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Legends are slippery things. One tells of Arthur, the once and future King of Britain who united the realm against the Saxon invaders. Where historical fact is elusive, literary fancy has imagined Arthur's idyllic court of Camelot, its chambers populated with knights, wizards, and witches, its halls reverberating with chivalry, romance, and betrayal. In exploring the legend of Arthur, Pendragon mixes interactive fiction and tactical combat within a short-form roguelike structure to tell myriad tales. As a study of how myths are formed from countless half-truths, it's effective. But as a narrative journey, it feels slight, its more admirable efforts undermined by repetition and an uneasy relationship with combat. In this particular rendition of Arthurian legend, the story always begins in 673 A.D., about a week before Arthur reaches the castle of Camlann to face his son, Mordred, whose challenge for the throne has ignited a civil war. Each time you roll a new game, you'll p...

In Serious Sam 4 , the long-running FPS series may have finally found a workable identity. Through each entry, developer Croteam has held onto the core gameplay loop that defined Sam's initial jaunt across Egypt. You will always back-pedal, you will always circle-strafe, and you will always fight dozens of Sam's memorable cadre of alien enemies at once. But, at times, that loop has been obscured by some of the strange decisions Croteam has made with the series. It was never broken, but each game finds the developer trying to fix it. Enter Serious Sam 4, yet another reinvention that seems to draw from every period of the series' long life. As in Serious Sam 3, the graphics are realistic (though a little stiff). As in Serious Sam 2, there's vehicular combat and humor to spare (and a surprising portion of the jokes land). And, as in First and Second Encounter, the gameplay is razor-sharp and front-and-center. It's been nine years since the last mainline entry, and in ...

With NBA 2K21 , you just know what you're getting into--a basketball simulation with the presentation chops, star power, and gameplay mechanics to embody the sport on a professional and cultural level. You know you'll build a custom player to go through a story that leads into a full career and take to the streets and rec center for pick up games. You know you can play a management sim through MyGM or build a playable fantasy team through card packs in MyTeam. And you also know all too well about the scheme of VC that looms over it all, which remains one of the prominent offenders of intrusive microtransactions. At this point, NBA 2K21 suggests that the franchise is out of surprises. It comes with a robust suite of modes, but despite minor remixing year after year, the annual releases are starting to blend together (if they haven't already). Mechanics get minor tweaks or additions, but largely remain untouched. So, for those embedded in the 2K cycle, you know what the deal...

Mafia: Definitive Edition may look like a contemporary video game, but it doesn't exactly play like one. This shouldn't be too surprising considering it's a remake of the classic 2002 mobster epic, but it also doesn't play like that game either. This is a remake that's been built entirely from the ground up, with a stunning visual overhaul, expanded story, and greater sense of place. Yet its gameplay systems have only been modernised to a limited extent. As a result, Mafia: Definitive Edition feels archaic as it covers the well-trodden ground of its contemporaries, hindered by many of the same ailments that held back Mafia III, despite that game's strong narrative. The same is true here, as Mafia: Definitive Edition's story is far and away the best part of this remake. You play as Tommy Angelo, a timid cab driver who gradually turns to a life of crime in the fictional city of Lost Heaven during the 1930s. Tommy's an interesting and often conflicted pro...

Despite what the box and blurbs might tell you, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim isn't really a game about piloting giant robots. I mean, sure, you do fight off massive swarms of building-sized creatures hellbent on total destruction in an alternate-universe 1980s Japan at some points. But these seemingly model-kit-ready metal combat suits are just a plot device, a cog in the story. In actuality, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a character drama: a twisting, turning sci-fi epic jumping through time and dimensions as it follows the lives of its numerous teen protagonists. Missiles, Gatling guns, and armor-crushing metal fistcuffs are merely a side event to the everyday drama of highschoolers who find themselves unwilling pawns in a bigger game with the fate of the world at stake. And you know what? That's great. Once the narrative of 13 Sentinels sinks its hooks into you, you want nothing more than to go along for the ride up until the very climax. 13 Sentinels is a unique, genre-mixing exp...

The first time I beat the final boss in Hades , I felt an enormous sense of relief. I'd been fighting to see this ending for hours (months, technically, if you count my time in early access), and in roguelikes, it feels better than usual to see an ending. But while I was definitely a little too proud of putting together a set of abilities and perks that shredded the boss after they wrecked me just a few tries ago, that wasn't why I felt tears welling up. I'd gotten so caught up in the story of my character, Zagreus, and the heroes, villains, and gods that had helped him here that I was elated to have finally gotten him to the end of his journey. What sets Hades apart isn't just that it's a great roguelike with the kind of repeatable depth that makes it engrossing to play for hours, but also how it uses its structure to tell an ongoing story about family, secrets, and resolution. That Hades' narrative is so entwined with its combat is nothing new for the develop...

