It’s something we’ve been advocating for over the last few months and it looks like EA is going to be the first ones to make a move to improve game customer rights.
EA has announced that it will begin offering refunds on EA games purchased as digital downloads on Origin.
Did I miss the memo? 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.
Last year, it was that the vision of a developer should never be questioned. Look at the uproar over Mass Effect 3’s ending. Despite the plot holes and inconsistencies in the ending sequence, many members of the media defended BioWare by saying that this was BioWare’s vision and it shouldn’t be compromised because we shouldn’t compromise the developer’s “artistic integrity.”
This year, artistic integrity is no longer an applicable concept when talking about the contents of a game. Now, if a writer feels that the majority of people should be offended by something, it should be changed. In twelve months, we’ve gone from a developer having unassailable artistic integrity to a press corps getting dangerously close to censorship.
Why does it seem that every game that I have even the slightest of hopes for gets mixed to poor reviews from the critics. For the last few months, I’ve been keeping tabs on the rechristened XCOM shooter now called The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
Well, the review embargo is reportedly 9:00 PM tonight but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t had a review leak as is befitting of a game whose premise involves classified US government documents.
Destructoid’s Jim Sterling’s review of the game was the first to leak and it’s not looking good for XCOM fans.
What started life as a DLC is being released tomorrow as a full game. The origin of Saints Row IV has been well documented as has its battle with the Australian Classification Board over the game’s content and developer Volition’s purchase by Deep Silver during the THQ bankruptcy auction.
Despite the core game being expanded out of a Saints Row: The Third DLC, critics generally love this game. They enjoyed the over-the-top superpowers and the game’s general sense of fun and humour. Others found that there wasn’t much to the game beyond the superpowers and that said powers were a bit OP. Looks like your enjoyment of the game may come down to your enjoyment of crazy superpowers.
Okay, BioShock Infinite has been out for five months now but sometimes you just have to take note of spectacular work.
Luke Ritson may not make a lot of videos but when he does, you absolutely have to take notice. His alternate trailers for games like Mass Effect 3 and The Walking Dead were nothing short of spectacular. So when he gets his hands on a GOTY contender like BioShock Infinite, you know that you’re in for something special.
Given that I own a BlackBerry, I don’t do a lot of mobile gaming so I won’t have too long of a preamble before we get to what the critics think of Plants vs. Zombies 2. This is the sequel to the popular tower defense game and isn’t the third-person shooter that was previewed at E3. But good news for PvZ fans: Critics love this game and still love this franchise.
It’s not just the NCAA whose logo won’t appear in this year’s edition of EA’s College Football franchise (formerly known as NCAA Football). The Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Big Ten have joined the NCAA in not licensing their name and logos for use in the popular game.
When you think of unexplored genres that would make for interesting games, I don’t think that customs officer simulation would be one of them. Yet, Papers, Please is one of more interesting games that I’ve played in a while… Even if it does seem at time like a desk organization simulator too.
Just when I was questioning the use of the Humble Bundle platform by big publishers, EA goes and turns everything on its head. And shockingly, EA is doing it for the best.
The latest Humble Bundle is a large offering of EA games which might I would have looked at rather cynically after the recent “humble” Deep Silver bundle. However, EA isn’t taking a penny with all of the proceeds of the Humble Origin Bundle going to charity and Humble Bundle.
The one critically acclaimed Wii game that almost no one you know has been able to get a copy of is Xenoblade Chronicles. That’s because the game had a fairly limited print run and was only available through GameStop and Nintendo stores.
This week, mysteriously, GameStop stores seem to have been innundated with used copies of Xenoblade Chronicles and are selling them for $90 each. The problem is that people are accusing GameStop of shady practices saying that they aren’t actually used copies but reprints being passed off as used to justify selling copies at higher than the original $50 price.
et geekera 