Celebrate the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts - Onslaught with us live from Infinity Ward on January 31st at 12:30 pm PST. We'll be interviewing developers, streaming gameplay from the Infinity Ward development teams, and giving away prizes, including Call of Duty: Ghosts season passes, Onslaught Tokens, and the Wolf skin micro-DLC.
You need to have the nostalgia gene to fully appreciate Might & Magic X: Legacy. I do, especially when it comes to role-playing games, so I did. But this is one of those "genre within a genre" retro affairs that self-consciously turns its back on modern conventions and embraces what us old folks were stuck with back in that antediluvian era known as the 1990s. Limbic Entertainment has created an old-fashioned RPG epic that might well have landed on some "best of" lists at the end of 1996. If you're the sort of person who fondly remembers a time before the Might & Magic name meant nothing but turn-based fantasy strategy, this game is for you.
Noting that M&MXL is not for everyone isn't necessarily an insult, either. On the contrary, it's clear from the very first moments of the game that the developers are trying to be as unfashionable as a pair of acid-washed jeans. Everything about this game can be traced back to first-person party-based RPGs from the 1990s, like the original M&M games, the Wizardry series, and even the Eye of the Beholder D&D line. The campaign setting of Ashan is all new for this franchise, however, having been ported over from Might & Magic Heroes right down to the goofy winged helmets. Oddly enough, this approach actually makes M&MXL more of a traditional fantasy game than its forebears, as the original M&M role-players blended spaceships in with their swords and sorcery. Still, the general objective seems to have been to create a new game that picks up right where this style of RPG left off about 15 years ago.
The M&MXL bestiary includes the usual roster of fantasy monsters and mythological creatures, like this manticore, which almost looks like a cute puppy dog about to tear your throat out at this angle. And that mission has been accomplished. Well, mostly. Several core components of the game are well done. There is a fair amount of choice when it comes to character creation, with four races and 12 classes (three per race) spread along the might and magic spectrums. Don't expect anything more revolutionary than the likes of dwarven defenders, human freemages, elven bladedancers, and orc barbarians in the beginning, but you have a lot of freedom to specialize once your party starts leveling up and you begin doling out points between attribute stats and skills. You can specialize in everything from maces and bows to a whopping seven schools of magic, allowing for the custom-crafting of almost any sort of heroic adventurer that you can dream up. The sheer amount of liberty even allows for some evolution during gameplay. I started off with an elven ranger who I thought would be good in ranged combat, but I eventually realized that she worked better as a second spellcaster who specialized in healing. A few levels later, and I had an impressive cleric wannabe curing poison and dishing out restoration incantations when she wasn't offing foes with her bow and arrow.
It's clear from the very first moments of the game that the developers are trying to be as unfashionable as a pair of acid-washed jeans.
Managing your party is more involved than in most RPGs, so you can't just storm off looking for adventure. First, you need to take care of business by buying food. Without it, you're not allowed to rest, which soon causes your party to grow tired and drop ability scores. You also need to rest to regain health and mana, because neither regenerates on its own over time. Not much of this is spelled out, and the tooltips offered up at the start of the game don't do much to explain the basics. All becomes clear if you're patient, though, or if you remember doing this stuff many years ago. Nevertheless, the game could use more hand-holding in the beginning.
Battles in M&MXL are spectacularly hard and unforgiving. It took three hours to beat these guys. Well, not really, but it felt that long. Like most RPGs released when grunge was still a thing, M&MXL features a first-person camera and grid-based movement where you move one step at a time. This system works relatively smoothly. Yes, you're stuck with an odd perspective that forces you to view the world as if the party were crammed into a car and looking out through the windshield, and the entire four-person party has to trudge as one through dungeons and forests, like a tank bristling with battle-axes and magic wands. But you soon get used to navigating in such a restricted fashion.
Movement has even been improved from the days of yore. M&MXL features turn-based combat, so you can't gimmick the system. Back in the day, it was common to cheat through real-time battles with tricks like the Eye of the Beholder Two Step, where you would zip forward to hit a monster and then immediately retreat before it could hit you back. Here, you're locked into battle once an enemy closes and the fight begins. So instead of dipsy-doodling back and forth, you're stuck going toe-to-toe with the bad guys. This results in some grueling combat, since you have virtually no range of motion once melee combat has started and no ability at all to choose the better part of valor and run away.
