Two trailers recently dropped for a Black-lead indie game in development, Nixie. The trailers were uploaded by David ‘TheStoryteller‘, who makes media analysis and social-political commentary videos about and from a Black-British lens. David got his start with videos on The Boondocks and his ‘Operation Black Steel’ series.

The Kickstarter is now live for 19 days (click the link to view more info on the project, money goals, donation rewards and more). David has stated the following regarding Nixie:

‘For the record, this is an all or nothing project. Either the demo gets funded and we make it, or it doesn’t and we don’t make it. If you want to support this concept, this is only chance to do it’.

Story, Gameplay & More: Nixie is an ‘Action & Visual Novel hybrid’ about ‘found family, communication and the demonization of African spirituality’. I’m especially interested in that last point thanks to Ransford James, (political science major and professional BJJ-Daddy) who has discussed the history and colonial impacts regarding views on Obeah.

Between the more comic/manga-inspired segments in the story, there are also retro-style sprites in a different style featuring a main character on some kind of magical Dorito hover board, suggesting flying shoot-em-up mechanics in a similar vein to Galaga or parts of Cuphead.

A Personal Moment: As a biracial… Well, tri-racial lefty Britbonger, I have a lot of love for David’s work and hope Nixie gets the backing it deserves. And as a drippingly optimistic theatre kid with aspirations of becoming his own auteur, seeing those behind Nixie achieve would do a lot to inspire young creative minds everywhere, myself included (at time of writing).

And while I have you, show some love to the Free Huey foodbank initiative (click here) if you still have cash to spare.

Power to the people. Peace.

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The post Black-Lead Game Based On Boondocks! Nixie Kickstarter Live first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Dark Souls, the famous franchise to bring testicle-crushing difficulty back to contemporary gaming, with deadly bosses, unforgiving worlds and a dash of story-telling obscurity. As the saying goes “Show, don’t tell. Like, really. Almost never. You have to be a detective to figure it out”.

I haven’t played the original Souls trilogy, but I am a big fan of Nioh, Hollow Knight, Elden Ring, Sekiro and Bloodborne. So, here’s 3 mini reviews of amazing games, threaded through their shared “Souls”-ness. Skipping Hollow Knight because my review for that is right here! As for Elden Ring, stay tuned on that for another day.

Will I ever play Dark Souls? Maybe! I may get it bundled with Fruit Ninja, but that’ll probably be a long time from now considering how vast Elden Ring is, so feel free to treat yourself. This blog isn’t sponsored, but I’ll advertise any of the games you can get at the Go2Games store!

Samurai Souls, as they say. Nioh was my first love with “soulslikes” or “recursive sprawlers” for my fellow Yahtzee fans. Chose it because the gameplay seemed faster-paced than Dark Souls, but not as high-speedy as Bloodborne.

Now that I’ve actually played Bloodborne, I actually think Nioh is a much faster game, though it’s still an amazing time.

The vast variety of unlockable weapon arts spice up gameplay. Ninjutsu and magic skills are powerful and similarly unique. The story may be frustrating in it’s lack of character for most of it, but gameplay is visceral and strategic while making you feel like a badass with every boss slain. Check the Go2Games store if you want the game, or The Nioh Collection including Nioh 2.

Sekiro is amazing! In a strange way, while many Souls games reward caution and fear with a hit-and-run combat style, Sekiro rewards bravery and aggression in it’s unique parry system. The comparisons to rhythm games are not just for show.

The shinobi prosthetic arm is a stroke of design genius and ripe for an incredible amount of creativity, both in the finished game and in any possible future games.

For more interesting content, VaatiVidya’s Sekiro art competition winners video and my own offering may be worth your while.

I only have two complaints: Leveling up is a lengthy process and farming at the Fountainhead Palace is pretty boring at times. Second, the combat arts are limited and highly situational only really work wonders against non-boss enemies. This is where I think Sekiro should’ve copied some of Nioh’s homework, giving the player access to multiple combat arts at once to sell versatility in combat instead of having to pause and re-equip different arts.

I’m relatively green at Bloodborne, but I beat Daddy Gascoigne and one optional boss on a bridge. The trick weapon system is fantastic, because you’re basically getting two weapons for the price of one. I’m fond of the sword-cane sword-whip hybrid and the Kirkhammer. I think between Nioh’s stances and Bloodborne’s trick weapons, there’s a hybrid mechanic between them waiting to be realized.

