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First announced in March of 2019, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum seeks to answer questions that, to the best of my knowledge, nobody asked. Taking place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings proper, players take on the role of Gollum as we get a glimpse of what exactly the little freak was up to. Originally slated to release in 2021, the game was pushed back and finally released in 2023, and was panned across the board as an absolute failure of a game. Is

After spending the better part of a decade creating The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide, writer and director Davey Wreden began to experience what most creators do when they put their heart and soul into their work: burnout. Seeing as how his previous works blurred the line between commercial narrative and personal experiences, challenging the kinds of stories that can only be told in the medium of video games, it should come as no surprise that he and his team funne

Released in 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is, obviously, a continuation of The Witcher video game series, which is based upon the fantasy novel series of the same name. It's heavily inspired by Slavic mythology, and while based upon an existing work, author Andrzej Sapkowski had no involvement in the writing, giving the development team license to create their own completely new story. Still, the video games often reference and allude to events in the books while also expand

Starting as a webcomic in 2009, One-Punch Man is the story of Saitama, a regular guy who trains himself to the point of being able to defeat any enemy with, you guessed it, one punch. As such, he becomes bored and spends his time searching for stronger opponents. He's not a hero with deep convictions, instead he fights against the forces of evil for fun, as a way to feel something. In 2012, the story received a digital manga remake with an anime adaptation in 2015, and has si

This is going to a little bit different from the other entries I've posted. I'm not writing this to talk about a game or make some outdated pop culture reference. Instead, I want to put into words a bit more of the "why" I made this site, as well as outline my plans for the rest of the year and beyond. As I originally started out with the intention of playing the equivalent of one game a week for the entire year while also writing about my thoughts on said games, I am at the

Development began in 2015 after Panamanian writer and programmer Jose Fernando Garcia and Brazilian programmer Marcio Cleiton Jr. first met in a Pokemon Nuzlocke forum. Originally titled Paper Bugs, the game took heavy inspiration from the first two installments in the Paper Mario franchise, which had long since strayed from its original formula. The game also took inspiration from the Persona, Xenoblade, Golden Sun, and Tales of series. Released in late 2019, Bug Fables is c

Released in 2023, Loretta bills itself as a psychological horror game that centers around a young woman, Loretta, as she moves with her husband to the American countryside in the 1940's. The story focuses on their strained marriage as the husband, a relatively famous author, withdraws from his wife, and the lingering resentment she feels for having her life uprooted. The game is presented with beautiful pixel art, and follows the traditional point and click adventure game for

In 2013, Alec Holowka and Scott Benson started a Kickstarter for a 2D adventure game focusing on a character who returns to their hometown and finds that their old friends have grown in their own directions. The project was fully funded in only 26 hours, and within a month had achieved 400% funding. Despite this, the decision was made to not keep adding stretch goals to the project, because while that may have resulted in additional backers, it could easily have led to scope

With pre-production beginning in 2008, Far Cry 3 was initially meant to form a single cohesive narrative with the previous entries. However, due to the departure of several members of the creative staff, including the original creative director and the narrative director, production was partially restarted in 2010. After evaluating feedback from Far Cry 2, the team identified areas that either needed improvement or removed all together. Among these, the weapon degradation and

Released earlier this year, Ratshaker is a game in which you, wait for it, shake a rat. To boil it down in such a manner, while absolutely true, does a bit of a disservice to the admittedly short experience. The game uses its razor thin premise to mask a surprisingly deep horror experience. What seems like, and frankly is, an over the top parody of what the horror genre has become serves both as a deconstruction and a fairly competent example of how to effectively use stupidi

Beginning development in 2015 as the first title from BlueTwelve Studio, Stray draws heavy inspiration from the lives of the development team which, unsurprisingly, consists of quite a number of cat owners. The team studied photos and videos of cats, ostensibly for research purposes, and the team felt that playing as a cat led to a lot of interesting design opportunities. The design aesthetics were further influenced by the real world Kowloon Walled City, which the team felt

Following the release of Tomb Raider: Underworld in 2008, the team at Crystal Dynamics began working on a new title that would once again see a reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. The game, titled simply Tomb Raider, focuses on a young, inexperienced Lara Croft as she embarks on her first adventure searching for the lost island nation of Yamatai. This marks the first game in a new trilogy that would show Lara becoming the seasoned treasure hunter that she's normally portraye

In September of 2008, two websites launched titled "The Real Matt Hazard" and "Weapons of Matt Destruction" that set out to establish Matt Hazard and his fictional video game series as major influences in the video game history. They detailed the history of the character, going back to his arcade roots in 1983 and crediting the series for things such as the introduction of the ability to jump in gaming, a "Steamy Coffee" incident, and paving the way for longer development tim

As the fourth game created by studio Massive Monster, Cult of the Lamb began development almost as if in response to the general perception the studio had garnered. With previous works including The Adventure Pals, Never Give Up, and Unicycle Giraffe, the studio had gained a reputation for its cutesy, kid friendly artstyle. While their earlier games had received generally positive critical reception, they had been, for all intents, commercial failures. Deciding to go in a dif

Beginning development in 2014 under the title God Eater Zero, the game that would become Code Vein eventually dropped the connection to the God Eater franchise, though it retained many of the themes and even the art style while forging its own identity. Code Vein sets out to answer a question that has long since plagued philosopher and scientist alike: What if Dark Souls, but anime? And, as if that question wasn't bold enough, what if vampires? The answer, it seems, is one of

Released in 2024, the first Duck Detective game, The Secret Salami, introduced us to the titular investigative water fowl in a short but well polished adventure game. The Ghost of Glamping takes place not long after the original, and further polishes the established formula. Also returning are the voice talents of Sean Chiplock and Brian David Gilbert, who once again voice their characters to perfection. Our story begins with Eugene McQuacklin, our duck detective, now living

Beginning as a collaborative project between professional voice actors Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, and Max Mittlemam in 2018, Date Everything! started with the simple concept of a video game in which players could date inanimate objects. Development would last for roughly four years before briefly stalling due to a lack of interest from publishers and, unsurprisingly, complications that arose from COVID. Finallly, in 2022, Team17 agreed to publish the game, which was originall

Rounding out the set of Far Cry spinoff titles, New Dawn re-imagines the setting of Far Cry 5, reusing many of the same assets, characters, and locations. The team at Ubisoft had been wanting to use a post apocalyptic setting for years, though they wanted to eschew conventions, making it as bright and vibrant as possible. New Dawn takes place in the year 2035, and acts as an alternate timeline sequel to Far Cry 5. Unlike the previous games in the franchise that I've experienc

Designed by Jay Tholen, who also handled the visuals, music, and co-wrote the game, Hypnospace Outlaw was funded via Kickstarter and has since garnered a bit of a cult following. The game defies conventional classification, most closely being a puzzle/ point and click adventure game with a simulator backdrop. It's the kind of game that, the more you describe it, the crazier it is to understand. It's a very polarizing experience where you will either bounce off of it hard or a

Developed by Kitfox Games after a successful Kickstarter campaign, Boyfriend Dungeon is a combination visual novel style dating sim and rougelite dungeon crawler. It's an interesting combo that answers the age old question: Can I fuck my sword? The answer, unsurprisingly, is a resounding yes. To boil it down in such a manner actually does a disservice to the game, which has a surprisingly nuanced approach to the subject matter, but it does serve as a bit of a litmus test. If