The Unofficial Sega Saturn Collection Author – David Cameron (not that one) 📘 #BookReview #Retrogaming

The Sega Saturn is a console that I very much have a personal history with. A unique library of games that was bursting with originality, and is very much a system I often play to this day. David Cameron’s Unofficial Sega Saturn Collection is designed as a coffee table book to be leafed through and enjoyed as the reader picks up some titbits on favourite games – and perhaps even discovers some new gaming gold as they peruse.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Xbox Review 7/10 "A Sweet Suikoden Spiritual Sequel" 🔥⚔️ @eiyuden #IndieGame #GameDev

From the – sadly no longer with us – Yoshitaka Murayama, the creative mind behind the much-loved Suikoden series, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is very much a spiritual successor that has its feet firmly planted in more traditional gameplay, resulting in a title that feels comfortable and fun overall, but unfortunately a touch lacklustre in some key areas.

Our tale begins with Nowa, a young boy from a rural village who joins The Watch, a group of like-minded individuals who roam the lands, assisting the various denizens of the scattered villages and cities. Assisting them on this particular mission – to find a ‘Primal Lens’ - are hand-picked soldiers of the Empire, but whilst this motley crew work well together at present...what will happen when peace fails and they are sworn to fight against each other?

RPM – Unofficial Retro PlayStation Magazine Review 📚📖 @2_Old_4_Gaming #PS1 #PS2 #PS3 #PSP #PSVita

I was recently alerted to a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for issue 3 of RPM – a Kickstarter that has since been wildly successful, good – and I was intrigued by the thought of a magazine that would focus on discontinued Sony consoles and systems.

Focusing on PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, and PSVita, RPM expertly mixes retrospectives, interviews, deep-dives, reviews and various other features on high quality A5, with expert layout courtesy of designer Jason Maddison (@PlaySushiUK).

The magazine feels robust and is a joy to read thanks to the design choices made and clarity of the text. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the first two issues, whilst the artwork and layout is fantastic, the real meat of the enjoyment for me was in the incredibly informative text, which cast fresh views on games I’ve long held dear, as well as well-researched interviews and features with nary an editorial wobble in sight.

The split of articles across each system means that there’s a lot covered in these pages, and the choice of each feature appeared to be genetically designed for me, with wonderful pieces on Syphon Filter (one of my favourite PS1 titles), Pursuit Force (one of my favourite PSP titles) and Gran Turismo (one of my favourite racing games!). If there are future pieces on The Runabout series or The Surf Coasters’ musical contributions to the PS series, COUNT. ME. IN.

With three issues being published a year, this really is a huge recommendation from us at GF, and issues can be picked up for as little as £3 via the Kickstarter page, which really is a steal as the quality on offer is exceptional, as is the production and editorial across the board.

A must for fans of Sony’s console back catalogue!

Sandeep Rai (2 Old 4 Gaming)

Cricket Through the Ages Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "The most realistic, in-depth cricket simulation ever made…some may say" 🏏🪨 @freelives @devolverdigital #GameDev #IndieGame

Free Lives have created some of my favourite games of the last decade in Broforce and Genital Jousting, very different from each other in some respects, but their games always feature a rich sense of humour that runs throughout their releases. 

And so, we have gone from controlling pastiches of action heroes, to willies….to those brave folks that have played cricket through the ages. From cavemen with rocks and sticks through to the denizens that litter a post-apocalyptic wasteland…with rocks and sticks.

Letters & Legends PC Review 9/10 "A Wonderful Twist on Classic Word Games" 🏹⚔️🅰️🅱️ @BowNArrowGames #IndieGame #GameDev

I live in a house of gamers. I’m lucky enough to have a partner and son that embrace video-gaming as much as I do, and through that love, I find myself playing a lot of very different genres of games, many different games – but never as many as I’d like, especially when it comes to word-based games.

The last time a word-based game really yanked my trousers down and gave me a fiver was probably Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey back in 2015, the blending of English-centric action and fantasy gaming has been an interest of mine ever since discovering CAPCOM’s Quiz & Dragons MAME over twenty years ago, and so when a word-based games gets sent to GF HQ, my eyes light up.

Wipeout – CoLD SToRAGE: The Zero Gravity Soundtrack Review By Britt 💿🎶 @LapsusBarcelona #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl

A truly seminal and timeless soundtrack, sought after for years, Wipeout has finally been brought into the hands of fans by Lapsus records, and it is absolutely worth the wait.

