Posts

Even before Cyberpunk 2077 was released, it’s clear that Night City is a cesspool of excess. It’s a place where anyone’s wildest dreams can come true and they can do almost anything– even become immortal. That’s why it’s also a degenerate and lawless haven. In Night City almost everyone is a sex-crazed junkie cyborg drunk on violence and apathy. Still, that doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to be a beacon in the darkness or a diamond in the rough....

These days, open-world games are more plentiful than ever. Modern hardware makes crafting big worlds less of a challenge and the abundance of side activities developers can put into the maps extends a game’s life by dozens of hours. However, certain games that opt for the format compromise their quality. The following list details ten games which ultimately suffered by taking place in an open-world environment. While making these more linear experiences might have cut down the playtime significantly, it would have made each of those hours all the more enjoyable....

Shiny Pokémon — alternate coloring for Pokémon that are very rare and sought-after — were introduced in Generation II and have become a mainstay staple of the series since then. Each Pokémon’s shiny form is a set palette that is different from their regular coloring, and some are definitely more attractive than others. However, due to serious hardware and graphics upgrades between Generations II and III, many Pokémon received updated palettes and significant improvements in their designs....

Players interested in tabletop games would’ve heard about Warhammer 40K. Moreover, players of games such as Dawn of War and Total War: Warhammer will likely be familiar with their parent games, WH40K and Warhammer Fantasy, respectively. For newcomers, the Warhammer franchise revolves around a tabletop wargame, where players control miniature “armies” in a battlefield for dominance. In Warhammer 40K, players control one of many factions for control over the galaxy....

Lately, there has been another push for EA to bring The Sims 2 back to Origin, after offering the Ultimate Collection back in 2014. EA has said that the game is too old to run properly on modern PCs, but many players have speculated that EA wouldn’t offer The Sims 2 again for fear of hurting sales for The Sims 4. As it turns out, adding The Sims 2 to Origin may not be technically possible, but there are still plenty of ways for players to get their hands on the game, providing that they have a disc drive available....

The plot of stories has changed throughout time. Long ago, it was all about man versus nature. As we settled into nature, stories became more about man versus other men. As we evolved, it became man versus technology. Today in times of uncertainty, what is most common in stories now is man versus himself. Video games have progressively become more story-centered, so they are also telling such tales. There are times in games where we realize that the monster is actually us....

Ask any person about the show that got them interested in anime in the first place, and chances are that the majority of responses that you’ll receive will either outright state Dragon Ball Z or refer to it in some way or the other. Why wouldn’t this be the case — after all, the fact of the matter is that Dragon Ball Z paved the way for anime to become popular on the Western forefront....

Few first-person shooters can match the sheer fear and adrenaline-fueled gameplay Escape from Tarkov provides. It takes the most compelling systems from survival games and incorporates them into an addictive shooter. Looting supplies, shooting Scavs and players, all while upgrading your base of operations make Tarkov’s core gameplay loop extremely hard to match. With that said, there are a few games that provide similar experiences for those who tire of Tarkov’s punishing learning curve or extreme punishments for dying....

In a post apocalyptic world ravaged by nuclear bombs, the outside world has become inhabitable. The remaining humans have gathered in an underground shelter away from the harsh wasteland outside, attempting to simply survive in their new surroundings — but the yearning to return to their previous lives outside is strong and the shelter has its inhabitants feeling claustrophobic, cooped up… crazy. That’s the grim setting of Afterfall: InSanity. While as an audience players realize there is more to this prison like facility with hints to a greater mystery to unravel, the beginning portions of the game don’t do much to pique interest, something a good opener should....

If there has been one growing criticism of the hugely successful Assassin’s Creed franchise in recent years, it’s that the annual release schedule has prevented the games from making the huge leap forwards like, for example, the one that occurred between the first game and Assassin’s Creed II. Last year’s release of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag managed to quell those claims by expanding the naval gameplay from Assassin’s Creed III into a vast open world ocean ripe for exploration and plundering....

