Weird

Welcome to the first installment of a brand-new semi-regular feature here at GameCritics.com: TouchTalk. While this series was inspired by one of my old features, the Bargain Basement, I've got an all-new focus for an all-new phase in gaming. Rather than highlighting discounted gems in the used section of a retail shop, I'll be reviewing downloadable mobile games and apps that you might want to check out… and maybe some that you'll want to avoid.

It feels like forever since last update, but that's the way life goes sometimes. I caught a sore throat right as the week started and I've been trying to sleep it off when I haven't been grinding away at the day job, so that ate up a lot of my regular time. Toss in a wife and kids to fill up the rest, and there you go.

Escape into the Cubiverse

HIGH Discovering a vast cave system underneath my house.

LOW Repeated game-killing glitches.

WTF The game can often be scarier than most horror titles.

Looking forward to a Gamecritics review of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we won't be covering it anytime soon due to the game shipping in an unplayable state.

Mushy

HIGH Watching skillful players show their stuff in the game's TV Mode is pretty impressive.

LOW "GAAAAHH. It's one tiny, stupid bomb! Please don't make me start over......."

WTF We got a new gaming genre! The Flying-Blobs-Exploding-Into-Liquid-to-Set-Off-Bombs-type!

Ink-credibly Bad

HIGH The sumi-e art style is pretty nifty.

LOW Nothing else is.

WTF Ancient Japan is lousy with giant, demonic, self-aware wagon wheels?

Your Mission, if You Choose to Accept It...

HIGH Immersive, interactive drama with the real world as its map.

LOW Impossible-to-reach locations break the immersion.

WTF The ghost of FMV games comes back to haunt us.

All the World's a Stage...

HIGH Discovering new possibilities in each environment.

LOW Might not appeal to traditional game players.

WTF Recreating the end scene from Terminator 2 with a lava-flooded living room.

So, Journey. My review schedule was quite full when this much-anticipated project from thatgamecompany was released on PlayStation Network, and the other night was the first chance I had to get to it. I was a huge fan of Flow, I loved Flower, and I've been looking forward to Journey ever since I knew about it. While I was playing, several people asked what my opinion was, and I knew that there was absolutely no way I could even begin to address the topic over Twitter. Hence, this entry.

To Retail and Beyond

HIGH Surfing the Sunken City in the fading afternoon-absolutely gorgeous.

LOW Can't we have more?

WTF Put on a scarf and fly!