Joshua Rivera

Polygon

Joshua Rivera·Aug 30, 2021

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The care present in Ghost of Tsushima’s design makes its undercooked take on its own ideas harder to forgive. Take its themes seriously, and it becomes a story about a feudal landlord learning that maybe life isn’t about him, but centering on him anyway. The Jin Sakai that players engage with through play — the Jin Sakai that composes haikus, loves animals enough to play them little tunes on his flute, who never met a row of bamboo he did not want to cut for fun — seems to have the interiority that the Jin Sakai of Ghost’s narrative does not. One is a thoughtful guy you might want to hang around. The other is not. He’s kind of embarrassing.

Kotaku

Joshua Rivera·Nov 19, 2019

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Taken as a whole, Jedi: Fallen Order brings a very familiar concept to the world of Star Wars video games: balance.

Kotaku

Joshua Rivera·Sep 20, 2019

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Like junk food, Borderlands 3 is an exercise in cheap hedonism. It’s not meant to take the place of a meal, but it still warrants criticism for being what it is, what it’s always been: a compulsively playable shooter with some good ideas and also some frustratingly retrograde attitudes. There’s enough good here to understand why you’d keep it around, but also enough troubling aspects that you could justify cutting it from your life entirely. But, even then, if you came across it at a house party, you’d probably take a bite.

Kotaku

Joshua Rivera·Aug 1, 2019

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I am generally suspicious of games that people say are “better with friends,” simply because most things are. Manual labor, paying taxes, repeatedly