recommended
Latest
Ether One review: Off to see the wizard
White Paper Games' Ether One may be one of the best video game adaptations of The Wizard of Oz, despite having absolutely nothing to do with it. In the classic 1939 film, a young girl leaps between the dreary physical world and a dreamlike dimension of color, wonder and magic. Ether One too has its player leaping between worlds, one being the painful reality of dementia and the other being a hand-painted, cel-shaded vision of a pristine harbor town called Pinwheel. You play as a Restorer, someone contracted to dive into peoples' minds and repair them from within. The patient you're helping is suffering dementia, and their memories are fragmented. Your job is to travel through the patient's recollection of Pinwheel, scavenging these memories as represented by red ribbons. Collect them all and, in theory, the mind will be restored. Dementia, for all its agony and seeming invulnerability, will be cured. In theory.
S. Prell03.26.2014
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode Two review: Forget Paris
This is a review of downloadable content for BioShock Infinite. As such, it may contain spoilers for the main campaign or "Burial at Sea Episode One". In some alternate universe, in some different timeline, BioShock Infinite's "Burial at Sea" was never split into two parts. I say "parts," and not "halves," because Episode One was, at best, a lackluster introduction. Its return to Andrew Ryan's submerged metropolis of Rapture was disappointing, its promise of noir intrigue petered out too quickly, and all we were left with was slightly different combat and a ham-fisted twist ending that was barely deserving of the term. It's a shame, then, that the BioShock Infinite creators in our universe chose to serve up Burial at Sea as two complementary products, because Episode Two is much stronger. Had Burial at Sea been released as one cohesive whole, the mediocre opening hours we know as Episode One might have been forgiven. As it stands (in this reality), "Burial at Sea Episode Two" is longer, it delivers a better story with more emotional drive, and its combat feels fresher. Even its obligatory shock ending feels more in line with BioShock's pedigree.
Richard Mitchell03.25.2014
Star Wars denied, creativity permitted: a crucial moment in LucasArts history
Founded in 1982 as a new division of George Lucas' entertainment empire, LucasFilm Games intended to hinge its products on cutting-edge technology. David Fox, also known as LucasArts Employee #2, envisioned a visually rich first-person spaceship game for Atari 8-bit systems – and doesn't that just sound perfect for Star Wars? "I wanted it to be a Star Wars game originally," Fox said, "and we were told right up front, when we asked, that we were not allowed to do Star Wars titles. "And I was really upset," he said, laughing. "I joined the company because I wanted to be in Star Wars and that was the closest way I could do it, to create a game and do it that way." Though LucasFilm Games would eventually align with Star Wars as it became the LucasArts we knew, it was this initial denial that set a course for long-lasting collaboration and unique design approaches. Speaking at the Game Developers Conference, in the first postmortem panel dedicated to a company, former figureheads spoke of an atmosphere in which creators were permitted to do anything but Star Wars. [Image: Guybrush Threepwood in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 / Disney]
Ludwig Kietzmann03.20.2014
Challenges and comparisons: The monsters that hunt Alien Isolation
The Creative Assembly has been forced to make a number of changes in order to realize the vision for Alien: Isolation. After successful pitches to both Sega and 20th Century Fox, the developer turned to recruitment, ensuring it added new members to its team that were capable of crafting the exact game it pitched, what Creative Lead Al Hope calls: "The Alien game that we always wanted to play." A game completely different from that other Alien game, which his team at The Creative Assembly had no involvement with making, yet keeps coming up, just the same Its pitch demo for Isolation was built in four weeks and featured two identical medical bays: one with its environment and objects in pristine condition and the other obliterated by an unknown menace. The juxtaposition led to immediate questions: "What happened? What did this?" Soon, an answer invaded the screen as a large xenomorph falls into frame, ending the demo. Sega was immediately interested, Hope says, as was Fox. Adding new talent to execute on the project was necessary. For the better part of a decade, The Creative Assembly has focused its attention on the RTS genre. Once its pitch was green lit, Creative Assembly brought in talent that contributed to a host massive franchises, including Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed. Its team assembled and its concept approved, the developer began its work over three and a half years ago on Alien: Isolation – a survival horror game based on a beloved movie from the late 1970s. "This is exactly the game we want to make," Hope says.
