Four controllers plugged into those bizarre N64 ports, my mate Dave arguing about who gets the see-through purple one, and someone's mum shouting from the kitchen that we'd better not wake the baby. That was Saturday afternoon perfection, circa 1997, when GoldenEye 007 turned my living room into a digital battleground that would define multiplayer gaming for generations.I still remember unwrapping that grey cartridge on a soggy November morning. The box art looked serious—Pierce Brosnan's…
Look, here’s the thing about Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. It’s when LucasArts stopped having a laugh and started making killer stuff. I’ve played this game since the early 90s when I finally got a proper PC, and even now, with teenagers who roll their eyes at games if they don’t have a battle royale mode, I can fire this up and get sucked in for hours. Sam here, and while team RPS always argues…
A few things before the regulars begin debating whose game showcased the N64 hardware best. Sure, Super Mario 64 was a groundbreaking 3D platformer, and Pilotwings 64 was a technical marvel, but Wave Race 64 accomplished something that is still mind-blowing to this day – it made water feel like water. While we were all distracted by Mario’s stretched-out face on the title screen, Nintendo EAD was quietly delivering the most convincing water simulation in…
Joe here, and I’m prepared to start another argument with my team: NBA Jam is the best arcade basketball game ever made, and the best sports game, bar none. I know Tim’s gonna try to throw some FIFA nonsense at me, while Sam tosses out some frame data about how Street Fighter is the better competitive experience. But NBA Jam took what every simulation-focused sports game was aspiring to do in 1993 and said “screw…
Before we begin, I’ll say this one time, and then Carl will probably start talking about how modern adventure games destroyed everything, and Tim will start his usual “I ‘discovered’ point-and-click games last year” nonsense, but I’ll tell you about the only game that invented everything the new games copy around. The Secret of Monkey Island not only defined adventure gaming, it perfected it on the first try. In fact, the Secret of Monkey Island…
It’s a bit odd that I’m writing this review, but I guess that’s just because I’ve listened to Joe go on about how terrible modern football games are for the umpteenth time. He does have a point, though – they’re bloated with unnecessary features and complex control systems that don’t really add to the overall experience. But at the same time, I think he forgets that there’s been a lot of improvement since then. So…
Yes. So, there’s a lot Tim needs to stop yelling about how Madden was always overrated (we get it, buddy!), and instead look at what Visual Concepts did with NFL 2K. There’s no way this is just nostalgia; this is about a game that laid out what sports sim games could be when you’re not bound by an annual franchise obligation or the fear of messing with established designs. NFL 2K came out on Sept.…
The Christmas of '97 still haunts my wallet. I'd been saving pocket money for months, doing extra chores that my mum definitely didn't need done but tolerated anyway because she knew what I was after. The N64 had been out for a year, and every kid at school was either bragging about Mario 64 or lying about having played it at their cousin's house.What I wasn't expecting was DOOM. Actual, proper, demons-and-shotguns DOOM on a…
Disclaimer: This article doesn’t focus solely on Crash 4: It’s About Time. As we all know by now, it’s meant to set up my review of Crash 4, so there will be some major spoilers for the entire Crash Bandicoot timeline. Crash Bandicoot has always felt like the PlayStation mascot. Growing up in America, Crash was everywhere. Orange boxes, toy stores, comic books, cereal cards; he was omnipresent. But I wasn’t American. I grew up…
# Bloodborne Carl asked me to take this one because apparently I’m “the only person on the team who didn’t play this obsessively in 2015 and won’t just gush for two thousand words.” Fair enough. I came to Bloodborne in 2023, nearly a decade after everyone else had already formed their opinions, memorised the boss patterns, and argued themselves hoarse about whether it’s better than Dark Souls. I didn’t have any of that history. I…