Developer: Light Brick Studio, Light Brick AS
Publisher: The Lego Group
Music: Hendrik Lindstrand
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X & S, iOS, PC (Windows & Mac)
Released: 20^th December 2019
Genre: Puzzle, Adventure, Indie

Now you might be thinking, “Oh, a LEGO game similar to the likes of Harry Potter or Star Wars” well you’d be wrong this little gem is a small-time indie development that differs greatly from other games in the LEGO franchise. This story follows a father and son depicted in LEGO where they go on an adventure in a series of different stages using the ability of building LEGOs to reach their destinations. There are no subtitles or dialog to follow, simply the story is told throughout gameplay using its environment to illustrate each challenge and using beautiful level design to instruct the player how to overcome each stage.

There are many different levels with different themes, such as hoping along beaches, climbing mountains, navigating swamp lands as well as some dark industrial style levels. You play as both the parent and child using your third-party abilities to move LEGO pieces around the scene to help build bridges, steps, or make shift ramps to get each character to the end of the puzzle. Some levels are more difficult than others but overall, there is no incorrect way to solve them just the limit of you LEGO building imagination.

LEGO Builder’s Journey is a 3D puzzle platformer that is very kind on the player. LEGO is about building and creating solutions with your imagination and this block building brilliance allows you exactly that. With each puzzle you encounter you are free to move pieces where and how you like. With very intuitive block moving and placing mechanics the game feels smooth and intentional. As you progress through, levels can become a little more challenging with the introduction of sinking mud, larger gaps to cover, weight scales and not to mention some levels that involve making a skate track for your character to ride on.

I played LEGO Builder’s Journey on the Nintendo Switch and found the controls to feel really intuitive, you can even use the touch screen when in handheld mode, my only issue was that you have to use the A button to both rotate and place pieces. The UI is minimalistic and innocuous, I actually consider the UI to be my overall favourite aspect of the game it felt really kind on the user, it also felt totally natural when moving through the main menu as well as understanding narrative without any dialog. I found that the tutorial parts of the game where enhanced buy this seamless UI experience. The UI design is simply phenomenal.

There is exclusively one gameplay mode which is the story, with the PC version of LEGO Builder’s Journey has a couple more levels than the Nintendo Switch version if end up looking for more content, which could happen given that the gameplay time was roughly 2 hours in total. I must say that LEGO Builder’s Journey could definitely have benefited from being much longer as it was kind of sad that the moment, I was getting right into it, it came to an end. In saying that each moment that I did spend in game was well and truly worth it, don’t let the short run time deter you from this fantastic indie experience.

The sound design is calming and simple, using delicate sound effects for each object you interact with as well as nice clinks and clunks from placing blocks. The score of music that plays in the background is the best kind for unwinding after a long day. The composer Hendrik Lindstrand has provided a beautiful soundscape for you to drift away on, as you place LEGO blocks the music gently guides you on your journey and really adds to that feeling of imagination and wonder that we all know and love about LEGO.

I must say that LEGO Builder’s Journey is blocktacular and beautiful. With subtle and effective UI too delightfully calm music, it really is a short and sweet adventure. From around $20 on the Nintendo eShop and $30 on Steam it maybe a little steep so keep an eye out for when it goes on special. Despite how short the duration of play is I found the story captivating and each level I played I was spurred on by the beautifully directed relationship between child and parent. What is LEGO without a heart-warming family building relationship? At least this one you don’t accidentally step on any bricks in the middle of the night… OW!

This week Ezie and Hazel discuss news and focus on the recent acquisition of Activision/Blizzard by Microsoft, then Ezie leads us through the relaxing puzzle block game LEGO Builder’s Journey.

This week in gaming news…

Unpacking Clone Tops Download Charts.

Witch Beam Games’ hit indie title Unpacking has recently fallen victim to a copy-cat company, selling a knock-off version of the game on Google Play and the App Store. The brazen copy was accompanied by an intense ad campaign across social media sites which boosted it, briefly, to the top of charts. Thankfully this alerted fans, who then alerted Witch Beam Games, who were able to get the imitation taken down.  “It’s demoralising for a small team like ours to see content we spent literally years planning, refining and handcrafting be hastily reproduced in an opportunistic ad-riddled app a mere 3 months after our launch,” the studio wrote on twitter.

