Gaming

Indygo: A game that talks about depression

Published

October 25, 2017

Leez

Indygo is simple, quick, and easy, but it cuts deep.

It’s an immersive point ‘n’ click game designed and illustrated by Fine Arts Academy students, members of Pigmentum Game Studio, that dabbles into the topic of depression like no other.

Straightforward gameplay

No fluff, no bluff. This game starts with a befitting trigger warning. When you first play the game, it already sets you in a miserable mood. All the graphics are half-recklessly sketched in black and white; the music is slow and sad; and the voice over is deep and dull.

The game cuts quickly into the plot: You play as Thomas, a famous painter struggling with depression. Thomas refuses to leave the confines of his small room while he encounters letters from his girlfriend Ana who desperately tries to help him. What you decide to do with every passing day, how you choose to respond and what you choose to do in-game, will affect how the story unfolds.

Cruel suspension of disbelief

When I first played the game, I had the gutted feeling that if I didn’t play it safe, Thomas would kill himself. Most people can easily dispense their suspension of disbelief and handle the game distant from the protagonist which can make the game boring.

The truth is Indygo has no incentive, and in that sense, the game grounds itself to the sinking reality of depression: no incentive, no sense, nor any will to do or simply be.

Easy play, tough decisions

I’ll confess: I was irrationally emotionally attached with Thomas. He was a character that needed help and I did anything I could to make sure he would cheer up. Unfortunately, halfway through the game, I became morbidly curious to see how far the game would push its realism, so I purposefully played to see if he’d kill himself. And, the result was mortifying.

The game doesn’t really take long nor is it challenging. You can probably finish the game in an hour, so it encourages you to play more than once after each play-through with this prompt:

Dangerously oversimplified?

There’s a sickening myth that it’s tough for any medium to hit the soft spot where people address mental health without either trivializing it or romanticizing it. Despite that, the worse route would be to scrap all effort and disregard the issue altogether.

Mental health isn’t just complex due to varied and undetermined causes, symptoms, and treatments; it’s been time and time again been swept under the rug, as much as it’s been stigmatized; not to mention, how certain people question its legitimacy. It’s a tough topic to address and how Indygo presents it can seem too simple, but it gets the point across well with its simplicity.

Not everything is as gloomy as it seems

Indygo shows genuine concern for both you and the character you play.

As Thomas’ story unfolds, you’ll find Ana, his girlfriend, desperately trying to help. Besides the trigger warning in the beginning of the game, you’ll also find a subsection in the Menu where they delve into what depression is and ways you or anyone can seek and be of help.

Should you play the game?

I say, try it out. When you’re not high-strung and on a self-destructive tirade, go ahead.

Take the trigger warning seriously and don’t forget that it’s just a game. Keep in mind that despite it being just a game, how you take it lightly shouldn’t be carried over to how you treat people with the condition in real life.

Indygo was released on October 24, 2017. It’s available on Steam for US$ 5.99.

[irp posts=”21299″ name=”Best Video Games of 2017 (Q3 Edition)”]

Gaming

Project Helix is Xbox’s next console, and it plays PC games

It might be as powerful as a modern PC.

Published

March 6, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Among all the platforms in today’s generation of consoles, the Xbox has to be biggest loser. Compared to the PlayStation 5 and the Switch 2, the Xbox Series X|S isn’t as memorable. To rectify its position in the rankings, Xbox is heavily teasing its next console codenamed Project Helix.

As was hinted before, Xbox is trying something different with its next-generation console. Rather than just a simple iteration over the current-generation console, the upcoming one will reportedly double as a PC. Today, the company itself has confirmed that this is the case for Project Helix.

Through a post on X, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said that the console will “lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games.”

Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console.

Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about… pic.twitter.com/Xx5rpVnAZI

— Asha (@asha_shar) March 5, 2026

There are two things to unpack here. Firstly, Project Helix will aim to bridge the perilous divide between console players and PC players. Unlike the past, there will be a way to play both platforms on both devices… except for games exclusive to the PlayStation and the Switch, that is.

Secondly, a “lead in performance” seems to indicate that this isn’t just a mini-PC. Most recently, Valve announced the Steam Machine. Though it offers a convenient way to play Steam games in one device, it doesn’t have the best specs. Project Helix, if Sharma’s words are to be believed, might be as powerful as a modern PC.

Xbox won’t wait long before revealing more details about the console. Sharma, who only recently started her post as CEO, will be at next week’s Game Developers Conference to explain Project Helix more.

Gaming

Ubisoft confirms Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remake

It’s officially called Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced.

Published

March 5, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

If you ask an Assassin’s Creed fan what their favorite game of the series is, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag will likely be one of the top contenders. Because of its reputation, gamers are constantly asking for a remake of the popular pirate simulator. Now, the dream is finally here. Ubisoft has confirmed that a remake, called Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, is coming.

Released in 2013, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag saw the journey of Edward Kenway, a vagabond pirate haplessly thrust into life as part of the Assassin Brotherhood against his will. The critically acclaimed game was something that all gamers have been clamoring for since Sid Meier’s Pirates: a true pirate simulator. It was no surprise that the game got as popular as it did.

Today, through an official roadmap shared by the company, Ubisoft has confirmed that Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced is real, and it might launch later this year. The company also released the first concept art for the remake.

Currently, there’s no official word as to how Ubisoft is remaking the game. At the very least, we can expect significant graphical upgrades to put it up to par with the modern games. We wouldn’t be opposed to more stories and missions too.

Now, though the Black Flag remake is already a big deal, the same roadmap also emphasizes that Codename Hexe, the next mainline title, is still coming. Ubisoft hasn’t confirmed the actual timeline yet, but the game will depict “a pivotal moment in history.” With post-launch development for the ongoing Shadows winding down, efforts to launch Codename Hexe should be ramping up soon.

Gaming

PlayStation will stop releasing its games on PC

A new reports suggests that Sony is going back to console exclusives.

Published

March 5, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

PC-only gamers have been eating well for the past few years. The formerly exclusive PlayStation library opened its gates and released worthy ports for PC. Unfortunately, Sony is putting an end to this short-lived era of openness to PC gamers. According to a new report, the company is once again making first-party PlayStation games exclusive to the console.

During the pandemic, Sony started releasing its critically acclaimed first-party games on PC. The new wave saw gamers get the ability to play titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and God of War on another platform. Even now, players are still eagerly awaiting the PC launch of Death Stranding 2, due out later this year.

However, as reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Sony has just had a change of heart and will no longer release any more games on the PC, beyond those already confirmed for future launches.

This will mean that last year’s Ghost of Yotei and the upcoming Saros will remain PlayStation exclusives for the foreseeable future.

It’s a big change to Sony’s direction. However, it’s not without its precedents. For one, Microsoft has started to compete in the non-exclusive market. The company is already set to launch Fable and Forza Horizon 6 on other platforms, including PC and PlayStation, concurrently with the Xbox launch. To compare, PlayStation still waits a long time before launching exclusive games on PC.

Also, now that rumors have begun to speak of a fabled PlayStation 6, Sony might want to keep things close to its chest for now. After all, selling the console might be its top priority for now.