Capy Castaway: A Cozy, Dreamlike Love Letter to Toronto and FriendshipCapy Castaway is the Toronto-centric game that uses an oversized gerbil and a sarcastic, self-centred crow to teach us about friendship. Aug 20 26August 20, 2026Article at The Cultural Gutter
Still Keeping It Cozy: The Coziest Upcoming Games of 2026 and BeyondOther than the crappy, ad-infused word game that I keep on my phone to occupy my brain on my commute (and which I will not promote here because of said ads), I haven’t been playing too many video g… Jun 25 26June 25, 2026Article at The Cultural Gutter
Going For It: 2024’s Best ThingsSachin Hingoo runs down some of his favourite things on screens big and small in 2024! Jan 09 25January 09, 2025Article at The Cultural Gutter
Welcome to WebfishingA new game called Webfishing from Michigan-based creator Lamedeveloper reinvents the early-aughts chat game, and fosters community, creativity, and clownfish. Dec 12 24December 12, 2024Article at The Cultural Gutter
Keeping it CozyOne of the things that has always drawn me to Sega’s Yakuza and Streets of Rage series and games like them, is the chaotic button-mashing action that punctuates their elaborate (in Yakuza’s case) and perfunctory (in the case of Streets of Rage)… May 02 24May 02, 2024Article at The Cultural Gutter
Mike Cheslik’s ‘Hundreds of Beavers’ (2022) is My New Favourite Video Game PlaythroughScreen Slapstick comedy has never been my preferred mode of humour. “Too obvious!” “Too expected!” “Too on-the-nose,” I’d wail as a dude slips on a banana peel and falls, face first, into a pie. My style of humour was that of ‘Kids in the Hall’, or… Mar 07 24March 07, 2024Article at The Cultural Gutter
In The Game x The Week in Horror: ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Grinds Up Genuine TerrorEven though I’m a big slasher movie fan, I never really got into the burgeoning genre of games based on them, including Dead By Daylight, Friday the 13th, or Evil Dead. For whatever reason, the model didn’t really appeal to me, largely because I’m an… Aug 31 23August 31, 2023Article at Biff Bam Pop!
The Creation SuiteThe art of creating characters in video games is neither objectively new, nor even new to me. I’ve been messing around with video game character creation suites for decades, though I certainly never thought of it as art. I think the most common use… Jun 29 23June 29, 2023Article at The Cultural Gutter
In the Game: ‘Lego 2K Drive’ Satisfies My Need For SpeedI’ve always loved the thrill of racing games, though my tastes are quite particular. Despite mine being a PlayStation household for decades, I don’t go in much for the ultra-realism of the console’s hallmark Gran Turismo series. Because that series… May 25 23May 25, 2023Article at Biff Bam Pop!
I’m Still Not Sure What Reputable MeansI told myself I wouldn’t do this. For the second year in a row, I’ve let Switcheroo Month, the time of year when us Gutterfolk write about reputable art instead of disreputable art, sneak up on me without an idea of what piece of reputable art I’d… Apr 06 23April 06, 2023Article at The Cultural Gutter
Holy Cats! The Sumptuous Cat-ness of StrayVideogames I’ve been playing a fair bit of Stray, the new cat simulator from relatively the new developer BlueTwelve Studio, since it came out a couple of weeks ago. While it’s completely enchanted me (as well as many, many others) , I find that I… Jul 28 22July 28, 2022Article at The Cultural Gutter
Dance With The Angels: The High Drama and Anti-War Sentiment of Ace CombatVideogames In the early days of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, unconfirmed reports trickled out about a mythical “Ghost of Kyiv”, a single pilot at the helm of a MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jet that was rumoured to have taken out several Russian… Mar 10 22March 10, 2022Article at The Cultural Gutter
Biff Bam Pop!’s Holiday Gift Guide 2021: Civilization 6 (PS4) is the Perfect Gift for Empire BuildersI finally get it. All those times on the schoolyard in the 90s where my friends would recant hours-long sessions in front of Sid Meier’s Civilization series, the appeal of which I never understood because it looked like you were playing a very… Dec 14 21December 14, 2021Article at Biff Bam Pop!
Something Fishy This Way ComesAh, the freedom of the open water. We chase it in real life with boats, canoes, and all manner of watercraft, but nothing beats the feeling of the rushing tide over your scales…I mean skin. Video games have been trying to replicate the freedom of the… Nov 18 21November 18, 2021Article at The Cultural Gutter
In The Game: AMNESIA: REBIRTH (PS4) is a Tense, Emotional Thriller With A Unique ProtagonistI have trouble with most first-person games, in that they give me terrible motion-sickness and nausea. This, of course, puts Call Of Duty, Destiny, Halo, Doom, and most of the other big shooter franchises out of reach for me, but it also means I… Nov 17 20November 17, 2020Article at Biff Bam Pop!
In The Game: Kingdom: Two Crowns Dead Lands and John Wick: Hex Let You Plan Your EscapesIf you’re looking for escapism while in quarantine, there’s never been a better time to get into video gaming, whether you’ve strayed from the ol’ Dualshock or have never picked up a Joycon. Grand adventures await in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake,… May 24 20May 24, 2020Article at Biff Bam Pop!
In The Game: Nothing Comes Easy in Nioh 2The first thing you need to do when you fire up Team Ninja’s action-RPG Nioh 2 is to disabuse yourself of the notion that anything is going to come quickly, or easily. Going back to 2004’s rebooted Ninja Gaiden games in the Xbox and PlayStation 2… Mar 31 20March 31, 2020Article at Biff Bam Pop!
In The Game: Zombie Army 4 Delivers Undead Thrills and X-Ray KillsWhen you fire up Zombie Army 4 for the first time, even if you’re like me and are totally uninitiated to the series from UK developer Rebellion, it’s clear that you’re playing a polished game where every decision has been carefully considered. It’s… Mar 05 20March 05, 2020Article at Biff Bam Pop!
In The Game – Triangle Studios’ ‘It Came from Space And Ate Our Brains’One of the things that have driven me away from video gaming somewhat, is the move away from offline cooperative experiences to online ones. I get it, I’m a Luddite in this regard but video games are so bound up in the experience of sitting down with… Feb 25 20February 25, 2020Article at Biff Bam Pop!
In The Game – One Weird Trick to Enjoying Patapon 2 Remastered (PS4)Despite falling by the wayside to the Nintendo DS, the PlayStation Portable and its successor, the PSP Go had some really great, innovative exclusive titles to its name. One of these was the Patapon series, a rhythm/problem-solving game with an… Feb 06 20February 06, 2020Article at Biff Bam Pop!