Don’t have a lick of a clue on how to parry, but nothing a quick google won’t fix.

The atmosphere is suitably horrific and nerve-wracking. This game is one of the few times (besides Hollow Knight) that the “detective” storytelling style works for me because hey, Lovecraftian demon gods beyond human understanding turning people mad? When in Rome!

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The post Memoirs Of a Souls Fan Who Never Played Dark Souls first appeared on Get2Gaming.

In the immortal words of Shaun (for the second time in my blog-writing experience), “I play video games… I PLAY video games”. That said, the production and behind-the-scenes insanity can be just as entertaining, rage-inducing, hilarious or somber as any great game.

So, without further ado, here’s 5 controversies and “controversies” I found particularly interesting:

1: Activision Blizzard’s “frat boy culture”.

I’ve made no secret of my deep-seated borderline erotic passion for mocking Bobby Kotick, now former Coca-Cola board executive and extremely soon-to-be former CEO of Activision Blizzard, the company behind Overwatch, World of Warcraft and…*checks notes* Spider-Man Friend or Foe!? Used to play it all the time with my brother… Hard to segue from that into the severity of the controversies, but I’ll try:

The company perpetuated a culture of sexism, sexual assault and protecting the abusers in the company, Kotick chief among them. The worst acts included groping, coercion, blackmail with nudes acquired from said coercion, crunch time (a horrible and unfortunately common practice in the gaming, animation and manga industries) and unequal pay between male and female workers.

Needless to say, I could make this whole list on just ActiBlizz shenanigans if I wanted to, but for now, let’s keep it to just two with-

2: “Buttgate”!

I only heard of this one through brief glimpses of trailers and online cultural osmosis at the time, but as I understand it, here’s what happened: A lot of promotional media for Overwatch pending it’s release just so happened to reveal the character Tracer packs what terminally online fetishists would refer to as “Whooty” (white booty).

Reactions to Tracer were largely divided into three camps: Those who started frothing at the mouth (and other organs).

Those who sparked discussion on sexualization of female characters in gaming.

And the anti-feminist YouTube skeptic crowd who claim feminists are the ones ruining games… Speaking of anti-feminists:

3: GamerGate!

This one’s too fascinating for me to recount in just a couple witty paragraphs. The saga of GamerGate is full of twists and turns.

Non-existent game reviews causing seething hatred. Cheating allegations. The transition of the atheist skeptic YouTube movement towards Anti-Feminist YouTube, which in turn lead to the rise of progressive leftist YouTube. The LITERAL Swat Team… And a 4Chan nutter made a game about assaulting one Anita Sarkeesian for the incredibly horrible crime against humanity of talking about games through a feminist critique on the internet!

Ian Danskin covers GamerGate in much more detail with his UC Merced Talk. Needless to say, this is an Oscar-bait biopic waiting to happen folks!

4: The Corrupted Blood Incident.

Of all these controversies, thank God this one doesn’t have a silly name!

Back when World of Warcraft was near it’s peak in popularity, there was a boss enemy with a virus ability that proved deadly to players… Try saying that three times fast!

While the virus couldn’t spread to players outside of combat with Hagfar the Fart-Sniffer or whoever it was, the devs forgot to extend that luxury to in-game pets of the player base!

So, the virus began to spread throughout the entire game, Blizzard were wracking their heads for solutions and player behavior towards the virus in this time turned out shockingly similar to the fresh hell that was 2020’s global pannini!

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The post Top 4 Controversies in Video Games first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Quite the coincidence this pops up not long after my Metal Gear Solid 3 villain post! Hideo Kojima, Professional Strange-Name-Maker and Kojima Productions leader recently announced the company offices will be moving to another venue.

In nostalgic celebration, he shared a couple pictures of the now-emptied old offices with the following caption:

Today is the day we say goodbye to the entrance, the Ludens hallway, and the kitchen that have been our home for a little over five years. Many memories come to mind. Farewell

What’s the new location of Kojima Productions? I’m relatively agnostic on that, but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in development from Kojima in the future.

Speaking of future works, the company has been confirmed to be working on not only multiple games, but also an anime production: The amount of content likely stemming from Kojima Productions’ recent rise in positions filled at the company.

On a briefly unrelated note: Every time I close my eyes, I can imagine a world where Metal Gear Solid is inexplicably a Danganronpa style visual novel!