Managing your party is more involved than in most RPGs, so you can't just storm off looking for adventure.
In some ways, the game goes too far. Not only does it take away the exploits common to first-person RPGs in the '90s, but it hammers away at you relentlessly (even at the lower "adventurer" setting). Combat is unforgiving right from the opening tutorial quest to clean spiders out of an underground lair. Monsters flank and surround you in almost every other fight, frequently spawning in out of nowhere to your rear. Just when you've got your hands full with that minotaur in your face, along come two more to hassle you from behind. Most monsters also have devastating special abilities. Almost every enemy has the ability to stun you, poison you, enfeeble you, petrify you, hit you with extra attacks, and more. Wolves and goblins can insta-kill party members if they get lucky. I don't recall an easy battle in the entire campaign. That sounds sort of fun and intense, but really, I could have done without titanic half-hour struggles to best the likes of two goblins, a couple of cavemen, and a pack of panthers.
Balance can be an issue in spots. You can easily run into enemies that will slice you to ribbons for not being at a high-enough level, like these nasty spectres. M&MXL isn't impossibly hard, but the punishing difficulty can lead to tedium. You can (eventually) beat any monster, group of monsters, or even the game's collection of brutally tough bosses by thinking about what you're doing when it comes to strategizing and spellcasting. The extreme challenge is a natural fit for a revamped classic, but that doesn't make the occasional bitter pill of a battle easier to swallow. When actually playing the game, I was too busy cursing out the nagas or spiders gooning me from all sides to appreciate the retro character of the battle difficulty.
How dated M&MXL is in other areas is harder to appreciate. The story isn't particularly well developed. The opening preamble is about as exciting as listening to someone recite a tax return, and there isn't much of a tale told during the game itself. Your party consists of a bunch of heroes, oddly called "raiders," who are out to do good things for the human empire in a time of unrest. There isn't much role-playing to be had here; the game is a dry tactical affair where combat is the first order of the day, followed up by the odd puzzle.
Monster stock is limited. Areas and dungeons are populated by just a few specific types of creatures or human thugs, and the pace can drag because fighting the same fight over and over again. Loot isn't varied or particularly imaginative, either when it's dropped or when you check out what's available in shops. It gets better as you go, but there isn't a lot of memorable "gotta have it" gear. As a result, you can go for hours with few serious upgrades of weapons and armor. How items are doled out is also strange. Monsters don't tend to drop much when they're slain, but chests loaded with goodies and gold are strewn all over the wilderness like some kind of medieval take on geocaching.
Minotaurs aren't too hellish in a labyrinth, but you don't want to be surrounded by three or four of them in a forest. The throwback production values are as traditional as the adventure itself, though these elements have not aged all that tastefully. Animations can be choppy, especially in forests, and slowdown is a common occurrence in the wilderness and when there are multiple lighting effects on the screen at the same time. Sound is also sparse, with what seems like a handful of weapon and monster effects. Hero battle boasts like the orc warrior's "I kill you!" are repeated constantly. Even worse, your heroes shout their cries of sadness about being knocked out or killed a few seconds before the blow is actually delivered, so you get advance warning when somebody is about to be taken down. This makes battles a teensy bit anticlimactic.
Might & Magic X: Legacy is a somewhat successful trip back in time to an era when RPGs were both simpler and more complicated than they are today, and a lot more demanding of players when it came to combat. If nostalgia drives you to visit this particular kingdom, you'll not likely regret the time spend there. If your good old days weren't brimming with games of this nature, it's more difficult to appreciate the take-no-prisoners challenge and overlook the limitations.
UPDATE: Following the publication of this story, a representative from Nexon reached out to clarify that their game, Dungeon&Fighter "surpassed the number one game, Crossfire, by a significant amount."
Although they're unable to provide specific revenue figures due to a contract with Tencent, the Nexon representative wrote, "If you were to take the figure stated in the Superdata report as net revenue and apply the industry standard 30% revenue share to the developer (as stated on page 25 of Deutsche Bank analyst Hanjoon Kim's July 1, 2013 report), that would make the gross revenue for Dungeon&Fighter $1.4bn, exceeding Crossfire by over $450 million. While these are not our internal figures, I believe that this gives a good indication of the size of Dungeon&Fighter."
