TeamFight Tactics. Auto Chess. Dota Underlords. You may have played either one of them and they have their own variations, tilesets, and rules. However, they all go under the same class of competitive games that dominated mobile games and PCs earlier in 2019. The premise is easy: buy "chess" pieces, put them on the

The premise of this wacky Australian-made game is pretty simple. You are a Goose and your job is to completely wreck the lives of the people in the nearby village. And that's pretty much it. Forget all other sophisticated video game concepts. Untitled Goose Game is the kind of video game we never knew we wanted. Th

How do you challenge the behemoth that is the ubiquitous Fortnite? Do you face the king of battle royale head-on by ripping them off? Or do you stick to your guns and pray that your "realistic" approach -*cough*PUBG*cough-  appeals to the more "matured" crowd? What about creating your own niche instead? Here's how:

From humble beginnings to running a publication as head of content, I do owe my path in games writing and criticism to the Borderlands franchise, at least the mothership titles. Starting off with my 2008-2009 stint on GameAxis with the first game... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VMhNUIiM7U ...to my 2012 GameSpot

For a series supposedly beaten to death like a proverbial horse corpse, the latest Call of Duty is attempting a lot of new things. Best of all, it distinctively impresses by nailing most of its new theatrics. Case in point, the single-player campaign. The 8 hours-or-so multi-protagonist approach to a modern combat sto

The first moment I saw the art in Skullgirls, I immediately knew I wanted more. There was only a slight hint of a disappointment as I'm not a big fan of fighting games. Thankfully, developer Lab Zero Games decided to branch out with their latest and arguably greatest contribution to the JRPG space. [gallery ids="39961

Oh Metroidvania genre, how fast and bountiful you've flourished. Yet for every Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge out there claiming all the praise and awards, it would be nice to see a gothic vampire-laden horror-bound "anime" version of that. Especially from the king of the genre himself, Koji "I love whips & cowboy

Let's get one thing out of the way: I'm not a fan of digital card games. When I saw some of my friends flocking towards games like Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering Arena, I didn't even feel slightly interested. When I first saw gameplay of Slay the Spire, I wasn't impressed either. Then I gave it a try and oh boy

Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the most highly-anticipated games in this generation, or in the history of gaming. Frankly, it was never going to live up to the hype that has been gradually building up since 2005's Kingdom Hearts 2. Nevertheless, I believe that Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura have delivered a decent game, th

With the fall from grace of former Western RPG masters like Bioware and Bethesda, who is there to pick up the torch from where they left behind? Along came Spiders to help bring life back to a genre once populated by the Mass Effects, Dragon Ages, and The Elder Scrolls of old, with their most ambitious effort yet, Gree

Remedy Entertainment's Control is the biggest surprise of the year and my own personal Game Of The Year for 2019. Although it looks like just another third-person shooter at first glance, the phenomenal physics-based engine and gameplay elevate the game to being one of the most refreshing gaming experiences in this ge

I'll cut to the chase. I'm no fan of the new Star Wars trilogy. I thought The Force Awaken was the strongest of the three and overall, the combination of poor writing, flimsy plot and weak characters almost killed my love for Star Wars. I thought 2019 was going to be the year when I'd call it quits with this franchise

Music is always the weapon, especially in the peppy EDM-esque world of Cadence of Hyrule. Essentially a heavily-modified Crypt of the Necrodancer, a top-down roguelike with awesome rhythm music gameplay, this Nintendo collaboration arguably improves the existing formula. How? By making it a more open-ended adventure w

Older gamers will remember playing a lot of classic side-scrolling beat-em-ups and brawlers back in the day before the advent of better tech took the gaming world by storm and introduced us to fully-realized 3D worlds. Thanks to developers like WayForward, we can still get those same games albeit with modern trappings.

No one expected Naughty Dog's Crash Team Racing for the PS1 in 1999 to be a genuine rival to Nintendo's legendary Mario Kart franchise, at least in Asia. But it definitely was, to the point where it was arguably even better than 1996's Mario Kart 64. Now, two decades later, Activision and Beenox give us the remake we

Some gamers would argue that reading is the worst part of playing a video game. This includes RPG players who often skip the many lore entries scattered in books and other collectibles. Well, Disco Elysium is an RPG that makes you spend 99% of the time reading. Wait, hear me out. Those who have played Disco Elysium

After 11 years of waiting for a proper sequel, Capcom finally gave us the game we've all been waiting for. It isn't just one of the best action games in 2019, it's one of the action games ever made. Everyone says that Devil May Cry V is a return to form for the series after the horrible detour that was DmC: Devil Ma

Any game that starts with a pitch that goes "You play as a samurai..." is already enough to convince a lot of folks. Katana Zero takes that pitch and slaps on a bunch of other really cool video game ideas. The premise is simple and cool. You play as a samurai assassin called The Dragon. It all starts out with you do

Total War: Three Kingdoms (TW3K) plays off like an elaborate 200-episode drama which you, the player assume the role as Director sans the control over the outcome of a big battle. Or sometimes, betrayal and defection. After a brief venture into the fantasy-like setting via the world of Warhammer followed by a forgetta

As time goes by, it becomes more difficult to make an impressive horror game. It's one of those genres that heavily relies on a select number of tropes and cliches but Devotion manages to make a modern horror game that will stick in the minds of those who play it. Developed by Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games, Devo