Sometimes I gaze outside my window and marvel at the incomprehensible beauty of the natural world. Then I think, nope. I’ve got books to read and games to play. Also, outside contains wasps. But books? Books are the best. Video games are also the best….
Nic Reuben
57 Articles
Nic Reuben likes to pause games every five minutes to ponder the thematic implications of explosive barrel placement. When he's not having an existential crisis over CAPTCHA verifications that ask him to prove he's not a robot, he's reading sci-fi and fantasy short stories, watching cartoons, and mourning the writing standards in Game of Thrones.
Nic Reuben
3 Min Read
Here’s a riddle for you. What do grinning hairballs with orange hats, pink hedgehogs, and giant cherries have in common? The answer is, of course, nothing. Embarrassed? You should be, for you have just fallen victim to the riddle king. Luckily, Amanita Design laugh in…
Nic Reuben
3 Min Read
Dujanah slips into a windowless room with purple walls, and a soft piano ballad named “Mothers were all darlings” begins to play. What of footprints? A grounded falsetto asks. What of satin? of tea-stains? kindling? nail files? Seven expectant mothers sit in a circle, and…
Nic Reuben
3 Min Read
FTL: Faster Than Light developers Subset Games have created something truly remarkable with Into the Breach; a turn-based strategy that game manages to create divergent, unpredictable scenarios without relying on randomness. Subset’s latest offering follows in the footsteps of FTL by creating tense standoffs where the systems tell…
Nic Reuben
9 Min Read
“Everyone is invited, to write something about how to make a videogame, how to respond to a videogame, what the field of videogames could and should be. Write a manifesto to free up your mind to move forward. I want videogames created with vision rather…
Nic Reuben
2 Min Read
Sit down, dear friendo. I would like to take you on a journey. A wonderful journey that will change your life. When arrive at our destination, you will experience things, and they will change you as a person. You will never be the same again….
Nic Reuben
1 Min Read
Speed Dating for Ghosts is a game about finding love, and finding the tender, human idiosyncrasies in stories told to you by grotesque blobs of ectoplasm. Kyo is a soaking, nervous ghost scared of other ghosts. Spooky Peter, on the other hand, is damn proud…
Nic Reuben
2 Min Read
There’s a fragile serenity to the opening moments of In Other Waters. Lush ambient electronica announces a swirling, minimalist display of reefs like alien fingerprints. Dark blues and busy yellows color a sleek UI that feels both functional and ornate. There is wonder here, in these…
Nic Reuben
5 Min Read
George Orwell‘s 1945 classic Animal Farm was, the author said, the “first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole”. An allegorical critique of Stalinist Russia, Orwell’s book follows the revolutionary undertakings…
Nic Reuben
2 Min Read
It’s not often I get excited about a menu screen, but gosh darn it; The Behemoth know how to sell you on a game before you’ve even started playing. Water balloons full of color to the dome! Frenetic organ synths that are somehow Gothic and goofy at…
Nic Reuben
2 Min Read
If the numbers are anything to go by, it’s unlikely players have had their fill of the delicious, fleshy taste of Numantian Games’s lurch-away success, They Are Billions. It’s still in early access, and is yet to feature the promised story campaign, but that hasn’t stopped…
Nic Reuben
1 Min Read
As a student, some of my favourite games included using ketchup instead of pasta sauce, writing essays based on Wikipedia entries, and losing my will to live on a daily basis. I thought I was pretty big deal for getting out with a degree, but…
Nic Reuben
4 Min Read
Halfway through university, I took a temp job as a catering assistant, and ended up working a wedding. I’d temped as both a waiter and kitchen assistant before, and have since. It’s mostly…forgettable. You sometimes get to try food you wouldn’t be able to afford…
Nic Reuben
1 Min Read
It’s a sobering fact of mortality that death often lurks in the shadows. What’s often overlooked, however, is that death is actually a lovesick, chubby office worker with a penchant for funk and disco. Kong Orange‘s Felix the Reaper is a puzzle game about manipulating space…
Nic Reuben
1 Min Read
Soundtracks, eh? Sound. Tracks. Them old ear ticklers. Those good time, toe tapping, hip jiving noisy noisy sound casseroles. Those hullabaloo rockets that launch themselves right into your brain and make you say “Now this is a racket that really butters my bread, Joe”. What…
Nic Reuben
1 Min Read
The satirist Jonathan Swift once remarked that “A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart”. Swift died before Steam Wallets were invented however, and thus, his advice can be safely ignored. He supposedly wrote some immortal literary classics, but…
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