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I’m still old enough that I remember when full motion video (or FMV) was a novel addition to games. FMV mostly gave way to the use of computer generated cutscenes, despite the early promise (and ubiquitousness) of live action cutscenes. There has been a bit of a resurgence of FMV with studios like Wales Interactive earnestly releasing content featuring live actors. But while Wales Interactive does make “traditional” video games, there is still a huge gap between what can be considered by most as a “traditional” game and one that is really just a choose-your-own-adventure style game. Mia and the Dragon Princess is an interactive movie in the choose your own adventure format. Its story revolves around a pirate treasure connected to a tourist bar. Absurdly, one of the pirates has been frozen in ice for centuries and has been recently woken up to lead a criminal to hidden pirate treasure. There’s a neat animated intro that does a good job establishing the legend, but it glosses right over some important details. It’s absurd, and while Mia and the Dragon Princess does embrace absurdity to some degree, it also uses some pretty extreme violence causing some janky tonal shifts. Paul McGann chews the scenery as the evil Mr. Walsh, who is looking for pirate’s gold—but his is a character without sufficient build up, and the violence he employs feels excessive and out of place. He has supposedly planned this operation for decades, but is willing to risk his freedom by telling his men flippantly to “kill them all” in one scene, and even going as far as employing hand grenades in another. That’s not the only case of surprising violence, either. Depending on the choices you make some characters can die in quite shocking ways—and while seeing how different characters can live or die is a draw for such a game, it feels like your choices don’t really directly affect any specific character’s fate. Don’t get me wrong, Mia and the Dragon Princess does allow users to make choices that change the shape of the narrative significantly – it just feels like there are times when it also robs you of a choice that is rather significant to the storyline. Still, there are a good number of ways the story can play out. Luckily, you can keep track of the branches you take in the story through the in-game menu. It’s even easy to choose the branch you want to take, as the top and bottom answer corresponds to the appropriate branch. You can also skip over scenes you’ve already watched to get to choices you haven’t made—at least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. I was forced to rewatch several scenes I’ve seen without being able to skip them, which made for a tedious rewatch. And that’s all you can really do with Mia and the Dragon Princess. You can really just rewatch, make a few different choices, and that’s it. While there is a meter that displays different statistics like intelligence, bravery, responsibility, etc. they don’t really seem to mean anything in the long run. There is a “good” ending, but you can only get to that through making the “correct” choices. And while that’s exactly what I expected with this title, I was surprised on how uneven the quality is based on the choices you make. Half the game feels cheaper than the other half, and the “true” ending’s path feels like it ate up all of the game’s production values. While the choose-your-own-adventure thing has been done successfully in video games before, Mia and the Dragon Princess isn’t exactly a success. I think developer Wales Interactive missed a lot of opportunities in regards to letting the player make impactful decisions. And even as an interactive movie it ends up feeling corny with action that never feels impactful or emotional moments that don’t quite land. If you really need to experience Mia and the Dragon Princess I’d suggest just watching a streamer play through it. Mia and the Dragoon Princess is available today on PC/Mac (Steam & Epic), PS4, PS5, Xbox O/S/X, Switch, iOS, and Android.

Right now, if you want to get your hands on the handheld that industry leaders are saying is changing the game for them you've got to order straight from Steam and wait for it to be shipped to you. Granted, the Steam Deck's finally past its COVID production woes and shipping delays, but what if there was another option? Recently in Japan the Steam Deck launched in stores to a test market in Osaka, Japan. If you want to see what a Steam Deck Store could look at, check out the photos from the Steam Deck's official Japanese Twitter account. While the Steam Deck has officially been released in the US, the popular handheld has been trickling out to the world market. Thanks to the picture above, featured on BoilingSteam.com, you can see that those in the local test market in Osaka are lining up to get their hands on Valve’s handheld console. It’s surreal to see Valve’s console advertised next to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom–and we have yet to see if Valve will make more of a physical presence in stores in the future.