This isn’t the first time someone has bastardized Unpacking, and Witch Beam is not the only studio to have their game mimicked for quick cash. Clones of successful games are rampant in the ever-growing world of mobile gaming. “We’re a tiny indie team and even with the success we have achieved, we still don’t have the resources to pursue companies trying to use our game’s distinct look and feel to make a quick buck. We have to rely on storefronts like the App Store to better curate their content.”
If you still haven’t tried out Unpacking and are interested, you can find the real deal on PC, Mac, Xbox, and Switch.

Australian Global Game Jam This Weekend.

This weekend the Australian Global Game Jam is taking place, as part of the worldwide event. If you don’t know Game Jams bring people together to connect, collaborate, and create games in a short time. This event will run from 5PM Friday the 28^th to 5pm Sunday 30^th, consecutive with similar events around the world. You don’t need to be a professional or have ever participated in a Game Jam before, it’s just about having fun with other game lovers. Everyone over 18 is welcome! For more details and to register visit /jamhost.org/e/0009T8QsaW/about

Final Fantasy 14 Launches Oceanic Server

Since the release of the Endwalker expansion in early December, Final Fantasy 14 exploded in popularity which left them with more players than they could handle. It got so bad players were left queuing for hours just to get online and new purchases of the game were briefly suspended. Since then, Square Enix have been working hard to improve the situation and the worst has past but players around Australia have still had to deal with connection issues because of the server congestion. Thankfully, on the 25^th of January, doors to the Oceanic Data Centre were finally opened as it released alongside the 6.08 patch.   In this Oceanic Server there are 5 worlds available which will all be considered “new worlds”. This means it will be free to transfer existing characters and all characters will have an experience boost until Level 80.  There are also a bunch of in game rewards available to celebrate. Game Director Naoki Yoshida has recently stated he plans to work on the game for at least another decade so if you’re interested in exploring now is a great time to join up.

Upcoming Game Releases

Circuit Superstars [PS4] – January 27

Deflector [PC] – January 27

Rugby 22 [PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO] – January 27

Vagante [PS4, XBO, Switch] – January 27

Zenith: The Last City [PC, Quest 2, PSVR] – January 27

Pokemon Legends: Arceus [Switch] – January 28

Re:turn 2 – Runaway [PC, XSX, XBO, Switch] – January 28

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection [PS5] – January 28

Life is Strange Remastered Collection [PC, PS4, XBO, Stadia] – February 1

And that’s all, this week, in gaming news!

In Zed Games this week, Maylee and Jango fight through the music and mayhem of the 4ZZZ studio with the Top 10 Tracks of 2021. While Paul pops in to give us his take on Supraland: Six Inches Under.

GamesDoneQuick beats their record again!
Charity streaming event GamesDoneQuick has been running since 2015, and is a marathon of high-level speedrunners playing games to raise money for various charity organisations. This year between the 10th and 17th of January, they raised over $3.4 Million US Dollars for the Prevent Cancer foundation, beating the 2021 total by almost half a million dollars and setting a new record for most money raised in a single Games Done Quick event! The event ran from the 10th to the 17th of January.

Leaks ahead of major game releases

As some Pokemon fans will know, the weeks before a new release will inevitably have leaks aplenty, and we’ve started seeing that this week with what looks like an early release of Pokemon Legends Arceus out in the wild. Screenshots of early game footage have appeared on twitter so if you want a spoiler-free experience, maybe avoid the internet for the next week or so. 

The same can be said for fans of Sony’s Horizon series. An early build of the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, has been confirmed to have leaked into the public. The leak appears to be a PS4 version of the game, with some art assets missing, but the entire core game is there, so spoilers could start to be shared soon.

Microsoft confirmed to have discontinued Xbox One 

In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft confirmed that they had ceased manufacturing the Xbox One consoles at the end of 2020 in favour of producing more Series S and X consoles, highlighting them as their top priority. This comes after a recent report from Bloomberg that Sony would be producing more of their older generation consoles to address shortages of the PS5.

Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard

More news from Microsoft! This week they have bought yet another gaming giant, with Activision Blizzard being brought into the fold. The deal has been valued at around $68.7 Billion US Dollars, and is Microsoft’s biggest acquisition to date. With games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Crash Bandicoot, and Tony Hawk, Activision Blizzard has a huge range to bring into Microsoft’s growing gaming sector. Once the transaction is finalised, it will leave Microsoft as the third-largest gaming company by revenue, with Sony and Tencent still leading.

