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Horses

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/13/2025
Posted in: PC Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Santa Regione

Developer: Andrea Lucco Borlera

Release Date: 12/02/2025


Available Exclusively On

Paul McCarthy. To some that name means nothing, but his art pieces are some of the most shocking and horrifying pieces of medium to ever be put into reality. They aren’t meant to just shock and awe people but to convey a statement. They are created to start a narrative to get people to open up about uncomfortable things. When you think of some of the oddest games, you can think of something like Dog’s Life, or Doshin the Giant might pop into your head. Maybe something a bit more strange like LSD: Dream Emulator or Irritating Stick. You might even start thinking more artsy with games like Vib Ribbon or echochrome. These games all have something in common. They are games with really interesting art designs or gameplay mechanics. One game that no one will be thinking of 10 years down the road is Horses, and that’s not a knock to the game. This is something that is so far removed from a mainstream or “hidden gem” curiosity that it will be only circulating around the most niche horror circles. Horses is one of the most deranged and avant-garde games I have played in years. Played is also a stretch, as Horses is a walking simulator with brief interactions.

You play as a teenage boy, Anselmo. You are sent to a farm by your parents to get your head out of the clouds and learn. The game right off the bat goes against the grain of even the quirkiest games out there. There’s almost no audio, the game is purposefully in a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the entire game is in black and white. There’s mostly just a film reel sound playing in the background with an occasional music track and odd sound effect. This is kind of nuts, as this would be considered “lazy” even by the lowest budget standards, but it’s all part of the style and imagery the developers are trying to get across. This sensory deprivation helps you focus on the visuals and scenes happening in front of you. You are totally sucked in and have no choice but to pay attention. It’s almost like you are being brainwashed similar to the horses in the actual game.

The game starts out simple enough by introducing the farmer and why you are here, putting your things down, and eating a meal. You are then introduced to a task list that requires you to do things like feed the dog…and various other things. The game takes place over 2 weeks, and each day gets more depraved as time goes on. Once you are introduced to the “horses,” things take a turn for the weird. The buildup is fantastic. Andrea Borlera did an amazing job building up and keeping me shocked throughout the entire game. Anyone who has delved into the darker parts of the internet or the deep web (not to be confused with the illegal dark web) may not be quite as shocked, but those who don’t follow any of those circles may either close the game or keep playing out of sheer fascination or abject disgust. I loved the psychological shift that the developers put onto the player rather than having you experience the protagonist’s shock through their own view.

I don’t want to spoil the story too much, but I have to talk about some of the actual shock that comes from the various scenes in the game. The warnings when you boot up the game are not to be taken lightly. This isn’t some PR or HR department giving you a silly little warning. You will be partaking in torture, cutting off genitals, whipping, burning, branding, and riding these “horses.” You’ve seen the game trailer and know these are people, not actual horses. It’s more than just shock value, but we are diving into the mind and dark past of this farmer. This is a story about abuse, being a victim of it as a child, and not being able to escape that. Unchecked mental health issues going rampant are something that is a major problem in our world, and this game really shows that. Nobody is talking about this game outside of mainstream articles about the ban because it makes you uncomfortable. Those who aren’t uncomfortable by this don’t talk about it because they don’t want to be judged. This is a piece of media that everyone knows or hears about, but acts like it’s not in the room with us.

There are certain amounts of censorship in the game, but it’s deliberate, or at least I think it is. Not in the common sense of censorship to appease various people, but for the story. The genitals and breasts of the “horses” are pixelated, and I think this is important to talk about. When you are traumatized by something, you tend to see things differently or block them out of your mind. Certain torture scenes are blacked out, or the camera is positioned in a certain way to not show everything, but done in a clever way to still know what’s going on. It’s crude but very effective, and all done purposefully to give the player a certain feeling or emotion. There are also stock footage clips of close-ups from real life, like when you drink milk, it’s a close-up of a throat gulping, and a crude sound effect plays. The opening menu is stock footage of a flower with music playing in the background, similar to some analog horror games we have seen.

The game is also very crude and terrible to look at, but I want to think this was also intentional. This looks like a very low-budget PS2 game, and Dog’s Life, which I mentioned earlier, was constantly going through my head when I was playing this. The animations are awful, the textures are flat, there’s clipping and glitches, and the character feels like mud to control, but I feel like this is on purpose to remove all distractions from the player and help deliver that crude and raw feeling. If this was a AAA budget title made in Unreal 5, I feel it wouldn’t have the same effect. While the game isn’t downright scary with monsters and weird visual effects, the game is scary in that people really do this stuff. There are serial killers and cult leaders who have done things like this to real people, and it proves that fact can be far scarier than fiction. The lack of voice acting and cuts to title cards like in a silent movie help add to more of that raw tension. You don’t get anything in this game. No rewards. You must endure the raw journey of the human mind with crude visuals, minimal sound effects, and no voices. It’s a sensory nightmare that helps add to the game that even the biggest horror games tend to forget. Without spoiling too much, one scene towards the end has those title cards constantly flash on screen while you walk around trying to figure out what to do. There’s no sound effects. These title cards relentlessly block your view until you find the item to stop it. It drove me nuts, but it was effective.