Oh Hi Shark I attended the premiere of Big Shark at the Cinema 21 theater in Portland Oregon. Tommy Wiseau has been hard at work trying to recreate the accidental magic of The Room. His last project, Best F(r)iends, came with mostly negative reviews but with Big Shark, we see a lot of that spark that originally started his cult following. It’s a collection of audio mistakes, confusing scenes and poor CGI but man was it fun. Big Shark starts with a fire, and three heroic firefighters saving a family trapped inside. The three firefighters are our main protagonists of the story; Patrick, Tim and Georgie. Patrick is played by Wiseau himself, as he likes to do. Post fire, our heroes are given awards and party the night away with their team. The story then aimlessly shifts towards a mysterious shark that will appear, almost at random, to attack. The only warning is sudden flooding that appears dramatically. It’s then up to our central characters to figure out how to stop the titular Big Shark. What really stood out to me regarding the story is how drunk our characters seem to be at all times. Not the actors, but within the plot of the story, with no direct reason as to why. There are also repeated scenes, but filmed in different locations. It’s such a strange choice seeing almost the exact same scene in different parts of the story. Other confusing choices are how it’s shot. There are so many dramatic scene cuts and camera angles that shift drastically, but don’t mix the audio per cut. So a single camera angle will have completely different audio quality and volume vs another. The same goes with sound effects. Applause will only appear from specific camera angles and disappear at the drop of a hat. The movie really is a fever dream of puzzling director choices leaving the viewer in a haze but you don’t come to a Wiseau film for the quality. Adding to the chaos is the hilariously bad CGI of the big shark. It seems to appear randomly and without warning. The ridiculous level that it appears, completely unbeknownst to our heroes as well, with them barely reacting if at all. There is one particular scene where they pick up a trapped civilian and drop them off at their apartment, with only the civilian reacting at all. The heroes are unphased and even refuse to acknowledge its existence. These are all choices by our auteur director that act to confuse as well as delight. That’s the real magic trick with Wiseau. Watching Big Shark is similar to The Room, as it just kind of happens TO you, rather than you interacting with it. These films are there to discuss why and how you perceived the cacophony of images and sounds presented. There’s more fun in the discussion happening throughout than actually watching. Similarly to Rocky Horror Picture Show, there is an extra layer to the live viewing experience. At the premiere, the audience was in full effect, ready to react to whatever we were presented with. There were sing-alongs, catch phrases, and pre-set interactions held over from The Room. The energy was high and really pushed the evening to new levels of enjoyment knowing we were all viewing the same theatrical atrocities together. The surprise star of Big Shark is New Orleans itself. There are multiple references to the city and its real life locales, as well as the street musician culture. It’s almost like Tommy Wiseau visited once and fell in love with the big band atmosphere. This leads to several scenes of just the actors dancing to the street musicians, seemingly to no purpose except to do it. There are also several nods to New Orleans fashion culture, as stated by Tommy himself in an after show Q and A. These scenes mostly detract from the plot as a whole, it’s still nice to see a directors’ appreciation for the locale they are shooting in. Big Shark is not a film worth watching for its merit, but there’s something to be said about a full audio visual experience that comes with seeing this event live. This will join the ranks of The Room or Rocky Horror Picture Show for how ridiculous the audience will get over time. Despite being hard to actually recommend based on quality, this is still a car crash that you can’t turn away from.

The end of a con is a weird thing. On the one hand, you're sad it's ending. It always goes by so fast that you just can't believe you're already checking out, packing up and going out on the show floor one last time. On the other hand, you're tired, especially after Saturday night's after parties, you've likely spent a good amount of money, and you're lookin' for a good meal and a fast ride home. C2E2 always has something alluring on Sunday morning, and this time, it was the Chris Evans panel. It's by design, since packing the house on Saturday tends to happen with or without huge names, and the lines to see main stage guests we saw at the Buffy reunion, Boy Meets World Panel and Avatar the Last Airbender panel already run wild and start hours early. We got a chance to sit in on the Chris Evans panel on the last day of C2E2. This panel was so anticipated, that there were people lining up well before the gates opened, hoping to get in to see Captain America himself. What we weren’t expecting was how soft spoken, and even dorky, the man behind the First Avenger can seem. While he didn’t take any fan questions on the floor, the host was relaying fan questions to Evans via social media. It turns out that Evans is a movie nerd. Weighing in on his appearance in the upcoming Christmas action movie Red One, he said, “I actually was worried 'Is this gonna ruin Christmas for me?' because it's so special. 'Do I really want to see my mug every Christmas?' But I'm telling you, every day was Christmas, and when it wrapped I was like 'Aww.' Believe me, I couldn't get enough of it.” Evans is very definition of charming and low-key, and we left feeling like there's a chance the people we love to see on screen are just as pleasant, if not more so, in real life. Riding on the good feelings, we decided to head to Family HQ to support the Drag Story Hour. Drag performers are currently under attack all around the country, including here in Chicago, as are drag events, and nerds need to show up in full force to be allies. Not to mention, Drag Story Hour is a fantastic way to refresh on the last day of a con! Performers Muffy Fishbasket, Miss Yooka, Coco Sho-Nell and Amanda Lynn brought the glamour and positivity, and Family HQ was filled to overflowing with attendees of all ages. Kids were treated to amazing costumes and fantastic performances by all the queens, who read stories that reinforced the beauty of being who you are and finding a place for everyone to be themselves. It's a better world, if a temporary one, and it brought congoers together for a little bit of hope and a big boost of confidence, which we could all use a little more of in our daily lives. We, along with C2E2, give our full support to these amazing, charitable, gorgeous queens and the work they do. That wraps up all the best things we saw in panel rooms on the final day of C2E2. Thanks for taking the journey with us and remember to make the world a better place once you get out in it.

