Category Archives: Games
Sony Closing PlayStation Home
Sony’s take on a virtual world experience for PlayStation 3 users is finally coming to an end. After launching PlayStation Home in 2008 and spending the last six years trying to get people onboard, Sony has scheduled PlayStation Home to condemnation on March 31st, 2015.
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Blizzard Cancels Next-Gen Project Titan MMO
Is the MMO as we know it dead? After seven years in development and having never been officially announced or unveiled by the company, Blizzard revealed that they have cancelled Project Titan, the next-generation MMO that was to succeed World of Warcraft.
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Murdered: Soul Suspect Review: Cold Case
When there’s a game that I’m interested in reviewing, I reach out to the public relations officers at the publisher of the game (or their contracted PR firm) to see if I can get a copy for review. More often than not, I don’t get a copy of the game. Usually, I can wait for a sale and pick up a copy to play it through but usually that’s not for several months that it gets down to a price within my budget.
In the case of Murdered: Soul Suspect, I was figuring that Steam’s Holiday or a spring sale would bring it down to a price where I would buy it. Then I got it for $15 from the Humble Store in early August. Two months after the game was released, I’m already getting it for some 70% off. While I know it was a big enough flop to force developer Airtight Games out of business, it couldn’t be that bad, could it?
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Steam Overhauls Store to Improve Discoverability and Customization
If you’ve been on the Steam store since Monday evening, you might have noticed that things look a little different. Gone is the familiar black, white and grey. In is a mix of blue, white and grey that is just a little bit easier on the eyes.
The fresh coat of paint isn’t the only change that the Steam store launched this week. The whole front page and games listings have been given an overhaul designed to improve discoverability of new games and customize your Steam store experience.
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Who Watches the Watchmen: A Secret Game Journalists Group May Shape the News You Read
At the start of a column last year, I made a joke about how every games writer seems to be in lock-step when it comes to major talking points. I wrote: “I’m convinced that there is a missive sent out to video games writers with talking points that we’re all supposed to stick to for a year.”
One year later, Breitbart, an American news site with a pro-conservative slant to coverage, has uncovered a secret mailing list of leading games journalists that suggests that my little joke might actually be reality. A mailing list of about 150 leading games writers may be shaping the discussion and coverage of major games industry stories on leading websites.
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Game Trailers Roundup for September 22, 2014
If you’re in North America, the big video game event of the year is June’s E3 in Los Angeles. If you’re a European gamer, you keep your eyes on August’s GamesCom for news. And if you’re a Japanese gamer, the year builds to the annual Tokyo Game Show.
For today’s Game Trailers Roundup, we have pulled together scads of trailers from this year’s edition of TGS. If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, you’re in luck because we have trailers for XV and Type-0 HD as well as an FF15 gameplay video. There are new trailers for Metal Gear Solid V, Bloodborne and The Great Ace Attorney. If you’re looking for non-TGS trailers, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Battlefield: Hardline also released new trailers last week for your viewing.
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GameStop Closing Operations in Spain
Back during the global economic crisis of 2007, one of the hardest hit countries was Spain. That tidbit of information is normally irrelevant on the blog but when the Spanish games industry has a bit of a shake up, it suddenly becomes relevant.
This week, games retail chain GameStop announced that they would be ceasing operations in the Spanish market and selling off some of its stores to Game.
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The ESRB Turns 20 (Infographic)
Did you know that the Entertainment Software Ratings Board issued its first video game ratings twenty years ago Tuesday? On September 16th, 1994, the ESRB’s first set of ratings included such games as Doom (for Sega 32X), Pitfall (for SNES) and Sonic Triple Trouble (for Sega Game Gear).
Over the last twenty years, the ESRB has rated tens of thousands of games, tweaked the ratings system a couple of times (they replaced Kids to Adults with Everyone and later added an E10+ category), changed the look of the ratings a couple of times and recently introduced content warnings for “interactive elements” of games.
For a look back at the history of the ESRB, they’ve released a handy infographic looking at 20 years of the ESRB and game ratings.
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The Walking Dead: Season Two Review: Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Telltale Games had a bit of an up-and-down reputation prior to the release of The Walking Dead. That game completely changed the way that most thought of Telltale and many critics felt that they set the bar for storytelling in games. After the numerous game of the year awards for TWD and a critically acclaimed launch for The Wolf Among Us, Telltale’s second comic book adaptation, The Walking Dead: Season Two was one of the most hotly anticipated games of 2014.
The problem with a game with all that hype is that it occasionally bogs down under the weight. The problem with a sequel is that they struggle to balance the needs of new gamers to the franchise with the desires of people continuing the story. There were times when TWD:S2 caved to these pressures as Telltale tried very hard to copy what made Season One so loved but missing the emotional mark that Season One hit. However, once Season Two came into its own, Telltale had put out another stellar experience.
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Poor Destiny Reviews May Have Cost Bungie a $2.5 Million Bonus
It’s been reported in the past that developers have big bonuses tied to slightly arbitrary metrics like aggregated review scores. Fallout: New Vegas was infamous for Obsidian falling 1% short of its bonus goal on Metacritic.
Now, one of 2014’s most anticipated games and the new record holder for number of pre-orders for a new IP will fall afoul of its own review score goal. Destiny might have made a reported $500 million for Activision but Bungie won’t be picking up a reported $2.5 million bonus for scoring a 90% aggregated review score.
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