In Spelunky 2 , the turkey's fate is in your hands. You could hop on the bird's back, making use of its double jump and Yoshi-like glide to flap your way through your run. For a solid payout, you could return it and the other birds scattered throughout a stage to the turkey farmer who oversees their pen. You could whip it unconscious, throw a bomb next to its body, and eat the resulting Thanksgiving platter for one heart--or you could do that last one in the farmer's line of sight, prompting him to take up arms against you, "you monster." This is the mode that Spelunky 2 constantly operates in. There are always risk-reward choices to make, and death is nearly instantaneous if you choose poorly. Like its acclaimed predecessor, Spelunky 2 is the rare platformer that demands to be played as much like a tactics game as it does like a Mario game. As you learn (or relearn) how to survive, success requires a willingness to think three moves ahead. Some tiles are booby-...

Mario's never been one to turn down a shindig--one need only look at the numerous Mario Parties he's thrown over the years for proof of that--but his anniversary is one occasion that is rarely celebrated. His 25th anniversary was marked with a Wii re-release of Super Mario All-Stars, of all things--hardly the most auspicious way to commemorate such a remarkable milestone. This year, however, Nintendo is giving Mario a more fitting anniversary tribute, headlining the festivities with Super Mario 3D All-Stars , a Switch compilation featuring a trio of the plumber's most influential adventures: N64's Super Mario 64 , GameCube's Super Mario Sunshine , and Wii's Super Mario Galaxy . But while Mario 3D All-Stars is ostensibly a celebration of Mario's history, a chance to revisit the plumber's genre-defining leap into the third dimension, it's still lacking in some regards. For one, you won't find anything in the way of supplemental material here: just...

There are only two radio channels in the slice-of-life driving simulator, Road to Guangdong--one plays some blend of milquetoast "oriental" music, while the other broadcasts more upbeat and decidedly modern synthwave-inspired melodies. It's this gulf between the two genres that also seems to inspire one of the few highlights behind Road to Guangdong: the light-hearted ribbing between you and your Guu Ma--the Chinese honorific for aunts--as you embark on a road trip together. The elderly Guu Ma's disdain for the pulsating grooves of electronic music means she will always try to change the radio channel back to the vaguely Guangdong-esque music she's more familiar with, after much grumbling about the unrefined state of modern music. You can, of course, flip the channel back again, if only to annoy her--and cackle at her exasperation as she reaches out to change the music once again. While this small interaction is mildly amusing, it doesn't sustain the game...

The set-up for Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York, the second V:TM visual novel following last year's Coteries of New York, is irresistible. The protagonist, Julia, is a newly turned vampire whose life as a struggling freelance investigative journalist is now thankfully behind her. But instead of living a glamorous, exciting vampire existence, she essentially becomes a glorified immigration officer, overseeing vampire movement in and out of New York. It's a rather drab existence until her background as a journalist gifts her an opportunity to head up an investigation concerning the locked-room murder of a high-profile vampire, and her future within New York's vampiric society will depend on whether she's able to solve the crime. In practice, Shadows of New York is less exciting than this premise indicates. There's a murder, yes, and Julia has to solve it. But you, the player, are barely involved. This is a five-hour visual novel that's very low on me...

There's a fine line when playing a deliberately awkward game. On one hand, unreliable physics and purposefully clunky controls can yield hilarious results, as the struggle to perform basic actions is delightfully silly. Much like other absurdist "simulation" games such as Goat Simulator and the original Surgeon Simulator, Surgeon Simulator 2's best moments come from facing a ridiculous scenario while being woefully ill-equipped to deal with it. However, the laughs eventually die down, replaced by exasperated sighs as surgeries become more complex and picking up a scalpel doesn't get any less cumbersome. Played from a first-person perspective, Surgeon Simulator 2 is far closer to a wobbly puzzle game than a proper simulation--albeit one with tongue firmly planted in cheek. In addition to performing surgery, you'll be navigating hospital labyrinths, solving conditional logic puzzles to access medical supplies, and generally trying to prevent the surgical dummy ...

Imagine if you somehow found yourself as an NPC in the world of your favorite classic RPG adventure. Not as a monster-slayer, item-maker, or advice-giver, mind you... just as an average Joe Schmoe who's trying to live their life as the chosen hero goes off to fight the forces of evil. Now, imagine if, upon materializing in this world, you learned that the story the game told you wasn't entirely accurate to that world's reality--and that the "hero" was a bumbling psychopath who can't carry a two-sided conversation, raids townspeople's drawers and cabinets looking for loot, and cuts down any animal he comes across in a crazed craving for EXP. What would your life in this world be like? Could you do anything to help make the world better? This is the idea behind Moon , an "anti-RPG" originally released in Japan on the PlayStation in 1997 that has garnered much acclaim since. Though it was only available in Japanese for quite some time, Moon's c...

