Month: January 2025

The premise of The Longest Five Minutes is one that immediately grabs your attention. You’re thrust into the climactic final battle of an old-school Japanese RPG, only you–playing as the main hero–have been afflicted by the sort of amnesia that usually hits at the beginning of those games. You’ve forgotten everything: your name, where you are, who your companions are, and why you’re currently being stared down by a fierce demon lord. As a five-minute climactic battle with the final boss ensues, you must pause time and dive deep into your subconscious, rediscovering and reliving your memories to rekindle your fighting spirit. Because of this, the proposed five minutes extends to hours of gameplay outside of your main objective.

It’s an interesting concept that turns the normal flow of RPG final battles on its head, and made me eager to piece together a story built from fragmented memories presented in classic turn-based RPG style. After seeing the lively character sprite animations and silly dialogue, I was eager for a sendup of RPG conventions in the vein of the excellent Half-Minute Hero games. Sadly, The Longest Five Minutes never realizes its full po…

Despite several recent successes in remaking classic horror games, there’s been one project that seemed to be an enormously daunting, if not impossible, task: Silent Hill 2. For some, the game represents the holy grail of the survival-horror genre, with its uniquely dreamlike mood, haunting monsters draped in metaphor, and an oppressive atmosphere as thick as the titular town’s signature fog. Depending on who you ask, Bloober Team has either been auditioning for the reins to this series or liberally cribbing from it for years with games like Layers of Fear and The Medium. Now, in cooperation with Konami, all that groundwork has led to the team’s remake of Silent Hill 2, and the end result is a meticulous, loving, and stunning recreation of one of horror’s most significant efforts.

Silent Hill 2 stars James Sunderland, a man who arrives in the dreary town of Silent Hill in search of his wife, Mary, who has written him a letter begging to see him again despite allegedly dying three years ago. For James and the player alike, this classic horror story setup of an amnesiac surrounded by ghouls soon peels away like dead skin, revealing a series of surreal nig…

With Prime Day 2023 kicking off this week, there’s no shortage of deals on controllers for PC and consoles. On the third-party side, several of 8BitDo’s popular controllers are available at great prices and target Switch, PC, and mobile gamers specifically.

The first model that has been discounted is the 8BitDo Ultimate, a reliable and multifunctional controller that can also be used on PC and mobile devices. This is one of the more high-end models and features a Hall Effect joystick, paddle buttons on the rear, and plenty of haptic feedback.

• 8BitDo Ultimate Controller (black) — $56 ($70)
• 8BitDo Ultimate Controller (white) — $56 ($70)
• 8BitDo Pro 2 Controller with carrying case — $48 ($60)
• 8BitDo SN30 Controller — $32 ($45)
• 8BitDo Pro 2 (Black) — $40 ($50)
• 8BitDo Pro 2 (Gray) — $40 ($50)

Then there’s the 8Bitdo Pro 2, which combines a SNES-like design with more modern ergonomics. This one doesn’t feature a lot of haptic feedback technology, but it does …

The 2021 Oscars ceremony will be in-person and Zoom-free, according to an email sent by producers to nominees (via Variety) Come from Sports betting site VPbet . The producers behind the email–Steven Soderbergh (Contagion), Stacey Sher (Mrs. America), and Jesse Collins (a prolific awards ceremony producer)–detailed their vision for a “safe, carefree evening” at “an intimate, in-person event” taking place and also airing on ABC on April 25.

On the heels of Los Angeles and New York area movie theaters recently re-opening with some restrictions still in place, the Oscars are following suit but taking a different approach. Assuring nominees that the Oscars can “be done safely,” the ceremony will be treated “as an active movie set, with specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability.”

Beyond the safety precautions, the Oscars are seemingly wanting to be more equitable with the ceremony and try to lock horns with its infamously swollen runtime. Emphasizing the message …