There’s a whole pile of games coming out today. There’s the current-gen and PC releases of Battlefield 4 and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The North America release of Sonic: Lost World is today. And only one major release didn’t have a review embargo that was on the day of release. That would be the latest game in the long running WWE franchise (well, long running in its various iterations), WWE 2K14.
I could tell you about what the critics said but whether you buy it will come down to the same reason I pre-ordered it: Nostalgia. The 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode brought back many of my childhood favourites and some iconic wrestling moments. Apart from that addition and some improvements to the Universe and creation modes, the in-ring action in more of the same for long-time fans of the series. So, like I said, this one is mostly about the nostalgia.
P.S. Do as I say, not as I do, and don’t pre-order games… Even if The Ultimate Warrior is the pre-order bonus.
It’s not exactly a great season to be a Manchester United fan. I know Sir Alex hand-picked David Moyes as his replacement but 8th in the table after a quarter of the season isn’t what you expect from United. Surely anyone could do better with this squad.
And that’s the premise behind Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series. Not everyone sees themself as the big hero on the pitch as you see in the FIFA series. FM is for the guy who has a couple of beers with his mates and says “I could do a better job running the team than that fool.”
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Poor WB Games Montreal. The rookie developer probably would have been given the benefit of the doubt before launch if they had taken up any DC franchise but the Batman: Arkham franchise. Rocksteady Studios did an amazing job with the first two Arkham games so they left a tough task for the devs who followed. In this case, the act was so tough to follow that Warner Bros. didn’t just embargo the game to release date but didn’t issue review copies to some prominent reviews including Jim Sterling. That’s gotta make you feel great about it.
While the reviewers felt that Origins was a solid effort, the recurring theme in most of the reviews was that WB Montreal played it fairly safe but not doing anything particularly new with the Arkham franchise apart from adding multiplayer to the game. If you liked the last two Arkham games, chances are that you’ll like this one as well. Just don’t expect this to be anything new or the big improvement that City was over Asylum.
It’s a little known fact that I wanted to be a chef while growing up. When the Food Network first came to Canada, they had all these shows I loved. There was Good Eats and Iron Chef and especially Emeril Live. Then Food Network Canada launched and they replaced that with the charismatic black hole that was Christine Cushing and I stopped wanting to be a chef.
So I came into Cook, Serve, Delicious! hoping for something a bit more Iron Chef rather than a casual experience. You know, more El Bulli than Taco Bell. Fortunately, despite the fact that CSD is a mobile port, it’s still a hardcore experience.
There are only two things in life that are guaranteed: Death and taxes. Coincidentally, it’s taxes that may lead to the death of the PlayStation 4’s chances in the Brazilian market. Sony says that the country’s high taxes on imported electronics are the reason for their next-gen console being priced at the Brazilian equivalent of over $1,800 US dollars.
It’s easy to put the blame on the developers not being able to manage their money well enough to complete Dark Matter. However, recent reports indicate that blaming the folks at Interwave Studios would be a bit premature.
After the Kickstarter for Dark Matter failed, the majority of the game’s development staff were fired in July and August and the studio was left far too understaffed to actually complete the game in time for release.
Well, here’s a headline that I never thought that I’d write but that’s the Streisand Effect for you.
A number of websites are reporting that they’ve been contacted by Sony Computer Entertainment PR to remove images of Ellen Page’s character nude during a shower scene from the recently released Beyond: Two Souls.
Indie game Dark Matter has been the subject of recent controversy over its abrupt ending. The game ends abruptly after about four hours when the player enters a door and a black screen with white text tells you how the game plays out from that point. The game isn’t in early access nor was it advertised as episodic. Sounds like getting your $15 worth.
In response to the controversy and the false advertising about the game and its ending, online retailer GOG.com is offering users the opportunity to get a refund on their purchase of Dark Matter.
As has been well established, I’m not a big fan of censorship. I’m not a fan of the press trying to censor developers and I’m even less of a fan of developers trying to censor the press.
The developers of indie game Day One: Garry’s Incident have done the latter and opened themselves up to the Streisand Effect. Developer Wild Games Studio filed a copyright claim under the DMCA on a critical impressions video by popular YouTube personality TotalBiscuit and it’s all hit the fan.
We’re officially four weeks from the launch of the next-gen consoles (five weeks if you’re outside North America). While you’re unlikely to get your hands on a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One any time soon if you haven’t already pre-ordered one. Still, that doesn’t mean that the console wars are going to cool down anytime soon.
Today, to mark the final month before the next generation of the home console gets well and truly underway, here’s an infographic comparing the two consoles.
et geekera 