GamingCult - Our Gaming Culture

  This morning, retailer VGP (Video Games Plus) issued a warning on social media about what they are experiencing when it comes to the physical game market. They noted that smaller print runs, tighter allocations and increasingly difficult or expensive restocks have made it less certain that games will remain available after launch. They added that even preorders can no longer guarantee customers a copy, as production quantities can change and retailers may receive fewer units than expected. What they are saying, more or less, is that if you want to buy a game physically, preordering may be becoming increasingly important for securing a copy in a market where simply waiting for a restock can no longer be taken for granted. Quite honestly, this changes everything. Last month, I wrote about how gaming was becoming increasingly expensive and listed a few ways one could save money . One of those suggestions was to simply not buy games when they first come out and instead wait for the ...

We currently don’t know much about Xbox’s next gaming system, Project Helix, outside of the fact that it will be a hybrid device that natively runs both Xbox games and PC games. It’s a strange concept to grasp, but Microsoft has already given us glimpses of what this future could look like through “Xbox Play Anywhere” and “Xbox Mode” on PC. Having gamed on a base ROG Xbox Ally since May, I have seen the benefits of having a unified Xbox and PC ecosystem. More importantly, I’ve started to see how these two initiatives could become the foundation of what Microsoft wants Xbox to become. Start a game of “ Silent Hill f ” on your Xbox Series X, sync your game to the cloud, and continue playing on the go either on a laptop or compatible Windows handheld. Depending on the game, the transition from one device to another is so flawless that you feel like you are already playing an Xbox game on your PC, especially on a handheld like the ROG Xbox Ally with its built-in Xbox-like controller. And t...

Earlier this year, I set a goal of playing through the entire Silent Hill franchise. Without setting an endpoint, I started by completing Silent Hill Origins, but never got back to the series until recently with last year's Silent Hill f. What initially drew my interest to Silent Hill f was the reveal that it was going to be developed by Hong Kong-based NeoBards Entertainment, which made it the first Silent Hill game to be created by an Asian studio since 2004’s Silent Hill 4: The Room. I was also fascinated by the fact that the game would be taking place in 1960s Japan, which is far from the seminal New England town of Silent Hill. Yet, everything I saw about the game before release suggested that this was going to be more than just a Silent Hill game in name. And after completing the game, I was relieved to find out that was indeed the case. As previously noted, the game takes place in the fictional Japanese town of Ebisugaoka in 1960. Based on details found in the main character...

One of the things I've appreciated most about modern gaming is the carryover demo, which allows you to transfer your progress from a game's demo to the full release when you decide to buy it. When developers do them well, they not only end up being the perfect hype tool for a game, but also allow players to get a head start on the full experience without losing the time they've already invested. The first carryover demo I can recall goes back to 2013, when Sony released Soul Sacrifice on the PS Vita. In the PlayStation Blog post announcing the demo , they explained, “The demo is not only a great way to sample the full experience, but also to let you get a head start on that adventure before the game releases.” They also took the opportunity to explain that not only would your save data carry over, but you would receive an exclusive in-game bonus item for doing so. Soul Sacrifice wasn't the last game to offer this type of experience on the PS Vita, either. Koei Tec...

I wasn’t expecting to write about a demo today, and I don’t expect to write about demos too often, but I couldn’t ignore the return of Castlevania to modern consoles in any shape or form. Seeing as we won’t be getting the full Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse for another 15 days or so, I thought I would play through the demo and share my thoughts on the return of one of my favourite franchises of all time. Belmont’s Curse takes place in 1499, 23 years after the events of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse . It also takes place 20 years after  Castlevania: Curse of Darkness , making it the latest chapter in this particular era of the Castlevania timeline. This time around, you play as Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor and Sypha Belnades. Rose starts off equipped with a longsword and, unfortunately, does not have her father’s Vampire Killer whip, at least not in the demo. She also has magic in the form of the Cursed Flame, which allows her to launch a fireball. On top of that, she is prov...

There may be no better way to build hype for upcoming paid content than by giving something meaningful back to the people who already supported you. Yesterday, CD Projekt Red released the highly anticipated “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered.” Announced a little more than a month ago at Gamescom 2026, the remaster is available for free to previous owners of the game on PS5, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S, and includes the two previously released DLC campaigns at no additional cost. All of this comes ahead of the upcoming paid DLC, “Songs of the Past,” which releases in 2027. After installing it myself and spending the first few hours playing, I realized that the model CD Projekt Red followed here should be adopted by more publishers going forward. The free upgrade path, which was also used by Xbox Game Studios with the release of “Gears of War: Reloaded,” is a goodwill gesture that rewards the gamers who helped make these titles successful in the first place. “The Witcher 3: W...