There’s something that’s just satisfying about city builders. Whether it’s the old-school stuff like SimCity or newer takes like Cities Skylines, there’s no sense of accomplishment like building an…
February 15, 2023 | 10:00 EST
The fire-and-brimstone portrayals of Hell have never really done it for me. There's something silly about the exaggeration; eternal torture and constant agony are difficult to imagine because they're…
February 14, 2023 | 06:16 EST
Sometimes I want something that's just relatable enough that I know where to tackle it from, but just weird enough that it feels unique. From the moment I saw it I knew Wanted: Dead would scratch…
February 14, 2023 | 09:00 EST
Challenge is an interesting thing to court in game design. On the one hand, you’ll likely make friends with the kinds of people who will be aggressively committed to playing and enjoying your full…
February 13, 2023 | 01:15 EST
Hi-Fi Rush came out of nowhere in so many ways. The sudden launch on the same day it was announced is almost as surprising as the fact that it came from the same studio behind The Evil Within and…
February 13, 2023 | 12:47 EST
There have been countless stories throughout history telling the tale of a hero traveling to a faraway place to save their homeland. In Deliver Us Mars, that faraway place is Mars and your homeland…
February 7, 2023 | 11:00 EST
One of my favorite surprises of 2021 was Backbone. The game put you in the role of a raccoon detective as he is hired to find a cheating spouse. However, things quickly spiraled out of control as…
February 2, 2023 | 09:00 EST
When it comes down to it, SpongeBob SquarePants really is an irreverent and universal cultural icon. Going past the memes, or the endless references to lines, moments, or specific frames of animation…
January 30, 2023 | 11:00 EST
VR can be a magical place sometimes, but other times it can be a great way to give yourself motion sickness and repaint your living room in all the colors of your stomach. Many games over recent…
January 30, 2023 | 10:00 EST
Horror games have always been the next step to immersion compared to their TV and movie counterparts. Whether you're slowly pacing through an eastern European village in Resident Evil 4, or peering…
January 30, 2023 | 09:30 EST
JRPGs and games based on JRPGs generally have a few tropes that can be janky but nostalgic for a lot of gamers. Rarely does one come out that takes everything people love about the genre and improves…
January 29, 2023 | 12:05 EST
While I'm always excited to try out the next new, innovative game on the market, sometimes all you need for enjoyment is a game that's simple and to the point. Dread Templar isn't going to knock your…
January 25, 2023 | 04:00 EST
The rise in popularity of 3D-based strategy card games is no secret. They’ve wormed their way into a variety of genres and storied franchises to the point that they’re almost expected. With…
January 24, 2023 | 09:00 EST
For years now, PlayStation has been an incredible ecosystem for fast-paced third-person adventure games to call home, and Forspoken fits right into the prestige selection that already dominates the…
January 23, 2023 | 09:00 EST
The One Piece manga celebrated its 25th-anniversary last year, marking an important milestone as the series sails ever closer to its finale. With such a long-running franchise, it’s no surprise that…
January 18, 2023 | 11:00 EST
There are different kinds of gamers out there. Some love gaming for gameplay and others love it for the stories games can tell. A good game does either of those things well, but a great game can…
January 18, 2023 | 11:00 EST
In most cases, you’d have to be mad to try and remake or reimagine a game that was so foundational it started a genre, especially if you’re not directly connected to the original. Unless, of course,…
January 18, 2023 | 10:00 EST
Persona is a booming franchise currently, with the success of 3 through 5 drawing more people into the franchise as these games carved out their flashy identity in pop culture. While many recent fans…
January 17, 2023 | 12:00 EST
Get past the hangovers, and start messing up the dates on your tax documents, because a new year has dawned upon us like the morning sun with no curtains. As we all get back up to the tepid rush of…
January 12, 2023 | 03:00 EST
Sometimes you come across a game that draws you in for absolutely no reason whatsoever – that’s how I felt about Marvel’s Midnight Suns when I saw its announcement trailer in 2021. Sure, I love card…
January 9, 2023 | 11:00 EST
There are plenty of games that tug at your heartstrings or make you feel a true connection with the main character. With that being said, very rarely is there a game that immediately gives you the…
December 20, 2022 | 11:00 EST
When Harvestella was announced, I was somewhat skeptical. It was revealed along with a few other Square Enix titles that would be released within close proximity of each other, as if they were just…
December 19, 2022 | 10:00 EST
Any student of history can tell you there is a myriad of professions that no longer exist due to technological advancement, societal trends, or some combination of the two. One such profession is…
December 13, 2022 | 12:01 EST
This September the TechRaptor team talked with Justin Roiland at PAX West 2022, and one thing was clear: the man knows games. Normally you'd associate the mind behind Rick and Morty with television,…
December 12, 2022 | 09:00 EST
