So Astral Chain came out on Friday. I preordered and got the game on release day. I’ve played for about fourteen hours so far, and here’s what I think of the game. This review will be spoiler free.

For a game I haven’t played in years, I think about Shadow of the Colossus a lot. Shadow of the Colossus gets nearly universal praise for its story, gameplay and visual style. However, I don’t think its main character gets enough attention, even if part of what makes Wander great is the story he’s involved in.

It's been a while since I wrote a video game review for my website, Anthony's Film Review. After all, my primary focus is movies, as the name implies. Any other medium that is visual and movie-like is on my radar less frequently, and is therefore something I write about less often. Still, when I do come across something that is not a movie but similar in a way, and is worth talking about for whatever reason, I will take the time to pour out my thoughts on it, the same way I would with the movies I watch. I say this because the video game I am about to review is not just one of the best ever, but also one that virtually erases the line between movies and video games (and, for that matter, the line between fiction and reality).

It has seen Marvel transform from a comic book company struggling to keep afloat into an entertainment titan. However, one goldmine has yet to be tapped fully is the world of gaming. Early in the MCU’s life, there were a few movie tie-in games produced; but in recent years, that trend in the video game industry has all-but died out. Now Marvel, instead of looking at producing games based on their movies, are branching out into exclusive re-imaginings for the Playstation 4. So what has happened so far with this Marvel Gamematic Universe (which is what I’m calling it), and what is yet to come? Let’s explore.

I guess every video game can teach us a valuable lesson, and I strongly believe it is our duty to share the message and help the world being a better place.

Fortunately, this isn’t Rebel Alliance….

Watch Dogs is an action, adventure video game developed by a well known company called Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on May 27, 2014 on almost every platform you can imagine. When I saw the first trailer and game-play video of it, I fell in love with the game instantly. I just have to have this game. As soon as the music came on and the story got started I was in my own little world. I didn't know what to expect from the game, I just instantly fell in love with the characters, even the character Aiden Pearce was a role model in his own terms.

Natural Selection is the differentiation of individuals in a species, leading to those best suited to the environment being able to pass their genes on down the line. It is a key element of evolution, the feature that proves most adept at surviving in the biome is passed on to its children and so on and so forth.Natural Selection 2 is a video game. A bold decision to make the sequel a completely different medium in my opinion.The game's a combination of real-time strategy and first-person shooters. The big difference is that in RTS you have total control over every individual unit: every soldier, tank and building is yours to command. In Natural Selection 2 the combat units are under the control of individual players. As a result, whenever I was the commander I didn't get to do what I normally do in an RTS (build up a colossal army, point at the enemies base and say "kill"). This was actually pretty good, as it had me thinking on my feet. You're giving orders, placing buildings for your team to set up, occasionally dropping health and ammo for them.There's two factions, the Marines (TSF) are a ranged combat faction who have a small advantage in how quickly they can deploy and adapt to the enemy and the Aliens. (Khaara) are a melee focused team with an edge in stealth and maneuverability. A lot of work has been put in to making the two sides distinct and balanced, even their similarities are varied, (the Khaara must control a room by spreading spores all over it before they can build structures, the Marines need to just plug the power on, the Marines have flashlights, the Aliens have night-vision) or balanced (the Khaara can move through air vents and small gaps, but the Marines have access to teleportation). The biggest factional difference is how they vary their weapons and load-outs; resource gathering grants both commandeer their resources, but also give some of the points to individual players who can use them to tailor their weapons to the approach they want. For the humans you just go to an armory and buy the weapons you want: shotguns, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, a variety of grenades, and even some power armor at later levels. The aliens have to stop where they are and mutate into another form, they also get a little more flexibility with their upgrades, with each player picking up to three additional powers, ranging from invisibility, enhanced speed, even regenerating health.This is definitely the sort of game that you want to go into knowing the mechanics, luckily there's four tutorials teaching you the basics on being both commander and infantry for the Marines and for the Aliens. As well as one that goes more in-depth into two of the Alien sub-classes, the Lerk who excels in aerial attacks on ground units and the Fade who are a stealth based assassin. I say tutorial, its basically a survival/ horde mode with you playing as whichever of the creatures you've picked (at time of writing my high score is 15, as a Fade and three as a Lerk). While I would have preferred a more in-depth tutorial on how to make best use out of these two creatures, I did appreciate that there was a game mode where you could get the hang of them in the first place, as getting to grips with a class or character I'm unfamiliar with puts me off going out of my comfort zone in a lot of games.Another fun not-quite-tutorial mode is a gametype where you race Skulks (the starting Khaara lifeform). I found this a lot more fun, as it's giving you a few more tips, a little bit more encouragement and giving me a little more fun getting to grips with the controls, rather than frustratingly killing me over and over again, as marines attack me while I struggle to find out which button turns me invisible...

