Banished is a city builder for people who haven’t played city builders and therefore don’t know what they’re missing. It doesn’t do anything that about a half dozen other city builders haven’t already done better. It’s Tropico stripped of any flavor, or Anno stripped of its elaborate economic interdependences, or Children of the Nile minus any of Tilted Mill’s insight into the genre, or Settlers without the hearty Germanic personality, or Stronghold without the castle. It’s a bare bones proof-of-concept without any larger gameplay framework, like one of those version .097 betas that might come together as a modest little game in about six months to a year.
When all three of us like the latest McG release — no small thanks to Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, and Amber Heard! — it might be a sign that we’re finally out of the January doldrums. At the 1:06 mark, we talk about prayer for this week’s 3×3.
Tom Chick, Nick Diamon, and Chris Hornbostel talk about starvation, freezing to death, tornadoes, the comparative merits of squash or pumpkin, and which city builders they might rather be playing than this often uneven indie project.
You might have guessed how some of the sound effects were created in Paradox’s Europa Universalis IV. Of course lettuce is used for the conquistador. I mean, duh. But until you watch the above video, you’ll never guess how they recreate the sound effects for turning pages and clinking coins.
The Order 1886 makes for a terrible demo at this stage in its development. It looks like a Gears clone with a Steampunk skin. The demo showed a cutscene where you tap out Morse code, then a QTE melee (press triangle to grab the knife!), and then some lackluster covershootering. Then we get to another cutscene to find out all the fuss was about a crate. Yep, a crate. What’s in the crate? We’re about to find out. It must be important. The crate gets opened. What’s in there? Here we go!
It’s a gun. There’s a gun in the crate. All that for a gun. We just saw dozens of them in action and here’s one more, in a crate. QTEs, covershootering, and a gun in a crate, coming — exclusively! — to a Playstation 4 near you later this year.
So why am I eager to see how The Order turns out? Find out after the jump.Continue reading →
That’s a typical question when someone glances over your shoulder while you’re playing Loadout. It’s a fair question, and not just for the exaggerated cartoon art style of both games. Both games are frenetic team shooters that go all in for humor as a form of style. Both games are chock full of varied detailed weapon choices. Both games are free to play. So it’s a valid question to consider whether and why you’re playing Loadout instead of Team Fortress.
A common refrain in videogame reviews is that some videogames are released in need of a patch, or maybe more testing, or extra work on stability issues, or polish, or however you express that it wasn’t quite ready for release. Robinson Crusoe is like that. It’s a really lovely little game. That isn’t quite done. It should be an object lesson in both how to make a game and how not to release a game.
After the jump, which game would take you to a deserted island?Continue reading →
Apologies for the epic length podcast this week, but we have a lot to hash out about the Robocop remake/reboot. So the 3×3, which is about oceans, doesn’t start until the 1:27 mark.
Headlines in the news yesterday proclaimed that scientists have started to “count whales from space”. Which, of course, means they’re using satellites and whatnot to track whale populations. It doesn’t mean the other thing it could mean. That would have been pretty cool. For that, we have Windforge, a zepplin-crammed RPG set in a procedurally generated world with this bullet point:
The first game to include minable sky whales, and meat blocks
If you don’t believe me, you can get independent verification here. Windforge is out on March 11.
One of the latest tweaks to zombie mythology is telling the story from the perspective of the zombies, or at least from a perspective sympathetic to the poor little guys. This is often for the absurdity of it all (Billy Connolly in Fido), or it doesn’t really make any sense (Warm Bodies), or it’s just clumsy (George Romero’s zombie/human detente at the end of Land of the Dead is the logical conclusion once he introduced the loveable Bub in Day of the Dead). Sometimes it’s actually thoughtful and intriguing, but not much of a movie (Colin).
Tom Chick and Jason McMaster talk about Infamous: Second Son, Evolve, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Hearthstone, Marvel Heroes, and something called Mercenary Kings that you’ll be hearing more about shortly. Also, new existential knock-knock jokes and totally real listener mail.
Just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a game by its carefully presented February Sony Showcase. So take these pre-impressions of Infamous: Second Son with a grain of salt. A grain of bright pink and purple salt.
It’s really too bad that Our Darker Purpose didn’t hew more closely to the obvious inspiration it takes from Binding of Isaac. Whereas Our Darker Purpose is a slow, often repetitive, and sometimes tedious grind to somewhere yet to be determined, Binding of Isaac has a sense of snappy pacing and steady progression. It routinely doles out weird new treasures. But Our Darker Purpose can barely be arsed to spare an occasional juice box for a few points of healing. It’s enough to make me wonder if Our Darker Purpose is trying to keep me back because the end isn’t done yet. Is this an early access game that wants me to play the early bits over and over, or is it really this, uh, deliberate?
Join us this week for a spirited disagreement about Dallas Buyers Club and what sets apart a great performance from simply acting. In the process, we pronounce Jard Leto’s name at least three different ways. Then, at the 56-minute mark, we discuss our favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman moments. RIP PSH.
