The New York Game Awards will be held on 1/23/24 at SVA Theatre in Manhattan. Get your tickets here. Note: we’re almost out of VIP tickets. So get them now.

By Ronald Gordon 

Hello once again and welcome back to the Roundup, where we give our interns and members a shoutout for all of their amazing work during the week! Things are gearing up behind the scenes as the Critics Circle is kicking it into high gear with the NY Game Awards fast approaching and we are voting on our nominees as I write this. While I’m excited to see the results of this year’s votes, my heart is of course yearning for Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon to win a lot more than just Best Action game! But enough about my Awards hopes. This week, we’ve got reviews of all kinds from our interns, Karila’s tale of optimism during homelessness, the Mike Tyson’s Punch Out documentary, Kotaku’s biggest stories, and so much more! 

Speaking about games of the year, Harold Goldberg created his own list of the Best Games of 2023 for Observer, including some of the great games he’s seen and reviewed throughout the months. With so many choices and so little time to review them, Harold writes, “Expectations were high for the new Legend of Zelda experience in May. But 2023 offered many other extraordinary video games—enough to make it difficult to set aside enough money to buy all of the best, and supremely difficult to choose the most notable games of the year.” 2023 has really been a big year for gaming as a whole and it’s one of many good examples of companies bouncing back from the pandemic. There’s hope to see even more spectacular experiences come about through the months of 2024 and further on. But if every year is as superior as 2023, then journalists like Harold will have even harder choices later down the line. 

Theresa Afful had some things to say about Silent Hope and its need for a better narrative. At first taken aback by the beautiful colors of the game, Theresa writes, “Silent Hope’s artwork is truly captivating. It tells the story of anime-style heroes with big eyes who bravely confront the dark side. The design is very captivating and the artwork is truly remarkable. I am particularly fond of the color scheme of each of the seven heroes, which is based on their clothing or hair. In particular, I’m appreciative of the vibrant visuals, diverse locations,  and fluid animation, as they have achieved remarkable results with what they have created. And there’s a spacey beauty as you leap into The Abyss.” Appreciating the beauty of the game could only carry her review so far; she soon had to speak about her dislikes regarding the narrative, writing, “Unfortunately, the story of Silent Hope is predictable. Beyond what I outlined above, I find the storyline of the game to be not that innovative.” While having a predictable narrative isn’t always a bad thing, it can sour the experience of some games for people like Theresa, who doesn’t want to be able to guess what happens next in a story. 

Next we have Karoline Castillo-Troncoso who learned all about the true power of the Parry button from Strayed Lights – through battling an aspect of her own identity represented through the game’s enemies: “Have you ever felt compelled to confront an aspect of your identity, one that challenged the very essence of your being? When attempting to combat monsters internally encompassed, it can be easy to disregard the anticipation of a hope that is to come, in other words, the light at the end of the tunnel.” Outside of the importance of matching the pacing of attacks and being prepared for the opponent, Karoline earned a great wealth of emotional understanding through Strayed Lights as she enthusiastically writes, “The beauty of Strayed Lights is within the depth of the concepts addressed; there are too few games that target mental health and illustrate its effects on individuals in such a flawless and emotional manner. Additionally, I appreciate how the developers allowed for the selection of various difficulties which highlight the variety of interests of diverse players; whether a player is more interested in a game’s storyline, or if one dominates in the area of digital combat, each difficulty presents the opportunity for adventure through different outlets and intensities.” 

Jatin Gundara reviews one of the better games of the year, the ever growing Honkai: Star Rail, and has a lot of praise to sing about the story. From its complex plot to its surprisingly-lacking gacha aspects, Honkai: Star Rail has a lot more potential than its predecessors in Jatin’s mind. When mentioning the plot he writes, “The plot of Honkai: Star Rail is complex to say the least. Beginning with an ominous cutscene which moves from the invasion of a space station to the ethereal singing of an unknown character, Star Rail makes full use of the scope and grandeur of its premise…Star Rail’s cast is filled to the brim with colorful personalities, from the contemplative Dan heng, to the excitable March 7th, filling the world with life and a distinctive tone. The Star Rail itself, an interplanetary locomotive, seemingly embodies the simple, yet effective theme of adventure which permeates the game’s every aspect.” Despite the fact that Honkai: Star Rail is all about the characters within it, the game also surprised Jatin with its lack of predatory gacha elements. He opines, “I’m confident that the average player could go the length of the game with the base team provided at the beginning, and still have a healthy, fun gameplay experience. The gacha system feels like more of a suggestion rather than an imposition, which provides a refreshing outlook on a genre which is riddled with games that seem to reject providing players with a strong foundation, and emphasize the use of variability to dictate the player’s gameplay experience.” 