Composed by Tim Wright (A.K.A CoLD SToRAGE, a fellow Welshman) for the 1995 video game Wipeout, a futuristic racer with a heavy focus on music and atmosphere, the Wipeout soundtrack has some key tunes that will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played the game. It’s a creation of many iconic images, from the font through to the colouring, shape of the crafts that the player races, the names of each fictional company, the flow and weave of the in-game courses, and of course, the music. 

Spear Master Nintendo Switch Review 7.5/10 "Worth a Chuck" 🏹 @OsarionGames #IndieGame #GameDev

Clearly taking inspiration from arcade classic Pang!, Spear Master is a smooth, charming, and unfussy game that works just as well in solo play as it does with friends.

As the Spear Master, you are guided by your father in the ways of the spear, through over one hundred levels, you – and up to three other players – will traverse the islands, popping the bubble threat that invades your lands. 

Games Freezer Podcast Episode Two: 10 Year Anniversary Special - Part 2 - 03/04/24 "Let's Finish These Questions!" 🎙️🧊 #NewPodcast #IndieGames #RetroGaming

Rich and Britt step back into the Freezer for more podcast shenanigans, questions and video games chat to the finish!

Games Freezer Podcast Episode One: 10 Year Anniversary Special - Part 1 27/02/24 "Atari XEGS Instead Of A ZX Spectrum +2" 🎙️🧊 #NewPodcast #IndieGames #RetroGaming

Rich and Britt sit down to talk about the first ten years of Games Freezer and have their first ever discussion since Britt came on board in 2016! 

We cover all sorts of video games subjects across our persoanl experiences and attempt to cover 20 questions (spoiler alert we only get to question 7 and will need a Part 2)

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Xbox Review 9/10 "The most fun I’ve had in a single player game in 2024" ⚔️🐲🔥👹 @DragonsDogma #DragonsDogma2

As someone who is – and will be forever – drawn towards single player RPGs, The last few months have been very, very fun. I’ve played three games that stand out in my mind for different reasons, and between them cover a lot of the main points that appeal to me about the genre at its core.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden won me over with its understated characters, music, atmospherics and earthiness, whilst Outcast: A New Beginning featured incredible traversal mechanics and lore, and now Dragon’s Dogma 2 – and out of the three, this is the title that I, by far, have the strongest history with – comes blazing out of the gate with its main strengths being in how much it embraces and excels at being a video game, completely nailing combat mechanics and explosive, immediate gameplay.

It’s a game that is a pleasure to write about, and I feel like I could just list all of my in-game experiences to get my point across because there are so many personal stories to tell, all through a design sentiment that eschews seriousness to put fun and gameplay at the absolute fore.

Bitmap Books – The Unofficial N64: A Visual Compendium Review By Britt 📚📖 @bitmap_books #Retrogaming #N64

The last Bitmap Book release that we covered here at Games Freezer was the incredible From Ants to Zombies: Six Decades of Video Game Horror, a book that could very well be – and indeed is - one of the best gaming-related pieces of literature that I’ve ever had the pleasure of inhaling.

It’s a slight change of pace here, from the many forked branches of horror through to a visual compendium focused on the much beloved fan favourite Nintendo 64, whether through many a blistering, thumb-stick breaking multiplayer session of Goldeneye, marvelling at Mario in 3D, or zooming across Hyrule Fields in Zelda, there are millions of memories out there that began with that trusty trident controller in-hand.

Outcast: A New Beginning Xbox Review 7.5/10 "An Outcast No More" 💥🌴 @OutcastGame #IndieGame #GameDev

I’ve had a spotted history with Outcast, when it was originally released in 1999, I played it briefly over a friend’s house and was entranced by the world conjured and possibilities laid out. The unfortunate thing was, I didn’t have a PC that could really get the most out of it at the time, and I fell away from it – assuming that I’d return soon – but the next time I spent any time with the game was when I picked up Outcast: Second Contact in 2020, and, revisiting the game so long after release highlighted the sheer scope and imagination of developers Appeal Studios, along with the unavoidable fact that the design and mechanics were lodged in a transitory period of the third-person open-world genre, and had aged appropriately.

Thus, when I caught wind of this new entry in the franchise- pseudo-reboot, pseudo-revising, pseudo-revisiting pseudo-sequel – call it what you want – I was glad to discover that I feel that this I finally the most complete, accessible, and wonderful way to know the story of the impossibly named ‘Cutter Slade’, and appreciate the full scale of the dev’s vision. A vision set into motion almost thirty years ago.

