Even though technology is evolving at a pace that might impress a super-virus, humanity's fondness for settling down with a good story hasn't dissipated. What has changed is the way we consume those stories: While many of us are content to feel rough pages turn under our fingers, the popularity of eBooks and digital readers has blossomed over the past five years.
Sometimes a series of smaller niggles - niggles that on their own wouldn't be too great of a threat - can build up to the extent that they completely overshadow any of the good that a video game has to offer. A lot of the time it's silly little things that are easily solvable, but were simply overlooked.
Another day, another seemingly unsolvable mystery involving a lunatic in a mask! Dark Tales: Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death is inspired by Poe's original story and takes you to the town of Lumineux where city officials are disappearing. A strange gentleman in a creepy red mask is up to something, so you're called in to investigate. Grab your monocle and cane, it's time to play detective!
From the games of the Adelantado Trilogy, to Roads of Rome and even Northern Tale, it's safe to say that publisher Realore has a firm grasp on the time management genre. Fans of those previous games have a new option in Viking Saga, but as you might expect, this one comes with some slight differences that make it both better and worse than other "identical" games.
Just because Telltale Games won eleventy million awards (seriously, I counted) for The Walking Dead doesn't mean their developers went all grim and gritty all the time. To prove it, they returned to their humorous roots with Poker Night 2, a game they describe as "the unnecessary sequel" to Poker Night at the Inventory. Play poker against some true characters, unlock some goodies and get ready to laugh.
A few minutes ago when I sat down at my computer to start writing this review, I saw an enormous and terrifying spider crawl under my desk, and now I keep nervously glancing down at the floor around me every five seconds as I type this so I can scream and run away whenever he decides to come back out. In some ways, this is sort of what it is like to be scientist gentleman Wilson in the fantastic new survival adventure game Don't Starve: always keeping one eye over your shoulder, your safety always in question, and never knowing when or where the next frightening creature is going to appear. It's a good thing that playing this game is a whole lot more fun than sharing your workspace with an unwelcomed eight-legged guest.
While games in the time management genre obviously challenge you to manage your time, there are also sub-genres within this space for players that want to focus on either strategy or speed. Strategy games may see you balancing the use of resources and workers, but Fitness Bustle: Energy Boost falls into the other category, as this is one game focused solely on speed.
Describing the indie creation of two-man team Sean Hogan and Jon Kittaka requires more than a single comparative line, and much more to understand it. I'm still working on understanding it. But the experience of Anodyne is The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening set inside a Hieronymus Bosch triptych. While much of the adventure is surreal and abstract self-reflection, just as much is cemented in the concrete gaming mainstays of monster slaying, item collection, and puzzle solving.