Features

#LetsPlayMay – Shining a Positive Light on Family Gaming

15May

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

#LetsPlayMay – Shining a Positive Light on Family Gaming

The world is a very judgemental place, and when you bring children into it, it becomes even more judgemental than you originally thought. Even more so when you throw video games into the mix, with both parents and non-parents scowling at the idea of your child playing "toxic video games". #LetsPlayMay seems to be wanting to change that mindset. The slight mentioning that a child plays video games is usually enough these days to have people attack the parents of said child. Online users calling the parents lazy, or accusing the parents of neglect are just a few examples I’ve seen. I have also experienced this attitude. There’s also the current political situation which I’m not going to go into, but it keeps the long running “belief” that children playing video games with violence lead t...

23Apr

By JasonNo Comments

Features

EGX Rezzed 2018 Review

Wow what a busy weekend I had the other day! I had the great delight of checking out the latest indie offerings at EGX Rezzed in London where there was so much to see and play! With just under 200 games on display set across two floors of Tobacco Dock beside the river Thames, I was in gaming heaven. Showcases by SEGA, Nintendo and Xbox were equally matched by the talents on display within the large Indie rooms that housed the majority of up and coming titles. Here is my pick of up and coming games that you should look out for! Another Sight by Italian developers Lunar Great Wall Studios tells the tale of a young girl called Kit who suffers the misfortune of a tunnel collapsing while out exploring. The accident results in her losing her sight, creating a surreal world around he...

Launching My Seven Year-Old Daughter into a Life of Piracy with Sea of Thieves

30Mar

By TC Staff Writer3 Comments

Features

Launching My Seven Year-Old Daughter into a Life of Piracy with Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves has done well since launch. It shot to the top of the GfK charts for most physical sales in the UK alone, someones chicken got stolen, and over a million players jumped into the game on launch day. It has also become one of my favourite pirate games, and so I grabbed my seven year-old Daughter and threw her into a life of piracy. Before I rabbit on about the Sea of Thieves experience. I'm usually laid back with video games and parenting. My eldest (7 y/o) is innocent enough to play Grand Theft Auto 5 just to go for a walk in the park with no weapons. She's cute enough to jump onto Red Dead Redemption and tend to the horses pretending to brush them. She avoids violence. And with me near, she'll throw the controller at me, narrowly missing my head if a situation that inv...

29Jan

By StuartNo Comments

Features, PC Reviews

Thumb Culture Retrospective – Prey

For gamers of a certain age, the names Shodan and Xerxes are likely to trigger the urge to smash the nearest computer with a wrench. Long before Amazon’s Alexa was around to remind us to buy toilet roll, the megalomaniacal Artificial Intelligence of System Shock and its sequel ran amok in deep space, causing sleepless nights and the occasional nervous twitch for the players who stood against them. Xerxes did not care about your bathroom essentials; Xerxes wanted to eject you from an airlock and laugh as you crystalized in space. Not only a masterclass in sci-fi survival horror and storytelling, the System Shock games are also the spiritual predecessor to games such as Bioshock, Alien Isolation and Bethesda Softworks’ 2017 blockbuster, Prey. To say that Prey’s creation has been influe...

9Jan

By JohnNo Comments

Features

Yakuza: Going Back to Move Forward?

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays, and enjoying a good start to 2018. With Yakuza 6 due out in March, I decided that my Christmas play-through this year was going to be Yakuza Zero. A game which id been dying to play all year but never quite found the time (as I have been a fan of the series since I first played it back on PS2). Well, I finally finished it, and upon discussing it with a few friends I found that the same question kept being asked… ‘Should I play the others on previous-gen consoles?’ Since it’s a question I have been asked by a number of people, I thought I’d put my opinions out there for all in the hope that it helps. It doesn’t look like we're going to be getting a Kiwami 2 (remake of the 2nd game) here in the west, and the price tag of the original western release ...