With that said, Horses is something I will never forget, but many will focus on the wrong things. The banning on Steam and the fact that this will never be able to make it to consoles is a shame. Many others are spewing hyperbole and spouting incorrect facts about this game. Things like it’s a murder simulator and trainer and is only for perverts, etc. These tired hyperbolic terms drive me crazy, as they take away from what the developers are actually trying to talk about. This isn’t a bestiality simulator; this isn’t a “gooner” game for certain extremist crowds who think Santa Ragione or Andrea has finally “broken through the shackles of society and the snowflakes.” This is an art piece. Santa Ragione are the Paul McCarthy of the video game circle. Real-life art can churn your stomach and make you think. So do just that. Think while playing Horses.

Reviewed On

Xbox One Controller

Developer Interview: Endflame for Upcoming Psychological Horror Game “Silent Road”

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/08/2025
Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Psychological horror games need to be done right. Psychological horror games don’t solely depend on jump scares and cheesy trends to captivate players. Endflame may not have an extensive catalogue, but it’s a strong one. With their last release, Ikai, they proved they can capture that special niche of Japanese horror, diving into folktales and lore from that region. They have the pedigree for horror. That’s why I think Silent Road is not just familiar in name but speaks for what the game is. A journey on a road that’s silent literally or figuratively? There’s only one way to find out.

Looking at the trailer and various screenshots, you can see the clear influence of past horror games related to Japanese folklore. Fatal Frame and Silent Hill will immediately come to mind. The intense density of the forests of that region invokes many local and famous folktales, including the Aokigahara Forest, or “Suicide Forest.” Particularly the forests of Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, Kuon, and even Siren come to mind. If you are a fan or even familiar with those games, then this might be something worth checking out. What kind of scares Endflame has in store for us will need to be seen, but after talking with them, it seems they are up to the task of slowly feeding players intense moments and building up to larger scares that pay off.

I talked with Endflame to pick their brains and get an idea of what we can expect from Silent Road. How does it compare to other games, and what makes it stand out from the ever-increasing indie horror scene? On top of that, how does it compare to their previous games, and what can we expect that’s different? The taxi mechanic is striking, as this is something that’s not really focused on as a main gameplay idea in horror games. The short stories you get from passengers are what can stick with players long after the credits roll. Check out the trailer below to get an idea of what to expect before diving into the interview.

Has any traditional Japanese folklore influenced Silent Road? 

Yes, in fact, the narrative and setting are inspired by the legends surrounding Aokigahara, which is commonly known as Japan’s “suicide forest.” While the region in our game is fictional, it draws heavily from the eerie stories and lingering spirits associated with Aokigahara. We love Japanese horror, and our debut game Ikai explored yokai stories in a feudal setting. This time, we wanted to surprise players with a new angle while keeping the atmosphere they love, with a modern world haunted by the ancient legends of a forest marked by death. 

As a fan of Ikai myself (I bought my copy for Switch from Best Buy on day one!), what have you learned from the feedback of that game that helped in Silent Road’s development? 

Thanks for being such a loyal fan! 

Player feedback from Ikai taught us what resonated most: atmosphere, memorable scenarios, and a strong creepy tone, so we’re bringing back all of that into Silent Road. 

On the other hand, players also made us realize that some jump scares became predictable once they got familiar with the mechanics, which reduced the fear factor. Because of that, we’re focusing on adding more varied and unpredictable dynamics to the gameplay, with distinct twists so every ride or quest feels uniquely frightening in its own way. 

What would you say sets Silent Road apart from other indie horror games of the same genre? 

The Japanese theme and taxi-based gameplay are the key features that set Silent Road apart. Very few games have explored these ideas separately, and even fewer have combined them. We feel they complement each other perfectly and let us create situations that wouldn’t be possible within the limitations of more conventional settings. You never know what might unfold beyond the windshield… but dangers can also be sitting in the back of your taxi. 

Has the recent rise in Analog Horror influenced the game’s development in any way?

To a certain extent, yes. Analog Horror doesn’t rely on hyperrealistic graphics to be scary or appealing, unlike big productions. We can’t compete on that graphical level, but we can create strong experiences built on interesting ideas, atmosphere, and our own aesthetic approach. 

You’ve stated that games such as Silent Hill and Fatal Frame were big influences on Silent Road. Are there any retro classics that influence the game as well, such as Sweet Home or Clock Tower, for example? 

Yes, there are. Clock Tower, as you mentioned, is one of them, and Forbidden Siren [Forbidden Siren is what Siren is called in PAL regions ed.] is another major reference for us. Even though we’re not aiming for similar gameplay, Forbidden Siren has that creepy, quiet atmosphere and classic J-horror look that we love. 

Has there been any other inspiration from other Japanese horror sources, like Junji Ito or anime or manga? When I see that Silent Road will feature short stories from drivers, the short story horror anime Yamishibai comes to mind. 

We’re actually driving the story toward a single overarching plot, presented through the different perspectives of the passengers. We’re aiming for storytelling with varied points of view and personalities, which is why we added passengers as a core element. Silent Road features characters with distinct mindsets that can shift the player’s perception of events and help them form their own interpretation. 

Even though it wasn’t an initial reference, I’d say the structure is closer to Death Parade, where each character has their own story linked to the main plot, guided by a central “conductor” figure who shapes the narrative. 

Music and ambience play a huge role in horror titles and can drive a lot of the emotion. What can we expect from Silent Road in that aspect? 

As we did with Ikai, we are paying special attention to music, but especially to sound. We learned that a strong soundscape is key to establishing a creepy tone both in the environment and in gameplay scenes. 

How dark can we expect Silent Road to go? The darker the better, I say. Will there be gore or anything super graphic? Most horror fans love this stuff if it’s done well and makes sense for the story. 

