The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was originally slated to hit shelves in fall 2014, before a series of delays pushed it back to an eventual release date of May 19th. That shift may have been painful for fans eager to embark on the latest adventures of the legendary Geralt of Rivia, but by all accounts the game was definitely worth the wait. The Witcher 3 has received almost universal acclaim since its arrival last month....
The first Thor tie-in game was something of a disaster. Not only did it receive a 1-out-of-5 score from our own Rob Keyes, but it also made its way onto our ‘Most Disappointing Games of 2011’ list. So, with the sting of the first Thor: God of Thunder game fresh in our minds, we are decidedly reserved when it comes to talking about its follow-up, Thor: The Dark World. However, as the first official trailer for the game shows, this will be a very different experience than that console release....
Spawning over three decades and several different manga, movies, and TV shows, Dragon Ball definitely has an expansive roster of characters. Unfortunately, Dragon Ball FighterZ seemed to shortchange players in this area. Compared to past titles, like Budokai Tenkaichi 3, which boasted over 150 playable characters, the roster here seemed small. Granted, it’s hard to design a large number of fighters and make them feel unique, and FighterZ has definitely improved its roster in the three years since the initial launch....
There was a time when BioWare was considered the cream of the crop when it came to listing out developers that were crafting excellent western RPGs, full to the brim with deep narratives, memorable characters, and tactical combat. There are two franchises, in particular, that fans look back on fondly when it comes to remembering BioWare’s golden age — Dragon Age and Mass Effect. While the latter’s reputation might’ve been tarnished with the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, there’s no denying the fact that the original Mass Effect trilogy is one of the best franchises of all time....
The Yakuza franchise is beloved by so many because of its balance between seriousness and wacky storytelling. Mainstay Kazuma Kiryu can go from a heartfelt scene of someone losing their loved one to chasing after someone who stole a bunch of underwear or battling with a child over a game starring anthropomorphic busty bug women. That’s just the tip of the iceberg too. While the dramatic scenes and brawling gameplay are fun, it’s these crazy situations that really stand out....
Summertime is here which means that gamers are spending their time boating, but it isn’t always as fun as they imagined. Sometimes they want to feel the same amount of action as they do playing their video games at home. Luckily, the two can be combined together as several games exist where players can take part in naval battles. These games each have their own appeal, but they all speak to a gamer’s love of boating and need to spend time on the water....
This just proves that even the greatest accomplishments can be bogged down by some blemishes. For example, PlayStation’s exclusive snowboarding series, Cool Boarders, died on the PS2 but not with the game most people know. It, and many other franchises, had sequels on the system released elsewhere in the world which made them less known, at least until today. 10 Cool Boarders: Code Alien 9 Altered Beast 8 Metal Slug 7 Seaman 2: Pekin Genjin Ikusei Kit 6 Siren 2 5 Ka 2: Let’s Go Hawaii 4 Tenshi no Present: Marl Okoku Monogatari 3 Shining Wind 2 Front Mission 5: Scars of the War 1 Resident Evil: Dead Aim
The culture surrounding video games has often led to strange tie-ins, partnerships, and merchandise. Things like Mountain Dew’s Gamer Fuel or Burger King’s series of Xbox 360 games make it obvious that brands aren’t scared to swing for the fences when it comes to marketing to gamers. This mentality has led to a notable amount of questionable merchandising choices. Sometimes trying too hard to fit the games, and other times just missing the mark completely, these ten pieces of video game merchandise are strange and should never have existed....
When released to the world in 2006, the Nintendo Wii was, without a doubt, the most immersive way to play video games to date if we disregard the existence of the Virtual Boy. The usage of motion controls and a controller in each hand was designed to take the aspect of the “player” and blend it further with the controlled character on screen. With the Wii Motion Plus coming into play in 2009, the Wii’s capabilities became even more immersive....
Video games can be an expensive time-investment. There’s no worse feeling than finally picking up a game you’ve had on pre-order for months, only to be spoiled before you take the game out of the case. If it’s a multiplayer game, then you may not feel too bad. For single player, story-heavy games, spoilers can ruin the entire experience of the game. After learning a valuable (expensive) lesson to avoid the internet until you’ve finished the game, you may discover that other gamers aren’t the only people who might spoil a game....
