Category Archives: Games
Is EA Spying On Your Computer Using Origin?
Privacy is a pretty important issue but many companies don’t seem to take the privacy of their customers and users as seriously as they do. The latest company accused of taking their customers’ privacy for granted is EA. Last weekend, a Reddit and Origin user discovered that EA’s Origin client was looking through the files on his computer.
Share this:
Game Trailers Roundup for July 14, 2014
While last week was a busy one for our video game trailers roundup, this week is a bit quieter. We’ve had to go into gameplay previews to fill out the post this week.
Considering that I talked about Battleborn earlier today, it’s only appropriate that we have the Battleborn reveal trailer today. Along with that, we have a look at the E3 demo for Dragon Age: Inquisition, a game that I’m hoping to get a review copy of so I’m shamelessly running a trailer-ish video. Okay, PR folks recommended I do “preview coverage” but these posts are as close as I’m willing to come without slapping a disingenuous title on the preview like “Hype Train.”
Share this:
Can A New MOBA Compete in an Oversaturated Genre?
The International might be taking place right now and it is the biggest eSports tournament in history but it’s far from alone in the MOBA genre. While it’s big, Dota 2 only boasts 9 million monthly players to League of Legends’ 67 million people playing each month. While they’re two of the most popular games in the world, they’re far from the only MOBAs on the block.
Alongside League and Dota is an ever-expanding group of competitors in the MOBA sector. In the last year or so alone, we’ve seen alphas, betas and full releases of Smite, Dawngate, Heroes of the Storm, Infinite Crisis, Dead Island: Epidemic and more. That’s not included the recently announced MOBAs from Gearbox, Crytek and CD Projekt.
With so many MOBAs entering the market against dominating category leaders, do any of these new entries stand a chance and what, if anything, can they do to compete?
Share this:
Crytek UK Losing Senior Staff Over Financial Troubles
When we reported last month that Crytek was in the midst of major financial troubles, we knew that those sorts of stories tend to get worse before they get better. Well, it looks like Crytek’s UK studio might be the hardest hit with senior staff leaving the studio and others walking off the job because of unpaid wages.
Share this:
GameStop Working with Devs for Exclusive Gameplay as Pre-Order Bonuses
Well, the video game apocalypse is nigh. An analyst at R.W. Baird says that leading gaming retailer GameStop is looking at new ways of adding value to pre-orders and purchases of games at the store. One of those ways is working with developers to create exclusive “important” gameplay content for people who pre-order from GameStop.
Share this:
Ubisoft Exec Says that DLC is “Pretty Much Accepted” by Gamers
Ubisoft executives are just a gift for bloggers looking for something to write. In the last year, they’ve said that they only want to launch new IPs that can become franchises, called making Beyond Good & Evil a mistake, tried bribing members of the press at a Watch Dogs event and gotten developers to dumb down PC game graphics to comparable to console levels. All this and people still give Ubisoft their money.
Now, they want you to know how much they appreciate continuing to give them money. Ubisoft’s Vice President of Digital Publishing, Chris Early, told GamesIndustry.biz that there was “no resistance” to their latest DLC strategy and that DLC is pretty much accepted by gamers now.
Share this:
Battlefield Hardline Beta Impressions: $60 of an Expansion Pack
I know that it’s been a few weeks since the Battlefield Hardline beta has wrapped up but I think I’ve documented (either here or on The Lowdown) how busy I was during the month of June. Now that I’ve finally got a little bit of free time, I’m going to start pumping out reviews and other long-form pieces with a bit more frequency.
So let’s start with the beta for Battlefield Hardline. It was launched with great fanfare at the end of EA’s E3 keynote and was so popular that the Battlefield website crashed as people tried to get into the Beta. With all that hype, it would be hard for BF Hardline to live up to it. And, wouldn’t you know it, Hardline didn’t live up to the hype.
Share this:
Game Trailers Roundup for July 7, 2014
It’s been a while since we’ve done our weekly Game Trailers Roundup but it’s been quiet on the trailers front for the last few weeks. Everyone got their announcements and trailers out at E3 so it makes sense that we haven’t had much lately. The fact that we’re headed for a quiet summer doesn’t help much either.
This week, though, there is no shortage in trailers for you to watch. We have trailers for everything from indie games to Japanese RPGs to triple-A first-person shooters.
Share this:
Ubisoft Employee Says Publishers Want PC Games Downgraded to Console Visuals
When the retail version of Watch Dogs was released in May, many people accused Ubisoft of downgrading the visuals from the E3 2012 reveal trailer for two reasons. Some said that Ubisoft basically lied about the capability of next-gen consoles with their original gameplay video. The second accusation was that Ubisoft downgraded the PC versions visuals to keep the visuals in line with that of those next-gen consoles.
Share this:
Assassin’s Creed Franchise Taken Over By Ubisoft Quebec
Ubisoft’s flagship development studio will no long be the force behind Ubisoft’s flagship franchise. As part of an expansion of their Quebec City studio, Ubisoft is moving their Assassin’s Creed franchise from the control of Ubisoft Montreal, home to all of Ubisoft’s triple-A franchises, to Ubisoft Quebec.
et geekera 