Developer: Edmund McMillen, Nicalis Inc
Publisher:  Nicalis Inc
Music: Ridiculon (Matthias Bossi, Jon Evans)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Wii U, New Nintendo 3DS Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Playstation Vita, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC (Windows, Mac, Linux), iOS
Released: 5 Nov 2014 (Afterbirth DLC: 30 October 2015, Afterbirth+ 3 January 2017, Repentance DLC 31 March 2021)
Genre: Shooter, Rogue-like

You are Isaac, a small naked boy.  

You enter a room.  It’s dark and the walls are made of flesh, there is a pile of poop on the ground in front of you and you cry on it.  The poop is destroyed and a coin pops out of it.  You will take that coin and use it to buy a jar of flies.  Later you will find a secret room where you can make a deal with the devil in exchange for severed parts of your dead cat which you will use to help you defeat a giant fetus.  

By crying on it.  

After defeating this foe you are rewarded with a placenta.  I’m pretty sure you eat it.  

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a shooter with rogue-like elements rendered in a pixel art style reminiscent of its flash game roots.  The game’s aesthetic draws heavily from Christian themes and iconography.  And poop.  So much poop. The game is like a bible study meets a third grader’s sense of humour.  

As the titular character Isaac you explore a maze of randomly generated rooms, picking up items and defeating monsters as you descend deeper into the basement and what lies beneath to escape from your religious mother who has been hearing the voice of god telling her to murder you to prove her faith.  

The game plays akin to a “bullet hell” shooter, you control Isaac and make sure to dodge enemies and their attacks while shooting back at them.  Well, crying at them.  Each floor of the run increases in difficulty as you go.  Each run of Binding of Isaac starts you afresh, and as you progress you can find various items that can help (or hinder) you.  Items can be either passive (which affects your stats or provides a certain effect like flight) or activated and fall into one of several categories.  

These can interact with each other to form synergies, giving each run a distinctly different feel depending on what items you found.  There are few things more satisfying than finding just the right combinations of items on a run that work so well that it feels like cheating, although on the flip side there are few things more frustrating than picking up an item that ruins your entire build.  

Whether you defeated the final boss or you died horribly, a new run is a fresh start: a new layout, new items and new possibilities.  But it doesn’t stop there!

No two runs are the same with new items, characters, levels, and challenges to unlock giving The Binding of Isaac pretty much endless replayability.  The game also has 3 DLCs available for it, each adding new modes, characters, items, enemies, achievements, rooms, and challenges. There is so much content available for this game.  

The music is an instrumental soundtrack with soft, chilling ambient music for each stage of the game which morphs into a more intense style for the boss fights. It really gives each level its own sense of place with the caves level having a damp and dingy vibe with its echoing splashes giving way to the feeling of empty and forgotten decomposition as you enter a secret room, the music shifting to give each type of special room its own theme.  

Whether you’re picking up a coin or a heart, crying onto a poop, or activating an item, The Binding of Isaac has a distinct sound effect for each. It is a beautiful, creepy, and at times disgusting-sounding game.  

I love this game.  The satisfaction of getting familiar enough with the item pools to know what item to pick and which one to skip, that manic glee when I get lucky and manage to create a build that is overpowered to the point where I can walk into a room and the enemies just die around me as I do nothing and the weird little pet things that I’ve picked up just obliterate them.  How it’s never too frustrating to die on a bad run because, “oh well, the next one will be different.” 

I can (and have) stayed up all night, lost in the ‘just one more run’ loop.  I have 1277 hours in this game as of writing this.  I’m going to go play it some more after I’m done here.  And I am fighting the urge to get The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth on Nintendo Switch so I can cry on poops while I myself poop.  

(Review provided by guest reviewer: Caroline Girdler)

Developer: FYQD-Studio
Publisher: FYQD-Studio, PLAYISM
Music: Jeff Rona
Platforms: PC (Steam), iOS, Android, Xbox Series X
Released: March 25 2020
Genre: First Person Shooter, Hack and Slash

Have you ever wanted to work for a mysterious organisation with high-tech gear? Have you ever wished you could wield a futuristic laser sword? Do you want to sprint around, with pyrokinetic powers, a ridiculous amount of bullets, a bunch of guns (some of which can launch grenades, electric bullets, or just spray fire), while the world around you flies off into a black hole in the sky?

