Insult Sword Fighting is Monkey Island’s most iconic puzzle. The point-and-click adventure series from LucasArts is undoubtedly one of the most famous games from the ’90s, and it still serves as a best practice roadmap for organically weaving humor through world, puzzle, and combat design. While there are plenty of …
Read More »Silent Hill 2, Ico, SSX… can gaming recapture the lost magic of the PS2 era?
The innocent days when I would get all my hot music tips from GTA’s radio station are over, and I miss them. The peak of the PS2 era was a weird time when Rockstar was breaking the rules, not repackaging them, Ico was proving videogames can be art, and – …
Read More »Super Mario 64 turns 25: Examining the impact of the N64s most revolutionary game
Nintendo has always been a company that has set its own agenda, and that has rarely been more apparent than it was with the N64. Rather than following the likes of 3DO, Sega, and Sony into the CD-ROM market, it stuck doggedly to cartridges. Instead of simply evolving the SNES …
Read More »“The outrage was ridiculous”: How Raven Software made one of the most controversial shooters of its time with Soldier of Fortune
The pitch for Soldier Of Fortune was bizarre. If you were told you were going to be making a game based on a licence, you might expect a superhero like Batman, or a well-known movie franchise like Terminator. Instead, Raven Software got a magazine. As if that wasn’t unusual enough, …
Read More »Why Nier: Replicant had to be made, and why its “so much more than a simple version up”
More than ten years after its original release, cult classic JRPG Nier Replicant is being rebuilt for modern hardware. Debuting on PS3, Nier originally followed a father’s quest to cure his ailing young daughter Yonah. Now Nier returns reimagined as a previously Japan-exclusive teen protagonist and his journey to heal …
Read More »Open Roads takes Gone Homes developer on a star-studded road trip
No one at Fullbright knew what 2021 would look like when it brought its third game to Annapurna Interactive in 2018. Even so, it’s hard to deny the allure of the open road is particularly keen now that long-distance travel is off the table. The studio’s goal back then, though, …
Read More »The history of Animal Crossing: How the series evolved from an N64 oddity to a Nintendo Switch system seller
Few companies can turn failure into a success story quite like Nintendo. Whether it’s the Wii U games that tanked on release but are suddenly must-have games on Switch, or turning the fortunes of the laughed-out-of-town DS around almost overnight and growing it into one of the most successful handhelds …
Read More »“Were able to show the difference from whats possible today with whats possible tomorrow”: Inside Epic’s Unreal Engine 5
Epic has always been in the business of seeing the future. Nowadays, however, the situation is a little more complicated than that. “It’s kind of a scam,” smiles CEO and founder Tim Sweeney, “because while we’re predicting the future, we’re actually secretly building it in the background so that our …
Read More »The PS5 could kickstart a dream generation, but Sonys first-party studios have a lot of questions to answer first
Thought 2020 was Year Of The Rat? Think again. The Chinese Zodiac is way off: this is the year of PlayStation 5. PS4 Pro was a brilliant 4K stop-gap, but when Sony’s new console launches this winter, get ready for one hell of a leap forward. There shouldn’t be any …
Read More »Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order succeeds as the first game to truly understand the power of the lightsaber
Get more great writing from Official Xbox Magazine (Image credit: Future) This article is taken from Official Xbox Magazine, your guide to Xbox One and with the inside track on Xbox One Series X. Subscribe now for as little as $9 for three digital issues (opens in new tab). Before …
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