Category Archives: Games
Battlefield Hardline Open Beta Impressions: Arrested Development
It’s been about seven months since we last seen Battlefield Hardline. Back in June, EA tried to capitalize on the post-E3 hype of the BFH reveal by almost immediately launching an early beta of two game modes and one map for the upcoming game. At that point in time, the game was due for an October 2014 release.
In the time following that beta, EA, DICE and Visceral announced that the game would be pushed back five months to March 2015. As February began, EA took Hardline back to beta one more time in order to get a last big batch of feedback before it is launched in March. It looks like some lessons from the first beta were learned by Visceral has many more to take into account over the next month.
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Game Trailers Roundup for February 17, 2015
If you don’t live in certain parts of Canada, you may not know that yesterday was a statutory holiday. Sure, I was still working at my day job but I took yesterday off from blogging to catch up on some gaming and writing. So let’s start today with a usual Monday post pushed back to Tuesday morning.
To make up for being a day late, we have nine trailers for you to watch today. It’s everything from release and announcement trailers for indie games to updates to major releases.
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The Bad, The Ugly and The Worst: A Look at Evolve’s DLC and Pre-Order Plans
I don’t know how many times that people have to be told not to pre-order games for it to sink in but I’m not sure that it will matter. For all the convincing pitches that game companies themselves make with games that are broken on launch or otherwise in need of a lot of work to be considered of triple-A quality, publishers are coming up with ever more convincing pitches to get you to pre-order games or upgrade to more expensive editions of the game and it all comes down to money.
It used to be that pre-order perks were limited to things like skins or weapons or other little bonuses that didn’t really make that big of an impact on the overall game. Those traditional pre-order bonuses should not be confused with the setup that Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Games have come up with their latest hoped triple-A money printer Evolve.
In order to move pre-order copies of Evolve and to sell the various deluxe editions of Evolve, Turtle Rock and 2K have come up with one of the most complicated and ridiculous DLC schemes in recent memory. People have actually come up with charts in order to keep track of what is included with which version via pre-order, purchase, season pass and a la carte. Evolve might be one of the better games this year but its DLC will make it one of the most controversial at the same time.
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Game Trailers Roundup for February 9, 2015
When I was putting together today’s trailers roundup, I forgot that I wanted to write about the DLC practices that 2K and Turtle Rock are employing for Evolve. I haven’t seen a new trailer for that game so it’s not in the roundup but I’m hoping that I can write up that column for tomorrow. And then I have to hope that no one hates all the Business Of Gaming posts I’m running but if you did, you wouldn’t have stuck around these parts for very long.
Anyway, today’s roundup is an eclectic sort. We have fighting games, RPGs, strategy, hack-and-slashers. Basically, you name it, we have it. Except for Evolve. But we do have Mortal Kombat X. That has to count for something.
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Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) Review: It Belongs in a Museum
Being from Canada, Aboriginal culture is a big part of Canadian society. Their history is taught in schools. Their contribution to Canadian culture is celebrated as part of other Canadian cultural events. They’re just as much a part of the cultural identity of Canada to Canadians as hockey and winter.
That’s why I was so interested in Never Alone. The game is a side-scrolling platformer based on the folklore of Alaska’s Inupiat people. Having learned about native folklore in the classroom and in museums, I was excited for a great interactive story based on some fascinating folklore. Instead, I got a game that wouldn’t seem out of place in a museum exhibit, both for better and worse.
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Heroes of the Storm: Early Access by Any Other Name
Have you heard of H1Z1? It’s the latest MMO from the artists formerly known as Sony Online Entertianment (now called Daybreak Games). While SOE’s MMOs are all free-to-play, H1Z1 has launched as an Early Access title on Steam for $20. That price gets you immediate access to the game along with a few other perks. By all accounts, it’s quite obvious that it’s in the alpha stages of development.
The problem most people are having is that it’s a triple-A company that have gone the early access route. SOE has a few popular MMOs on offer already and with their financial backing from Sony and now Columbus Nova, it’s not like they should need the funding from Early Access sales to complete and polish the game.
But H1Z1 is the popular example of Early Access gone wrong. They aren’t the only example out there right now. Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when I launched Battle.net and saw Heroes of the Storm waiting for me to click. The problem was that it wasn’t there to download. HOTS got a spot on my Battle.net launcher so I could spend $40 on the Founder’s Pack which includes immediate access to the game along with a few other perks.
So how is SOE and H1Z1 getting blasted for releasing an alpha of their game as early access while Blizzard is getting a pass for Heroes of the Storm?
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Sony Sells SOE, Now Daybreak Games
The developer and publisher behind some of the most popular free-to-play MMOs is under new ownership. Sony Online Entertainment, the company behind EverQuest, Planetside 2, DC Universe Online and the new H1Z1, has been sold by Sony to a management investment firm called Columbus Nova.
The company’s new branding won’t mention their new or former owners. SOE makes a clean break as Daybreak Game Company.
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Game Trailers Roundup for February 2, 2015
Anyone catch the big game yesterday? I’m writing this Sunday afternoon before the game so I’m going to give you two intros for today’s Game Trailers Roundup.
If the game was boring: Unlike the Super Bowl, we have some exciting things for you to watch today. We have five trailers for you, including three launch trailers for games that are out now (Dying Light, Grim Fandango and Life is Strange). Maybe you should have flipped on a console rather than watched that game. Or split the difference and play on you Wii U’s GamePad.
If the game was actually exciting: Just like the balls were actually inflated in the Super Bowl, it’s time to inflate your hopes for upcoming video games with today’s roundup. Yeah, that’s a terrible segue but everyone else has done a #Ballghazi joke so why not me too? Anyway, there are five trailers for you to watch today. And none are for that mobile game that used Kate Upton in its Super Bowl ad.
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Evolve Closed Beta Impressions: Evolution, But Not Revolution
Don’t look now but I’m pretty sure the game demo is dead. In its place are “betas” that accomplish a multitude of things simultaneously. They act as a demo without needing to polish a vertical slice of the game. That’s because they can slice out a portion for QA testing by the general public without paying professional QA testers to find problems with the game. And by limiting access to betas, devs and publishers drum up demand relative to supply to goad people into pre-ordering the game to get into the beta.
Shockingly, this doesn’t bring us to Heroes of the Storm. That’s a column for another day. It does bring us to Evolve. Turtle Rock Studios left E3 with the whole world in its hands after cleaning up most of the major E3 awards. However, 2K seems hell-bent on throwing it all away with their utterly confusing and transparently greedy pre-order, season pass, deluxe edition and DLC scheme.
So when Turtle Rock gave us one last chance to get a taste of Evolve before its February release date, everyone who could jumped at the opportunity. But was this one last taste of Evolve enough to convince me to spend $60+ on the game from the Left 4 Dead developers?
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Green Man Gaming Gets Into Publishing with Idol Hands
If you’re willing to go beyond Steam when doing your game shopping, chances are you know about Green Man Gaming. Sure, they may not have as extensive a catalogue as Steam but they are generally just as good and many an occasion better with their discounts as Valve’s big behemoth.
But GMG isn’t content to just be my favourite digital store alternative to Steam. They’re expanding their product offering to become an indie game publisher as well. Their first published game is Idol Hands.
et geekera 