Ashley Bardhan

New York

bulgarian-bengali lady and a scholar 🍰 writing about horror games @kotaku @polygon @ign @pitchfork @rollingstone @vulture etc. ashleybardhan(at)gmail(dot)com

Articles

The unauthorized Pokemon musical titled "Balls: The Monster Catchin' Musical" made me question everything about life and Nintendo copyright

5 days ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

I pray that no one else will ever have to say the words "Balls: The Musical" as often as I have in the weeks leading up to my attending BALLS: The Monster-Catchin' Musical Comédy, the unofficial Pokemon musical that played off-off-Broadway on April 19. You know how, in some horror movies, the mousy girl protagonist will stab the villain in the chest, then collapse to the ground and sigh, as if the danger is gone?
Amid Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's turn-based hype, Square Enix asks JRPG fans "what's the best combat system" in its catalog and shares "some games with brilliant battles"

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has managed the arduous task of making turn-based combat – a 30-something-year-old system – feel fresh and topical, and even the turn-based monarchs at JRPG innovator Square Enix seem to be taking notice.
"I might eventually make a Stardew Valley 2," says Eric Barone, but "I just don't care about money" and it's "so much easier" to update the original

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

I know there are plenty of hardworking Stardew Valley farmers – their bones aching, their knees buckling – who are sick of waiting for creator Eric Barone's upcoming adventure game Haunted Chocolatier, which was first announced four years ago. So I'm sorry to do this, but you deserve to know that there's another game you need to start anticipating: Barone, also known as ConcernedApe, says he might one day make a Stardew Valley sequel.
"Stats in Souls don't matter": Ori studio founder and No Rest for the Wicked lead says the "attribute system has to die" in the ARPG inspired by Dark Souls since players don't get it

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

Moon Studios co-founder Thomas Mahler isn't finished bulldozing what's left of his Souls-like No Rest for the Wicked after the game collapsed under a mighty, messy update last week. With emergency hotfixes now behind him, Mahler is ready to tackle yet another problem: the attribute system, which he's prepared to destroy. "One thing that's become abundantly clear to us is that the attribute system has to die," Mahler writes in a lengthy Twitter post.
"Stats in Souls don't matter": Ori studio founder and No Rest for the Wicked lead says the "attribute system has to die" in the ARPG inspired by Dark Souls since players don't get it | Flipboard

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Ashley Bardhan

If you are in the mood to try out a new game but do not want to splash the cash, then one developer is giving Steam users the chance to experience …
GTA 6 map returns to Vice City and explores the riches of the Florida-lite state of Leonida: "Malt liquor, painkillers, and truck stop energy drinks"

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

Along with its surprise GTA 6 trailer 2 today, Rockstar has released a flood of information about its open-world love affair delayed to May 26, 2026 – including details about its sprawling map. GTA 6 will take players back to Vice City's hot pavement and way beyond it, too, with opportunities to explore everything from Leonida's wetlands and mountains to the concrete pitstops you wouldn't want to see under a blacklight.
"IS THAT PHIL CASSIDY": New GTA 6 trailer seems to resurrect a fan-favorite GTA 3D loser years after he disappeared from the franchise

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

You might have been too lightheaded to notice – it's not nice of Rockstar to surprise-drop a new GTA 6 trailer without issuing a fainting couch warning first – but it seems like the long-lost dirtbag Phil Cassidy will return in the action game delayed to May 26, 2026. Though, this idea is… complicated. First: the trigger-happy Southerner who appears to be Phil in the new GTA 6 trailer has two arms. But the GTA 3D, dishonorable army vet is famously one-armed in his alternate universe games.
After playing Ghost of Yotei "at several stages of its development," former Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida swears it's "even better" than Ghost of Tsushima

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

Former head of PlayStation Indies Shuhei Yoshida has so far been glad to tell interviewers that Ghost of Tsushima successor Ghost of Yotei is awesome, and he'll do it again: Yoshida maintains that Ghost of Yotei is really, super awesome in a new interview with French site PlayStation Inside.
LocalThunk shouts out "4th person to join the Balatro Discord" as their new deckbuilding tactics game gets rave reviews: "I TOLD YALL THIS GAME WOULD SLAP"

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

The deckbuilding gods have unleashed good karma upon the land: Balatro solo developer LocalThunk recently praised the poker roguelike's early supporter Pengonauts for his new deckbuilder, which is already collecting seriously positive reviews. "I TOLD YALL THIS GAME WOULD SLAP," LocalThunk posts on Bluesky alongside an image of Pengonauts' builder, StarVaders, and its 100% "critics recommend" rating at the time.
"It's a big first": Debut horse MMORPG from former World of Warcraft devs' studio is a Twin Peaks murder mystery unlike anything you've ever seen

1 week ago | gamesradar.com | Ashley Bardhan

"What is man that thou art mindful of him?" wondered the Bible's Psalmist some 3,000 years ago. Today, I ponder a similar question – "What is horse girl that we are mindful of her?" The answer is likely tucked behind some star in heaven, though Blue Scarab – a new studio from former Helldivers 2 and World of Warcraft devs – might say I'm overthinking it.

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Ashley Bardhan

Articles

The unauthorized Pokemon musical titled "Balls: The Monster Catchin' Musical" made me question everything about life and Nintendo copyright

Amid Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's turn-based hype, Square Enix asks JRPG fans "what's the best combat system" in its catalog and shares "some games with brilliant battles"

"I might eventually make a Stardew Valley 2," says Eric Barone, but "I just don't care about money" and it's "so much easier" to update the original

"Stats in Souls don't matter": Ori studio founder and No Rest for the Wicked lead says the "attribute system has to die" in the ARPG inspired by Dark Souls since players don't get it

"Stats in Souls don't matter": Ori studio founder and No Rest for the Wicked lead says the "attribute system has to die" in the ARPG inspired by Dark Souls since players don't get it | Flipboard

GTA 6 map returns to Vice City and explores the riches of the Florida-lite state of Leonida: "Malt liquor, painkillers, and truck stop energy drinks"

"IS THAT PHIL CASSIDY": New GTA 6 trailer seems to resurrect a fan-favorite GTA 3D loser years after he disappeared from the franchise

After playing Ghost of Yotei "at several stages of its development," former Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida swears it's "even better" than Ghost of Tsushima

LocalThunk shouts out "4th person to join the Balatro Discord" as their new deckbuilding tactics game gets rave reviews: "I TOLD YALL THIS GAME WOULD SLAP"

"It's a big first": Debut horse MMORPG from former World of Warcraft devs' studio is a Twin Peaks murder mystery unlike anything you've ever seen

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