A video game about being a journalist might hit a little close to home for me, a journalist whose job is to write about video games. And yet, I cannot get enough of Times & Galaxyâs news shenanigans.
The comedic journalism adventure game from developer Copychaser Games and publisher Fellow Traveller is a delightful summer release to add to your rotation. Itâs endlessly charming thanks to a great cast of characters and interesting missions, pulled together and kept interesting by engaging writing. Itâs a tough task making a video game about journalism compelling, and perhaps even harder to be funny while doing it. Yet Times & Galaxy pulls off both with ease. Even if itâs releasing on the same day as the exponentially more high-profile Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring, Iâm hopeful Times & Galaxy will carve out a niche for itself as one of the yearâs most unique offerings.
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Times & Galaxy begins as so many careers in journalism do: with an internship thatâs probably unpaid. You are the first robot, or âroboâ reporter aboard the Times & Galaxy, and in a fun bit of customization, you can create your robo reporter from three body type presets and a wide-ranging color palette (I named my custom robo Kotaku Staff, obviously). Once aboard youâll meet the staff of eccentric investigative reporters, sports journalists, art critics, and opinion writers. Before long, you are sent out on assignment
Assignments are the central gameplay loop of Times & Galaxy. These are short adventures out on planets during which you must interview and investigate an area in hopes of writing the best story possible. When chatting with potential witnesses or sources you are offered dialogue options. Choose carefully, because you wonât always be able to ask every question, and whatever the interview subject says in response is all you have to work with. Assignments span all types of potential articlesâthe tutorial assignment is about a vehicle crash that may be hiding a corporate cover-up, but later assignments introduce you to court reporting, reviewing a restaurant, covering a cat show, and more. There are both exciting and boring assignmentsâas is the case in real journalismâbut Times & Galaxyâs sharp writing makes all of them fun thanks to a never-ending parade of weirdos to encounter.
There is a satisfying challenge to each assignment as well: turn a boring story into a hit. Thatâs where the build-a-story feature comes in. As a robo reporter, your special software lets you piece together sections of an article based on the information youâve gathered. Depending on how thoroughly you explored and interviewed, you will have more options available to you. At the end of an assignment, you get to choose the hed, lede, nutgraf, key quote, and any detail that may add to the story.
If you donât know what these things mean, donât worryâas a new robo reporter, Times & Galaxy will give you a crash course in journalism basicsâno silly masterâs degree that costs way too much money required! Each option also has a point rating based on how it will raise or lower readership and reputation. With that information, you can boost the paperâs standing, or ruin it.
Office space
When not out on assignment, you get to relax on the Scanner, the paperâs home base/spaceship. Time aboard the Scanner serves as a chance to get to know your coworkers. While they all have their own beat, each writer isnât defined by their coverage. Learning about every hobby and interoffice spat makes talking to every person worth it. The continuous fighting between opinion writer Richard Gravity and Copybot (the robo copy editor) is one of my favorite side stories in the game. Though as much of an annoyance as Richard Gravity is, I cannot in good conscience side with the em-dash hating Copybot. Learning about and building relationships withâyou can romance almost anyone on the Scannerâearns complimentary comparisons to time spent chatting with the beloved cast of the Mass Effect series while aboard the Normandy. That isnât by accident: studio founder Ben Gelinas is an ex-Bioware writer who worked on Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda
As with Times & Galaxyâs assignments, talking to everyone and exploring every corner of the Scanner is rewarded. While on assignment you are rewarded with better story options, aboard the Scanner you are rewarded with plain old character-building!
Times & Galaxy
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Back Of The Box Quote
âMy jobâŠthe game!â
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Type Of Game
Adventure / Journalism Sim
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Liked
Sharp writing, compelling characters, varied assignments
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Disliked
The existential crisis about my career it gave me
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Developer
Copychaser Games
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Platforms
PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
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Release Date
June 21, 2024
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Played
12 hours to roll credits
Writing dialogue and in-game text is where the developers at Copychaser Games flex their muscles the most, especially when it comes to satire. Jokes about newsrooms being short-staffed, not getting paid, em-dash arguments, endless PR emails, and more are so funny because they are so true to life. I might be biased since I am exactly this gameâs audience but my fianceeâwho ignores me as much as possible when I talk about my jobâalso loved the gameâs comedic tone. Thatâs likely because in casting you as an intern Times & Galaxy can teach you about journalismâeven in a basic formâso that you can then laugh at the in-jokes.
This is fine (laughs nervously)
Thereâs so much fun to be had in Times & Galaxyâs comedic sci-fi journalism world that itâs easy to just take it at face value. That wouldnât be bad, itâs a fun and funny game! As you play, youâll learn a bit about journalism along the way and enjoy the wonderfully written characters. But I canât help but see something a little more sinister under the surface.
Itâs not that the robo reporter is a thinly veiled metaphor for the influx of AI into journalism. I donât think that is the case (Kotaku Staff would never take my job, right?), but rather the build-a-story structure encourages a mindset that equates good stories with readership going up. That might mean writing bad, sensational, or even outright false articles that twist the information you gained from sources can get you more eyes. Each hed, lede, and nutgraf option can be reduced to a numberâas can an entire story. If it boosts numbers, it will keep a paper alive (hopefully). Itâs a striking commentary on the state of modern media.
If this yearâs satiric but more aggressive New York Times Simulator is a less subtle game about the risks, responsibilities, and struggles of modern-day journalism, then Times & Galaxy takes the spoonful of sugar approach with sharp and funny writing that makes it endlessly entertainingâeven if it stings a bit.
