The final piece of Mass Effect 3 DLC is out today. Mass Effect 3: Citadel brings Shepard and his crew back to the Citadel for one final reunion and adventure. Well, I say one final adventure but this is pre-ending DLC so technically, from a plot standpoint, it’s not actually Shepard’s final adventure. Continue reading
Video Games
Uncharted 3 and the Future of Triple-A Games Going Free-To-Play
I must admit that I was quite surprised to find out that Uncharted 3’s multiplayer component went free-to-play earlier this week. I couldn’t quite make heads or tails as to why Naughty Dog and Sony Computer Entertainment would release a part of a game for free or who would want to play such a thing.
But when you think about it, giving away a part of the game that isn’t the core component that’s the reason why people by the game on release day actually makes perfect sense. That’s because Naughty Dog’s play isn’t your standard free-to-play model of funding the game using solely the minority of gamers who provide microtransaction revenue.
The Showdown Effect Beta Impressions
Who doesn’t love the good old action movies of the 80s and 90s? There’s something epic about one man taking down a horde of terrorists and other baddies using nothing but a couple of guns, a ton of ammo and a few well-timed catchphrases.
While action movie games haven’t really translated over to video games, with the exception of Uncharted (though that’s more Indiana Jones action-adventure than an Arnie/Sly/Bruce action flick), the folks at Arrowhead Games are giving it a try with The Showdown Effect. Continue reading
The Detailed Breakdown of Mass Effect 3: Reckoning Multiplayer DLC
The final Mass Effect 3 multiplayer add-on pack is being released today. BioWare says that today’s Reckoning DLC will be the fifth and last free piece of downloadable content for ME3’s multiplayer mode.
As usual, BioWare is being tight-lipped about the details of Reckoning. If you do enough digging, you might be able to piece together what you’ll get when you download the DLC. But why do that when we’ve already compiled all the info and rumours about Reckoning for you. Continue reading
Bungie’s Destiny: Much Ado About Nothing (Yet)
Not surprisingly, Bungie’s unveiling of their in-development Destiny to an assembled group of gaming press was massive news. After all, Bungie developed the Halo franchise, produced five well-received games in the series and have moved on to a much-anticipated new IP that will be published by Activision.
If you checked any of the major gaming blogs or news sites, Destiny’s unveiling wasn’t a one post piece of news. Writers dedicated multiple posts to news about the game but all those posts had one thing in common. Bungie didn’t unveil anything of substance about Destiny. Continue reading
Mass Effect 3 Signs Off with Its Final Two DLCs
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Whether you loved it or hated it, Mass Effect 3’s journey is finally coming to an end. Yesterday, BioWare announced that they would release the final two pieces of ME3 DLC, one each of single-player and multiplayer, over the next two weeks.
Both of the DLCs announced confirmed the rumours that had been circulating the interwebs for months. The single-player DLC is the Citadel DLC. Multiplayer will see the addition of the Reckoning DLC.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Review (or A Car in a Boat in a Plane in a Hedgehog)
I’ve never been a Sega guy. I grew up with a classic NES and had Mario rather than Sonic. Even my one friend who did have a Genesis (or Mega Drive, if you’d prefer) didn’t have a Sonic game. (He did have a game on the classic Stallone movie Cliffhanger so maybe game buying wasn’t his parents’ forté.) From there, I got a PS1 so I largely missed out on everything Sonic and Mario Kart related in my youth.
And that created a very real problem when it came to reviewing Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It was described as fan service for long-time Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog fans and a Mario Kart clone. Well, I can’t exactly evaluate a game based on that when the Sega game I had the most playing time with was ATP Tour Championship Tennis.
Looking at SASRT (God, that’s a terrible acronym. That’s what happens when you make a game with an obscenely long and ridiculous title.) from a racing game enthusiasts perspective didn’t give me much cause for hope. After all, saying that Sega would only put out an exceptional Sonic game would omit the existence of Sonic Free Riders which was so universally panned that it makes Aliens: Colonial Marines look like Skyrim by comparison. Continue reading
The Death of the Arcade Sports Game
Growing up, I got an NES when I was about four or five years old. I had that console all the way until I was 11. Naturally, I logged a lot of hours on the dozen or so games that I did have for that system. Perhaps no game got put through its paces like Blades of Steel. I wasn’t the only one who did, though. Hockey fans all know about the classic game that had hitting everywhere, slap shots ricocheting off the boards and more than a few fights.
If you’re a child of the 90s, it might not have been Blades of Steel but there was certainly a classic sports game that was simple yet fun that you poured hours into. Football fans had Tecmo Super Bowl. Basketball fans spent their time on fire playing NBA Jam.
But look at the sports games released now. How many noteworthy sports game releases are what could be described as arcade-y? Not since 2010’s remake/updated NBA Jam released on the Wii have we had a new arcade-style sports game that wasn’t kart racer. It certainly seems as though a genre that has spawned quite a few cult hits is now all but dead.
The Best of Zero Punctuation
If you ask people who watch video game reviews on the internet who their favourite reviewer is, the answer that you’re most likely to hear is Yahtzee. They’re not talking about the board game that involves a plastic cup and dice. They probably mean Ben “Yahtzee” Crawshaw, video game developer tuned snarky video game critic.
His video review series, titled Zero Punctuation, are the most popular videos on The Escapist Magazine’s YouTube channel and among the most popular games reviews on YouTube. So for today’s best of the interweb, we have Yahtzee’s ten most popular reviews. Continue reading
The Cave Review (Or A Domain of Evil It Is. In You Must Go.)
The second-to-last week of January had a game I was very excited about. Strike Suit Zero was a gorgeous looking space sim. Having grown up on space sims, I was looking forward to a great space flight combat game. Then I actually started flying the titular Strike Suit ship and found myself quickly underwhelmed by twitchy controls and combat mechanics that didn’t work as advertised in the tutorial which resulted in a massive and frustrating difficulty spike.
Fortunately, there was a second big indie game release that week. Double Fine Productions released their much-anticipated The Cave. The developer is best known for their work on Psychonauts and they got a hand from popular games director Ron Gilbert whose resume includes the cult-hit Monkey Island series. Better than the team behind it was trailers promising puzzles, stories and dark humour. In other words, it ticked off most of the items on my checklist of things I like in games.
The Lowdown 