Two weeks ago I'd never played a Metal Gear game in my life, and that's despite my wife badgering me on and off for over a decade to give it a chance. My excuses ranged from “I'll add it to the backlog” to “my PlayStation is packed away,” so the timing was never quite right. That all changed when Konami released the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 1 on the PS5, and I was tasked with actually sitting down with Solid Snake and finding out what all the hype was about.
Everyone loves a good treasure hunt, whether it’s in its simplest form of your mum hiding your easter eggs around the garden, or plundering bountiful booty after battling a mighty kraken, as you retrieve Athena’s Fortune (shout out to Sea of Thieves for letting me live out my pirate-based dreams). It’s not just the thrill of the hunt; it’s the adventure, the mystery, the peril, and most importantly, the shiny things we collect along the way.
Since humans first sprang into existence, there have been many interpretations of what life could be like once we expire. The Catholic belief I grew up with told us that we’d be clad in all-white garbs, probably playing golf for eternity should our lives be deemed “Good.” This never sat well with me, as no priest or vicar would ever answer the question, “Are there video games in heaven?” The look of disdain that usually followed such an innocent question gave me all the answers I ever needed. While I’m not here to talk about what happens when our physical form craps out on us, I am here to talk about Sluggerfly’s take on the afterlife, as presented in my new bible - Hell Pie.
Drew has pledged to slowly but slowly churn his way through his sizeable stack of Nintendo Switch games for his 'Beat the Backlog' feature. Check out his main article to see what games he's completed already!
The Destiny 2: Shadowkeep holds a lot of firsts for Guardians. It was the first expansion Bungie self-published after its split from Activision, it is the first release for what is the current free-to-play base game, and it introduced several gameplay mechanics like finishers, Nightmare Hunts, and a reworked armour system. While things have certainly changed since the 2019 expansion first came into being, Shadowkeep is an expansion that deserves some attention, even if it is starting to show its age.
Drew has pledged to slowly but slowly churn his way through his sizeable stack of Nintendo Switch games for his 'Beat the Backlog' feature. Check out his main article to see what games he's completed already!
Thanks to the Booster Course Pass, I’ve been playing a lot of Mario Kart 8 lately but Mario’s latest entry in the long-running series first came into my life during the Wii U era, the glorious time when a grand total of 24 people played some of Nintendo’s best games. Since I was busy playing games, and not writing about them, I thought it was high time to fix this mistake and tell you why I think Mario Kart 8 Deluxe should be added to your Switch collection without delay.
In a month where I celebrated my 40th birthday, I’ve been looking back over a lot of things, including video games. It’s strange to think that I’ve now been wielding a controller for probably three-quarters of my life, and how many of my favourite gaming experiences are still of those games I played almost 30 years ago. So as a gamer ‘of a certain age’, pixel art platformer Berserk Boy immediately appealed to my sense of nostalgia, sporting a gorgeous look that’s clearly inspired by some of the greats of my heyday. Without a moment to spare, I snatched up my pro controller - it was time to go berserk!
I’ve always said that some of my earliest gaming memories typically revolve around a blue hedgehog running from left to right, chasing down an evil rotund doctor. The recollections are so ingrained in my brain that I look back on them fondly with a rose-tinted view, and accept them as absolute truth. That is until a rogue memory triggers from a benign task, say unboxing a Sega Master System II for the first time in eight years, and realising those gilded feelings aren’t the full story. You see, before a wide-eyed Joe clapped his peepers on Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive, he watched his older sister pour hours upon hours of free time into a curious wonder known as the Master System. After re-remembering Sega’s pre-MD home console, my gamerbrain™ kicked into gear and I started thinking about what the 8-Bit era had to offer. During my research of fledgling platformers and RPGs, dungeon crawlers and racers, I came across a top-down shoot-‘em-up called Aleste, or Power Strike for us Westerners; a game that somewhat ironically released on a day most of us forgets - 29 February.
I’ve never taken drugs. I know the dangers and side effects of that scene, but the true reason is I’m scared I’ll get hooked. I know what I’m like with a strong coffee, let alone taking something designed to mess up my noodle. This applies not only to the hardcore stuff but also to paracetamol. I’ll only take something if I can’t shift an illness after six days, and even then my wife has to practically force the pills into my body. So when someone says, “Oh, this is a drug trip,” I automatically assume it’s popping a couple of Tesco's own-brand Ibuprofen to take something for a sniffle. But after seeing thirty seconds of Post Void I’m inclined to believe that this game is what it’s like to experience a drug trip.