The Indie Dev Showcase Templarius Studios – Don’t Die

23Oct

By StuartNo Comments

Features

The Indie Dev Showcase Templarius Studios – Don’t Die

Welcome to the first in the series of the Indie Dev Showcase, where we aim to help Independent Developers get their games out there for people to see. What we will be doing is asking a series of questions and bringing you their answers, as well as a short video to give you a glimpse of what their game is all about. So without further ado, let's move onto our first game! Knowing Me, Knowing You Name - Michael Cox Age - 21 Lives - USA Studio Name - Templarius Studios Website - https://harbingersoc.org/templariusgames Time Being A Dev - Coming up on 5 years. Digital development for 2 years. Previous Work - Completed several prototypes, but putting out my first commercial release Game Name - Don't Die Explain what your game is in 15 words - A challenge of extraordi...

EGX 2017 – Interview with COO of Slightly Mad Studios Rod Chong

5Oct

By StuartNo Comments

Features

EGX 2017 – Interview with COO of Slightly Mad Studios Rod Chong

So whilst at EGX I got the opportunity to ask Rod Chong the Chief Operating Officer a few questions about Project Cars 2. So here for your reading pleasure is the transcript of that interview. Stu: This game feels a bit more raw, its different, its definitely more realistic. I play with a Fanatec wheel and its ridiculous. Rod: The philosophy behind the tyres in particular has changed, it was a couple of months after project cars 1 was out and we sat down with a couple of Bentley racing drivers (Guy Smith), put them in their cars and they were going around Bathurst and going up the hill and the back end stepped out, he corrected as you would a real car and spun. He looked at us, "that's not real, i would have been able to catch it" and then we stuck David Brabban in the simulator,...

23Sep

By StuartNo Comments

Features

EGX 2017 Daily Summary – Day 2

If you haven't read the EGX day 1 summary then head over to here and have a quick read...go on it's ok, I can wait.... Welcome back! Now it's time for the summary of Day 2, as the previous article it will be a short summary of the days events, purely so that you get a flavour for what EGX is all about. So let's get stuck in with the first game... Raging Justice When I received the press release for Raging Justice is instantly reminded me of classic side-scrolling beat em ups such as Street Of Rage and Double Dragon, but with a really nice claymation style to the game. You can imagine my excitement when I took control of the game and it was EXACTLY what I expected. MakinGames is made up purely of Anna and Nic and after speaking to them both you can see exactly why they wanted to ...

22Sep

By Stuart1 Comment

Features

EGX 2017 Daily Summary – Day 1

So it's that time of year again and rather than bombarding you with tens of other articles, like you would find elsewhere, we at Thumb Culture thought it might be best just to give you a bit more of a personal account of the day. So that if you have never been to an EGX show before, you will get a taste of what you might expect. The day started with a bit of a wild goose chase trying to determine where you pick up press passes from, if only we knew that its the same place as EVERYBODY ELSE! Rather than being sent all the way to the other end of the Birmingham NEC. Once we picked up our press passes, we were straight in and faced with the familiar low light setting, noise heavy playground for gamers' to try out the newest and latest games. Having made a few appointments it was time fo...

1Jun

By JasonNo Comments

Features

Exclusive Interview with Battle Chaser’s Joe Madureira

Following on from my Battle Chasers article that I wrote the other week (which can be found here), fellow Thumb Culturist Jason was lucky enough to meet the creator of the comic book come computer game Joe Madureira while he was at the THQ Nordic London ShowCase. Enjoy his interview! Jason: Hi Joe, I’m Jason and I’m from Thumb Culture and the guys have come up with a list of questions for you. One of our guys Glyn, really wanted to come down but couldn’t unfortunately. Joe: Did you guys just do a write up, like a preview? I feel like I may have read something. Jason: Yeah, Glyn did a write up and absolutely loved the game. Joe: Yeah it was a glowing and positive preview, it was really cool. Jason: He said the soundtrack was really amazing. I was listening out for it and it...