Sam Brooks reviews the most anticipated game of 2019: Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding. A man walks, with dogged purpose, across an empty but beautiful landscape. Every few seconds, a blue wave radiates outwards from him, highlighting little things dotted across that landscape – a ladder here, a rope there. A stack of cargo boxes balances precariously on … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews the latest entry of the Trails of Cold Steel saga and finds the rarest thing in a video game: a whole lot of care. When you look at Falcom’s Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III from the outside, it’s not an enticing prospect. Firstly, it’s a game that promises (more like demands) … Read more
The latest in Sony’s stable of 90s remasters should come with a pair of rose-coloured glasses. Sam Brooks reviews the 2019 MediEvil remaster. In this generation of gaming, we’ve seen the glowed-up return of a few of our childhood avatars. The bandicoot spins back in, looking fresher than ever. The purple dragon flies back in, more … Read more
Toby Morris plays the lo-fi avian puzzle game that’s taken over the internet. “It’s a lovely morning in the village. You are a horrible goose.” And with that, we’re in the world of this week’s surprise hit game: Untitled Goose Game by Australian studio House House. You play a goose – not a super powered … Read more
Covering Climate Now: Grim post-apocalyptic settings are a dime a dozen in gaming, but which ones are the most realistic? Sam Brooks talked to climate expert David Tong to find out. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here! Every year there’s a good chance that … Read more
Fable is best remembered for the disastrous, over-the-top promises made by its designer Peter Molyneux. But maybe, Adam Goodall argues, we’re remembering it all wrong. “There is something I have to say. And I have to say it because I love making games.” So opens an October 2004 post on the Lionhead Studios forum written … Read more
Lee Henaghan travelled to Canada for a special Gears 5 preview event at The Coalition studios in Vancouver. Could this be a return to form for the game that gave the world the chainsaw bayonet? Franchises, sequels, spinoffs, reboots, remakes and remasters – for an industry supposedly built on innovation and creativity, modern gaming is … Read more
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the karaoke game that introduced an entire generation to the horrors of ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark. Jordan Hamel ranks all 30 songs from SingStar v1, from worst to best. Before my generation was old enough to get smashed on reasonably priced Merlot and wander down to our local … Read more
After 15 years, the satirical video game Metal Wolf Chaos XD is finally being released worldwide. Today its depiction of a crazed, militaristic America seems more prescient than ever, writes Sam Brooks. In gaming, very few things are truly inaccessible. If someone knows there’s a game they might love, they’ll do their best to get … Read more
Fire Emblem: Three Houses perfectly splits difference between staying true to its core while reinventing itself to appeal to a broader audience, writes Sam Brooks. Against all odds, Fire Emblem has become a stalwart gaming franchise. Created by Japanese developers Intelligent Systems, Fire Emblem‘s success is especially surprising considering its first English-language release, in 2003/4, … Read more
Sam Brooks re-assesses Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in the wake of ten months of post-release content and works out what the game did right, did wrong, and did weird. Twelve years on, Assassin’s Creed remains one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. Every release manages to garner critical acclaim and sell millions of … Read more
A personal journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft. It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. We had agreed that Fortnite was likely the worst (I’ve never played it but spoke with … Read more
Māori culture shouldn’t be something that’s half-heartedly appropriated for some cool video game visuals. So why do developers keep doing it? This year’s Xbox E3 Briefing kicked off with a new game reveal, Bleeding Edge – a multiplayer action game in which players fight in 4v4 battles – and some exciting news for New Zealand players: … Read more
Lucy Zee recounts the worst job she ever had: working as a sales assistant in video game retail. Every so often, a conversation topic will come up: “What is the worst job you’ve ever had?”. I couldn’t name one, I could name six. When I worked clearing tables in a Chinese restaurant? Or when I … Read more
A new challenger has entered the augmented reality ring. Wizarding wonder Harry Potter is coming for Pokémon GO’s title — but despite the shared basics, they’re very different games. I downloaded Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and immediately on opening it was told it was out of date, much like J.K. Rowling’s alleged views on the … Read more
