Getting out of the underworld can be fun
I didn’t know exactly what to expect upon hearing that Night School Studio’s next game would be about beating Satan at drinking games. It didn’t matter, really; I was sold on whatever they were doing after finishing their first game, the atmospheric and creepy Oxenfree.
That confidence was well-founded, as it turns out. Though Afterparty is surely a niche title, it represents that niche quite well and contains some of the best voice acting in all of gaming, full stop.
Don’t allow JKR’s beliefs to rob you of something you love
I want to implore everyone who has ever found something inspiring, something heroic, something worth teaching your children, or even a reflection of themselves in the Wizarding World: please do not set aside the books you love as a reaction to their author’s statements. Regardless of how you feel about her stance on trans-rights, don’t punish yourself in an attempt to punish Rowling herself.
I’ve seen so many people say they can’t read the books anymore, that they’ve taken posters and memorabilia from their walls but kept them in their house because they can’t bear to part with it in…
Rockets and bombs and guns, oh my!
All the way back to the Atari 5200, flying games always drew me in. I still count River Raid among my favorites of all time, can still picture the box art in my mind. In the NES era, the 2D side-scrolling space games like Life Force and Gradius took up the mantle, the various weapons and power-ups inviting a gleeful smile to my face as I blasted away. And until I fired up Rogue Aces, it wasn’t a genre that stood out as a focal point for me. …
PlayStation 5’s technological marvel doesn’t disappoint
At its core, Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank series has always been about the characters and their fight to learn who they are supposed to be, in the face of devastating circumstances. The defective robot with the will to live and save others. The (seemingly) last member of a decimated species, struggling to become the hero he wants to be while coming to terms with his place in the world.
Recapping the game’s direct prequel, Into the Nexus
Not long after the game’s announcement, fans were surprised to learn that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was not a sequel to the events of 2016’s reimagination of the very first game in the franchise. Instead, it is a direct follow-on to 2013’s Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, which was an epilogue to the Future trilogy and took place immediately following the events of the spinoff game Full Frontal Assault. Confused yet? Not to worry, I’ll lay it all out for you so things will be clear when Rift Apart drops in just a few days!
The zaniest, zappiest weapons and gadgets in the Ratchet & Clank universe
It has to be the Sheepinator. No, no, it’s the RYNO! Oooh, Mr. Zurkon! While it may not be the most talked-about debate in gaming, it is certainly one of the liveliest. Discussing exactly which is the best way to dispatch the various enemies of Ratchet & Clank(R&C), be they Cragmites, Blarg, or Argorian tends to lead off in many different directions.
Do I slash them with the whip made of lightning? Perhaps I launch a wave of homing missiles to chase them across the arena? Maybe I want a bit of a challenge and only use the giant, ever-present…
Platforming, weapons, and collectibles, oh my!
As the new Millenium began, development on Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the third adventure of the adorable purple wyvern, was drawing to a close. Spyro’s creator, Insomniac Games, was ready to do something fresh after spending 5 years with that franchise. At the same time, Sony was looking for launch-window titles for their soon-to-release console sequel, the PlayStation 2, which would debut on October 26th, two days after Year of the Dragon.
The folks at Insomniac wanted to prove that they could do something more than just platformers. Two different titles would spend time in the hands of the…
PlayStation’s biggest next-gen title still seems on track for a 2021 release
In their latest State of Play broadcast, Sony showed off 15 minutes of brand new footage from one of their tent-pole franchises. Horizon: Forbidden West, the sequel to 2016’s mega-hit Horizon: Zero Dawn, had shown little more than a teaser trailer up to this point. Most industry watchers predicted there was no way the game would still come out in 2021, thanks mostly to COVID restrictions on development. But developer Guerilla Games is set to deliver their sequel in late 2021, barring any setbacks.
Any and all PS5 news is truly exciting these days, so check out the clip here…
Plus updates on three previously announced indie titles
Sony’s resident rockstar Shuhei Yoshida (sorry Jim Ryan), wrote a post on the PlayStation blog this week that set up another day for Sony to focus on their PlayStation Indies initiative. Sure enough, four new games and three updates were dropped over the course of three hours. The biggest news of the day will undoubtedly be the further details and release date for the highly anticipated Disco Elysium: Final Cut, which is coming on March 30th. More on that shortly, as we’ll first detail the four new game announcements that were made today.
CREATOR INTERVIEW
Showcasing multiple ways to work in the gaming industry
Here at SUPERJUMP, we always want to talk with game designers and developers to find out how they got into the industry and what gave them the motivation to go after a career in gaming. But we also like to spotlight other careers in the industry, to show those who may be thinking of chasing this particular dream that there’s more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.
Lucky for us, we have an excellent example of just that topic in our own ranks. Our writer Aaron Moy has a lot of different jobs in the industry, and he’s…
Bryan Finck
A thought isn’t an idea until you write it down and share it with the world. So I write thoughts about video games, and a few other things. Twitter: @htb390
