et geekera

Building (Critical) Consensus: Grand Theft Auto V

I don’t know if you heard but there’s a game coming out today. Not at all important. Nobody is really interested in it. But I suppose there’s probably one, just one, reader of this blog who might be interested in reading more about Grand Theft Auto V. Let’s be honest, though. I think that the smallest of minorities are actually waiting on reviews to determine whether or not they buy this game. Me? I’m waiting for the PC release. I’d reckon that it’ll be out around the time the next-gen editions of GTA5 are out.

As expected, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive but we don’t expect anything less for Rockstar’s flagship franchise. In fact, as of writing, only The Escapist had a review lower than 90%. While they loved the gameplay, they had major issues with the three main characters and the script. GameSpot had similar script issues but still gave the game a 90%. Before you start spamming the reviewers, remember that reviews are subjective. Here we have two people with the same issues and very different scores. As long as they’re legitimately reviewing a game and not trolling for page views, their opinion is entirely fair. Like I said at the top, if you have issues with GTA’s content, you’ve already decided not to buy the game.

Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Games

2 Comments

Tags: Grand Theft Auto V, GTA5, Rockstar Games, Rockstar North

Devs Say the PlayStation 4 Massively Outperforms the Xbox One

Sep 16

Posted by Steve Murray

An anonymous survey of developers by Edge Magazine shows that the performance difference expected based on their specs turns out to be a reality. Developers told Edge that the PlayStation 4 is up to 50 percent faster than the Xbox One and the recent GPU boost hasn’t done much to fix that.

Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Games

4 Comments

Tags: Console Wars, Microsoft, PlayStation 4, Sony, Xbox One

Haven: Fallout Review

Sep 16

Posted by Steve Murray

Did you know that despite the fact that the show is filmed in Nova Scotia and funded in part by a Canadian cable company and the Nova Scotian and Canadian governments, the fourth season of Haven won’t start airing in Canada until December? (Sunday, December 1st at 9 PM for those keeping score at home.) I’m not waiting that long. Since I’m watching the show early, I thought that I’d also review them.

Last Friday, Haven returned for its fourth season with many questions left unanswered from the third season finale. Fortunately, my questions have been answered in the season premiere with a few more asked for the next thirteen episodes.

Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in TV/Movie Reviews

1 Comment

Tags: Haven, Review, Stephen King, Syfy

Geek Links of the Week

Sep 13

Posted by Steve Murray

Verizon is going to court to kill Net Neutrality in the United States. If they’re successful, you might have to pay your ISP to access certain sites just like you do with your cable package. It would be the end of the internet. [InfoWorld]

Apple’s original design guru, Hartmut Esslinger, says that Apple has lost its soul and no longer innovates but it driven by money. [The Atlantic White]

Most of us haven’t worked retail jobs at a games store so we just assume that people have some idea of what they’re doing when they walk into a GameStop or the game section of Wal-Mart. However, that assumption would be entirely wrong. The average consumer has no idea about such concepts as console names, game reviews and ESRB ratings. [Destructoid]

Remember when Rock Band was the biggest game in the world. It seemed like everybody played it or wanted to play it. It certainly has disappeared, hasn’t it? [Gameological]

Microsoft has bought the xbone.com domain. Just thought that you might want to know. [Fusible]

Posted in Links of the Week

Will There Always Be Violent Video Games?

One storyline about gaming that won’t go away is that games are too violent and lead to violent crimes. It’s the reason why Bill S. 134: Violent Content Research Act of 2013 is making its way through the US Congress. Fox News recently had a poll about the perceived influence of violent games in causing violent acts. Heck, even I wrote a column about violence in games.

With all this focus on violent games, will violent games eventually disappear? According to PBS’ Game/Show, not only will there still be violent games going forward but this a continuation of violent games from history.

Posted on September 13, 2013 | Video

Jurassic World Will Stomp Into Theatres in 2015

Sep 13

Posted by Steve Murray

Yeah, that was the best dinosaur pun I could come up with…

After being only a rumour since the release of Jurassic Park III back in 2001, there will be a fourth movie in the Jurassic Park franchise. The movie formerly referred to as Jurassic Park IV will officially be called Jurassic World and will hit theatres on June 12, 2015.

Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in TV/Movies

1 Comment

Tags: Colin Trevorrow, Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures

Building (Critical) Consensus: Killzone: Mercenary

Sep 12

Posted by Steve Murray

If there’s one thing that the PlayStation Vita’s been missing, it’s that must-own game that isn’t a port of a game already on another platform. Sure, the Vita has some very good games but apart from Persona 4 Golden, almost all of the best Vita games are available on another platform. Once again, Sony tapped one of its big franchises to get people onto the Vita by bringing the Killzone franchise to the portable platform.

Critics tend to agree that it’s the best first-person shooter to make its way onto the Vita but that’s hardly a challenge. What many disagree on is whether it’s the full console experience on a portable console.

Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Games

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Review: Please Reclassify

Sep 12

Posted by Steve Murray

I recall hearing a games critic say that playing bad games is much more fun than playing good games because there’s so much more to write or talk about when you play a bad game. I have to disagree. There’s nothing fun about playing a bad game. Playing through a bad game is a painful and frustrating experience. Once you move beyond the frustration, it gets funny but you have to get to that point. At least writing the review can be somewhat cathartic.

And that brings us to The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. This game started life back in 2006 as just XCOM, a first-person survival horror about an alien invasion. The idea of an XCOM shooter terrified fans of the classic 1990s PC strategy game and the shooter was seemingly put to the side to make way for the rebooting of X-COM as a strategy game franchise with 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

However, the XCOM shooter didn’t go away. The game from the seventh circle of XCOM fan hell was pulled from the seventh circle of development hell by 2K Games and 2K Marin. It was almost completely reimagined during a seven-year development cycle from being a first-person horror to a third-person squad-based tactical shooter. Unfortunately, it should have remained in development hell, never to see the light of day.
Read the rest of this entry →

Posted in Game Reviews

3 Comments

Tags: 2K Games, 2K Marin, Review, The Bureau, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, XCOM

West Coast Customs Builds GTA’s Banshee

Sep 11

Posted by Steve Murray

In the Grand Theft Auto games, the Banshee has a reputation for being one of the fastest cars in the game. It was only fitting considering that the two design templates used for the car since GTA3 were the Chevrolet Corvette and Dodge Viper.

Now, it’s not just a hot car circulating through the likes of Liberty City, Vice City and Los Santos. It can now be found on real streets after a one-off custom Banshee was built by famous car customizing shop West Coast Customs.

Read the rest of this entry →