Retro articles

☢️ Can you believe that Half-Life 2 is 20 years old already? Rather than cobbling together a typical anniversary edition to rake in the cash, Valve made an updated version of the game free on Steam to mark the occasion. They also released a two-hour YouTube documentary documenting its development, which is fascinating and nostalgic in equal measure.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit review - an addictive '90s-inspired racer

I said at the end of my Concord article that the current triple-A malaise might push me to play more indie games, and it wasn’t an empty threat. Astro Bot was a surprise double-A hit, with a stripped-back scope and simple gameplay loop that made it feel like playing a...

GTA IV's Liberty City is still the best virtual city ever made

In its review upon the game’s release in 2008, GamesRadar called Liberty City “the biggest reason to delve into GTA IV”. Its writers said it was “easily 100 times more detailed” than the map of its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, concluding that altogether, the city was “convincingly like...

The Sims (PC) retrospective

If you think of The Sims today, you’ll likely think of the EA money printing machine and its endless conveyor belt of expansion and stuff packs. The modern games have a cutesy, sanitised face, and the bright marketing material reflects their apparent positioning as a platform for teenage girls to...

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PS4) retrospective

It’s been a while since I published one of my longer gaming articles, but after playing Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, I felt compelled to put pen to digital paper. This is another post that sits somewhere between the review and retrospective categories, but like others in the series,...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360) retrospective

With a bit more time on my hands this week, I decided to dust off my Xbox One and play through a game that I sunk many an hour into on the Xbox 360 about a decade ago (although it turns out not in the way I thought) - Call...

Formula 1 97 (PS1) retrospective

I was shocked on multiple levels to find that one of my favourite childhood games recently celebrated its 25th birthday. Developed by Bizarre Creations, Formula 1 97 was the official game of the 1997 Formula 1 championship, the follow-up to the 1995 original (which was simply titled Formula 1), and...

Fable (PC) retrospective

For my next retrospective, I decided to dive back into one of the most memorable games of my childhood: Fable. Released on the Xbox in 2004, the first title in Lionhead’s RPG series failed to live up to the unrealistic hype amassed through Peter Molyneux’s misguided media interviews, but still...

Portal 2 (PC) retrospective

There was a time, way back in 2007, when Valve was a company that made video games, and released a little collection called The Orange Box. Having already completed Half-Life 2 on PC by that point, I had the most fun with a new title tacked onto the end of...

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea (PC) retrospective

I rarely bother with downloadable content. Most of the time I’m ready to put a game down by the time I finish the main story, and paying half the price for a fraction of the content doesn’t appeal to me. But when I heard that BioShock Infinite had a two-part...