Welcome to ParadiZe Xbox Series X Review 6/10 "More PontinZ than ParadiZe" 🐘 #IndieGame #GameDev #PvE #Zombies

Welcome to Paradize promised a lot of zany zombie shenanigans through its trailer, but unfortunately the released game feels a watered down version of what could have been, and as the core gameplay loop is so well-worn, there’s not enough to really suck players in and chew the meat from the bones of their expectations.

I first caught wind of Welcome to Paradize a couple of months ago, and having been on a bit of an isometric / action run recently I was quite keen to start smashing and blasting some zombie heads, whilst the survival and crafting elements seemed accessible enough to have fun with, without getting bogged down in menus etc.

Cybertrash STATYX Xbox Review 7/10 "A Fun Throwback in The Run ‘n Gun Genre" 💥 #IndieGame #GameDev

Recent rumblings of folks who seem to be of the mind that pixel graphics are tired and old can be pushed aside, because it’s clear that there’s plenty of milage in beautiful, hand-drawn visuals yet, as illustrated by Cybertrash STATYX, a game that casts you in the role of Jenet, a woman who – like many – seem to have completely lost their memories prior to being involved in a program to ascertain their physical and mental abilities so that they can be ‘correctly’ re-introduced to society, whilst the reasons that they were initially extricated from society are curiously obfuscated…

Jagged Alliance 3 XSX Review 9/10 "A Modern Turn-Based Classic" 💥 @THQNordic

A series of turn-based games that have roots going way back to 1994, Jagged Alliance has always enjoyed critical success – and yet it’s a series of games I’ve only touched upon briefly since its inception in the mid-’90s. I recall having some friends who were hips deep, thinking very highly of the franchise, and so when the opportunity came up to cover the third major entry, I was keen to have a goosey.

Boiling Point: Road to Hell PC Review 7/10 "Arnold Vosloo Kicks Ass Once More" 🚛💥 @playziggurat #IndieGame #GameDev

In quite a few of my reviews covering beloved (by me, at least) yet shonky games – usually open-world RPGs from the mid 2000’s – Boiling Point often crops up, alongside Xenus 2: White Gold (an oddly-named sequel to Boiling Point: Road to Hell), Precursers, and Hard Truck Apocalypse (which has AMAZING music).

The first two of which come from the same developer, Deep Shadows, a company that seem to have moved into hidden object and mobile titles, which is a shame, as they have real character and craft. If each game mentioned here had more time and money invested, they would be classics still talked of today.

Gloomhaven XSX Review 8.5/10 "How Deep is Your (board gaming) Love?" 🧙‍♂️ @GloomhavenGame #IndieGame #GameDev

Although Gloomhaven was originally released on PC back in 2021, I wanted to cover it here on GF (on Xbox) in 2024 because I had such a rich experience with the boardgame on which it is based at one of our regular nerdy weekends away a few weeks ago. At said weekends, we tend to have several smaller, briefer games, and then a hefty one to tuck into for a good portion of each day. In this way we’ve played some pretty heavy hitters...but Gloomhaven always lurked at the back of our minds. 

Grandia II Memorial Soundtrack Vinyl Review By Britt 🎶💿 @WayoRecords #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl #VGM

An incredible triple vinyl collector edition that celebrates the music of Grandia II, Wayo records’ release is another incredibly-presented box-set that Grandia fans will clamour for.

Originally released for the Dreamcast in 2000 and eventually ported to the PS2 (and beyond), Game Arts’ Grandia II was a more mature affair than the 1997 prequel, and featured a lot of the returning original staff – including Noriyuki Iwadare, the composer of all three main Grandia games. The game told the story of Ryudo, a mercenary of wobbly morals who gets tasked with a seemingly simple escort mission that evolves into a grand(ia) adventure. 

Radical Dreamers (Digital) Album Review By Britt 💿🎶 @AmerigoGazaway #VGM #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl

Radical Dreamers is billed as an album that blends “melodic hip-hop beats, razor-sharp lyricism and the allure of old-school RPGs Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger”. I mean, all of that sounds good, so let’s give it a go.

Video Game Lo-Fi - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest Vinyl Review By Britt 💿 @CuragaRecords #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl #VGM

First off, I feel a fool! A fool I tell you! Up until receiving this record for coverage, I’d been under the impression that the second in the Donkey Kong Country series of games was called ‘Diddy Kong’s Quest’…but it’s actually ‘Diddy’s Kong Quest’ – I don’t feel too bad upon discovering this, as my fiancée was also under the same misapprehension, I’d barely taken the cellophane off this Curaga Records release, and I was already learning.