Avatar the Last Airbender For the first time since the completion of the series, the main cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender reunited on the C2E2 stage to reminisce about their time on the show and to answer some burning fan questions. Dante Basco, Jack De Sena, and Zach Tyler Eisen, were all smiles as a full room of fans warmly welcomed them. Though Mae Whitman was unable to make it to the panel due to weather complications, the three voice actors still made the panel a memorable one. For Eisen, the reunion panel was his first ever guest appearance at a convention, though he said that he had gone to conventions as an attendee in the past. Even so, the voice actor acclimated quickly and seemed at ease as he shared what it was like to witness the legacy of the show years later as an adult. “We definitely knew it was good [but] never did I think that 15 years later I’d be sitting here in a packed house full of fans. I don’t think anyone could’ve really predicted that,” he said. An ongoing topic discussed throughout the panel was the show’s lasting impact and continued success. Basco had some insight to share as to why he thinks the show managed to remain in the hearts of fans both new and old. “When I grew up, cartoons were very black and white in a sense that there were Autobots and Decepticons and we looked at the world in a certain way. [Especially] when you’re young, your mind is developing and you kind of get these perceptions of the world and what not. Avatar happened and you get to see that the world is much more gray and much more like it is. There’s this epic story of this gang trying to save the world. There are four elements but in these four elements there is good and bad in every element. And with the characters, we don’t know who’s the heroes and who’s the villains,” he explained. “Things change as they do in life [but] this is the kind of story that can change the world.” When asked if there was any particular arc that they really loved to see, Jack De Sena said, “Zuko’s redemption arc is genuinely great. At the time it was like a marvel, it was like: ‘Wow, this is so cool, feels really impactful.” Zack Tyler Eisen, on the other hand, really wanted to see how Zuko’s story played out before the TV show, “I want to see how he becomes the Dragon of the West.” When the three actors were asked what part they would have liked to play, besides their own, Basco said that he would have liked to play Sokka, since he didn’t have the chance to crack many jokes as the angsty Zuko. Zach Tyler Eisen agreed, saying that despite Aang’s silliness, he would have loved to try his hand at Sokka. Neither Eisen nore De Sena would have liked to fill the shoes of honor-seeking Zuko, however, with De Sena saying “I couldn’t be a villain.” Our Flag Means Death The Our Flag Means Death panel was all queer joy, self-love, and sing-alongs. Vico Ortiz, Samba Schutte, and Kristian Nairn recounted wild stories from the set, such as having to improvise major scenes, shared their favorite go-to karaoke songs, and made up drag names for their characters (The They Slash Them for Jim, Orange Blossom for Roach, and Pyromaniac for Wee John Feeney). It was clear that the cast was incredibly in tune with their fanbase and that the actors fully embraced all aspects of the fandom. The actors shared some of their favorite headcanons, fanfiction, and romantic pairings with the audience. Ortiz said that they were always excited to see content of “the throuple situation between Olu, Spanish Jackie, and Jim” which they said is canon in their heart while Schutte shared that he enjoyed seeing content of Roach and Izzy whenever fans tagged him in posts. “I’m all for the Rizzy. Let’s go!” he exclaimed. As for updates on the much anticipated second season of Our Flag Means Death , Schutte had a little surprise to share with the audience. “[Here’s] the teaser for season two… April fools!” he joked. “They told me not to do it, I'm so sorry. But it’s coming, no worries!” It seems like fans will have to wait a little longer before they can receive more news on their beloved pirate show. Buffy the Vampire Slayer It's a hat trick of sorts to have a cult film that spawns a