Silent Road is leaning more toward psychological tension, with a strong build-up driven by the stories and unsettling situations that definitely go dark. There will also be some consciously placed jump scares woven into that build-up. We feel this game is better suited to psychological horror with very dark backstories rather than graphic gore. As you said, gore needs to serve the story to work, and here it doesn’t feel necessary. 

Can we expect Silent Road to be released on other platforms, such as Switch 2? 

We’d love to bring Silent Road to as many players as possible, just like we did with our previous titles. For now, we are keeping the scope small to guarantee the game’s completion. We’ll evaluate additional platforms and future opportunities as the game takes shape. 

Will Silent Road be Steam Deck verified? 

We are developing the game to run smoothly on Steam Deck, but verification is handled by Valve. That said, we are actively working to meet all requirements, although the actual verification process remains outside of our control. 

DunkeyKong asks if the game will feature a fuel system for the taxi and if we can pet cats? That’s a big thing right now! 

The game won’t have a fuel system. The main reason is that it would shift the gameplay toward management mechanics, and we don’t want players to be distracted by fuel interfering with our story plans. As for cats, I’m afraid we won’t have any, but if we did, we wouldn’t hesitate to add a petting feature!

Very interesting indeed! A preview will be incoming in the future, so look forward to that. Thank you to Endflame for taking the time to answer these questions and help connect some emotion to the game and get us excited for what’s to come. There’s no current release date, and the only confirmed platform is PC for now. If their release of Ikai is any indicator, we should hopefully see a console release and, mostly, a physical release eventually.

Ghost of Yotei

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/05/2025
Posted in: PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: SIE

Developer: Sucker Punch

Release Date: 10/2/2025



Available Exclusively On

When Sony releases a new exclusive title, it’s an event for me. They don’t release games at the frequency they used to. We might get one or two a year. Ghost of Tsushima is an all-time classic. While I don’t remember much about the story or characters, I do remember the game being a beautiful exploration of Japan with great combat and the world itself being fun to explore. Yotei is no different. Atsu is a much more memorable character, and while the story seems to follow the modern trend of “Sony Revenge Stories” Atsu changes throughout the story, and she shows growth instead of constant anger or doing anything to get this revenge, even if that means losing everything. Atsu had her parents murdered as a child by a Samurai named Saito. His companions are all masked during the murder, and Atsu soon remembers the Yotei Six. These six masked demons must be murdered to exact revenge for the death of her family. There are excellent plot twists and changes throughout the story to keep you hooked. However, I spent most of my time exploring the world of Yotei.

Combat in Yotei is simple to understand but can be hard to master when facing many opponents or the tougher bosses. Atsu has many things at her disposal. Five different weapons she can switch between for starters. This seems like an absurd amount, but certain weapons are stronger against others. The Odachi is a massive sword that’s best against large characters and clearing the area. The katana is best against a single katana, while the yari (spear) is great against kusarigama (sickle and chain), and vice versa. The dual katanas are best against yaris. It’s important to flip between weapons depending on the enemies’ weapons. This keeps you on your toes and adds a level of challenge and depth to the combat. Atsu will eventually acquire multiple quick-fire weapons such as the matchlock pistol, kunai, smoke bomb, fire bomb, oni flame (lights your weapons on fire), and many others. These can also be used outside of combat during stealth or to clear groups of enemies.

One-on-one fights are the toughest, and these require mastering the parry and dodge techniques. When the enemies’ weapon flashes blue, you can press the block button to parry. Red glints must be dodged, and this opens them up to attack. Yellow glints mean they are doing a disarm move, and you either need to dodge or hold down the heavy attack button to disarm them on the parry. If you get disarmed, you must find your weapon or switch to something else. There are also environmental elements to combat, such as grabbing throwable weapons, which can do instant kills, as well as finding sake jars to stun enemies and shooting barrels. You will always need to be on your toes and look for environmental weapons or use what you can to knock everyone down. There are also some other combat elements, like mounted horse combat by slashing at enemies or jumping from the horse. You can also unlock an ability to ram the horse through enemies. There’s even an armor that allows you to parry bullets, which is neat.

There’s little sprinkles over the main dish of combat. This includes stealth combat. You can assassinate an enemy from behind in the beginning. This includes drop-down assassinations. Eventually you can chain assassinate or have a partner help you. When you get the kusarigama, you can pull enemies towards you for stealth kills. Stealth isn’t required in most of the game, but it can be better than fighting two dozen enemies. You can hide in tall grass, disappear into tents, climb watchtowers, or pick off enemies with a bow (you have a longbow and shortbow as well as various arrows), or you have the choice to stand off with the entire group before you’re seen. This gives you an opportunity to duel enemies by holding the heavy attack button and letting go when they launch. Eventually you can chain these together and end it with a pistol shot. Then there’s the Onryo’s Howl and Ghost Stance abilities you can use when you get enough parries or kills chained together. This allows for invincibility and plowing through a few enemies with ease. You can sometimes even scare enemies into fleeing altogether.

As you can see, there’s a lot to the combat system. There’s so much here that’s slowly introduced to the character. During the story missions, players find masters of these weapons and receive training to wield them effectively. Same goes for most of the throwables and quickfire weapons. They are all given throughout the story so as not to overwhelm the players. Most of the story missions appear to consist of similar gameplay elements. The exploration, which includes climbing, fighting, stealth, and more climbing, is where the core of the game lies. You should aim to find all the optional armors, masks, and hats, as well as collect more dyes to create cool-looking gear. This game has some fantastic-looking gear. You can kit yourself out to be an all-black shinobi or a massive samurai with crazy armor. There are a few puzzle elements thrown in, but none of them are very challenging and are some of the weakest parts of the game. Spin a few statues to match symbols on walls, etc. There are also some puzzle boxes you can find, but these offer no challenge either.