After a couple of delays, Batman: Arkham Knight is finally on track for release this coming June. In addition to a new trailer which confirmed and showed off some of Batman’s closest allies in Robin, Catwoman, and Nightwing, fans also received information on a season pass featuring a wealth of content that includes character skins, bonus items, new activities, and a trio of story campaigns. One of the story packs coming in the Arkham Knight season pass called ‘A Matter of Family’, centers around Batgirl as she hunts down a villain in an entirely new area outside of Gotham City....

Bloober Team has established itself as a major studio when it comes to horror games with hit titles like Layers of Fear and Observer. And just last year, Bloober Team launched Blair Witch, a video game adaptation of the found footage horror movie series about people getting lost in the Black Hills Forest and terrorized by supernatural entities. In the Blair Witch video game, Ellis Lynch and his dog Bullet join a search party looking for a boy who has gone missing in the Black Hills Forest....

With more and more blockbuster games being pushed back into 2015, one title that’s stayed its course and is set to arrive this year is Bungie’s highly anticipated shooter Destiny. The game is topping a number of most anticipated lists and impressed many during its brief open Beta, so it’s no surprise that Bungie has opted to take part in an Internet trend to bring even more attention to its upcoming title – donating to charity in the process....

In Arkane Studios’ Dishonored players will be presented with a lot of options. Among those is the ability to play the Bethesda-published game without ever being spotted by a guard or target, more commonly known as a stealth playthrough. Several trailers for Dishonored have already demonstrated various ways in which players can keep their targets and other enemies quiet, but they’ve balanced them with the more offensive routes as well. This newest trailer for the game, however, is all about the ‘Study of Stealth....

Although recent Disney Infinity news briefly moved away from the realm of super heroes, it only took Marvel about a week to edge its way back into the video game limelight. Disney Interactive has already revealed a star-studded announcement trailer and some information that makes the new-generation consoles a tempting home for our Disney Infintiy 2.0 adventures, but the company still has plenty of secrets up its sleeve to reveal before the fall release of the hybrid toy/sandbox adventure game’s next iteration....

At last year’s E3, Warner Bros. gave attendees their first look at Dying Light, a new first person zombie survival title from Techland, the developers of Dead Island. It may not have been the most original presentation, but what Techland was doing with Dying Light to make it stand out had us intrigued. Now, a full year later, we caught up with Dying Light at E3 2014 to find out how that initially intriguing concept had evolved....

For more than a year now Microsoft has been promising a re-dedication to the PC fan base, but thus far they have made little effort to deliver on those promises. It was all mostly talk until Microsoft finally pulled back the curtain regarding their PC plans. This week, at the company’s Windows 10 event, Microsoft finally showed how they would support PC gamers in an admittedly small way, but one that could be proof of a larger initiative....

It’s been clear for some time now that all is not well at Crytek UK. Despite the studio denying rumors of financial troubles last month, stories of staff unrest have continued to emerge, with members of the Crytek UK development reportedly refusing to work due to anger over unpaid wages, and Homefront: The Revolution’s game director Hasit Zala allegedly resigning from the company shortly afterwards, along with development manager Ben Harris....

One of the most common buzzwords in the gaming industry of late has been “sandbox.” From single player titles to MMOs, developers are fixated on pushing the latest tech to its limits through the development of sprawling landscapes and cityscapes. Often, these experiences fall short of the lofty moniker. This is where Sony Online Entertainmen’s Landmark enters and redefines what one might consider a gaming sandbox. To begin, it’s important to understand that Landmark - formerly known as EverQuest Next Landmark - is very unlike the majority of the online gaming market....

The announcement of Rise of the Tomb Raider, a sequel to the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise, at E3 2014 was marred somewhat by a lack of clarity over exactly which platforms the game will release on. Although it was presented as an Xbox exclusive and is currently being marketed as such, Xbox boss Phil Spencer also admitted that the deal with Square Enix has a set duration, saying that, “I didn’t buy the IP....