cult hit TV show, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer did just that. It mixed teen drama with quippy comebacks, asskicking, and a whole lot of heart and became iconic for so many of us trying to survive high school horrors that didn't include the hellmouth. While the show's been inspiring generations ever since, it's recently seen even more popularity with Buffering, the amazing and critically acclaimed rewatch podcast that looks back at the show with that same fondness we all have for it and through an lgbtqia+ lens. It was amazing to get so much of the Buffy cast together, with James Marsters, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz and Marc Blucas all in one place. We always enjoy James Marsters take on things, and he was immediately the warmth in the room, despite having played the undead so long. He expressed a deep appreciation for the show and the fans, and likened it to his own fandom for Star Trek. Marsters was apparently a big Trekkie, and even hit conventions dressed as Spock, and drew direct comparisons between them that we couldn't help but love (as fellow Trekkies and Buffy fans) Star Trek was about hope, and working together for a better future, Marsters said -- and in that same way, so was Buffy. He encouraged fans to talk to each other and get to know each other and realize the strength in that, saying that Buffy fans were some of the kindest, smartest, funniest people he's had the pleasure of meeting. He also talked about the difficulty of the role of Spike on the show, especially as he used to portray the role via method acting, and how easy it was for the darkness of the character to take over. "It can eat you alive" he said. "Spike is all the parts of me I try not to show people." He was also not entirely opposed to the vampire life though, at least on the surface- "Sleep all day, party all night, never get old" was the vampire lifestyle, after all. All three of the men talked about their various romantic dalliances with Sarah Michelle Gellar, since all of them had at least some screen time macking with her. And though they joked about how tiny she was and how they were afraid to crush her, and flirted with Charisma Carpenter as a group from on stage, they also delved into the challenges and demands of being a slayer's boyfriend. Boreanaz was also quick to point out how pivotal Charisma Carpenter's role was on Angel, crediting her as "the heart of the show." Carpenter, meanwhile kept the gang on their toes and was at the same time completely charming and positive on stage, reminding everyone she could do all the things they did in their roles, including the ass-kicking, and do it in heels. One particularly amusing moment was Marsters reveal that during his run as Spike, he'd always seen Carpenter as her character, Cordelia, so much, that he would sort of avoid her on set, because he was scared of her, and that it was only years later when the two played a bickering married couple on Supernatural that he realized, in his own words "how stupid that was" because she was just a really good actress, and in fact, a super nice person - and the two became fast friends, which they've been ever since. There was a short Q&A which ended very abruptly and brought some interesting tidbits, like the foursome's favorite episodes. James Marsters was particularly impressed with the incredibly acclaimed and moving "The Body" episode, while Blucas brought up another all around favorite- "Hush" the silent episode, and how impressive that was. Boreanaz brought up the end of Season 2, where he'd gone bad, and some of the big moments from that arc, and Charisma Carpenter brought up Graduation, mainly because she 'finally got to stake a vampire.' It was a panel any Buffy fan would love and it was over far too soon, so we hope to see the gang return again for another con reunion, perhaps with Gellar herself or a few more castmates. That wrapped up our panel day since we were gearing up for the Crown Championships of Cosplay's return to the Main Stage, but there was even more fun to follow on Sunday, so stay tuned for our wrapup on that shortly following this, and don't miss all the amazing cosplay we saw at the contest, either!

