Video Games

Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

It’s Not Free-to-Play but Mobile Gaming That Is Broken

dungeon-keeper-microtransactions-headerThe big story in the games news world right now is EA’s mobile release of Dungeon Keeper. The original Dungeon Keeper was released in 1997 and was an instant cult hit. Gamers loved it and game designers were influenced by it. Even today, Dungeon Keeper is often among the top sellers on GOG.com.

The mobile version of Dungeon Keeper pretends to pay homage to the cult classic and instead bastardizes it with the worst free-to-play microtransactions system that many people have seen. While we’re used to free-to-play cash grabs, this might be the most blatant attempt to stop gameplay at every possible turn to squeeze the player for more money.

I don’t think, however, that the problems with Dungeon Keeper Mobile aren’t a result of the free-to-play model. If you go looking for free-to-play games, not all of them are blatant cash grabs. However, when you look at it more closely, you find that so-called games designed to print are really a mobile gaming problem.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

World of Warcraft Celebrates 10 Years and 100 Million Players

This fall, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft will have been around for ten years. Just ahead of its tenth anniversary, Blizzard announced that the flagship of the MMO genre reached the 100 million account milestone. Those 100 million players have created over 500 million characters in the world of Azeroth. Sure, WoW might not have as many players now as it did at its peak but it’s still the biggest game in MMOs.

For more about the last ten years of WoW, we have a handy infographic for you.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

The Stanley Parable Review: A Successful Experiment

the-stanley-parable-review-headerOne of the terms that I’ve been hearing a lot lately is “experimental gameplay.” The other popular descriptor for games is to refer to some as art. They’re labels that seem to be haphazardly applied to anything that doesn’t conform completely to bog standard gameplay conventions. Gone Home was a game that the critics referred to as both experimental and art. While last week we found out that I disagree with those sentiments, I have found a game that both labels could apply to and certainly qualifies as experimental.

The Stanley Parable is an updated, full release of a 2011 Source engine mod. Like Gone Home, there’s no combat in The Stanley Parable. However, that’s where the similarities end. The Stanley Parable is so experimental, so unorthodox and so brilliant that it certainly earns its place as one of 2013’s best games.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

EB Games Canada is Quietly Raising Prices

eb-games-canada-logoThe Canadian currency market is probably not something most gamers pay attention to but it might be something that will concern Canadian gamers if what EB Games is doing becomes an industry-wide trend.

The Canadian arm of GameStop has very quietly raised the prices of some much-anticipated upcoming games. Rather than being $60 as it was for new games in previous years, EB Games is charging up to $70 for new games that are available for pre-order.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Gone Home Review: A House is Not a Home

gone-home-headerThis year’s surprise hit game was a little indie game called Gone Home. The debut effort of a small indie dev made up of BioShock 2: Minerva’s Den devs is in a way inspired by BioShock but much simpler and focused. For many critics, the straight-forward focus on story made it near-perfect and the game of the year. Many gamers, though, didn’t find it as good as it was hyped up to be. So where does it fall on the spectrum?
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2 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

The Economics of Steam Trading Cards and the Steam Wallet

steam-trading-cards-headerIt’s been six months since Steam introduced their Trading Cards. When they first launched, I was utterly confused as to why anyone would be interested in virtual trading cards that had no purpose and no value. It just seemed like a way for Valve to make some money that no one would buy into.

However, having just completed the Steam Holiday Sale, it’s readily apparent that Valve has hit a home run with the Trading Cards. It’s not just the transaction fees that are making Valve money. The spin-off effect from Trading Cards does just as much to make Steam even more profitable.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

My Most Anticipated Games of 2014

I suppose that it would only make sense to start 2014 the same way that we ended 2013: With more lists. To follow up on my recent Best of 2013 post, I thought that it would only be appropriate to look ahead at the upcoming twelve months with my most anticipated games of 2014.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: The Honourable Mentions

Having given you my list of the seven best games of the last generation of consoles, I thought that I should give you a brief look at some of the games that were on the shortlist but didn’t quite make the cut.

Over the course of eight years and thousands of games, cutting a list of the best of the best down to only seven game leaves many deserving games on the sidelines. So to close out our series looking at the best games of the last generation of consoles, here’s a look at some of the games that were under serious consideration for the list.

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2 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

The Walking Dead: Season Two – Episode One (Spoiler-Free) Review: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

the-walking-dead-season-two-headerThe surprise hit of 2012 was The Walking Dead. Given how often that licensed games disappoint and Telltale’s shaky track record before the release of the first episode of their The Walking Dead series, no one was expecting Telltale’s new game set in the universe  of The Walking Dead comic books to be as great as it was. The first five episodes of The Walking Dead picked up dozens of Game of the Year awards along with seemingly hundreds of other awards in 2012.

So The Walking Dead: Season Two had a lot to live up to. Could the first episode of Season Two of The Walking Dead live up to the original or would it be underwhelming like the 400 Days DLC?

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: The Orange Box

the-orange-box-headerAfter seven weeks, our list of the seven best games of the seventh generation of video game consoles comes to a close. While many, many great games aren’t making such a short list of great games, I think that this game won’t get too much of an argument for making it over other deserving

When a game picks up scads of awards, everyone takes notice. But how good is a company that can make multiple games, ship them in a bundle and garner accolades and win awards for each of them? That’s exactly what Valve did when they put Half-Life 2, HL2: Episodes 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal into one award-winning package called The Orange Box.

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