Xav de Matos03.20.2014
This box hides a new Device 6 mystery
Though the appearance of Device 6 at this year's Game Developers Conference is to be expected, the physical appearance of its stand in the independent games pavilion is ... well, that depends on how susceptible you are to mind control. The kiosk appears to be a spying, literal extension of the story in Device 6, which sees you – the subject of sorts – solving abstract puzzles in a surreal environment. The narrated mystery would often extend beyond the borders of your iPad, calling into question where the game really ended. A scattering of immovable "replica" iPhones on the stand asks: "Why wasn't the game on display? If there wasn't a game to play, then what was the purpose?" You may just find the (creepy) answer if you work your way through our gallery. And please close the box after you've completed the test. [Images: AOL]
Ludwig Kietzmann03.20.2014
Infamous: Second Son review: Thank you for smoking
There's a stark duality at the heart of the Infamous series. The original Infamous was built on a solid foundation, putting players in the role of a modern-day superhero with a repertoire that expanded gameplay in satisfying, meaningful ways throughout its campaign. Its sequel boasted a number of improvements, but its mechanics weren't always explored to their fullest potential. Playing through InFamous 2 recently reminded me of the series' darker half. Though its upgradable superpowers were impressive and its parkour mechanics were fun, its story missions frequently came up short. Throughout the campaign, protagonist Cole MacGrath was too often saddled with repetitive arena fights and escort missions -- a poor fit for a man who can shoot lightning from his fingertips. Infamous: Second Son emphasizes the series' strengths in its debut appearance on the PlayStation 4, easily trumping previous Infamous games while showcasing the power of Sony's latest console. In the process, it drastically overhauls the series' defining elements, stripping away the weaker parts and focusing on what works best. If you found previous Infamous games more frustrating than fun, Second Son's gleefully destructive superheroics will win you over as a fan.
Danny Cowan03.20.2014
Road Not Taken is deeper than you think
Road Not Taken looks like it could be a mobile game. The gameplay itself takes place on a series of grids, in cold, fantastical forests, where players must combine objects to clear paths and rescue children lost in the woods. It looks as if you could tap, tap, tap a tablet screen to move your little hooded character around the map. But that's only the first layer of the game.
Jessica Conditt03.19.2014
Crowdfund Bookie, winter quarter: Hibernation
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. Money spent on crowdfunded games dropped 51.1 percent in the three-month period of December 2013 through February 2014. In this winter quarter, 76 projects received a total of $6,138,890, which compares unfavorably to the combined $12,543,198 in funding for the fall quarter (September through November 2013). While the funding space squeaked by in December and took a nosedive in January, it gained a little ground in February in terms of dollars spent, with $2,961,953 pledged in that month alone, which stands well with other months we've tracked dating back to June 2013. The catch, and where the trend continues to be a concern, comes from the number of projects and backers overall. Only 16 projects were funded during February, and 20 in January. The average number of successful projects per month from June through December was just over 32, so roughly half the number of projects are being funded on Kickstarter and Indiegogo at this stage. One of February's few funded projects was the wildly successful Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Kingdom Come earned $1,842,218 thanks to 35,384 backers. Without that game's contributions, February would have amounted to $1,119,735 in pledges from 28,355 backers. Looking at January's figures as well, there's a clear downward trend in crowdfunding at the moment. Whether it was a lack of enticing projects, a stack of holiday bills or just the winter doldrums, something kept backers from adding their two cents to crowdfunding. The median, or middle points in the data set for the quarter point to a positively-skewed distribution as well, and gives a better indicator of how much projects actually earn when compared to mean averages. When comparing the median averages to the previous six months, we find that more backers (616 versus 542) are funding fewer projects, and at a lower spending amount ($18,087 versus $25,188). Unless the crowdfunding space has simply gone into hibernation and will return to life in the spring, the next few months may prove more difficult for project creators than in the past. Head past the break for a list of the quarter's top ten earners as well as a breakdown by genre.
Mike Suszek03.10.2014
Titanfall review: Prime delivery
Titanfall is strictly coiled around the player. You couldn't excise even one piece without slackening it like a ruined kidnapper's rope. The serpentine level design, the liberating sense of movement, the flawless controls and yes, the enormous bipedal tanks dropping from the sky, are equally indispensable in this arresting shooter. Given the studio's splintered status as a former Call of Duty custodian, Respawn Entertainment has made a multiplayer game fit for those who have spent years peering through the eyes of a speedy killing machine – a seasoned six against six in battles for land or a higher kill count. A history with rapid-fire aim and fleet-footed 3D movement is not essential here, but recommended.
