Welcome to Top of the Pile, a gaming series in which the participants are forced to play a game at the top of the ‘just released’ list. This ep, watch as a cuddly Portuguese man singlehandedly takes down his hapless co-host in a contest of skill and grit: the classic just re-released football game Super … Read more
This week sees the launch of a nationwide eSports league featuring more than 50 teams from high schools around the country. But is this whole thing legit? Like, are they actually going to let kids play computer games as a sport? We sent Eugenia Woo to the High School League open night to find out. Parents … Read more
We’ve made the world a cornucopia of distractions and fidgety little things to keep us from achieving our potential as sentient beings. It turns out that the makers of all these doodads are, as expected, pure evil because they love hiding away secret games in software. It’s a double down on mindless game and here … Read more
In association with our mates Bigpipe Broadband we’re livestreaming a different video game every Wednesday at 7pm on Facebook Live. Join José Barbosa and a cast of roped in innocents for a journey into utter mayhem. With Bethesda’s latest sequel in the stealthy-shooty-steampunky series now out, Don Rowe and José Barbosa get stuck into the … Read more
Matthew Codd slinks his way through steampunk assassination simulator Dishonored 2 and becomes almost constantly overwhelmed by a grueling style of intricate level design. Dishonored 2 has some of the most fascinating level design I’ve seen in a game. Each area is made up of a complicated network of streets, buildings, and passageways, giving you … Read more
In association with our mates Bigpipe we’re livestreaming a different video game every Wednesday at 7pm on Facebook Live. Join José Barbosa and a cast of roped in innocents for a journey into utter mayhem. This week José Barbosa is joined by Spinoff staff writer Calum Henderson. The two grown men tackle the most grown … 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: Doom’s 2016 iteration has been celebrated the world over for it’s faithful honoring of the franchise’s roots. How does the 2005 film adaptation compare? Two minutes into … Read more
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
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
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
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
In honor of the New Zealand Comedy Festival Joseph Harper dives deep into a few comedy games. But it turns out that games based on comedy aren’t actually that funny. The Comedy Fest is happening at the moment and nobody loves to laugh as much as me. So this week I decided to highlight some … Read more