Microsoft first announced their move into the action-adventure genre when they scored temporary rights to Rise of the Tomb Raider. Now with ReCore they have their own title – but is it any good? A couple of years ago, Microsoft announced they had obtained exclusive rights to Rise of the Tomb Raider, at least for … Read more
In association with our mates Bigpipe we’re livestreaming a different video game every Wednesday at 7pm on our Twitch channel. Join José Barbosa and a cast of roped in innocents for a journey into utter mayhem. This week José Barbosa is joined by The Spinoff writer and boy wonder Hayden Donnell. Watch as the two … Read more
It’s Icy Tower meets Flappy Bird meets Election 2016. Don Rowe speaks to the Auckland-based designers of Jrump, the game that puts The Donald in the hands of the people, rather than other way around. Kiwis are famous for our seemingly innate ability to make light of serious situations. But these days, what with people … Read more
100 years ago to the day New Zealand entered the Battle of the Somme, laying down life and limb to protect France from the German Empire. But what if France had never been in the First World War? Seems ridiculous right? Not if you’re Battlefield 1 developers DICE. On the 4th August, 1914, the army … Read more
In association with our mates Bigpipe we’re livestreaming a different video game every Wednesday at 7pm on our Twitch channel. Join José Barbosa and a cast of roped in innocents for a journey into utter mayhem. This week José Barbosa is joined by old mate Ashley Hinton for a heaping wad of low-fi hacker puzzle … Read more
Joseph Harper shirks his duty and lets his cat Zelda review a game instead. The cat was not impressed. My cats were going crazy last night. One of them sometimes gets all hopped up after eating kibbles and just wants to play and play. She enjoys the feather-wand and is especially enamoured with this officially … Read more
In association with our mates Bigpipe we’re livestreaming a different video game every Wednesday at 7pm. Join José Barbosa and a cast of roped in innocents for a journey into utter mayhem. For the inaugural stream colleagues Don Rowe and José Barbosa give the blimmin’ Battlefield 1 open beta a crack. Involves death, horses, gas, … Read more
They’re remaking everything nowadays and past beloved games are no exception. Joseph Harper looks at a old Zelda favourite that’s been given a wipe around the chin. The next great installment in Nintendo’s Zelda franchise looks very good but also seems to constantly be 700 years away. Nintendo’s next console, the ‘NX’ will come eventually, … Read more
It’s more Dilapidated Valley than Silicon Valley, but at the bottom of a hill beneath TV3 in Eden Terrace lies a brand new, hi-tech facility bringing together dudes, nerds and the hopes of a city and government’s innovation plan. Tim Murphy was at the opening of Grid/Akl – Uptown. If you want cut-through in your … Read more
We take a bizarre stroll around the early access survival/action/adventure We Happy Few. It’s a suitably original game, but Matthew Codd finds a glaring contradiction at its beating heat. The Compulsion Games team made their mark a few years ago with the beautiful Contrast, so it makes sense that their latest adventure, We Happy Few, should too … Read more
The Mars One mission aims to put man on Mars by 2027. They envision a thriving colony of hydroponic agriculture and low-g hi jinks. But if space colonies are anything like RimWorld suggests, we’re much, much better off on Earth. Kelsey LeBlanc is a 20-year-old novelist. He’s a blood-lusting pessimist who doesn’t drink. His sister, Speedy McCroddon, is … Read more
No Man’s Sky is a bust and we don’t have enough money to buy the new Deus Ex game. Where now will The Spinoff’s gaming editor deal out his sweet gifts of pixelated murder? As a last resort José Barbosa examines a new gamey-ish project from MIT. There’s almost no doubt the near future will … Read more
The Donbox is a regular series where killing machine Don Rowe watches a movie based on, inspired by, or just damn ripped from a video game. This week Don watches 1993’s Super Mario Bros, a hellacious shit of a movie based on a premise dreamed up by a stoned 15 year old. Neil Gaiman, a visionary … Read more
It’s global competition time and to celebrate Joseph Harper returns to an old sports favourite. He also lays down some serious button mashing tips: get involved. The Olympics is almost over, but they don’t have to be. Through the magic of video games you can make every day into an Olympiad. This week, to celebrate … Read more
