Hellblade dev, Ninja Theory, Turns Its Attention to Real World Metal Illness Tomorrow

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a copy of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, tomorrow you may have one of the best you could ask for. Tomorrow, October 10th, Hellblade Developer Ninja Theory will be donating ALL proceeds made to the UK mental health group Rethink.

In the game (which i have not player, for the sake of disclosure)  the protagonist Senua suffers from psychosis. This has draw both praise and criticism to the game for it’s depiction of mental illness, but overall there seems to be a consensus that Ninja Theory handled the topic with the respect it deserves.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has an 80 or higher on both Metacritic and OpenCritic, and is widely considered to be one of the best games this year (which is saying a lot. 2017 has been a good year for games).

Doom and Wolfenstein 2 are coming to Switch

Unlike most people, I don’t believe Nintendo need third party support the way Microsoft and Sony do. They could easily keep keep themselves afloat with just their first party IP’s. That’s not to say, however, that i don’t want them to be more competitive in the console market, and third party support would help there. The fact they don’t need 3rd party games also means there’s no real reason not to have them on their platform. This kind of thing can only be good for everyone involved.

And so we come to todays big news: Bethesda is bringing Doom and Wolfenstein 2 to the Switch. And like i said, this is good for everyone. Nintendo is going to get it’s cut, Bethesda gets to bring it’s games to a new audience and gamers get at least one more really solid game for their console (yes, yes, i’m looking foreword to Wolfenstein 2  as well, but i haven’t played it so i’m not going to say it’s “good” yet. But let’s face it, the game will most likely kick ass). Plus, Nintendo gets the added benefit of diversifying their library with a genre they (to my knowledge) have never made before without having to do any work. And, unless these ports are really, really bad, this should also help get rid of the idea that the Switch isn’t “powerful” enough to handle AAA titles, which in tern should help persuade more studio’s to port their titles to the console as well.

Hey Look, Some Actual Satire from South Park: The Fractured But Whole

South Park is trash. It’s always been trash. That’s okay, but it has always annoyed me when people try to pass off it’s trashiness by calling it “satire”.  The only thing South Park has ever been interested in saying was “everyone who cares about anything is stupid”. I really hate to break it to you ladies and gentlemen, but that isn’t satire.

But, i do believe in giving the devil his due. And as such, The new South Park game does have at least one instance of creative and poignant satire. The difficulty of the game is based on your characters race. The darker your character, the harder the game is. In a world were literal neo-nazi’s and white supremacist are marching down the street and African America’s are still disproportionately targets of police brutality,  this still shows a certain…cultural awareness i wasn’t expecting from the makers of South Park. It’s still possible (and lets face it, more than likely) that the game will end up wasting the ability to really say something about race relations in modern America, but if our choices are between “lack-luster satire” and the kind of “you know, BLM and the KKK are pretty much the same thing” that you’d expect from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, i’ll go with the former.

Enter the Gungeon coming to the Nintendo Switch

Hot dang, here are the games still to come in 2017:@Absolver@RuinerGame
Enter the Gungeon [Switch]
Minit
Sometimes Always Monsters
More… pic.twitter.com/oPE93B5lMx

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) July 28, 2017

Once upon a time, i sent Devolver Digital an email saying “hi, i’m an up and coming games journalist and would like to be added to your press list”. They ignored it. I don’t blame them for this, i” just bringing it up because i realize this may be old news to anyone who actually get press releases from Devolver. With that out of the way: Hey switch owners, noew there’s a game other than Zelda and Mario Kart worth playing on your switch. I reviewed Enter the Gungeon ages ago and love the hell out of it and think it;s going to fit in nicely with the switch’s line-up. Not much else to say about this one, but this is swiftly becoming one of those games you’re running out of excuses not to play.

Indie Darling Bleed Coming to PS4 and Xbox One

Bleed and it’s sequel two of the best surprises I’ve played since i started reviewing games. They’re both a bit on the short end, but they are both marvelous little games. And luckily for you, if you missed the game when it was regionally released for the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Indie Games service and don’t have a computer, next month the original game will be coming to both the PS4 and Xbone One. Xbox owners will even get a 20% discount if they pre-order the game.  If you’re in the market for a really good action platformer that you can get on the cheap, i can’t recommend Bleed enough.

