Another year, another Call of Duty game which means another live action trailer. Over the past few years Jonah Hill, Kobe Bryant and Robert Downey, Jr. have starred in the ads for the biggest game on the planet (I don’t like saying it but it is true).
This year’s commercial for [amazon_link id=”B003O6CBIG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Call of Duty: Ghosts[/amazon_link] is brought to us by The Wolverine director James Mangold and stars Megan Fox who continually makes herself relevant despite doing nothing.
The wait for your next Metal Gear experience won’t be as long as you may think. Konami has announced that Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the prequel to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, will release Spring 2014 for 360, PS3, Xbox One and PS4. It will be available by digital download and disc. Digital download will be $19.99 on 360 and PS3 and $29.99 on Xbox One and PS4. Disc copies will cost $29.99.
Get ready for the beautiful action and “plot” next year.
Here is a piece of Konami’s statement:
“The METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES storyline follows the series’ hero, Big Boss, as he infiltrates a remote Cuban prison camp on a rescue mission, all while trying to remain undetected. Explosive plot lines develop quickly as he finds himself on behind enemy lines with little options for help.
“The advanced capabilities of the FOX Engine are allowing me to express the story of METAL GEAR SOLID in a new way,” explained Hideo Kojima, Creator of the METAL GEAR SOLID series, and head of Kojima Productions. “There will be a significant difference in what METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN brings to the series, so we want to ease players into the new open world environment and its potential, allowing them to fully benefit from all that the new game offers. As such, METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES has been designed to introduce key elements, while setting up the events of METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN.”
Batman: Arkham Origins has had its share of problems since its release on October 25th, including save data losses which is why I will not be reviewing the game. Now WB Games has issued a statement resolving to fix the multiple issues that have plagued the title.
Here is the official statement explaining the glitches found so far:
“Some players have been stuck in an endless loop of falling, making it impossible to complete certain missions and progress through the single-player campaign. We believe we have identified the issue and are currently testing the software update, which will push most players back to their previous save so that they will not be stuck in an infinite loop.”
“Some players can see their story progress in the main menu, but once they choose the story slot they don’t see an option to ‘Continue’ and only ‘New Game’ shows up. This issue should be resolved and the ‘Continue’ option will once again be available.”
“FreeFlow Focus mode not unlocking upon reaching Shadow Vigilante rank 3.”
“Players have reported recurring crashing and freezing while playing the game. We have been working hard to track down and resolve the problem as quickly as possible. We believe we know what is causing these issues and need a few more days to validate before pushing this patch through. In the meantime, some players have managed to avoid the freezing by disconnecting their console from the Internet while playing.”
And the biggest of the bunch it the data on 360 versions of the game being corrupted (like mine).
“Players have reported losing their saved game to data corruption. Specifically, when you try to choose a story slot to continue, it says ‘Corrupted’ and if you select it, an error message appears which says, ‘The save is corrupt. Please delete it.’ We believe we know what is causing this and need a few more days to validate before pushing a patch through.”
When you see just how many problems have been found with this game it is amazing that it got through QA testing. It screams of a studio that had to make a release date no matter what even if that meant shipping a game that was not ready. I feel bad for Rocksteady who has built the Arkham franchise into a gaming giant and entrusted it to another studio just to have this happen.
If you are looking to pick up an Xbox 360 for yourself or a Christmas present I would suggest doing it early. As in today. Best Buy is offering the Xbox 360 250GB Kinect Bundle that comes with Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports Season Two and Forza Horizon for only $244.99. That is a whopping 40% off the retail of $399.99.
Also, they have Playstation Vita’s for only $179.99 today only.
First off, don’t expect any Spartacus levels of blood here. It is a television ad but it does do a good job of showing off the ferocity of battle. The transition to in-game footage near the end is almost seamless and it took me a second or two to realize it had switched over.
Pretty game is pretty.
[amazon_link id=”B00CMQTU74″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Ryse: Son of Rome[/amazon_link] releases on November 22nd.
As an added bonus take a look at the video below which shows the crafting of the real armor and weapons based on the game.
In honor of Halloween, I thought I’d take the opportunity to weigh in on the state of horror in the gaming industry.
I’ll also take a second to weigh in on Halloween: It’s the best. Period. Do not, under any circumstances, try and overrun my day with your Christmas bullshit. I like Christmas, a lot, as a reason to give gifts, a wonderful time to be with loved ones, and a celebration of my personal belief system. All Hallow’s Eve kicks its ass, though, and don’t you forget it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpvdAJYvofI
Last night, I was thrilled to open up Steam – like I do every night – and see that they are celebrating this best of times with a sale on “spooky” games, which is Valve-speak for “almost all of the games, really.” I perused the selection, and came out of the process with Outlast, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Condemned: Criminal Origins. The first two are relatively new, but have been highly praised, while Condemned is one of the few big horror titles I’ve ever missed out on.
