Mark Steighner
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COGConnectedLatest Reviews
While it looks and plays differently than past Dragon Age games, Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn’t abandon either its rich trove of lore, well-imagined characters or the ability to tell engaging stories. Dragon Age: The Veilguard has memorable companions and action-focused combat that contains more than enough depth to see...
The Quiet Place films had a remarkably simple but very effective narrative hook. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a pitch-perfect, authentic recreation of the movies’ tone and tension. What holds it back is the lack of variety in player input stretched over the game’s running time of eight...
Whether you date it to the beginning in 1972 with Pong, or in 1980 with Pac-Man, this history of video games is by now substantial. And when it’s told, that history has to include developer Blizzard. The company’s flagship titles — WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo — have defined the MMORPG,...
Decades after games like Everquest and World of Warcraft began to define the MMORPG genre, developers are still birthing new ones, hoping to siphon enough players from some other game to theirs. There are at least a few types of MMORPG fans. One group consists of dedicated players who form...
Funko Fusion
True confession time. I don’t own a single Funko Pop! figure. Sure, I have shelves groaning with the weight of pop culture and gaming memorabilia, action figures, and toys but no hermetically sealed special edition Funko bobbleheads. I am, alas, a very bad nerd. Still, while I might not collect...
I know it’s a virtue and all that, but I’m not a patient person. Standing in line, getting stuck in traffic, or waiting for downloads to finish, they all suck. I admire those folks for whom these are opportunities to practice zen-like calm, but I just get annoyed. The same...
Soulslikes are like pasta. Pasta comes in many forms and can be dressed up in a lot of different ways. In the end, though, the delicious dish in front of you is sauce, noodles, and whatever else was added to make it stand out. Enotria: The Last Song is a...
If you’ve been following Black Myth: Wukong‘s development, you know there’s been lots of discussion and speculation about what kind of game it is. It’s an action RPG for sure. But is it a Soulslike, an open-world RPG, a boss rush Monster Hunter-clone, or a distant cousin to God of...
Cat Quest III
Now in their third iteration, the Cat Quest games have always been a combination of action RPG and a cat pun delivery system. There are more cat-related puns, jokes, and other references per square inch than you can imagine. Cat Quest 3 is pirate themed, adding a whole new opportunity...
A few years ago, I attended a developer presentation for a promising new Soulslike called Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. It left me intrigued and impressed. The 18th century-ish setting checked some interesting boxes and the duo-protagonist mechanic looked cool. The magic and guns combo helped the fast-paced combat stand...
I love film noire, great detective stories, hardboiled dialogue, and true crime. As genres go, they’re a bit underrepresented in video games, though not entirely absent. Add to the roster Nobody Wants to Die. In addition to being a genuinely impressive retro-future noire narrative, it’s a troubling meditation on several...
Once Human
Games that take a multi-genre approach to design have at least two challenges. First, the components have to make sense together. Second, the hybrid mash-up still needs a strong identity. It can’t be “jack-of-all-trades, master of none.” Luckily, Once Human solves these problems in a satisfying and engaging way. It...