Ludwig Kietzmann03.10.2014
Magus review: Best worst game
Magus is the worst game I've played this year, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. Bad games typically fall into one of two categories. Many are bad because they're mechanically awkward or otherwise deeply flawed in terms of controls, making them frustrating to play. The second category is much rarer. These games are poorly conceived but otherwise inoffensive with regard to gameplay, often rendering them inept in an endearing sort of way. Magus, exclusive to PS3, neatly falls into the latter category, offering up tons of unintentional laughs at the expense of its boneheaded writing and simplistic gameplay. It's a rare gem of a game that manages to be immensely entertaining despite having no obvious redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Danny Cowan03.07.2014
Watch Dogs preview: Distractions in dystopia
Aiden Pearce is a complicated guy. Tormented by his past and his actions as a skilled hacker, the Watch Dogs protagonist has lost family and his identity to a world that hides its secrets behind firewalls. But he does this by using the systems he questions as his own destructive weapon, given the opportunity to wreak havoc on the lives of people in ways the establishment perhaps never would. He can steal people's money or use their secrets against them for information or access, all under the guise of combatting a security system that threatens the world's privacy. Though the security state setting of Watch Dogs is dystopian, it does not venture into the dour imagery found in the pages of a Phillip K. Dick story. Its world is contemporary, taking place in an alt-history Chicago that looks similar to its real world counterpart and holds the title of America's first "Smart City, "one controlled by a powerful monitoring system infrastructure. For players this offers a gateway of access, transforming simple button presses into a world of possibilities and making infiltration and information-gathering the most important element in Ubisoft's newest open world.
Xav de Matos03.06.2014
South Park: The Stick of Truth review: Come on down
Before video games, kids played pretend. They didn't need a graphics card or CPU to show them a world of wonder and high fantasy. Get a long enough stick and, boom, you're a wizard. Put up a tent and some cardboard in the backyard and you've got a fortress. Playing pretend can be powerful, and nowhere is that more true than in the quiet mountain town of South Park. South Park: The Stick of Truth is the story of a children's game gone horribly, awfully, disgustingly awry. It opens with you, the new kid, being invited to partake in a war where humans and elves battle for control of an all-powerful relic that allows its wielder to control the universe. Only, the "war" is just swinging cardboard swords, the "elves" are kids wearing the sort of cheap plastic ears you see in Halloween stores, and the "all-powerful relic" is a stick. Just an ordinary stick. It's all pretend. Or is it? During your quest to claim the Stick of Truth, you'll explore alien vessels, witness your parents having sex, perform an abortion on a man, fight Nazi zombies, crawl up an anus, and face off against a shadowy government organization, and all of it is very real. But you and your friends are still kids, playing pretend. Your paladin friend doesn't really have a Hammer of Justice, he has a ball-peen hammer taken from his home. Your wizard friend isn't casting Magic Missile, he's throwing menstrual pads. And you, dear child, you're not swinging a "vibroblade," you're wielding a dildo.
S. Prell03.04.2014
Twitch Plays Pokemon: Creating an oral history in real-time
When I began my phone call Sunday evening with T.L. Taylor, an associate professor of comparative media studies at MIT, I opted to check her loyalty to the one, true Helix god. "All sensible people are," she joked. Even when observing Twitch Plays Pokemon from an academic standpoint, it's easy to get wrapped up in the emerging community-crafted narrative surrounding the live, always-on event. The crowd-created stories in Twitch Plays Pokemon are enough to fill four seasons of serialized TV drama, complete with the surprising death of characters and the rise of clearly-defined heroes, villains and idolized "gods" like the Helix Fossil, all caught in a religious war. Yet it moves at a pace that can make some accounts of the multiplayer game seem outdated within hours. In fact, by the time I came back to this very paragraph, the Helix Fossil was revived and turned into the Pokemon Omanyte (affectionately called "Lord Helix" by the players). "[The channel] actually takes one of the kernels of what makes Twitch so interesting, which is turning what would otherwise be your private play into public entertainment for others," Taylor said. "What I think is great about this channel and is so fascinating is that the entertainer also becomes the crowd."
