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No one has played every video game. In Backlog, Digital Trends’ goes back to important games they’ve never played to see what makes them so special. Or not.
Four years later, Stardew Valley is still the perfect gaming vacation
What happens when a non-gamer discovers Stardew Valley four years after it was released? Total obsession, complete relaxation, and plenty of virtual farming.
Backlog: The Witcher is a great show, but The Witcher 3 is still better
After binging 'The Witcher' on Netflix, I turned back to 2015's 'The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt' to get my Geralt fix. Playing it on Nintendo's Switch, I was pleased to find the game is a true classic. In fact, the Netflix show still has a lot to live up ot.
Borderlands might be influential but you’ll want to Catch a Ride to the sequel
Borderlands influenced several other first-person shooters, but the original game’s plodding pace and barebones story make it frustrating to play in 2019 and only make the wait for Borderlands 3 more difficult. With any luck, the upcoming game has learned the right lessons from the series’ past.
Seven years later, ‘Dark Souls’ is still a gloriously punishing masterpiece
Despite my experience with From Software’s Dark Souls III and Bloodborne, I’ve played the original Dark Souls. Thanks to Dark Souls Remastered, I was able to fix that, and the remastered game held up well despite the fact seven years and two sequels have passed.
‘Red Dead Redemption’ remains a Western frontier that’s worth saddling up for
We traveled back in time to see if Red Dead Redemption still has the same magic it had when it first came out in 2010. We may have found a few tumbleweeds but John Marston’s story is still so good that it left behind a big set of cowboy boots for Red Dead Redemption 2 to fill.
Why is Bethesda making ‘Rage 2?’ We dove back into ‘Rage’ to find out
Id Software’s Rage saw the famous first-person shooter studio go in a decidedly more serious direction than its past game, and it didn’t always pay off. Rage 2, developed by Id and Avalanche Studios, arrives next spring, and looks to right some of the wrongs seen in the original game.
‘Heavy Rain’ is steeped in mood, light on player interaction
David Cage has reined in a lot of his past excess with the new Detroit: Become Human, but his serial killer noir thriller 'Heavy Rain' looks more like The Room than anything else, in retrospect. The game’s lack of meaningful interaction for players is a flaw that’s even harder to tolerate today.
Playing ‘The Sims’ in the harsh light of adulthood
Playing 'The Sims' in high school was a fun way to imagine independent life. Going back to play it again in your 30s is a very different and more sobering experience that casts light on how dehumanizing the endless treadmill of modern life can be.
The best by far: 10 years in, ‘Far Cry 2’ is still the most exciting of the series
Far Cry 5 had problems blending story and gameplay. It should take a page from the series’ most experimental entry, Far Cry 2.
It’s really stupid. But ‘Devil May Cry’ spawned much smarter offspring
Playing the original ‘Devil May Cry’ for the first time, we found a perfect artifact of its moment in time, as well as the seeds of gaming’s present.
The art in ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ kept me away for 20 years. That was a mistake
Super Mario Bros. 3’s art style almost stopped one writer from ever experiencing one of the most beloved games ever made.