And if you want to read my review for Bleed 2, you can do that HERE.

Metal Gear turns 30-Years-Old

Hideo Kojima’s gloriously incomprehensible railing against nuclear proliferation, private military contractors and the military-industrial complex turns 30 today. While many fans are more failure with the “Solid” sub-series/continuation, the franchise got it’s start on the Japanese MSX2 computer 30 years ago today. While i wasn’t the biggest fan of the series’ most recent outing, The Metal Gear franchise still holds a very special place in my heart. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater still places is my list of all time favorite games, and i only ever got into gaming thanks to finding an old Playstation and the first disk of Metal Gear Solid 1 years and years ago.

So happy Birthday Metal Gear! Hopefully Konomi doesn’t completely ruin the franchise over the next 30 years.

Mario/Rabbisds RPG is real…for some reason

There’s this “really funny” joke people like to make regarding Nintendo, maybe you’ve heard it before: “Nintendo just does the same thing over and over”. You see, it’s funny becuase we’re going to ignore the aesthetic and game play shack-ups and focus on the fact that each game uses an established formula in order to make those shake-ups more palpable.  Well, here you go you finest of comedians, Nintendo is doing something new. And stupid.

Okay, okay. Before any one jumps down my throat, yes i wish Nintendo would do more in the “originality” department too. Maybe develop some more new IP’s, maybe do something with some of their old ones (cough cough Metroid cough cough). But over all i really do think the idea that Nintendo is simply resting on their laurels is a bit over blown. I also think that public perception is starting to get to Nintendo, which has lead them down a dark and very stupid path.

I mean….just look at this. LOOK AT IT. Mario with a gun? A Cosplaying “Rabbisd” dressed as Peach taking a selfie? This is just, so….so dumb. This is what you get when you force Nintendo to be too creative.

Okay, okay. I’m being a little hyperbolic. Just a bit. Dumb idea’s often make for good games, so it’s kind of unfair to judge too prematurely.

Enter the Gungeon comes to the Xbox One Next Week

Enter the Gungeon was the second game i reviewed after starting this site, and i freaking loved it. Right until i got super invested in Overwatch i had been using the game as my go to podcasting game. Well, now those of you made the mistake of decided to buy an Xbox One now get to experience the game for yourself. On top of the base game Xbox players will also get the expanded content from the recent Supply Drop update which added 200 new rooms as well as new bosses, enemies and weapons. That’s not too shabby if you haven’t already played the game.

Playtonic to JonTron: Nazi Punks Fuck Off

It would seem that Playtonic had once brought on famed Youtuber and recently self-exposed Xenophobe Jontron for some voice work in their up coming game Yooka-Laylee. That partnership seems to have been ended after JonTron…well…you know….went on a racist rant about how immigrant are evil. While the games odd language and vocal distortions could have made it easy to hard hide the fact Playtonic were working with him, it’s nice to see people taking a stand against this kind of hatred and bigotry. Really the only bad thing about this story was i couldn’t settle on which version of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” to post, so i had to use both. And that’s a good problem to have.

Law Breakers goes into Closed Beta This Month

Hey, look! Some actual gaming news that’s worth talking about. That’s rare. Okay, enough jokes. March 16-19, right after PAX, Lawbreakers  will be entering into a closed beta. Ever since i fell in love with Overwatch and heard this was its gory, M-Rated sister i’ve been interested in getting my hands on it. Granted that may not be until the player base dies down to just the overly dedicated and the game becomes inaccessible to new players due to poverty and a lack of free time. But hey, what matters is that i’ll always have overwatch to go back too once i’m inevitably driven off, right? But for those of you with some free time (please leave a comment telling me what that’s like), you can sign up for the open beta HERE . And for those of you with money, email me for my address, i take cash and checks.