My Recency Bias

Gris is a lot of things. Mechanically, it’s a 2D platformer with some puzzle elements that feels wonderful to play. Sensorily, it’s a visual and auditory wonder as you move through this watercolor world, where any one frame of the game looks good enough to be hung in a museum, and the sound design and music do much to try and create an emotional experience within you. Artistically, this game floored me. Gris is a story of grief and its five stages, and by the end of the game you can’t help but admit that you played something both beautiful and worthwhile. The first impression you’ll have of Gris is the striking, watercolor art style. What makes the art style work is the fact that it always maintains itself during gameplay, so there will never be a point when the game doesn’t look stunning, even during some of the more complex platforming sections. The same can be said for the sound design and music, as both work in tandem with the art style to allow the player to immerse themselv...

  Obsidian’s Pentiment is a dialogue focused RPG murder-mystery that has many great qualities to make it worth your time. The art style has been a highlight of the marketing because in an age of photorealism and fidelity, the style of renaissance illuminated manuscripts is a breath of fresh air. The dedication to displaying life as it was in the 16 th century does not stop at its art style though, as the absolute highlight of this game, as is with basically every Obsidian game, is its stellar writing. The murder mystery is fun to unravel, as is becoming intimately familiar with the fictional setting of Tassing, Bavaria. The real core of this game, and what I am sure to think back most on, is its themes. There's a conversation that Game Director Josh Sawyer and the rest of the team want to have with this game about art, and the importance of art telling things as they are and as they were, rather than dismissing it or forgetting it. Through its interesting use of decision making, ...

  Ranking Every Destiny 2 Reveal Livestream (Shadowkeep-Final Shape)   After the Final Shape showcase just came out yesterday, I thought now would be a good time to rank the past 5 Destiny 2 live streams in terms of reveals and set expectations.   5. Final Shape There is a lot to love about The Final Shape showcase. The new supers look really fun, the narrative and destination space will hopefully be really intriguing to play through, and finally getting an in-game Looking for Group (LFG) feature next season is exciting, as are the many quality of life updates coming soon. Other than that, Bungie was extremely tightlipped about most elements of the new expansion. And I get it, you want this finale to be a surprise, “vacuum sealed” campaign that will supposedly tie up all loose ends of Destiny’s Light and Darkness Saga. But by saying that, and having that be evident in the showcase, that doesn’t leave a lot in the way of reveals for the community to get excited about. It’s...

  The thing about Yakuza: Like a Dragon is that it is simply one of the coolest games ever made. After around 50 hours into the game, I am nearing the end of my journey and after reflecting on everything and in its totality, Like a Dragon stands as one of my favorite games that I have played this year, and a game I will continue to think about long after finishing it.   Speaking first on the characters and the story, this is the backbone of the game in a lot of ways but also the place where the game can stumble a bit, especially when it comes to pacing. The first few hours, like most JRPG’s, is very exposition and dialogue heavy, setting up all these narrative threads that won’t reappear for almost 20 hours sometimes. This is the place where I was the most unsure of the game, not knowing what to expect other than the fact that there must be something more than this for so many people to recommend it. Thankfully there was, and I now can call Ichiban Kasuga, the main characte...

  Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart is the first game in the series that I have ever played and finished, but it is certainly not the first multiverse story I have ever experienced. In the past 5 years, the prominence of alternate universes has only skyrocketed in the media we consume. If you want a heartfelt story that throws every concept at the wall, then Everything Everywhere All at Once is likely to satisfy your multiverse craving. And if you want a show that feels like it’s constantly resetting the status quo of what stories can be told with a multiversal premise, then Rick and Morty might fill that niche. It’s this idea of filling a niche proposition in the multiverse space that I was most curious about going into this game. What aspect of Rift Apart ’s gameplay and/or narrative helps it to stand apart amid the (possibly) overpopulated premise of multiverse stories? The answer is that, through endearing characters you connect with instantly, through new technological leaps n...