Like, I take joy in explaining the craziest moments from MGS out of context the same way JoJo fans (a moniker I’m also unfortunate enough to identify with) try selling folks on the show by saying “bruh, a Victorian Britbonger wrestles a bisexual disembodied vampire head with magical sunshine karate, we gotta see this”.

Product Poems:

Galactic Destruction King, Benevolent World-Eater… Kirby.

There was once a pink ball-boy called Kirby, who looked like a featherless furby. I jest of course, but there is some discourse on Forgotten Lands, almost found, surely!

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The post Kojima Productions Moving Office: What to know first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Lottie from Animal Crossing. A random character from a game I never played whomst I continue to know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT to this day!

So, why is it my Product Poems (more on that here) on Lottie resulted in a bunch of insane innuendos and nonsequitirs claiming this character is a violently horny man eater? Well, I’ll attempt to tell you in this blog before I share a highlights reel of my questionable-taste Lottie jokes!

Honestly? I have no idea why Lottie specifically, but I do have some theories: For starters, most of my product poems were in a haiku format. I wanted to spice things up with a different formula, so I landed on a “man from Nantucket”-inspired formula because I find it funny… It also happens that Nantucket poem is incredibly salacious and filthy in the best way possible (the version I heard, at least). My picking a Lottie Amiibo’s maiden honor to defile is just a happy coincidence and you’re just gonna have to trust me on that.

With that out the way, hope you enjoy this highlight reel of my best Lottie jokes folks!

There was once a young woman called Aloy, who’s south-end faced west like McCoys! Surely forbidden, so purely well-hidden, till coming under Lottie‘s employ.

“I’m Lottie, please take me… Wait, wha- NO! Not like that, pervert”!

There’s an AMIIBO from Tazmilly Village. With magic so strong, he could pillage! With a thrust and some thunder from somewhere down-under, he caught a glimpse of Lottie’s cleavage.

There was once an AMIIBO called Bowser, called Lucas to talk about flowers. With a hand-each from Lottie, Tom Nook’s favorite totty, they said “let’s give these buds a shower”.

There was once an AMIIBO named Lottie, who Villager found quite the totty. Had a WiFi connection and well-timed erection, but Last of Us 2 still won GOTY.

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The post Lottie The Tottie – A Hilarious Animal Crossing Story first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Regular readers will know I am the auteur who’s mad mind brought the world of Product Poetry to life!

Product Poems were birthed from my lizard-brain while thinking of funny ways to insert product links from the store into blogs, as that’s part of how Go2Games makes that greenback. That paper. Moola. Dough. CREAM. The Benjamins- I mean Elizabeths!

So, without further ado, here’s a collection of my favorite Product Poems.

Bobby Kotick, small streaming stick. Purge from Blizzard like Morty, Rick.

There was once an AMIIBO from Hyrule. I lied, no, there’s actually two! Though I implied a lie, that plot twist aside, wish online was in Nioh 2.

Boba Fett takes to Battlefront 2 like a scruffy-looking Nerf Herder takes to shampoo.

There was once an Amiibo called Mario. Who rose to fight dragons, you know. Come lava or snow- oh, look out below, that goomba got smashed in the plateau.

Red Dead Redemption. G’s of Tsushi. Do you want both? Give money.

Mario’s Jump is a tour-de-Force. A dead-beaten horse, of course.

Ghostrunner, anti-gunner, slice-dicer, cyber punk cipher. Sold!

Evil, evil, evil residents. Coin, coin, coin. Abandon.

Chronos before ashes, a God. A God before ashes? A thought.

Dark pictures, a thousand words unseen, masquerade and mock mankind.

Fractured, but whole. This is mine. Fractured, but whole. Yours too tonight?

“Annie, get your gun, gal“! Her mech appeared. “Shooty bang-bang, y’all”!

There was once an AMIIBO called Jump-Man, a plumber who had a nice rump-tan. Bare for the sun on his day off just once, then a fireteam thumped on his pump, man.

“Yer a wizard, Harry“. I’m a what? “Deaf too, I suppose”. You wot?

Keep your breath minty fresh, or your last laugh, friends will detest… FORTNITE!

Monkeys. Monkeys everywhere. Return to Monke. Yes I am, CJ.

Whoop, whoop. It’s the sound of the police. Here, they lie. Here comes the judge.

No straight roads? That’s what he said! I’ll get it! “Not at 3am hun”.

There was once a young woman named Barbie, one day she got bit by a zombie! But she didn’t turn, for soon she would learn, she had no brains- “oh, harder Harvey”!