I’ve never been what most people would call a “scaredy-cat” when it comes to life… Unless there’s heights, deep water, or darkness involved. Or horses. So long as I’m not being dropped into a horse-filled lake at night, though, I can keep my shit together fairly well. My mom loves all things horror, so being a wuss about Nightmare on Elm Street wasn’t an option. I saw Aliens at a very young, very impressionable age, and repeated viewings of the chestburster scene taught me that fear can be controlled.
I’m not talking about “controlled” in some grand sense, or even in a way that works in a situation that involves a genuine threat to my well-being; the Kwisatz Haderach I am most assuredly not. The Bene Gesserit mantra – “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.” – still rings in my mind at times, though. While I certainly lack the qualifications to discuss why people in general seek out thrills-and-chills, I know my own reasons: I like conquering those moments.
I don’t play scary games or watch scary movies during the day; I’ve tried, and it just doesn’t work. The reason it doesn’t work is because fear generated by media is something disingenuous by nature, and is best when you provide it as much fuel as possible; it helps the process when you can open yourself to the possibility that you might be in danger, no matter how safe you actually are. I can’t tell you the number of times I have shifted plans toward enjoying something scary just because a storm has blown up outside. My copy of Alan Wake was purchased under precisely such conditions, and I literally raced home so I could play it as much as possible while the weather was bad.
Horror movies are experiencing a spike in popularity that started with the first Scream, and has been fueled by franchises like Final Destination, Saw, and Paranormal Activity. I’m a bit pickier when it comes to crawling over the back of an auditorium seat; I love a good slasher flick, don’t mind some psychological horror, need to see everyone get theirs in the end, and rarely bother with anything PG-13. The Strangers, Funny Games, and Cabin in the Woods all fit the bill in recent years, and I’ll probably see Insidious at some point.
Saw and Paranormal Activity took Hollywood by storm because the ratio of expenditures to profit was mind-boggling, and such was the case with a little game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Amnesia isn’t the prettiest game in the world, and the mechanics leave room for improvement, but the overall experience is perfectly targeted to one goal: Goddamn nightmares. I’ve tried to really dive into it, but I’m lucky to get through a half hour each time before going “Nope” and shutting it down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M627-obxNzg
The horror renaissance has come to gaming in this way, with the apparent death of the big publisher old-guard giving way to indie titles, some of which begin their development cycles as free browser games. While I certainly enjoyed Dead Space 3, and still find necromorphs terrifying, I would never go so far as to suggest that it’s anywhere near as scary as the original. While careful inventory management was essential in Dead Space, my careful hoarding in DS 3 was merely force of habit, resulting in literally hundreds of health packs and thousand of rounds of ammo.
If we’re going to talk about massive failures of pedigreed horror franchises, the rotten core has to be Resident Evil 6. I’ve owned all five previous numbered entries; I loved RE 4, and felt that the new control scheme was less a “travesty” and more “not broken and terrible.” Resident Evil 5 got me in with co-op, but the core gameplay was starting to show signs of mutation. I’ve only played a few chapters of Resident Evil 6, but they might as well have come straight out of a Michael Bay film that happens to involve zombies.
If I’m being honest, the most harrowing game I’ve played to completion so far this year is The Swapper. An indie puzzle / platformer set on an abandoned space station, it perfectly captures the feeling of being afraid precisely because you are completely alone. In space. On a facility that used to be filled with people. Each new piece of information you receive only makes the situation worse, and the end of the game is as chilling as anything I’ve ever experienced.
The Swapper wasn’t a horror game at heart, though, at least not in the traditional sense of building tension and sending dangerous enemies to hound you. In games like Amnesia or Outlast, the entire design is geared toward getting you wound-up, and then sending you screaming for safety. They achieve maximum impact by stripping you of any means to defend yourself, turning them from standard “survival horror” to “hide under something and cry silently” horror. Even when Isaac Clarke was completely out of ammo, you could fall back on desperate melee attacks.
Weapons aren’t the only things you’ll be without, though, as the days of never-ending light from ephemeral sources are no more. Outlast, for example, puts you in the shoes of a reporter investigating a metal asylum. Your only means of illumination is the night-vision mode on your handheld camcorder, and it eats batteries like a Sega Game Gear. Amnesia employs a similar mechanic via a lantern with limited oil and environmental lighting sources that must be ignited via tinderboxes. The Dark Descent took things one step further by employing an Eternal Darkness style sanity system; stay in the dark too long, and your perception of things warps, hindering your ability to move, interact, and escape.