In the face of overwhelming adversity, it’s only fair that you smile at what you had. As the world turns to gloomier and more unrelenting doom, the idea of halcyon only becomes clearer and clearer;…
December 11, 2022 | 09:00 EST
We should probably start by addressing the elephant in the room: yes, The Callisto Protocol desperately wants to be Dead Space. From the setting, to the (lack of) UI, to the monsters, everything…
December 10, 2022 | 10:00 EST
Look! A meme game! It’s not a shock that many folks have been waiting for the launch of Choo-Choo Charles after it caught a fair bit of attention online when the trailer was shown off. Then again,…
December 10, 2022 | 09:00 EST
Despite a number of high-profile failures over the years, Kickstarter has still managed to help fund a number of excellent games. Chained Echoes, successfully crowdfunded in 2019, looked like it had…
December 7, 2022 | 12:05 EST
The Final Fantasy VII renaissance is upon us! Fans of Cloud, AVALANCE, and the world of Final Fantasy VII have come from the excitement of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, have Final Fantasy VII Rebirth…
December 6, 2022 | 05:00 EST
I consider boss fights to be the most interesting part of a lot of games. Making a game around boss fights? My jam. I've also been having a recent love for the wholesome game aesthetic. They seem…
November 28, 2022 | 03:26 EST
The thing about the bullet hell sub-genre of shmups is that it operates on a tried-and-true rule of “if it ain’t broke, don’t break it”. These are titles that have seen endless exercises in skill-…
November 28, 2022 | 08:00 EST
The charm of Shadows Over Loathing is apparent within seconds of starting the game. It is an extended parody of the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the pulp horror genre as a whole. It manages to take…
November 24, 2022 | 10:00 EST
We are so late into the year and, while most of 2022's blockbuster hits have finally landed, there's one that's going under the radar. A heavy hitter, despite being overshadowed by titans like God of…
November 22, 2022 | 11:30 EST
I've already introduced the world of Gungrave in two separate articles, so I don't feel the need to do it again. Here's the short version: two PlayStation 2 games, an anime, and about 20 years of…
November 22, 2022 | 05:00 EST
Whether or not the Wild West was as dangerous as it's made out to be is a subject of hot debate amongst historians. Some say the Wild West was just as violent and lawless as the movies say, while…
November 21, 2022 | 02:00 EST
The puzzle platformer is one of those genres that has seen a lot of entries, most likely due to games like Limbo and Braid kickstarting a lot of love in the indie scene. While not all of them have…
November 14, 2022 | 07:05 EST
There's a fitting absurdity to the decision to wait a full decade before following up on the success of McPixel. The original rode a wave of success that can't be duplicated in 2022. It gained an…
November 14, 2022 | 11:00 EST
Abandoned hospitals are creepy places. It's an immutable fact of life. That's why they make for such great settings in horror media; the myriad stories they have to tell, of suffering patients and…
November 14, 2022 | 10:30 EST
Escape Academy's base game was one of the unexpected gems I originally found in the Steam Next Fest earlier this year, and I went on to thoroughly love the full game when it was released in July.…
November 11, 2022 | 01:00 EST
What is it that every apocalyptic setting needs? A good ol' "fight to the death" arena. In the Bloody Ties DLC for Dying Light 2 players are invited to return to Villedor not to explore the city but…
November 11, 2022 | 12:32 EST
An idea that can commonly be overlooked in the indie retro revival scene is the concept of establishment. The possibility that your product was lost to time and would only see the light of day once…
November 10, 2022 | 09:00 EST
I'm always interested in a bit of wholesome zen comforting puzzles. Additionally, something about putting things in order just feels right. So I was intrigued when I first heard of A Little to the…
November 7, 2022 | 10:00 EST
After nearly a year and a half, Resident Evil Village fans are finally being rewarded with new content as Capcom pulls back the curtain a little bit more on the story of Rose Winters: the daughter of…
November 5, 2022 | 11:00 EDT
Let me tell you, this feels like exiting Heaven’s Waiting Room for the only time. This a quick personal tangent, but SIGNALIS was something I came across on a random Twitter thread back in 2018, and…
November 2, 2022 | 12:03 EDT
The Metroidvania style of game is one of the oldest, but it's also one of the trickiest. It has to be structured in such a way as to avoid tedium while still providing a nice degree of challenge.…
November 1, 2022 | 01:08 EDT
While most new horror games attempt to push the boundary of what's possible in terms of visual fidelity, Faith: The Unholy Trinity takes a step back and condenses horror into a more primitive, yet no…
October 31, 2022 | 12:00 EDT
Crawling out of debt is difficult. I've been there with college loans, and it's not a pleasant experience. You feel a sense of gratification upon paying it all off, but at the end of the day, a lot…
October 24, 2022 | 10:00 EDT
There's something to be said about a game that puts style above all else. It's always a risky proposition for developers and publishers alike. A fancy user interface and nonconventional visuals can…
October 24, 2022 | 07:00 EDT