Nickelodeon left quite the impression on many children growing up, particularly during the golden era of the 90’s and early 2000s. There was simply nothing like sitting down to a Saturday evening block of SNICK with a bowl of popcorn, or rushing to the TV set to catch the latest adventure of Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the days before mobile phones and mainstream internet, when kids were too young to drive, Nickelodeon was their entertainment....
Coming out of E3 2014, there were many games on journalists’ minds, from 2K Games’ 4v1 “cooperpetative” shooter Evolve to the stunning 45-minute demo of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. So much so that it was hard to single out just one experience as the must-play of the show. That being said, there were a few demos that were consistently thrown around as must-sees, especially the Alien: Isolation demo on Oculus Rift....
This past week has seen a truly remarkable shift: the gaming world has gone from knowing absolutely nothing about the facts of Assassin’s Creed 3 to having a firm grasp on the setting, characters and new gameplay. Some fans have already speculated to the point of knowing exactly how the trilogy will come to an end, but in case anyone still wasn’t satisfied with that flood of information, Ubisoft is hinting at even more official details coming extremely soon....
Let’s face it; Activision kind of dropped the ball with Nuketown 2025, Black Ops 2’s homage to Treyarch’s original, fan-favorite map. At first, when the map was simply a pre-order bonus, fans were excited to see how the developer had evolved the design of that first multiplayer map, while still keeping true to its chaotic spirit. However, when it was later revealed that Nuketown was only being featured as part of a Double XP weekend, and could only then be accessed through custom games, fans were upset....
While demos of Gearbox Software’s gun crazy, loot fest sequel Borderlands 2 thus far have focused on but a few of the game’s handful of classes, most especially the new gunzerker class, the hands-on experience that was available at E3 2012 was no holds barred. In a game with so much choice it’s hard to simply guide the players towards what the developer thinks is worth checking out, so Gearbox thought to forgo all the formality and make all the classes available — from Maya the Siren to Zer0 the Assassin, who was making his big debut as a playable character....
Diablo 3 making its way to consoles is not a surprise. It’s been talked about for ages by people within the organization and like its PC release, it was just a matter of time. It’s new features however, may be surprising, but in a good way for PS3 and (eventual) PS4 owners. During Sony’s big event last Wednesday where they offered an introduction to their next-gen home console, Activision was there to make PlayStation loyalists very happy with a pair of announcements....
BlizzCon has come and gone in a flurry of excitement and RTS tomfoolery (not to mention pandas). Thanks to the announcement of the upcoming update for World of Warcraft and the debut of new trailers for both StarCraft II and Diablo III, it was a good time to be a gamer at BlizzCon. While Blizzard has been obviously busy at work, they have also been fairly tight-lipped on Diablo III information: specifically a release date and price....
Just as we predicted in our gaming trends of 2014 list, the Oculus Rift is making headlines week after week this year. With Valve standing in Oculus Rift’s corner, it seems like the headset has a fighting chance to make virtual reality much more than just a passing, gimmicky trend. As we move closer and closer to a time when gamers will have high-quality, affordable VR tech in the comfort of their own living rooms, both game developers and consumers are starting to consider what kind of games will deliver the most exciting virtual experiences....
Following in the footsteps of Ubisoft’s celebrated 2012 open world shooter Far Cry 3 was no easy task for the Far Cry 4 development team, especially since many fans were hoping that the next entry in the series would smooth off the rough edges and flaws that held Far Cry 3 back and deliver the best entry in the series so far. This, in fact, was exactly what narrative director Mark Thompson promised in interviews about the game: a subversion of Far Cry 3’s story in which the foreigner arriving in the game’s main setting is a villain, not a hero, and the protagonist is a native tasked with taking his country back....
Commander Shepard’s final mission (depending on how you view the closing of the game’s campaign) has arrived in the form of Mass Effect 3: Citadel. And to send the galaxy’s savior off in style, the developers at BioWare have crafted a mission to bring all past characters back into the fray. If the official trailer is anything to go by, that means plenty of laughs, a lot of action, and more than enough chances to enjoy some romantic encounters by the time it’s done....