You’re probably asking yourself why I would pick up other games of this ilk if this one already stymies me so badly? The answer is simple: I like conquering those moments. I’ve mostly reached the point where I have to consciously allow myself to be scared by a film, but games can still take hold. The main difference I can come up with is interactivity; a game asks you to invest in the idea that the line between you and your character is blurred. If they’re in danger, you’re in danger, essentially. In order for that to work, a good horror game has to walk the line between fear and frustration; keeping the character / player in a constant state of danger and near-death, without actually killing them so many times that dying loses its bite.
Using this formula, the titles mentioned above have raked in impressive numbers – impressive, that is, considering that they’re indie horror games. Even the big-name titles like the upcoming The Evil Within from Bethesda won’t have the numbers of something like Skyrim, Call of Duty, or Madden. Video games are already less accessible than going to see the movies, and while watching Amnesia reaction videos on YouTube is entertaining, it still doesn’t approach the social connection achieved by watching a scary flick in an auditorium full of other people.
At their core, horror games have to succeed on the existence of a very specific group: Individuals with a semi-disposable income, the desire to play games by themselves, and the skill necessary for the generally steep difficulty involved. Even within my group of friends, there are only a handful of us that fit this criteria; even I haven’t ever purchased these kind of games at their standard $20 price point. When you consider what a horror game would have to offer to get me to shell out $60, I begin to have a little more sympathy for publishers and developers to be more cautious about investing in them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc-jvqJV4SI
Unfortunately, this can lead to wasted potential on certain titles, such as the recently announced Alien: Isolation. Sega has a lot riding on this title, as further mishandling of the franchise after Colonial Marines could destroy what profitability is left. The report is that you will be playing as Ellen Ripley’s daughter in an environment that contains a single xenomorph, in homage to the first film. Sounds fantastic, right? Except that the report also talks about “clone soldiers” and other nonsense that makes it clear the bulk of gameplay will probably consist of generic sci-fi shooting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypHORmiLe3I
I feel this paradox – the seeming inability of games in traditional horror franchises to stay focused on horror – highlights the challenges facing the industry that have led to the current state of affairs. The more popular a franchise becomes, the more likely the call will be made to tweak it into something more marketable. I haven’t played A Machine for Pigs yet, but word on the web seems to be that it isn’t the terrifying tour-de-force delivered by its predecessor. Have we really reached the point were a new IP can’t even make it to the second entry without having to worry about “accessibility?”
For the answer to that question, you only have to look as far as the second paragraph on this post: Whatever sells, wins. Halloween isn’t much more than cheap candy and Instagram pics of girls in costume as “slutty sluts.” Christmas gets people spending money, and so has been allowed outside the confines of December. Hell, there are department stores opening up at 8 PM on November 28th, right in the middle of what should be post-dinner Thanksgiving naps and football.
In two months or so, there will be millions of people unwrapping copies of sports titles, action platformers and shooters, with some racing titles and JRPGs thrown in for good measure. These are the kind of games that show off new consoles with flash, or keep kids huddled around the TV, or let older gamers chat with friends while enjoying a round or two. You won’t find a whole of people whose first hope Christmas morning is “Oh man, I hope I get a hyper-terrifying game that will keep me alone in the dark of my room!”
For this weekend, though, I’m going to allow myself to become absorbed in the darker side of things; let my imagination run rampant, to the point where I triple-check the locks and keep my flashlight under my pillow. Come Monday morning, I want to exult in the rising of the sun, clawing my way up from a place of fear. I want to conquer those moments. Plus, it looks like Dead Rising 3 will probably be my holiday launch title that gets played while we gather around the tree, and at least it has zombies. My mom loves zombies.
More bad news for South Park fans as Ubisoft has delayed South Park: The Stick of Truth again. The game will now release on March 4, 2014.
Trey Stone and Matt Parker have been closely involved with the project to ensure that it is like playing an actual episode of South Park.
Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc was surprisingly honest about the delay:
“Within three weeks after acquiring the game, we sadly realized we had to turn this thing upside down if we hoped to deliver the experience everybody wanted. It’s been such a major overhaul to get to the point where we are that we couldn’t let it go, even if that meant missing December.”
While this certainly does suck worse than a bowl of chili made of Scott Tenorman’s parents, if it means the game will be a more polished and quality game I am all for it.
Ubisoft also released this seven minute gameplay trailer today as the boys hunt down The Bard on their quest for The Stick of Truth.
