Monthly Archives: February 2014

Guise of the Wolf Dev Censors TotalBiscuit’s Criticism, Tries to Shut Him Down

Back in October, popular YouTube personality John Bain, AKA TotalBiscuit, was embroiled in a brief brouhaha with the developers of a poorly received indie game called Day One: Garry’s Incident. The devs of that game, Wild Games Studio, filed a copyright claim against TB’s video to get it pulled down and it hit the fan. News spread quickly about what happened in a classic case of the Streisand Effect and the game and studio were shown in a bad light as a result.

It seems as though people forget things quickly because TotalBiscuit is in a similar kerfuffle with the developers of another game. Guise of the Wolf is another poorly received indie game, this time by FUN Creators. They also used a DMCA claim to remove TB’s video and had the story blow up to Streisandian proportions.

The funny thing is that FUN Creators didn’t stop at the DMCA claim and strike on the YouTube channel. When TB fought back, things got really weird.

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Tags: Censorship, Fun Creators, Guise of the Wolf, TotalBiscuit, YouTube

Geek Links of the Week

Feb 14

Posted by Steve Murray

What do some scientists think humans will look like in 100,000 years? Like characters out of manga books. [Mother Nature Network]

Some important Microsoft investors are telling Microsoft’s new CEO that he should drop Bing, Surface and Xbox from the company’s portfolio. [Washington Post]

Developer Jeff Vogel explains why Dong Nguyen pulled down his wildly popular Flappy Bird and how the vitriol from both random folks on the internet and the gaming media can get to you. [The Bottom Feeder]

EA’s Chief Creative Officer doesn’t see the problem with the SimCity and Battlefield 4 launches because the games sold well. It looks like EA is trying hard to win a third-straight Worst Company in America award from The Consumerist. [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

If they go with a more Olympic-style model, could the World Cyber Games be revived and thrive? [eSportsMax]

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Contrast Review: Now That’s Not Thinking with Shadows

Feb 14

Posted by Steve Murray

It’s only appropriate that a game whose review on Valentine’s Day has a love story. Okay, that’s probably a bit of a stretch when it comes to Contrast seeing as the game is a puzzle platformer where a man trying to win back his family is only really of minimal importance to the game. However, it’s there so I’m calling Contrast an appropriate game to review today.

When Contrast was released, it certainly carried some big expectations. While Compulsion Games was a rookie developer, the game had been selected as one of two free games on PlayStation 4 at launch for PlayStation Plus members. Was Contrast worthy of such a distinction as being on of Sony’s featured launch titles?

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Tags: Compulsion Games, Contrast, Focus Home Interactive, PC, Review

King Crushes CandySwipe In Ongoing Candy Trademark Saga

Feb 14

Posted by Steve Murray

Last month, it came to light that King, the makers behind the wildly popular Candy Crush Saga mobile game, had filed trademark applications on the words “candy” and “saga.” Not only are they trying to trademark common as dirt words, they were trying to enforce their trademarks by going after other games, including the not at all similar The Banner Saga game by Stoic Studio.

At the end of January, King CEO Riccardo Zacconi issued an open letter saying that King wasn’t intent on eliminating any and all competition using their trademarks. Instead, King said that their trademark policy “is to protect our IP and to also respect the IP of others.”

Unfortunately, that isn’t how it’s actually working in real life. King is using loopholes in trademark law as part of a legal battle with CandySwipe, a game that preceded Candy Crush Saga by two years, and outspend developer Albert Ransom out of the mobile app business.

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Tags: Candy Crush Saga, CandySwipe, King, Mobile, Trademark

Make Way for 2014’s Game of the Year: Goat Simulator

It’s only the start of February and we haven’t seen the likes of The Witcher 3, Titanfall or inFamous: Second Son but I think that the 2014 GOTY (or is that GOATY?) has just been announced.

