Features and Opinions

This section of the website is dedicated to longer pieces about Games that don’t quite fit the mould of Reviews, thought pieces on the industry, my musings on how games are made as well as more miscellaneous seasonal content like Game of the Year.

Designing: the next Astro Bot - Two possible futures for the franchise
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Designing: the next Astro Bot - Two possible futures for the franchise

Astrobot came out around a month ago now and it’s been on my mind ever since. It’s probably going to be my Game of the Year and I eagerly await even the small time trial update. That being said, while it will be many people’s first experience with the character, there’s actually been a few games. I’ve played Playroom VR, Rescue Mission VR, Astro’s Playroom and now Astrobot, so despite this games success, I believe we could move it on.

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How often do you return to a game for the DLC content?
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

How often do you return to a game for the DLC content?

DLC is as established a concept in games as the pause button at this point. Games get new map selections, entire new campaigns and worlds, smaller content drops, sometimes all of the above and more. By their nature, DLC has to come after the games release. Day one DLC is absolutely a thing but I’m not here to disparage or encourage that. For the most part, DLC comes out a fair while afterwards, encouraging players to step back in. The question is, do you?

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5 Games I really want to see hit PS+ Premium
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

5 Games I really want to see hit PS+ Premium

With rumours of Secret Agent Clank being on the list of PS+ Classics to come and Sly Cooper 2 and 3 looking to be out before the end of the year, the Premium tier of Sony’s service looks like it’s finally worth a lick of salt. The consumer is ever hungry for more though, these are the games I want to see added to the system.

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These games didn’t kill your family, please stop crying about them
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

These games didn’t kill your family, please stop crying about them

As they do every month, Sony announced the games coming to Playstation Plus in each of the services three tiers. Only the premium tier interests me as that’s the rereleases of all the old stuff. Consider my surprise when I saw Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier in the offerings for March. So far the offerings have either been first party or more obscure third party titles of the era. While Sony do own Jak and Daxter, the Lost Frontier was handled by High Moon Studios. The announcement got me excited – I know the community thinks the game is the worst of the series but it’s one of the two titles I hadn’t yet played – the other being Daxter. The Jak and Daxter fandom have been begging for acknowledgement from Sony, and while this wasn’t a new game, it was something right?

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What comes next for FromSoftware?
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

What comes next for FromSoftware?

Is the next Souls game hand to hand combat themed? I've got no idea personally, but these are the things I think the next major Soulsgame will have:

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‘Not E3’ Season highlights
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

‘Not E3’ Season highlights

Ever since the death of E3 and the rise of Summer Games Fest, it’s gotten harder to keep track of everything that gets announced, in no small part due to the asinine number of streams that happen – everyone wants a piece of the pie and a special place to show off their game. Like, I get it but it makes it hard to keep track. I struggle, how does the average Joe manage? Regardless there was actually a decent amount of games shown off over the various shows that I’m interested in playing.

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What makes a Good Platinum Trophy?
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

What makes a Good Platinum Trophy?

I’ve been playing video games for 20 years now, and while I’m no developer, I feel I’ve gotten a good feel for what I see as good or bad design. In this series, I’ll cover a range of topics on how I would go about making games and the elements that comprise them. There’s no objective fact here but some well researched ideas. Welcome to “What makes a good …”

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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer - Some Analysis
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer - Some Analysis

Oh, Elden Ring! At long last we have had both a reveal trailer for the much anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree as well as a release date - 21st June. The new trailer and accompanying Interviews have given us a lot to chow down on.

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Smaller Xbox Ports I want to see
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Smaller Xbox Ports I want to see

Of course I could talk about being excited to see Halo or Gears of War on Playstation, or upcoming games like Indiana Jones or South of Midnight, but really it’s the smaller games I’m looking forward to seeing.

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