Like movies and television, videogames have their fair share of products that didn’t quite make it to the audience. Like Jerry Lewis’ movie about a clown that leads children to the gas chamber in a concentration camp, many games have been cancelled and forgotten. Let’s take a quick look at what we might have played had things turned out differently.
After the jump, the world could have been a very different place Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their fourth entry.
Brandon: I had my first setback today as I was repeatedly killed by a trio of giant, spiked beasts while exploring some haunted cathedral. Luckily there’s no penalty for dying other than the metaphysical torment so I just respawned at my corpse and kept hitting them.
Tom: Ah, the halcyon days before level ten! There will be a penalty to your equipment durability shortly. It’s one of Blizzard’s favorite ways to punish you for dying. Basically, a half-hearted lash with a wet noodle. Since the console version of Diablo III doesn’t have an auction house, I can’t imagine there’s much of a money sink in store for us.
After the jump, diamonds on the soles of my shoes…and everywhere else! Continue reading →
When Sunless Sea was announced a month ago, we listed ten things you should know about the latest game from Fallen London developer Failbetter Games. Here’s one more:
11) The Kickstarter campaign has just started.
The Xbox One console will be able to support wirelessly connecting up to 8 controllers at once. According to new data added to the Xbox One Wireless Controller page, Microsoft’s next-gen console will support double the number that the Xbox 360 could connect. Your household cephalopod will be so happy!
In related news, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed that the PlayStation 4 will only support four controllers at a time. Did you know that you can connect up to seven controllers to the PS3? It’s true. Very few games use more than four controllers, but you can do it. Perhaps your octopus lost one of its tentacles?
At E3, both Sony and Microsoft touted their next-gen consoles’ ability to expand their hard drive storage with external options. As it turns out, there are some clarifications for both machines. Updates from company representatives over the weekend resulted in new information for gamers that may have them considering how many games they can install at the same time.
The Xbox One comes with a 500GB hard drive. At E3, we learned that all games will require installation to the hard drive, and that the drive will not be something that gamers will be able to replace. Microsoft did say that people could expand the console’s storage via the USB 3.0 port using an external drive for game installs and other files. During a PAX Prime podacst Microsoft’s Major Nelson said that the ability to use external storage with the Xbox One will not be available at launch.
“The future plan is for definitely to support external storage much like we do on the Xbox 360. My understanding is that feature will not be there at launch because the team is working on some other things, but it definitely is on the list. I don’t know when it will come in though.”
Sony’s PlayStation 4 also comes with a 500GB internal drive and games will require installation. The storage capability of the PS4 can be expanded via an external drive, but new information from Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida clarifies that there are caveats. An external drive cannot be used to install games, making the addition of a USB thumbdrive a limited solution for gamers keen on a cheap storage option. Fortunately, gamers can change out the internal drive with any standard laptop hard drive, so there is a way to natively get more room for games.
PAX Prime is an odd experience when you go with a family. Everyone has different interests, so you have to split up at times if the party is going to get the most out of the exhibitions. “Oh, you want to see Ubisoft’s The Crew before we grab some lunch? I want to see Ryse: Son of Rome.” Sometimes, you have to be willing to compromise because every bit of the show floor looks like the image above. It’s just a crowded mess.
Yesterday, PAX gave us some big-budget gaming. For the final day, let’s wrap things up with a look at some other games.
After the jump, the family that attends PAX together, plays together. Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their third entry.
Brandon:Was the PC version this stingy with information for the player? I’m not looking for a JRPG experience where I’m still getting tutorials ten hours into the game, but I feel like there’s a lot of stuff here that Blizzard is assuming the player will just stumble onto.
Tom: I don’t recall the PC version being stingy with information, but that was over a year and a hundred hours of game time ago. So much of this is so familiar to me, which is how it should be. The basic experience of Diabloing is remarkably intact, with only a few exceptions that stands out like a sore thumb for me.
After the jump, sore thumbs Continue reading →
Rayman Legends is out this week. If the sequel to Rayman Origins is half as good as Rayman Origins, platformer fans will have another must-have. However, if it doesn’t have a playable Goth Teensy, I will freak the flip out.
Now that the Total War games got really good with the last Shogun, I’m eager to see how Rome II has turned out. If you know any of the following words, you’re probably as eager as I am: hastati, principe, triarii, peltast, velite, onager, flammable pigs.
As you can see from our daily updates, Diablo III: The Living Room Edition is available now for your latest-gen console of choice that isn’t a Wii U.