A few years ago, deep into middle age, Britta Stabenow found solace in the world of gaming. Now she’s part of a passionate community: those who love, and collect, video games. I’ll always be a video game collector, that will never change. But the collecting community reached a really low point this year with the … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, an exercise in mining nostalgia for diminishing returns. If you were a 90s kid and had a console, you were either a Mario Kart kid or a Crash Team Racing kid. These were the definitive party games of our era – more party and more competitive than the actual party games … Read more
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Driver, a game whose innovations pioneered some of gaming’s biggest present-day trends. Sam Brooks takes a look at the groundbreaking game’s launch – and the series’ unfortunate decline. The year is 1999. The first Super Smash Bros. has come out, the fourth Tomb Raider game to use the same engine as the first … Read more
E3 is the biggest week of gaming news of the year – which means it’s easy to lose track of everything that’s been announced. Sam Brooks rounds up them all up in one convenient place for you. Not only is E3 the biggest gaming convention in the world, it’s the biggest hype-machine and you can … Read more
Following the multi-billion dollar success of Pokémon Go, Nintendo is intent on turning a profit from the most mysterious human experience of all: sleep. Last week Nintendo announced their intentions to gamify sleep, the last sacred, ad-free and private space we possess. The release read like a teaser for the new Black Mirror episodes: “In … Read more
Marc Daalder goes inside Wellycon, New Zealand’s largest board game convention to find out why the genre is having a renaissance. Snakes and Ladders sucks. At least, that’s according to BoardGameGeek.com, the near-definitive database for a hobby that has exploded in popularity in recent years. On BGG, as it’s known – or, affectionately/cringingly, “The Geek” … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Total War: Three Kingdoms and finally finds the definitive Romance of the Three Kingdoms game. My road to Total War: Three Kingdoms was an unusual one. While for most it’s the latest in the critically-acclaimed, much-beloved Total War series, for me it’s the latest in a long line of Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. But what … Read more
Mum was right: heavy exposure to pocket monsters fundamentally rewires your brain. But researchers from Stanford say it’s an exciting opportunity to study how we learn to see. There’s an old folk myth that when James Cook and the Endeavour sailed up the coast of Australia, “discovering” that great desert continent, indigenous fishermen spotted on … Read more
Tof Eklund reviews Lovestruck, a free-to-play treasure trove of romantic queer gaming content. Voltage’s Lovestruck does not, at first glance, look particularly queer-inclusive. Created in 2017 to unify four otome (‘women’s romance’) mobile games, this game hub now houses at least a dozen fictional worlds (depending on how you count them) and an advertised ’50+ … Read more
The new trailer for the much anticipated, oft-delayed Final Fantasy 7 remake is finally here! Optimist and superfan Sam Brooks breaks it down, moment by moment. Final Fantasy 7 is, indisputably, the most popular RPG of all time. It’s one of the biggest selling video games of all time, too. When the remake was announced, Obama was … Read more
Apple Arcade looks great on the surface, but what does it mean for the kinds of developers who don’t make games based on playtime? When Apple announced Apple Arcade last month, it was met mostly with praise. For a relatively low monthly fee, you’ll get access to a rotating selection of over 100 games, all … Read more
One year ago, God of War was unleashed on the world, selling millions of copies and winning countless awards. Sam Brooks finally catches up with the game. Incredibly mild spoilers for God of War follow. On paper, everything about 2018’s God of War was everything that bores me in art. It was about dads. It had a kid in it. … Read more
Alex Casey plays chaotic cooking game Overcooked 2 and learns some very valuable lessons. Three pots of rice are on fire and one pan of sautéed mushrooms is starting to smoke. I’ve thrown dry pasta all over the floor. The dirty plates are piling up. My colleague is swearing at me from across the kitchen. … Read more
Sam Brooks digs into his childhood to present his magnum opus: a ranking of all 151 OG Pokémon. You can see the scrollbar at the right side of your screen. Let’s just get into this, shall we? Opinions are, as always, my own and subjectivity is not objectivity. 151. Jynx Look, the worst one is … Read more