Well, E3 is over, and now the time comes to sit back and assess all that has transpired. Coming at you now are my five favorite/least favorite things from E3 2013. Of course please remember that I’m just one guy, I can’t see everything on the floor, and these are just based on what I experienced. BEST 5. Forza 5. Turn 10 Studios may finally kill “Gran Turismo” with this racing powerhouse. From drop-dead gorgeous graphics to the incredible Drivatar functionality, this one is coming in hot. 4. PS4 Controller. As a die-hard hater of the Dual Shock, no one was…
Author: Andrew Allen
Hello Dear Reader, There’s so much to talk about, I apologize that I haven’t written sooner. Over the past two days, I was shown private demos of two games (among others) for which I had very high hopes: “Ryse” and “Thief.” My feelings coming out of both were somewhere between ambivalence and full-on dread. Let me explain. RYSE Rating: D As a longtime admirer of Crytek, I went into this one with high hopes. I should state before I continue that Crytek is stubbornly refusing to show anything but that one very Normandy-looking level we’ve all seen, and it’s hard…
I know I said I wasn’t buying “Halo 4.” Well congratulations, Dear Reader, you get to shove it in my face once again because I’m totally buying it. At first I held strong; sure that IGN review was very positive, but it’s IGN, the home of Chobot-otron and other manufactured entities. And anyway, IGN is the high fructose corn syrup of gaming journalism. I can withstand their braying ardor. But then Destructoid came waving the flag with an even more positive review. And then Joystiq. And then Machinima. And then–be still my heart–the Penny Arcade Report. And now I am well and…
It’s been a good year for the thinking man’s action game: first “Ghost Recon: Future Soldier” defies my pessimistic initial assessments and becomes the benchmark for tactical action/stealth. And now Firaxis comes roaring through the gate with “XCOM: Enemy Unknown,” a strategy/action title so outstanding it’ll leave you in tears. It isn’t just good, it’s transcendent. Staggering depth, heart-racing action, streamlined controls (no easy feat considering the amount one has to do in this game), a gorgeous UI, they’re just firing on all cylinders here. If there is a significant flaw in this game, if there is some thing it sets out to…
“Dishonored” is in no way a bad game, but that isn’t quite the same as being a game I like. I admire Bethesda for trying out a brand new IP, and I admire them even more for seeing that IP through with such polish, but what comes out the other end has a few problems that hold it back. Let’s get into why. First of all, in the post-“Mark of the Ninja” world, I pity the fool who makes a stealth game. But even setting those high standards aside, not all the stealth works. First of all, hiding behind objects…
There’s always a place in my heart for “Painkiller,” “Serious Sam’s” slightly evolved older brother in the shooting gallery FPS world. So it’s with great pleasure that I just got word a remake of the original 2004 game titled “Painkiller: Hell and Damnation” is making its way to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 31st. There’s going to be a Collector’s Edition with stickers and other stuff you don’t care about, can we just skip the part where I recite all of that? Awesome. What is interesting, however, is that the remake is running on Unreal 3, so if the…
Don’t get me wrong, I like “Borderlands 2” a great deal, but the thing glitches like it’s its job. Lately it seems like QT standards are dropping across the board for AAA titles, maybe because post-release patching has made developers and publishers lazy. And the bigger the game, the more acceptable the developer seems to think it is (cough Skyrim cough). It’s like they think they get a pass cause their world is so huge or something. Well, they don’t. In an attempt to counter that attitude, I’d like to discuss some of the glitches I’ve already encountered in the…
As an avid but late-arriving fan of the original, I’ve been anticipating “Borderlands 2” quite a bit, and now that I’ve put in a solid week with the title I can safely say it’s an honorable continuation of what made the first great. It’s a pretty safe sequel all told, never straying far from the original, but brand new classes, enemies, weapons, and worlds to explore keep the ennui at bay. Gearbox really had their cake and ate it too with this one: it’s the game you already love, but it’s also a reasonably fresh experience. Of course, it also…
Stealth is one of the hardest genres for a developer to pull off, perhaps because it’s defined at its core by the conflicting attributes of player autonomy and tightly scripted level design. The challenges need to feel harder than they actually are, and the solutions–though carefully crafted–must seem to burst forth from the player’s natural talent. A really great stealth game will make you rip your hair out ten minutes before wondering if you just might be the best damned assassin who ever picked up a controller. So when a game walks this tight rope, it’s something special, and it tends…
When I said a few months ago that I thought it made sense for Valve to design some kind of hardware console, a concept colloquially dubbed the “Steam Box,” many scoffed. Now it’s been revealed that Valve is hiring an “industrial designer,” with a post going up on their jobs site that seems to double as a press release. “We’re frustrated by the lack of innovation in the computer hardware space…” it reads, “…so we’re jumping in.” What does this mean? To me, one thing: a Steam console of some kind is coming. I know this sounds far-fetched to many…