Just like we saw a return to the pre-COVID crowds on Day One of C2E2, there was no time to waste as far as programming, either. We kicked off our con with a trip to the Zach Levi panel which was bright and early at 11:30 am, and checked out some of the other awesome programming Friday had for us. In case you missed anything - take a look! Our first stop, as mentioned, was the Zachary Levi spotlight. Levi, fresh off Shazam 2, was boisterous and energetic as we've ever seen him, though he did spend a good portion of the beginning of his panel talking about mental health. According to Levi, he suffered a mental breakdown at the age of 37, about six years ago, and experienced feelings of insecurity and a bit of imposter syndrome before seeking help and working through it. He encouraged fans to face their mental illness head on and not be afraid to ask for help, before moving on to other topics. Levi admitted disappointment at the reception for Shazam 2, but was quick not to blame it on the film or audiences, mentioning that the entire face of film has changed, with streaming and after the pandemic, and though he personally thinks the film was even better than the original, and loved his time with his "Shazamily" he was sadly aware that this may be the last time in the suit. Fans were invited up to ask questions as well, with topics ranging from Chuck to Thor to Broadway and beyond, and overall, it was a fun foray with Zachary Levi, who we hope to see more of in the future. The next stop was the X-Men Animated Series Cast Reunion. where we got a chance to see some of the voice talent from the X-Men animated series. Lenore Zann (Rogue), Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Catherine Disher (Jean Grey), George Buza (Beast), Chris Potter (Gambit) and Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm) went on the C2E2 main stage to talk about their time doing voice work for the legendary X-Men Animated series, as well as some insight about what it was like getting back into character for the forthcoming X-Men ‘97, a revival of the animated series that “takes off right where the old one left off.” The X-Men animated series was definitely one of our favorites growing up, and while we always dreamed that there would be a great X-Men film someday, we didn’t realize that Hugh Jackman actually watched the animated series to get a feel for Wolverine from Cal Dodd’s voice performance. When the two finally met before filming for the first X-Men film began, Dodd said Jackman greeted him by saying, “it’s nice to meet you, but I’m tired of hearing your voice!” Dodd’s performance was the more prominent Wolverine performance at the time, with his Wolverine still iconic. As far as information about the new series, the cast all had to say “NDA!” as they’re ever-fearful of the ears of Disney’s feared lawyers. However, when Gambit actor Chris Potter went in to do some ADR work he saw some of the completed animations, and thought “wow, this is really fucking good.” We can’t wait to see what X-Men ‘97 will bring around. One of our early favorite panels this con had to be Kevin Eastman's. If you were unaware, Eastman represents one-half of the duo that created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). According to Eastman he provided the “ninja turtles” name while fellow co-creator Peter Laird added the “mutant turtle” part. As far as the meteoritic popularity of the Ninja Turtles, neither one of them saw it coming. In fact, they thought the first issue wasn’t going to sell, so they created box furniture with boxes full of the first print run. As far as Eastman’s favorite version of the Turtles, he actually thinks it’s the TMNT Motion Picture. On the film Eastman said “it was the perfect storm” as far as the merger between the versions of the Turtles that existed to that point. While Eastman has worked on many other projects since he worked on TMNT, he keeps coming back to it–even after selling his half of ownership in the franchise. While Eastman poured a lot of heart into the “semi-autobiographical” Drawing Blood and worked on popular works like Heavy Metal he’s probably always going to come back to TMNT. After that it was time for one of the con's biggest events -- the 30th Anniversary Boy Meets World Cast Reunion. Not only was Boy Meets World a childhood favorite of ours, we're also avid listeners and fans of the more recent Girl Meets World and the even newer podcast that Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel and WIll Friedle co-host - Pod Meets World. The watch-along podcast with the trio was the brain child of Fishel (!) and has seen massive success since its inception. But it wasn't just these three amigos on the panel -- we were privileged to also be able to see Trina McGee, Bonnie Bartlett and the man himself, William Daniels, who was celebrating his 96th birthday on the day of the panel. And while there were some moderation missteps with too many broad questions that didn't seem well-researched, the cast shone and the panel itself was full of so many wonderful moments. Fishel, Strong and Friedle have an amazing dynamic between them with an off set friendship as strong as the on set friendships they shared with other cast members, and that warm and welcome feeling was felt all panel long. This was probably the biggest panel of the day, with a packed room full of fans, and we were thrilled to see the crowd give Daniels a standing ovation and sing him happy birthday. Daniels spoke so fondly of the younger cast, recalling the last episode of the show with great fondness, if the moment was bittersweet since he'd no longer be with the kids who were, he noted, no longer kids. When told to ad-lib his final words of advice on the show, he could think of nothing more appropriate than "I love you all," a sentiment Daniels clearly still felt, with shining eyes gazing on his fellow actors. It was absolutely clear the feeling was mutual, as well, as Feeny took center stage for most of the panel, and came up in a lot of people's questions and comments for the gang. When asked if Feeny shaped him or he shaped Feeny, Daniels said it was the latter, with Bartlett and Fishel heavily disagreeing for a moment, though later on in a bit of acting advice, Daniels mentioned his belief that great actors bring everything of themself that the character is written for to their roles. There was also a lot of Topanga talk, and we found it well deserved, as Topanga was a trailblazer of sorts for a certain generation of young women - confident, smart, and kind with a no-nonsense attitude that of course inspired so many of us who watched it. We even managed to get a partial "Feeny!" call out of Will Friedle, who only obliged at the request of the man of the hour, birthday boy William Daniels. Friedle said he'd been hanging on to it all day, as the actor had retired the iconic goofy call and passed it along to the Girl Meets World girls, but couldn't resist a direct request from Daniels - and the crowd went wild. One of our favorite things about Boy Meets World is that these characters were not superheroes They were regular kids, like us, facing the same issues we faced as we faced them. Growing up with them meant learning to be okay with who we were, too, and it wasn't just Feeny who inspired us all to grow up good. We could've listened to this cast talk for hours, and we hope to see them all again soon. That's it for today's panel catchups - but we'll be catching you up on all the action Saturday as well, so make sure to keep your eye out on this space- and hey, don't forget to to check out our amazing cosplay galleries while you're at it!

