Blog Archives
Overwatch Open Beta Impressions: For the Watch
In the run up to its much-anticipated release next week, Blizzard ran the final big beta test for their upcoming first-person shooter franchise Overwatch. While some features, like competitive play, weren’t in the beta, this is the best chance that everyone is going to have to try the game out before Blizzard sticks it hand out looking for $60 for the game. Fortunately for Blizzard, they put a very strong foot forward by basically letting players have a go at a near-complete version of the game.
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StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops – Mission Pack 1 Impressions: Sniped
While the story of StarCraft II ended with Legacy of the Void and the Into the Void epilogue, Blizzard hasn’t ended the stories it wants to tell in the StarCraft universe. The first return to the Koprulu sector takes place several years after the conclusion of Legacy of the Void. One of the long-lost Blizzard projects was StarCraft: Ghost which was supposed to introduce Nova as the player character. The game was eventually scrapped and Nova was introduced in Wings of Liberty and a StarCraft: Ghost novel.
Many years after Ghost’s cancellation, Nova finally gets her long-awaited solo project. It’s not a shooter but it’s a real-time strategy game in the same way that we’ve come to know from StarCraft II but with an episodic twist.
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The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode Two Review: No Shelter Given
A while back, I wondered if Telltale Games had spread itself too thin. At that point in time, it had The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands in the works. Since then, they’ve added Batman and Minecraft to their lineup along with this TWD miniseries before the upcoming The Walking Dead: Season Three.
The first episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne certainly seemed like evidence that Telltale had finally overwhelmed itself and its quality was slipping. Episode Two: Give No Shelter is an improvement on the first episode but we’re still a long way from the peak of Telltale’s ability.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider Review: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Askew
Seldom do reboots actually reinvigorate a franchise. Sure, Star Trek wasn’t too bad but when you consider the likes of Point Break and The Amazing Spider-Man and Conan The Barbarian and Godzilla (twice), you find yourself scared away from reboots. Gaming isn’t immune to that with the likes of Sim City, Medal of Honor and Sonic the Hedgehog as failed attempts to reinvigorate franchises.
One of the more successful reboots in history is 2013’s Tomb Raider which is the series best-selling and among its most critically acclaimed. It came as a shock that Microsoft had to pay the way for this sequel to 2013’s hit. Rise of the Tomb Raider recently hit PC after an exclusivity period on Xbox One and will come to PS4 this fall (despite being the platform that Tomb Raider sold best on).
So how does the sequel to the reboot standup? Well, it’s not all sunshine and lollipops.
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The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode One Review: Sliced and Diced
Much like they did between Seasons One and Two of The Walking Dead, Telltale has another small adventure to bridge the gap between seasons of their The Walking Dead series. While their TWD story runs parallel to the comic series, The Walking Dead: Michonne actually forms part of the continuity of the main story.
Telltale’s last two efforts with beloved characters were a mixed bag with Borderlands fans loving Tales From The Borderlands while Game of Thrones fans were underwhelmed by Game of Thrones (though the treatment of the likes of Ramsay Snow and the Lannisters was the best part of the series). With Michonne being one of TWD’s most popular characters, how would this effort turn out?
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Superhot Review: Am I Standing Still
You’ve probably heard or read the lines but maybe you don’t understand them. “Super. Hot. Super. Hot.” Or maybe you’ve read “It’s the most innovative shooter I’ve played in years.” These aren’t ready-made box quotes from your favourite critics. They’re lines right from Superhot, the new first-person shooter that’s taken gaming by storm for the last week or so.
Superhot is a new first-person shooter that’s been labelled as being somewhere between a strategy game, a puzzle game and a traditional FPS. The hybrid of styles certainly makes this one of the more fun and interesting games that I’ve played in years.
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Firewatch Review: Hey There Delilah
Walking simulators and I have an adversarial relationship. I wanting to like them because I love a good story in a game but the review scores don’t really back that up. While I loved The Stanley Parable, I thought that Gone Home and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture were average games at best despite picking up acclaim from other games.
The latest walking simulator that I’ve added to my library is Firewatch. The game got its first big public unveiling as part of a PlayStation E3 keynote presentation and has now made its way to the PC as well. Given that PC is home to the walking simulator, would the latest entry in the genre stack up to the competition.
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Basic Guide to PC Graphics Options (Infographic)
One thing that is wildly inconsistent in PC gaming is the quality of tooltips on the graphics options menu. You have games like StarCraft II which tell you which piece of hardware is being drawn on the most by a particular option and you have other games that just leave you to guess what the options mean, assuming they have any. Fortunately, in the case of the latter, I found this handy little infographic that explains some of the more prominent graphics options in PC gaming.
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The Division Dev Says PC Version “Kept In Check” with Consoles, Ubisoft Denies
When you’re a PC gamer, you’re used to terrible ports. I’m on AMD hardware so I get it worse than most. Considering that it’s easier to optimize the game for consoles and, anecdotally, there are more people whose primary gaming platform is a console, it makes sense to prioritize them when launching a game. Not everyone is Rockstar who spent two years perfecting their GTA V PC port.
It’s seldom that companies are up front with information that might make gamers concerned about a PC version of a game so no wonder why Ubisoft sprang into action to backtrack. A developer on Tom Clancy’s The Division told YouTube’s Team Epiphany that Ubisoft Massive had to “keep [The Division] in check with consoles.” Ubisoft quickly fired back with a statement saying “this is simply not true.”
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Dirt Rally Review: The Road Less Travelled
On a few occasions on this blog, I have discussed the ever-changing priorities of Codemasters. The British developer has long been recognized as one of the top racing game developers but often shifts their priorities between making arcade-style games and more simulation style games. In the past, I’ve taken to calling Codemasters games “pseudo-sims” because while they tend to be more realistic and difficult than arcadey racing games but not as intense as games like rFactor and iRacing.
I should say, that was the case until I got to Dirt Rally. While Dirt 3 was much closer to a sim than the likes of Dirt Showdown, Dirt Rally feels like it goes to another level beyond that. It might not be as detailed or difficult as the likes of iRacing but that doesn’t mean it’s pick up and play, either. Of course, that’s definitely not a bad thing.
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