Textbook of Gaming

Oh look, a new Dontnod game… I know, I know, I said I’d give it a rest but I promise this will be the last one until I complete LiS2 ! Captain Spirit serves as a demo for the next instalment of the series, debuting in September, and is centred on the life of Chris, a 10 year old boy living with his dad in a snow covered, two bedroom house in rural Oregon. He also likes to fight the forces of evil as his alter-ego Captain Spirit! The environment art is utterly gorgeous, and sees the devs return to using the Unreal engine to its fullest. Snow drops off the pine trees, and the environments hold their trademark level of detail and painterly textures that made the original so eye-catching. The music, as ever with this series, is contemplative and complimentary to the visual style. Life is hard in Chris’ house. His mother passed away at some point in the past; Chris has immersed himself in comic books and make-believe adventures as a cushion for the blow, whilst dad has turne...

We’re scraping the bottom of the bank account again with the return of Weekend with Indies! This time I’ve taken a look at a game that has intrigued me for a while now: a little endeavour by the developer George Batchelor called Far From Noise . Far From Noise is a visual novel about having a quiet conversation, but it has elements of an adventure game too, with different dialogue boxes leading to different responses. It’s also a bit of a strange one, as the protagonist is a 20-something year old young woman trapped in her car as it teeters over the edge of a cliff. She also passes the time by chatting to a nearby talking deer. Okey dokey. George Batchelor, 2017 In what has become a typical design philosophy for games like this, Far From Noise follows a minimalist style in terms of artwork and user interface and input. The entire game can be played using only the d-pad on your controller, making it highly accessible from a design standpoint. Indie games are often ...

Last week, Quantic Dream released the demo for David “I know Ellen Paige” Cage’s latest adventure game called Detroit: Become Human . The game is set in the near future where domestic, human like Androids are not only a reality but are also beginning to question their place in society. The demo is just one level from the full game entitled “The Hostage”, where the player controls Connor, an Android hostage negotiator working for the Detroit Police Department and one of the central protagonists. Together with the player, Connor must secure the release of a young girl who is being held at gunpoint by her family’s malfunctioning Android. We don’t get off to a great start; the player must pass a speech check with the on-site police captain to gain some initial information. This mostly gets the player nowhere, making the odds of Connor successfully negotiating the little girl’s release from the get-go either middling or poor. Thankfully, there’s plenty of evidence to peruse in order...

Due to starting a full time job, I have unfortunately been neglecting this pokey little blog. I'm still planning on posting every Wednesday, though the articles may be shorter than usual. This will be starting today, with a quick look into the final chapter of one of my favourite games. As I've previously written, I don't think I've played a game quite like  Life is Strange . They have become my go to for a nostalgic trip back to the endless summers and carefree antics of my teenage years. The music, the style, and some of the plot lines come together to create a wonderful mental trip back in time. Deck Nine have done incredibly well in continuing this with the prequel season, Before the Storm , and yesterday they released a bonus episode called "Farewell" to complete the Max and Chloe story arch, starting at the beginning of their story. The day Max leaves for Seattle. As I said in my  Before the Storm review , I wanted to write a little piece about this...