In a move that will surprise absolutely no one that has played an EA game in the last few years, they’re adding microtransactions to one of their games. This time, it’s Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare that will see the addition of microtransactions to the game this week.
After last week’s very controversial episode, we had an episode that I would accuse as being set up to capitalize on said controversy by making the character at the heart of the hubbub if it wasn’t for the fact that this episode was written and filmed ages ago.
This week’s focus was on the life and times of Ser Jaime Lannister, also known as The Kingslayer and the guy who raped his sister in last week’s episode. At least he was put in some more redeeming situations this week.
I’ve been meaning to find a way to wedge in trailers and other studio produced content for a while on the blog and I think I’ve finally found a way to do it without blatantly shilling for big publishers for free. Granted, a lack of preview coverage is one of the more frequently cited reasons for not getting review copies of games so consider this working on that. So for a while, until we all get bored with it, I’ll end Mondays by doing a roundup of some of the various game trailers that were released over the previous seven days.
This week, we get our first look at in-game footage from Dragon Age: Inquisition. If nothing else, it looks very pretty. It also looks like it has some more Skyrim and Dark Souls influence in it too, the latter of which I wasn’t expecting to see from a Dragon Age game but one could also say that pulls from Mass Effect 3 too.
We also saw trailers for Bungie’s upcoming Destiny, an eSports-style Evolve trailer, the first reveals of Grid: Autosport and Skylanders: Trap Team (with even more stuff to buy) and another gorgeous in-game trailer for Project CARS.
Gaming is a growing industry with a record launch of next-generation consoles with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One outpacing their predecessors’ sales. Don’t tell that to GameStop, though. The biggest gaming retailer in America is planning to close some GameStop stores and expand Apple and AT&T retail chains.
Most urban legends are just that: Legends. However, gaming’s most legendary tale turned out to be true. A documentary crew doing a documentary on the history of Atari found the legendary resting place of thousands, if not millions, of copies of the failed E.T. game for the Atari 2600.
With Irrational Games closing down and moving on to smaller projects, why not take a look back at this behind the scenes look at the development of BioShock. [Eurogamer]
Some indie games have become such a big mainstream success that the rise of indie game millionaires is getting covered by mainstream publications. [The New Yorker]
You can spend as much on a new gaming PC as you can on a console and still get better performance. You just have to put together the right combination of parts and retailers. [GameSpot]
This week’s Steam Gauge project: Is there are correlation between game ratings and sales? Okay, they don’t go as statistically intense as I would have liked with correlations and regressions and the like but does give you a little insight. [Ars Technica]
You’ve fallen victim to the viral sensations that are / were Flappy Bird and 2048. Now, try both at the same time in Flappy48. [Flappy48]
I hate when I find something cool on the internet that I want to post but push it back to post other things first. For example, at some point for a Friday of Ice and Fire, I wanted to post this video of all the on-screen deaths in Game of Thrones. However, it was out of date basically from the start of the season. Well, it’s only going to get more behind on deaths from here so I may as well post it now for your viewing pleasure.
By the way, spoilers.
Just when you thought that Netflix was the unquestioned #1 player in online video streaming, Amazon Prime made a big play to get back into the game. Amazon announced that they’ve signed a licensing agreement with HBO to stream classic HBO shows on the Amazon Prime video service.
The Federal Communications Commission’s proposed new net neutrality rules will be anything by neutral when they’re implemented. The FCC revealed that their current planned rules will cause all content to be equal but some will be more equal than other. The new rules will allow for companies to pay for faster bandwidth from ISPs to send content to users.
Not every football (or soccer, in North America) game is super realistic sim that allows you to take over almost every major club or player from around the world. Not every football game is even about football.
Enter the very poorly named FootLOL. FootLOL is a bit like Football Manager if Football Manager was made by someone completely out of their minds. You don’t lead your team to victory with superior tactics, player management and inspired decisions. You lead them to victory with land mines, artillery and stampeding cows.
et geekera 