My Cultural Diet

Given my love for Halo’s world and mythology, buying Halo: Campaign Evolved was a total no-brainer. It’s pretty much what it says on the tin, though, an “evolved” version of the original Halo: Combat Evolved campaign from 2001 built with Unreal Engine 5. Which means there’s nothing fundamentally new here, shiny graphics and reworked levels aside. (“The Library,” for instance, is no longer quite so tedious or annoying.) And in some ways, that’s enough. There’s a reason why the first Halo game is so fun and iconic, and to their credit, Halo Studios don’t really try to fix anything that wasn’t broken. (Although I do wish that some of the character designs, like Cortana’s, had received a few more rounds of polish.) But even with all of the reworked graphics and visual updates, it’s hard not to feel like the entire thing is a bit superfluous and unnecessary, like it was an extended tech demo made simply to prove that Halo can, indeed, run on Unreal. I don’t want to come off like I’m damning Halo: Campaign Evolved with faint praise, because let’s be honest: if Halo Studios releases similarly “evolved” versions of Halo 2 and Halo 3, I will almost certainly buy those, too. But if you already own the Master Chief Collection, which gave Halo: Combat Evolved a glow-up all the way back in 2014, and you don’t care about the novelty of playing Halo on a PlayStation, then this is far from a must-have.

Like its predecessors, Monument Valley 3 — which is now available from Netflix Games — features delightfully tricky puzzles, an eye-pleasing aesthetic, and soothing ambient music, all of which combine for a very pleasant vibe. The game’s story is slight — a young girl named Noor is tasked with maintaining a lighthouse, and you must guide her through various worlds to find the “Sacred Light” necessary for the lighthouse’s operation — and you can play all the way through it in an hour or two. It certainly feels rewarding when you finally master a puzzle’s tricky, Escher-esque geometry, and the storyline veers into some interesting apocalyptic territory. However, given its short playtime and lack of replay value (though new seasonal chapters will be released throughout 2025), Monument Valley 3 ultimately feels like little more than a distraction. An extremely pleasant and intricately crafted distraction, mind you, but a distraction nonetheless.

This game has been on my radar since 2019, but I only picked it up a few months ago during an Xbox sale — and was instantly sucked into its world. Drawing inspiration from brutalist architecture, liminal space imagery, Cold War relics, and creepypasta like the Backrooms and (most importantly) the SCP Foundation, Control puts you in control (npi) of Jesse Faden, whose search for her missing brother has brought her to the Federal Bureau of Control (the secretive government agency tasked with monitoring paranormal phenomena). Once there, however, she discovers something more ominous: an extra-dimensional force that appears bent on taking over and corrupting our reality. Fortunately, Jesse is not without her own unique and unusual powers. Control is filled with indelible images (e.g., massive office complexes filled with chanting bodies floating in mid-air, haunted laboratories that feel displaced in time, other planes of existence) that encourage you to explore the FCB’s seemingly endless and otherworldly headquarters. Unfortunately, the game is hampered by finicky controls and occasionally inconsistent gameplay, and its difficulty levels can fluctuate wildly. (I confess to occasionally turning to the internet to get past a particularly challenging boss or level. I’m pretty sure the “Training Mission” stage took a few months off my life.) Nevertheless, Control’s storyline and aesthetic hit a real sweet spot for me, and I can’t wait for the sequel.

I played this on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. Some obvious comparisons can be made to the Portal games, but Superliminal’s entire vibe is much more surreal, from the puzzles themselves to the graphics, controls, and especially Matt Christensen’s muzak soundtrack. Which makes sense given the game’s objective is to try and find your way through a dream therapy program that’s run amok. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had to ask my teenager for help a couple of times. (The moon puzzle really threw me.) That said, the game’s conclusion was a bit anticlimactic. There’s a moment where it seemed like Superliminal is going to veer off into darker, Twin Peaks-esque territory, only to pull back. In hindsight, I wish, perhaps, that the game had continued down that path. Regardless, Superliminal is still a nice way to spend a few hours, though don’t be surprised if the game’s illusions and use of forced perspective give you a little vertigo every now and then.

My third time playing all the way through the campaign. I still enjoy the gameplay — using the grappleshot to stun an enemy and then stick a plasma grenade on them will never not be satisfying — and I love everything about the game’s design and aesthetic (except for the explosions). But the story itself feels hollow, like 343 Industries worked themselves into a narrative corner after the last two games. I’m curious to see how future installments will advance the storyline.

My second time through the campaign. Enjoyed it even more, especially the gorgeous art design. I’m left wanting more, in both good and bad ways.

I loved so much about this game’s aesthetic (design, Japanese Breakfast’s soundtrack), but unfortunately, it was nigh unplayable on my poor ol’ Xbox One S. The lag was so bad it gave me headaches. Did not finish.

I didn’t finish this one, so I don’t feel like I can rate it, but what little I played was really intriguing and suitably mysterious. Did not finish.

I loved everything about this old school-feeling RPG, from the lush pixel art and diverse, fantastical setting to the emotional storyline.

As much I want them to be, I just don’t think that Souls-like games are my cup of tea. Did not finish.

I occasionally found the controls frustrating, but I was never not intrigued by this “surreal, exoplanetary exploration game” (their words, not mine).