Christopher Byrd


157 games reviewed
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Unscored - Cuphead
Oct 6, 2017

'Cuphead' is really hard but learning its tricks is awfully fun

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Aug 11, 2015

"Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" is an ambitious game that is fundamentally about the acceptance of death. It shows how video games can tap into the ordinary without unwieldy mechanics (I'm looking at you "Heavy Rain"). Though It doesn't offer the intellectual workout of another first-person perspective, story-first game such as "The Old City: Leviathan" it is the best scored, most accessible argument for how video games can prosper as narrative sandboxes.

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Unscored - Submerged
Aug 6, 2015

Basically, you'll either dig the lush tedium of this game or you won't.

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Oct 8, 2015

[O]ne of the most emotionally alive games on the market

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Unscored - Far Cry Primal
Feb 26, 2016

"Far Cry: Primal" won't re-wire your expectations of what a game can be but it has just enough energy to pleasurably distract one over the length of its journey.

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Unscored - Cibele
Nov 20, 2015

"Cibele" is an important game, not a great one. None of its individual parts are exceptional in themselves. To a certain extent that's a virtue when we reflect on the fact that most video games are constructed around heroics. The game's conceptual force, however, is undeniable, presenting a clear blueprint for how video games can be used as a prop to explore everyday life.

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Jan 8, 2016

With her powers to rejigger events to save people from accidents and themselves, Max seems like an incarnation of Holden's catcher. Though sadly, her power is not immutable.

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"Dr. Langeskov," the funniest game that I've played this year, features voice work by Justin Roiland of "Rick and Morty" fame, and it would be a shame to miss the tale about the attack of pencils that provokes a shedding of clothes.

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Unscored - Firewatch
Feb 11, 2016

If you note the two main characters' penchant for irony and have been paying attention to the clues in the game, such as the cheap mass market paperbacks scattered about the area, you'll sense that the mystery isn't on the level of some global alien conspiracy, but rather, like "Firewatch" itself, it's something mundane and graspable. In the context of a medium that's normally obsessed with feeding on the outlandish, I mean that as a compliment.

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Unscored - Oxenfree
Jan 19, 2016

"Oxenfree" captures a mood (an eerie night), intensifies it (people get possessed!), and then efficiently wraps things up before anything becomes tedious. This analog, supernatural story unites its characters in a web of guilt and showers them in decorative static.

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Unscored - SUPERHOT
Mar 7, 2016

If you're looking for a soulful, artistic shooter "Superhot" is it.

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Feb 19, 2016

For the foreseeable future, if I'm not reading something, I know what I'll be doing the next time I'm waiting in line.

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To my immense surprise, I haven't fallen for a Zelda game like this since I played the "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" (1991).

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Feb 19, 2016

For the foreseeable future, if I'm not reading something, I know what I'll be doing the next time I'm waiting in line.

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Unscored - Samorost 3
May 2, 2016

‘Samorost 3′ is a strange and beautiful point-and-click adventure game

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Unscored - No Man's Sky
Aug 30, 2016

Perhaps “No Man’s Sky” will, over time, evolve into something more interesting if players are given the tools to terraform planets and to make them more fulfilling sites for exploration. For now, this is a game whose concept is more interesting than its execution.

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Apr 21, 2016

Along with games like “Cibele” and “That Dragon, Cancer,” “1979 Revolution” sets a new path for games by providing a template for how the medium can tell stories grounded in ordinary life. Some of my favorite episodes in the game were much less spectacular than the incidents one normally sees in games like the aforementioned family dinner or tending to the wounds of an injured protester.

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Unscored - Gears of War 4
Oct 14, 2016

Sorry all of you “Pokemon Go” players, “Gears of War 4” is my social game of the season.

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Unscored - Titanfall 2
Nov 2, 2016

If you go into “Titanfall 2” looking for nothing other than sensory-stirring action and pitch-perfect controls, you won’t be disappointed.

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Unscored - Dishonored 2
Nov 18, 2016

“Dishonored 2” is one of those games that seems ripe for YouTube or Twitch. It offers an excellent platform for high-level players to strut their stuff. Alas, because it is a decent but inessential sequel, I will not be revisiting the game to perfect my technique.

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