Author Archives: Steve Murray

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Review: A Car in a Boat in a Plane in a Hedgehog

Feb 21

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sonic-and-all-stars-racing-transformed-box-artI’ve never been a Sega guy. I grew up with a classic NES and had Mario rather than Sonic. Even my one friend who did have a Genesis (or Mega Drive, if you’d prefer) didn’t have a Sonic game. (He did have a game on the classic Stallone movie Cliffhanger so maybe game buying wasn’t his parents’ forté.) From there, I got a PS1 so I largely missed out on everything Sonic and Mario Kart related in my youth.

And that created a very real problem when it came to reviewing Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It was described as fan service for long-time Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog fans and a Mario Kart clone. Well, I can’t exactly evaluate a game based on that when the Sega game I had the most playing time with was ATP Tour Championship Tennis.

Looking at SASRT (God, that’s a terrible acronym. That’s what happens when you make a game with an obscenely long and ridiculous title.) from a racing game enthusiasts perspective didn’t give me much cause for hope. After all, saying that Sega would only put out an exceptional Sonic game would omit the existence of Sonic Free Riders which was so universally panned that it makes Aliens: Colonial Marines look like Skyrim by comparison. Read the rest of this entry →

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Sony Officially Launches the PS4; Here’s What We Know

Feb 21

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As expected, last night’s big Sony PlayStation event was the official announcement of the PlayStation 4. Okay, the existence of the PS4 was never in doubt nor was there any doubt that yesterday’s announcement would be unveiling the PS4. We didn’t actually get to see the console itself but we learned all about it and even got to see some teasers of games for the upcoming console. Read the rest of this entry →

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What to Expect In Tonight’s PlayStation Announcement

Feb 20

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Tonight is Sony’s big PlayStation event. While it hasn’t been officially confirmed, we all expect that tonight will be the official announcement and unveiling of the PlayStation 4. Since Sony announced that there would be an announcement, the PS4 rumour mill has kicked up a notch.

Before tonight’s big event, here’s a look at some of the big news and rumours we expect to officially have confirmed or denied about the PS4. Read the rest of this entry →

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Building (Critical) Consensus: Crysis 3

Feb 20

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In terms of visuals, the Crysis series is the most triple of the triple-A games. Okay, Crysis 2 wasn’t great if you were on a PC but the original Crysis still looks good today and Crysis 3 is an absolutely gorgeous game. However, a game can’t be carried on visuals alone. Is that where Crytek’s efforts fall apart with the third instalment in their Crysis franchise? Read the rest of this entry →

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Canada Will Be Ready for The Zombie Apocalypse

Today’s update on zombie apocalypse preparation comes from the Canadian Parliament (which I visited last week, coincidentally). During the Members’ Statements portion of the day in the House of Commons, Pat Martin, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg, asked Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird if a plan was in place to protect against a zombie invasion/apocalypse.

I love having a good bit of fun with zombies and the like but why is government time being wasted addressing this?

(You’ll probably have to turn up your volume. The video is very quiet.)

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Studio Gigante was Working on a Star Wars Fighting Game

Remember Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi? Sorry, did I just accidentally trigger the repressed memory of that abomination of a fighting game that we all wish had never been made because it was equal parts terrible and nonsensical in the whole Star Wars universe?

Well, Studio Gigante put some preliminary work into a second Star Wars fighting game that they were pitching to LucasArts. The game was never made before Studio Gigante folded in 2005. The video below is a tech demo showing a preliminary Xbox build of the game to show off what the plan was and the moves that could be executed. It’s not the fastest or smoothest looking fighting game ever but you’d have to imagine that a dev made up of Mortal Kombat vets would be able to make a damn good fighting game given the time to actually make it.

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The Death of the Arcade Sports Game

Feb 18

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blades-of-steel-01Growing up, I got an NES when I was about four or five years old. I had that console all the way until I was 11. Naturally, I logged a lot of hours on the dozen or so games that I did have for that system. Perhaps no game got put through its paces like Blades of Steel. I wasn’t the only one who did, though. Hockey fans all know about the classic game that had hitting everywhere, slap shots ricocheting off the boards and more than a few fights.

If you’re a child of the 90s, it might not have been Blades of Steel but there was certainly a classic sports game that was simple yet fun that you poured hours into. Football fans had Tecmo Super Bowl. Basketball fans spent their time on fire playing NBA Jam.

But look at the sports games released now. How many noteworthy sports game releases are what could be described as arcade-y? Not since 2010’s remake/updated NBA Jam released on the Wii have we had a new arcade-style sports game that wasn’t kart racer. It certainly seems as though a genre that has spawned quite a few cult hits is now all but dead.

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The Zombie Apocalypse Starts in Montana

Feb 18

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I’ve been away from etg HQ over the last couple of weeks so I’ve missed a couple of interesting stories. One of those is a genius in Montana hacking the emergency broadcast system on KRTV to issue a warning about zombies. While I’m sure civil authorities and KRTV bosses aren’t particularly amused, this is probably the best use of the emergency broadcast system ever.

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Geek Links of the Week

Feb 15

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Did the Empire really win the Battle of Hoth or did Darth Vader bungle the strategy so badly that he effectively snatched defeat from the jaws of victory? [Wired]

What happens when a real astronaut gets in touch with Starfleet? Something like this. [Twisted Swifter]

Last year, Gearbox released the critically acclaimed and award-winning Borderlands 2. This week, they put out the panned Aliens: Colonial Marines. So what exactly went wrong with ACM? [Kotaku]

The latest ACM rumour has Gearbox working on an 8 GB patch to fix problems with the game. I doubt the accuracy of that claim but if the game was about 7 GB in file size, the patch sounds about the right size to fix the game’s problems. [Velocity Gamer]

Just in case Aliens: Colonial Marines didn’t teach you about the dangers of pre-ordering games, indie developer 11 Bit Studios will let you get a 50% discount on their next game if you pre-order before you know what it is. So how important is $7.50 to you? [RPS]

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Wargaming Buys Gas Powered Games

Feb 15

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We’ve been closely tracking the saga of Gas Powered Games as it tried to use Kickstarter to keep the company alive. GPG boss Chris Taylor said he had been looking at alternative means to keep the company alive after cancelling their Wildman Kickstarter. Well, it looks like their hopes have been answered as developer Wargaming has purchased GPG.

For Wargaming, the purchase of GPG is part of a recent expansion of studios under their umbrella. Over the last six months, Wargaming has purchased MMO development tool company BigWorld, shooter developer Day 1 Studios (perhaps best known for the FEAR series) and now RPG and RTS developer Gas Powered Games. Read the rest of this entry →

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