Recent Streamer and Intern for the Circle Karila-Monique Warner wrote an essay about keeping in good spirits while being homeless, a harsh and heavy reality that they are constantly fighting against every day. Having been in the system since late October, Karila has been doing their best to work with what the world gives them and keep going no matter what, using the guiding words of people around them to continue to think reasonably and clearly. Recounting a conversation they had with an HRA case worker, they write, “I had gone to the HRA office in the morning and after crying with the case worker while explaining my situation, she told me something that I have been carrying with me throughout this whole journey. ‘You’ll be okay and this isn’t the end of the world. Now is your time to do it for you.’ So in some ways, this isn’t about what I lost; instead I began to gain a new perspective into life.” Having grown closer to them thanks to us working together, I’m confident in saying that Karila is one of the most motivated individuals I’ve known in a long time. Despite their situation, they do everything in their power to ensure that what’s bad today doesn’t stay bad tomorrow, and I believe they’ll get into a better situation in no time with that mindset. In their closing statements, they write, “I do want my own bed and furniture at some point. But I think in some weird sense I want to sleep in the empty apartment. I want that to sink in before I move big things in: my own apartment. It would be my first apartment that I found on my own, that I would be completely responsible for. Simply having the blessing of obtaining my own apartment and knowing it’s mine with my name on the lease is all that I want.” 

Moving onto members work, Stephen Totilo has moved his news-filled column to a new site called Game File on Substack, where he plans to post a lot more content focused around the goings on in gaming that deserve a deeper dive. If you’re worried that his approach might change in comparison to his works from Axios, Stephen tells you not to worry, “My goals are unchanged. I want to tell you the most interesting stories I can find about the video game scene. Some are stories you wanted to know, others may simply be ones you should know, always backed with reporting that respects your curiosity, your intelligence and your time.” Independence doesn’t mean stagnation, and Stephen seeks to make the most of his opportunities by bringing higher value to what you’re reading. 

Giovanni Colantonio brings the interesting news of a Documentary about a speedrun of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, and how it’s his pick for 2023’s Best Sports documentaries. Throughout recent history, there has been a lot of Documentary-based content being made around games and the industry as a whole. Yet none of them seem to have as big an impact on him as this one. When writing his opinion of YouTuber Summoning Salt’s video, Giovanni had this to say, “It’s exhilarating. Though it is a dense video at times, loaded with exhaustive technical explanations of how the game works, Summoning Salt knows how to underline the tension and drama of the race just like any good documentarian. He finds human stories within a decade and a half of grinding, painting a picture of a few dedicated souls who want to etch their names in history. There’s heartbreak and victory in equal measure. It’s also an unexpectedly personal project, as a mid-video twist puts Summoning Salt himself at the center of its history. It’s everything you’d want from a sports documentary…minus the physical activity.” Which says more than it needs to for me to get hooked. The video in question is a full 2 hours and 14 mins long. It currently has over 900k views on YouTube despite being posted just this week. So congrats on your indie hit, Summoning Salt!