The last day of a con is oftentimes a little more laid back. Vendors start packing up and marking things down, panel programming slows a little, and in general, it's a shorter day with a lighter crowd. Though this still held somewhat true for C2E2 2023, attendance was higher for Sunday than we've seen in years, and that meant the cosplay continued to blow our minds. As before, if you weren't there - enjoy! And if you were and you find yourself -- enjoy and share! Photos: Julian Ramirez And even though the show's over, we've got even more from C2E2 in store for you this week, so don't forget to check back for more exclusives from C2E2 throughout the week.

While the programming schedule is the only thing that still seems a little light on big guests and content, the show floor has expanded. With the demise of the red carpet comes wider, easier to travel aisles and some more sensible setups for things than we saw in years past. More than that though, that sense of community seemed more present than it had in a while. It’s hard for any giant event to feel sort of homey, but C2E2 has a sort of individual identity among big cons that you get to know after a few years, and it’s felt like welcoming an old friend back this year, from dance parties to conversations around the Rev beer truck while you’re in line or swapping Buffy stories in line for the panels. Simply put – for C2E2, the simple joy of it all has returned. The “not quite strangers” feel you get when you’re all standing on your feet cheering on a hometown cosplayer or a little girl in a dance contest before a panel – the sense that the people around you ARE weird but they’re also just like you. Or as James Marsters put it in the Buffy panel this afternoon : “These people like the same things you like. GO MEET THEM” Whether you got a ticket to all the fun today or not we encourage you to meet the amazing cosplayers of C2E2 2023, Day 2! Another huge thanks to our amazing staff of photographers and videographers, Aaron Cynic, Antal Bokor, Julian Ramirez, Pearl Shin and Marielle Bokor.

The weather outside was frightful - with tornado watches and warnings throughout the day - but inside the gargantuan McCormick Place convention center in Chicago the nerds were gathered together to do the three things we all love most - shop for nerdy stuff to add to our collections, go see panels with our favorite nerdy actors and creators, and show off all our finest cosplay! We've been on site with this convention since its beginnings, and through COVID-19, and we're finally seeing that nature - or nerdture, is returning. Friday's crowd was impressive, and so was the cosplay, so even though we don't seem to be at full force yet, we're definitely getting there. Enjoy a heaping helping of the finest cosplay we saw on the floors Friday and make sure to keep your eyes on this page, as Saturday the Crown Championships of Cosplay return to the Main Stage, with regional, national and international cosplay awards being given out - meaning you'll see the very best of the best cosplay out there. Staff photographers: Aaron Cynic, Julian Ramirez and Marielle Bokor

There’s a burgeoning market for games that fall outside of the traditional genres, like the emergence of the so-called “cozy game” obsession during COVID. Now, Tchia doesn’t exactly fit the term cozy game, but it reaches cozy game status enough times to be considered one. But Tchia’s beautiful scenery hides a pretty compelling, and sometimes dark, adventure. Tchia is a third person open world adventure game. In it, you play as the eponymous Tchia as she attempts to free her father from the baby-eating evil half-worm half-human antagonist Meavora. And no, I didn’t throw “baby eating” in there as an exaggeration, as Meavora literally devours an infant in front of you. Despite this, Tchia is a charming, beautiful game that features The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild style exploration. In fact, Tchia is a surprising mix of themes and genres that don’t sound palatable on paper, but is put together with so much love and skill it ends up not only working, but stands out as something special. In Tchia you’ll be able to explore the open world by climbing, swimming, gliding, and possessing different animals and objects. As with Breath of the Wild, there is a stamina system that dictates Tchia’s physical limitations–like how far she can climb, or how long she can hold her breath underwater. Of course, if you’re about to drown you can always inhabit the body of a nearby fish, or bypass obstacles by flying around as a bird. Different animals and objects that Tchia possesses have different abilities. If she possesses a dolphin, she can swim fast, or as a gas can, she can ignite and blow up–which safely expels Tchia. It’s fun taking control of different animals and objects to see what they can do. Tchia is a game that you can play at your own pace, and finding various activities to do in the open world is part of its charm. You can complete challenges like races, or find new clothes in a vast array of styles to customize Tchia for her adventures. Social