Ripe Machine

Doom (2016) Review

2025-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

At E3 2015 Marty Stratton introduced 2016’s Doom reboot by enumerating the qualities of a good game in the series as having ‘badass demons, big effing guns, and moving really really fast’</a>. I already knew then that me and that yet-to-be-released game were on a collision course. Never mind the cultural flattening of Quake and Doom. Never mind the corporate memory holing of Doom 3. I was more concerned about the qualities that weren’t there.

Golf Story Review

2024-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

I’m going to start by putting my cards on the table: I think golf is a ridiculous sport. It seems almost specifically built to appeal to the corporate elite. The large playing field provides some good privacy—no opportunity for other annoying humans to disturb you in closing off on business deals. Golfing does require skill, which makes for a perfect opportunity to show off to partners and rivals. But simultaneously it’s not all that physically demanding, so, as long as it’s not scorching hot summer, the game can be played comfortably in business attire. And just in case you feel the need of asserting your masculinity to those around you and yourself, you get to whack a tiny ball with a club really hard.

Ryse: Son of Rome Review

2023-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

A decade after its initial release, how is Ryse: Son of Rome remembered? Primarily as a launch title for the Xbox One, I would imagine. And with that, all the other things people tend to say about launch titles: that it appears rushed and is mediocre play-wise, that, at the time, it nicely showed off the graphical capabilities of the hardware it was launched with. One could even mention the game is set in the Roman Empire, a thoroughly underexplored setting for action games—antiquity in general really. Assassin’s Creed discovering this setting for itself was still several years away.
But on replaying the game, I’ve found it not to be a pretty but mediocre launch title. While the game does use expensive graphical effects previously not seen on Xbox, the overall image quality varies heavily. Gameplay-wise, Ryse can only be described as boring—pretty much the worst for an action game. I will concede that the setting and story are interesting, but not in the way one might expect.

Gato Roboto Review

2022-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

Calling Gato Roboto a Metroidvania feels like too broad of a statement. No, Gato Roboto is a Metroid game in all but name. From structure to gameplay, it is Nintendo’s bounty hunter series through and through. But that’s not to say that the game is a shameless ripoff—quite the contrary. Gato Roboto respects its roots, extends them slightly, and puts its own spin on them.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Review

2022-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the first portable story-focused entry into the iconic Metal Gear Solid Series. And while this is a spin-off title, the story is a direct continuation of the widely celebrated main series entry MGS3: Snake Eater.
After completing a top-secret US government mission, Snake aka Big Boss, starts a private military company with a man named Kazuhira Miller. Shortly after, they are presented with an audio recording of Snake’s believed-to-be dead mentor: the Boss. They follow the trail to Costa Rica, but instead of finding her, they discover a covert CIA nuclear arms programme that, if successful, would entirely change the nature of the ongoing East–West conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Review

2022-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

In a dystopian and industrialised world, the Shinra Electric Power Company rules over the city of Midgar in all its facets. The company exploits a natural resource called Mako for energy generation at great environmental cost. The game starts with you in the shoes of Avalanche, a small group of eco-terrorists on a mission to destroy one of Shinra’s Mako reactors. Throughout the game, Avalanche’s conflict with Shinra escalates further as they retaliate and the group’s members grow closer together. But something isn’t quite right…

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Review

2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Hotline Miami 2 is easily one of the most remarkable instances of creators trolling their own fan base. This game is notorious for not living up to the expectations set by its predecessor. Yet, I don’t believe that this game is a failure of game creation but instead has been deliberately constructed to be the way it is. To understand why we have to look at what came before HM2.

Picross 3D Review

2022-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Picross is a long-running Nintendo games series that revolves around solving Nonograms, a popular Japanese logic puzzle. The series has been so influential in the popularisation of Nonograms that many people only know them by that name. The puzzle requires filling a grid according to sequences of numbers on the side. Each row and column on the grid has such a number sequence. Following the rules, a cell in the grid is either filled or left empty. Once done, they form a picture. It’s somewhat similar to another popular Japanese logic puzzle, Sudoku, in that it offers practically infinite puzzle variations and a simple set of rules to complete a puzzle. But contrary to Sudoku, where you have to choose a number ranging from one to nine to fill a cell, for Nonograms, the choice is binary. It is a much simpler type of puzzle in comparison. But in turn, it gains some flexibility. For Sudoku, the grid is fixed in size, whereas Nonograms have arbitrary width and height.

The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures Review

2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is the first game in a spin-off series from the modern classic Ace Attorney series of games built around criminal cases and court drama. It differs mainly in that, as opposed to the rest of the series, it isn’t set in contemporary times, but during the late nineteenth century in Meiji period Japan and the British Empire. You take on the role of Japanese Student Ryunosuke Naruhodo, who, after successfully battling himself out of the court for a crime he didn’t commit, goes abroad to the British Empire to study the British law and judicial system. Ryunosuke isn’t a law student, so this doubles as his journey of becoming a lawyer.

Gyakuten Kenji 2 Review

2021-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Gyakuten Kenji 2 aka Ace Attorney Investigations 2, is the Japanese-only sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. The game’s plot immediately follows the events of the predecessor. Again, you take control of persecutor Miles Edgeworth to investigate and solve many different cases, together with his young assistant Kay Faraday and his subordinate policeman Dick Gumshoe. Previously having smashed an international smuggling ring, they are given no break and are immediately caught up in new cases to investigate. Their efforts slowly uncover a conspiracy that goes all the way up the prosecutorial chain of authority.

Metroid: Other M Review

2021-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

Metroid: Other M is the 2010 main entry into the long-running Metroid series that hadn’t seen a major release for almost a decade at that point with Metroid Fusion. The series at large had already seen a return to home consoles with the Metroid Prime spin-offs, but this game brought the main series back to them as well. With this return Team Ninja and Nintendo attempted to give this series a new coating: getting the main series to 3D, shifting the gameplay focus to combat, and extending the Metroid universe with a huge story.