This week’s wallet threat is seriously elevated due to the release of three Star Wars themed tables for Pinball FX. Two of the tables are superlative, and arguably among the best developer Zen Studios has ever made. And the third is, well, still pretty decent considering that the Clone Wars cartoon theme is about as appealing to me as a Rocky and Bullwinkle theme. I’ll have more details tomorrow, but you should put your wallet on standby for about ten bucks.
Also, batten down your wallet’s hatches if you have any interest in old school, party-based, stat-heavy RPGs where you get to draw maps on your Nintendo DS. The basic summary of Etrian Odyssey IV: Something Something the Titan Something is that Atlus has done it again! And this time the new skill trees make character builds less inscrutable, the zeppelin overworld offers more non-linearity, and the casual difficulty level is always there if you find yourself against a brick wall (I haven’t needed it yet!). Etrian Odyssey IV is still a lot of grinding, but that’s just a fact of Etrian Odysseys. I’ll have a full review up after I’ve made more progress, but I can safely say that fellow Etrian Odyssists won’t be disappointed.
I should also warn you that Brutal Legend, my choice for best game of the year in 2009, is out this week for the PC. In case you didn’t know, it’s not just a wondrous open-world game, even for people like me who aren’t into heavy metal and who find Jack Black uniquely grating. It’s also a damn fine real-time strategy game. Don’t come whining to me about how there are no new real-time strategy games until you’ve gotten your mouse and keyboard on Brutal Legend.
I don’t think Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, which is also out this week, is real. Developer Rebellion is probably pranking us. I’m not going to fall for it. But if there is a Nazi zombie army, I can think of no better man to defeat it than an elite sniper. Wait, can zombies tell the direction they’re being sniped from? Someone should make a game that explores that question.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is out this week. I’d like to say I’ve played it. Technically, I have. But only the first thirty minutes or so, and then about an hour of the next five minutes. Look, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, I’m no stranger to brawlers. I understand precise timing. But I can’t get past your robot puma that has a chainsaw on its tail. You’ve obviously put that battle in here to teach me parrying, which I’ve accomplished several times successfully in the tutorial mission that I’ve replayed a couple of times to make sure I understand it. But after no less than 20 attempts at this puma with a chainsaw on its tail, I’m just going to assume that you’re not for me. Which is fine, since I still have Devil May Cry.
Crysis 3 is out this week. It’s very Crysis 3.
Finally, Paradox’s March of the Eagles focuses on combat during the early 19th century, when combat was one of the least interesting things happening.
Aliens: Colonial Marine is out this week. I’ve played through the campaign, about half of it co-operatively, and I’ve sampled some multiplayer. The review won’t be posted until tomorrow, so the wallet threat level will have to stand in until then.
Also, Paradox is publishing yet another Dungeon Keeper clone, this time developed by Cyanide, called Impire [sic].
Also out this week is a free 2.0 update for A Valley Without Wind that completely overhauls the graphics and gameplay for this boldly weird endless Metroidvania action RPG, which I really liked. I haven’t tried this overhaul yet, but no one refuses to leave well enough alone like Valley Without Wind developer Arcen Games.
This week it’s time to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights in space. Not only will you bear arms in Dead Space 3, you’ll build them, customize them, and take them apart to build new ones. Although this might sound like a gimmick, I can attest that it’s one heck of an effective gimmick. As far as horror games go, Dead Space 3 is about as effective as Resident Evil 5. That’s not a compliment. But as far as shooters with weapon progression and meaningful two-player co-op go, it’s also about as effective as Resident Evil 5. That is a compliment. A big one. I can understand that folks are irked at EA’s usual microtransactional meddling in the Dead Space economy. Yeah, it’s pretty crass. But it’s also easy to entirely ignore.
Fire Emblem is one of my least favorite SRPGs for how a story I couldn’t care less about is baked into a tactics system I couldn’t care less about. Does a lance trump a sword or an axe? Or vice versa? Even though I get to make my own character, Fire Emblem: Awakening on the Nintendo 3DS feels like any other Fire Emblem game. Make of that what you will.
A new Sly Cooper game — Thieves in Time, from the folks who made Secret Agent Clank — is out simultaneously for the PS3 and the Vita.
It was immediately clear when I sat down to play Sins of a Dark Age, the upcoming real time strategy game from Sins of a Solar Empire developer Ironclad, that I was playing a game like League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients. Or, as they’re known by the unfortunate acronym for multiplayer online battle arena, a MOBA.
I chose a hero, I was killing AI controlled minions and other players’ heroes to earn xp and gold, I was choosing among my hero’s four skills when I leveled up, I was buying equipment towards a specific character build, and I was pushing down lanes or jungling or some combination thereof. It was all pretty familiar.
But then a banner popped up along the top of the screen announcing something that never happens in MOBAs.
After the jump, what that banner said Continue reading →
The Cave is the first game from Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert since he hooked up with the folks at Double Fine. It’s out this week.
Shootmania, the shooter from the folks who made Trackmania, is intended to be a flexible construction kit for players to make a variety of different game types. But if I know online shooters, it will be a bunch of dudes free-for-all deathmatching, first to fifty frags wins.