The original story appears below
League of Legends' revenues for 2013 totaled $624 million, making it the second top free-to-play game in terms of earnings, a report from SuperData reveals.
Coming in at the number one spot is CrossFire, a South Korean free-to-play first-person shooter which brought in $957 million in revenues during 2013. Tencent, which owns a majority stake in League of Legends developer Riot Games, publishes CrossFire as well.
Valve rounded out the top 10 list with Counter-Strike Online, which brought in $121 million, and Team Fortress 2 at the number nine spot bringing in $139 million.
Electronic Art's Star Wars: The Old Republic, which added a free-to-play option in 2012, took the number eight spot with a little more than Team Fortress 2, and less than Blizzard's World of Warcraft, which generated $213 in microtransactions alone (not counting subscription fees).
Last week we also reported that Blizzard was beefing up its microtransaction efforts in World of Warcraft, when it posted a pair of new jobs on its "Strategic Initiatives" team, calling for a director and manager for the company's new "Microtransaction Strategy" unit.
World of Tanks was fourth on the list with $372 million.
Overall, the digital games market in the United States (including social, mobile, DLC, free-to-play, and subscription) grew by 11 percent, reaching a total of $11.7 billion in sales during 2013. Mobile represented the biggest portion of the market with 26 percent, but free-to-play showed the greatest growth, increasing by 45 percent over last year. Meanwhile, revenues from social games dropped by 22 percent and revenues from subscriptions dropped by 21 percent.
Though this HD port of Liberation looks spectacular next to its Vita-based predecessor, there are still quite a few elements holding it back from greatness.
Jeremy Jayne on Google+As a former exclusive on the PlayStation Vita, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation arrived in time for the 2012 holidays as a promising system seller for Sony's fledgling handheld. While it fell short of its lofty goal, Liberation was nonetheless an impressive showcase of possibilities for open-world play on the portable platform. Now that it has been released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Assassin's Creed fans uninterested in the Vita can now experience all of the franchise's 18th-century storylines. Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD delivers what you would expect in upgraded visuals. And if you're hoping for the exact same gameplay that Vita owners experienced, you get that as well, even though it includes Liberation's original bugs.
Unlike other portable Assassin's Creed titles, Liberation continues the main narrative thrust of the major entries in the series. Aveline de Grandpre, the franchise's first playable female assassin, has intriguing ties to the protagonist of Assassin's Creed III, Connor Kenway, though it's a shame that Liberation doesn't feature more collaborative interplay between the two assassins. Liberation's framing premise also works as a prelude to the modern-day story portions of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, since these adventures are the first two "games" by Abstergo Industries' entertainment division.
"Aveline, why are you not facing me? And why are your feet underground?" -Agate Like Assassin's Creed III, Liberation is set in a time of upheaval, a common occurrence in the New World in the 1700s. The Spanish have taken control of New Orleans from the French, there's a defection among the Assassin ranks, and the governor of New Orleans is in cahoots with the Templars. And that's just the first couple of chapters in a story arc that spans 12 years. The supporting cast features some of the more colorful characters you'll find in an Assassin's Creed game, including a pair of enterprising smugglers and an unlikely mentor in the Louisiana bayou. Then there's Gerald Blanc, who supports Aveline in various capacities and represents the behind-the-scenes administrative side of the Assassin's Order (someone has to keep their books balanced). Think of him as Alfred to Aveline's Batman, except that Gerald also has a crush on Aveline. Gerald's bland personality puts the "mild" in mild-mannered, and his inability to organize his thoughts in front of Aveline makes him more of a frustrating character than an endearing one.
The supporting cast features some of the more colorful characters you'll find in an Assassin's Creed game.
The majority of Aveline's missions are fundamentally recognizable, right down to the tailing and escort missions. As an assassin's playground, New Orleans isn't particularly noteworthy; it's easy to get around, and you don't even need to rely on hopping fences or rushing down side alleys to evade pursers. The bayou is a fitting wilderness of surprises like alligator ambushes. With spotty pockets of settlements, the bayou can feel larger than it really is, even in spite of objective markers you can still get lost very easily. Aveline's objectives in the bayou mirror Connor's missions in the woods of Assassin's Creed III. She speedily navigates large tree branches while stalking hostiles on the ground.
