If you're 007 on the brain right now, we've got something special for you! 🔫 [lock-on] 007 features a piece by James Batchelor on the multiplayer masterpiece Goldeneye! You'll explore the impact of the 1997 classic and see how it revolutionised the FPS genre 🪙👁️🔗⤵️

A friend gifted me Luna Abyss by Kwalee Labs. I wasn't sure this was for me, since I wasn’t found of Returnal. But I think bullet hells are starting to grow on me.

It is sad to see Destiny 2 sunsetting after all these years. While my biggest gripe was the content vault, it was one of those few games that I kept returning to each season.

Until Then is a game about the gap between people. Kathy lets Mark win a racing game one night and he doesn't understand why until years after she's gone. This is a game about love and the struggle to understand one another against all odds.

That feeling when a game delivers so well on the promises of its demo that you just have to celebrate it again once you play the whole thing. @skycherry.bsky.social returns to the megastructure of @regularstudio.bsky.social's MOTORSLICE. www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/moto...

Alabaster Dawn by @radicalfishgames.com is different thematically than CrossCode. Crossfire focuses on identity, while Alabastor is more about what a community and restoration.

Hi everyone! We have a resource that we're trying to put together, and we wanted to ask what you think, since it seems that a couple scholars and educators follow us 😊. What are some games that you have found to be really effective for teaching in the game studies classroom?

Vultures: Scavengers of Death is a turn-based survival horror demo worth an hour of your time. The central idea works. Whether it holds over a full game is the real question

Decollate Decoration puts you in control of a ghost trying to kill the boy she loves. She has no doubts about it whatsoever, and that confidence and obsession is disturbing

We're back with an in-depth review of Scrabdackle by @mayorhere.bsky.social!

I don't really care for deck builders. But Dark Cards of Candlewood and their two card system managed to capture my interest. Worth a look if you're curious.

@amongthetrolls.bsky.social changed hands, got rebuilt from scratch in a new engine, and spent two years in limbo. The demo is rough in places, but it had an interesting atmosphere that worth giving a try.

Box Knight is the latest game to find something interesting in the office fantasy space. Between this and Escape from Ever After, you have to wonder if we're watching a new weird subgenre take shape.

Toxic Commando has the synth score, the swamp fog, and the infected heroes of The Thing. Carpenter's fingerprints are on the soundtrack. Everything else feels like the poster more than the film

Absolum by @dotemu.bsky.social is a beat 'em up with real depth from the Streets of Rage 4 team. Best played with a friend, and worth your time if that's an option. The roguelike loop does enough to keep you moving without overstaying.

@wyldheartgame.com by @wayfinderstudios.com scratches that D&D itch of stumbling through dungeons with friends who have no idea what they're doing. I played it solo, but it is definitely meant to be played with friends.

Infinity Blade came out in 2010 and looked like the future of mobile gaming. Then Epic deleted it in 2018, added the sword to Fortnite, removed it three days later for being overpowered, and that was that. Mobile gaming got bigger than anyone imagined and somehow less interesting.

The Eternal Life of Goldman by @hollywood-animal.bsky.social has a free demo on Steam. Every frame hand drawn. mythology everywhere. The main mechanic is an old man's walking stick. It rules.

I don’t usually play point-and-click games, but I tried The Mermaid Mask for the art style and ended up really enjoying it. Even if the genre isn’t normally your thing, it’s worth checking out for the atmosphere, approachable puzzles, and the sense of mystery that keeps you clicking.

The first GreedFall made me curious enough about the Yecht Fradí to spend 40 hours as an outsider looking in. The prequel put me inside their world, and then ripped me out.

A COMMUNAL HISTORY OF [METROIDVANIA] VIDEO GAMES 🎮 Introducing 250+ pages of the sprawling and surprising history of Metroidvanias by Lead Writer Derrick Bitner ( @bitnerd.gvg.io ) and illustrated by the incredible Luan Tie! Go down the path, unlock the door and see what you can find... ⤵️

No-Skin uses its roguelite loop to model something many games avoid, grief that doesn't resolve on schedule no matter how much work you put in.

Cyberpunk usually asks what happens when humans become more machine. @replacedgame.bsky.social by @sadcatstudios.bsky.social flips it. What happens when a machine inherits a body for the first time, in a world that treats bodies as disposable?

@zaumstudio.bsky.social made a game about institutional betrayal right after allegedly betraying the people who built Disco Elysium. The irony isn't subtle. Neither is the game. It's really an interesting game. But can you separate it from the controversy behind it?

I am a huge fan of DnD so seeing a fantasy RPG inspired by Disco Elysium that turns cyberpunk medieval is one of the most exciting indie games I’ve seen in awhile. @esotericebb.bsky.social is something special. medium.com/@spencer2457...