Comprised of over 18 quintillion (yes, that’s a number) planets, No Man’s Sky is a seemingly infinite game. Sarah Illingworth spoke to Paul Wolinski from 65daysofstatic, the Sheffield band behind its soundtrack – also the band’s new album – to find out how you go about creating audio for a limitless game. This interview first appeared … Read more
On the launch day of Hello Game’s massively anticipated No Man’s Sky Don Rowe and José Barbosa played the thing for 8 hours straight. They invited special guests and streamed it all live to the internet. This is their story heavily edited and cut into 7 minutes. Check out our other coverage of No Man’s Sky: … Read more
Joseph Harper plays Pokken Tournament, the definitive Pokémon title for gamers who prefer dog fights to collecting stamps. For me, the best part about a Pokemon game is always catching lots of gorgeous baby Pokemon, giving them funny names, and falling deeply in love with them. Apparently though there is a subset of Pokemon fans … Read more
After a mammoth gaming session streamed live on Facebook, José Barbosa tries to reel in his galactic reckons about No Man’s Sky. 24 hours ago we were chin deep in a 8-hour live stream of No Man’s Sky. We blew up asteroids in space, mined plutonium, destroyed weird creatures, gave aliens carbon so they’d like us, … Read more
For years gamers everywhere have been waiting to load up No Man’s Sky and blast off into the heavens. The game is finally launching this week on PS4 and PC and there will be many who have taken a day off work or come down with the lurge on release day. However, for the poor … Read more
Our own thumb jockey Joseph Harper has a good old whack on a major tribute to old RGPs. He’s bloody into it. Last week the ‘indie smash’, Hyper Light Drifter was released on PS4 and Xbox One, so I decided to revisit it. This almost goes without saying, but it’s an amazingly cool looking game. … Read more
The Intel Game Chamber was held in Sydney on Wednesday to showcase gaming and VR all run by Intel’s latest processors. Madeleine Chapman, a bad, almost-non-existent gamer, went along and tried not to get pwned. Grasping my brush tightly, I eased into a stroke, watching as bright orange paint was left in its wake, a beautiful exhaust … Read more
As time pours forward we as a species are going to have to come to terms to life without Pokémon GO. No matter, Joseph Harper has your back. Those coming down off the Pokémon Go megahigh are probably looking for something new to tap at on their phone while they walk to work/use the toilet. … Read more
The Donbox is a regular series where killing machine Don Rowe watches a movie based on, inspired by, or just damn ripped from a video game. This week Don revisits the first Pokémon movie and finds a film about about friendship, adventure, the thrill of battle … and the agony of existing in a meaningless … Read more
He’s fresh from a shopping holiday in Japan and Dan Taipua has seen some awesome, awesome shit. In the 2nd and final part of this series he passes on all that he has learnt to any retro game tourists thinking of hitting the Japanese arcades. While walking through central Osaka I was stopped in the street by a … Read more
The world may have lurched hungrily in the direction of block-buster Pokémon GO, but Joseph Harper is still enjoying quiet feline pleasures. Here we check in on him and see what’s new in the world of Neko Atsume. Toward the end of last year I was turned on to Hit-Point’s immensely pleasurable orphan cat simulator, … Read more
Fresh from a whirlwind trip to Japan, Dan Taipua pens this primer on what to take and where to go for old school console booty and ephemera. This is part one of a two part series about retro video game tourism in Japan. Each year more and more kiwis are making Japanese cities their metropolitan destination of … Read more
Candy Elsmore is a seasoned veteran of Ingress, the Niantic-developed predecessor to Pokémon Go. Here she compares the two, and puts Pokémon Go in its rightful place. Ten days or so ago, Pokémon GO hit the world like a giant Magikarp in the face. Before that, the concept of real world gaming was somewhat of a … Read more
Nintendo continue their aggressive expansion into the ‘stuff we used to play’ market, announcing a tiny version of the iconic NES. Nintendo, not satisfied with taking over the world via their insanely popular Poke-app, have seen fit to release the ultimate piece of plastic nostalgia. The Nintendo Classic Mini: NES will be a replica of … Read more
So you think Pokémon GO is pretty stupid? Perhaps you’ve even indicated your dislike online and ripped into those who are poké-intoxicated? Comedian and actor James Roque stands firm and argues there’s a place and a need for the digital monster collecting diversion. Last week, Pokémon GO was released and the world went nuts. For … Read more