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Life is Strange – Episode Five Review: Time of Your Life
It’s so seldom that I play a game that really moves me. Sure, there are plenty of games that I play that I think are really good or have their poignant moments but I can’t remember the last time I played a game that stuck with me quite the way that Life is Strange has. I came into it expecting to be underwhelmed but Dontnod exceeded all of my expectations and made the best episodic point-and-click adventure game on the market.
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Life is Strange – Episode Four Review: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend
Next week marks the release of the final episodes of both Tales from the Borderlands and Life is Strange. As someone who is reviewing both games, that leaves me a choice of which game I should play first when both finales come out on October 20th. After playing Episode 4: Dark Room, Life is Strange proved that it is the best in class in the episodic adventure game genre.
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Life is Strange – Episode Three Review: Truth and Consequences
Newton’s third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Put simply, for every action take, there is an opposing force pushing the opposite way with equal strength. While that’s a law of physics, Newton may as well have been a philosopher with that one. I’m not sure that there’s a law of physics more appropriately applied to life.
The whole point of Life is Strange is actions and their equal and opposite reactions. You could make the argument that all games that are designed to change themselves to fit your decisions should act like that. If there’s one thing that Dontnod has gotten right through three episodes of Life is Strange, it’s that your decisions cause real and obvious reactions in Arcadia Bay. It certainly extends beyond just little changes in dialogue too.
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Hitman to Launch with Half of Levels at Half-Price
Just when you thought that triple-A couldn’t quite figure out how to do early access properly, Square Enix seems to have hit on a model that is tolerable. Continuing their rather interesting news week last week, Square Enix unveiled the launch plans for next year’s Hitman. Half of the game’s content will be available at launch with the remaining half rolling out over the course of the next three months.
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Life is Strange – Episode Two Review: Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro is an art term for the use of strong contrasts between light and dark in a composition. It’s the concept that forms the basis of most strong black-and-white photographs. No, Life is Strange – Episode Two: Out of Time isn’t presented in black and white in a literal sense. It contrasts light and dark themes to pull off emotionally impactful moments in just two episodes what it takes Telltale five episodes or BioWare dozens of hours to achieve.
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Square Enix Cancels Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Pre-Order Scheme
About a month ago, Square Enix and Eidos Montreal announced one of the most ridiculous pre-order programs for the upcoming Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The scheme, called “Augment Your Pre-Order,” had five tiers of pre-order content that had options for gamers to choose from but each was locked until an unspecified number of pre-orders was achieved. The highest of those tiers was an early launch date for people who pre-ordered the game.
In the month since the launch, Square Enix was raked through the press and gamers mocked SquEnix. It seems that as a result of overwhelming public pressure, Square Enix and Eidos Montreal have cancelled the Augment Your Pre-Order program.
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Life is Strange – Episode One Review: If I Could Turn Back Time
With the final episode of Life is Strange, Square Enix and Dontnod’s surprise hit episodic adventure game, coming out on October 20th, I think that’s as good an excuse as any to play through it and get it all reviewed between now and the release of that last episode. Critics adore this game and review scores are getting better with every episode. My interest comes in that I find that my reviews often contradict the critics in that where critics see improvement, I see it differently. Will I see a game floated as a game of the year contender differently that the rest?
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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Comes with a Ridiculous Pre-Order Scheme
Sometimes, it really pays to read beyond the headline. For example, if you were sent a press release that says “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Launch Date Revealed,” you would think that the press release was mostly about the game’s launch date and a little bit about what is available for pre-order.
That what I thought it was until I got to the subheading of “Player Choice Prevails with Augment Your Pre-Order Campaign; Collector’s Edition Unveiled.” At first glance, player choice and pre-order bonuses seems like it’s a long-awaited change to the typical pre-order plan. Then you see how Square Enix has put it together and you can’t but help but hit your head off your desk.
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E3 2015: Final Fantasy VII is Getting the HD Remake Treatment
When we first found out that Final Fantasy VII was coming to the PS4 as an HD remake, people were extremely disappointed. After all the hope that came with the Final Fantasy VII PS3 tech demo from 2005, people have been clamoring for a full remake of the game in the style of the Final Fantasy: Advent Children movie. Instead, December’s PlayStation Experience event showed the original Final Fantasy VII slightly cleaned up for PS4.
It’s funny what Square Enix had up their sleeve to be played six months later. Sony scored a major coup for the PlayStation press conference at E3 with the surprise reveal of a major remake of Final Fantasy VII.
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E3 2015: Square Enix Trailer Roundup
The pre-E3 media briefings started with a newcomer to the show and ended the same way. It was Square Enix who rounded out the action on Tuesday just before the doors opened on E3 proper. Surprisingly, Square Enix did most of its big reveals before E3 or at the Sony press conference. However, they had one official announcement under their sleeve that surprised no one but was still a welcome sight to gamers.
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