I grew up on RPGs with turn-based battles, but I don't play them much anymore. Too often, they're designed for quantity over quality, leading to long strings of fights you can grind through on auto-pilot. It's ironic, then, that Star Renegades , which applies the run-based roguelite structure of games like Into the Breach and Dead Cells to a gauntlet of turn-based RPG battles you repeat over and over again, would find a way to reinvigorate them. Tactically taxing and demanding in every moment, Star Renegades makes every turn feel like a new crossroads where the fate of the world (or at least your playthrough) hangs in the balance. Whether it elicits ecstasy or agony, it's always exciting. The "run" in Star Renegades is a truncated RPG quest. Your party, which begins as a trio and maxes out as a group of six, repels a multiverse-conquering invasion force. Taking a cue from Into The Breach, failing in Star Renegades prompts you to send a robot messenger to the ...

Marvel's Avengers is the Incredible Hulk of video games. The rage-filled Avenger and his scientist alter-ego are the same person and yet wholly different from one another, and Avengers is similarly split between two, sometimes diametrically opposed, personalities. One is a single-player story campaign that can be emotional and thoughtful, tuned to bring you into the shoes of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, while also spending time with them as people. The other is a multiplayer-focused live game full of huge levels where you punch all manner of enemies, without many worries as to why. Both sides work in their own way, but they never quite mesh, leaving Marvel's Avengers a somewhat confused, haphazard game--but a fun one, despite all its inner turmoil. Like the Hulk's mild-mannered counterpart, Bruce Banner, the single-player story campaign of Marvel's Avengers makes a strong first impression with its more thoughtful approach. It's set in its own alternate Marvel Comi...

There is no singular theme to the puzzles in The Last Campfire . In fact, there aren't even distinct spaces where puzzles exist. Instead, the entirety of this quaint puzzle adventure is just one puzzle built on another. Yet despite this, The Last Campfire isn't simply one conundrum after the other. It's a touching tale of helping others while finding your way, and sometimes accepting that not everyone who might look like they're ready to move on needs a nudge in that direction. You play as Ember, a small hooded figure lost in a world between worlds. After some misfortune, you find yourself completely off your intended path, searching for a way back to the gates that so frustratingly passed you by. Littered across your journey are a handful of campfires, each situated in the center of distinct biomes that house numerous other characters in need of your help. These similarly lost souls, known as Forlorn, have abandoned hope of moving on from this world, requiring you to ...

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Lady Love Dies, the "investigation freak" of Paradise, has been brought out of her 3-million-day exile for the end of the island's 24th cycle, her tryst with a demon forgiven in exchange for her solving the murder of the Council that, until last night, oversaw everything. Their eternal quest to summon the gods has been undone by what might or might not be a vast conspiracy, and a clear suspect has emerged: a demon-possessed slave citizen with a history of crime and a stomach full of Council blood. It's up to you to uncover the truth of what happened--or, at least, a version of events that you're satisfied with, one that's close enough to the truth--and pass judgment at trial, so that Paradise can end and the next cycle can begin. Paradise Killer is a detective game like no other, an excellent, bizarre, and utterly singular take on the adventure game. It lets you loose on its island setting, leaving it up to you the...

It's wild to think that long before there was a new Call of Duty game every year, Activision's big annual franchise was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. It's a series in which you only have to worry about tying off each ludicrously long combo before you bail and lose hundreds of thousands of points. With the sounds of bands like Goldfinger and Rage Against the Machine burned into your head, you scour each dense park in search of S-K-A-T-E and that elusive secret tape. And as soon as you finally find them, it's time to restart the two-minute timer and jump back in for one last go--which you already told yourself was three sessions prior. The stimulating trick system keeps you clawing for larger numbers, while the cleverly crafted levels lead you to new gaps, lines, and secrets to add to your combo's path. It's a special series that is infinitely playable, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 captures that nearly perfectly. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 revamps th...

There's an important milestone in every adult's life when they realize that their parents aren't just monolithic figures known only as Mom and/or Dad, but people in their own right who have hopes, dreams, thoughts, and desires that have nothing to do with their children. That’s not exactly new territory in other art, but it's a rarity in games. In the few that do explore that idea, it's usually Dad who gets the attention. That makes Dontnod's Tell Me Why a fascinating anomaly right off the bat. It is, without question, a shattered portrait of a single mother, pieced back together by those who knew her best. The framework of the game screams narrative murder-mystery, but the game takes a Knives Out approach to that; the question of who killed Mary-Ann Ronan is answered by the end of the first episode. Why she died is a far more complex question, and the answers depending on unreliable, traumatic memories throws another wrench into the mix. The memories in quest...

Evergate surprised me. It looked at first to be slightly derivative of Ori and the Blind Forest, and I became interested in it because of those similarities, not in spite of them. In actuality, its common traits with Ori are superficial, and its strong focus on the puzzle part of the puzzle-platformer genre makes for a rich and wholly distinct experience. You play as Ki, a small wisp occupying the afterlife and awaiting reincarnation by journeying through the Evergate. When a crisis threatens to undo the entire afterlife itself, Ki assists by going through the Evergate to relive key memories throughout time and solve the mystery behind the looming disaster. If that concept sounds heady, it is. The game doesn't give you much exposition to start, so you spend the first few hours piecing together the mythology at play. Characters freely throw out terms without explanation, and it's on you to catch up. The main gameplay hook bears a strong resemblance to one of the main platform...