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Something new under the Sunset at Tale of Tales
The past releases of developer Tales of Tales have often defied recognizable genres, and even avoided conventional principles of what a game is defined to be. Experiences like The Endless Forest, Fatale, and The Path have brushed up against familiar gaming mechanics but never really fully embraced them. In the process, they've been met with critical praise, but more than a little bewilderment from players. Now the team behind the studio, developers Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, are trying something different. "With Sunset we want to explore the possibility of creating an entertaining interactive experience that is not a game (in the very narrow sense of the word). We have tried to do this before but I feel we always failed and we made art instead," Harvey and Samyn tell Joystiq. "But with Sunset we're a lot more purposeful about it. We really want this to work. We believe it is possible to create entertainment in video games that is as accessible as film, books and music. We feel that the traditional competition-based designs of most games are holding this medium back. But because of the relatively esoteric nature of our previous work, I feel we have failed at making a strong case for this. With Sunset we will! Or die trying." Last week, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, Sunset will have an opportunity to leave its mark on gamers when it launches in 2015.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Ludwig's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. To close out the Joystiq staff's picks for favorite games of the last decade, Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Kietzmann ventures to a beautiful and peaceful land and proceeds to destroy every living creature.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Xav's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For his top selection, Feature Content Director Xav de Matos discusses the industrywide implications that have evolved out of the release of a shooter sequel in 2004.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Anthony's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For his number one selection, Community Manager Anthony John Agnello reminds us of a beloved RPG franchise from Square Enix that isn't a Final Fantasy.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Sam's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. Weekend Editor Sam Prell talks about being Joystiq's "MOBA guy" with his pick of the last decade, one of the most populated online games available today.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Thomas' picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite – not "best" – games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For his top game of the last decade, Weekend Editor Thomas Schulenberg talks about one of the latest games starring the video game industry's most beloved mascot.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Susan's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. Joystiq Managing Editor Susan Arendt marvels at sentient bear suits with her pick, one of Atlus' most beloved RPG titles.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Alexander's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. News Content Director Alexander Sliwinski details his pick, a more refined and accessible installment of one of the world's most beloved strategy franchises.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Mike's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For his number one pick, Contributing Editor Mike Suszek details his love for the epic second installment of BioWare's sci-fi RPG series.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Earnest's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For his top game of the last decade, Contributing Editor Earnest Cavalli discusses the dark world of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Danny's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. As his number one pick, Contributing Editor Danny Cowan selects a game that a former Joystiq staffer infamously despised. The rest of his list is a mashup of weird and wonderful pieces of entertainment.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Richard's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For his number one selection, Reviews Content Director Richard Mitchell surprises all by picking The Behemoth's multi-player brawler, Castle Crashers, before diving into other games he loved over the last ten years.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Jessica's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For her number one selection, Senior Editor Jessica Conditt reveals why the emotionally impactful and suspense-rich first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead was her favorite game of the last decade.
10 Years, 10 Great Games: Sinan's picks
Throughout the week, Joystiq celebrates its tenth anniversary by revealing each writer's favorite - not "best" - games of the last decade. Aside from selecting a number one, each list is unordered. For his number one selection, Contributing Editor Sinan Kubba battles his love between two of From Software's hellish action-RPGs, finally giving the nod to Dark Souls. That doesn't mean, however, that Demon's Souls has been forgotten in the rest of his ten favorite games of the last decade.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War review: Friends in low places
Valiant Hearts: The Great War treads surely and lightly through the grimmest of places. It sends you digging into the trenches of World War 1, but knows that leaving you to wallow in the mud and blood forever does not grant it emotional maturity. For every dour moment in Valiant Hearts, for every uphill struggle, there is a moment of warmth, of return, and reunion between old friends.