The return of “Counter Strike” with CS:GO gives me occasion to wax poetic about this classic franchise’s virtues, and perhaps impart some much-needed wisdom to the current shooter market. Yes, ol’ CS is the Clint Eastwood of the gaming world: a grizzled vet who can still teach the kids a thing or two. Let’s dive into five valuable lessons the success of CS:GO could teach modern FPSes. 1. Be Yourself. These days, every fancy-boy first person shooter has to have a Horde mode, or perks and kill streaks, maybe a half-hearted cover system, and whatever the hell else. The market is…
(UPDATE: The Mac crash issue I reported here when this review was posted seems to have ceased, at least over the past few days. Perhaps a stealth patch was enacted) If you love “Counter Strike,” then CS:GO is for you; if you don’t, then it isn’t. There isn’t really any other way to put it than that. Valve and Hidden Path have pretty much towed the party line on this one, and thanks to an affordable price tag and the inherently strong foundation they’re working from, that’s a smart decision. This is not an evangelical experience, it won’t convert the…
“Sleeping Dogs” makes a noble effort to introduce some new elements to the sandbox genre, and some of them are quite successful, but in the end its unable to escape the clutches of familiarity that threaten to asphyxiate the entire genre. To their credit, United Front has shown incredible resolve in delivering such a good product after being thrown into the cold by the “True Crime” franchise. That this game is polished, well-balanced and engaging is a testament to their commitment. But a creeping sense of ennui still holds the game back. On the surface, “Dogs” seems to offer an…
Making a video game scary is incredibly difficult, and requires a total commitment to that goal at the expense of all others. So when EA and Visceral keep assuring us that “Dead Space 3” will be frightening, no matter how much non-horror stuff they pack on top of it, I just don’t believe them. I’m a big fan of Isaac Clarke’s adventures, I’m sure I’ll be the first guy scooping up the game when it comes out, but I feel the need to issue a reality-check here: there is absolutely no way “Dead Space 3” is going to be frightening,…
In case you think only Steam is capable of ruining your financial solvency this summer, let me assure you that isn’t the case. Best Buy is also starting their own summer sale, which really should be called, “Look How Cheap ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is, And Also Can We Please Give Away Some Copies of ‘Metroid: Other M’?” When coupled with Gamestop’s alleged “Beat the Heat” stratagem and Steam’s continuing onslaught on the economy, you’ve pretty much got your pick of the litter for game purchasing right now. Which is odd, because there’s…nothing good out. Is it just me or are we…
Ever since this year’s E3 I’ve been nursing an almost pathological ennui about “Halo 4.” As the rest of the world seems to be getting swept into the excitement of it, I remain distant and detached. Destructoid did this piece that is supposed to make you, like, get excited for this thing, and I poured through every word of it looking for the secret juice that would ignite such a reaction in my heart. Alas, twas not there. My problem is that all the changes feel incremental and unsatisfying. Forge is getting some nice tweaks and improvements, but most of them feel…
A while back, I tried playing “Spec Ops: The Line,” and put it down within twenty minutes. The combat was stilted, character movement sucked (I’m a stickler for that), and aiming was sloppy and unsatisfying. It played like a poor man’s “Gears of War,” I wasn’t interested, end of story. And then a weird thing happened: it got a ton of good reviews. And this in and of itself might not have been that strange—I’ve disliked acclaimed software before—except that almost all of these reviews acknowledged my complaints, and fawned on the game anyway. You see, apparently “Spec Ops: The Line”…
So now that we’ve all moved on with our lives, Bioware is back to remind us how much we didn’t like the ending of “Mass Effect 3” with that new, expanded ending they kept yammering about. If you uh, wan to go re-hash an old wound and see if you hate the new one as much as the old one, there it is. Personally, I was very much in support of some additional content to tie off the ending, but I think it’s just too late to do it now. It’s been months since this whole…experience, and I think we’ve…
I want to like “Minecraft” so much, but I’ve put something like a dozen hours into it so far, and no dice. Help me, Dear Reader. Explain to me how this game is supposed to work. Every time I pick it up, I find myself hitting trees for five hours just to get four pieces of wood, but then I have to make them into planks before they can do anything, but then the planks need to become sticks (how does THAT work?) so I can make an axe, but then the axe breaks when I use it at all,…
“Diablo III” is the work of master craftsmen/craftswomen. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s without flaws, but it does mean that compared to the work of less talented artists, fewer of those flaws are accidents. To show you what I mean, let’s take a closer look at the game in question. We’ll examine the five biggest flaws of “Diablo III,” then compare them with its five biggest successes. The results may surprise you. Flaw #1: Always Online. Let’s just get the obvious one we’re all thinking about out of the way: yes, it is irritating that you can never be offline.…
I was watching the “Amazing Spiderman” trailer, and I couldn’t help but notice a kind of strange…maneuver that ol’ Webhead performs on an adversary. Anyone else find this a little…amusing? Is it just me? Bueller?