It would have been nice to see these two hang out more. When you have a game series that places such a huge emphasis on stealth, it's surprising that it wasn't until Liberation that a disguise system was introduced. The ability to don the persona of a socialite, a slave, and an assassin is reflective of Aveline's complicated background as the daughter of a French merchant and a slave, and the game forces you to use all three personas in equal measure, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. If you dress as a slave, you don't have to worry about sneaking around in a plantation, though you won't have your best killing tools available. Unsurprisingly, Aveline is most useful in her assassin garb, but she sticks out from the crowd. She is attractive no matter the outfit, though her socialite ensemble makes her the most welcome guest at parties. Not only does she come off as charming in conversation, but she even has a charm prompt whenever she's near guards and powerful men. It's an asset that other assassins lacked, though to be fair to the equally charming Ezio Auditore, he didn't have enough targets of the opposite sex to impress in his Assassin's Creed trilogy.
Liberation on consoles is best appreciated during combat. It's simply more comfortable to play on a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 controller versus the denser button layout of the Vita. This HD version made me feel more confident about using the series' defensive moves, not that I could have protected myself from every attack. The exploitable Assassin's Creed smoke bomb returns once again , allowing you to breeze through combat by killing up to four enemies without interruption. Luckily, the combat remains compelling; Aveline is both adept and brutal in her use of weapons, like the cleaver-shaped sugarcane machete.
Liberation's cinematics have been overhauled to the point that you don't need to hold up the Vita version to tell the differences in textures. In fact, the changes in skin tone, eyes, and other facial features are so significant that, depending on the lighting and camera angles, some characters don't even look like their Vita counterparts. Roaming New Orleans in higher resolution is impressive, even though it doesn't achieve the level of detail of Black Flag. By going from the 5-inch screen of the Vita to a 50-inch television, I had an easier time noticing lighting effects like the orange hue of candles illuminating windows at night or torches lit in the villages of the bayou.
It's easy to travel in the bayou. If you're the type who expects HD remasters to be an opportunity for developers to fix the original version's bugs, expect some minor disappointments with Liberation HD. Don't be surprised if characters are positioned oddly during conversations, and don't expect rope swing functionality to work consistently. There are even issues that work to your benefit, such as when the game skips an entire combat sequence altogether. And while this game retains the series' notoriety system, it's easy to avoid confrontation. Guards are so slow to react to Aveline's presence that I didn't need to waste time tearing down wanted posters to decrease her notoriety.
Gerald's bland personality puts the "mild" in mild-mannered.
This ease of play speaks not only to Liberation HD's low difficulty level, but also to the lack of incentives to deviate from the storyline. The game isn't short on side missions, which include a foot race, the theft of a ship, and the freeing of slaves. Liberation HD does a poor job of letting you know that these missions exist, especially when the game doesn't raise financial hurdles that force you to raise funds and take a break from the story. Many missions in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag required money and resources, which was a minor problem that could be overcome by hijacking ships or taking on optional assassination assignments. Liberation rarely encourages you to pursue side tasks, even though it has an economy system where you can kill business rivals and take over their shops, thereby making goods cheaper for yourself. The problem is that you don't need to buy a lot of things, and the game's most useful items, like the poison and berserk darts, often auto-replenish as you progress through the story.
Attaching "HD" to a previously released game often means you're getting a high-definition remaster rather than a remake with visuals reconstructed from the ground up. Judging by the quality of the cutscenes, developer Ubisoft Sofia aspired to the latter but ended up with the former. The time and care it put into those cinematics is obvious, so it's disappointing that the gameplay and its bugs--issues that existed in the Vita version--didn't receive the same level of attention. I still recommend Assassin's Creed: Liberation for fans of the series, but it's hardly worth revisiting if you've completed the Vita version.
While many viewers commented that the Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor video shown above bore a striking stylistic resemblance to Assassin's Creed, a former Ubisoft developer took those accusations one step further. In a series of Twitter posts today, Charles Randall, claimed that Shadow of Mordor was using code he worked on for Assassin's Creed II.
Randall is credited as a team lead in AI fight systems and senior gameplay programmer at Ubisoft Toronto according to his LinkedIn profile. His work on Assassin's Creed II focused primarily on combat.