Crowdfund Bookie: One year, $35 million
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the month and produces pretty charts for you to look at. A total of 341 video game projects were funded on Kickstarter and Indiegogo in the past year. Those games earned $35,945,510 from June 2013 through May 2014 thanks to the generosity of 782,147 people. It was a year that saw games like Double Fine's Massive Chalice and Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 pull in over $5 million alone. The crowdfunding year was marked by projects like these which, when measured over time, consistently tipped impressions of average Kickstarter and Indiegogo earnings to appear more favorable. The 341 projects in question earned a mean average of $105,412, though creators really earned closer to the median average of $25,457. Removing the more costly projects drags the mean average of money earned down towards that mark; it drops to $61,152 without the top ten projects for the year, $45,153 without the top 20 and $37,862 without the top 30. It was an ever-changing year, as well. Just glancing at the monthly comparison charts after the break shows a gradual decline in most categories, such as the average amount an individual project backer spent on a given project. The first three months of the year saw an average of $49.40 pledged per person, which dropped to $39.80 in the last quarter of the year. This reflects the averages for the entire year; the year showed a mean average of $45.96, though funders spent closer to the median amount of $36.10. By the end of the year, fewer projects earned far beyond their initial goals, potentially reaching fewer stretch goals as a result. The first quarter of the year averaged an earning rate of 211 percent, over double the amount of money projects set out to achieve. The final three months amounted to 166 percent of the combined goals, even after the average combined goals per month dropped $453,639. Relative to their ambitions, project creators earned more to start the year than those whose games were funded late in the year. The year also featured a number of fascinating stories in the crowdfunding space. It included the highly-questionable campaign for Gridiron Thunder and the related fallout of Ouya's Free the Games Fund program. More recently, it looked favorably on Harmonix's new Amplitude game, which was an anomaly among crowdfunded games. Head past the break for another look at the year in crowdfunding, including the top 20 projects and the year's breakdown by genre.
Joystiq gets sage advice to celebrate Father's Day
On Sunday, popularity in neck ties, Hawaiian shirts and Home Depot gift cards exploded as families around the world celebrated Father's Day. For our post-E3 2014 celebration, Joystiq asked old, new and non-fathers about the wisdom they'd like to share with their children. Video game-based wisdom, of course. We asked: "If you had to tell your sons and/or daughters to play one game that helped shape your love of games and explained why you love playing and/or making games, what would it be and why?" What would you tell your kids?
Far Cry 4 is Far Cry 3's worst enemy
In Far Cry 3, you are the savior that fell from the sky. Unfortunately, you are also Jason Brody, the rich white kid diving out of an airplane joyride, and ultimately rescuing a tribe of Pacific islanders from vicious pirates. As fun as Far Cry 3 was in the midst of a gunfight, its story was rooted in problematic themes and hung around the necks of air-dropped outsiders. That's set to change significantly once you tread the Himalayan footpaths of Far Cry 4, says narrative director Mark Thompson. The game's opening moments see new protagonist Ajay Ghale persecuted in his former home of Kyrat, barely escaping an encounter with a vile, sacrilegious despot named Pagan Min. Ghale is a returning native, while Min, an elite figure from Hong Kong's criminal underworld, is the outsider casting the shadow of monarchy. The story of Far Cry 4 clearly hinges on the history of Nepal and its bloody turn from monarchy to sovereign state, but it also reflects on Far Cry 3's sham of a hero.
Joystiq's E3 2014 Selections
With E3 2014 in the books, Joystiq's writers look back at their favorites from the show. With the only stipulation being that the game must have been playable to qualify, the team presents its selections for favorite games of E3 2014. From independent gems to major releases from powerhouse publishers, Joystiq's list represents the variety of experiences available to video game fans worldwide. Here are Joystiq's first annual "E3 Selections."
Telltale tells the tale of two tales in Tales from the Borderlands
Telltale's The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us have much in common. They're both based on comic books, they both feature some fairly bleak situations, and they both start with "The." Tales From the Borderlands, on the other hand, is based on an established video game series, is quite funny, and ... ok, it also has a "the," but it's near the end. It also has two playable characters: Rhys, the tech-using Hyperion employee, and Fiona, the steampunky grifter. After watching the first 30 minutes or so of the first of Tales' five episodes, I talked to Telltale's Richard Iggo about what else is different this time around. (Spoiler: Loot. Lots of loot.)