There are various side activities you can partake in, such as finding shrines similar to Tsushima, bounties, vanity gear hunts, fox dens, wolf dens, and many others. There are nearly 30 hours of just side content here, and it’s all a lot of fun. It’s done quick, it’s easy to find, and it allows you to explore this beautiful world. The wind guide is one of my favorite gameplay ideas of all time. You can swipe up on the touchpad, and the wind will help steer you in the right direction of where your marked spot on the map is. This makes finding gear and various other items a breeze. Getting to them is the challenging part. You may need to climb something, blow open a hole, or tear down a wall. There are also bamboo strikes in which you press a combo of buttons to slice bamboo to increase your spirit. You can upgrade your health by finding hot springs. There are dozens of charms throughout the world, and these are used to give you passive boosts to various stats or abilities. You can equip up to six, and this allows you to create your favorite build. Want to boost stealth or ranged combat? There are charms and armor combos for that. You can also find shrines to upgrade various abilities, but I honestly felt the upgrade tree just slowly unlocked abilities and felt a little tacked on. You have to pretty much unlock everything in a row so you can focus on one thing or the other.

The game world is stunning, and Yotei is one of the best-looking games ever made. On the PS5 Pro with ray-tracing and VRR the game can hit 60 FPS, which is fantastic to see. The bright colors pop with HDR and the various areas all have their own color palettes. The game doesn’t focus on seasons, but each area has a different weather pattern. One area might have yellows and greens, while the next area is all snow. Snowstorms can cause your health to slowly freeze unless you find a fire and will temporarily limit your health. The game is just a dream to look at, and the load times are instant. You can fast travel anywhere, and you’re playing in about 1 second or less. Sucker Punch really utilized all of the PS5 hardware to make this game beautiful and play wonderfully. The DualSense controller is well used here with great vibration implementation, and the triggers are used well. It’s a very immersive game, but there are a few issues I haven’t talked about yet.

While the combat has all of these little elements sprinkled in that make a much larger combat system, it can get rather repetitive. The only challenge ends up coming from timing parries and dodges, especially in boss fights. Most of the combat is held back by the heavy attack armor breakdown. You have to break down every enemy’s white bar to even start to attack them. Tougher enemies will regenerate one or two of these before you can kill them. This also goes for boss fights. They have a large armor bar above their health bar, and you have to heavy attack them, dodge, and parry to whittle this down just to attack. A lot of attacking and time is wasted on this feature, and I wish it wasn’t there. I can understand large enemies or enemies with tougher armor, but every single enemy has this to some degree.

I also found that the structure of the main story missions consists of a repetitive mix of similar activities. Climb a bunch, run around, fight a bunch, do a stealth area, open a door, climb a bunch, and repeat. The gameplay primarily consists of a combination of these three or four distinct types. You usually have a boss fight at the end of each mission with not much else to do. This was my issue with Tsushima as well. While all of these are more refined here, some may not like this type of gameplay loop. I found it worked well during exploration and finding all of the gear and upgrades, but the main story should have some other things thrown in. A scripted horseback ride doesn’t really count. There are a few occasions in which you get to equip a cannon, but these are later in the game and only happen a couple of times.

I also found the story, while entertaining, didn’t have the greatest dialogue. It’s very dry in spots and doesn’t get very exciting often. There’s a lot of standing around and talking with little else. Most of the side content cutscenes are skippable and not memorable at all. Sadly, there are very few memorable characters here outside of Atsu and a couple of the main characters. I do appreciate the new game plus mode and various filters to make the game look like older Japanese films. I found the music good, but nothing worth listening to outside of the game, as it works well within the context of what’s happening on screen.

Overall, Ghost of Yotei is a fantastic game with a lot of content to offer despite being wrapped around a few of the same gameplay loops. The story is entertaining, and Atsu is a great new character to add to the PlayStation roster, but most of the dialogue is dry, uninteresting, or nothing special. There aren’t a lot of well-written characters, and this issue was clearly never resolved from Tsushima. The main story missions are a mixed bag of the same gameplay loops as well, with nothing super exciting or anything that really stands out. I spent most of my time enjoying the exploration of the world and finding all of its secrets. If you loved Tsushima, you will love this, but those who don’t care for open-world action games will find that this game won’t change your mind.

Reviewed On

The Boba Teashop

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/01/2025
Posted in: PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Mike Ten

Developer: Mike Ten

Release Date: 04/21/2025


Available Exclusively On

Stress from work is a real issue today. It’s quite common that in Asian cultures this can lead to suicide. Many local legends and myths revolve around overworked women who jump from buildings or hang themselves and then haunt where they work. The Boba Teashop does a great job of building atmosphere and tension in this regard. There is a time management simulator in here that’s actually quite fun, and sadly the game ends so soon. A few other PS1 style horror games of this ilk have done this, such as While We Wait Here. There isn’t much to this game. It’s a very simple game to look at, as you are only inside this single shop. The game is very dark and moody, with it constantly raining outside, and it always seems to be nighttime.

