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Total War: Rome 2 on the Horizon?

By on June 26, 2012 with 8 Comments

I rarely post game rumors. However, this one makes too much sense and appears to be backed up with some evidence. Most importantly, it’s about a game I want to play.

With the success of Shogun 2, a Rome sequel seemed inevitable, right? The rumor comes from NeoGAF, where upon a user posted a pic from an upcoming issue of PC Powerplay. (The pic above is from the original.) In fact, the current buzz is that the game will be officially announced July 6-7 at the Rezzed Expo in Brighton. All signs point to this being legit so I’m optimistic.

An updated Rome given the same treatment as Shogun 2 seems like the safe, smart choice for The Creative Assembly and gives the developer a huge canvas upon which to draw.

I’ll close with some of my favorite quotes from Ancient Rome:

“At night there is no such thing as an ugly woman.”

“Anger cannot be dishonest.”

“In wine there is truth.”

“I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.”

“Hey, are those elephants?”

Dragon’s Dogma Ships a Million

By on June 25, 2012 with 14 Comments

Well, how about that. Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma has shipped (not necessarily sold) a million copies and the sinister company is declaring it a success worthy of franchise continuation.

I gave Dragon’s Dogma a mostly postive but somewhat mixed review, lambasting its generic quests, Bethesda aspirations, and some of the clunkier aspects of the design. I stand by my criticisms, yet here I am a month later and I’m still playing- and want to play- this game. The really compelling thing about the game is that it completely flies in the face of current AAA marketing logic, offering little guidance and suggesting a highly emergent kind of gameplay where tromping all the way across the map in real-time to get to a quest location can be a grueling, challenging experience. And that’s before you even get to the dungeon or whatever.

The thing is, Dragon’s Dogma is in some places terrifyingly innovative, thoughtful, and well considered.  This makes some of the rougher spots seem more pronounced, but by the same token it also feels like something fresh, ambitious, and daring. The clever online feature is closer to a Mii Parade than a silly deathmatch or horde mode. The classes and skills are  widely varied and interesting, providing lots of options and cool character development choices. The action is classic Japanese brawler fare that isn’t afraid to kick your ass.  The pawns are a great way to create a sense of party-based play without going full MMORPG. There are moments of grandeur and subtle amazement that are well worth putting up with some of the game’s less-than-exemplary qualities. Like those chattering pawns.

I’d slate it, at this point, on a shortlist for GotY but The Witcher 2 would still beat it on points. So I’m glad to see that Capcom is looking at doing more with the game because it is one of those situations like the first Assassin’s Creed where you feel like the seeds of something truly outstanding are planted…and with more time and money who knows? The next game may be something really special. I’m on board. Continue Reading…

Spec Ops: The Line Launch Trailer

By on June 25, 2012 with 1 Comment

Not too sure about this one.

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Review

By on June 25, 2012 with 6 Comments

Just when I thought I was over the whole LEGO-as-videogame thing, Warner and Traveller’s Tales drops this gem of a game in my lap. I was as charmed as the next guy when the Lego games first appeared in 2005 and 2006 — I played the Star Wars games with my daughter in co-op mode and had a grand old time. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had a (at the time) six year old child begging to play the games with me, they’d likely have been nothing more than quick and disposable bits of videogame entertainment. The Lego games were always more a cute distraction than an obsession.

In fact I haven’t played a LEGO game in a while. I skipped the Harry Potter games and merely dabbled with Indiana Jones and simply had no interest in the first Batman LEGO game. Truth is this series, as far as I was concerned, had run its course.

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Calendar Man – Week of 6/25

By on June 25, 2012 with 13 Comments

This week combines the past few weeks of releases in that we get a game that’s both a superhero game and a movie tie-in. Corporate types call this synergy. We’ll see if Amazing Spider-Man is made by the Beenox team that made Shattered Dimensions or the Beenox team that made Edge of Time. I know which one I want to see.

In other releases, Spec Ops: The Line comes out, Skyrim gets vampires, but only on the 360, Dead Island extends the meaning of “Game of the Year” and Mass Effect fans get another opportunity to be disappointed.

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All the E3 News That Didn’t Fit

By on June 22, 2012 with 7 Comments

This the last time I mention E3, promise, unless to say “I played this at E3″.  There are a few things I didn’t mention because my work ethic has flagged since returning. Also, I’m not sure everything requires a mammoth post. I’m sure that the people making the game think it does, but that doesn’t make it so.

