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Harry Potter PC Games Retrospective

Apparently I am a Hiderum Studios Creator Partner now. They offered me the role recently and I happily accepted. I do not think I have exactly spent my time showering their games with praise. I seem to remember spending a considerable portion of one review calling them mad people. Apparently they liked that. At the moment there are only two Creator Partners, including me. Perhaps if the list grows, it will eventually start feeling like some sort of little club. The name sounds rather grand, although in practice I do not think it means we are constantly collaborating on things. It feels more like Hiderum taking creators they already enjoy working with and putting a nice official ribbon around the relationship. Fair enough. They support creators they like. I continue doing whatever I was already doing. Everyone benefits. There is no actual obligation for me to cover anything, so there is no real pressure either. Although the title does sound important enough that it occasionally makes me...
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

This review contains plenty of spoilers. I mentioned Skyrim briefly in my Monster Hunter: World review. I actually started playing it about a month ago. First, I had to buy the game. I opened Steam and found The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. "Is this the one I need?" I asked my boyfriend. Apparently, yes. He was playing the Special Edition too. I asked if I could just use his account. He told me Bethesda games already had enough bugs, and that if we both used the same account, there was a chance both of our save files might end up getting messed up. So I should just buy my own copy. All right. I bought it. But while I was adding the game to my cart, I noticed something else. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Upgrade. "Do I need this too?" I asked my boyfriend. "Look at the reviews." Oh. RECENT REVIEWS. Mostly Negative. ALL REVIEWS. Mixed. Well. The font colours are nice and warm. I did not buy that one. Anyway. I made a male character beca...
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Metro 2033 Redux Review

This review contains spoilers. Finally, a Metro 2033 review. Metro 2033 Redux has one of those settings that ought to be very easy to understand. Nuclear war. Moscow is ruined. The surface is poisoned. What remains of humanity has crawled underground into the Moscow Metro, where stations have become little settlements, political factions have grown out of the corpse of the old world, ammunition is precious and anything living above ground would generally rather eat you than have a conversation. Perfectly straightforward. Perhaps Fallout has simply trained me too well for this sort of thing. Give me a ruined city, a Geiger counter and somebody wearing an old military gas mask and I will usually settle in quite happily. And, for a while, Metro 2033 does feel rather like someone made Fallout: Moscow. Once Artyom reaches the surface, almost all the familiar nuclear furniture is there. Collapsed buildings. Abandoned cars. Radiation. Military wreckage. Mutant wildlife. Snow. Lots of snow. Mo...
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PROCEDURE ZERO Demo Review

I was supposed to review Metro 2033 next. Then I received a Curator Connect offer for PROCEDURE ZERO. The developer sent me a short pitch, and after looking at the description and screenshots, I thought it looked quite interesting. So Metro 2033 can wait a little longer. This is a demo review, which means I will probably spend more time on technical feedback and things I personally wish were different than on making any definitive judgement about the game itself. That is what demos are for. Before getting into the game, though, I quite like the logo. It fills a rectangular frame almost completely, with a thin border enclosing the whole thing. I have never formally studied design, so I am not going to pretend there is some sophisticated theory behind my interpretation, but when I connect it to the game itself, it gives me a strangely enclosed feeling. Contained. Boxed in. Which seems appropriate for a game set inside a prison. I have noticed a few fun examples of logo design recently. O...
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