Mike Suszek02.26.2014
Twitch Plays Pokemon: Its history, highlights and Bird Jesus
The Internet is a bizarre, confusing and sometimes wonderful place. Nowhere and no-when has that been more evident than now, as the world watches Twitch Plays Pokemon. For those not yet swept up in the madness, Twitch Plays Pokemon is the 1998 GameBoy game Pokemon Red being emulated on a computer, streamed to the masses. Those who tune in can enter the game's commands – up, down, left, right, A, B, start – in the Twitch channel chat, and said commands will be translated into in-game results. You type "up," the main character moves up. Simple, right? Not quite when you have 70,000 people typing out often-contradictory commands. The infinite monkey theorem – a mathematical principle that has existed in some form or interpretation since Aristotle – has often been taken to mean, "If an infinite number of monkeys were to use an infinite number of typewriters, sooner or later you get Shakespeare." Well brother, this ain't that. This is 70,000 monkeys wrestling for control of one typewriter, while another group of monkeys interprets the words printed as holy gospel. And no, the religious imagery is not an exaggeration, as you'll soon see. Like a Rattata in Team Rocket Headquarters, we've dug our way through Twitch Plays Pokemon to bring you some of the best, the funniest, the weirdest memes and moments created by this intriguing display of unbridled creativity.
S. Prell02.22.2014
Twitch Plays Pokemon, but can Twitch beat Pokemon?
"Even when played very poorly it is difficult to not make some progress in Pokemon," the mastermind behind Twitch Plays Pokemon told Joystiq. The Twitch community is putting that opinion to the test.
Xav de Matos02.20.2014
Square Enix producer Kitase on Lightning Returns reviews, HD remasters, and that FF7 tech demo
Lightning Returns brought an end to what's been - relative to the series' high standards and typically universal acclaim - a divisive trilogy of games. While we enjoyed the final fantasy in Lightning's saga, other reviewers were happy enough to say so long to the rosy-haired heroine. When I spoke with series producer Yoshinori Kitase days after the game launched, I asked if he'd had a chance to read the reviews, and what he thought of them. "Yes I have scanned through more or less all the reviews, as well as user feedback available on the Internet," Kitase said, through a translator "I wasn't really shocked. There are negative reviews and positive reviews, it's a real mixture. When I started making this game I took on very new challenges, so in a way I had anticipated that there would be mixed opinions, so this is more or less what we had anticipated." Kitase, a Square Enix veteran of some 24 years, also argued the game might leave some with a negative impression at first, but as you play it the whole way through, your mind might change. For a second I wondered if we'd gone back in time to 2010, and Kitase was talking about the ever-so-slow introduction that put some players off Final Fantasy 13. "In a normal process where we make numbered Final Fantasy games, it takes at least two or three years, [and it's] quite a long turnaround," Kitase pointed out, referring to the much shorter cycle that saw three FF13 games released in just under four years. "In the space of three years, lots of things can [change] quite dramatically," he added. "The market situation, user trends, users' preferences, everything can change. So we've always taken feedback both from media and users on board, and when we want to reflect those views on the next project, in the space of three years, the situation might be completely different. The changes we've affected or implemented as a result of this feedback may not mean very much in three years' time, because of the long cycle."
Sinan Kubba02.17.2014.jpg.cf.jpg)
Austin Wintory takes inspiration from Banner Saga's exhausted warriors
Austin Wintory doesn't like manipulating people. He could, pretty easily, if he wanted to, because he's a gifted musician with a knack for creating evocative music, but he doesn't have any interest in forcing you to feel a certain way. His approach to scoring a game like The Banner Saga is less about the obvious and more about the subtext – opening a door to an emotional space and letting you decide whether to walk in or not. Which sounds pretty high-minded for a game with giant warriors sporting goat horns, but that's just what's on the surface. Music's job lies in subtext. "The game should already be, for example, sad," he explained to me at DICE. "My job is to make you understand why and add a sense of stakes and weight to what's happening, not to try and make you have this base understanding that 'Now it's sad!' as if you would have missed that." Wintory, who admits to having worked on "not so good" movies, acknowledges that his job as composer is "a lot easier to do" when he's given excellent material to work with. Journey, he said, was so brilliant that he barely had to do anything. He could just "go in there and play" (and get nominated for a Grammy). Stoic Studio's The Banner Saga was similarly inspiring, but first he had to figure out the right way to handle its turn-based-strategy nature. He did at least know what he didn't want to do with it. "How to score the actual turn-based-strategy combat was a big question mark for me," Wintory said. He didn't want to take the same musical route as Banner Saga's most obvious recent comparison, XCOM, which featured fast-paced music. "All due respect to XCOM, I wanted to be the exact opposite of that, where I'm doing this, trying to contemplate the best strategy and I'm hearing pop-pop-pop-pop-pop that's like wailing away telling me 'Isn't this exciting?'"