interactions in Tchia are often accompanied by a rhythm game using percussion instruments, or your trusty ukulele. My only complaint about Tchia has to do with the large number of fetch quests you have to do to get the story moving forward. However, Tchia is a game that never feels like it's rushing you, and it’s casual enough that I could hand the controller to my wife and she could play with little context. If Tchia meets her demise, she’ll simply respawn at the nearest campfire ready to continue her adventure. There is no health bar, so you’ll only perish if you run out of stamina at an inopportune time, or fall too far. The ukulele that Tchia carries is used more than just in the rhythm games. It also works as a way to change the time of day, or even spawn useful items. It’s also fully playable if you wanted to just jam out and create your own tunes. While Tchia is a pleasant game, it does have a bit of violence to it. Sometimes it features rather dark cutscenes, like the aforementioned baby eating or decapitated chickens. The violence does manage to remain cartoon-like, but even so, it’s much darker than I’d expect it–or any game–to go. While most of Tchia is peaceful, there are times you will have to fight. Sort of. You can use Tchia’s possession ability to create fires to burn the fabric enemies you’ll encounter.They attack by wrapping you in cloth, and if you run out of stamina faster than you can mash the escape button, you lose. Combat can be fun, as you discover new ways to take out your foes, usually through a mixture of possessing objects and throwing flaming items at your foes. Tchia is a game that was immediately striking, but continued to grow on me as I played it–and I can say, I have never played anything quite like it. But if Tchia’s fictional archipelago is anything like New Caledonia, I definitely want to visit its real world inspiration. Despite its darker elements, Tchia is a cozy game that breaks the usual cozy game boundaries. It’s also a game that was made with love by an obviously passionate dev team. Tchia is available March 21 on PC via the Epic Games Store and for PlayStation 4 and 5. An Epic Game Store Key was provided to us for this review

It’s rare to come across a video game with a truly novel twist on a tried-and-true genre. City builders have been around for over thirty years, and mostly consist of building various types of structures while balancing the needs of people. But Terra Nil isn’t about building civilization--it’s about rebuilding a wrecked ecosystem. Terra Nil is what developer Free Lives calls a “reverse city builder.” Your job is to take a barren landscape and reintroduce flora and fauna. But instead of leaving a network of machinery and various buildings behind, your goal is to leave no trace. There is no timer, so Terra Nil is a game you can play at your own pace—and I suggest you take it slow and plan each move, because it’s easy to get stuck without resources before you complete your objective. In fact, failure seems part of Terra Nil’s design. There isn’t much in the way of a tutorial for Terra Nil. While the campaign mode does ramp up its complexity and explain its basic mechanics—it also leaves a lot of details for you to discover through tinkering and tool tip perusal. This lead to some early frustration for me, but it grew on me over time. Gameplay consists of three phases. In the first phase you have to establish sources of power, and purify the soil to create green patches. In the second phase, you’ll further refine these patches into specific biomes like beaches, forests, etc. And finally, during the third phase your goal is to remove any trace of your interference. This means recycling all of your buildings. This can be a test in planning, because if you don’t think ahead you might have to create infrastructure to remove any hard to reach buildings. Succeeding in Terra Nil isn't as easy as simply putting things where you want them to go. You have to make sure there are proper atmospheric conditions by burning plants, freezing water, or creating humidity from water sources, etc. Also, a lot of the terraforming equipment is tied to various power generators, which are important to place strategically, lest you run out of room to expand. If you misplace a building, especially in the first or second phase, you may not be able to remove it in the third. There is an undo button, but that only allows you to undo your last action. And any mistake, especially in an earlier phase, can eventually cascade and make your life harder. Though there isn’t a timer in Terra Nil, so you can take your time making decisions, be prepared to fail at least once in each region. Luckily, you can reset your current phase—but sometimes that isn’t enough, and you have to restart the whole level. While the game never says it outright, I think this is by design. But when you fail, you can go back into a level with a better idea how to tackle it. There are four regions in Terra Nil, each with its own quirks and region-specific buildings to deal with that region’s challenges. Each region will require special consideration, and