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Joystiq Weekly: Vib-ribbon launches, Driveclub Review, RE: Revelations 2 preview and more

Thomas Schulenberg
Weekend Editor
Updated ·5 min read
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Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet.

"Better eight years late than never," PlayStation Network users probably said during this week's return of Vib-ribbon. Sure, we're not exactly in drought season, but what's stopping you from impulsively bailing on 2014's release calendar to revisit a 1999 cult classic? Beyond money and life's responsibilities, anyway.

If Vib-ribbon is fair game for a 2014 appearance, can we go ahead and get our hopes for comparably-unlikely surprises? Sure, StarCraft: Ghost's indefinitely-on-hold status is probably irreversible at this point, but if Blizzard felt like continuing development in secret for years and launching it without warning, we wouldn't be upset. Valve, you're more than welcome to do the same with fresh installments in the Half Life or Left 4 Dead series.

There was more to this week than feeble wishes though, including resolution news for Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Assassin's Creed: Unity, reviews for Driveclub and Neverending Nightmares, and previews for AC: Unity and Resident Evil: Revelations 2. All those and more are tidied up for you after the break!


News

  • Destiny doesn't seem so good at keeping its own secrets – Guardians have come across another glitch that appears to show an area planned for the game's expansion-sized DLC.

  • As beautiful as Halo: The Master Chief Collection's reworked cutscenes for Halo 2 may be, the game itself may not appease the most demanding resolution connoisseurs.

  • Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is taking a little extra time to plot a perfect combo on our wallets, delaying its moment to strike somewhere into late 2014 to early 2015.

  • After a 15-year wait, North American fans have a new option to play Vib-Ribbon. Sony released the music game on the PlayStation Network this week, which creates stages based on both its own and user-supplied backing tracks.

  • DICE LA Producer David Sirland has joined the consensus that Battlefield 4's messy launch damaged the series' reputation with fans: "We still probably have a lot of players who won't trust us to deliver a stable launch or a stable game," he admitted, before assuring that Battlefield: Hardline will stand as proof of their abilities to do both.

  • You can lurk in sprawling crowds while stalking targets in Assassin's Creed: Unity, but you can't do it at a native resolution higher than 900p or a higher frames-per-second rate than 30.

  • There's a small fleet of cars to cruise around Forza Horizon 2's overworld with, but while Xbox One owners will have the option to expand their collections via DLC, Xbox 360 owners won't be given keys to the same content.

  • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U fighters might feel right at home wielding special GameCube controllers, but they should know that for now, the throwback gear will only be good for smashing Bros.

  • Maybe Driveclub is exactly the kind of social road trip you're looking for. Or more accurately, maybe it will be one day – for now, Evolution Studios has delayed Driveclub's trek to PlayStation Plus and disabled a few features in the full version to help stabilize servers.

  • Channeling your appearance in NBA 2K15 to flesh out your all-star millionaire baller fantasy? Sensible! Facing the unsettling reality when you experiment with the game's face scanner? Terrifying.

  • Anyone with a hankering for creation and an Xbox One might want to check out Project Spark, an initially-free download that launched this week and offers one-time or subscription-style payments.

  • Anita Sarkeesian's examination of video game tropes has drawn immense attention, criticism and harassment, and she recently spoke of the problematic abuse she faces in response to her work.

  • It's sensible to still be plugging away on last generation consoles, but if you plan on upgrading in the near future, those that digitally purchase PS3 and Xbox 360 copies of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare can upgrade to their current-gen counterparts for free.

  • Unity, one of the industry's most popular game engines, may soon become the property of Google, according to a report from Cnet.


Reviews

  • Editor-in-Chief and Digital Fast Car Destroyer Ludwig Kietzmann slipped behind Driveclub's dashboard, finding a "well-made, sometimes irritating juxtaposition of the old and new" during his winding, competitive drives.

  • Weekend Editor Sam Prell didn't get a single jump scare out of Neverending Nightmares: "I did, however, check behind me to make sure no one was standing in the dark arch of the bedroom doorway." Neverending Nightmares "choose subtlety over spectacle," and while a lack of variety in environments and interactivity hinders the experience, Sam still describes it as an "atypical horror experience" that "you won't soon forget."

  • Contributing Editor Mike Suszek took to the pitch for FIFA 15, and even though it's "certainly better" than last year, he adds that even with improvements, it's "markedly similar to last year's game at its core, which can (and should) make players question the annual upgrade."


Featured Content

  • Community Manager Anthony John Agnello tried out Claire Redfield's latest stint of bad luck, Resident Evil: Revelations 2. Anthony deduced that "running away and heading for the nearest exit was often more effective than actually taking [enemies] out," also noting the presence of elements from "literally every nook of Capcom's survival horror series."

  • Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Kietzmann returned to the less-traveled path in Assassin's Creed: Unity, scaling buildings and hunting targets while getting used to Unitys added crouch button. Ludwig remarked that Unity's implementation of crouching feels different, but he's unsure that the result is solid just yet.

  • After a month of fighting for Earth and draping himself in legendary gear, Reviews Content Director Richard Mitchell concluded Destiny's State of Service with a "Good" rating. Though error codes and periods of downtime occasionally popped up, Richard's analysis states that "no serious problems" were encountered during Destiny's launch.

  • Senior Reporter Jess Conditt and Contributing Editor Earnest Cavalli join Mike and Ludwig at the breakfast table to discuss egg framerates on this episode of the Super Joystiq Podcast. Also, Bayonetta 2, FIFA 15, Pokemon TCG Online, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Driveclub.

[Image: Sony]