Are you ok with not really knowing what on earth is going on?

Then I got the game for you!

Bright Memory: Infinite is the expanded and complete version of Bright Memory: Episode 1. A first person shooter, with a lot of hacking and slashing, in a detailed and beautiful realistic world, Bright Memory is a fast-paced game that knows how to escalate, and escalate hard.

There’s a lot to this game, and yet, not that much at all. What I mean by that is that it’s pretty linear, you have a few weapons and abilities, and a handful of enemy types to face off against. However, there is a satisfying level of detail to the mechanics, from movement to the guns you use, and the environment you progress through.

So, your abilities? Well, you have a special sci-fi arm that lets you drag enemies towards you from far distances, and then you can just… explode that enemy with a flex of your hand. You also have a special sci-fi sword that can slice and dice your enemies like a hibachi chef demolishes a prawn. Your sword can also launch laser waves, making it a ranged weapon as well. You know, in case you want to switch up from your overpowered ridiculous guns.

You have an auto rifle initially, and eventually you unlock other guns, including an auto pistol that shoots electric bullets, and a sniper rifle. Each gun also has a secondary ability! So your sniper rifle can also shoot grenades. And your auto rifle shoots bigger bullets.

Bright Memory also gives you so many bullets all the time. And it is really satisfying switching between your weapons and just being this whirlwind of death and destruction. The audio and animation adds to this as well, so each attack and weapon feels weighty.

But that’s not all! You also have movement abilities, like double jumping, running along walls, telepor-I mean dodging attacks, blocking melee attacks and bullets with your sword. This game is going to throw enemies at you, and you’re just going to deal with all of them, darting all over the place, switching between grenades and shotguns and swords oh my. You can play frantically, recklessly, and with minimal thought. Sometimes you’ll have to be strategic, but there’s not much you can’t solve with a sword and a lot of bullets. And the ability to explode enemies with your mind.

All these abilities and weapons can be upgraded as you find relics throughout the world, encouraging you to do a bit of digging and crate-breaking.

And you’ll need those upgrades in order to face the storm ahead of you. Literally, you got called into this situation because there was an unusual storm happening. So of course you have to fly there with a futuristic plane with warp technology, which reveals the cause of the storm: an actual black hole in the sky. And of course we have to head right towards it because although we don’t really know what’s going on, General Lin and his army are there and apparently that means bad news.

Also, you get a car for one section of the game. It’s a really fancy car, and I felt bad driving it into tanks and stuff, but even driving through mud and bullets feels satisfying, and it’s only a 5 minute long portion of the game.

Have I mentioned this game knows how to escalate? You get called in to check out a storm, find a black hole, and you have to take out a bunch of regular baddies. But now there’s a… time rift I guess? And ancient soldiers are also fighting you. And sometimes giant statues, wild pigs, a guy who is on fire, and you’ll be fighting in the middle of flood waters, on the back of a plane flying directly into the blackhole, mountains, bridges, in a busted up cafe. I had to take a break, put down my controller, and just ground myself for a little bit.

I do have a few gripes. The game throws you into this wacky situation, and I just wish I knew more about it than the most bare-bones background information possible. Who is General Lin? Why is he here? What does he have to do with the black hole? How are we stopping a black hole? We keep going towards it like we know what we’re doing but the guy on coms is just like ‘we don’t know! Go check it out’. The game is pretty linear, it boxes you into one path and one path only. We have these movement abilities and a grappling hook, it would’ve been fun to do more with that and encourage a bit of exploration. The upgrade relics are right in the main path, so they’re not doing much exploration-wise.

The movement is also a bit janky. The wall climbs and jumps in particular. Most of the time it’s not something you’d really notice, but it does feel frustrating in some areas, especially when you have to pull off a slightly more challenging manoeuvre. It would slow me down a lot at times.

