John Mulcahey

Cozy games! Wholesome games! Farming simulators! Post Stardew Valley, the genre is on a seemingly infinite upward trajectory as developers across the world seek to release their own slices of agricultural nicety. I, for one, am living my…

How many times have you played a game that seethed? One that had such a clear voice of absolute fury? I can’t really remember the last time I played a game that was so viscerally charged with one emotion in all its violent depths. Death of…

Alright, full disclaimer — proud owner of several of Tove Jansson’s beautiful Moomin books, Moomin tattoo. I love these weird little melancholic creatures! Who doesn’t? So I approached Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley with a lot of…

Here it is, the dream started by Red Faction: Guerilla, anger at Lego, kicking down a sand castle, all realised in glorious voxels. If you can see it, you can blow it up. Teardown delivers handily on the core idea that collapsing buildings…

Hell Pie, or the second coming of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, is another in a long line of indie-made 3D platformers that aim to recapture the hey-day of collecting shiny things, to, once again, mixed success.  It’s hard for me to quantify the…

Trenches is trying something relatively unique, on a conceptual level. A psychological horror game set in the trenches of the First World War. I can’t understate how appealing that concept is, how it could be such a fantastic vehicle for…

2022 eh. Bit of a mixed year, but I dare say a modest improvement over the last few. Music and movies absolutely crushed it this year, so many quality releases for all tastes. Even the pandemic decided to take a smaller role in the year’s…

Kao The Kangaroo, an oft forgotten star of those loveable mid-tier early 2000s 3D Platformers, is firmly back! As a person who grew up with a strong and enduring love of this trashiest of subgenres, it’s delightful to see a development team…

Oppo’s Enco Free 2 wireless earbuds are incredibly surprising. I’m used to a pair of wireless earbuds feeling in some way like a sacrifice — be that dropping good sound quality for noise cancelling, or simply the concept of working well at…

Stepping away from Norco the game, here’s the slug line: “A sci-fi southern gothic adventure…” I stopped reading here. They had me within 5 words. It delivers on this basic sentiment with enthusiasm and then some; creating a swirl of decay,…