Hitman: Blood Money, first released in 2006 by Eidos, is considered by many to be the best Hitman game ever made.  After the first few games played around with novel ideas and concepts to mixed success, Blood Money honed in on the formulae of specific, small and dense environments filled with ‘accidental’ scripted opportunities to murder your target.  Gone are the long and slow walking through the linear levels of Silent Assassin.  You no longer have the weird and confusing systems of Codename: 47, where you only sometimes had to think outside the box.  What we get here is ..read more

Final Fantasy VII is a landmark title not only for the JRPG genre, but for all video games.  First released in 1997 and developed by Square, it took the format of the previous games and brought them to life with 3D models and environments.  Featuring an ambitious and creative setting, a complicated plot with intrigue and a seemingly deep and engaging combat system, the game seemed to be firing on all    cylinders.  Critics and fans alike adored the game to pieces, and even today there are legion's of players who will cite Final Fantasy VII as their favourite game of al ..read more

It's that time of year again!  For most of our episodes, our format is identical - we play a game, then discuss and review it.  Once a year, however, we take a break from the format at christmas time for our Mailbag episodes.  These are some of our favourite episodes to do - we take a break from the norm for some offbeat discussion about games both old and new. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions on our discord server.  As always, having you all to listen is exactly what makes the show worthwhile and we’re very grateful for your support.   So please, gra ..read more

Ensemble Studios blew the world away with Age of Empires way back in 1997.  It took a different approach to the RTS formulae than Westwood or Blizzard, and was rewarded heavily for it.  Being able to advance your entire civilization's technology level was a heady drug, and balancing the varied needs of your economy with a well rounded army was strategically engaging.  After releasing a sequel and pumping out a couple of expansions they decided to try to add something genuinely new to the formulae. So just a few years later, in 2002, we got the spinoff Age of Mythology.  It ..read more

Blood, first released in 1997 by Monolith Studios, was the middle child of the big three Build Engine games, sandwiched in between Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior.  Its combination of gory horror-inspired visuals combined with action filled FPS gameplay was a huge hit at the time of release, but has slowly faded in many people’s memories.  Both Quake and Half Life loom larger in most people’s memories than Blood, and the question must be asked: why? Is there a good reason that Blood has become one of the dark horses of the boomer FPS genre, known mainly to connoisseurs of the genre?  ..read more

Metal Gear Solid 2 was easily the most hotly anticipated game for the Playstation 2.  The first game had blown everyone away, and the jaw-dropping graphics of previews combined with the quality of the animation in cutscenes seemed almost too good to be true.   Luckily for fans everywhere, MGS 2 appeared to live up to its wild expectations, getting almost universally glowing reviews.  It seemed that MGS 2 had expanded upon the first game in every single way, including having an even more convoluted story.  But for all its praise, there were hints of critique and backlas ..read more

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 was a staple of many people’s PC desktop screens back in the early 2000s.  Nestled in between the big hitters like Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2 you would find this odd game that straddled the line between simulation and video game.  Developed by Infogrames Interactive, it saw Chris Sawyer continue the work he put into the first game, with more rides and tools to tweak your park to whatever specifications you desired. Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 features over a hundred attractions, a plethora of themes and a roller coaster physics system that is completely ludicrous in te ..read more

It feels like Metal Gear Solid barely needs an introduction.  First released in 1998 for the playstation, it launched Hideo Kojima into the western spotlight and has been credited as a foundational game in the stealth genre.  It combined a cinematic presentation with a larger than life cast of villains that somehow never broke through how seriously the game seemed to take itself.  There was an attention to detail here that blew people’s minds upon release, not only in the level of interactivity but also the many easter eggs and secrets scattered throughout the game. But for all ..read more

In the 90’s turn based strategy and tactics games were everywhere, but by the turn of the millennium the RTS genre was stealing its thunder.  So it was a surprise to most when in 2001 Advance Wars seemingly came out of nowhere and presented a tight and refined dose of tactics to the Western world.  Its jovial and enthusiastic tone won over a lot of people, but what really stood out was just how robust its systems seemed to be, promising deep tactical options far beyond what first met the eye. Advance Wars seemingly ticked all the right boxes.  It appealed to newcomers and vetera ..read more

Power fantasies are the norm for video games.  We play them to blow off steam, to escape into another world where we can let our worries drop away.  But Pulse Entertainment wanted to do things a little differently when they developed Bad Mojo in 1996.  They wanted to put the player in the little brown shell of a cockroach.    You play as Roger Samms, who, on the verge of embezzling a million dollars, gets transformed into a roach.  You crawl around the disgusting tenancy where you live, feebly pushing small objects in an attempt to get back to your real self ..read more