VideoGamer Plays, 16th July 2016

Steve Burns, Deputy Editor – Replica, PC

Replica is an interactive novel, an interpretation of The Talented Mr Ripley, a game about phone hacking where you have to read a lot. Listen, I know what you’re thinking. ‘Read, Steven? Read? I play video games to maim and kill and win, not f***ing read’. Well, fair enough. But you should still play this one, because it’s actually pretty good, and may tell you more about yourself than you think. Whoah. Deep.

Anything else? Not really. Some PES, as usual. Oh, and Red Dead Redemption. What a cracker, and at this point the only reason to own an Xbox One. Cheers.

Dave Scammell, News Editor – Pokémon Go, iPhone

Could anybody have predicted just how popular this would be? I must have counted at least a dozen people just walking down Croydon high street hunting Pokemon on their phone, talking to others about the nearby Pokestops and the ‘Meowth somewhere in the Whitgift’.

Pokemon Go is the cultural phenomenon of 2016. It’s everywhere you go, tapping into the mainstream most games could only dream of. But more importantly, perhaps, it’s the video game that’s finally gotten me on my feet. And I love it.

Jim Trinca, Video Man – Red Dead Redemption, Xbox One

Red Dead, man. Red Dead. Its well deserved thrust back into public consciousness after becoming playable on the Xbox One inspired lil ol’ Xbox One-less me to dig out my 360 and return to what is, in my opinion, Rockstar’s best game, its best use of the GTA template and arguably the best game on seventh-gen.

The atmosphere: nailed. The soundscape: nailed. The characters: nailed. It’s such a perfect videogame western, easily pissing on previous attempts to do one, including the very game it’s a sequel to. Everything, from the shuffling John Wayne run to the sepia-toned grading betrays a deep understanding and love of the source material – and what a source it is, the gold mine that is the 60s spaghetti western.

It’s perhaps fitting that its principal actor, Rob Wiethoff, infamously dropped out of acting after portraying the game’s hero, John Marston. Riding off into the sunset, never to be heard from again. It’s enough to make one hope that a third Red Dead game won’t ever come to pass, even though it’s definitely on the way because money. Incidentally, I can’t wait for a sequel, but it’s got a lot of living up to do.

Alice Bell, Junior Staff Writer – Pokémon Go, iPhone, Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell, PS4

At editorial direction I have been having adventures with fictional mammals this week. I’m surprised at how many places you can actually visit in Pokémon Go, although I haven’t made friends with any strangers as we joyfully gather in a park to catch pokémon, which is what the collective internet was suggesting would happen. Luckily there’s a PokéStop in range of my desk at work, so I can continually fill up my inventory without walking a goddamn step. I have joined Team Valor, the red team, and you would be well advised to do the same. Our passion has the heat of a thousand Moltres, and if you step to us you will be burnt.

I also picked up Gat out of Hell as a PS Plus freebie this month. I didn’t actually buy it when it came out because I had heard anecdotally that it was rubbish (and actually a bunch of people told me the same thing when I mentioned I was about to play it) but it’s actually a lot of fun, provided you’re okay with something wilfully stupid. Johnny feels a bit overpowered sometimes but then you kind of remember that this is a game where you’re trying to crash the arranged marriage of Satan’s daughter, and there’s a massive musical number kind of ripping off The Little Mermaid. It also helps that I’ve been nursing a crush on Johnny Gat, affable smooth-talking psycho about town, since, aged 16, I first saw him giving it all that frosted tips swagger in the original Saints Row.