Long story short; there won’t be a Batman: Arkham Origins review. At least not anytime soon. This is due to the fact that I was twelve hours into the latest game in the series when I got a corrupted data message. The only solution? Delete my save and start anew.
I went online and read story after story of 360 owners who had experienced the same issue. Some had restarted the game two, three and even four times and at certain points their data became corrupted again. As of this writing the 360 version is the only one that seems to have this problem although the PS3 version is having frame rate issues. It looks like the Wii U and PC versions are the best of the bunch.
The only news from WB Montreal is that they are “investigating the issue” which is company speak for “oh shit, we missed something. Find it and patch it”. Now if you know me personally you know how much this hurts me. As the tattoos on my body and shelves of Batman action figures (not toys dammit) and statues can attest I am a bit of a Dark Knight freak. So the fact that this happened stings worse.
Why not just start over and play through the game? I can hear some of you saying. This is a multi-part answer. It will lead into my early impressions of the game which were…meh. The game looked beautiful and the voice acting was top notch. Roger Craig Smith was a good place holder for Kevin Conroy and Troy Baker sounds so much like Mark Hamill it is uncanny. There was something just a bit off about it. While keeping the same combat and control scheme of the previous two Arkham games, the timing seemed different and led to a lot of frustrating fights.
I have played through Asylum five time and City three. I even played through both of them before Origins came out to make sure I had my timing down correctly and to acclimate myself with the controls again. In both previous games, I had no problem with big groups of thugs even while playing on hard. Playing Origins on normal difficulty (for the sake of review) I regularly found myself almost dying in groups of six or seven guys. The counter system, while technically the same as Rocksteady’s games was not reading all the counters I was doing. With a game that requires multiple counters in a row to keep combat flowing you need the game to be able to react to them. I was regularly getting annoyed at the combat in a series where combat is the best thing.
Also, while this is our first opportunity in the series to play in an actual open version of Gotham City, it feels decidedly vacant. I understand the story permits this with it being Christmas Eve and people are asked to stay in there homes because of the danger. So it is just you and thugs galore to occupy the city. I know Gotham City is a dangerous place but damn. If my apartment building had two snipers, two knife-wielding psychos and a guy with a baseball bat I would be calling Two Men and Truck…now. I am still looking for that first true Gotham City experience. I want Spider-Man 2 except with Batman. Bustling streets and patrons. Random robberies to stop. Driving the Batmobile around Gotham.
The second part of my reasoning for not starting the game again is I do not have the time to. Besides this site I have a full-time job and, despite what some people think, do not want to spend every waking moment in front of a television or computer screen. Maybe one day I will give Arkham Origins another chance or I may just wait for Rocksteady’s next installment that will be free of these problems. For now I have to get ready for the next-gen launches and even though I juuust said I can’t spend all my time with video games…I have to review WWE 2K14.
With the Playstation 4 only a few weeks from release, Sony has posted what they call the “Ultimate FAQ” about their next-gen console. Let’s take a look at the details in three handy categories for you fine people.
The Good
-The Playstation 4 will release on November 15th in North America for $399.99.
-HDMI cable included (at last)
-PS4 is designed with an internal power supply, so it does not have an external
“power brick.”
-PS4 is capable of 10x the processing power of the PS3 system. The system
features an optimized design featuring a unified 8GB of high-speed GDDR5 RAM, an
eight core X86 CPU, and a powerful graphics processor.
-The majority of new features that have been announced will be available when PS4
launches. These features include background downloads, cross-game voice chat,
transitioning to a network based on real-world friends, and live streaming
gameplay footage via Ustream and Twitch.
-PS4 supports up to 2,000 online friends, an expansion of the 100 friends limit
for the PS3 system.
-You can continue to play a game as a patch is downloading.
– One PS Plus membership will continue to grant benefits for your PS3 and PS Vita
system, even after you pick up a PS4.
-You can use content you’ve purchased on up to two PS4 systems simultaneously —
simply sign into a friends’ PS4, and the content you’ve purchased will be
available as long as you remain signed in.
The Bad
-The PS4 will not support an external hard drive. PS4 is equipped with a 5400 RPM SATA II hard drive. Users can choose to install
a new hard drive so long as it complies with these standards, is no thicker than
9.5mm, and is larger than 160GB.
-Support for high-resolution 4K output for still images and movie content is in consideration, but there are no further details to share at this time. PS4 does not currently support 4K output for games.
-PS4 will not support Dynamic Themes as they currently exist on the PS3 system.
-We strongly recommend that Remote Play be used within the same WiFi network
where PS4 is connected. Remote Play may or may not work over a wide area network.
