STILL PLAYING/ NEAR MISSES
Storyteller PC Offering effusive praise for Daniel Benmergui’s puzzler in E384’s Trigger Happy column, Steven Poole reminded us of the important truth that the devil is all in the detail. Well, now he’s in the game, too, mischievously interfering with existing tales to provide a generous helping of bonus objectives. After such a long gestation, we found Benmergui’s opus a little on the slender side; an update coinciding with its release on other platforms resets our completion percentage to around half of its former total, inviting us to fulfil variants on previously completed levels and complete brand-new ones besides. With a stamp collection incentivising further creative storytelling, it’s now arguably the game it should have been on its initial release. In ‘Friedrich Takes Revenge’, meanwhile, it delivers perhaps 2023’s finest videogame punchline.
Resident Evil 4 PS5 The Separate Ways expansion was, lest we forget, a freebie back in 2005, an add-on designed to make the PS2 version more appealing months after its GameCube launch. At roughly six hours long, you’d be hard pushed to say this updated version represents poor value, not least since Capcom has taken the opportunity to reinstate some set-pieces conspicuously absent from the main campaign. At least, that’s the idea. In reality, it highlights a slightly uncomfortable truth: despite the efforts of Lily Gao, Ada Wong works better as a supporting character, mopping up after Leon’s failures, than a protagonist. Shoehorned in, the returning elements feel like clumsy pandering; the rudimentary ‘stealth’ merely amounts to enemies inexplicably having their backs turned.
Neurocracy 2.049 PC There are multiple casualties during the production of every issue of Edge, most notably the games we set out to include but run out of time, space or both. This ARG-adjacent game (its ten-part live campaign is now over, but it lives on as a kind of interactive epistolary novel) is one we’d like to revisit should the opportunity arise for an end-of-year catchup. Taking place within a futuristic Wikipedia, it asks you to investigate the murder of an obscenely wealthy tech magnate, with clues extending through to page edits. A separate app allows you to assemble your own evidence board as you descend down this fearsomely complex rabbit hole, your mind racing with theories.