QCF: The Procession To Calvary (Steam)

t can be difficult to find something new and interesting in the genre of adventure games, a form of media that has existed for over forty years. In The Procession To Calvary, it’s creator Joe Richardson is able to create an unapologetic and humorous entry into the market utilizing free use artwork from the Renaissance and public domain music that is a refreshing ode to the cutout hilarity of Monty Python. And although the mechanics of the game are also laughable, it does not take away the fact that it has a sense of humor that was exactly on my level of gross and stupid.

Click to read more ...

QCF: Fear Effect Sedna

This review was freelanced by Jon McAnally. You can find more reviews and articles written by him over at https://dontfeedthegamers.com/author/jonmcanally/Follow me on the Twitterverse @McAnallyJon

fter a seventeen year chasm in time, the Fear Effect crew is back. Back in the late 90's/early 2000's, the Fear Effect saga brought players to a cyberpunk world full of espionage, digital terrorism, and a unique story brought together by the team of Hana, Glas, Rain, and Deke. While the original title and its sequel, Retro Helix, may serve as a nostalgic gaming experience, there were some major imperfections as far as gameplay and controls. Fear Effect Sedna comes jam-packed with the nostalgia, but is the gameplay overhaul better than what its predecessors could do?

Click to read more ...

QCF: A Hat in Time

012 gave us the year of the bow, then 2015 became the year of the sequel, and while it 2017 has been a significantly memorable year for video games as a whole, there’s no denying that it will also go down as the year that hosted the return of the 3D Platformer.

Granted, while there’s been a lot of praise for the throwback titles that have dropped so far, the craze has also seen its fair share of criticism, generating a lot of commentary on whether or not the genre even deserved such a renaissance in the first place.

Of all the games in the conversation though, one KickStarted-project stuck out as the dark horse of the topic; Gears for Breakfast’s A Hat in Time. While most games like Polykid Games’ Poi or Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee were heavily promoted as spiritual successors to the iconic gems that best defined the collection-driven gameplay, the folks behind A Hat in Time were more concerned with creating an adventure where the journey itself is as, if not more rewarding than the destination. The Humble-Bundle published title establishes early that it’s 3D Platforming gameplay relegates the collectibles or objectives into being more of an accessory than a direct extension.

As novel as these ambitions were on paper however, A Hat in Time fails to step with its best foot forward at the early going, and barely manages to stick its landing, taking far too long to pick up any sort of real momentum in what’s ultimately, a clumsy outing.

Click to read more ...

QCF: Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom

nterest in JRPG games is still steadily climbing, and it despite some of the more lukewarm titles recently released that have tried to take advantage of the genre’s resurgence, the demand for the style has not slowed down. Seizing this opportunity, a studio named Enigami took to KickStarter to fund their idea Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom; a game that empathized the traditional nuances of classic 16-bit JRPG with a presentation that boasted the production value of a modern anime.

Receiving additional support from the CNC after their Kickstarter campaign was successful, the game has quietly released on storefronts, with little to no marketing, and to that effect, little to no fanfare either…

Which is a shame because while the title may scream “DeviANT Art: The game” at first glance, the unique combat system, and world-building offered in Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is something that’s surprisingly memorable, and definitely worth a look for anyone who’s looking for a new JRPG to dump some time into.

Click to read more ...

QCF: Night in the Woods

o matter how old you are, there’s always going to be this unspoken acceptance between you and the friends you makes; an acceptance of who’s going to stay for the long haul, and who’s going to be a memory, if anything at all. Some of the key elements that define the human condition are ones that’re fundamentally tied to the concept of loneliness and the effects that it has on people.

This leads to a misinterpretation that the relationships we form are done from out of mutual interests and similarities, glossing over the fact that mutual hatreds and fears have a lot to do with who interact with and trust on a daily basis.

There aren’t a lot of experiences that I can think of that have evoked these ugly truths quite like Night in the Woods by Finji. The tagline of the game tells its players that at the end of everything, you have to try to hold onto anything, setting a tone that consistently sticks it to you the further you dive in. The messages and themes offered in the adventure side-scroller are poignant in their relatability to the hardships of youth in modern Americana, and struggle with mental health issues that stem from the experience.

Click to read more ...

QCF: Mighty No. 9

o after all of the anticipation, in spite of the delays that served to simultaneously fervor and stifle the excitement; Mighty No. 9 is out, and well, it’s most certainly left an impression, that much is safe to say. Inafune’s premier project banked on the charm of its ambition, which in hindsight, explains why lackluster delivery out of this project hit so hard, and almost why it was sort of doomed from the start.

The initial appeal to this endeavor was how it was poised to be the spiritual successor to a franchise that we all assumed that Capcom long forgot, but Mighty No. 9 just clumsily fumbles about in the shadow that Mega Man casted over it as it fails to cast one of its own.

Click to read more ...

PPR 96

eal life responsibilities be damned! Press Pause Radio is back with another episode on the scene and we got a shit-load to talk about as far as the new trend to hit games in a momentous way in recent months—crowd-funding/sourcing for development.

Between George lamenting the melodramatic tragedy of needing to restrict his salacious hand tugging in the shower, to Andrew coining the new hashtag that no one ever asked for or wanted (#WWOD), and then there’s Ser purchasing a Wii U lot that came with a bunch games that were actually released this generation.

We toss about the use of Kickstarter, IndieGogo, the inception of FIG, and all that—the act if giving money to an entity that defines are interest in these dumb things that we call video games is quite the hot button of discussion to be having.

Until Dawn, Beyond Eyes, Submerged, Super Mario 3D World, Destiny, The Witcher 3, Tembo The Bad-ass Elephant, Rare Replay, Battletoad butts, and just, so much, more!

Just listen to it already, I think we’ve covered enough don’t you?

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Click to read more ...

QCF: Micromon

hen you think of household names in video games today, what are some of the games that immediately come to mind? Just to name a few universally recognized ones, there’s Call of Duty, Super Mario, and even what most moms across the world have affectionately referred to as “that weird Mine game with crafting.” However, there’s still one going strong; Pokémon, and while many of its contemporaries have challenged and it failed—one indie studio went a different way, and flattered the hell out of it in their game, and on a format that Nintendo openly displayed cold feet towards venturing in no less.

Micromon from Moga Studios blurs the line between love letter and thievery, but it fills it satisfies a very specific appetite of that monster-raising/battle adventure that mobile gamers have hungered for, and to its credit, Micromon actually does it quite well.

Click to read more ...