I have to commend the developer for some great scares. These aren’t just cheap jump scares or fake-outs. There’s some serious psychological horror stuff going on. Things will appear in the periphery of your view, and when you turn to look, nothing is there. You can’t make out the object, but you know something was there. There’s a lot of tension building, such as when you are told that an electrician will be working on the system and your lights will flicker. There’s constant fear that something will pop out at you or that one of those lights flickering is something else. The entire workday ends up like this.

The main gameplay loop is greeting customers and getting orders. You start out simple with just boba tea. You pick up your cup and place it under the correct vat of liquid. Eventually you can use chocolate and coffee. You can then add milk from the fridge as well as various fruit. The last station is your boba, and then you must seal the top before handing it over. In the employee room the recipes are on the whiteboard if you get confused. It’s a very simple but addictive loop of taking orders, and you also get repeat customers. Some are rude, some are nice, and some are strange. Orders are displayed on the register, and when you hand the drinks over, the customers will pay and you collect the money. A couple of other people come in who don’t order drinks, but it all adds more tension. You get more and more stressed as the days go on and start seeing things.

I don’t want to spoil the scares and story, as this is such a short game. The visuals play well with this type of game. The low-poly graphics and lack of lighting keep you glued to your screen. In between the gameplay loop of making drinks, the game never lets up. Something is always happening. The game lasts maybe an hour at most, and this feels like a proof of concept or demo for something that could be bigger. I highly encourage those who are fans of horror and PS1 style graphics to buy this and play it. You’re supporting an indie developer, and the game is really inexpensive. Normally, I don’t care for these super short indie games. They are usually fairly disappointing and don’t offer anything memorable, but things come together just right here to warrant a playthrough.

Reviewed On

Tetris Forever

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/28/2025
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Clear River Games

Developer: Digital Eclipse

Release Date: 11/12/2024



Available On

Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master series is an incredibly original and unique idea. The series focuses on creating interactive documentaries that explore interesting game stories or sagas, allowing gamers of all ages to engage with them. This is the third Gold Master game coming right after the Atari 50th Anniversary, which was absolutely a blast to experience. Tetris Forever is a great concept. The story behind how Tetris came to be is fascinating, and Henk Rogers, the person who helped bring Tetris to the West, is a great storyteller. I was floored by how Tetris came to be and the breakdown of the gameplay and nuance of what makes the game a timeless classic. The documentary clips are wonderful. Usually ranging from 3 to 8 minutes each, there’s easily over an hour of video footage, but that’s kind of where the best part of the game ends.

It’s difficult to call these Gold Master series “games” as they are interactive museums. Many different versions of Tetris are owned by other copyright holders. The most famous being the original Game Boy version of Tetris that shot the series into the stratosphere. It’s not here because it’s owned by Nintendo. You can see it being played in the footage of the game, but that doesn’t help us sitting here playing this game. Forever is mostly comprised of older MS-DOS and early 8-bit PC versions of the game that are historically interesting but not very fun to play. Digital Eclipse did a great job creating a replica of the computer they are on visually and adding things like a CRT curve, filter, and mapping the keyboard controls to a controller. Sadly, they just aren’t fun to play. Many versions don’t have music or much sound at all. Outside of messing around with these for five minutes, you will have no reason to go back to them.

There are a few other games that aren’t Tetris included, as these are part of the Spectrum Holobyte story. Many NES games are included here, but you can play these outside of Forever on emulators through ROMs on much simpler devices that boot up quicker without a fancy interface. Again, these games are either not fun or just interesting enough for a historical reference. This isn’t like Atari 50th, where you can play every single game Atari made or held the rights to, and they were full-blown games. These are pretty much all puzzle or board games. One of the big stories that helped Henk Rogers gain trust from Nintendo was making a game of Go, which is basically Japanese Reversi. The NES version is intriguing at best, but I was not a fan. It’s not as addictive or fun as Tetris and requires much more concentration.

Sadly, only 8-bit games are included here. Nothing past the mid-90s is included. It would have been great to get DS, PS2, PS1, or other consoles on here, but there’s either a rights issue or an emulation issue on Digital Eclipse’s side. Most of the more interesting games are 16-bit and beyond. The lesser-liked sequels to Tetris are included, and a few spin-offs like Hatris, Super Bombliss, and a brand-new game made for this compilation, which is the only non-8-bit game included. This Gold Master release is mostly for those interested in the story of Tetris rather than playing it. Unless you grew up with these 8-bit games, I don’t see any reason why anyone else would enjoy them. Sadly, even the new Tetris game isn’t anything special. It’s not much to look at and just plays like any other Tetris game. The most interesting feature is the 1989 mode, which emulates the Game Boy version, and that’s as close as you will get to it. I don’t see myself booting up an entire compilation just to play this version of Tetris.

The title would have been more interesting as a cheap documentary than a game all by itself. I got more enjoyment out of the video clips than I did the games themselves. With four 8-bit versions of the original Tetris (all inferior versions) and many less interesting spin-offs and sequels, it begs the question as to who this is for. The low asking price helps, but even then, unless you are a massive Tetris fan, it’s hard to justify the cost. Tetris Time Warp is the game you will spend the most time on here, but will you come back to it? Tetris is a fascinating tale and one of the most interesting I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Tetris is a fantastic and timeless game series, but the content included here does not represent its strongest offerings.

