Tom Marks

Tom Marks

@tomrmarks.bsky.social

Associate Reviews Director at IGN by day, pie maker and card slinger by night. Formerly at PC Gamer. He/Him (tmarks@IGN.com)

4,518 Followers 463 Following 345 Posts Joined Sep 2023
2 days ago
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Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake Review - IGN It's not a flawless photograph, but this remake is memorable, terrifying, and artistically stunning.

I wrote 3,500 words on Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake for @ign.com, in which I try to unpack how a remake can both be a better game than the original and diminish itself as a piece of art at the same time.

Thank you to @tomrmarks.bsky.social for putting up with me on this one.

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3 weeks ago
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Reanimal Review - IGN The creator of Little Nightmares returns with more of the dark puzzle platforming it has honed over the last decade.

I reviewed Reanimal for @ign.com and tried to grapple with its themes and narrative structure without giving too much away. Very proud of this one.

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3 weeks ago

Excited for this video to spike the market price of thermal printers and Raspberry Pi boards.

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1 month ago
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Mewgenics has sold over 150,000 copies in the first 6 hours, and the developer has said, "This is beating expectations by quite a lot." https://bit.ly/4tB6ozV

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1 month ago

Very glad Dan was able to come back to review Mewgenics as a freelancer, and loved that we were able to chat about it at the end of the video review!

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1 month ago
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Mewgenics Review - IGN Mewgenics is a fantastic tactical RPG that's good for more than a hundred hours of roguelike runs. Just when you think you have it figured out it'll throw something completely unexpected and hilarious...

I told you I’d be back! Over the past month I’ve put more than 150 hours into Mewgenics and loved just about every minute of it. It really is a fantastic tactical RPG roguelike - and the soundtrack is exceptional, too. www.ign.com/articles/mew...

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1 month ago

I cut addictive out of so many reviews. Unless you are talking about predatory mechanics that are literally designed to manipulate people in habit-forming ways, do not use it as "game is too fun!"

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1 month ago
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tom nook from animal crossing new horizons is holding a microphone and saying yes , yes . ALT: tom nook from animal crossing new horizons is holding a microphone and saying yes , yes .
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1 month ago

And now to start implementing the plans I laid out when @danstapleton.bsky.social left last year: bsky.app/profile/tomr...

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1 month ago
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Excited to say I've been promoted to Associate Reviews Director at IGN! I'm now formally running the game reviews show from top to bottom.

As someone who grew up wanting to review games while reading stuff like IGN, Nintendo Power, and Game Informer, it's quite a surreal place to have found myself!

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1 month ago

My first video game review over on IGN!

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1 month ago

Leaving the battlefield triggers? Don't be ridiculous, I would never include such a complicated interaction in the dinosaur-food-counter multiplication archetype of my Cube.

(Thank you again!)

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1 month ago

Wait one more follow-up about this clearly very important topic!

Typically if a creature with counters on it dies, those counters would stop being Food and go away, right? But if they were also dinos, would they stay 7/7 creatures even after their host died despite no longer being Food or counters?

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1 month ago

It is a weird cube.

I appreciate you humoring me!

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1 month ago
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Thanks for the response!

Rumbling dinosaur tummies aside, if this situation were to be complicated even further by having Ojer Taq out, does that mean something like Arcbound Prototype would enter as a 6/6 because the two +1/+1 counters it would usually get are both creatures and tokens?

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1 month ago
The Magic: The Gathering card Icing Manipulator:

Icing Manipulator
{1}{G}
Creature — Human Employee

Each +1/+1 counter on a creature you control is also a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.”)

{3}{G}, {T}: Roll two six-sided dice. For each odd result, put a +1/+1 counter on a creature of your choice. Activate only as a sorcery. The Magic: The Gathering card Displaced Dinosaurs:

Displaced Dinosaurs
{5}{G}{G}
Creature — Dinosaur

As a historic permanent you control enters, it becomes a 7/7 Dinosaur creature in addition to its other types. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)

@maro254.bsky.social Came across a silly Un question while building a Cube:

With Icing Manipulator, do +1/+1 counters enter AS Food, or are they not Food until they are on your creature? More specifically, would Displaced Dinosaurs make them 7/7s?

CC: @gavinverhey.bsky.social @wotcmatt.bsky.social

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2 months ago
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I had the great honor of doing this year’s IGN Awards art direction and I’m super happy with how they turned out! I went for a Y2K sci-fi aesthetic with holographic stickers and all. More to come throughout the week!

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3 months ago

It is a pet deck taken to an unjustifiable extreme. I love it dearly.

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3 months ago

"Dear Gonti" was one of the inspirations that got me to actually pull the trigger on building it!

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3 months ago
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It’s also a small statement on treating Magic cards like game pieces instead of stocks - when Mox Opal got unbanned, I decided to fully commit to the bit and run Reserved List cards too.

I’ve since had Dan Frazier sign some of the rocks, but even then Transmute Artifact feels like a big step up 😬

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3 months ago
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For those who haven't seen it before, this deck is a loving ode to my favorite childhood pile of artifacts and blue cards - played entirely unsleeved and riffle shuffled, with custom old-border tokens and kept in the exact same crappy plastic deck box I used in the 90s.

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3 months ago
A photo of two Magic: The Gathering cards on a desk - an original, old-border Mana Drain and a Transmute Artifact. A picture of a beat up clear plastic card deck box with a Magic: The Gathering deck inside. The top card is a retro-bordered Urza: Lord High Artificer.

Behold: the two most irresponsible upgrades I have made to my unsleeved, old-border-only Urza deck yet.

Just got these entirely on trade and I am so excited.

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3 months ago
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Metroid Prime Actor Confirms Identity of Mysterious Cut Intro Voice - IGN Metroid Prime actor confirms identity of mysterious cut intro voice, and it isn't who you think.

I recently spoke with Samus herself, Jennifer Hale, and got to the bottom of a Metroid mystery.

www.ign.com/articles/met...

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3 months ago
An image of the alternate cousin Whaleson from the video game Once Upon a Katamari, who looks sort of like a blue wale with tiny legs and arms and a flat face on its back.
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3 months ago

Frankly, I might go even further and say that the people who staunchly claim games are art and therefore we should not treat them like toys are just as incorrect as the people who say games are just toys that should not be considered art.

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3 months ago

Make me!

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3 months ago
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Horses Video Review - IGN Horses reviewed by Sarah Thwaites on PC.Horses is a chilling, nerve-shredding short story that propels you through a series of increasingly heinous farm tasks. Sharp writing of morally repugnant chara...

I also recorded the VO for the video version if that’s more your cup of tea! Huge thanks to @tomrmarks.bsky.social for the edits and support on this one!

www.ign.com/videos/horse...

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3 months ago
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Horses Review - IGN This unsettling horror game banned from Steam tells a harrowing story you won’t soon forget.

I reviewed Horses for @ign.com!

www.ign.com/articles/hor...

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3 months ago
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You've been waiting eight, or even 18 years to hear this:

Metroid Prime 4 is great.

My review is up now, on @ign.com!

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3 months ago
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Marvel Cosmic Invasion Review - IGN Good enough to get your Avengers assembled on a lazy Sunday.

I reviewed Marvel Cosmic Invasion for @ign.com. Reckon I'll be on the lower end of the scale, but I think has the juice when it comes to the brawls even if everything else is a little more standard than I'd like. Also, the Silver Surfer has an ass that would make Pacino do that scene from Heat.

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