Most games start the campaign slowly. They introduce concepts and situations at a deliberate pace to keep you from being overwhelmed. Unity of Command, on the other hand, starts with the Second Battle of Kharkov (pictured). It’s listed as a “hard” scenario. Wait a minute, that’s not fair!
After the jump, German high command could learn something from videogame design Continue reading →
That headline is misleading in a couple of ways. First, the game Echo Bazaar, a cannily uncanny union of writing, RPGing, and world building, is no longer called Echo Bazaar. Now it’s called Fallen London, after the name of the place where it’s been set all along. Good move.
Second, they didn’t really ditch Facebook so much as make it optional, which is a great move considering the developers have always been suitably sheepish about hitching their work to social networking. Now you can play Echo Bazaar…err, I mean, now you can play Fallen London by simply registering an email account here. However, the optional social elements of the game — the multiplayer, if you will — are still tied to Twitter and Facebook. Perhaps as the developers develop Fallen London’s nascent clique system, it will make Facebook and Twitter even more optional.
And because it wouldn’t be Fallen London without some great prose, here’s the little snippet of lore that appeared on the side of my screen while I risked scandal by gossiping with the Melancholy Curate’s servants to get information on his Enigmatic Sister.
You can study many things at the University of London. The Department of Cryptozoology studies the small, hidden creatures of the Neath. Creatures that have never been seen, but almost certainly exist. Under the right circumstances. Hopefully. Otherwise, the Department might lose its budget.
It’s August, hot as balls in Altoona (play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian likes to tell me the game-time temperature), and the season is scooting along. At some point along the way, I’ve lost my starting status and been demoted to the backup second baseman for the Curve. I’m getting spot starts at second base and right field (my secondary position is as an all-purpose outfielder) but sometimes a couple games will fly by without my insertion, the schedule’s calendar boxes filling in with simulated results I took no part in. What have I done (or not done) to deserve this?
Afer the jump, absentee landlord Continue reading →
The developers at Slant Six are mostly known for successfully packing Sony’s SOCOM series into the PSP a couple of times. In Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, they’ve tackled an equally ambitious project: packing Resident Evil into a Lost Planet style team-based shooter with asymmetrical characters, persistent progression, some fancy zombie concepts, and online co-op and versus play. All the while, zombies and spec ops soldiers fight it out around you. Jump in whenever you’re ready. It must have been one hell of a design document.
After the jump, the unfortunate matter of the game itself Continue reading →
Unity of Command is billed as an operational-level wargame. That’s totally wrong. It’s actually a game about moving big heads around a map to rub an eraser over colorful enemy territory. That’s my first impression, anyway.
After the jump, wargaming with a kart racing aesthetic Continue reading →
Not enough games have armored zeppelins. Gettysburg: Armored Warfare (pictured!) intends to address that by going back in time and making the Civil War less boring. Unfortunately, it’s one of those team-based multiplayer only shooters with RTS elements that will confound your average gamer and probably leave the servers sparsely populated. For your less boring Civil War single-player needs, you’ll have to be content with Darkest of Days. Go ahead and Google that.
Also out this week is the option to twist a little metal on the Playstation 3 with Wheels of Destruction, a downloadable car combat game. Gears of War 3 gets new maps. Someone hasn’t told Namco that Ridge Racer has been played out for ten years. That guy who cheated on his supermodel wife with a Denny’s waitress has a new golf game.
We love great movies in which Jennifer Lawrence plays the desperate provider for her fatherless backwoods family, subsisting on squirrels and true grit. Unfortunately, this week we saw The Hunger Games instead. At the 40-minute mark, we react to this week’s 3×3 of our favorite reactions.
Next week: Wrath of the Titans
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Last week, I reviewed Journey. If you gauge an article by the quantity of comments in the comments section, it was Quarter to Three’s most successful article. If you gauge an article by the quality of the comments in the comments section, it was Quarter to Three’s least successful article.
