Tag: author_name|Jessica Conditt
‘Simpler Times’ is the coziest game I’ve played in a long time
Warm afternoon sunlight streams through the bay windows. A tree beyond the panes throws shadows across a plush rug, partially covered by an open cardboard box. The bedroom is compact and bright, and it’s filled with the remnants of youth: books and family photos line the walls, and the desk…
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Why the ‘Oxenfree II’ team became Netflix’s first game studio
In early 2021, Night School was in the market for a partnership. The studio’s debut game, Oxenfree, was a breakout success in 2016, and it was followed by Afterparty in 2019 and then 2020’s Next Stop Nowhere, an Apple Arcade exclusive. By 2021, co-founders Sean Krankel and Adam Hines had made…
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Ubisoft needs a reboot
At some point in the last console generation, Ubisoft lost its soul. It was a piecemeal erosion process that started in 2015, and it finally resulted in a complete identity collapse somewhere between the studio’s unironic rollout of in-game NFTs and its sixth delay of Skull & Bones. Ubisoft has…
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‘Alan Wake II’ stands out in a sea of sequels
I’m worried about Saga Anderson. She’s a seasoned FBI agent investigating a string of ritualistic deaths around Cauldron Lake, and she’s a little too impressed by all the supernatural gore she encounters. At one point, she’s talking to her partner about the cult activity they’ve seen – the dismembered body…
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‘Immortals of Aveum’ first look: A little more magic and this might be wonderful
When I saw the announcement trailer for Immortals of Aveum in the winter of 2022, I was surprised by my own interest in the game. Immortals came from an unproven studio founded four years prior by Bret Robbins, a AAA creative director who most recently built a trio of Call…
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macOS Sonoma brings widgets to the desktop
The latest update to macOS is called Sonoma, and it’s all about productivity and widget management, with a little bit of leisure on the side. The new operating system adds widgets to the desktop and makes them movable, allowing users to place them anywhere. As one widget is in use,…
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