Outlast is an indie found-footage horror game for the PC that isn’t very good unless you’re into jump scares. Here is the impromptu review I let slip at the first jump scare: “Oh god! JEE-sus Christ…”
Sega releases an updated Mickey Mouse platformer that only needs to clear the modest bar set by Capcom’s Donald Duck platformer from a few weeks back.
We know you didn’t see Closed Circuit, but listen to this week’s podcast for details of how you can support the podcast while simultaneously choosing a movie for our September 30 episode! Plus a little talk about Getaway, in which Ethan Hawke drives Selena Gomez around an Eastern European country with a lot of police cars to spare. Skip to 52-minute mark for this week’s 3×3 of our favorite horror movie kills.
Next week: Riddick
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That’s the morning queue to get into Pax Prime 2013. It’s hot and stifling in this room, and about an hour before they let people into the main hall, the crowd reaches Funk-con 4. Besides smell, the other thing the image doesn’t convey is the audio experience of Mountain Dew and Doritos blasting butt-rock while someone screeches about your chance to win an Xbox One.
Yesterday’s tour of Pax Prime 2013 was a down and dirty look at the Great Northwest’s premiere gaming convention. This time, let’s check out some of the gaming goodness!
This tour of Pax Prime 2013 has been brought to you by Mountain Dew and Doritos after the jump! Continue reading →
Microsoft and Mojang mix some Mass Effect into your Minecraft.
…the first Mash-up Pack will feature the popular Mass Effect franchise, allowing fans to play in the stunning recreation of the Mars Facility from Mass Effect 3 or create their own worlds with special Mass Effect textures and craft-able items. The Mash-up also includes themed menus and user interface, 36 pixel-perfect Mass Effect character skins and 22 music tracks from the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack.
The $4 add-on will be available on Wednesday. The ending will be changed sometime this fall.
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their second entry.
Brandon: Let’s talk about Ellishandra, my wizard lady.
Tom: That’s a lovely name. I can tell Ni No Kuni has shamed you into thinking up actual fantasy names, like at a Renn Faire or in a George R. R. Malkin book.
Brandon: Diablo III picked my character’s name. I kept backing out of the name screen until I got something I liked. I rarely pick my own name.
Tom: I don’t trust Diablo III to pick my character name, because other people might think I picked it. To show that I’m above caring about fantasy lore, I named my character Arrowchick.
After the jump, can you guess what class she is? Continue reading →
That’s PAX Prime 2013 summed up with one image. It’s kid-friendly Donkey Kong right next to Bayonetta 2’s bad posture. There’s your thousand words right there. It’s cosplayers rubbing shoulders with salespeople in suits. It’s techno music blaring out of speakers right by the restrooms. It’s 15-foot tall TV screens showing pre-recorded gameplay on a 30-second loop. It’s card floppers and dice chuckers sitting near kids trading virtual pocket monsters. It’s thousands of gamers packed into one convention center jockeying to play what the marketing folks will allow them to see. It’s chaos and it’s awesome.
Let’s take a tour through PAX after the jump! Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their first entry.
Tom: I am a sucker for Diablo III. And I’m not ashamed. I can play it merrily without grousing about the auction house or unbalanced character builds or the endgame grind or the storyline or whatever. I’m gladly picking up what Blizzard is putting down. They’ve got my number. That said, I’m not sure I’m ready to take Diablo III into the living room.
Brandon: I’m not playing Diablo III in my living room, so hopefully that doesn’t trash my journalistic integrity. I have a sitting room off of the bedroom on the first floor and — you know what, never mind. Diablo III!
After the jump, where to begin? Continue reading →
It’s been a long time since director Renny Harlin dropped a screaming blonde woman down a chasm, sucked Cary Elwes up into a tornado, and fed Samuel Jackson to a shark. Those were the days. And what is he reduced to now? Giving cameras to good-looking talentless actors and letting them traipse around the wilderness for yet another half-assed Blair Witch Project found-footage wanna-be. Welcome to Devil’s Pass. You might think Harlin could wring some local flavor out of the story’s attempt at a Bermuda Triangle in the Urals, where the characters ponder whether they’ll face a yeti, UFOs, or Russian secret experiments. But all you get is 90% dull travelogue — “Whee, we’re in Russia!” — and 9% Grave Encounters rip-off in which CG monsters shriek at the camera in that familiar night-vision green. The remaining 1% is a CG avalanche. At night. Dark Pass’s real accomplishment is making Chernobyl Diaries, another horrible movie about found footage in secret Russian installations, look good. You’re better off just reinstalling STALKER, where the abandoned Soviet military bases are free of annoying actors and poorly shot found footage.
Dark Pass is available on VOD. Don’t bother.