Writing "Check it out guys! I apparently made a Middle Earth game" and linking to the Shadow of Mordor walkthrough video above, Randall followed up with the comment, "I know I don't have any legal rights to what I did on Assassin's Creed 2 but I sure hope I get a special thanks on that Middle Earth game." In the same thread, he clarified to another Twitter user, "I'm fine with it if people know what it is. But if they think they are going to sneak this under the radar... SO MUCH NOPE."
In another series of tweets, Randall wrote, "Seriously, can someone tell me how Assassin's Creed 2 code and assets are in this Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor game?" and, "Watch the video. That's AC2 stuff in there. Code/anim for sure." When another user claimed the battles bore more in common with Batman: Arkahm series than Assassins' Creed, Randall wrote, "I spent two years staring at AC2. I know it when I see it."
Despite the criticisms, Randall expressed his appreciation for Shadow of Mordor as well. "For the record though, that Middle Earth game looks pretty damn awesome. And I love AC2 so it's kind of a double win."
Representatives from Ubisoft had no official comment on the potential controversy. We've reached out to Warner Bros. Interactive (the publisher behind Shadow of Mordor) for further clarification, but have yet to receive a reply.
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Suicide is final. Unless, that is, you are Susan Ashworth, the Cat Lady. A bouquet of flowers is a symbol of love, unless you are Susan Ashworth, for whom they are a reminder of loss. If you're Susan Ashworth, life isn't fair--even after you've exorcised the most harmful demons from your soul.
The Cat Lady is Susan's story--a story of painful tragedy and cautious redemption, disguised as a horror adventure game. And it is at Susan's end that the story begins.
The surreal field you traverse in the opening minutes is at turns beautiful and horrific, just as you might term The Cat Lady's overall visual language. Susan looks as though she's been cut from a magazine and superimposed onto old Polaroid photos. She and other characters move gracelessly, and simple facial animations simulate only the vaguest of lip motions. It's a weird and striking look, and one that allows certain sequences to land with a weighty thud, leaving you feeling anxious, shocked, or melancholy. The surreality of The Cat Lady's characters is most evident in two women that provide Susan plenty of grief--one of which you meet after Susan has already decided that death is preferable to the grief of living.
If you're Susan Ashworth, life isn't fair--even after you've exorcised the most harmful demons from your soul.
One person's art is another's tragedy. But even in death, Susan cannot find comfort. The old woman Susan encounters in this odd afterlife wants to strike a bargain, and Susan finds herself powerless to resist. There are monsters lurking in the world of the living, and if she hopes to find peace, Susan must vanquish them on behalf of this hag, this obstacle between her and her final rest. Just a few drops of blood should seal the deal.
The drops of blood you shed, however, are more than a few. And in return for her services, Susan receives the "gift" of temporary immortality--a gift that, for the suicidal, is a horrific curse. That first gruesome glimpse of bloodshed is an emotional bludgeon, and The Cat Lady smartly balances moments of quiet sadness with similar scenes of rage and misery throughout the game. It's important to note, however, that as shocking as some of these scenes are, they are not gratuitous, though at first they may seem so. Rather, The Cat Lady draws important parallels between Susan's suffering and the monsters she's been sent to annihilate. These monsters are incredibly, terrifyingly real, but they represent the depressed individual's enemies. And as anyone with depression might tell you, internal demons cannot be painlessly subdued.
The Cat Lady draws important parallels between Susan's suffering and the monsters she's been sent to annihilate.
The first of seven chapters effectively simulates Susan's confusion as she awakes in the hospital to find a sweet nurse at her side. But Susan is not inclined to share much about herself, and so early events, such as her reaction to a bouquet of flowers, are subtle mysteries that later become enlightened. Progressing is a matter of wandering from left to right with the arrow keys, accumulating objects, speaking with others, and solving puzzles by using those objects in particular ways. I was never stumped, but nor was The Cat Lady a complete cakewalk, though it isn't the challenge that the puzzles present so much as the atmosphere they create that makes them so interesting. To solve one early puzzle, for example, you must allow a psychiatric nurse to inject you with God knows what. You then find yourself in a foggy mental purgatory you must explore to move the story forward.