Dual charging dock. The lover’s rock. For you see… Shared gaming hobby.

The Simsons. Schitt’s Greak. Casuno Royale. Salt n Peppa Pig. Hoink.

Doom Eternal. Cute inferno. Shooty-bang-bang on hell spawn, yo.

Hasbro, Hasn’tsis? Enemy stand or friendsit? Sorry children.

Very very Vale… Oh, the T is silent? Django called!

Blacksad… Will Smith. Whitehappy? Mr Rogers.. Whitesad? Bo Burnham?

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The post Product Poetry: Gaming, Advertising &… Art? first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. My first love with the franchise, one of my favorite stories in gaming and an overall brilliant experience, once you get used to the camera at least. I mean, Yahtzee wasn’t kidding with the whole “glued to a passing seagull” metaphor!

Needless to say, this post will include spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 3. So if that’s cool with you, allow me to wax poetic for about 400 words on why I love The Boss…

Not to be confused with Big Boss, another character in the franchise. Or My Boss, a sometimes-real, sometimes-hypothetical being who’s existence depends on my employment.

The Fear Factor… Yes, in a game with a character LITERALLY called ‘The Fear’, it’s barely half an hour into the game till The Boss flips your ass like a pancake and chucks you over a cliff.

You find out The Boss is a former comrade and mentor of your’s, so unraveling the mystery of why she joined a terrorist group is an interesting one.

Lori Alan delivers a great performance in cutscenes too, communicating a calmly ruthless demeanor that contrasts with the bombast of the game’s other villains, like the sadistic Volgin or The Pain, who’s basically Shino on crack!

That’s Twisty: It is later revealed that The Boss and her team joined with Volgin’s army as an attempt to become a living scapegoat, reducing wartime tensions between Russia and the US by becoming a threat to both and ensuring cooperation between the two.

It’s oddly hard for me to articulate why I like The Boss’s near-ending monologue so much (right now, at least), considering she doesn’t have an obscene amount of screen time, but what little there is works incredibly well, to the point I teared up at her death.

And from a writing standpoint, it was revolutionary for me to see a villain motivated by selflessness. One could argue that The Boss pulls off the whole symbolically paternal morally grey warlord shtick better than Thanos, which I have done in the past.

Product Poems:

Galactic Destruction King, Benevolent World-Eater… Kirby.

There was once a pink ball-boy called Kirby, who looked like a featherless furby. I jest of course, but there is some discourse on Forgotten Lands, almost found, surely!

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The post The Best Villain In Gaming! The Metal Gear Solid (Girl)Boss first appeared on Get2Gaming.

In the immortal words of Shaun Skull “it probably is a crime! And if it isn’t, it should be“. Why is it that 18-year old me could get Metal Gear Solid V for 15 or 20 quid a few years after release, but most Nintendo games refuse to budge from the 50-60 range?

Am I salty that I won’t be playing Kirby and the Forgotten Land for a while because my ass got Elden Ring? Am I going to dissect the issue of gaming prices in general? Am I probably going to end up accidentally burning bridges if this blog makes it’s way to Nintendo against my better judgement? Yes, I’ll try, and hopefully not!

Exclusivity: Which is to say, because some Nintendo Switch games aren’t on other consoles, the boys in red have cornered the market on a certain selection of games. While definitely part of the story, there’s definitely more to it than just exclusivity. Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us 1&2, Ghost of Tsushima and Bloodborne are all exclusives, but their prices have dipped down the stripper pole of their initial cost drastically!

Like any good improv comedian, I don’t want to say “no”, I want to say “yes, and”.

Third Party of Conse- I mean Sales: In lay terms, the folks at PlayStation and Xbox develop most of their games FOR third-party companies. As a result, they can afford to reduce prices over time because they already made the bulk of their money through making the game anyway.

Cartridge Cartilage! Switch games are packaged in cartridges, whereas most of the competition uses Blu-ray discs, which are both cheaper (60% cheaper!), and hold more memory (on average). That said, cartridges are also much more difficult to make pirated copies of than Blu-Rays, so they’re not entirely impractical.

Brand Loyal Tea: In short, Nintendo has been in the game (figuratively and literally) for over 30 years at this point. They’ve made many great games and have characters tied to successful franchises that folks froth at the mouth for.

Again, a favorite paraphrased adage from YouTube’s favorite Britbonger Sweary Man of Gaming, “It’s not exclusivity, it’s holding a good game hostage”!

