Kirby Air Riders. Neither a sequel nor a remake. It sits between these two things that is rarely possible in gaming. Is this a “re-imagining”? Perhaps. It’s reveal and subsequent release in 2025 led to much confusion among Nintendo fans. Why release two “kart racers” so close to one another with the release of the Switch 2? Was Nintendo trying to compete with themselves?

As game director Masahiro Sakurai’s newest outing—expectations were high. Thanks to Nintendo’s aggressive pricing and the existence of Mario Kart World, this is even more true. But how does Kirby Air Riders fare against its competition? Should it be compared? Why did no one in the West buy the dang game? Well, sit down and get yourself a drink; I have all these answers and more!

A spoiler free review of 12 minutes by Luis Antonio. [VIDEO]

Portal: Reloaded is a recently released fan-made mod to Portal 2 – created by a sole developer, Portanis. The mode introduces a third portal which allows the player to travel through the fourth dimension; time. Included with the mod are 25 new test chambers which utilize this new mechanic in interesting ways. After finishing it a few moments ago, I figured I’d make a small post with my thoughts on it.

After around 40 hours of total playtime, I finally finished the main storyline of Cyberpunk 2077 – and I felt like I should share my experience and thoughts with the game while covering all of its different aspects. Please keep in mind this is not an in-depth review, more of a surface-level analysis of the game. I would like to start with the positive aspects of the game, as I feel there is far too much negativity surrounding the game at the moment – as well as the fact that the positives far outweigh the negatives. 

2020 is the first year without E3, ever since its inception in 1995. Many people within the gaming industry are very mixed regarding this – leading to much discussion whether we even need an E3, as it seemed like it was on its way out long before the global pandemic ensued. Sony had already confirmed they weren’t attending (again), Nintendo hasn’t had a live conference for years, and Game Awards host, Geoff Keighley, announced he wasn’t attending either. So everyone was asking the same question, do we need E3? Do we really need an annual that developers and publishers have to keep in mind every year in order to stay relevant? Or should they be able to showcase their games on their own terms?

Last week, Sony announced that on June 4th at 9pm (BST) that they will be holding an online event showcasing new details regarding their next console; the Playstation 5.

I’ve been a fan of Playstation since the first, and I always find it interesting how Sony’s strategy for each console changes as time passes. Now, I’m not a blind Playstation fanboy as I primarily play on PC nowadays, but if I had to choose between Xbox or Playstation, I will pick Playstation purely because of the IP’s and exclusives available. This leaves me slightly torn, as Xbox has incredible value with their console with the Xbox Game pass – but none of their exclusive titles entice me, so I have no reason to make a console purchase.

LittleBigPlanet is a franchise that has been dormant ever since the release of the third instalment in 2014, and despite the lukewarm reception of the game, the community surrounding has been relatively alive. This weekend, a group of fans (or development team) announced that they will be creating a LittleBigPlanet fan-game to revive the series – on PC.

It’s no secret that when EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 launched in 2017 it was met with an high amount of controversy – due to its monetization through its overabundance of loot boxes and pay to win elements. Even reaching the most downvoted comment in Reddit’s history as EA continued to defend the practice through their (now infamous) “pride and accomplishment” line. We are now nearing two years since its release and to the surprise of many, the game is still being actively supported by the developers. The majority of people are probably unaware of these positive changes due to the initial controversy, but it begs the question – Is the game good now? Let’s take a look.

Destiny 2 received a major expansion earlier this year, and with it arrived a soft relaunch of the game. On top of the release of Shadowkeep, where players find themselves returning to the Moon for the first time since Destiny 1, the game received a new update named “New Light”. But what is New Light? New Light is Bungie’s dubbed name for the game transitioning from Battle Net to Steam, as well as going entirely free to play. This change seems to have breathed new life into the player base, resurging the community considerably by drawing in both new players and returning veterans alike – myself included. In order to get the most amount of players on board, Bungie has put every player at the same level so no players feel left behind and can immediately jump into the new expansions if they wish to. I’ve put in about 20 hours into the game since this update, despite being put off since its launch in 2017, and these are my thoughts.

The second, and final DLC map for Hitman 2 dropped yesterday – where 47 finds himself at a tropical resort for criminals who want to disappear. The map was highly anticipated by Hitman fans, myself included, so the real question is… how does it hold up? Like my previous Hitman post, this will be a “first impressions” as I’ve only played through the level in its entirety once. 

Tokyo Game Show 2019 was last week, and with that Hideo Kojima fans were greeted with a special treat – that being over 49 minutes of Death Stranding gameplay. Those who have been following the development of the game, as well as Kojima in general, may have noticed him touting that his new game is the “first of a new genre” – specifically the “Strand” genre. But what is a “Strand” game…?

Following up from my post a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d make another expressing my thoughts and opinions on the new changes in Overwatch, specifically the new Role Queue feature. It’s currently in beta, however, it seems to have changed the game fundamentally in many ways, and it’s not always for the better in my opinion.

It’s less than a week until Season 17 ends in Overwatch, and the official start of Season 18 begins. Season 18 marks the beginning of two (literally) game-changing additions to the title. The addition of the new hero, Sigma, as well as a seemingly permanent change to Quick Play and Competitive games and how they will be played from here on out.

Crash Bandicoot fans are in outrage this week as Activision has announced they will be adding microtransactions to the recently released Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled. People have speculated the addition of the controversial update due to how the games “Wumpa Coin” system is structured similarly to a typical free-to-play game and it seems that their fears have been realised.

Before anyone reading this grabs a pitchfork and tries to impale me and hang me at the stake, the title is a thought that I’ve had and discussed with a few friends regarding CDPR, Cyberpunk, and The Witcher series. CDPR is considered to be one of the “big boys” of the videogame industry now, thanks to The Witcher 3 – and with Cyberpunk 2077 right around the corner, they may just prove that they are worthy of that spot. But there’s a case to be made that they could, though very unlikely, be a one-hit-wonder.

Every game nowadays seems to be released with the potential for eSports in mind, to the point where it’s become increasingly saturated – even killing off all hype surrounding it before the game is even released. Today we’re going to delve slightly deeper into the successes and (mainly) failures of forced eSports.

The Steam Summer Sale is in full swing this year leading to me to cave in to my temptation and buying the critically acclaimed puzzle game, Baba Is You. On Steam, the game has overwhelmingly positive reviews as well as plenty of recommendations from my friends. I heard it was a lot harder than the typical puzzler, and after playing the game for 6 hours (and counting), I’ve decided to share some casual first impressions on the game.

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter have a bad reputation for having projects & games listed where the person behind them is only looking to make a quick buck, proceeding to either release a sub-par product or run off with the money entirely. Epic Games recently has not been making the situation any easier for these websites as they’ve been effectively bribing publishers/developers to go back on their initial “backer” promises to gain exclusivity to their platform, the Epic Game Store.