For a very many people across the world, modernised remakes of their favourite childhood games are a dream come true. The way things are going, more and more games developers are starting to realise there’s money to be made in the art of recreating old classics for an audience of gamers eating it up like cake.

The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker was a phenomenal work of art released back in 2003 on the Game Cube. This is debatably my favorite Zelda game. I say debatably, because I think I enjoyed Phantom Hourglass just as much, but I haven’t played that one as many times, because it’s on a handheld console, whereas Wind Waker is on the Game Cube; at least the version that I owned and played was on the Game Cube.

Oh God, this game is so hard.Part of me hates it.But I also can't stop playing it.I've made it my mission to play all the games that I've neglected over the years, and I knew that I owed Terry Cavanagh's Super Hexagon the courtesy of playing more than a few seconds at a friend's house. I figured that at least finishing the first level would do the game justice.I had no idea what I was in for.Super Hexagon, likeLittle Inferno, is a game from the first Humble Bundle I bought. This bundle also included Hotline Miami, a game I've wanted to play since I saw Michael Jones of Rooster Teeth make a RageQuit video about it. He also did one for Super Hexagon and honestly that should have prepared me for this.Super Hexagon, as I've said, is a game by Terry Cavanagh released for Windows in 2012. When I opened my browser to start writing I was unsure what genre to call it. I was ready to say "puzzle" until a quick browse down its Wikipedia page for the basics on its release and platform history mentioned it was a "Twitch" game: A game that tests your reaction speed.Now from playing this I've come to the realisation that my reaction speed is pretty great.My actual reactions, however, are garbage.The game has a deceptively simple concept. You are a triangle, dodge the walls coming towards you. Get hit by the wall and you have to start the level over. You get a new rank every ten seconds (line, triangle, square, and so on and so forth) and I assume every level lasts 60 seconds so that the final rank is "Hexagon." I say "assume" because I haven't gotten further than eighteen seconds in before I see a wall and instantly react by positioning myself straight in front of it.Like I said: I have good reaction times—my reactions themselves are bad.It's addictive, though.The music, provided by Northern Irish musician "Chipzel," is a perfect match for the hectic and intense gameplay. The outward simplicity of the game makes it easy to recognise where you went wrong ("I overshot there," "I didn't move enough there," "I should have moved left because there was more space," etc.) and helps you figure out what to do next time as best you can.Typically what happens for me is I'll play a few rounds and get a score of about six or seven seconds then one glorious run where I push past my high score by point-seven of a second and feel very happy. Until I slam myself straight into a wall. Then I'll mutter "dammit" under my breath, take a minute, and restart.It's frustrating, but seeing that I'm making progress, however minute, is a nice feeling, and as I mentioned none of my deaths or failures feel like they came out of nowhere. It's one of those games where you need to zone out for a second and just go with the flow. I've had times where I see something coming and immediately push the button towards it rather than away, and other times where I'll spam button commands when all I really need to do is just hold down one key as it's just a big spiral. I've caught myself giggling and saying "How did I do that!?" aloud as I get through some of the quicker and more intense segments.And remember all of this is in the first level.Super Hexagon is great. I am definitely a casual gamer and I'm not determined to get every achievement in the game. It's a challenge I don't think I'm up for. But it's definitely fun, engaging, and I'm not good at it, but I'm still determined to do that first level if nothing else. And who knows? Maybe if I can do level one I'll feel that I'm skilled enough to try the other difficulties, and I can start all the panic over again.As a last note, Super Hexagon is considered a "Full" version of a game Cavanagh whipped up for a 12 hour game jam. And I'd recommend giving Hexagon a go before you try Super Hexagon, just to see if it's your thing.---Super Hexagon is a game by Terry Cavanagh. It's available from superhexagon.com, or on Steam. It's also available on Android and iOS. Terry Cavanagh also has his own website.

The following article contains Spoilers for Little Inferno, and I mean BIG spoilers. I mean spoilers so spoileriffic that I actually feel like I misled people by saying there were major spoilers in my last article. Like, spoilers so big that when it happened I had to come back and write another article to rave about it!So if you've read my last article, then you'll know that I've been playing Little Inferno. If you've played the game, AND read that article, then you'll know that I was nowhere near the point where I could start talking about it in depth. I'd been happily burning all the possessions I ordered from magazines, throwing them in the furnace, watching the flames, getting letters from Sugar Plumps, all-in-all having a cheery time.Then Sugar Plumps' house burned down, and I got a little scared.But! I continue to persevere, burning more and more things to unlock more and more combos. Then when I've got all of them I get given instructions for another combo and when I try that ...(Here's where the spoilers come in and they're REAL spoilers this time.) You see it turns out you can burn your house down. And once you do then the game changes from a fun little puzzle about burning your things...