Ben Sledge

1 week ago | thegamer.com | Ben Sledge

I often wonder what my old Warhammer pals are up to. I’m still friends with my closest battle brothers from school, but what about the guy who turned up once a month with an impressive Eldar army but eventually grew too ‘cool’ for the hobby? What about the guy who brought a Forgeworld Trygon to the table aged 12 and absolutely trounced everyone who came up against his deep striking insectoid monstrosity? Where are they now? Do they still paint, or play? The same goes for later in life.

1 week ago | thegamer.com | Hidetaka Miyazaki |Ben Sledge

I was very excited for Split Fiction. I mean, who wasn't? I, like everyone else in the world, loved It Takes Two. I played through it with my brother, and the whole experience was reminiscent of our childhood, passing a Game Boy Advance between us to test our mettle against particularly tricky Super Mario World 2 levels. The story was cliche and the dialogue was shlocky, but it fitted the tale of family strife. This was a cheesy family game, and the dialogue reflected it.

1 week ago | thegamer.com | Ben Sledge

North, a writer sits on a second-hand sofa. His laptop warms his legs as it struggles to run the video game that reflects off his face in the evening darkness. He’s deeply engrossed in what he reads and doesn’t notice the hands on the clock spinning quicker and quicker, the night growing darker, the cold setting in. Outside, an owl calls to its mate. A delivery driver hands a pizza to a neighbour, steam dissipating into the night. All goes unnoticed as the writer clicks, reads, clicks, reads.

1 week ago | thegamer.com | Ben Sledge

If you told me last week that I’d spend nearly four hours of my weekend watching a man tackle a Nuzlocke Pokemon game, I’d have said, “h*ck yeah!” Mostly because I live for long old video essays and hardcore Nuzlockes, but also because I knew that this one was special. I knew I was in for a treat, and YouTuber Jan ‘pChal’ Krüger provided the goods. You may know him as Pokemon Challenges. You may know him as pChal since his relatively recent rebrand.

1 week ago | thegamer.com | Ben Sledge

When was the last good Pokemon game? No, fan games and ROM hacks don’t count. I expect some of you might say Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The enlightened among you might even say New Pokemon Snap. Some misers might say Pokemon Crystal, but we’ll disregard you because you’re being facetious. My point is that the mainline games have been stagnating for years.