Features and Opinions

This section of the website is dedicated to longer pieces about Games that don’t quite fit the mould of Reviews, thought pieces on the industry, my musings on how games are made as well as more miscellaneous seasonal content like Game of the Year.

Ranking the Mass Effect trilogy DLC
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Ranking the Mass Effect trilogy DLC

Having just finished the Mass Effect trilogy through the Legendary Edition collection, I wanted to do some kind of ranking. A Planet ranking was out of the question (for now) so the next idea was to do a ranking of the 11 story based DLC’s released across the trilogy.

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Ubisoft remembered Rayman’s 30th… and the future is looking bright.
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Ubisoft remembered Rayman’s 30th… and the future is looking bright.

I’m generally quite interested in the gaming leaks and rumours side of things which can be a slippery slope – projects might be years away or not exist at all. Late last year, a rumour went out that there was some sort of Rayman Remake in the works under the title ‘Project: Steambot’. Completely uncharacteristically, Ubisoft put out a statement saying they were indeed working on ‘The Future of Rayman’. It was easy to see this as corporate speak but a year on it seems like things may actually be happening. Nothing confirmed but where there’s smoke there’s fire…

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Xbox goes Multiplat – What’s the Gameplan?
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Xbox goes Multiplat – What’s the Gameplan?

Xbox are making their games multiplatform, this is a known fact. 4 games became no red lines and given recent high profile cancellations and titles MIA, they need all the extra revenue they can get. Rather annoyingly though, I can’t put my finger on what the gameplan is.

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Elden Ring: Nightreign – The Ultimate Update/DLC Wishlist
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Elden Ring: Nightreign – The Ultimate Update/DLC Wishlist

While we know Nightreign will receive DLC, the information on said DLC at present remains incredibly vague, promising “New Bosses” and “New Nightfarers”. The community seems to latched onto the idea of two of each, which I suppose makes sense given the relatively low price of the DLC and that it satisfies the plural. So, I’ll spitball ideas for two Nightfarers, Two Nightlords and as a bonus, two returning bosses from each of the previous Souls games.

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Man, I really want a new Arkham Game
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Man, I really want a new Arkham Game

Nearly 6 years after the story originally broke, WB’s Project Sabbath is back in the news with more concept art of the Damian Wayne Batman Beyond game that never was. I thought I had made my peace with it – for a while I really had, but man. I just want a new Batman game.

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Reworking Bloodborne’s ‘Insight’ System
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Reworking Bloodborne’s ‘Insight’ System

FromSoftware’s 2015 smash hit ‘Bloodborne’ features a system called Insight. Perhaps most directly comparable to the Humanity or Rune Arcs of the Souls series or Elden Ring but functionally a bit different. In my eyes, this cool mechanic was wasted with its current implementation. I think this would be a good way to change it.

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Nintendo Switch 2 Direct – My Thoughts
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Nintendo Switch 2 Direct – My Thoughts

The Nintendo Switch 2 reveal event was today (Yesterday) and with it, the official release date, price and all the wonderful details you want. Here are my scattered thoughts followed by more structured opinions on the games that tickled my fancy

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Nintendo Switch 2 Games I want to see
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Nintendo Switch 2 Games I want to see

Just one week to go until we find out what kind of games we’ll be playing on our brand new Nintendo Switch 2. Before that though, here are some games I want to see on the system.

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Far off Games I’m looking forward to
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Far off Games I’m looking forward to

Last month I did my list of some of the games I was looking forward to releasing this year. Now I want to set my sights further, to 2026 and beyond – to the games I’m intrigued about in the years to come, even ones that technically don’t even exist in public knowledge yet.

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Rambling about the Rayman Remake
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Rambling about the Rayman Remake

Back in October 2024, it was rumoured and quickly confirmed by Ubisoft that they are indeed working on some kind of project in the Rayman franchise. While I was convinced the rumour was for both a remake and a new game, going back to the topic it seems it was only ever a remake. Not that I’m complaining.

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CraigPlaysGames’ 2024 Game of the Year Rankings
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

CraigPlaysGames’ 2024 Game of the Year Rankings

We’ve reached the end of 2024 and naturally it’s time for the Game of the Year rankings. All in all, a decent ear I’d say. It had it’s big releases but also feels a little bit like the calm before the 2025 storm. For those that don’t know, I try to do a top 21 games rather than a top 10. That isn’t the case this year but there is the Top 10 and the Runner’s Up that just missed out.

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My Most Anticipated Titles of 2025
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

My Most Anticipated Titles of 2025

2024 comes to an end and 2025 starts. With it, it's bringing a whole new slate of video games for us to get our hands on, too many to count. Here's a selection of the games I'm excited for releasing next year

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Rambling about Elden Ring: Nightreign
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Rambling about Elden Ring: Nightreign

Well that was a pleasant surprise wasn’t it? Admittedly it was spoiled a little bit for me when I saw a rumours roundup that had “Elden Ring Monster Hunter” which admittedly I wrote off as fake. Turns out it was real in some capacity but the real thing is so much better.

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I guess we doing Remasters now
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

I guess we doing Remasters now

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind remakes and remasters. They can be seen as cynical cash grabs but at worst they’re a necessary evil and at best they’re actually great ways to reinvest in old classics that through obscurity or older hardware are not available any more. Recently though, they’re kind of taking the piss a little.

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Designing: the next Astro Bot - Two possible futures for the franchise
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

Designing: the next Astro Bot - Two possible futures for the franchise

Astrobot came out around a month ago now and it’s been on my mind ever since. It’s probably going to be my Game of the Year and I eagerly await even the small time trial update. That being said, while it will be many people’s first experience with the character, there’s actually been a few games. I’ve played Playroom VR, Rescue Mission VR, Astro’s Playroom and now Astrobot, so despite this games success, I believe we could move it on.

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How often do you return to a game for the DLC content?
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

How often do you return to a game for the DLC content?

DLC is as established a concept in games as the pause button at this point. Games get new map selections, entire new campaigns and worlds, smaller content drops, sometimes all of the above and more. By their nature, DLC has to come after the games release. Day one DLC is absolutely a thing but I’m not here to disparage or encourage that. For the most part, DLC comes out a fair while afterwards, encouraging players to step back in. The question is, do you?

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5 Games I really want to see hit PS+ Premium
Craig Ideson Craig Ideson

5 Games I really want to see hit PS+ Premium

With rumours of Secret Agent Clank being on the list of PS+ Classics to come and Sly Cooper 2 and 3 looking to be out before the end of the year, the Premium tier of Sony’s service looks like it’s finally worth a lick of salt. The consumer is ever hungry for more though, these are the games I want to see added to the system.

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