As I’ve said before, one of the highlights of my first year of next-gen gaming was the Tomb Raider reboot, and that, coupled with the ever-so-brief go I had on this one prior to release, made Rise of the Tomb Raider one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of Silly Season. I had every reason to expect good things from this installment, and particularly because I’d very much gotten the impression that this one would feature more of the Tomb-ey/Puzzle-y stuff that I loved about the earlier Tomb Raider games, whilst still maintaining the strong narrative arc of the 2013 release. Continue reading “Rise of the Tomb Raider – First Impressions”
If my last two forays into the Fallout Universe are anything to go by, it’s likely that it’ll be another couple of hundred hours before I “finish” Fallout 4, so I figured it’d perhaps behoove me to do a series of ‘my journey so far’ type pieces in the meantime. This is the first, I guess, but it’s also a ‘First Impressions‘ piece, so I’ll limit this one to the immediately obvious stuff, but with a bit of the ‘sense of occasion’ thrown in for good measure. Think of me as a modern day Herodotus, if you will; not only being witness to history as it happens, but, like, writing that shit down too. Continue reading “Fallout 4 – First Impressions”
Soooooo, as I’ve said before, many, many times; tomorrow, Tuesday 10th November 2015, is quite possibly going to be the best day in the history of the world, ever. I mean, some other stuff has happened on some other days – some guy cured Polio at one point, for example, and there was all the Moon-ey type shananigans and such, but crucially, crucially – on no other day in History did Fallout 4 come out, and in no other cycle of 24 hours did Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider come out at the same time. That’s a fact – and you can check it if you want. Continue reading “In Which Fate Punches Me in the Nads. Repeatedly.”
They say hindsight’s 20/20, and it’s a maxim I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, particularly because I’m an idiot who decided to start a gaming blog just as Silly Season touched down with all the force of a category bajillion tornado. Would I do the same again? Has it been worth it, especially given nobody’s reading any of my stuff? Is sleep actually overrated, or are my lack of it, and these hallucinations I seem to be frequently having related in some way? Indeed, why would a pink elephant want to hide my controller and headphones anyway? Continue reading “Silly Season: My Experience So Far!”
The review I just wrote for Halo 5: Guardians – Multiplayer ended up being considerably longer than I expected, indeed considerably longer than some academic textbooks, so some stuff got cut just to reduce the chances of anybody reading suddenly slipping into a boredom coma. In amongst this stuff was some general observations I’d made about the Halo Community – which weren’t necessarily integral to the review – but which I thought might be worth mentioning anyway, for various reasons. Continue reading “Halo 5: Guardians – The Online Community”
Having been a little disappointed with Halo 5’s Campaign, I think it’s fair to say I was really hoping for big things from its multiplayer offerings. Indeed, these days many games are often at least as geared towards the online, MP experience as they are the solo, SP stuff – and, if it’s all done well, a great multiplayer can redeem even the most average of games. I’m still relatively new to all the online stuff in general, but (initial humiliation aside, obviously) it’s an element that I’m increasingly becoming quite a fan of, so, armed with some high expectations – and a ridiculously huge pair of headphones – I threw myself into Guardians Multiplayer with gusto, very much hoping to be impressed. Continue reading “Halo 5: Guardians – Multiplayer Review”
Just the other day, I gone done a little rant about the whole “Freemium” games whatsit, and why it could, potentially, mean really bad news for actual, proper games and gamers. Today it was announced that Activision Blizzard (the publishers behind Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Guitar Hero) are buying King Digital (the guys behind Candy Crush Saga) so, even allowing for confirmation bias, I’ma go right ahead and put that news in the ‘worrying signs’ column. Continue reading “Activision Buys King Digital – Another Sign Freemium’s Coming Soon?”
OK, so right off the bat I feel I should probably declare that I’m not what you could reasonably call a massive Halo fan. And by that I mean that, even though I have played (and mostly enjoyed) the games, I’m not a huge follower of the franchise, and the ongoing story/themes/characters aren’t things I’ve paid a huge amount of attention to, or spent a lot of time thinking about. I played through the games quickly (and almost certainly in the wrong order), had my fun, and then moved on. I’ve recently acquired the Master Chief Collection, and am looking forward to perhaps changing all of this, but for now – and for the purposes of this review – you should definitely bear in mind that I’m coming at it from something of a n00b’s point-of-view. Continue reading “Halo 5: Guardians – Campaign Review”
This week it was announced that Nintendo are releasing their first mobile game next year, and Respawn Entertainment also revealed that they would be developing a Titanfall spin-off for Android and IoS – also likely to be released next year. Both of these, it seems, will follow the so-called ‘Freemium’ model, which has already begun its implacable rise to dominance in the world of tablets and phones. As you shall see shortly (if you stick around for the duration of this rant), I don’t like this at all, and moreover, the fact that actual, proper Gaming companies are firmly heading in this direction is very, very worrying indeed. Continue reading “Why “Freemium” Games Could Mean Bad News For Gamers”
QTX 