Contending with the likes of The Binding of Isaac, Frozen Synapse, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP, 2012 has a tough act to follow. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but it does represent some of the most promising indie games to keep on your radar this year.
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This morning, I went to pick up Mass Effect 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken at the Gamestop around the corner. There was a line of seven or eight people in front me, all accepting delivery on the former. When asked if they wanted to buy the $10 “From Ashes” DLC that adds an extra character and mission on top of the $60 retail price of the game, all agreed on the spot to purchase it. No questions asked. Except me. But I won’t lie, I was definitely tempted because the way that DLC of this kind works at a psychological level is to make you feel like your game is somehow not complete out-of-the-box. I mean, it’s a fully playable character and storyline. You don’t want to miss anything, right? You don’t want to rank low on the Galactic Readiness Meter and get a bad outcome from your 100+ hours of the Mass Effect story, do you? Continue Reading…
Those aren’t my words, those are the words of Peter Molyneaux. Molyneau spoke to Eurogamer at Microsoft’s Spring Showcase. He’s saying this because he’s pimping the new Fable game, Fable: The Journey, which is Kinect driven. Here’s the full quote in context:
“We’re doing the same thing that Hollywood’s doing with action movies. We’re inventing a formula, and we’re repeating it over and over again, and we’re grabbing every penny from our consumers and not bothering to think about something different. And they’re the people that need something different. They’re our fans, and this is their hobby, man! We can’t be lazy! We can’t back away from creative inventiveness now, just because it costs a bit more money. Now’s the time to double down on that. Is Call of Duty really it? Is that all this industry really is? If it is, then you should just shift me off to the mental asylum now.”
This all goes back to what we have discussed here at length — it’s what Mike spoke about when he reviewed Syndicate. It’s what I inferred when I wrote about Binary Domain — a game that needs the press and needs word of mouth to succeed. This industry, and I believe this with every fiber of my being, isn’t as big as we want to make it appear. It’s dominated by a handful of what are truly “AAA” games. The rest is filler. The games industry isn’t Hollywood.
Image: Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Jumping the Shark #113 is all about the calm before the storm. As we gather in anticipation over a release calendar chock full of March gaming goodness, we pause to contemplate the implications of Assassin’s Creed 3 steeping itself in revolutionary Americana. Just what exactly will our new protagonist be taking those ginormous leaps of faith from? And what impact pray tell will this setting change have on the the gameplay? Will it revitalize a series that’s fast becoming stale? Then Brandon and I hit the links with a little Fairway Solitaire on the iPad. Gopher season is officially open and we aim to pull out our trusty 9-iron and clonk that troublesome rodent right on the nogg’n. Brandon shows us some SSX love and wonders to what extent a game’s difficulty should be reflected in the criticism for said game. Finally, Bill unwraps Binary Domain and finds it a delightful surprise. It’s our pre-Mass Effect 3 show, so enjoy the quiet contemplation while you can. Next week Shepherd starts curb-stomping reapers.
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I never played the original Steel Battalion, as the controller and its eight gazillion buttons were a little too imposing for my taste. Ironically, looking at the latest screenshots has me feeling the exact opposite about Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor.
A mech game for the Kinect sounded like a dream come true when it was first announced. You know, before we knew how awkward, tiring, and imprecise the Kinect could be. Fast-forward to the present and I worry that playing Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor will be like performing surgery with a plastic shovel, or that the sequel is being dumbed down to ‘afternoon family fun’ territory.
Most discouraging is the near-complete lack of gameplay footage shown. Please, From Software prove me wrong, and give my Kinect a reason to live.
There is a new trailer as well, but it’s really quite pointless. Screenshots after the break.
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This next trailer is a bit confusing. So, you’re telling me that I get to ‘play as’ a Nemesis or ‘have one’ on my team? As a Resident Evil fan from day-one, there is a HUGE difference.
Oh, and sorry PS3 people. You get the big old shaft this time around, since Nemesis Mode is Xbox 360-exclusive. Who knows, perhaps you’ll get Licker Mode. We all should know by now that Capcom will give each system an exclusive mode, open it up for cross-console sales later, and then make up some lame excuse about how it wasn’t possible at launch.
*Ahem* I’m looking at you Mercenaries Mode. 76KB ‘download’ my butt. Anywho, catch the trailer after the break.
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Usually, when one of us writes a game diary or write up of impressions, it’s on a title that actually came out recently. This will not be a typical game diary, since the title in question came out about 18 months ago, and it’s being written by an admitted FPS moron. Actually, that’s the point – in an attempt to educate myself a bit and broaden my horizons, I decided to give something that’s generally not interesting to me a shot. That game (at least, for this installment) is Halo: Reach, and you can thank my being sick and apartment-bound this weekend for the inspiration.
Things to know – I have close to zero history with the Halo series. I only know what I’ve learned by osmosis – it’s a highly regarded FPS series with a huge backstory and a well-considered development team behind it, it has a reputation for amazing multiplayer that attracts the scum of XBLA, and the series is partially responsible for making FPS games the “robust” genre on consoles that they are today. I’ve played Reach before, but only in multiplayer, and I played maybe an hour of Halo 2 back in 2004 on a friend’s Xbox. That’s the full extent of my experience. Continue Reading…
“If we have to sell hardware we will.”
Gabe Newell said those words to Penny Arcade’s Ben Kuchera in mid-February. Of course, he also said there’s no reason to think they’d be “any good at it” and that Valve would prefer hardware people that know how to manufacture and distribute the stuff keep their hands on the reigns of such things. In retrospect it seems likely yon Mr. Newell was engaging in a bit of foreshadowing, given Friday’s news, revealed at The Verge, that cites company “sources” that Valve is working on a hardware and software platform capable of delivering “open” gaming experiences and competing directly for a share of your living room alongside (or in place of) products from Microsoft, Sony, and even Apple.
You can click through to The Verge’s article for more details, including the rather hefty specs rumored for such a device. I also recommend their review of the very impressive Alienware X51, which The Verge says is rumored to have been designed with Steam Box specs in mind. It’ll be interesting to see if more concrete news about this venture comes out of GDC this week, as rumored, or if we’ll be speculating about it clear through to E3 in June.
In the meantime, let’s assume this is the real thing (and I believe that it is). Who’s lining up to buy one? I’ve gotta say, as a pure consumer, I’d sure give it some serious thought. To pull this off, however, Valve needs to be able to sell this to people who have had, to this point, no interest in Steam whatsoever, if they’ve even heard of it. Even non-gamers have heard of the Xbox. How many people know what Steam is or why a Steam Box might be right for their home? It’s not an easy market to crack into, but then Valve basically defined a non-existent digital distribution space. They know how to break new ground with a compelling offering and see it through to maturation. Never bet against these guys.
My review of Syndicate is up over at the House Mad Catz Built. The long and short of the B- write up is that it’s two decent but not particularly outstanding halves welded together to form a gestalt product that is less than the sum of its parts. It’s a bifurcated design. I really liked what I saw in the early hours as I reported here in my impressions last week, but going the distance with the game revealed a low ceiling over a host of underdeveloped, undernourished ideas. This got me thinking about how utterly screwed up it is that developers are pressured- either internally or externally- to deliver fully realized single player and multiplayer games in a one-size-fits-all package, particularly in the FPS genre.
Dishonored in Review
XCOM: Enemy Unknown in Review
Borderlands 2 in Review