Gaming Archive
Kojima unhinged: A response to Death Stranding
Sam Brooks reviews the most anticipated game of 2019: Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding.
Review: Trails of Cold Steel is as good as video game storytelling gets
Sam Brooks reviews the latest Trails of Cold Steel entry and finds a rare thing: a game full of love and care.
Review: The MediEvil remake is new skin on bad bones
Sam Brooks finds that nostalgia only goes so far in the 2019 remake of MediEvil.
Honk if you feel good: The Spinoff reviews Untitled Goose Game
Toby Morris plays the lo-fi avian puzzle game that's taken over the internet.
The gaming apocalypse scenarios most (and least) likely to happen in real life
Grim post-apocalyptic settings are a dime a dozen in gaming, but which ones are the most realistic? Sam Brooks talked to climate scientist David Tong to find out.
The game that flew too far from the sun: Fable on its 15th birthday
Fable is best remembered for the disastrous, over-the-top promises made by its designer Peter Molyneux. But maybe, Adam Goodall argues, we’re remembering it all wrong.
Review: With Gears 5, the franchise gets its groove back
Lee Henaghan travelled to Canada for a special Gears 5 preview event at The Coalition studios in Vancouver. Could this be a return to form for the game that gave the world the chainsaw bayonet?
Be some kind of superstar: Ranking the songs of the original Singstar
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the karaoke game that introduced an entire generation to the horrors of 'Downtown'. Jordan Hamel ranks all 30 songs from SingStar v1.
Trump meets Transformers: Metal Wolf Chaos XD is the most American game ever made
After fifteen years, American-targeted satire video game Metal Wolf Chaos XD finally makes it way out of Japan. Sam Brooks looks at how much more prescient the game is now, and why that is.
Review: Fire Emblem Three Houses breathes new life into a classic franchise
Sam Brooks reviews Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which perfectly splits difference between staying true to its core while reinventing itself to appeal to a broader audience.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was an Assassin’s Creed game – but only just
Sam Brooks re-assesses Assassin's Creed Odyssey in the wake of ten months of post-release content and works out what the game did right, did wrong, and did weird.
Emily Writes: How I learned to love Minecraft
A personal journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.
Why do video games keep messing up Māori representation?
Māori culture shouldn't be something that's half-heartedly appropriated for some cool video game visuals. So why do developers keep doing it?
What it’s like to be a woman working in a video game store
Lucy Zee recounts the worst job she ever had: Working in a video game store.
Review: I hate that I enjoyed Harry Potter: Wizards Unite as much as I did
A new challenger has entered the augmented reality ring. Wizarding wonder Harry Potter is coming for Pokémon GO’s title — but despite the shared basics, they’re very different games.
Forever a teenager: Confessions of a late-in-life video game obsessive
A few years ago, deep into middle age, Britta Stabenow found solace in the world of gaming. Now she's part of a passionate community: those who love, and collect, video games.
Review: Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled is nostalgic navel-gazing
Sam Brooks reviews Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fuelled, an exercise in mining nostalgia for diminishing returns.
20 years ago, Driver reinvented gaming and nobody knew it
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Driver, a game whose innovations pioneered some of gaming's biggest present-day trends. Sam Brooks takes a look at the groundbreaking game's launch – and the series' unfortunate decline.
All this year’s key E3 gaming announcements
E3 is the biggest week of gaming news of the year – which means it's easy to lose track of everything that's been announced. Sam Brooks rounds up them all up in one convenient place for you.
Like ads on the moon, catching Pokémon while you sleep is gross and wrong
Following the multi-billion dollar success of Pokémon Go, Nintendo is intent on turning a profit from the most mysterious human experience of all: sleep.
Inside Wellycon, New Zealand’s largest board game convention
Marc Daalder goes inside Wellycon, New Zealand's largest board game convention to find out why the genre is having a renaissance.
Review: Total War: Three Kingdoms is a superb game – and history nerd heaven
Sam Brooks reviews Total War: Three Kingdoms and finally finds the definitive Romance of the Three Kingdoms game.
This is your brain on Pokémon: Researchers confirm Pikachu changes the way you think
Mum was right: heavy exposure to pocket monsters fundamentally rewires your brain. But researchers from Stanford say it’s an exciting opportunity to study how we learn to see.
Lovestruck is one part game, one part romance novel, one part queer revolution
Tof Eklund reviews Lovestruck, a free-to-play treasure trove of romantic queer gaming content.
