Monthly Archives: November 2013

Crime Does Pay: The Real-World Price of Homes in GTA5

So Trevor’s trailer out in the desert away from Los Santos isn’t exactly the sort of place that you would show off but Michael and Franklin sure live in some pretty nice homes in Los Santos.

As anyone who games knows, the economics of a game is very different from the economics of real life. So how much would buying a house like the one’s featured in Grand Theft Auto V cost you? Our friends at Movato did some valuation work and came up with the multi-million dollar answer.

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Paul McGann Returns in 50th Anniversary Prologue “The Night of the Doctor”

We’re just a little over a week away from the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and the Day of The Doctor special. To get us ready for it, the BBC have created a little prologue introducing us to John Hurt’s character from The Name of The Doctor with a little assist from the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann. See, they didn’t forget about Eight.

Hype Train: PlayStation 4

playstation-4-headerIt’s all aboard the hype train as we run down the last few hours before the launch of what is undeniably our first proper next-generation video game console. The PlayStation 4 is going to be the first next-gen console out of the gate.

Chances are that you’re up to date on the latest PS4 news and are adequately hyped (or jaded, if you’re an Xbox fanboy) but just in case you aren’t, it’s time for the return of et geekera’s Hype Train.

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Subset Games Announces FTL: Advanced Edition

ftl-bannerOne of my top twelve games of 2012 is coming back with a vengeance in 2014 thanks to a free expansion pack. Coming in early 2014 (along with a new iPad release of the game), Subset Games is release the FTL: Advanced Edition expansion pack.

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There’s Still Time to Nominate Your Favourite Current-Gen Games

Yes, we’re still going to be making our list of the seven best games of the seventh generation of video game consoles. The first article is just going through final edits now before being posted on Friday while the next two are most of the way through the first draft.

Seeing as the list hasn’t been finalized (though I have five or six games that I’d call locked in), there’s still time to nominate one or more of your favourite games from the current generation for the list. A couple of games from the first round of nominations are in the 7 For 7 list so your voices are being heard.

You can nominate a game (or games) by leaving a comment below, firing us an email to etgeekera [at] gmail.com or filling in the submission form below.

The first game will be named on November 15th with a new entry every Friday until the end of the year.

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Pre-Alpha Footage of Dragon Age: Inquisition Hits the Internet

The legal and public relations teams at EA and BioWare aren’t going to be happy but pre-alpha footage of Dragon Age: Inquisition recorded from a screen at DigiExpo 2013 has found its way to the internet.

The video gives us a reasonably good look at the visuals of the game, some questing and some combat. Watch it soon because I don’t expect EA or BioWare to leave this up for long.

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Building (Critical) Consensus: BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea DLC – Episode One

burial-at-sea-episode-one-poster-artIt looks like 2K Games is all aboard the DLC train this week. Yesterday, we looked at the Enemy Within expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Today, it’s the first part of the two-part Burial at Sea DLC for BioShock Infinite. If you haven’t played through to the end of Infinite, chances are that there are some spoilers in the reviews, this post and the DLC itself so consider yourself forewarned.

Opinion on the first real narrative driven BioShock Infinite DLC seems to really be split on whether you’re partial to using the term “ludonarrative dissonance.” If you thought it was a big issue with Infinite proper, you’ll find the same here. The narrative apparently doesn’t have quite the same moral undertones of the game proper’s so that might also be a detracting point for some. Though everyone agrees that the game looks gorgeous. Since BioShock doesn’t work on Windows 7, this might be one of the few opportunities for PC gamers to visit Rapture in all its glory.

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Comic Book Pull List for November 13, 2013

x-men-gold-1This week in learning something new, I learned that there’s still an Injustice comic series. That game came out back in April but DC is still publishing comics based on the game’s story. And here I was thinking that the comic was just a prequel to the game. This week, Injustice gets its own big annual release in Injustice: Gods Among Us Annual #1.

Elsewhere, Marvel has a new comic series to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the X-Men. The iconic comic characters who found renewed popularity in the 90s with an animated cartoon and the 2000s with the film franchise, have been around 50 years. Various iconic writers come together to write a new tale about fan favourites like Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde and Rogue.

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Building (Critical) Consensus: XCOM: Enemy Within

xcom-enemy-within-korean-box-artHow often do games get proper full-on expansion packs nowadays. Sure, DLC is practically a dime a dozen, though publishers sure don’t price them like that. Lengthy expansion packs that eat up hours upon hours of your time rather than hour (singular) of your time seem few and far between, especially outside of the strategy genre. So when one of last year’s best games based on an old-school cult favourite gets an old-school expansion pack, it’s hard not to take notice.

Whether you will like XCOM: Enemy Within and think that it’s worth the $30 asking price will be largely dependent on how much you liked last year’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown. If you loved it, there’ll be more here for you to love. If you weren’t a fan of EU, well, it doesn’t sound like there’s much here to change your mind.

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Humble Bundle Opens The Humble Store

humble-bundle-headerChances are that you’ve bought a game (or several) from a Humble Bundle or purchased an indie game directly from the developer through the so-called Humble Store. However, that Humble Store was really just a little sales app on a developer’s website and a download link in your email.

That is until Monday when the folks behind the Humble Bundle launched the Humble Store storefront.

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