-You can not share your captured videos on YouTube.
The Random
-What’s in the box? Playstation 4 console, Dualshock 4 controller, micro USB cable for charging controller, mono headset for voice chat, power cable and HDMI cable.
-Input/ Output ports: HDMI OUT, DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL AUDIO), Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, and an
auxiliary connector reserved for PlayStation Camera. PS4 also features
integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi for wireless internet connectivity and Bluetooth
2.1 for DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controller connectivity.
-PS4 can be used in the horizontal or vertical position. In North America,
vertical stands for PS4 will be released by partners as officially licensed
program products during PS4’s launch window.
-Blu-Ray and DVD playback with PS4 (duh). No audio CD capability.
-PS4 supports up to four DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controllers at one time.
-Remote Play will work best when the PS Vita system is located within the same WiFi network where PS4 is connected. We also recommend that PS4 be connected to the local area network via an Ethernet cable, that a router suitable for gaming be used and that the PS Vita system be within close proximity of the WiFi access point so that the connection is free of interference.
Update: Thanks to the hard work of nose-to-the-ground game journalists – and MASSIVE consumer outcry – Ubisoft is discontinuing the Uplay Passport system in its entirety. Assassin’s Creed IV will be the last title to utilize it, and the company is changing the price for the item to “free” on all applicable marketplaces. Enjoy this one, folks. Cheers, Ubisoft.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag launched yesterday to moderate reviews; this particular gamer won’t get to play it until I actually have an Xbox One and Beth has finished it and possibly all of the extra content. Once it does roll around to me, however, it turns out I’ll have to shell out a little more than expected.
As most of you are aware, online passes are a “thing” now, and Ubisoft’s particular version is the Uplay Passport, which was first introduced to this series with Assassin’s Creed 3. I’m not actually against passes in most situations; I tend to buy games new, and games that have a multiplayer component that my group is interested in require that we all have copies anyway. I’m also on board with “pre-order bonuses;” again, I tend to buy games new, on release day, and Amazon doesn’t charge you for having a game reserved until it actually ships.
Yesterday, however, it came to light that Ubisoft has crossed a line into new territory: Within Black Flag, there is a mechanic that involves you taking over enemy ships and adding them to your fleet. It’s essentially this game’s version of Ezio’s brotherhood and Conner’s homestead; your fleet earns you money and items, and can be sent on missions from a map in your cabin.
If you don’t have an active Uplay Passport, this mechanic is disabled. This single player mechanic.
Ubisoft’s excuse for this is that your can link your fleet with those of your friends, and even send each other assistance across missions. According to their logic, this constitutes a “multiplayer component” and falls under the guidelines for their online pass system. In my opinion, this is a pathetic attempt to spin the truth: They have decided to spearhead the push to block content for solo players who have bought the game used, or are borrowing it from a friend.
Why does bother me? Because, with wholly single-player experiences, Beth and I have begun only purchasing a single copy and splitting the cost. Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs, Remember Me, Assassin’s Creed 3; one copy between us in each instance. I’ve barely played AC 3, but what I have played was not hindered at all by my lack of the Uplay Passport, because I will never play that game online. There are also a few instances where only one of us could get the pre-order items, but again, those don’t tend to be big losses; whoever was more interested in the game took the bonus, and the other one just didn’t worry about it.
When I eventually get to play AC IV, however, I won’t be able to access the fleet meta-game at all unless I pay Ubisoft another $10. Oh, and I’ll probably get to do it again when Watchdogs eventually comes out, because unless we see definitive proof that its multiplayer component is worthwhile, only one copy of that will be purchased as well.
Congratulations, Ubisoft. I have been a die-hard fan of yours since Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I genuinely liked the first Assassin’s Creed, repetitive missions and all. I know this trend won’t stop with you; hell, Capcom and EA have been charging people for access to content on the disc under the guise of “DLC” for years. I can’t it explain it, but this feels different, and I’m disappointed in you for it.
At what point did the $60+ we pay for games not become enough? I’m not a GameStop kind of guy; I don’t buy into their “Reserve / Trade-In / Used” system, and it bothered me so much when I worked there that they fired me over it. I pre-ordered the collector’s edition of Black Flag the day it went up on Amazon, along with the hardbound strategy guide. Doesn’t matter! $10 more or else!
I guess maybe Ubisoft is just reacting to a changing marketplace, same as the rest of the industry? I’ve got no problem railing against used games, either… But this isn’t a used game! I’m buying it new! It infuriates me that just because my girlfriend and I both want to play it…
I’m rambling now. I apologize. I’m angry, and by damn, I hope you are too.