contain unique challenges, like the lack of land in Flooded City or the frozen ground of the Volcanic Glacier. While it doesn’t overstay its welcome, I do wish there was more to Terra Nil. I was able to get through its campaign in less than a dozen hours, where I’m used to city builders that can easily grab my attention for hundreds of hours. That said, Terra Nil does have replayability because of its procedurally generated landscapes. There’s no doubt that Terra Nil carries an important environmental message. But it’s more about the appreciation of the beauty of nature as you wipe away the dirt left behind by failed civilization. It manages to somehow be both challenging and relaxing—but there might be a bit of learning curve while you discover Terra Nil’s quirks. Terra Nil is available tomorrow for PC via Steam and on Netflix. A Steam key was provided to us for this review

I’m no pinball wizard, but I’ve always been fascinated by pinball machines. There’s something incredibly satisfying about all of the electro-mechanical sounds along with the tactile feeling of hitting a rolling metal ball with mechanical flippers. Unfortunately, that’s not something virtual pinball can reproduce, but Pinball FX comes the closest to live pinball of any other pinball video game I’ve played. Pinball FX is a game that allows you to play many different pinball tables. It’s technically free to play, but if you want to play more than the starter table, you’ll have to pay. Pinball FX isn’t a substitute for the real thing, but it’s the closest we’ll be able to get in a video game. However, Pinball FX isn’t so much a game as it is a modular pinball engine where you can play a whole array of different tables. Playing pinball in Pinball FX is fun. It obviously can’t recreate the tactile feeling of real pinball, but it’s as close as you can get in a video game. Of course, gameplay varies greatly from table to table, with every table containing its own goals and tricks. Each table has a gameplay guide, which is a bit of a cheat sheet that shows you how to play each table, and what all of the different parts of each table are called. There was never a time that I thought I was cheated by wonky physics. However, the tables tilt a lot easier in their virtual forms than the ones I’ve played with in real life, making some of the high scoring tricks harder to pull off than you could with their real-world counterparts. If you want extra realism, you can even use Pinball FX on a virtual pinball machine. As cool as this sounds, I don’t have the hardware to test it on, unfortunately. Virtual pinball has never looked so good as it does in Pinball FX. On PC, with all of the graphics settings maxed and ray tracing set to high, the tables really look fantastic. From the original tables to those classic table recreations that look like they were painstakingly reproduced, not a single table is visually disappointing. There are even added extra animated characters on some of the older tables that bring them to life in a way that’s impossible outside of a virtual space. As gorgeous as the tables are in Pinball FX, the rest of the virtual space is a bit disappointing. You can customize your game room, but it’s a little tedious in practice . Each table has unlockables and you can display them around your game room. But to display them, you’ll have to select the shelf you want to display a collectible on, and look for the list of those available. You can’t just select an object and place it where you want. I ended up spending little time on this aspect of Pinball FX. I was given access to most of the tables that Pinball FX has to offer, and I played every single one of them. Out of the bunch there was not a single bad table, though there were a few mediocre ones buried in a few of the bundles I tried out. You can buy tables individually, or you can purchase the Pinball pass which gives you access to most of the available tables. The Pinball Pass comes in two options: 30 days for 150 coins (about $15) or a 1 year pass for 1200 coins ($100). As pricey as these individual tables and table packs can be, getting the pinball pass can be a viable option. But to do so, you’ll need to purchase coins, and the smallest pack of coins is 100 that go for about $10. Tables themselves vary wildly in price, and can be purchased from $5 dollars to $10 dollars each. You can also buy packs of tables—which saves you a bit of money, with most of them going for around $10 dollars, up to $25 dollars or so. Pinball isn’t cheap, even virtually. While Pinball FX still doesn’t replace real tables, it’s the best way you can play a wide array of pinball games in your home. But while it’s certainly cheaper than buying and maintaining a real pinball table, each of the virtual ones still come in at a pretty steep price. But if you’re crazy about pinball, Pinball FX is the best video game pinball I’ve ever played. Pinball FX is out now on Epic Game Store for PC and for PlayStation 4 and 5 as well as Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One. An Epic Game Store Key was given to us for the purpose of this review