Reviewed On

The Nameless City

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/24/2025
Posted in: Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Paradnight Studio

Developer: Paradnight Studio

Release Date: 01/29/2024


Available On

H.P. Lovecraft’s stories are difficult to translate into game form, and very few are successful. It’s almost like a curse in and of itself. Many games based off of his short stories are adventure titles, and I have played many of them, with almost none being good. The Nameless City has some good ideas. It nails the atmosphere and the setting and has an interesting gameplay mechanic, but this game feels like a glorified demo of what could be.

The game starts you out at a campsite outside of some ruins in a desert. The lone adventurer narrates the game with a subtle and almost depressing tone. He is quoting lines from Lovecraft’s short story of the same title. A mysterious being is said to live in these ruins, and people will hear the call in their dreams. As you make your way through the ruins, you will come across runes. These can be learned to help open up pathways further in. As night falls, however, you will lose all of your sanity and have to start back at the last checkpoint. This isn’t all that bad, as the game is so short. There are only three runes you use in the game. You can use one rune for casting and another for dispelling or casting a barrier. These spells are just for barriers, and that’s it. There are strange open holes that blow wind across a chasm that you need to navigate. These will blow you off the mountain, so you need to crouch under some.

Once you get into the cave system, it’s pretty boring. You can eventually use a spell to cast light on strange crystals as your sanity depletes in the darkness quickly. Once you get through the cave system and back out, the game is pretty much over. I did hate the maze puzzle. This entire level will take up most of your 90 minute playtime. It’s an endless maze that repeats forever. You need to use this to your advantage to activate crystals to stop a beam from blocking your path. It took me nearly 45 minutes to figure this puzzle out, and it was not fun at all. That means there’s only 45 minutes of actual gameplay outside of this awful level.

With that said, there isn’t much to say for the game even if I wanted to. The visuals use the PS1 style graphics and look appealing. The atmosphere and ominous sound effects do a good job, and the end monster is a little goofy looking. The game is very affordable and can provide a spooky experience for an evening playthrough, but don’t expect too much from it.

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Monument Valley 3

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/18/2025
Posted in: Android, iOS, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: ustwo

Developer: ustwo

Release Date: 12/10/2024


Available On

Monument Valley played a pivotal role in shaping the mobile gaming scene by demonstrating the feasibility of console-like experiences on mobile devices. With the flood of microtransaction-heavy free-to-play schlop on the app stores, Monument Valley was a beacon of hope for those who wanted to play single-player games on their phones. The MC Escher-like level design and clever puzzles were adored the world over, and USTWO was considered a pioneer of single-player mobile gaming. The second game was more of the same, which everyone wanted, but the third game here is still more of the same. That’s also what we want, but we want something longer than two hours. With the series venturing into console and PC territory, the short length isn’t as forgiving.

The overall game is exactly the same as before. If you play all three of these games back-to-back, you could be forgiven for thinking they were the same game or DLC of the first. There’s not much new here outside of a more streamlined and cohesive narrative. While it’s more visually presented with a girl named Noor trying to restore a lighthouse to a tribe that lives in the ocean (or that’s how I interpreted it), there’s nothing crazy storywise and never has been with the series. A lot of emotions are invoked through the fantastic soundtrack and visuals. The bright colors and the continuation of the MC escher style puzzles with perspective and illusions at play make this series one of my favorites of all time, right next to echochrome.

The game is easy to understand thanks to visual context. Parts of the level that can be manipulated are represented with hollow pips similar to a Lego block. You can move these freely while Noor is on them, and it’s required to solve some puzzles. You can’t always expect to just move a piece and command Noor to walk to the exit. Some pieces are moved with a spinner, and these can not be moved while Noor is on one of them. These are some of the harder puzzles, and they really require you to look outside of the box and take perspective into mind at all times. There’s a new gameplay mechanic here of being able to command a boat (it’s a leaf bug with an eye on its sail that blinks). It’s such a fantastic design. These may require moving a character back and forth between platforms to solve a puzzle. Another puzzle-solving element is a growing tree and having the leaves appear on different parts of a platform. These are subtle gameplay ideas, but they are new and welcome.

With all that said, the game is still just way too short. There are only 11 levels, and you can finish the game in a single sitting. I wanted more. I have always wanted more from this series. They are spread so far apart that when they come, you cherish them like an expensive sweet. The soundtrack is ethereal and beautiful, the visuals pop on OLED displays, and the level design is like no other. These games are well worth a playthroughif you love puzzle games. Just don’t expect a lot.

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Luto

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/09/2025
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Selecta Play

Developer: Broken Bird Games

Release Date: 07/21/2025


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When dealing with mental health or talking about it, there can be many obstacles to overcome. How do you approach it? Do you take it head-on and use a traditional narrative experience where you watch the protagonist spiral out of control, or do you use the approach Luto took and make it an interpretive indirect narrative in which the player experiences the downfall? Luto does an impressive job showing what it can feel like to experience depression, thoughts of suicide, and mental health issues. Never has a game done a similar job since Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

What we need to understand is that the developers aren’t approaching in a “sensitive” way but in a way that we can just fully understand. Unless you are experiencing or have experienced any mental health issues or even some sort of trauma that can lead to this, we have no way of knowing. I particularly enjoy how the human mind deals with these things and the artistic interpretation of it. While I have experienced my own sets of trauma through my life, it’s still interesting to see what else is out there. You play as a man who is dealing with the loss and grief of family members. I don’t want to spoil the story, but it’s not the direct tale, but how you experience this interesting grief.