Goat Simulator is a little indie game by Coffee Stain Studios that puts you in the hoofs of a goat. The developers describe the game thusly:

“Goat Simulator is a small, broken and stupid game. It was made in a couple of weeks so don’t expect a game in the size and scope of GTA with goats. In fact, you’re better off not expecting anything at all actually. To be completely honest, it would be best if you’d spend your $10 on a hula hoop, a pile of bricks, or maybe a real-life goat.”

Posted on February 13, 2014 | Video

WRC Powerslide Review: The Spin-off Doesn’t Spin Out

Feb 13

Posted by Steve Murray

Milestone’s WRC series and I have a long history. I’ve played each of the four games and reviewed the last three. The series has evolved from TV presentation to arcade presentation. It’s tried to be rally sim and tried to be a WRC-licensed Dirt game. Every time it makes a change, they take two steps forward and at least one step back.

With WRC Powerslide, Milestone has completely gotten away from proper rallying. Instead, Powerslide is a WRC karting game. While I’ve been looking for the proper WRC series to embrace being a proper rally sim, Powerslide proves that you don’t actually know what you want from gaming until you get it.

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Tags: Milestone, PC, Review, WRC Powerslide

Dark Souls II Gets a T (for Teen) Rating

Feb 13

Posted by Steve Murray

I honestly don’t understand the ESRB’s games rating system. I’m sure that they have a very particular set of criteria that triggers a specific rating slapped on the box.

However, I really don’t understand why Dark Souls II is getting a T rating after its precursor, Dark Souls, was rated M. The confusing thing is that the ESRB’s descriptions of the two games have almost no differences.

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Tags: Dark Souls II, ESRB, From Software, Namco Bandai

Comic Book Pull List for February 12, 2014

Feb 12

Posted by Steve Murray

Well, I dropped the ball on this week’s pull list. I’ve been so busy writing other columns, setting up for some video content in the near future and even doing (gasp!) game reviews that the pull list slipped my mind until 5:00 last night. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why the pull list wasn’t being posted until I realized that I completely forgot to do it.

Anyway, let’s feature a triple bill of debuting series in this week’s pull list. First, She-Hulk breaks off from the FF to get her own solo series in She-Hulk #1. Over at DC, the British Royals are going to use their superpowers to run the tide of World War II in Royals: Masters of War #1. And Image has a new series about life working on an orbital energy platform where murder is afoot in Fuse #1.

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Tags: Pull List, Release List

Critics Corner: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Feb 12

Posted by Steve Murray

The saga of Lightning and Final Fantasy XIII comes together in the third installment of the FF13 trilogy. Square Enix billed it as a story that needed three games to be told in its entirety. When I dropped $70 on the first Final Fantasy XIII back in 2010, it seemed so dull and generic with combat that only required you to hold down X until the battle was over that I made about an hour before I put it at the bottom of a drawer and haven’t touched it for the last four years. I spent hundreds of hours playing the FFX games. I even loved X-2 and I’m pretty sure that everyone hates that game and the J-pop therein.

Somehow, the game managed to get a franchise-record two sequels. If the critics scores are to be believed, the games have been getting worse as the FFXIII trilogy has gone along with Lightning Returns hitting the bottom. Oddly enough, that’s how I feel about the franchise now too. I’ll be quite happy to get back into the series with Final Fantasy XV but, for now, good riddance to FF13.

Anyway, enough of what I think. Here’s what the critics think about Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

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Tags: Final Fantasy, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, PS3, Square Enix, Xbox 360

Xbox One’s eSRAM Too Small for 1080p Games

Feb 12

Posted by Steve Murray

The resolution, graphic quality and framerate differences between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games released on both platforms has been a big story since both consoles launched last November. It was expected that the PS4’s use of GDDR5 RAM would allow it to dance circles around the DDR3 RAM of the Xbox One.

However, one developer says that it isn’t that the PS4’s hardware is so much superior but that the Xbox One’s architecture is the issue. The small 32 MB of high-bandwidth eSRAM isn’t conducive to getting games to render at 1080p.

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