Monthly Archives: July 2016
Geek Links of the Week
Canadian developer Digital Extremes doesn’t have a great track record on etg. They were behind the 3/10 Star Trek game that everyone loved. That put me off Warframe but Digital Extremes persevered and now have a successful MMO that they had to do themselves without publisher backing (or interference). [PC Gamer]
And for the opposite story, here’s the story of how the modern incarnation of Dungeon Keeper, War for the Overworld, went from Kickstarter success to released disappointment. [Eurogamer]
Life is Strange will be getting a live-action adaptation. Square Enix is partnering with Legendary Pictures’ digital arm to produce a digital series based on the 2015 etg top game. The partnership with dj2 Entertainment, who don’t seem to have even a Wikipedia page, does worry me slightly. [Hollywood Reporter]
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney thinks that Microsoft’s push into the PC space will coincide attempts by Microsoft to sabotage Steam and destroy it as a platform. [PC World]
Yahoo bought Tumblr for about $1 billion. They’ve already written-off over 70% of that purchase as “impaired” meaning that they overvalued Tumblr’s worth. Oops. [Gizmodo]
Share this:
Mass Effect 2 Review: ME2: Modern Warfare
Three years after the launch of Mass Effect on Xbox 360, the team at BioWare certainly underwent some changes. As Mass Effect was released, Electronic Arts finalized its purchase of BioWare. Coinciding with BioWare’s move from being an independent studio to a branch of EA was a decided change in the design philosophy of Mass Effect 2. While there certainly was far more money put into the game’s production values with vastly improved visuals, the introduction of more orchestral music and a number of big name actors added to the voice cast, the gameplay philosophy was overhauled to make the game less of a classic BioWare RPG and more of a standard third-person shooter.
While Mass Effect 2 was a near complete overhaul of what we played in the original Mass Effect, that doesn’t change the game entirely. It was still Mass Effect but it had a really nice new coat of paint.
Read the rest of this entry
Share this:
Mass Effect Review: Close Encounters of the Trilogy Kind
If there’s one topic that that comes up on this blog at every available opportunity, it’s Mass Effect. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If I didn’t discover this game after university, I probably wouldn’t still be a gamer today. For some, that would be a good thing since I wouldn’t be pontificating on modern gaming, the business of video games and the quality of games journalism.
Out of university, I played Mass Effect 1 on my laptop and immediately carried straight into Mass Effect 2. I loved this game so much that I played through each game three times for well over 200 hours in total before I started Mass Effect 3. That might even be on the low-end for people who love this franchise. What made me love this game so much that I devoted literally hundred of hours of my life to playing and writing about the franchise. Well, let’s start with the first one. Read the rest of this entry
Share this:
Reports Say Nintendo NX is a Portable Console that Connects to Your TV
People have been speculating and reporting about the upcoming Nintendo NX for months now but a new report by Eurogamer seems to bring the NX into focus before its targeted launch of March 2017. Their report says that the NX will be a powerful portable console that can also serve as a home console by connecting it to your TV and detaching the controllers from the mobile unit.
Share this:
FTL: Faster Than Light Review: Second Star to the Right and Straight on ‘Til Morning
In the Inside review, I mentioned the 2009/10 rise of indie gaming that really kicked off thanks to Xbox’s Summer of Arcade that put those games front and center. That bled into the Kickstarter boom earlier this decade. One of those games that was funded in part by Kickstarter was FTL: Faster Than Light which showed that not only are people willing to pay for games that they want but that they can also be commercially and critically successful.
Share this:
Programming Note for July 25 to August 5
Hello readers. I have a quick update on what to expect on the blog for the next couple of weeks.
For the next two weeks, we’ll be running some old reviews from our sister site, The Lowdown, for the first time on et geekera. While these games and reviews are several years old, they will be edited updated slightly so that they won’t be quite as originally presented but the gist of the review will remain the same.
Share this:
Inside Review: Still Alive
I’ve never played it but Limbo is considered one of the biggest games in indie gaming. It released in 2010 to critical acclaim for its atmosphere and art style and was part of the rise of indie gaming that saw the likes of Minecraft, Braid, Bastion, Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, among others, become critical and commercial hits.
It’s taken six years for developer Playdead to produce their second game, Inside. The spiritual successor to Limbo seems to be worth the wait as critics have universally lauded the game, even in comparison to Playdead’s previous effort. However, I don’t think it’s the 10/10 effort that most critics say that it is.
Share this:
Here Are Some Canadian Pokemon to Celebrate the Canadian Launch of Pokemon Go
Our long national nightmare is finally over. Pokemon Go has officially launched in Canada and you’ll be dodging people trying to catch ’em all while driving in your car, walking down the sidewalk or even in your own home. While Nintendo, Niantic and Game Freak won’t do much anything to celebrate this monumental occasion, artist Darren Calvert has some pretty good ideas with this gallery of Canadian Pokemon. Tell me that you wouldn’t want to catch a Newfie or Bobndug.
Share this:
Geek Links of the Week
Blizzard is hard at work on Overwatch and they’re also working on the Nova Covert Ops expansion to StarCraft II. Neither was their planned first FPS or game featuring Nova. That would be StarCraft: Ghost. What went wrong with that? [Polygon]
Not only are superheroes dominating the box office but they’re taking charge in print as well. [Washington Post]
An interview with Christian Divine, the writer of et geekera’s Favourite Game of 2015, Life is Strange. [Only SP]
As a Canadian waiting for release, I’m already too far behind on Pokemon Go. It’s joining Clash Royale late all over again. [Vice]
But some Canadians are having fun without Pokemon Go, legally or illegally. [Uproxx]
Share this:
Alto’s Adventure Review: Coolboarders
While my day job might be in accounting, the other university courses I liked were communications and marketing. One of the concepts that they emphasized is being able to pitch a product in one line. If I was to give a short line to describe Alto’s Adventure, it would be “Journey as an endless runner.” While a free-to-play mobile game won’t quite live up to one of the best games ever released on the PS3, Alto’s Adventure sure does more than hold its own in its genre.
et geekera 