In case some of the people who posted comments stuck around, I thought I should answer some of their questions and address some of their concerns. But rather than wade into the morass of comments, I present it here as a FAQ for the Journey review.
After the jump, everything you always wanted to know about the Journey review and weren’t afraid to ask in expletive riddled language Continue reading →
I’m finally in Pirate gold, with a yellow bat to match. It feels good in the hands, with a thin grip and extra weight on the end so momentum can help make up the strength my arms lack. The pitch comes in looking big and fat, and I take a whack, knocking it deep in the alley between the left and center fielders.
After the jump, I’ll Show you mine if you Show me yours… Continue reading →
Maybe it’s the jaunty Toy Story music juxtaposed against my little stick dude getting splatted by a speeding car doodle. Or maybe it’s the fact that the designer gives me the option to instantly become a cat in order to avoid being blown up by a cannon. Or perhaps it’s the part with the jumping truck doodle where you blow the horn and scare away the giant. Or the part where the notebook page tears away (pictured). Whatever it is, Paper World 2: Doodle hit the spot this week. It scratched a similar itch as last week’s community level, where I just needed to try something different.
Speaking of something different…
After the jump, I’m in the shit Continue reading →
Maybe things will slow down in April, but as March subsides, we have far too many things to talk about. Michael Barnes joins us to discuss Mass Effect 3’s fan administered beatdown, the Journey brouhaha, the crazy 2D shooter Sine Mora, the enjoyable awfulness of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Kid Icarus taking flight on the 3DS, and even a taste of the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles. Of course, given that Barnes covers boardgaming over at Gameshark, expect a touch of tabletop talk.
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Confession time. For a series that I count as among my all-time favorites, I’ve never finished a season, or played a Road to the Show career through to retirement. I went years-deep on the latter back in 2007 on the old Playstation Portable version before my locker was broken into at the YMCA and my system stolen. They tried unsuccessfully to purchase thousands of dollars worth of sneakers with my debit card, but ultimately had their purchases invalidated. The career of Mets second baseman Seth Berkowitz was tragically cut short, however. Unless they kept playing it. That would be weird.
After the jump, a subway series Continue reading →
That is an actual thing and it’s comming soon according to the website.
Enjoy one of the most popular sports in the world from the comfort of your home on PS3, or enjoy it anywhere on PS Vita and challenge your friends in a local multiplayer for up to four players and online multiplayer and leaderboards. Running in astonishing FullHD resolution, 60 frames-per-second graphics and with support for PlayStation Move controller on the PS3 and supporting the innovative features of PS Vita, like rear touch pad and accelerometer-powered controls, Foosball 2012 is the supreme experience for any PlayStation owner.
If foosball qualifies as a sport, so does pinball. Which makes me a virtual athlete.
With Kid Icarus: Uprising, Nintendo poses the question, is there any point making one of those on-rails shooters like Star Wars: Rogue Squadron anymore? What are you going to do other than make a lightgun game or a jeep sequence in a Call of Duty? Aren’t you just going to end up with something like those wretched space battles in Star Wars: Old Republic? How much can you do with an on-rails shooter anyway?
Quite a lot, it turns out. Continue reading →
Sony Computer Entertainment of America missed a trick. They could have partnered with Majestic (makers of fine baseball apparel) to allow you to purchase customized, real-life jerseys based on the ones you appear in throughout your Road to the Show career. Let the game creep into your real life as your in-game jersey appears in your mailbox with your name sewn on the back for the low, low price of $99. I would be powerless to resist. The ‘buy’ button that launches the PSN store could pop up during your first appearance in uniform, which in my case was batting practice before my first scheduled start at second base. Dusk was descending, and Wynton Marsalis’s rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner echoed from the stadium speakers. It was a stirring, pastoral scene, and would have been an opportune time for commerce to have its way with me.
After the jump, striking out on my own Continue reading →
