Rising from an untimely end, Blood West’s gunslinger is sent into a haunted frontier, where death lurks around every corner. A bloody end I have to admit, right off the bat, that I did not have a good idea as to what Blood West really was before I started it. When you first see Hyperstrange’s FPS in trailers, you might assume it’s a straightforward ‘retro’ first-person shooter. That’d be understandable since it has a 90s aesthetic, lots of weapons, and plenty of creepy monsters to shoot. Here’s the thing though, it’s not that. Instead Blood West has a lot more going for it, and from a few diff ..read more

Trepang2 might have an odd name, but recalling the iconic FEAR, it’s also one of the best horror-shooters in a long time. Don’t FEAR the reaper The first-person shooter genre is a pretty wide-ranging one. Especially in modern times, there are a whole mess of sub-genres for fans to enjoy, focusing on different kinds of gameplay or aesthetics. But while we’ve got games that fit under the titles of movement-shooters and boomer-shooters, there’s been one class that’s been missing for a good long time. Actually, I don’t even know if you could call it a “class”, since there was really only one serie ..read more

Apogee’s iconic, and absolutely insane first-person shooter returns in remastered form, with Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition. Let’s get ludicrous Have you ever heard the term ‘ludicrous gibs’, and wondered where it came from? Well if you did, then you’re obviously unfamiliar with Rise of the Triad. From classic PC developer Apogee, the first-person shooter pioneered that term with its (at the time) crazy blood and gore. Aside from the exploding enemies, the game has also been billed as a spiritual successor to the grandfather of the genre, Wolfenstein 3D. Originally, that might’ve been th ..read more

Kao the Kangaroo makes a hop, skip, and a jump to modern consoles and PC, for a mostly delightful 3D platforming remake. G’Day If you’re a 3D platformer fan, a few games from the genre probably spring immediately to mind from across its history. But whether you remember the glory days of the N64, PlayStation (PSOne), or PS2/Xbox, chances are that one of those titles isn’t the PC original, Kao the Kangaroo. Not that Kao was a bad game, because from what I gather, it wasn’t. It kind of couldn’t have been honestly, since it spawned two contemporary sequels. One of those, Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 ..read more

Remember those N64 wrestling games of yore? Well THQ Nordic and Yuke’s definitely do, and those titles are the basis for AEW: Fight Forever. Coming down the aisle… It’s been an interesting dev cycle for AEW: Fight Forever, which was created under a publisher and developer that should be well known to fans of the sport. I’m referring to THQ Nordic and Yuke’s there, as the companies teamed for quite a few games back in the 90s and 2K’s. Well, THQ Nordic did under the plain ol’ “THQ” banner anyway. Fast-forward to the present though, and the band is getting back together, albeit with a wild card ..read more

The champ is back? The next entry in 2K’s wrestling series debuted last month, bringing a sharp all-around package with great looks and play. Note: The following review missed its originally scheduled posting date. The error just came to our attention, and you’ll find it published in full below. You can’t see me The WWE-faithful have been on quite a ride for the last few years. While WWE 2K19 didn’t exactly set the world on fire, it was followed up by 2K20, which crashed and burned. The former title took off like crazy after that, pulling in loads of new players and absolutely rolling through ..read more

An FPS ripped from the 90s, Hyperstrange and developer Mekworx’ Supplice revels in classic play, turning back the clock in fine form. Doom clone Remember the term “Doom clone”? If you’re too young it might sound strange, but all FPS’ were dubbed that at one point. For some reason, and one that befuddled me more than a bit even at the time, gaming-writers and fans didn’t seem to recognize the first-person shooter as a new genre. Instead they just referred to all FPS’ as Doom clones. That’s a pretty insulting moniker for the teams that poured hours of work into games like Heretic, Rise of the Tr ..read more

Las Plagas, A Missing Presidential Daughter, and Roundhouse Kicks, the long awaited Resident Evil 4 remake is here and -yes- it’s fantastic. Did I mention the kicks? The ancient injunction “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does not apply to the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 4 has been the definitive best game in the entire franchise for over 16 years now (maybe a lil opinion there -ed). At the time of its original release, it was a genre-defining video game. RE4 set the standards on many of the mechanics and elements that subsequent releases would make use of. Speaking of, afte ..read more

A text-based adventure classic comes into the new millennium with a fully 3D, first-person, exploration-heavy adventure from Cygnus Entertainment. Spelunker Do you remember the original Colossal Cave? If you don’t, you’re definitely excused since it was a very early PC title, first hitting in… 1976. Yes. That’s correct, Colossal Cave came out in 1976 (maybe ’77 if you wanna look at it a specific way). According to the game’s wiki too, it’s got a really interesting history. The original title was based on an actual cavern, that being “Mammoth Cave” in Kentucky, and original developer William Cr ..read more

What just might be one of the greatest action RPGs of all time gets a next-gen overhaul, and brings the game back to consoles and PC in style. Perennial How long has it been since The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt was released? Well, it might be hard to believe, but CD Projekt Red’s masterpiece was first unleashed upon the world in 2015. Yep, a decidedly-eventful 8 long years ago. When the title first dropped, it was immediately met with a good deal of fanfare. Both critics and fans ate it up, heaping acclaim on the title for its fantastic gameplay, deep and complex story, and awesome delivery. Of ..read more