Everyone’s looking for the next “must-go” holiday location. At The Spinoff we think we’ve found a place that will become a fixture on people’s travel bucket lists. Take a trip to 10,000 BC and prepare to have your pre-conceived notions bludgeoned to death. Traditionally visitor numbers to the Mesolithic Period have been low to non-existent. A recent … Read more
Cheese and crackers, coffee and cigarettes, some things are just incomplete without the other. So why, asks Don Rowe, have Capcom dropped by far the coolest character in their canon for the latest Street Fighter game? The answer probably won’t surprise you. In 1987, eight years before Tekken hit the Playstation, an ambitious new fighting game began … Read more
Joseph Harper takes a long, taxing, circuitous and satisfying walk through the world of The Witness, a 3D puzzle game set on a pastel-colored island with a mysterious secret. The Witness, the latest game from Braid creator Jonathan Blow, has been in the works since 2008. It’s a 3D puzzle adventure game vaguely in the mode of … Read more
From How Bizarre to The Lord of the Rings, the New Zealand entertainment industry has performed well internationally across a variety of mediums. But, Path of Exile aside, these small islands are yet to birth any significant gaming classics. Don Rowe speaks with John O’Reilly about the challenges and triumphs of designing games in New Zealand … Read more
On a rainy Saturday in October, Don Rowe headed to Armageddon with 20,000 sodden gamers, cosplayers and consumers. A forlorn pikachu trudged along Great South Road under a grey curtain of rain. Water ran from its drooping ears and down into a rapidly disintegrating paper loot-bag. The sagging and ragged hem of its yellow onesie legs … Read more
Call of Duty Black Ops III comes out today amidst a general feeling of despair at what hath become of a once-great franchise. Daniel Rutledge is a solitary voice to the contrary. There’s a specific look of shock I know all too well. Sometimes it’s not shock, but rather disgust, or bemusement; but it’s always … Read more
The newly released Journey Collector’s Edition features thatgamecompany’s flagship title, Journey, as well as two earlier indie titles, Flower and flOw, for the PS4. Don Rowe reviews a company changing the rules by which games are played. Journey The setting sun turned the sand to brilliant gold. Through the arches of an ancient balcony was … Read more
The icon sits in a folder on my computer like a smoker’s last cigarette. It’s out of sight, but you can bet your balls I know exactly where it is and how long it’d take to fish out. At this stage, it’s basically a big red ‘begin-spiral-into-entropy’ button. A few quick clicks and the small … Read more
Traditionally, video games have been announced like major construction projects. “Coming, three years from now, something you need to know about!” Developers thrust their stake into the market sands and proclaim that at some distant date, providing everything stays on schedule, a next-generation experience awaits the faithful. Queue aching months of sweaty anticipation, masturbatory fawning over leaked concept … Read more
One of my fondest memories from primary school is sitting cross-legged at my friend Elizabeth’s house, shrieking our way through the then-terrifying Nightmare VHS board game. As both an avid horror movie fan, and a fan of being yelled at by rotting middle-aged actors dipped in fluorescent paint, this was my absolute favourite activity. I’ve since bought … Read more