I’ve played a lot of video games in my day, but don’t recall many—if any at all—that included live-action gameplay. I’m sure there’s been a couple along the way, most likely in some arcade in the ’90s, but nothing I remember specifically. Recently I got to play the excellent Quantum Break, which included live-action episodes within the game but not live-action gameplay.

So when I first heard about co-developers Wales Interactive’s and Splendy Games’ The Bunker—a game that’s entirely live-action, and was filmed in an actual decommissioned nuclear bunker—earlier this month, my attention was surely obtained. The game releases this week, and I was able to give it a try. You can read my thoughts on it below!

DOOM
XBOX ONE (Physical l Digital), PS4 (Physical l Digital), PC (Physical l Digital)
DEVELOPER: id Software
PUBLISHER: Bethesda Softworks
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2016

The return of DOOM arrived a little over a week ago with the release of the latest installment in the hit first-person shooter series, a reboot of the franchise from original developer id Software.

I’m in an interesting position reviewing this one, as I’ve never actually played any of the DOOM games before. No, I can’t believe it either! My first-person shooter experience in the ’90s was with another id Software title (and another series now published by Bethesda), Wolfenstein 3D. But after seeing trailers and gameplay, I was excited to dive into the madness.

Tak is an “abstract strategy” board game in the traditions of Chess and Go, based on a fictional game mentioned in Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle novel series. It was developed by James Ernest and Rothfuss for Cheapass Games, and is right now enjoying the home stretch of a massively successful Kickstarter campaign.

It should come as no surprise that the game surpassed its $50,000 funding goal almost instantly, currently topping off at more than ten times that number. A legion of loyal fans clamors for anything even peripherally related to Rothfuss’s epic fantasy saga about a multi-talented liar who falls backwards into legend status on the road to avenging his family’s murder.

Quantum Break
Xbox One l Digital Code l Xbox One Bundle l
DEVELOPER: Remedy Entertainment
PUBLISHER: Microsoft Studios
RELEASE DATE: April 5, 2016

The latest game from Max Payne and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment, the long-awaited Quantum Break, hit store shelves of the physical and digital kind today.

The game is quite the ambitious endeavor with Remedy not only crafting a game that delves into the tricky realms of time travel, but also fusing it with TV show-like live-action episodes that play out depending on choices you make in the game.

So is this new game worth your time, or should you pass it by? Continue below for our thoughts.

At this year’s PAX South, I spoke with Thibaut Hanson, a programmer at Fishing Cactus, about their latest game Epistory.

Epistory is an adventure game that tells the story of a writer lacking inspiration who asks her muse to help write her latest book. The adventure begins with a girl on a fox traversing a world that opens up as you solve its mysteries and defeat its enemies.