There are some trippy gameplay ideas here that I have yet to see. There is some direct inspiration from the P.T. demo by Hideo Kojima. The nearly sterile lighting and hyperrealistic house that feels lived in yet cold and empty at the same time. The buzzing of lights, ticking of clocks, and just your footsteps are all you hear. The silence can be deafening. There is a cheeky British narrator that talks you through the game, similar to The Stanley Parable or something straight from a Media Molecule game (LittleBigPlanet). However, something seems off with this narrator. As you walk out of your bathroom and complete your day as the narrator intends, you try to break the sequence. This leads to further sequence breaking and then to some meta-narrative ideas without spoiling anything.

Some puzzles involve solving looping hallways and corridor issues. Identifying numbers and observing objects in specific ways are key to solving puzzles. The first example has you trying to get a hammer hanging from a chandelier because you need this to pry wood off a doorway. You can keep walking downstairs only to end up back at the same staircase. You need to find four numbers to enter as a phone number to break the sequence and drop the hammer. You need to be observant and look for breaks in patterns. It’s very reminiscent of P.T. in that sense. These puzzles can be fun, but if you’re not good at finding them, some can be hard to figure out.

As the game moves on, some of the horror elements will pop up, and, while they are subtle, the excellent lighting effects help with this. The game is very surreal and haunting in the sense that nothing makes sense. It can be disorienting and go against the grain of what makes sense. This can be scary on its own rather than jump scares and creepy monsters. There are none in this game. Some scares are very subtle and only exist if you spot them, or the atmosphere alone can just be downright tense. You will expect something to jump up at you or come out of a doorway, but nothing ever does. That’s a fantastic way to create horror. Luto makes the scares seem like they are there, but it’s all in the player’s head. I don’t want to spoil the short game by explaining anything in detail. With a walkthrough, you can complete the game in 4-5 hours.

Overall, Luto is a fantastic psychological horror game. I just wish there were more puzzles and gameplay and some of the puzzles weren’t so obtuse. While I like that the story is interpretive, this is becoming a cliche in indie horror titles and can be tough to pull off with such short lengths. Luto does a better job than most, but it’s still not perfect. While I love the lighting and atmosphere, the game does look kind of generic in spots, such as the hyperrealism of the house and day-to-day objects. Things don’t really start looking much different until more of the surreal stuff starts to pop up.

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PlayStation 5 Pro with Disc Drive

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/03/2025
Posted in: Hardware, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

A History of Pricing

There was a lot of controversy surrounding the PS5 Pro, and rightfully so. Sony didn’t read the room, as people are struggling in a post-COVID economy and gaming has gotten more expensive over the last five years. Prices of hardware are going up over time and not down, which is a trend never before seen. The PS4 Pro was well received, as it improved games significantly, and many developers quickly adapted to the newer hardware, but it wasn’t a significant cost difference over the original hardware. In fact, it was the same price as the base model, and that dropped $100 to $300. This was part of the usual trend. This generation has gone the opposite direction. The base PS5 launched at $500 with the slim version being the same price as the base model, with no price drop for the base model. On top of that, the slim with the disc drive is an $80 add-on, increasing the cost of a slim by $30. You could still buy a slim disc version at $500, but this was all a weird choice. What would be the rationale for purchasing a digital slim for $450 and then adding a disc drive later?

With that out of the way, Sony dropped the PS5 Pro as a digital-only console for $700 and the disc drive add-on increased that by $80. For $780, plus a game, plus PS Plus, a new user could be looking at nearly a grand for a new PS5 experience. This is completely unheard of. Forget the fact that the PS5 Pro comes with a 2TB SSD. It’s a nice bonus, but you can upgrade the drive at any time by adding an SSD up to 4TB. Who needs this much storage? During launch, it wasn’t worth the upgrade. Only a couple of games received Pro patches at launch, and the PS4 Boost mode was nice if you played a lot of those. Outside of this, the Pro offered nothing for already established customers. If you traded in your PS5 it could offset the cost by a few hundred dollars, but that still didn’t make it worthwhile.

Fast forward almost a year later, and the PS5 Pro has seen quite a few updates and many new games supporting its more powerful hardware. Games will don the PS5 Pro Enhanced symbol so you know it will take advantage. Many do this in several ways that we will get to later, but even games not supported can see boosts. Games with unlocked frame rates will run more stable as well as have lowered load times. There’s also the use of PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), which is Sony’s own AI upscaling tech similar to FSR from AMD and DLSS from Nvidia. The hardware is 47% faster in the GPU department with twice the ray-tracing power and the added tech for super sampling. The GPU is an entire generation newer than the base PS5, as it uses RDNA 3 technology instead of the PS5’s RDNA 2.

Getting to Know the Pro

The system looks similar to the Slim PS5. The side panels are now split down the middle and are no longer a singular sheet like on the base model. We get three new “fin lines,” or stripes, which gives the Pro a distinctive look over the other models. There is a vertical stand that is needed with the disc drive. These are two small plastic pegs that raise the console up to meet evenly with the bump. The panels pop off much easier than the base model. Just a swift pull, and they come off, with one side revealing the SSD slot and the other for the disc drive. The system also comes with a new vertical stand, but it is honestly not needed. Due to the lighter weight and slimmer design, the system stands upright really well without a huge risk of falling over. The PS5 Pro is a sleek-looking system, and the subtle changes are a nice touch.

I won’t be getting into the controller or anything like that, as it’s all the same. This isn’t Xbox, where the controller changes three times in one generation. I will say that there are two USB-C ports in the front now, losing a USB-A port with two A ports in the rear. The LED lights on the front extend from top to bottom now rather than just around the top’s hump like on the base model.

