I’m furiously working on my write-up of the Xbox One press event and hope to have that online in a couple of hours. For now, let’s tide you over with this fantastic trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It’s supposed to be actual gameplay footage and, if it is, it looks amazing. Maybe this next generation of consoles isn’t such a bad thing, even if MGS5 looks a bit like Red Dead Redemption.
Category Archives: Games
Building (Critical) Consensus: State of Decay
Just after implying yesterday that we’ve been inundated with generic zombie games, we get an indie game that does the opposite of The Last of Us. While TLoU is about the story, the characters and the approach to how you play, Undead Labs’ State of Decay is an unabashed zombie survival horror.
The presentation of State of Decay might not be perfect but the depth of the gameplay and combination of the various gameplay mechanics make this one of the best zombie games ever made. It’s just too bad that it’s an XBLA exclusive. I’d love to try this on PC.
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E3 2013: Sony Wins the Next Generation in June
Sony had one simple mission heading into their 2013 E3 press conference: Don’t screw it up! Microsoft handed Sony an absolute gift at every turn from the Xbox One’s DRM to privacy issues to used games to rentals to the price.
Not only did Sony not screw up their press conference, they committed the video game console equivalent to homicide. Sony played the Rains of Castamere live on stage and slew the Xbox One in a bloody and violent way that saw them destroy Microsoft’s next-generation challenger in every way possible. Even George R.R. Martin was shocked at the carnage.
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E3 2013: You Can’t Spell EA without Shooters and Sports
Peter Moore opened EA’s 2013 EA press conference by saying that Electronic Arts was going to show off 11 new titles for next-gen consoles during the event. What he neglected to mention is that EA was showing off 10 games that were shooters or sports games and Mirror’s Edge 2. Did you know that you can’t spell “Electronic Arts” without “shooter” or “sports?”
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E3 2013: Microsoft’s Xbox One Plays Games but for a Big Price
After getting all of the ugly business about DRM, used games, TV, apps and always-connected Kinect out of the way before E3, Microsoft got down to the business of trying to actually trying to sell the upcoming Xbox One as a gaming console.
For their E3 press event, Microsoft came at us with scads of games, both multi-platform and exclusive to the Xbox One to make us forget about all the bad press about the last few months leading up to today’s big showing. Well, until they announced the launch price.
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Building (Critical) Consensus: The Last of Us
As the current console generation slowly grinds to a close, the quality of games has gone up a notch this year as developers are able to get every last bit of performance out of the technology. The result is games that are visually stunning while still having a compelling narrative and fun gameplay.
While we’ve had couple of early game of the year contenders in Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite and a couple more coming up later in Grand Theft Auto V and Beyond: Two Souls, this week’s big release just vaulted to the top of the list. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us came in with massive hype because of who was developing it, even if it could have ended up being just another zombie game.
Instead, as seems to be the case for Naughty Dog releases during this generation, The Last of Us may not just be the game of the year but the best game released on the PlayStation 3 and one of the greatest games ever made.
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Microsoft Has Lost the Console War Before It Started
The Microsoft keynote event at E3 is about to begin and it doesn’t really matter. Over the last few weeks, Microsoft has repeatedly shot itself in the foot when promoting their upcoming Xbox One. They think that they can do no wrong with their next-gen console but the reality is that the can do nothing right.
Microsoft is walking into E3 thinking that they’re Justin Bieber, they’re on top of the world and full of swagger. They are Justin Bieber but everyone sees them as Justin Bieber, self-important douche, with a bit of Amanda Bynes’ delusional separation from reality.
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The State of Gaming in 2013 (Infographic)
The 2013 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, also known as E3, officially kicks off tomorrow but the show really kicks off today with the big keynote presentations by the big names. Importantly, we’re about three hours from Microsoft’s Xbox One presentation and about twelve hours from the PlayStation 4 event.
We’ll have full recaps of the two keynotes tomorrow but let’s head into E3 with this look at the current state of gaming. This infographic looks at how gamers play, what they spend their money on and their thoughts on the next generation of consoles.
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Five Dream E3 Announcements for the Xbox One
Having written my dream announcements list for the PlayStation 4’s keynote at E3, I thought that it would only be fair to give Microsoft’s new console equal time with their own list of dream announcements for the Xbox One.
Now, I’m not an Xbox guy. I’ve never owned either of the Xbox consoles but at one point considered getting the Xbone before the official unveil. However, that unveiling had nothing that appealed to me. So for my dream announcements for the X1, I’ll try to balance between dream announcements for those firmly in Xbox’s camp and those still not sold in the Xbox One.
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Five Dream E3 Announcements for the PlayStation 4
Sure, I could sit here and wax business about what I think Sony will announce for the PlayStation 4 because it will make sense from a business perspective. And as interesting as I like analyzing the business implications of the actions of the video game industry, I love to loosen up my tie, roll up my sleeves and just game.
So rather than go through the rumour mill for the five most likely announcements that Sony will make at its big E3 press event, here are the five announcements that I most want Sony to make for the PlayStation 4.
et geekera 