Year: 2024

What happened to AAA gaming?

You have to wonder what happened to AAA gaming. I have complained about this many times before, but somehow, the state of AAA games just keep getting worse and worse. Beyond all the controversies involved, like DEI, making female protagonists man-like both visually and in behavior, and just poor writing in general, the industry at large seems incredibly stagnated. It seems almost dead-like, with games being copied ad nauseam with a minimum effort of making sure it’s fun or providing anything new. All to serve the almighty dollar, and push it as far as possible doing so.

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Hollowbody – Demo Impressions

Hollowbody is a futuristic dystopian take on the survival horror genre that takes place in England (I think). While the atmosphere sure is there with everything being gray and decayed, it hit me that some parts of the poorer areas of the British Isles already look like that. If it wasn’t for the shambling undead, it could have been set in our times! Jokes aside, the atmosphere is tight, and can probably be best compared to Silent Hill 4: The Room. It has the same kind of depressive aesthetics of a rotting urban sprawl of concrete and crushed dreams. A similar area that I myself have lived in once, so certain stuff hits close to home and makes things just a little more unsettling. I like.

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Star Wars: Republic Commando – Are you clone enough?

Welcome to the Republic soldier! It seems your clone is a step above the rest. Don’t ask me to explain it, considering you are all clones of the same guy, but anyway. You will be part of Delta Squad. A super heavy commando unit, equipped for anything, both mentally, and equipment-wise. So, suit up and join the rest of your team! If you always wanted to terminate droids and Trandoshans with extreme prejudice, install Star Wars: Republic Commando now, because this is what you will be doing for the next ten hours – in fairly entertaining ways, must be added.

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Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen – Interview with the lead writer

Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen is one of the biggest cRPG disappointments in recent years. Not because it was bad, or anything like that. The reason it was a disaster is that it got put on ice permanently before it had a chance to wow anyone. It was a Kickstarter success, but unfortunately, the development petered out. It’s unclear as to why, but as game development goes, financial issues were probably one of the problems.

However, I got the opportunity to talk to the mysterious lead writer of the project, who wanted to remain anonymous. The person in question won’t be elaborating much on why Realms Beyond is currently dead in the water, seeing as the focus of the interview will be mainly on the writing.

So, welcome to an interview with the lead writer of Realms Beyond. It’s time to find out what this game was all about, and what kind of grand narrative we are sadly missing out on.

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Expeditions: Rome – Quick Impressions (& rant)

Another game, another uncertainty, hence the “quick impressions”. This impression so far has lasted me about ten hours with the game, and while certain parts show great potential for Expeditions: Rome, it also has incredibly boring mechanics that are part of the core gameplay. While I loved Logic Artists‘ first game Expeditions: Conquistador, which felt like a true expedition into the unknown, filled with danger and the lure of treasure, Expeditions: Viking fell way short for me. When I played it, it was buggy as hell, and in general, I found the game tedious and uninspired, missing what made their first game so good in the first place. All that barrel-smashing for random loot didn’t feel like the epitome of gameplay.

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