Susan Arendt02.14.2014
The floating, fragile indie bubble
Days after Braid hit Xbox Live Arcade in 2008, we posted a story titled "Why should we care about Braid?" We liked the game and felt the need to explain: It was a simple platformer made by a handful of people, it was pretty and it had solid controls. This wasn't a review of Braid. It was a defense of the emerging indie industry, and an analysis of why a truly good, independent game deserved adulation, because some of our readers were uneasy accepting them as legitimate products. Now, we're writing about Sony dedicating a large chunk of its E3 2013 press conference – the one just prior to the launch of the PS4 – to indie developers. We're writing about Indie Megabooth being the largest display at PAX. We're writing about Vlambeer, Klei, Hello Games, Dennaton, Fullbright, Polytron, Chris Hecker and Team Meat without having to remind readers who they are or why they matter. We're writing about Flappy Bird. We're not just writing about the existence of Flappy Bird – a free, tap-to-fly, pixelated mobile game from a young developer in Vietnam – we're writing about Flappy Bird spawning game jams and knock-offs from Fall Out Boy. "The biggest change now is that it is so much easier to make games and it is so much easier to find an audience for games," Braid creator Jonathan Blow tells me. "This means a lot more people can build games and make a living off it, which is nice. However, it also means there is not so much of a crucible against which people refine their skills, so if one really wants to become a top game developer, a lot of motivation is required above and beyond that which gets one to 'baseline success.'"
Jessica Conditt02.14.2014
Deja Review: Fable Anniversary
This is a Deja Review: A quick, unscored look at the new features and relative agelessness of a remade, revived or re-released game. Ten years after hitting the original Xbox, Fable proves that, contrary to popular belief, Peter Molyneux is a man of his word. The eccentric former chief of Lionhead, prone to exclamations about the insane emotional experiences hiding in the games he makes, actually never delivered on dreams of simulating a hero's life in exhaustive detail. No acorns are planted at the beginning, and no mammoth trees sprout in their wake by the time its shaggy dog revenge story comes to a close. All the basics Molyneux promised, however, made it in. In interview after interview during the development of Project Ego – Fable's early code name – he passionately described a role-playing game that would change depending on how it was played, a deeply personal reflection of your choices. Use a sword more than the bow, and your hero will gain better opportunities to build up strength and stamina. Cast lightning on the regular, your hero's flowing locks will turn shock white and arcane sigils will coat his body. Play the bandit, people will fear you; escort the weak through dangerous lands, citizens will cheer when you walk through town. Fable Anniversary, Lionhead's admirably spit-shined remaster, has a surprise for those looking back at Project Ego. It's Albion, not the hero fated to save it from certain doom, that makes Fable worth playing today. How you play about its countryside, not how you build your character's stats, is what reflects and rewards the player.
Anthony John Agnello02.04.2014
The Wolf Among Us 'Smoke and Mirrors' review: Of wolf and man
Fairy tales are stories for children, and as such are full of magic, fantasy, and wonderment. What we tend to forget, however, is that murderers lie in wait for the princesses, and monsters lurk in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to destroy happiness. Episode 2 of The Wolf Among Us, "Smoke and Mirrors" reminds us that our fables are full of twisted characters who prey on the innocence or desperation of others. It's harsh and bleak and will make you uncomfortable, even when you're not examining the corpse. As a quick reminder, the characters of Wolf Among Us are Fables, the actual characters from our storybooks, who've fled their Homelands and taken up residence in a section of New York called Fabletown. You play as Bigby Wolf, sheriff of Fabletown, who is continuing his investigation into the murder of Episode 1, "Faith," finding himself with another dead body and even more questions. Between his responsibilities as sheriff, his checkered past, and his own less-than-stellar interpersonal skills, Bigby's constantly being pulled in several different directions at once – is he the wolf, or the lawman, the reasonable symbol of justice, or a thug? He is all of these things, and more, and the events of "Smoke and Mirrors" reveal his complexities. He's a marvelous character to role-play, never quite one thing or the other, and he provides the anchor that the story needs to keep from spinning off into the darkness.
Susan Arendt02.04.2014