Category Archives: Games
Get Great Indie Game Soundtracks for $1 with Game Music Bundle 5
I’ve never heard of the Game Music Bundle before but that certainly changed with the amazing lineup of music put together for their 5th bundle.
Game Music Bundle 5 includes the soundtracks to indie hits like Fez, Monaco and FTL for only a $1 minimum purchase.
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Xbox One Doesn’t Need a Kinect Connected to Work
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Microsoft is playing the PR long game with the Xbox One. After getting everyone mad at them when announcing the Xbox One, they’re going back on the “features” that gamers didn’t like and are turning the tide of the PR war by reverting to the status quo.
In a Q&A session, Microsoft’s Chief Xbox One Platform Architect, Marc Whitten, revealed that the Xbox One would still be able to function whether or not the Kinect was broken or plugged in.
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Games Industry All-Stars Team Up for Project Phoenix
The latest game to take Kickstarter by storm is an indie JRPG called Project Phoenix. The game got so much attention that it was able to achieve its $100,000 fundraising goal within nine hours of being launched on the crowd funding website.
While that would normally be an unexpectedly fast time to reach a Kickstarter goal, it’s not so odd when you consider that the crew working on Project Phoenix are among the biggest names in the industry.
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Building (Critical) Consensus: DuckTales: Remastered
How far can nostalgia carry a game? Perhaps more importantly, what matters more when evaluating an updated version of a classic game: How it stacks up by today’s standards or how it stacks up to the original game?
I feel as though that’s the problem that faced many reviewers when they evaluated DuckTales: Remastered. Some evaluated it on its own merits by today’s standards and some compared it to the NES classic. When I first checked MetaCritic, it was literally split down the middle with half evaluating the game compared to the original and the remainder evaluating the game on modern platformer standards.
I’m kind of glad that I haven’t received a copy from Capcom because I’m not sure how to best critique an HD remake of a favourite of everyone who grew up with an NES. From the looks of it, the critics can’t agree how to rate DuckTales: Remastered either.
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Xbox One Game Recording Only for Xbox Live Gold
As part of their corporate policies, Microsoft has mandated that they can’t go more than a few weeks without doing something to annoy their current and potential future consumer base.
So August’s early frontrunner for Xbone move of the month is Microsoft confirming that users will only be able to use the Xbox One’s ability to record gameplay if you are an Xbox Live Gold member.
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Dead Island 3 is a Free-to-Play MOBA
Wait. What?
No, that’s not a typo or a joke, I think. Third installment in the Dead Island franchise, to be called Dead Island: Epidemic, will not be a co-op first-person shooter but will instead be Deep Silver’s entry into the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre.
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Building (Critical) Consensus: Pikmin 3
We’ve all been waiting for Nintendo to bust out that killer app that’s going to get people to start buying the Wii U. With third-party publisher support for Nintendo’s next-gen offering starting to dry up, it’s up to Nintendo to give people a reason to pick the Wii U over the rest.
I wouldn’t call the Pikmin franchise one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, nor would I consider Pikmin a Nintendo IP that will sell scads of consoles. However, the critics really like this game. It might not be terribly innovative but it uses the Wii U Gamepad and that’s more than we can say about a bunch of current Wii U offerings.
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Building (Critical) Consensus: Dragon’s Crown
Dragon’s Crown might be one of the more controversial releases of 2013 in the ongoing concern over sexism and misogyny video games. The 2D side-scrolling brawler has been making headlines since its art first hit the internet. The “hypersexualized” art of the game which depicts a female sorceress with massive breasts, an amazon in almost no clothing and male characters so impossibly muscled that they shouldn’t be able to move.
Some reviewers didn’t let the art style influence their review while others weighed it heavily in their scores. Polygon was the site that’s taken the most flak from gamers (or, at least, Dragon’s Crown fans) over their review which came in almost 20% under the GameRankings average as a result of the game’s art style and depiction of female NPCs. But, of course, that’s why you read multiple reviews. And, of course, you’ll know ahead of time if the art style is off-putting so you won’t let a bad review heavily criticizing the art style get to you, I hope.
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Left 4 Dead 3 Accidentally Leaked
Just when you thought that Gabe Newell and his team at Valve couldn’t count to three, a photo from a tour of Valve’s office showed that they are working on the third game in a franchise. No, it’s not Half-Life 3 (yet) but the likely to be hotly anticipated Left 4 Dead 3.
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Remember Me Review: The Memory Remains
A while back, I wrote a column lamenting the loss of new intellectual properties coming from the big publishers. One of the few new multi-platform IPs that is coming out this year is Capcom’s Remember Me. It had an interesting premise and the rare not hypersexualized female protagonist leading the game. For the first few hours, Remember Me was certainly worth my past consideration as a new IP to wake up the industry.
However, the experience doesn’t hold up over time. While there are parts of the game that are very memorable, it’s certainly not the unforgettable rookie developer Dontnod were hoping for.
et geekera 