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Best of the Rest: Danny's picks of 2014
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. Fantasy Life Sometimes, you just wanna sidequest. For those times, there's Fantasy Life. Fantasy Life is fun in the way that checking off items on a checklist is fun. There's a solid action-RPG here from Professor Layton series creator Level-5, sure, but much of my time in Fantasy Life was spent completing sidequests, crafting equipment, and hunting down component items so that I could craft more equipment and complete more sidequests. You don't even have to kill anything to complete the game - you can smith, cook, sew, and alchemize your way to victory if that's the way you want to play it. Fantasy Life is an endless grind that remains compelling even after I've completed hundreds of its quests. If you don't fit into its niche, you'll be bored immediately. If you're a specific breed of completionist, Fantasy Life is impossible to put down. In either case, beware.
PSA: D4, MX vs. ATV now on Games with Gold
As the calendar flipped to January yesterday, Xbox Live Gold members are now able to download this month's free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. As revealed in December, Xbox One owners with a premium Live subscription can now pick up Access Games' quirky adventure D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die free of charge. Subscribers get two games on Xbox 360 this month: Offroad racer MX vs ATV Alive and CD Projekt's The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. D4 will be available throughout the month while the two previous-generation games are on a split schedule. MX vs ATV Alive is free until January 15, then The Witcher 2 will be available to download at no cost on January 16 through the end of the month. Lastly, according to the Microsoft Store, last month's Xbox One game Worms Battlegrounds is still available to download for free. [Image: Microsoft]
Games with Gold January: D4, The Witcher 2, MX vs. ATV Alive
Games with Gold in January offers the deliciously off-kilter D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die free all month for Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox One, a savings of $15. Xbox 360 Gold members get two rounds of free games: MX vs. ATV Alive from January 1 - 15, and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings from January 16 - 31. Swery's D4 is a particularly lovely offering for Xbox One owners – in our review, we note the surprising smoothness of the Kinect voice and motion controls, and highlight the wacky yet gruesome narrative: "As a Kinect game, D4 gives me hope for the innovation and technical acuity still to come in motion-controlled gaming. [...] It's all very fun, even when addressing the gory details of a murder, but that's not where it stops. The story, while generic on the surface, is engaging and wild enough to support an episodic format. I want to know what happens next. I want to interrogate more people. I want to find out who killed my wife, and I want to try to bring her back." Happy new year, indeed. [Image: Microsoft]
Joystiq Weekly: Destiny's loot cave, Shadow of Mordor review, building narratives and more
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. Season passes that add content to separately-sold video games that also offer bundled in video games? Ubisoft's dollop of Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China on top of this year's double-portion of Assassin's Creed is interesting, both due to being bundled in a season pass and its sidescrolling platformer nature. We're already looking forward to when season passes include trilogy HD remasters, which will in turn include their own season passes, complete with spinoff-pack ins. Everything is connected, you see. There was a lot more to this week than alternative business strategies though. Have you heard of a little series called Super Smash Bros.? What about Lord of the Rings? We've got reviews of the latest (interactive) installments in both, as well as news of Destiny's loot cave, features on developing narratives and what developers and YouTubers think of Steam Curators. They're all joined by many other stories, waiting for you after the break!