A game about environmental destruction where your core mechanic is using wildlife as disposable puzzle pieces. @planetoflana.bsky.social’s hero and its villains are doing the same thing. Only the reasons differ. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Darkwood and the horror of the top-down view. The perspective is underused in horror, which is a shame. Acid Wizard’s original is brilliant. Cautiously anticipating Ice-Pick Lodge’s sequel. spencer2457.medium.com/darkwood-and-the-horror-of-the-top-down-view-281a4b9c4c9f

The first revolutionary act in @amanita-design.net’s new game, Phonopolis, is just putting on headphones and refusing to listen. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Fatal Frame by @koeitecmo.bsky.social lost me the first time around. The Crimson Butterfly remake demo got me back in 30 minutes. Some games just need a second chance. Plus the demo is free. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Just preordered my copy of Perfect Organism from @lostincult.co.uk’s Cult Classic series. I was a huge fan of their Dead Space book, so I’m excited to dive into this one when it releases later this year. www.lostincult.co.uk/perfectorgan...

I have always been interested in the history of video game engines, especially when they are built for a specific vision. The HydroEngine was developed with the hopes of creating realistic water physics and a game was created as a result. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Remember the Video Game History Foundation's Digital Library launch? Remember A Minecraft Movie? Taking a break from the frenetic move towards the next thing in gaming, @mayorhere.bsky.social offers a historian's perspective on last year's biggest moments. www.gamerswithglasses.com/gwg-recommen...

Finally got around to playing Reanimal with my friend and it was a great coop experience medium.com/@spencer2457...

Viking media keeps getting the aesthetic right and the soul wrong. Norse: Oath of Blood by Artic Hazard is an attempt to to fix that and ground the game beyond just aesthetics. medium.com/@spencer2457/norse-oath-of-blood-and-the-burden-of-getting-vikings-right-1a906dafbf1e

Welcome new contributor @walshbr.bsky.social! Check out his thoughts on Death Howl and how its rules and development build up its story.

It’s always a great feeling to be featured on Critical Distance! Please continue to support this fantastic community-driven space for thoughtful games criticism.

SIGNALIS is survival horror and gothic romance at the same time. The loop isn’t a mechanic layered over the story. It IS the story. The horror is just what love looks like when it refuses to end. medium.com/@spencer2457...

We loved @angelineera.bsky.social, a detailed, lovingly crafted world that trusts you to handle a story about trauma and identity without constant reassurance that it's all just a game. Review by @mayorhere.bsky.social www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/ange...

Roguelike deckbuilders aren’t usually my thing, but Death Howl by The Outer Zone and @11bitstudios.bsky.social pulled me in because of its setting which is Mesolithic Scandinavia, 6000 BC, predating even the Norse mythology we know. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Return to Ash by is a quiet little visual novel that uses the afterlife to ask which lives the world considers worth returning to. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Check out my review of Cristol: Theater of Idols by Vermila Studios and published by @blumhousegames.com! Turns out a horror game about shooting saints has a lot to say about faith. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Fear and Hunger 2 is perhaps one of the best turn-based rpgs of all time and has an intricately woven story with 16 characters forced into some eldritch ritual. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Fear & Hunger is one of my favorite turn-based RPGs of all time, because it creates horror by punishing every instinct other RPGs spent decades teaching you. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Forgot to post yesterday, but here is my review apocalyptic comfort in I Hate This Place by @rocksquarethunder.bsky.social. A flawed experiment in creating a home at the edge of the world. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Finished Pathologic 3 by @icepicklodge.bsky.social. One thing that stuck out to me time-loop mechanic and how the game is touches on the medical ethics of time loops and experimentation. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Just published a piece about Sonny, one of my favorite games growing up. Still can’t wrap my head around how a Flash game with full voice acting, turn-based combat, and an incredible soundtrack was just free. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Played through Demonologie by @katanalevy.bsky.social a while back and finally revisited it. It is a great historical fiction game that displays the politics behind witch finding in Britain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Also it’s only $2.99. medium.com/@spencer2457...

Just reviewed Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts from @yazagames.com. Turns out making medieval manuscripts for talking dogs and whimsical mice is great creative problem solving experience. medium.com/@spencer2457...

All y'all, @mayorhere.bsky.social wants you to go climb a rock. 😁

"Cairn compellingly explores themes of personal limitation and transcendence through its challenging mechanics...by focusing on perhaps the most internal form of freedom—the liberation that comes from overcoming personal limitations." @mayorhere.bsky.social www.gamerswithglasses.com/impressions/...