The PS3 exclusive JRPG Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a collaborative effort from Studio Ghibli and Level-5. I would have played it by now if the Playstation 3 that I got to replace my dead Playstation 3 hadn’t died within days of getting it. If this happens eight more times, it’ll rival my failure rate with Xbox 360s.
The hex is dead. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to while playing territory-based games like Eador: Genesis on the PC and Battle of the Bulge on the iOS, where you fight over maps built from discrete chunks, each a package of unique personality that you won’t get on a screenful of hexes or tiles.
This is particularly true in Shenandoah Studios’ carefully crafted swathe of the Ardennes where Battle of the Bulge takes place. As an example of level design, it is on par with Facing Worlds in Unreal Tournament, the Shire in Lord of the Rings Online, the last level of Painkiller, Siren Alley in Bioshock 2, and the Glendale track in Need for Speed: Shift 2. So I started writing about each of the territories. I got about half way down the right edge of the map before I was sick of listening to myself write. I’d much rather listen to other people write about this place.
So I opened the mic to various people who either made the game or who have been playing it with me. I asked them to choose a favorite territory and tell me why it was their favorite. The variety of approaches they took is a testament to what a great game this is.
After the jump, the Battle of the Bulge favorite territory poetry/prose slam Continue reading →
You can only mutter “well, it’s no Bayonetta” to yourself so many times before you have to grudgingly admit that the new Devil May Cry from Ninja Theory, out this week, may not be so bad after all. Then you realize there are still 17 chapters to go.
Also out this week is new DLC for Boderlands 2 and Crusader Kings II. One game gets an add-on called The Republic. The other game gets an add-on called Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt. For ten points, guess which title goes with which game’s DLC!
A long time ago, strategy articles about boardgames went through an extensive process to get to you. First, they had to be typed. Diagrams had to be mocked up. They then had to be mailed to an editor, who put them in a magazine, which had to be printed and mailed. Eventually, they appeared in your mailbox.
Those days are gone, and I’m a little sad about it. Now, people apparently watch gameplay videos. That’s okay, I guess. There is a set of gameplay videos up for Battle of the Bulge which I haven’t watched yet. Videos are great for watching, but less great for savoring. You can bet that’s what I did with every morsel of strategy advice I ever read for Afrika Korps. Maybe games are more disposable now, or maybe they always were and I just didn’t know it. But there is something to examining a game methodically, and turning it over and over until you have a better appreciation of what it offers. Even if it doesn’t come in a cool magazine.
After the jump, first we take Bastogne Continue reading →
I’m not sure that any of these games would have made my top ten, but I never got around to trying the Walking Dead series, Mark of the Ninja, Hitman: Absolution, Guardians of Middle Earth, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Natural Selection 2, Last Story, Tokyo Jungle, Yakuza: Dead Souls, or Spec Ops: The Line. So, mea culpa maxima.
But of the games I did play, here are my favorites for the year.
After the jump, the Qt3 trophies go to… Continue reading →
Of all the years I’ve been playing videogames, 2012 was definitely one of them.
After the jump, some specifics Continue reading →
Overrated is a loaded term. It looks good in a headline. It’s often used for no purpose other than to goad a reaction. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. When I call a game overrated, I don’t mean it’s bad, that the reviews were wrong, that the people who liked it were dopes, or even that I didn’t like it. It just means I’m surprised more people weren’t more critical, that the conversation wasn’t more often about ways the game could have been better.
After the jump, the most overrated games of 2012 Continue reading →
Calling a game disappointing arguably has more to do with me than the game itself. Disappointment isn’t an inherent quality. It can’t exist without some sort of expectation in the first place. In many cases, these games are sequels, or the creations of developers with proven track records, or entries in established genres. But for various reasons, the central fact about these games is that I had hoped to like them better.
After the jump, I’m not mad… Continue reading →
Okay, so you probably know this as the week Far Cry 3 comes out. Which it is. And while Far Cry 3 is a perfectly fine open world game, I wouldn’t call it a substantial wallet threat. Instead, my wallet is in danger from the prospect of a Defense of the Ancients clone by Monolith featuring characters from Lord of the Rings. Balrog, I chose you! Guardian of Middle Earth will only be available on console systems, so Awesomenauts has some competition.
Also, the Dragonbone expansion is out for Skyrim. Just imagine Max von Sydow intoning, “Dragonbone!” Sold.
When D&D Fourth Edition was released, there was a huge backlash from the player community. The game that they had known and played for years had been changed completely, and there was no denying that it shared a lot mechanically with modern video games. In an attempt to gain new players, Wizards had alienated a portion of their player base; never a good idea in the niche hobby market. Paizo Publishing – a former partner of WotC – even went so far as to continue adding rules and modules for D&D 3.5 under the name Pathfinder, and it’s still one of the most popular RPGs being played today.
But as I went to bed that night, so very alone, I couldn’t help but think that D&D Next might bring a lot of those die-hard 3.5ers back into the fold while keeping their 4th edition audience as well. Is WotC having their cake and eating it too?
After the jump, more food metaphors Continue reading →