As for games, the difference is noticeable, and the cost can justify this. I tested several games out, and while other sites do a better job with visuals, graphics, and what not, from just a gamer’s perspective I can easily say that games that aren’t PS5 Pro run better when they have unlocked frame rates. Using Balanced modes with a 120 Hz TV is night and day over the 30FPS locked Quality that we normally get. That extra 10 frames can really make a difference. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 have an unlocked performance mode so you can easily hit 70-80 FPS, while the RT quality mode is now mostly locked at 40FPS rather than dipping below 30. Games that use PSSR like God of War Ragnarok and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, look a lot better, and this is a great FPS boost as well.

With that said, the PS5 Pro is subjective to the user. Some current users may find the boost in power worthwhile, like I did. You, of course, need a proper TV that can take advantage of the hardware. 120 Hz minimum is a must, or you’re throwing performance out the window. I also highly recommend an OLED TV with at least 1,000 nits and HGiG for good HDR. While HDR doesn’t really have a standard yet, the brighter your OLED can display, the better HDR will look. You must also properly set up your TV with Game Mode and turn off all processing. Look up guides on your TV model for a suitable baseline.

For $700 (and now $750 as of this writing due to US tariffs), the PS5 Pro is a worthy upgrade and a perfect entry point for new PlayStation users. If you really want your games to look the best, this is the way to go. That is if you already have a proper TV. If you don’t, your setup could become astronomically expensive, shooting well above $2,000 for a proper setup for the Pro. I personally have a 65″ Samsung S90D to go along with the Pro, and I am playing console games now more than I ever have. Do yourself a favor; look up some videos on graphics comparisons to see if it’s worth it to you. If anything, a higher frame rate is more than worth the upgrade for most.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/27/2025
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Switch, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Deck Nine Games

Release Date: 10/29/2024


Available On

Max! Max, you’re back! It’s so good to see Max Caulfield again. This time as a grown adult. Our Max is all grown up. Well, that’s what I wanted to say, but a few hours into the game, you will realize that while Max is back, everything surrounding her return isn’t. This is a very forced game that didn’t need to get made. While all of us are curious as to what happened to Max as she grew up, we didn’t want a repeat of the original game. Deck Nine nailed the feeling of the first game. While we’re not in the same time period (late 2000s), we are in modern times, but with new friends and foes. The atmosphere of Life is Strange is here. The surreal soundtrack, being able to interact with various objects and hear Max’s inner monologue, important choices, well-made characters, etc. It’s all here, but in a very basic package to tie it all up.

Here’s the thing: Double Exposure literally tries to repeat the original game and story. It feels very forced and eye-rolling towards the end and isn’t believable one bit. Cloe has been replaced with Safi. She’s a hotheaded character similar to Cloe, but she also has a soft side. She’s goofy and has a good sense of humor, but you can clearly see this is a Cloe replacement or clone. Then you have Lucas, who is a Mark clone, etc. There’s a pattern here. He’s another creepy teacher who has a secret that rocks the whole story. It’s predictable, which is a shame. Instead of putting Max in a new situation with her old powers, she somehow has new powers. The power of Double Exposure. She can now hop timelines. It’s pretty silly and less grounded than the original game. While having powers is silly anyways, the first game being so grounded made it believable rather than a hokey superhero wannabe story. Treading the same ground just feels wrong.

Thankfully, the characters are interesting, but not as memorable as the original cast. They all have character, flaws, good and bad traits, and are not super stereotyped. Gameplay-wise, nothing has really changed. I would go as far as to say there is less gameplay here than in the original game, and that game was already lacking any. The locales are also not very interesting and are constantly repeated. There are too many mundane indoor environments, such as the Turtle bar, the school, Max’s apartment, etc. There aren’t any outdoor locations with sweeping vistas or more interesting indoor areas. You will spend up to 10 hours in these same locations over and over again. Max is now an urbexer (Urban explorer) so why don’t we get to see some cool abandoned buildings like during the intro sequence? The game just jumps straight into Max trying to save the planet, so we don’t get time to be with her and her friends living normal lives for a bit. That’s what made the first game so great.

Gameplay involves switching back and forth between timelines to solve puzzles, but this is just an excuse to extend gameplay. There are set nodes that sparkle, and you can jump between the Dead and Living worlds (one of the characters in the game dies, and you are trying to save her and stop it). You can pulse your power to see objects placed in the other timeline in real time before switching to it, but it doesn’t add anything interesting. There’s of course the usual collectible hunt, but that’s about it. Choices in the game are fewer and don’t have the mega impact that they did in the original. Story-changing sequences don’t come by often. Maybe once a chapter or none in some of them.

At least the visuals are improved. The facial expressions are great, and there’s a lot of detail in everything while still looking like a Life is Strange game. The upgraded visual quality helps go a long way, but sadly this was wasted on so few areas to explore. The ending is also rushed and feels inconclusive and too predictable. When the credits rolled, I just felt like the entire game was just not necessary. It didn’t add any value to the original game. Fans should definitely play, but you do need to play the original to appreciate what is here. Max recaps the original game throughout the story, but not in detail, so a lot is missing. There are a lot of references to the original that new players won’t understand. Some scenes in the ending aren’t explained at all, but are direct references to the original game such as when Mark strapped Max into the chair. For a cheap purchase you will have a fun couple of evening with the game, but don’t expect anything groundbreaking.

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