I’ve equipped my Cyclone FG Pro irons, Superior Shadow wedges, TNT Mighty putter, Pulse Tee-Time balls, and my precious Mass Driver Woods. As I step up to the tee of the 6th hole at the City Park Invitational golf course Astrid Claussen, my severe yet indispensable caddy, takes note of the wind direction. I try and block out the sound of police sirens in the distance and chirping birds in the trees around me. I wait for a train to pass overhead from the elevated tracks of the monorail.
My opponent, one Henry Copperbottom, has just hit a devastating drive. As his ball soars through the air it bursts like a firework scattering five balls across the fairway. His special ability, illusion ball, enables him to keep the ball closest to the pin.
My golfer, Reiko Kobayashi, breaks out her Mass Driver: its green head surrounded by turbo charged pistons. It glows with power, purple lightning pulsing up and down the club. I hit a perfect drive setting up an easy approach to the green. Even Astrid sounds impressed.
After the jump, the best (and only) RPG of this young generation. Continue reading →
In the Breakdown DLC for State of Decay, you’re no longer playing towards State of Decay’s final mission. What was previously a once-and-done zombie apocalypse with an abrupt and decisive end is now an open-ended world without end. In theory. In practice, the difficulty ramps up until you fail. That’s a pretty decisive end, but not at all sudden. It’s also a fundamental part of zombie mythology. The zombies always win. The demise of all your survivors is a matter of when, not if. The main difference is that this time, you know what you’re doing. This time, your heroes are a band of experienced competent ruthless efficient survivalists. This is no amateur hour zombie apocalypse.
After the jump, there’s no more room in hell, but we can accommodate you on a harder map. Continue reading →
Scott Dobrosielsky joins Jason McMaster to talk about the shiny, new XBox One. Watching TV, playing golf, driving fast, killing zombies and savaging dudes in ancient Rome are on the agenda. We even talk about games!
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Gender discrimination in videogames has to stop. In the nearly two decades I’ve spent covering the industry, 2013 was one of the most egregious years I can remember in terms of how women were portrayed in videogames. I am astonished at how blatant it is, and at how few people are talking about it, and at how few developers are willing to recognize it. I can no longer stand idly by. It’s time to speak out.
After the jump, I call out the entire videogaming industry. Continue reading →
There’s this game about collecting and driving vehicles. In this game, you start with a low-end slower ride and graduate to faster, more capable, vehicles by completing missions or racing, getting paid, and buying new movers. Now imagine that game gives you the option to skip the grind and just buy the faster vehicles with real money. How much would you be willing to pay?
I’ll take two of those for a dollar after the jump! Continue reading →
The installs may take forever, the UI may look cluttered, odious monetization schemes may lurk around every corner, and my new best friend the Kinect is always watching, but hot damn if Microsoft’s launch titles aren’t good. Despite all the media center ambitions and social interfacing, systems are sold because of exclusives. So let’s talk some games.
After the jump, gladiator porn, car porn, and zombie porn. Continue reading →
On launch day for the XBox One, I picked up two games – Dead Rising 3 and NBA 2K14. I absolutely love Dead Rising 3, but that’s not what we’re going to talk about. Oh no. We’re taking this motha down Kurtis Blow style.
After the jump, I’m talking basketball Continue reading →
Double Fine Productions has regained control of the Costume Quest and Stacking franchises. In their announcement, Double Fine will retain control of the game licenses while Nordic Games will be the retail release partner for both of the games as well as Psychonauts through the first half of 2014. Nordic Games’ CEO, Lars Wingefors, said they are happy with the agreement.
“We can’t wait to partner with Double Fine for this upcoming retail launch of three of its most excellent games. However, I feel compelled to point out that we were happy to transfer distribution rights for Costume Quest and Stacking back to Double Fine in an entirely non-secretive and heist-free manner.”
Nordic Games had acquired the rights to Costume Quest and Stacking through the THQ bankruptcy auction in April.
There is no multiplayer in Need for Speed Rivals because it’s all multiplayer. That’s why I have to wait for a minute or so whenever I want to play. “Finding game to join” it says. That’s before the game even loads. Then it has to load. Then I’m at a menu and not even in the game yet. I might not have minded all this if the multiplayer was as diverse and creative as the multiplayer in Need for Speed Most Wanted. It’s not. It’s just a modest handful of us doing our own thing on the same map, like an unwitting car club that didn’t tell each other where they were meeting this month. There’s so and so chasing a car. Or running from one. It’s hard to tell. There’s someone’s Xbox Live avatar on the map. And another one. And another one. Such-and-such account name just joined. The announcement appears on the center of my screen, as if it’s something I should really care about. I’m in the middle of finessing a drift around a cliffside bend and now I’m staring at a screen about the host migrating. Waiting for each of the other random yahoos. Waiting. Waiting. And now I’m idling on the side of the road near that cliffside bend.