The sound adds a lot to this game, but only the environmental and action sounds. The thud thud thud of my gun shooting, combined with the recoil and screen shake is delicious. Hearing the rain and storm, the plane engines screaming is overwhelming. Straining to listen to the patrolling guards, so I can sneak up on them with a meat cleaver. It’s good! The voice acting? Dreadful. You have one of the bad guys laughing like a caricature, and not in a fun way. The other bad guy just sounds like he was told to mimic a James Bond villain, but he never actually watched a James Bond movie in his life. The only character with decent voice acting is Wake, and he has maybe 5 lines. I love him.

Now, here’s the main thing about this game, it’s actually really short. My first run was just over 2 hours long. My first run. Because this game encourages you to make multiple runs, not to explore different paths or outcomes or anything. Just to do the exact same journey, but with harder enemies, all your upgrades, and do it quicker this time. If you do, you might unlock some alternative costumes for Shelia! Like a, uhh, cheerleader outfit. Or a bikini. Would’ve been cool to have a skin that looks like the ancient warriors but ok.

But hey, it’s so satisfying to play that I do find myself thinking about making another run, see if I can improve my time. I just would’ve liked some variety, and the ending? Yawn. It was building up to something truly epic, and just as I was processing what was happening it… was over. And you’re supposed to just do it again. I do feel a bit cheated. I had a lot of fun, I’ll play it again, but it’s actually a lot of really awesome frosting on a pretty plain cake.

This week Zahra and Hazel talk news, Guest Reviewer Caroline reviews Binding of Isaac and Zahra runs us through Bright Memory: Infinite.

This week in gaming news.

Take-Two Interactive to Acquire Mobile Developer Zynga for A$17.7 Billion
Take-Two Interactive, the company behind the Grand Theft Auto games, has issued a press release stating that they’ve reached a deal to acquire FarmVille developer Zynga for more than 17 billion Australian dollars. The deal would be the largest acquisition in the history of the video games sector and appears to follow a trend of major PC and console developers making large acquisitions of mobile games developers as a way of expanding into the mobile sector. The merger opens up the opportunity for Zynga to adapt classic Take-Two franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and NBA 2K for mobile platforms. The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year.

LAPD Officers Denied Appeal After Being Fired for Ignoring Robbery to Catch Snorlax
Two fired LAPD officers were denied reinstatement in a California court this week after being fired in 2017 for playing Pokemon Go on the job. The pair were dismissed after a dashcam recording showed them receiving a call for backup to a robbery at a nearby department store and choosing to ignore it to play the mobile game. They left the area and spent the next 20 minutes catching Pokemon, the two were even heard discussing a Snorlax they could see on the map and the best route to take to catch it. The officers appealed their dismissal on the grounds that dashcam recordings were not meant to be used to monitor officers’ conversations, but a California judge denied the appeal.

E3 2022 Show to Remain Online-Only for Second Year in A Row
The massive annual games industry trade show E3 will again be held as an online virtual conference this year as COVID-19 cases surge, it will be the second year in a row of online-only events for the conference in a show of caution from organisers. Last year’s E3 2021 was moved to an online-only event and the 2020 show was cancelled entirely due to COVID-19 related concerns, making 2022 the third year with no physical E3 event. Similar trade shows such as the Consumer Electronics Show and the Game Developers Conference have received some criticism over the decision to go ahead with in-person events this year despite the potential for spreading the virus during the current spike in cases.

Activision-Blizzard Legal Saga Continues and Overwatch 2 LEGO Set Delayed
Activision Blizzard’s legal troubles related to allegations of toxic workplace culture continue as the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing or DFEH has appealed a decision preventing it from intervening in the settlement of a federal lawsuit. The developer settled with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September with the creation of a compensation fund totalling 25 million Australian dollars. The California DFEH has attempted to intervene in the settlement over concerns it could release Activision-Blizzard from pending California lawsuits.

At the same time, LEGO has announced that they are reviewing their partnership with Activision-Blizzard due to the aforementioned allegations and pausing release of the upcoming Overwatch 2 Titan LEGO set which was due to hit shelves in February.

Now for some upcoming releases
4-player co-op shooter The Anacrusis is releasing to early access on PC, Xbox Series X and Xbox One today, January 13th, along with the Playstation and Xbox ports of Mushroom Wars 2. January 14 sees the critically-acclaimed God of War finally coming to PC.

That’s all this week in gaming news.

This week Paul and Rani talk gaming news and Paul guides us through the battleground that is Chivalry 2. Then Hazel regails us with a tail of gliding through the universe that is Exo One.