Category Archives: Games
EA Finalizes Settlement in NCAA Video Game Lawsuit
Electronic Arts and the Collegiate Licencing Company have settled a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit over the use of the likenesses of NCAA Division I (and FBS) football and basketball players in EA Sports video games without compensation.
After agreeing to a settlement in principle back in September 2013, the three parties agreed to a settlement worth $40 million for the estimated up to 200,000 players who appeared in the EA Sports NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball / March Madness games since 2003.
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Critics Corner: Watch Dogs
I’m not a fan hyperbolic hashtags but since it was announced, Watch Dogs has had enough #hype that it easily trumps the amount of hype that Titanfall had behind it. This game had a solid two years of hype from the initial announcement to buzz over next-gen level graphics, the release date announcement and subsequent delays. For these last two years, Watch Dogs has been held up as the gold standard for next-gen gaming. It was hyped as the first must-own game of this generation of consoles. Well, it might have been if it hadn’t been pushed back six months.
Watch Dogs is the second of this month’s releases that I saw in action at Fan Expo. Trust me when I say that Watch Dogs needed the time to fix it. There were clipping issues with bridges. The framerate was a bit wobbly. And the controls looked a little sluggish. Of course, that was just one tiny vertical slice that I saw nine months ago.
Did the extra six months of polish time make Watch Dogs worth the #hype? Let’s see what the critics think.
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Valve Delays Steam Controller to 2015
Just when PC gamers were getting the next-gen controller experience that console gamers aren’t getting with their next-gen consoles, Valve told everyone to hold their horses. Valve updated the Steam Universe group with announcement that the Steam Controller won’t be publicly available until 2015.
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Nintendo to Start YouTube Affiliate Program to Take Some, Not All, of Fan Channels’ Money
Nintendo has had a hell of a time figuring out how this whole YouTube thing works. Last year, they started cracking down on Let’s Play videos on YouTube by using the video website’s ContentID system to claim revenue from those videos. They also claimed that they were dropping story mode from the upcoming Super Smash Bros. on Wii U because the cutscenes would end up on the internet so it defeated the purpose.
Now, Nintendo, in their great benevolence, have decided to meet Nintendo fans halfway. Rather than take all the ad revenue from the people who help promote their games on YouTube, Nintendo has announced a new YouTube affiliate program that will see both parties splitting the ad revenue.
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Star Wars: Attack Squadron Cancelled by Disney
Just when you thought that the purchase of LucasFilm and LucasArts by Disney would lead to the return of space sims to the Star Wars game library, Disney pulled the rug out from under you. Star Wars: Attack Squadron was cancelled while in the midst of its closed beta.
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Sony Launching Pre-Loading of All Pre-Orders in September
One area that the old brick-and-mortar games retailer still has over your favourite digital retailer is firing up the game on launch day. Sometimes, picking up a game at a midnight launch gets you gaming faster than having to download the game from the various stores you buy from.
Sony is planning to change that on their PlayStation Store this fall. Starting with the launch of Destiny in September, Sony says that all games pre-ordered on the Store will be available for pre-loading prior to the game’s launch so you can play right when the game’s release.
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Game Trailers Roundup for May 26, 2014
Even though last week’s game trailer roundup was later than usual, the last five days have been pretty good for the quantity of trailers. If there’s a game you’re looking forward to, there might have been a trailer released in the last week.
In this week’s edition of the roundup, we have two launch trailers for Drakengard 4 and The Wolf Among Us: Episode 4. There are trailers for the upcoming Murdered: Soul Suspect and Metro Redux. And the fall releases are represented by trailers for Batman: Arkham Knight and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
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Blizzard Suing StarCraft II Map Hack Creators
Not only do you hate people who use cheats such as map hacking to ruin your StarCraft II experience, Blizzard hates them just as much. The developer and publisher of the top RTS game on the market filed a lawsuit in United States District Court in California against the makers of the “ValiantChaos MapHack.”
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Critics Corner: Wolfenstein: The New Order
There is little that gamers like more than old franchises. Reboots, remakes, sequels. These are the life blood of modern gaming. While people like new IPs, it seems like people go crazy over old IPs. And I wonder why I lament the death of creativity when the big money makers are sequels. I don’t count GTA in that because each GTA has little to do with the ones preceding it apart from mechanics.
I’ve actually played a little bit of Wolfenstein back at Fan Expo last August. I came away with a few impressions from that demo. First and foremost, I just can’t FPS to save my life and I really can’t without my mouse and keyboard in hand. The visuals weren’t spectacular on the early Xbox 360 build. The gameplay felt decidedly old school with limited regenerating health (from 1% to 25% health), picking up stuff off the ground rather than collecting it by walking over it and crouch jumping. I’d imagine that it changed a bit in the 10 months between when I played it and when you will.
But enough of what I think of Wolfenstein. Let’s see what the professionals think.
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Critics Corner: Transistor
I’m not saying that there haven’t been any noteworthy games released over the last few months but prior to this week, we hadn’t done a Critics Corner metareview of a game in two months. Transistor leads off an unusually packed late-May release lineup. You’ve got Wolfenstein, Watch Dogs and Mario Kart 8 leading the big budget productions while Transistor represents the indie contingent.
Supergiant Games had only one game under its belt prior to this week but having Bastion as its only title made it as close to video gaming royalty as one game will get you. Now, they’re back with Transistor. While the game tries not to be Bastion, it’s hard for reviewer (and gamers, I’d imagine) not to draw the inevitable comparison between Supergiant’s two games.
The game’s story and gameplay are a bit divisive with some critics absolutely loving how the story was done and the new style of gameplay while others just weren’t interested in what Transistor was offering. Everyone agreed that the art style and audio were absolutely fantastic.
But enough of my intro and summary. What did the critics think of Transistor?
et geekera 