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.

Continue Reading…

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.

Continue Reading…

You People Are Never Satisfied!

By on June 25, 2012 with 11 Comments

You people. The lot of you. Always wanting “more” and never being satisfied with what companies dribble out to you in press conferences and Youtube videos. Why is it when a company like Nintendo goes to all of the trouble to hold a huge press conference showing off what the Wii U can do that you shrug your slouched shoulders, yawn, and move on to the next shiny bauble.

It’s infuriating, really. You have this seemingly insatiable desire to be dazzled.

I mean you people can’t even tell the difference between what is clearly a phenomenon like Wii Fit and what is “ho-hum”. You laughed at Wii Fit and looked at it like a weird gimmick. Well 43 million units of Wii Fit have sold worldwide and are sitting in closets and underneath beds all across the planet so stick that in your nunchuk and smoke it.  (Smoking sort of defeats the purpose of Wii Fit but what do you care?)

Now, stop asking for more, get excited, and make sure to reserve your copy of Super Mario Dance Party Paperboy IX.

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.

Continue Reading…

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.

Continue Reading…

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.

Continue Reading…

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.

Continue Reading…

The “3″ in Diablo 3 Stands for Days

By on June 21, 2012 with 11 Comments

With the recent 1.0.3 patch, folks who buy Diablo 3 directly from Blizzard’s digital storefront may have to wait upwards of 72 hours in order to have the game switch over from the Starter Edition to the Full Edition or, as I like to call it, the goddamn version I paid for 56 hours ago.

Now, there are a few things to keep in mind, and yes, I’m being somewhat hyperbolic here, so here are some grains of salt with which you can read that statement:

  • Blizzard is saying that 72 hours is the upper max for the switch to full ownership to be flipped. Most people will be able to play the game they paid for, following accepted rules of commerce that have stood for over a hundred thousand years, in less time than that.
  • The starter edition still lets you play the game. I mean, sure, you can’t progress past level 13 or go beyond Act I and you certainly can’t play with your friends who are probably rocking the full edition because they got in on the game before the patch. But, why would you want to do that any way? Friends are overrated. Plus, Blizzard knows that once the full game is unlocked, you will be spending every waking moment playing it, so this is a way to limit your interactions with the game and get your affairs in order. Oh, you can’t use the Auction House either, but seriously, if you can’t go past level 13 or Act I, what the hell do you need to buy in the first place?
  • This whole thing has been done to prevent “fraud” and a negative user experience for all players. I understand completely. It’s hard to have a negative user experience when you don’t have any user experience, or have a severely limited user experience.

Granted, you can still buy the game in physical form, if you want to buy games like a troglodyte. I have no idea how this patch affects physical copies, given that even your physical copy has an online portion, but from what I’m reading, it shouldn’t affect it at all.

For now.

Cracked LCD: Fun-First Design

By on June 21, 2012 with 21 Comments

`

In last week’s review of Abaddon, I very nearly undermined years of trying to write “serious” board games criticism. I attacked certain aspects of it before giving in to its “fun-first” design. Did you see what I did there? I more or less stated that the art and design part of games is irrelevant if you’re having fun.  Noted Metacritic rabble-rouser Tom Chick believes that you can’t write about “fun” because it’s so subjective and that is true, but if we as critics are not writing about fun as part of the experience of games are we failing to speak to the core intent of the medium? Are designers that are developing games where mechanics, process, and depth are the focus betraying the purpose of  playing them? Continue Reading…

Page 43 of 296« First...203040«4142434445»506070...Last »