After the jump, (almost) always online. Continue reading →
Alexander J. Velicky is a Skyrim modding legend. He’s the industrious young man that spent over 2000 hours to create the Falskaar mod which contained a new land, assets, voice acting, and a new soundtrack. Velicky wanted to get a job at Bethesda and was hoping Falskaar would make a good resume. Well, he’s gotten a job in the industry – at Bungie. He’ll be an Associate Designer at the Destiny developer. Velicky posted his announcement on the official Skyrim boards and thanked the community for their support. He also offered some advice to budding designers.
Of course, all of this leaves me with one corny ‘life lesson’ that I’d like to extend to all of you. Never be afraid to try. I set my sights on a professional design job pretty early, I lowered my head, charged forward, and rarely looked back. Of course, I ensured what I was doing had a reasonable chance for success from time to time. But the most surprising of all, is who I’ve ended up with. I applied to many companies, and Bungie was in my, “Huge company that will completely ignore me.” category. Well, they didn’t and look what it got me. Bungie is an awesome company with an amazing team, and I’m very lucky that they’ve decided to give me a chance! Never be afraid to try. I spent the time it took to apply and the rewards are proving to be greater than I could have possible imagined.
Velicky hopes to continue modding games in his spare time. The latest build of his Falskaar mod can be found at the Skyrim Nexus.
This post is the second is a series that examines this year’s console launches through the eyes of the Twitterverse. For more on the project, see the description in the previous post.
As of the evening of the 24th of November, I have dutifully collected 4,168,778 English language tweets about the PS4 and the Xbox One. A few minor technical glitches aside, this represents 348 consecutive hours of tweets that include words and hash tags relevant to the new consoles.
After the jump, find out whether Swedish soccer legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic and One Direction member Louis Tomlinson play the same system…
Continue reading →
Valve has announced Steam Reviews. Steam Reviews are different from the current system of your friends recommending a game because everyone can see them. Users can rate reviews up to increase their prominence on a product’s store page. While these reviews do not contribute to an aggregate score now, Valve does plan to implement some kind of overall scoring process.
Q. Do these written reviews create an overall score or rating for a product?
A. Not yet, but we are looking to add that during the beta. Many products on Steam change significantly over time as the game or software is updated and new content is added. In order to form a score that accurately reflects the current state of a product, we first need to gather and evaluate the data from reviews.
Developers will have the opportunity to flag reviews as offensive, in which case they will show up in a “collapsed” form until a Steam moderator can look into the complaint. Wait until developer payouts from publishers depend on their Steam reviews!
Late Thursday night a fleet of black and green armored cars branded with the words “Xbox One” set upon Times Square; LaFerrari super cars emitting a green neon glow sped up and down the streets of Manhattan; and hordes of people dressed as zombies shambled across the Brooklyn Bridge. Forty miles away I was tucked in bed asleep as my preorder wended its way from an Amazon warehouse to my door.
I approached the launch of the Playstation 4, my first day one console, like a kid. I was filled with excitement and anticipation for my new toy. The letdown I had was probably inevitable. I’m not ten years old anymore. So with the imminent arrival of the Xbox One, my second day one console, I tempered my expectations. I’d try and come at this one like a reasonable adult.
After the jump, a Panopitcon in every living room. Continue reading →
The FIFA Manager line is ending. FIFA Manager 14 will be the last game of the football (soccer to us Yanks) management sim series from Electronic Arts. Gerald Kohler, the creator and designer of the games, posted an open letter to fans regarding the decision to end the franchise. Kohler explained that the market for the management sim genre is dominated by one title, presumably the Football Manager series, and there just wasn’t enough budget to compete.
The football manager genre at this level of sophistication is highly specialised and primarily played in two countries (England and Germany), in which – on top of everything – one game has practically dominated the market in recent years. The niche market and general trend toward online and mobile games were also contributing factors. Moreover, FM had reached a crossroads at which a new engine and/or corresponding online technology would be the only way to give the series a boost. When all these factors were evaluated, it led us to the decision to blow the final whistle.
The FIFA Manager games began in 2002.
In the course of not seeing Hunger Games: Catching Fire, we watch Margin Call director J.C. Chandor’s survival thriller, All Is Lost. We’re pretty sure we made the right call. At the one-hour mark, this week’s 3X3 is modern movies that have to be in black-and-white.
Next week: Oldboy. The remake.
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