Product Poems:

Galactic Destruction King, Benevolent World-Eater… Kirby.

There was once a pink ball-boy called Kirby, who looked like a featherless furby. I jest of course, but there is some discourse on Forgotten Lands, almost found, surely!

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The post How Nintendo Games Stay Expensive – Unhinged Analysis! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Tekken! Truly one of the great series of the fighting game world. I have many a fond memory of cartwheel-kicking my brother with Eddie Gordo in the PS1 days and now pulling off some big ol’ comboners with Leroy Smith!

With an anime TV adaptation in the works (trailer here), thought it’d be nice to share a little story from my experience with Tekken! So, let me take you back to the ancient era of… c2014.

Back in the day, my brother and I played the ever-living hell out of Tag Tournament, and Tekken 5.

One of bro’s favorite characters was Raven, a Blade-looking ninja lad. Cool design, cool moveset, cool as a knickerbocker glory hole!

Smash cut to some nebulous time in 2021 and we started playing Tekken 7 (once it stopped costing an arm and a leg)! Speaking of which, we sell plenty of Tekken games and merch right here if you’re so inclined.

We started playing and lo and behold, while there was no Raven, we did get one Master Raven. Again, hitting all the Rule of Cool checkmarks, but we were pretty surprised to see a Raven who wasn’t the one from our childhoods.

I didn’t think much of it at first… Until a eureka moment hit my Lefty SJW Woke Ass like a fire truck… Is Raven trans!?

Not long after that thought, I heard through the grape vine that Leo is a canonically trans character, which led me to think “sweet baby Jesus, I connected the dots“!

Unfortunately, I “didn’t connect shit… But I connected them“, as they say. I got playing Tekken 7 with a friend from work (Joel). I played a few rounds as Lucky Chloe purely so my other mate watching on the sidelines could ogle her and make Tammy-Contrapoints jokes.

Got chatting with Joel while playing and lad dropped the bombshell that Raven and Master Raven were actually two different characters all along! What a twist!

While I have you, show some love to Joel on his instagram if you want to keep in the loop for his upcoming Overthinking Listening Party on March 26th 2022! There’ll be an episode release party, producer cypher, open mic funtimes and more!

Product Poems:

Galactic Destruction King, Benevolent World-Eater… Kirby.

There was once a pink ball-boy called Kirby, who looked like a featherless furby. I jest of course, but there is some discourse on Forgotten Lands, almost found, surely!

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The post That’s So Tekken! A Raven Story! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

While my Feminism in Sifu video is still on the back burner and the costume releases are still some ways off, my creative juices are flowing like a 90’s rapper on prom night! So, here’s 5 more costumes that would be Objectively Awesome to see in Sifu!

Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang Gi: I know, Karate and Pak Mei… Mei not be the same thing! That said, Cobra Kai’s run on Netflix has been amazing and with a new season in the works, seeing your character rep for the swag of iconic Karate Kid dojos would be a fun extra!

Matrix Swagger: I touched on a couple cool jackets last time around, but needless to say, a black leather trench coat and sunglasses? Badass AND unisex!

Bloodsport Kumite Shorts: This one’s personal because I’m not the biggest fan of the new Mortal Kombat games switching Johnny Cage’s design from a Van-Damme rip-off to a Nathan Drake rip-off! Hashbrown Back At It Again With The Van Dammes!

Leroy Smith: The Wing-Chun BAMF of Tekken! And I’d be lying if I didn’t say Sifu didn’t feel like my own personal Ip Man simulator. And hey, if a character creator mode ends up being unfeasible, it’d be neat to see different skins on these different skins, if you know what I mean.

Pure unadulterated insanity: Besides my joking suggestion that Sloclap make a Wintergreen skin, I admit that sometimes it’s nice to have the odd joke-costume in some games. Something incredibly out of place and weird for the sake of abstract expressionist hilarity! Clowns, Santa costumes, Easter Bunny furry suits, TINY MINI SKIRTS? The world is your oyster Sloclap!

Product Poems:

Galactic Destruction King, Benevolent World-Eater… Kirby.

“Annie, get your gun, gal“! Her mech appeared. “Shooty bang-bang, y’all”!

There was once a pink ball-boy called Kirby, who looked like a featherless furby. I jest of course, but there is some discourse on Forgotten Lands, almost found, surely!

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The post 5 More Sifu Costumes We NEED! first appeared on Get2Gaming.