Reconnect Recap - w/e 2nd November

A weekly recap of some of the best video game articles to feature on Reconnect.

Kia Ora folks

Well it’s already November, my how time flies when you're enthralled by the joys of games, writing, and other media.

I’ve finished putting countless hours into Ball X Pit, I do very much enjoy this genre, as it allows me to binge watch television while I play. Whilst I played it I basically watched all of 911, which I loved so please don’t judge me. I’ve also just blasted through the new season of the Witcher which always has me hankering to go back to the Witcher 3 and do another run through, but I just bought Outer Worlds 2 so that will take my attention for the next week or so. I’ll let you know how I get on.

This week we’re talking about Halo, Vanquish, Ninja’s, Destiny and plenty more.

Lets dig in.

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Great Write Ups

• Difficulty with difficulty: Button Musher has their own take on letting hard games be hard.

• Losing their grasp on reality: I’ve heard an awful lot about ‘And Roger’, a powerfully moving game about loss, Remap has a very compelling write up about this wonderful indie title.

• Slide Shot: I’m in full agreement with Aftermath on this one, if you have $20 to spare and want to play a great action game, Vanquish is an amazing game everyone should play if they haven’t.

• The OG: Before the cottage industry of irate video game YouTubers there was Angry Video Game Nerd, the founder of the genre, Other Strangeness by Merritt K gives a the full history of the famous content creator.

• After everything they’ve done: Scanlines give us a bit of a history lesson about everything Xbox has given the industry and what Halo on playstation means.

• Throwing bad money after bad: Surprise, surprise, apparently AI development tools are costing EA more money than it’s supposed to save.

• Katamari 2.0: Sey of Good Game Lobby reviews the spiritual successor to Katamari, and it sounds very fun.

• Tactical Politics: I’m not good at picking up on subtext, I tend to take things at face value. SuperJump Magazine explains how the new and old Final Fantasy Tactics games reflect an entrenched social system designer, Matsuno, wanted to write about.

• Year of the Ninja: This Week in Video Games gives a great write up on how Ninjas became one of the gamings most famous archetypes.

• It’s Destiny: I’m a lapsed Destiny Fan, I’ve done my dash for over five years and have just lost interest, but I have been side-eying the new mobile title. TheNameBrand gives a glowing review of the mobile spin off and maybe i’ll give it whirl.

• If everything is green, nothing is green: Steve Wright of Stevivor explains how now that ‘everything’ is an Xbox, they don’t need one any more.

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Fun Tidbits

• ThinkyCon 2025 line-up revealed! See the full schedule of gamedev talks for our all-digital conference next week

• MicroProse’s Desert Strike Homage ‘Cleared Hot’ Takes Flight This November

• Castlevania’s Enhanced Fan Remake For Amiga Gets A CD32 Version In Time For Halloween

• ‘The Last Ninja Collection’ Sneaks Out Of The Shadows Onto Steam Next Month

• Tired Of “The Usual North American Perspectives”, This New Book Aims To Offer A Global View Of Game History

• Don’t Nod Announces Netflix Partnership for New Narrative Game

• 25 Years Later, King of Fighters: Battle de Paradise Gets Translated Into English

• ZSNES Creator Explains How He Achieved ‘Rollback’ Netcode On Dial-Up Connections In 1997

• “No One Ever Told Me Such A Conversation Had Taken Place” - Kojima Wasn’t Aware Of The Wachowskis’ Matrix Game Offer

• Crash Bandicoot Is Coming To Netflix In A New Animated Series

• SNES-Inspired RPG ‘Kingdoms Of The Dump’ Is A Game About Trash From “Those Who Sweep Your Floors”

• GameStop Drops A Clanger After Declaring The Console Wars “Over”

• Persona and Hades Are Both Hosting Live Concerts In London Next Year

• Game Boy Coding / Assembly Book

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Housekeeping

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