Astro Bot review: Play has no limits in one of PS5’s finest games
Astro Bot MSRP $60.00 Score Details Pros
Giovanni Colantonio in gaming news
Fantasian was supposed to end Hironobu Sakaguchi’s career. It revitalized it instead
The term “living legend” gets thrown around loosely in the art world, but Hironobu Sakaguchi has earned that distinction. The 61-year-old game designer is the father of Final Fantasy, one of the most important franchises in gaming next to Mario. While Sakaguchi didn’t invent the RPG genre, he turned it into a foundation that developers still build on decades later. Rather than taking that legendary success and calling it a day, Sakaguchi isn’t done innovating.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom takes the right cues from Tears of the Kingdom
The only constant in the Legend of Zelda series is change. From its perspective to its art style, Nintendo takes some surprising risks when it comes to one of its most valuable franchises. That often pays off. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for instance, was a bold open-world reinvention of the classic adventure formula that put an emphasis on flexible gameplay and emergent moments born from creative thinking. That design didn’t just influence its direct sequel, the excellentThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It’s very much present in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom too.
Can Concord make a comeback? There’s still hope for PS5’s failed shooter
Only two weeks after launch, PlayStation made the shocking decision to shut down Concord. Firewalk Studios’ much-derided hero shooter had a disastrous launch, one that analysts estimated only 25,000 players picked up, according to IGN. In a PlayStation Blog post, game director Ryan Ellis was transparent about the fact that “aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended” and that Firewalk will shut the game down on September 6 to “explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”
Konami’s next game is a chaotic ode to Grand Theft Auto 2
Konami has its hands full right now. It has promising remakes of both Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater in the works, but those aren’t the publisher’s only upcoming games. In recent years, Konami has revitalized its publishing effort to include original titles from small studios (see this summer’sCYGNI: All Guns Blazing). Its two upcoming behemoths shouldn’t overshadow one of those smaller projects: Deliver at All Costs.
The Casting of Frank Stone review: Dead by Daylight spinoff struggles to execute
The Casting of Frank Stone MSRP $40.00 Score Details Pros
PC classic Bloons works surprisingly well as a strategy card game
If you spent any time on a computer in the late 2000s, there’s a good chance you recognize the name Bloons. The colorful series a gaming staple of the era, with five games and multiple updates to each released between 2007 and 2009. It began as a browser-based puzzle game about popping balloons, but quickly evolved into a surprisingly robust tower defense game that’s still going strong.
Control and Alan Wake to get film and TV adaptations with new deal
Remedy Entertainment is partnering with Annapurna for a strategic partnership. The deal will see Annapurna financing 50% of Control 2‘s development budget and give the studio the rights to turn both Control and Alan Wake into film and TV projects.