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Rhianne Ward So Summer Game Fest has come and gone, and every game company has staked their claim upon the next year of the industry. Or rather, every company has confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that they are deathly afraid of GTA VI in November and given it the widest possible berth within reason. There is a truly staggering number of games releasing in September and October, which has made…
Rhianne Ward The time has come again for the hype machine to start chugging along. I know this is all very corporate and shouldn't generally be taken seriously, especially since the game industry is so fucked right now, but hell, I can't help but get excited. I love video games, and I love being excited for video games, so if you'll permit me this indulgence, let's run down my hopes for the week,…
Rhianne Ward For the past two weeks, there has been one game which has hooked its nefarious claws into me: Nintendo's Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream . It's the sequel to the cult classic favourite from the 3DS era, simply named Tomodachi Life , which I admittedly missed the boat on. At the time, it just wasn't the kind of game I gravitated towards back then. In 2013, I was probably deep in the…
James Guthrie Faith is this all consuming thing. True faith in a person or power is probably one of the most vulnerable things you can express to your fellow beings, because it immediately subjects you to so much risk: you could be outed as something you are or are not; you could be betrayed by someone you love so much who it feels afterwards never loved you to the same extent, and you have to…
Rhianne Ward Hello! It's been a good while since I wrote something for Initial Vibe. Initially, it's a category that served as my way of getting thoughts out of my head for extremely long games like Xenoblade or Metaphor . However, I've tried writing in this manner a few times since then, and found that all it often did was cause me to subconsciously treat the covered game as “completed”, even if…
Rhianne Ward Editing Note: I wrote this about a month ago, but haven't gotten around to formatting it for a blog post until just now. Forgive my tardiness, but I hope you enjoy! Another year has come and gone, and with it arrives my excitement for the games destined to be played. I'll get into the titles I'm most hyped for in 2026 in a moment, but first, I must confront a great embarrassment: my…
Rhianne Ward 2025, amirite? I want to avoid too much preamble, but I'd like to link you a Spotify playlist I made featuring each of the games on this list, in order from 15 all the way to number 1. If you want the optimal reading experience, then I recommend this: put it on in the background while you read each section, get a sense of the vibe of each game, and enjoy the tunes that defined my…
Rhianne Ward Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards is a largely meaningless and corporate affair, but much like the Oscars, it's also a fun way to look back on the preceding year and reminisce about what we played, while giving me an excuse to catch up on some of my 2025 backlog. Overall, I was pretty happy with a lot of the nominations this year. Of course, much of this show ultimately amounts to a…
Rhianne Ward There is a rot in the town of Ebisugaoka. You may not see it, but under every stairwell, between every crack, in every dark corner, it resides. I would warn you that this rot threatens to swallow the town whole, but that would imply a world once devoid of it, and that would be deceitful of me. The rot was always there, and Shimizu Hinako can see it. No longer can she avert her gaze…
Rhianne Ward Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 2 is a tricky game. It doesn't round out with easy answers or cathartic conclusions. It is, intentionally it seems, resistant to the idea that events as deeply traumatic as that which we we're left with by Tape 1 ’s conclusion can be simply handwaved by convenient plot contrivances. In many ways, this second half to developer Don't Nod’s latest title…