Video Games

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Firewatch Review: Hey There Delilah

firewatch-headerWalking simulators and I have an adversarial relationship. I wanting to like them because I love a good story in a game but the review scores don’t really back that up. While I loved The Stanley Parable, I thought that Gone Home and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture were average games at best despite picking up acclaim from other games.

The latest walking simulator that I’ve added to my library is Firewatch. The game got its first big public unveiling as part of a PlayStation E3 keynote presentation and has now made its way to the PC as well. Given that PC is home to the walking simulator, would the latest entry in the genre stack up to the competition.

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Can Codemasters Rescue the F1 Series with F1 2016?

Let’s take a break from the on-track action in Formula One and look at the virtual world of Formula One. Codemasters is the current licence holder for the Formula One video game series. The racing game specialists have held the rights to F1 since the 2009 season and while gamers have been happy, not much has changed over the last six years. Last year, satisfaction bottomed out with a barebones effort in F1 2015.

In their second year on the PS4 and Xbox One, Codemasters has to deliver a far superior experience before fans give up on them. They recently released a survey looking for feedback on previous games and ideas for upcoming ones and have brought in prominent members of the community for a private beta test. However, it’s still worth giving them some more longform feedback.

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Superhot Review: Am I Standing Still

superhot-headerYou’ve probably heard or read the lines but maybe you don’t understand them. “Super. Hot. Super. Hot.” Or maybe you’ve read “It’s the most innovative shooter I’ve played in years.” These aren’t ready-made box quotes from your favourite critics. They’re lines right from Superhot, the new first-person shooter that’s taken gaming by storm for the last week or so.

Superhot is a new first-person shooter that’s been labelled as being somewhere between a strategy game, a puzzle game and a traditional FPS. The hybrid of styles certainly makes this one of the more fun and interesting games that I’ve played in years.

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Until Dawn Review: Trope Scares

until-dawn-bannerOne of the alleged selling points of The Order: 1886 was that it was “cinematic” but it didn’t really feel like anything out of a movie other than the aspect ratio of the screen. To make a game that seems like a movie, you need to rely on more than just the visuals. Ready at Dawn missed that memo.

Supermassive Games didn’t miss that memo. They had last year’s PS4 exclusive that was noteworthy for all reason opposite to The Order: 1886. While Until Dawn could be called a cinematic game, it was cinematic because it was put together as a loving homage to 90s slasher and horror movies. It looked and acted the part and was all the better for it.

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League of Legends is Shutting Down Dominion

league-of-legends-dominion-headerAs much as I love playing support on Summoner’s Rift, I love playing support on the Howling Abyss and Crystal Scar. While the supports have a very defined role in 5v5 League of Legends play, a well-played support can really mess up plans in the other game modes.

Sadly, your time on the Crystal Scar is coming to an end. Riot has announced that on February 22nd, they will be disabling the Dominion game mode and removing Crystal Scar from the custom games menu.

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Is Microsoft Making a Mistake Pushing the Microsoft Store on PC Gamers?

quantum-break-headerHow many of you have heard of the Microsoft Store? I don’t mean a physical retail location like the Apple Stores. I mean a digital store. If Steam’s operating system stats for its users are to be believed, about 34% of you might have heard of it since the Microsoft Store is only available to Windows 10 users.

I bring this up in the wake of the recent announcement that Microsoft is launching Quantum Break on PC alongside Xbox One. While Quantum Break will be the first game in Microsoft’s own renewed push towards making Windows a prominent gaming platform, the vast majority of PC gamers won’t be able to play it. That’s because Quantum Break won’t be coming to Steam but will be a Microsoft Store exclusive.

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Life is Strange Review: My So-Called Life

life-is-strange-headerLife is Strange started as a simple episodic digital release but today gets the full retail treatment. The Life is Strange: Limited Edition hits shelves today with an art book, developers’ commentary and a licensed soundtrack. While I’d love to get my hands on that, I’ve already played the game and named it et geekera’s Game of the Year for 2015. However, I only reviewed the individual episodes. This review is for the first “season” of Life is Strange.

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Basic Guide to PC Graphics Options (Infographic)

One thing that is wildly inconsistent in PC gaming is the quality of tooltips on the graphics options menu. You have games like StarCraft II which tell you which piece of hardware is being drawn on the most by a particular option and you have other games that just leave you to guess what the options mean, assuming they have any. Fortunately, in the case of the latter, I found this handy little infographic that explains some of the more prominent graphics options in PC gaming.

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The Order: 1886 Review: Paint by Numbers

the-order-1886-headerLaunch window exclusives are a very specific type of game. They tend to focus more on showing off the potential of the hardware at the expense of doing anything particularly memorable in terms of gameplay and story. As such, these are titles that you can quickly find in the bargain bin after release. They’re neat for a little bit but soon forgotten when actual good games start coming out.

Take The Order: 1886, for example. I got it as on Black Friday 2015 for $10. It released for $60 back in… February 2015? That can’t be right. The PlayStation 4 launched in November 2013. How did something that was clearly designed as a system showcase not come out until some sixteen months after the console launched?

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Dirt Rally Review: The Road Less Travelled

dirt-rally-headerOn a few occasions on this blog, I have discussed the ever-changing priorities of Codemasters. The British developer has long been recognized as one of the top racing game developers but often shifts their priorities between making arcade-style games and more simulation style games. In the past, I’ve taken to calling Codemasters games “pseudo-sims” because while they tend to be more realistic and difficult than arcadey racing games but not as intense as games like rFactor and iRacing.

I should say, that was the case until I got to Dirt Rally. While Dirt 3 was much closer to a sim than the likes of Dirt Showdown, Dirt Rally feels like it goes to another level beyond that. It might not be as detailed or difficult as the likes of iRacing but that doesn’t mean it’s pick up and play, either. Of course, that’s definitely not a bad thing.

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