Blog Archives
Doom Review: Back to Basics
Reboots are a tricky thing in entertainment. I’ve talked about this previously with Tomb Raider’s reboot. You want to do something fresh while retaining the spirit of the original. Something familiar without feeling like a retread of what people have already seen or played and loved. Doom 4’s lengthy start-stop development cycle saw the game lose the number at the end and have work scraped and started from scratch.
The end result is a fantastic reintroduction of the classic FPS franchise to the modern generation. It finds the right balance between new and modern gameplay with the classic mechanics and spirit of the 1993 original.
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E3 2016: Quake Champions Brings Back the Name but Not the Game
As we had predicted, following the success of Doom, Bethesda and id Software have gone back in their library to find another classic title to bring into the modern age. While the reboot of Doom kept much of what made gamers fall in love with it (with a few modern twists), it sounds like id’s reboot of Quake with Quake Champions will be much more modern in its design.
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E3 2016: Bethesda Trailer Roundup
Carried by a Doom reboot and Fallout 4, Bethesda’s first appearance at E3 was a success with viewers at the time and with gamers and the press when those games came out in fall 2015 and May 2016. Twelve months later, Bethesda is back with a bigger lineup of games but not necessarily a stronger one.
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E3 2016 Preview: Bethesda Focuses On Seconds for Its Second E3
After a big Fallout 4 focused presentation for their inaugural E3 presentation, Bethesda will be back with even more for 2016’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. While they won’t be first out of the game with their keynote, an “honour” going to EA this year, they will certainly be swinging a big stick this year. For E3 appearance #2, Bethesda will focus on the number 2. They will have a lot of sequels that will or could have the number two in the title. By my count, they might have four games that are the second one in their respective franchises at this year’s E3 presentation.
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Fallout 4 and StarCraft II Sell Millions of Copies on Launch Day
I’m not sure if November 10th will go down as a landmark day in gaming history but to investors in Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, it certainly will. Both companies had their big holiday releases last Tuesday with Fallout 4 and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, respectively. Both companies are reporting millions of units sold within hours of their games launching.
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E3 2015: Bethesda Trailer Roundup
With all the pre-amble prior to E3 finally coming to a close this morning, it’s time to start going through some of the new trailers and games that were unveiled at E3.
We’ll start with the first press conference of the week which means that we start with Bethesda. Their rookie effort at E3 focused heavily on their two biggest upcoming releases. Multiple gameplay and features videos of Fallout 4 and Doom made up the majority of the conference. There were a few reveals too including a new Dishonored and spin-offs of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls.
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E3 2015: What to Expect from Bethesda’s First E3 Press Conference
While E3 officially starts on Tuesday and the real news at E3 happens with the Big Four pressers on Monday, the 2015 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo will kick off on Sunday when Bethesda has their first E3 press conference.
As part of our week-long E3 coverage on et geekera, we start with a preview of the first of the week’s seven major press conferences and tell you what to expect from Bethesda and what rumours suggest they have up their sleeve.
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Critics Corner: Wolfenstein: The New Order
There is little that gamers like more than old franchises. Reboots, remakes, sequels. These are the life blood of modern gaming. While people like new IPs, it seems like people go crazy over old IPs. And I wonder why I lament the death of creativity when the big money makers are sequels. I don’t count GTA in that because each GTA has little to do with the ones preceding it apart from mechanics.
I’ve actually played a little bit of Wolfenstein back at Fan Expo last August. I came away with a few impressions from that demo. First and foremost, I just can’t FPS to save my life and I really can’t without my mouse and keyboard in hand. The visuals weren’t spectacular on the early Xbox 360 build. The gameplay felt decidedly old school with limited regenerating health (from 1% to 25% health), picking up stuff off the ground rather than collecting it by walking over it and crouch jumping. I’d imagine that it changed a bit in the 10 months between when I played it and when you will.
But enough of what I think of Wolfenstein. Let’s see what the professionals think.
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Wolfenstein Gets a Collectors Edition without a Copy of the Game
Just when you thought that the monetization of video games was reaching ridiculous levels, Bethesda has pushed the boundaries of good taste again. The same company that is locking a whole race behind a paywall in the $60 plus $15 per month with a cash store MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online, is now releasing a special edition of Wolfenstein: The New Order that doesn’t even come with the game.
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The Elder Scrolls Online Beta Impressions: Prison Break
I think I’ve mentioned it a couple of times before that I’m not a fan of MMOs. If the subscription model (that requires you to pay the equivalent of four games to play for that first year) and microtransactions aren’t enough to scare me off, the grinding and fetch quests seal the deal.
I’m not unwilling to put my previous experiences aside to give MMOs another try. For example, I got into last weekend’s beta session for The Elder Scrolls Online and was willing to give that a try to see if I’d like it.
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