With the release of the PS5 Slim, Ebenezer Samuel had some positive feedback to give to this version of Sony’s newest console. In his short summary of the original PlayStation 5 console he writes, “It’s an easy platform to recommend, with high-fidelity graphics on every game and a truly premium feel to its every menu, from the moment you boot up the console. But the machine itself was…ugly and ungainly, to say the least. It looked like some fusion of a Star Wars Storm Trooper and a giant plastic box, and it weighed in at nearly 10 pounds.” While it is a high-end console with as much power as most PCs, the PS5 is still plenty bulky and unwieldy on its own. That’s a problem which Sony sought to change with the new product, says Eb: “The PS5 Slim instantly solves several of these issues. Yes, it still looks like an agent of Darth Vader (last Star Wars crack, I promise!), but it manages to slim down by almost three pounds, instantly making it easier to transport. This console is still quite a bit wider and taller than Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, but it’s finally easier to carry and easy to set up.” The Slim console is on sale now for the same market price as the original when it first came out. So if you’ve been looking for a console for the longest time, now is your chance to get a PlayStation 5 that won’t need its own square foot of space in your home. 

Moving away from Destiny 2 content for a while, Whitney Meers talks about a reimagined original from Bungie entitled Marathon, an IP that was first released all the way back in 1994. Recounting the original history of Marathon, Whitney writes “This version of Marathon is a reimagined version of the space game of the same name that Bungie released in 1994. The series continued with annual installments, with Marathon 2: Durandal in 1995 and Marathon Infinity in 1996. The original trilogy were single-player Doom-like FPS games available only on Mac OS, the ill-fated Apple Pippin console, and iOS. As such, the Marathon trilogy has a niche cult following.” With the recent changes to the format of their online games, such as Destiny 2’s plans for perpetual content updates, Bungie seems to be making room for more diverse games to enter the online shooter spectrum. Thanks to Marathon already having somewhat of a following in and of itself, there’s no doubt that some people are very excited to see an underappreciated game get a brand new rendition. Crossplay is a very real possibility. Says Whitney, “The game will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox series X/S and will feature crossplay and cross-save. This means that players should be able to play with their friends no matter what platforms their pals choose to play on and that a player’s account information and cosmetics should be accessible from any platform on which they own the game.” 

Alyssa Mercante brings news of the The 10 Biggest Kotaku Stories Of 2023, some of which were written by not only herself but also a fellow Circle Member Carolyn Petit! Kotaku is one of the biggest online magazines focused around gaming and technology, which constantly seeks to post the biggest and best pieces of content they can find out there. While I wasn’t very shocked to see the best posts on the site focused around The Last of Us TV series and Overwatch 2 news, I was pleasantly surprised to see articles focused on challenging Racism in games make it to the top 10 stories of this year. It’s a very interesting cornucopia of reviews, news, and the like, so if you’re curious on what Kotaku’s spread for 2023 looks like, I’d suggest checking it out! 

Beyond The Circle

It’s a necessary, new space for all New Yorkers. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) & NYC Media Lab partner together to make a new games incubator space. What is meant to be yet another move to heighten the importance of games in NYC, as part of Mayor Eric Adams “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent” plan, this new Game Design Future Lab’s Brooklyn space is meant to work towards creating games and emboldening developers within the metro area. According to the press release, “The NYC Game Design Future Lab will allow us to expand our portfolio of start-up companies from sectors like data, AI, sustainability, combating climate change and cybersecurity to now include digital game design and development entrepreneurs,” said Craig Wilson, Managing Director, NYU Tandon Future Labs. “Proximity and mentoring from faculty at a world class engineering school, workshops to help them learn how to run a business, hands on support by a network of skilled Future Labs staff, and access to the amazing emerging media technologies located at NYU Tandon at the Yard, will create a pathway for success for early-stage companies navigating this emerging vertical.”

“The digital gaming incubator will feature annual cohorts of New York City-based digital game companies who have a functioning design prototype and are able to attend in-person sessions. Participating companies will have access to space and state-of-the-art resources at 370 Jay Street at the NYU Tandon campus and NYU Tandon @ the Yard. Applications are launching in early 2024.” With a massive amount of funding and plenty of talented individuals from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, there’s no telling of the potential that this new design lab could have, or what brilliance could come out of it after launches. Here’s hoping we can make NYC as compelling a place for game makers as the Bay Area and Los Angeles. 

Ronald Gordon is a New York Videogame Critics Circle Member & Mentor. He was the first of our writers – or any intern anywhere – to complete an internship at Rockstar Games.

---