By Ronald Gordon 

Hello and welcome back to the Roundup! It’s the column in which we give a blast to our talented interns and Circle members for their amazing articles. Winter is winding down and with this new Spring season comes news of upcoming games on the horizon. This time around we’ve got articles on Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC, a lookback at Paper Mario: Origami King, A Silent Hill game with a loud powerfully loud message, and so much more!  

To start us off, Founder Harold Goldberg has become a critic for the new New York Times Arts Section, where he flips between the psychedelic visuals of Ultros to the gritty realism of Pacific Drive. Before he dives into the visuals of this amazing game, Harold writes, “Far, far away in the vastness of deep space, an ebony spaceship awaits. Inside is a lush, lurid botanical expanse of plants, trees and fungi, species that have never before been seen. Vibrant vegetation sprawls everywhere, through tunnels, crawl spaces and gardens. It’s not simply a bucolic environment. About five hours into Ultros, you realize this heady biome is both a sarcophagus and the place of birth for something dark and unknown.” He appreciates Ultros for being an original game made by a small team, yet still being able to produce such amazing visuals. The visuals aren’t just pretty. Harold also hints at their innate importance in a game about exploration when he writes, “As the hours pass, stopping to view Ultros’s bright background art is as essential as learning how to slip under enemies. Those backgrounds pop from behind black foregrounds to change over time, giving clues to what’s going on.” 

William Baker III gives a well-deserved shoutout to Phil Spencer for his work at Xbox, always seeking to bring out the best in not only the console but the gamers who use it as well. Relating how much of a change Phil has made on William’s life, William writes “Phil has had an impact on so many people. For instance, I grew up on Minecraft. Minecraft has helped me connect to friends I never would have met, comfort me in times when I’m sad, and give me something to look forward to when I find out that new features are coming. It’s given me something I can always come back to.” Having overseen the launch of its recent consoles, and the release of some of the consoles best games, Phil Spencer is more than just a CEO, he’s a part of the community as well. He took the time to mentor us in the Circle last November, and shared tidbits on the industry while we all feasted on finger food. “Phil met with interns from the NYVGCC in November. He gave advice, direction and inspiration to my peers, and it was amazing to see how receptive and forward-thinking he is about the industry. I wasn’t able to attend the lunch myself, but because of that Harold, our founder, asked Phil to sign Harold’s Xbox controller – for me! I almost don’t want to use it to play games just to keep it in pristine condition … Almost.” 

Khloe Wilkerson takes on Silent Hill: The Short Message, escaping the litany of inhuman monsters thrown at her all while experiencing the game’s acknowledgement of mental health issues. Silent Hill fiction has always featured topics that were very real to some people (death of a loved one, etc.) and this pattern continues through The Short Message with teenage suicide. “Nearly 20 percent of high school students report serious thoughts regarding suicide. Silent Hill: The Short Message, Konami’s and Hexadrive’s survival horror freebie for PS5, is based on this fact.” Khloe begins her article bringing this to the forefront, recognizing that suicide is an issue that should be talked about and The Short Message has the microphone, “The Short Message takes you on a first-person journey through the protagonist’s struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts. It delves into the depths of mental health, exploring themes of trauma, depression, and the haunting specter of suicide. It’s a game that tackles these heavier subjects with a raw and introspective perspective. It fits well into the Silent Hill series, however short it may be.” 

Nintendo Master Isaac Espinosa takes a moment to look back on a previous Paper Mario game, seeking to answer the all important question: Should you play it? With the release of new Super Mario games and remakes of fan favorites on the horizon, Isaac wants fans old and new to have the most enjoyable experience of Paper Mario. Diving back into a game he initially enjoyed three years ago, Isaac essay read, “Essentially, people wanted to return to what the original Paper Mario trio of titles offered. This is not to say that Origami King is unsatisfying – far from it. It has a lot of moments that not only brought me an immense amount of joy, but also reminded me of playing the original Paper Mario trio. Yet it never felt quite the same, even in the story, where the game is supposed to be at its strongest. Sure, there are stellar moments, like the visit to Shogun Studios and the hijinx of the second world, and how each of the Area Bosses, aka the Legion of Stationery, really brings an air of pizazz that the game otherwise lacks. But these small positives are lost amid repetitive dialogue, boring interactions, and a plot that hinges on your ability to ignore a lot of believability issues.” 

Circle Member Brady Langmann writes about Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, what may be the most anticipated DLC of the year. Elden Ring has held the fans of FromSoftware captive since it first came out in 2022, winning all sorts of awards and accolades for its world, action, and storytelling. Now fans like Brady and myself are only going to be pulled back into the fold as the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is set to come out late June of this year. “My therapist has classified my 90 hours playing Elden Ring as a not-insignificantly severe manic-depressive episode,” Brady writes, spilling the truths all fans will relate to as Elden Ring was already a game that drained time like no other, and there’s no doubt that the DLC will shoot most gamers over 100+ hours when combined with the main game. “Time to bulk up before I spend another indeterminate amount of time in hibernation, once again being punished by this damn game. I can’t wait.”

Giovanni Colantonio brings news that 2024 might just be the year of downloadable content as Elden Ring isn’t the only game putting out an expansion. Splatoon 3: Side Order may just be a full meal with the glowing way it’s described in his article on Digital Trends, featuring a game mode that may as well be its own game. “The narrative-focused roguelite brings an entirely new experience to Splatoon. It has players trying to clear randomized runs through a 30-floor tower full of challenges. While that task can initially be cleared in a few hours, a robust postgame turns Side Order into a full-on game within a game. If Splatoon 3 wasn’t already the Switch game that offered the most bang for your buck, it is now.” Introducing a whole new Roguelite mode into Splatoon 3 is a drastic change that may just bring even more Agents to the Splatlands. I for one, having become a recent fan of Splatoon thanks to this third installment, am thoroughly excited to see what Side Order brings to the table. “For players who have fallen off of Splatoon 3 since its launch, Side Order offers a perfect reason to jump back in. The fun roguelite diversion gives solo players more to do and even gives the shooter a big-infusion of welcome offline content.”

The preservation of media has always been a fascinating thing to me, especially when it comes to gaming. Some games that were sold in stores everywhere can be wiped from existence, and entire platforms where people once shopped can be shut down without a second thought. Luckily, there are those who are trying desperately to make it known that just because the digital age saves everything, doesn’t mean everything is safe. In this PopMatters article written by Circle member Luis Aguasvivas, the author talks about toy and game producer turned writer and video game preservationist Mark Flitman. Flitman wrote a book called It’s Not All Fun and Games about how games are no longer being built to last and that measures should be taken to ensure that future generations can enjoy classics such as The Witcher series. Luis writes, “Unsurprisingly, the same industry whose workers are largely unknown to the public is also the industry whose creations are increasingly at risk of being lost forever. Last year, amidst all the news of layoffs in the industry came the revelation that 87% of the video games released in the US before 2010 are ‘critically endangered’.” 

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.

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