Recent Reviews
Some of my current work as published at Gamespot:
Published at Gamespot on November 2, 2020:
Reviewing Baldur's Gate 3 at this point in time is a delicate proposition. It shows a good deal of promise, yet there are plenty of warning signs it may not fulfill its potential. But predicting the future is not really the task of an Early Access review. To some extent, it is fascinating to play Baldur's Gate 3 today with the knowledge you will be able to follow its progress over the coming months--and possibly years--with a kind of academic interest in how AAA RPGs are built. You'll be able to witness first-hand how rough cuts are beaten into shape and finally polished. And for some small section of the audience, that alone will be worth the price of admission. For the rest of us, however, there's no rush. Baldur's Gate 3 isn't done yet. It's okay to wait until it is.
Published at Gamespot on September 24, 2020:
Reflecting on my time with Crusader Kings 3, I'm struck by the breadth of experiences it offers. My journey took in such a range of emotions that trying to pin down a particular perspective seems futile. I've chuckled in bemusement at the absurd naked man in my court. I've felt the enduring familial pride as a daughter fulfilled her deceased father's lifelong ambition. I've been bored just half-heartedly watching the years tick by, uninspired to intervene. And I've suffered absolute heartbreak, a gutpunch as potent as any game has delivered.
In a sense, Crusader Kings 3 is all over the place. It doesn't always work perfectly, and at times it really makes you work for it, but there's something amazing in that any of it works at all. Strategy games can tell interesting stories as their empires rise and fall, but their procedural narratives are rarely as affecting and poignant as they are here.
Published at Gamespot on September 27, 2020:
But even when you're able to best appreciate Pendragon's procedural storytelling, when you're able to grab a handful of its narrative threads and weave them together across multiple half-hour playthroughs, the returns are diminishing. Each session is too short to allow for the consequences of your actions to carry real weight. By the time you make it to Camlann, you're only just getting to know Lady Niambh or Sir Lancelot, and now it's farewell until you are reunited on a future playthrough--minus any memory of what you just experienced together. And as the scenarios start to repeat, you've got to dig deeper to find something fresh.
Pendragon is a fascinating experiment in trying to marry procedural storytelling to a roguelike structure. It does so with mixed success. With smart writing at the forefront, it delivers a rich and evocative world steeped in fantastical adventure. But when its more mundane systems intrude, you find that reality is a little more prosaic.
Published at Gamespot on April 21, 2020:
In Other Waters develops its central mysteries in expert fashion, drip-feeding its revelations in a way that feels natural, and dispatching you to inspect the corners of its map in a way that doesn't feel contrived. As you steadily learn more of what Vas' partner was up to on this strange planet, and you yourself begin to grasp humanity's plight, the mystery builds to a confident conclusion--one that satisfies yet remains aware that some questions are more enticing when left unanswered. In this sense, its story echoes the restraint that runs through the entire game to deliver a stylish, assured, and utterly absorbing adventure that demonstrates again and again it knows how to do a lot with seemingly very little.