EA treated me to some time with “Crysis 3,” and it’s pretty much what you think it is. I don’t mean that as an insult, but I don’t exactly mean it as a compliment either. Whereas “Crysis 2” blew the original out of the water with better graphics and gameplay refinements, the jump from 2 to 3 feels more incremental. I’m still gonna play it to death when it comes out, and I suggest you do the same, but it’s my job to be honest here, so that’s what I’m doing. You’re wondering about the bow, aren’t you? I can…
After a stunning announcement trailer, NetherRealms’ “Injustice: Gods Among Us” had a pretty high bar to leap over on the show floor. After seeing some of the game in action, my feeling is that the game is an interesting prospect, but not a sure-fire victory quite yet. It looks good, and the NetherRealm folks have some neat ideas, but we’ll see. “Injustice” looks almost identical to the recent “Mortal Kombat” reboot, and that’s a compliment. The art direction on the various Justice League/DC character outfits is superb, with Batman and the Flash in particular impressing. I honestly think the Dark…
Every year at E3 there’s at least one game that surpasses the logical part of my brain and knocks my socks off, and this year, Criterion’s “Need for Speed: Most Wanted” is that game. Being a fan of their work on “Hot Pursuit” I was looking forward to seeing it, but I assumed it was more of what I already knew. When EA ushered me into the media demo, I had no idea I was in for a revelatory experience. Although “Most Wanted” takes its name from the early NFS classic, in Criterion’s own words, “we don’t make sequels to…
“Dead Space 3” looks great, and its wintry locale offers a nice change of pace from the endless Ridley Scott corridors of past games, but the demo still left me with a sinking feeling. From the introduction of a cover system and co-op, to a much heavier reliance on human enemies and/or zombies who fire guns and act like humans, it feels like “Dead Space” is inching towards “Gears of War” and away from its roots in survival horror. Granted, “Dead Space” has always had a shade more Michael Bay about it than most of its brethren, that’s why we…
One of the first games I played on the show floor was “God of War: Ascension,” and I have to admit it left me cold. The graphics were great—not quite as gorgeous as “God of War 3” but very nice for multiplayer—and the team at Sony Santa Monica clearly put a lot of effort into it, but the fact remains that this franchise just doesn’t fit with deatmatch. I fear that no amount of polish is going to solve the basic discrepancy between what “God of War” is and the demands of competitive MP. The best way to describe playing…
I was able to get a lot of quality time today with Valve’s upcoming shooter “Counter Strike: Global Offensive,” and I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it. The controls are tight, movement is fast, and death comes swiftly. Although this isn’t the first time CS has been on consoles, this is definitely its most organic appearance. It feels truly built for the console, and plays well. Aiming in particular is well-handled: if there was an auto-aim active, I couldn’t feel it, and yet getting onto my target was never a struggle. “Counter Strike” predates the glut of modern shooters…
Valve has just announced that their upcoming “Defense of the Ancients 2” will be free-to-play, with an online store called the “Dota Store” that will allow players to trade user-created items. This is a somewhat surprising announcement, but Valve has always tended to think outside the box, and if anyone was going to move into F2P territory, it would certainly be them. Here’s the full text: Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today confirmed that Dota 2 will be free to play and announced the Dota…
Are you seeing this drop-dead gorgeous trailer for the new NetherRealm-developed DC fighting game? Why aren’t all announcement trailers done like this? We get gorgeous pre-rendered stuff to set the mood, and then a smooth transition into gameplay footage. That’s how it should always be done, folks. Bravo. I’m officially pumped as hell for this game. The whole “DC Heroes gone rogue thing” sounds absolutely awesome, and is a great way to justify letting the Justice League pummel the hell out of each other. _AA drones over brooklyn