What happens when you mix an arcade style shoot-’em-up with a rhythm game and then do it all backwards? You get the delightful (and difficult) Retro/Grade. Originally released as an indie game on the PlayStation 3, Retro/Grade has made the jump to PC.
Rhythm games and shoot-em-ups have been done before so the base genres are well represented in gaming. However, they’ve never been done like this.
The ongoing concern of gamers over whether they can trust the journalists who write news and reviews has been at a near boiling point for the last year or so. There was the battle between gamers and the press over Mass Effect 3’s ending. Journalists at the Games Media Awards were encouraged to tweet about Trion’s upcoming Defiance with a reward of a PS3 being available for one lucky winner. Then there are the regular accusations of good or bad reviews for certain games being bought by publishers.
What brought this issue to a head for me was the recent revelation in a GameTrailers interview that Hideki Kojima had run his marketing plan by Geoff Keighley some two years ago at Comic Con. While it’s okay to play along with Moby Dick Studios and The Phantom Pain, what Keighley did and what the rest of the press did is different. It’s one thing for outlets without inside information to connect the dots to give us the likely scoop. It’s another for Keighley to withhold information when he knew the real story of Moby Dick Studios and The Phantom Pain and hype a fake interview on his show that was just a marketing sham.
I’ve been busy this week so today’s set of links might be a little shorter than usual. Hopefully, it’s a case of the decrease in quantity is made up for with an increase in quality. Anyhow, let’s start with Alessandra Ambrosio.
One of the all-time greatest hockey players, Gordie Howe, turned 85 this past Sunday. While he’s just as spry as any 85-year-old. The problem is the toll the game seems to have taken on his mind. (Detroit Free Press)
Disney is a massive corporation. Not many companies would have been able to afford to buy LucasFilm, after all. However, it’s not the Mouse but the Mothership, ESPN, that brings in the biggest dollars. (The Economist)
How does the NRA protect the right to bear arms? Not through meaningful discourse or the use of facts. Solely though scaremongering. (TPM)
Every year, I like to play the unique role of outside insider / prognosticator / comedian with my annual ridiculous predictions series of posts. This time out, I’m making my ridiculous predictions for the NHL Trade Deadline. After all, when experts and reporters talk about deals at the trade deadline, they always think that teams will make deals that make sense for all involved. In reality, the NHL doesn’t work that way. Players have no-trade clauses in their contracts and some GMs have no sense whatsoever. So let’s take a fun look at this year’s NHL trade deadline.
It’s time to once again take a look back at the past month here on the blog with Lowdown Monthly. Considering the amount of content we’ve pushed out over the 31 days in March, I thought now would be a good time to bring it back. So here’s our look back at our favourite and the most popular posts of March. Continue reading
Much to no one’s surprise an EA game is going to be getting DLC and microtransactions. Reports suggest that Maxis is currently working on a new DLC for SimCity and is trying to integrate microtransactions into the game. Despite the changing of the guard in the CEO’s office, it’s business as usual for EA.
The Lowdown 