Dead Space: Extraction – Extract This!

Dead Space: Extraction is a rail shooter made by Visceral Games. It was released for the Wii, and Playstation 3 a few years ago. Since I don’t own any of these consoles I decided to play it on the PS3 emulator RPCS3 using a PS4 controller plugged into the computer. I had no issues at all, I didn’t even have to configure anything. It worked flawlessly right out of the box with the right buttons being presented on the screen for the tutorial stuff. The performance was also great with no visual glitches. So, while the gameplay isn’t much more than pointing, and pressing buttons to shoot aliens with the occasional reloading action, I got to say I had a grand time the few hours this game lasted.

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A Plague Tale: Requiem – Are we the baddies?

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a stealth-based third-person action/adventure, made by the developers Asobo Studio. It’s a sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence and the story picks off where the first one left off. Now, I like the Last of Us and its gameplay loop as much as the next guy, and this game is almost a carbon copy of it, at least when it comes to how it is structured, in theory anyway. So, I don’t mind the occasional narrative-driven AAA game, but when the pacing constantly turns the game into a walking simulator, we are going to have a problem.

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The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow – Cave Doom

Cats in the constant state of evil and cute

The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow is a point & click adventure game by Cloak and Dagger Games. It’s set in Britain during the olden times with a story steeped in British folklore, faintly sprinkled by Lovecraft. Now, I don’t want to say everything occult, otherworldly must be Lovecraft, and I wouldn’t say this was inspired by it either, until the end that is. For it’s only a small segment of the game, time-wise, but it’s a huge part of the narrative – so, there we go.

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Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Well, this look ominous. I better stand in the middle of this thing

Eternal Darkness is a Lovecraft-inspired survival horror from all the way back in 2002. It was made by Silicon Knights and released for Nintendo Gamecube only. However, thanks to emulators (Dolphin in this case), it’s possible for even me to play it without too much trouble. I did try it out when it was released, though, since I borrowed a friend’s Gamecube to play this game specifically and Resident Evil (the remaster). I don’t remember the reason, but I never got very far – I can only assume my focus was on finishing Resident Evil before I had to return the console. Anyway, here we are, and I have just completed Eternal Darkness, and what can I say? It’s a great addition to the genre, even if a bit linear at times. It did feel good to once again have to use tank controls and experience fixed camera angles. It’s kinda ironic because nowadays developers are hell-bent on cinematic experiences, yet, have totally ignored fixed camera angles, which to me personally feels very movie-like. If embraced, it would make their lives much easier since the game director has full control over what you will see and how.

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Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones – Cosmic Snorer

Watch out, gargoyle coming in for crash landing

Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones is a Lovecraft-inspired RPG by the developers Cultic Games. I have completed this game once before when it was released back in 2019, but I got into a Lovecraft mood and remembered I had this game. But after spending about 10 hours in Arkham again, stuff is coming back to me why I didn’t like the game that much. It’s not all bad, though, it’s just a major disappointment for what could have been something good.

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