Video Games

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

My Thirteen Favourite Games of 2013

While everyone was looking ahead with (justified) excitement to the launch of Sony and Microsoft’s next-generation consoles, they might have missed out on an absolutely fantastic year in gaming. While nothing world-changing has come out on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 so far, their predecessors had a fantastic year with some amazing games released over the last twelve months.

Since the end of the year is upon us, I think it’s only appropriate that I get in on the listing action and give you my list of my favourite games of 2013. They may not be the best games of 2013 but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t love playing them.
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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Grand Theft Auto V

grand-theft-auto-v-headerI don’t think that I could do a list of the seven best games of the seventh console generation without including one game from this year. While a lot of our attention this year has been on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, 2013 has been a spectacular year for games. Any one of a few games are more than worthy of inclusion on this list.

From the class of 2013, the best swansong for the now last generation of consoles has to be Grand Theft Auto V.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe Review: Back to the Future

shufflepuck-cantina-deluxe-headerThe first video game that I remember playing was Shufflepuck Cafe on my dad’s old Macintosh SE. Sure, there were other games on there but nothing quite captured my attention like Shufflepuck. It might have been in black and white but the graphics looked fine, it had sound (which was a rarity on that computer) and it was just fun to play. I may have poured more hour into that game during my childhood than anything on my NES.

So when I saw this homage to the original Shufflepuck Cafe pop up on Steam, I had to pick it up, if only for nostalgia’s sake. Fortunately, Shufflepuck Cantina didn’t stop at recreating the original in colour but added some depth to the original.

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

7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Super Mario Galaxy

super-mario-galaxy-headerThere are few series in gaming that are as iconic and as loved as Nintendo’s Super Mario series. Despite the fact that Mario has been around for over 30 years, Nintendo has this way of reinventing Mario and the Super Mario series with each new console generation. The result is games that bring new gamers into Nintendo and Mario while still giving fans who have played Mario games for their whole lives something to love.

For the industry shaking Wii console, Nintendo took Mario to the one place he’d never been before: The final frontier. Not only did Mario’s first adventure in outer space prove to be a smash hit, at release, it was considered one of the best Wii and platformer games of all-time.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Speedball 2 HD Review: He Shoots… Off the Post!

speedball-2-hd-headerWith all the retro remakes of classic games have been coming out, it was only a matter of time before I reviewed one of them here. I had never played the original Speedball games when they were released on the Atari ST (and the dozen or so other platforms it was also available on) but given the lack of sports games on PC, I thought I’d give it a try.

All that ended up happening was me questioning the need for HD remakes of classic games.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

VGX 2013 News and Trailer Roundup

vgx-2013-bannerFor all of Geoff Keighley’s pre-event hype, it sure sounds like the whole awards aspect of VGX didn’t change. According to the /r/Games live thread, seven awards were handed out during the show of VGX’s 23 total awards. At least it sounds like celebrities weren’t paraded out to promote their own stuff though it did sound like host Joel McHale was very much annoyed that he was forced to spend the whole show reading from a teleprompter verbatim.

Apart from the handful of awards and McHale doing nothing to hide the fact that he didn’t have anything to do with the jokes during the show, there was a bunch of news and announcements from the show. It’s almost like a mini convention based on the importance that publishers put on the show for making news with big announcements. So here’s a roundup of the news and trailers from VGX.

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2 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Mass Effect Trilogy

mass-effect-trilogy-headerLast week, when talking about Skyrim, I mentioned that a number of games outside the RPG genre incorporated elements of RPGs into their games. These included things like skill points, customization, inventory systems, questing, deep stories, dialogue tree and more of the classic RPG tricks.

This week’s entry into the 7 Best may have started life as being a bit more of an RPG than a third-person shooter but evolved into a third-person shooter that retained the strong influence of RPGs. Of course, if I boiled down the Mass Effect Trilogy to a series of gameplay mechanics and the evolution of the mechanics, I’d be missing the whole point of the franchise. Mass Effect’s strong suit and its claim to fame is the story.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

2013 VGX Nominations And Predictions

vgx-2013-headerEvery year, I give you my picks for the annual Spike TV Video Game Awards and predict the winners. Now that the rechristened VGX have gone to always online, I considered dropping the whole thing. However, this post is an annual tradition around here and who am I to argue with tradition?

While I’m not a fan of the VGX format of shameless promotion interrupted by the occasional award and burning through 80% of the awards either in a big list before a commercial or a big list when announcing that a given game won another award, it is probably the most mainstream of award shows (even if it’s been pulled from TV) so it’s probably worth giving a bit of attention to.

So let’s take a look at the 2013 group of VGX nominees and pick out some winners intermixed with a few rants about this awards show.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Assassin’s Creed IV Glitch Causes The Rapture

Given the religious undertones of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, it probably wouldn’t surprise you if the game dealt with The Rapture. However, I didn’t expect it to happen accidentally.

A glitch in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag not only causes the parting of the sea but your ship’s crew to ascend into heaven. Mind you, I’m not sure if that’s a bug or a feature of this game.

3 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-headerIf there’s one genre of games that seemed to take of the last generation of consoles, it was the role-playing game. The RPG genre has been around for almost as long as video games thanks to the popularity of the pen-and-paper RPGs, like Dungeons and Dragons. It was really this generation that saw the proliferation of RPGs and the incorporation of RPG elements into a number of games in other genres.

At the top of the class in this generation is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The fifth entry into Bethesda’s hit action RPG series re-set the bar for Western RPGs thanks to gorgeous graphics, a spectacular soundtrack and seemingly limitless gameplay throughout the open world of Skyrim.

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