The first Coffee Talk was a game with a laid back, character-focused approach to visual novel storytelling. It reminded me of Persona’s Le Blanc or Lo Fi Beats, only instead it simulated running a niche coffee shop in a fantasy version of modern-day Seattle complete with orcs, elves, succubi, cat people, and more. When I discovered that a sequel was being produced, I was eager to pick it up — and from the 90-minute preview build this article is based on, I was not disappointed.
This past weekend the developers behind 2020’s Monster Train, Shiny Shoe, opened up access to a pre-alpha build of their upcoming title Inkbound. So, I hopped into the game with three friends to test the waters and see what Shiny Shoe is cooking up.
The main character of Blacktail is a girl without a face. At least, the mask she wears to cover her face is utterly featureless, and the devs use this as a metaphor to lay out the decision-based morality tale at the core of the game.
The developer of Homicidal All-Stars, Artificer, claims a notable pedigree when it comes to turn-based tactics games, being made up of team members who worked on Hard West and Phantom Doctrine.
In 2007, Assassin’s Creed fused elements of stealth and platforming gameplay into something new. An imperfect and at times clunky game, it nonetheless sparked wide interest thanks to its unique approach to play and strikingly detailed historical setting. With a few further refinements, it became a landmark franchise.
The friendly folks at EA Sports were kind enough to invite GameCritics to a closed beta of the hotly anticipated Madden NFL 23. Obviously, I jumped at the chance to spend a few hours with it, as this latest Madden is expected to represent actual forward progress into the current generation of consoles, and not just a cross-generation juke step.
There’s a new Sniper Elite game coming soon.
On one level this is super-exciting because as a longtime fan of the series I’ve reviewed all of them for Gamecritics, and have watched as the franchise has gradually improved and been perfected over the years by developers with a passion for delivering the most intense stealth and sniping experience possible.
As the release date of Ghostwire: Tokyo approaches, we’ve now been able to get hands-on time with the final version. While we’re only allowed to talk about the first two chapters (which cover much the same ground as our hands-off preview from last month) being able to play for ourselves has allowed for us to take a different approach in the same general area. And honestly, it’s looking quite promising at this point.
The games-as-service model isn’t exactly barren ground these days, with some of the most popular titles in the world embracing this method of content delivery. Sure, some of the notables such as Apex Legends and Halo Infinite are in completely different genres, but fundamentally they’re all competing for the limited time players have available. The goal is to hook people for the long haul so that they (hopefully) provide a steady stream of revenue for years to come.
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