The Playstation 5 is Sony’s hotly anticipated entry into the new generation of gaming. How does the big unit fare? The first thing you realise about the PlayStation 5 is that it’s one big boy of a console. If you saw this console walking down the street, with its white armour and flashing lights, you’d … Read more
Paige Tapara is a fast-rising young singer-songwriter whose debut EP explores themes of sexuality, coming of age, mental health and relationships. We asked her how it came together, and why she thinks it’s so important for NZ music to include voices like hers. Paige swoops into the room, a cream doughnut in one hand and a … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Media Molecule’s Dreams, the game that allows you to turn your dreams into (virtual) reality, and share them with a likeminded community. Throughout my teenage years, I had dreams that my teeth would fall out, or that I had loosening teeth on the verge of falling out. Recently, these dreams of teeth … Read more
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
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
Summer reissue: Through clever manipulation of scale and mythos, the latest iteration of God of War makes the most of Immanuel Kant’s theory of the sublime to deliver a truly beautiful game. Don Rowe travelled to Sydney to gets his hands on a preview. This post was first published March 19, 2018. German philosopher Immanuel … Read more
It’s twenty of the games of your youth in one package – but is the Playstation Classic worth the price tag? Sam Brooks had a swing at the new-old console. Nostalgia is a potent poison – and one that big companies have learned how to effectively weaponise. There’s a reason why one of the biggest … Read more
Last night, Sony announced the PlayStation Classic – a console that looks like a PlayStation One and plays those games too. Is that all it is, though? So what is the PlayStation Classic, exactly? It’s a console that looks a lot like a PlayStation 1, PSX or PSOne (Jesus, that console had too many monikers ) … Read more
This year’s E3 was quite possibly the gayest E3 ever. Of course, Sony’s naughty kiss was one of the main head-turners, but there was a lot more simmering under the surface during the 2018 expo. E3 takes place in Los Angeles, home of the first ever Pride Parade. Now in its 48th year, the parade … Read more
E3 is a whirlwind of press conferences, trailers and gamer reactions, and so much happens that it’s almost impossible to keep up with it all. Sam Brooks has your essential E3 cheat sheet. If you’re deep in a certain part of the internet, your social media feed right now is probably a maelstrom of E3 … Read more
Sony is making a grab for everyone who isn’t already on the PlayStation train with PlayLink, a series of party games that are played by linking smartphones with the PS4. The Spinoff team had a good blat with two of the games currently available, That’s You! and Knowledge Is Power. If you plonk yourself in … Read more
This weekend Minecraft had its very own global live streamed convention, Minecon Earth, in which new developments and updates for the game were announced. Jessica Alouette talked to corporate VP Matt Booty about the big picture. Minecraft’s next evolution is called “The Update Aquatic” and will be focusing on the wildly popular game’s ocean environments to add coral, … Read more
Slap on your rose-tinted sunnies because Crash Bandicoot is back, and he’s aged like a fine wine. Don Rowe gets stuck into the N.sane trilogy and positively bathes in nostalgia. I never had a Playstation as a child. The only one on my street was shared between three families, commune style, and so my gaming … Read more
The hype train has left the station and E3 is over for another year. Eugenia Woo watched the whole bloody thing and now lets rip on which games she can’t wait to play – and which should be consigned to the dustbin of history. It’s been an insane few days for the games industry. In … Read more
In part two of The Spinoff’s coverage of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Kermath examines on the important bit: the parties. This is where the video game industry cuts loose after shilling their wares. Kermath braves Blink 182, spirit ladies and malnutrition to bring you this report. Attending an E3 party is something close … Read more
Kermath, The Spinoff’s man at E3, has delivered his thoughts on this week’s briefings offered by some of the main players in the video game industry. Sony, EA, Bethesda, Microsoft, Ubisoft: all have spent serious cash announcing release dates for their forthcoming games and gear. This is how the individual extravaganzas break down. Every year … Read more