Like a lot of people, my first encounter with No Man's Sky was during it's pre-launch days when we were shown fantastic videos of a future game which broke all borders and delivered an experience that, at the time, was unthinkable to even dream about. Then the day of the launch came and to say we were simply disappointed would have been an understatement. The game was an absolute disaster and met none of the promises we had been sold.

Fast forward almost 10 years...

Hello Games, the same company people were cursing 10 years ago, has not only delivered on every promise they ever made, which in itself is impressive, they surpassed their promises and still did it all for FREE. As of this writing NMS has received 35 major DLC-sized updates which have included everything from new content to new features. Their latest, Worlds Part II, is set to completely enhance existing planets, lighting, effects and expand the universe by billions of additional planets including new Gas Giants.

What the hell are you waiting for? This is, truly, one of the best space survival games in existence. If you miss out on it, you'll never forgive yourself.


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Like many, I played "It Takes Two" with my significant other after hearing other couples raving about how awesome it is. My girlfriend and I have been suffering with a closed international border (US/Canada) for a year now and video games have really become our "quality time" together. As such, the theme or feel of a game can significantly effect how well we enjoy that quality time together. It Takes Two was an exceptional experience in this regard.

It Takes Two is built solely on the fact that you need to work together, and the game design is one of the best I've ever seen. There are times where you'll have a full screen view of your player, but for the most part the game breaks you up into a split-screen mode. Yes, even if you are playing across the internet, you run in split-screen for a good chunk of the game. Screen "cheating" has actually become a major tool in this game. There are parts of the game where you absolutely have to watch your partner's side of the screen so you know when you have to adjust a platform, or flip a switch, or something that will allow them to progress. Only together can you move forward, which fits the game's title perfectly.

The story in the game is one of the best I've ever encountered. You can either take my word for it, or you can scroll over the following black areas to reveal story spoilers. The further you travel through the black, the more spoilers will be revealed. Stop when you've read enough. Just trust me, it's a great story... The story starts out with you, the parents of a young daughter, being caught at the beginning of what appears to be a nasty divorce. Everything is ready to go, you're ready to get lawyers involved, and you're arguing constantly. After your magical daughter-tears-induced transformation into a couple of dolls, you come to the conclusion that the only way to turn back into your human selves is to again make your daughter cry. In order to do this, you must destroy her favourite toy! Yea, next level parenting here, but it goes to show you how self-centred your characters mindset currently is. Through various tasks, and bosses that range from mechanical hornets to living vacuum cleaners, you eventually get to this toy. The game makes you feel like an absolute horrid human being (seriously, we have PTSD now... LOL) as you rip apart this toy one limb at a time and finally toss it from the highest point of your child's room. Of course, this doesn't help resolve your issue. You learn that the problem isn't your daughter, who cursed you into these forms, but yourselves. You've let your souls go dark, giving up everything you love just to exist, and that in turn has caused your lives together to spoil. Through the second half of the story your focus changes on renewing your love for your passions (gardening & singing) and in turn renewing your love for yourselves. The end of the story sees you return to your lives just in time to save your daughter, and closes out without a truly definitive decision if you're going to still get a divorce, but you get the feeling that they're going to work things out and be a family once more. Throughout this story you're guided by a book, but no ordinary book, this is the book of love! At first you'll absolutely hate this book because it's responsible for slowing your progress by throwing you challenge after challenge, relentlessly, like a die-hard therapist. Trust me, the book will seriously grow on you (like a fungus) and in the end you'll have a special place in your heart for the character.

Graphically, I love this game. The environments are amazing and make you go "wow" every time you encounter a new one. You'll seriously find yourself wandering around just to find cool little aspects to the world. Like one level you can actually "play" every musical instrument you see. Each world also contains a couple's mini-game, which you can stop and play as long as you want. One level it was chess (yes, you walk around the chess board and move your massive chess pieces around in a REAL game of chess) and another level had a snail race, where you rode snails and raced around an obstacle course. Another fun one was a photo-booth where you could stage your characters. There was a spa where you could hang out as a couple and get virtual massages by caterpillars... It was so much fun!

I spoke of the story before, but really this story is impressive in more than one way. You find as you work things out between the characters, you also seem to pick up life-skills that you can actually use with your real life significant other. It's like going to a therapy lesson for couples, and enjoying the experience. As you look at your character and say things like, "Get your head out of your butt and give them a break", you realise you're almost talking to yourself. You start to cheer every little step they make as a couple, and by the end you're cheering on your partner instead of their character. It teaches you important relationship skills. You learn how important it is for you to spend time together, but also how important it is to have and love your own hobbies. You learn the keys to moderation, how you need to give as much as you take, and work as a team. You learn how sacrificing for the family doesn't mean you have to give up the things you love. You CAN have your cake and eat it too. When the story was over we, my s.o. and I, really wished it wasn't. This was an amazing experience in a video game, and with 12 hours of play-time well worth the expense.

All in all I would have to give It Takes Two a major recommendation. If Steam had a 1/10 rating system, this might be the first game I ever give an 11 to. My only gripe, which isn't really about the game itself, is the fact that regardless if you buy it on Steam or not, you MUST install EA's Origin software and can only invite your other player through Origin. That said, the fact that only ONE player has to actually own the game? That's a game changer, and makes up for the requirement of Origin. All in all, for a company I kind of look at as the "corporate devil", EA did a great job on this one.

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