If you care about video gaming at all you’re probably already familiar with the recent announcements by Microsoft and Sony. Despite that fact that both of these systems were introduced earlier I wanted to wait to until after the E3 Press Conferences to get a broader picture before I weighed in. With exciting shows from both companies on Monday the stories are likely as clear as they’re going to be until the actual launch. Before diving in however let me give you a little background on my current gen experience.
Tag: Gaming
Game Review: The Last of Us Demo
“The Last of Us” Official Website
Rated “M” for Mature; Reviewed on Playstation 3
This is a short review of the playable demo of “The Last of Us” released on June first. Here I’ll be focusing on the environments and characters. Visit our sister site, MoreBrains.com, for our thoughts on the game’s enemies. I had previously discussed thoughts on the first trailer for the game in E3 Comments: “The Last of Us”.
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Tabletop Day!
Today, March 30th, is International Tabletop Day!
It’s an easy day to observe: just get together with people you like (or people you might like) and play some games. Old-fashioned cardboard and plastic, look-each-other-in-the-eye games.
Everybody has a game or twenty tucked in a closet or stuck up on shelves. Get them out! Better yet go to your local game shop and ask about the hundreds of awesome independent games available. Whether you have kids or not, five minutes or five hours, want to think really hard or not at all there’s a game out there that’s perfect. Go find it!
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Getting Excited for Ouya!
Almost a year ago I gave some strangers $100 of my money. They promised me that within a year they would give me a small box that would change my life. (Making it completely different from, but reminiscent of, the puzzle box that releases sadistic demons in HellRaiser.)
The box would allow me to play Android games in full 1080p on my giant TV. It would give me a high-end wireless controller just as good as my other consoles. It would use a Tegra 3, turn on almost instantly and feature XMBC thus giving my current go-to media player, the beloved PS3, a run for its money (or at least a chance to rest). It would be completely open and you could try anything you like before you buy it.
I can’t stress enough: this was a big risk. There was no guarantee that I would ever get this box. But me and 60,000 other people gave them our money anyway, crossed our fingers, hid from our suspicious spouses and hoped.
It seems like forever ago but the Ouya is real. The thing, the actual damn thing, will start shipping to people like me – better than that to people that are actually me! – in three short days. It just struck me a few minutes ago how God Damn cool that is.
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Game Review: The Ratchet & Clank Collection (PS3)
“The Ratchet & Clank Collection” at amazon.com
Rated E10+; Reviewed on PS3
The “Ratchet and Clank” series, along with the equally excellent “Jak and Daxter” and “Sly Cooper“, made the PS2 the undisputed king of action platform games. While the “Jak” series soon took on an epic gravitas and Sly Cooper expanded on its trademark cartoon heists Ratchet and Clank were always about having a good time with a massive arsenal of insanely fun weapons.
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Game Review: The Unfinished Swan (PS3)
“The Unfinished Swan” at playstation.com
Rated E10+; Reviewed on PS3
“The Unfinished Swan”, developed by Giant Sparrow, is the latest game to come out of Sony’s incubator initiatives. Sony is making a habit of spotting and encouraging promising new development teams. While the PS3 definitely can’t rival the PC in the sheer volume of independent and experimental games, it stands well above the other consoles in this area.
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Minecrafting: Cool World Seed
I’ve been playing with generating Minecraft worlds based on custom seeds and I came across a nifty one that happens to be super easy (for me) to remember: “I Love Carol” (or “-1731112262” for you squares) in honor of my lovely bride. (This was done in version 12w42a, by the way.)
There’s a jungle temple (x: 22, y:74, z: 119) very near the spawn point (x: -19, y: 67, z: 249) with quite a bit of gold. Not far from there lies a very large plains village (14 buildings including a blacksmith’s with diamond and several wheat fields, x: 324, y: 73, z: 196). Close by is a massive series of criss-crossing chasms with a ton of exposed coal and iron (x:321, y: 69, z: 113) and there’s a decent-sized pumpkin patch on the plains. All of that is snuggled up to an “Extreme Hills” biome for the emerald hungry.
Further away there’s very tiny village (only two buildings, x: -218, y: 74, z: 597) with a surface opening to an abandoned mine very close (x: -165, y: 63, z: 575). Finally, an easy walk from this village (and intertwined with the nearby mine) is a massive fortress (the portal is at x:-178, y:11, z: 751).
Happy mining!
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Game Review: Papo and Yo (PS3)
“Papo and Yo” at playstation.com
Rated E10+; Reviewed on PS3
Games can definitely be art, something I’ve discussed before. Art, as anything, has a value range. It can be beautiful but vacuous, ugly but meaningful and any other combination that you can imagine. Any screen shot of the game will tell you instantly that Papo and Yo is far from a beautiful game, but is it meaningful?
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Game Review: Costume Quest (PS3)
“Costume Quest” at playstation.com
Rated E for Everyone; Reviewed on PS3
Twins Reynold and Wren are new in town on the most important day of the year: Halloween! Their parents, misunderstanding the serious business of free candy suggest that they use this as opportunity to socialize and make new friends. Unfortunately the monstrous Grubbins are well aware of how serious candy is and have infiltrated your neighborhood to steal it all!
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Game Review: The Mass Effect Trilogy, Part 4
Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 at Amazon.com
Rated Mature; Reviewed on PS3 and PC
Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series covered my impressions of the Mass Effect games as a whole. This last section will focus on the controversial end game.
[Story spoilers will be sprinkled liberally throughout this discussion.]
As we’ve explored, the Mass Effect trilogy provided an engaging experience within a complex framework of racial and social tensions against an amazingly deep historical context. Exceptional gameplay and characters kept players moving through the story and excited for each installment. While there were flaws that marred the experience most were ironed out by the third game making them easily forgiven and forgotten.
Until the ending came along and punched you in the face, slapped your ass and left you naked and cold in the woods.
