Often hiding in the “tactical wargame” subgenre of strategy are games that are less likely to make you feel like a battlefield commander and more likely to make you feel like you’re solving a puzzle cube. Whereas XCOM is the…
Grindstone is Still Very Good in 2021
As games about blood-raging berserkers go, Grindstone is probably the most brain-tickling. Kratos never spent much time plotting his next move. Conan was never concerned about his killstreak. Jorg, with skin covered in ice and demeanor covered in gloom, is…
Mortal Shell’s Combat Proves It Isn’t a Souls-like Husk
Most “Souls-likes,” games that resemble 2011’s seminal action RPG Dark Souls, do their best not to resemble From Software’s runaway hit at all. The most notable ones add a lot of color and a sci-fi setting or make it 2D…
Signs of the Sojourner Turns Deckbuilding Into Dialogue
Signs of the Sojourner isn’t scared of being a deck-builder in the scariest year in recent memory. Besides all that other stuff going on, the genre isn’t new or novel on the simple strength of it’s mechanics anymore. Developer Echodog…
Treachery in Beatdown City Proves That Urban Games Are Better When Written by Urban People
Spotify | Apple Podcasts Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy, is largely credited for the concerted push for people of color being represented on screen for primetime television in droves for a significant part of the last decade. At least…
Below’s Explore Mode Makes a Frustrating Game Great
It takes a good amount of self-awareness to recognize that something you’ve done – something you’ve been working on for the better part of ten years – isn’t perfect. Below had a long development cycle, and when it finally launched,…
Battlemode, the Multiplayer Mode in Doom Eternal, is a Certified Banger
The day I learned that Doom Eternal had a multiplayer mode was the day I walked into GameStop and purchased a physical copy. Oddly, I’d consumed a hell of a lot of Doom-related content up until that point, but none…
If Hell is a Place, it’s Where Doom Eternal’s Marauder Is
Doom Eternal is a very tough game. It makes absolutely no bones about how rapid and aggressive the demon menace will be. They spawn endlessly. They pursue you without relent. They pull no punches, and go for the kill every…
Doom Eternal is Best Played Slow and Steady
Doom Eternal is a video game about killing your outer demons. A follow up to 2016’s Game of the Year, Doom Eternal is, in every nearly every conceivable way, better than the first. Ripping and tearing hellspawn from other dimensions…
Iris and the Giant is a Unique Adventure in a Genre That’s Running Out of New Ideas
Iris and the Giant is something you don’t see everyday – a deck builder with a story. The titular, young Iris sees hardship all around her. The kids at school make fun of her, making her reclusive and timid. She…
I Was Wrong About Bayonetta
Spotify | iTunes – I’ve dedicated plenty of internet ink to why Hideki Kamyia is a goddamn genius/madman. The creator of Dante the devil slayer has a legacy of being an auteur of a exploitative sort of vision of games…
Who is the President of Video Games?
This Presidents Day Jarrett Green (@jarrettjawn) wants to know: Who is the President of Video Games? Spotify | iTunes Alex (@ALFighter27), Jurge (@jcruzalvarez26), and Quin (@Quantum_Arbiter) have answers. If you also have answers, tweet them to us @Irrationalpod! Also, with it being…