With that in mind, here’s all the stuff that didn’t fit in past posts, or that I didn’t get to.

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Haunts: The Manse Macabre

By on June 22, 2012 with 4 Comments

OK folks, I have been holding off posting this because I want to do what I can not to come off as a pandering suck up. However, I think we know each other well enough by now that we can be straight with one another, right?

You may have noticed an ad for a game called Haunts: The Manse Macabre pop up on the sidebar from time to time. Yes, developer Rick Dakan (formerly of Cryptic Studios and lead designer of City of Heroes) and Mob Rules Games is advertising with No High Scores because he thinks we’re pretty awesome. (And our rates are low.) His game has about two weeks to go on Kickstarter and it’s still a tick behind the curve for full funding. It needs about $8,000 more to reach its goal.

I’m telling you this not because Mob Rules is advertising with us. Truth is, as Brandon says, “The check don’t change” whether the game is funded or not. In fact, I rolled most of the ad money into backing the project myself. I am an amazing businessman.

I’m telling you this because I want to play this game. A turn-based haunted house game? Yes, please. I have no clue if it’ll be good or not, but this is the kind of stuff I’d like to see succeed on Kickstarter. So head over to the KS page and give it a look. The game costs $5 bucks and every additional five dollar donation gets you another copy of the game, and so on. I’m in, and you should get in too. Because I’d like to play this.

And it’s always about me.

Nintendo Revises 3DS, Shocks No One

By on June 22, 2012 with 5 Comments

Nintendo released information on their soon to be released 3DS XL, the hardware revision for the 3DS that we’ve all come to expect because this is Nintendo and God forbid they get their handhelds right the first damn time.

Granted, this isn’t the same type of revision as took place when Nintendo took the bulky, DS and turned it into the svelte and sexy DS Lite, as if the DS were the mousy heroine of a teen rom-com, removing her glasses and becoming the charming beauty we all knew lied within. This is a DSi to DSi XL revision, which means that they’re making it bigger and giving it a bigger battery. Uh, ok. I mean, I guess there could be people out there that don’t think that the 3DS isn’t large enough. I’m certainly not one of them. The newly embiggened 3DS will also have a larger battery, a problem I solved with the excellent Nyko Power Pak+, at a much lower cost than the $200 Nintendo wants for the 3DS XL. Oh, you also get a 4GB SD card, just in case you don’t have an extra nickel to spend on SD cards.

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Braid: It’s Art, but is it a Game?

By on June 22, 2012 with 30 Comments

Braid - indie puzzle platform game by Jon Blow - title screen

Since I cottoned on to the idea that game criticism could learn a thing or two from arts criticism, I’ve inevitably been sucked into the world of games as art. It’s an interesting space: before platforms like Steam and XBLA made it possible for indie developers to create and release something and make a profit there was simply a vast gulf between blockbuster, big-studio AAA titles and artists occasionally dipping their toes into computing. Now that space is gradually becoming filled with games like Journey, Limbo and, of course, Braid.

Having now finally had the chance to play Braid, I’m struck by the fact that it’s almost unquestionably art. There’s so much about it that fits that definition. The visual style is heavily reminiscent of post-impressionist painting, pretty much unique in the video gaming space, and distractingly beautiful as you play through. The snippets of narrative text that flash up as you wander through the gateway to each world are lovingly scripted and surprisingly profound. I have discovered that I end up wanting to re-read them every time I fire up the game and enter a world, and discover new elements of insight on most occasions that I so. The overarching story is clever, filled with metaphors that lend themselves to multiple interpretations, most of which can lead to further meditations on humanity and relationships. I even love the sound, although I understand that was recycled from elsewhere. Whatever definition of art you choose, Braid seems to fit.

However, the more I’ve played it, the more I’ve become unsure as to whether or not it’s actually a game.

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Decline of the Mega Publisher?

By on June 22, 2012 with 13 Comments

We don’t do a lot of money/business talk around these parts but this story is worth mentioning because it could foreshadow what the future of this industry might look like down the road. The landscape is changing. Fast.

If you are in the stock market and you have shares of many of the big name game publishers you are likely none too pleased with the current trend — in that you are losing a lot of money.

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