It's hard to recognize beauty when you view it through a blackened lens. I know this haze. I've survived a suicide attempt, and I spent years in and out of hospitals as I traveled the road to recovery. The Cat Lady deftly depicts events and emotions I've experienced--the defiance toward doctors, the feelings of worthlessness, the mistrust of anyone attempting to get too close. More importantly, however, it also depicts the long road to recovery, and does so without sugarcoating the painful realities of life. For Susan, true hope first arrives in the form of a young woman named Mitzi. Mitzi's life is no less troubled than Susan's, but her manner of dealing with her hardships is far different, though not necessarily any less violent.
The two bond over one of The Cat Lady's more interesting mysteries, and the one that leads to the game's final catharsis. The puzzles throughout the later chapters become both more macabre and more playful. My favorite among them involves frightening Susan's upstairs neighbor, a sequence that's told in flash-forward as you describe to Mitzi the urban legend that inspired your prank. You can mold the outcome of certain story events in this chapter and others, though sometimes, the dialogue choices are more about building up your own image of Susan than they are actually steering the plot.
The puzzles throughout the later chapters become both more macabre and more playful.
Cats love piano music., it seems. Or at least, Susan's playing. Perhaps you come to The Cat Lady for the creep factor rather than for the remarkably human, empathetic story. There are a good number of eccentric and disruptive scenes, including one featuring a malformed, convulsive figure that shouts "misery!" when you approach. These scenes are carefully constructed for maximum effect so that even if you see the consequence coming (as I did in a puzzle involving some intricate machinery), you're still startled (as I was when I finished the puzzle). The horror is all the more effective for the quiet scenes that precede them, such as a flashback sequence that uses superimposed text to terrific, dramatic effect--and reveals the events that led to Susan's bottomward spiral.
Both Susan and Mitzi are ably voiced, as is much of the supporting cast. As Susan grows more confident, so too does the actress's performance crescendo from passionless victim to assertive companion. There are a few weak performances, a fast-talking Scottish mother among them, but it's the audio's recording quality that most detracts from the story. The voice-over often changes volume or tone abruptly, as if that particular line were recorded on a different day, in a different room, with a different microphone. Certain events, such as a ghastly one involving a bottle of bleach, are noticeably quiet, as if the intended voice-over and sound effects were never inserted. These aren't major issues, but given how important the sound and performances are in encouraging you to invest in Susan's struggles, they still stand out.
For Susan Ashworth, suicide is meant to be a way out, but it instead becomes a way forward. If you seek horror, The Cat Lady may sometimes freak you out, though probably not outright scare you. But that horror is in service of a touching character portrait--a portrait that's authentically, poignantly askew.
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Idea Factory, the company behind an upcoming card battle game Monster Monpiece sent out a statement today explaining their decision to censor parts of the game for its Western release. According the the statement, Both the Japanese and Western versions of the game contain the same total number of cards, but some of the high-level cards were replaced with "less exposed" lower-level versions of the game's Monster Girls due to some "intense sexual imagery."
Monster Monpiece allows players to power up their cards by getting the girls (in card form) to "expose themselves (take off their clothes) via the level-up features called First Crush Rub and Extreme Love." This specifically involves vigorously rubbing both sides of the Vita (see image below).
Image Source: Wikipedia "The number of censored cards is about 40 out of the approximately 350 card images available in the game. This means that over 300 cards are left untouched from the original images. That said, each card that has had its image removed will still have the same number of levels for the player to increase, but the higher level card images will be the same as the lower level, even though they have leveled up and have become more powerful." However, the statement says that this will not effect the length of the game, or any of the game's systems and features.
Monster Monpiece will also have a separate rating for the US and EU. In North America, the game was given a Mature rating by the ESRB; Europe's PEGI system rated the game 12+. Idea Factory says, "We received a Mature rating for Monster Monpiece from the ESRB with the censored material we submitted. However, for PEGI, and with the same material assets for their review, they rated it 12+ because of the minimal amount of violence shown in the game."
Idea Factory says their reason for the censorship deals with cultural differences. "Western society is not as lenient as that of Japan when sexual images are involved--especially images of humanoids that appear to be younger than a socially acceptable age. The borderline of what is 'acceptable' will always be extremely gray and vary from person to person, but as a responsible company working in the U.S., we had to make the difficult decision that we did. We sincerely apologize for those who do not agree with any level of censorship, but we greatly appreciate your understanding with the decision we have made."
Monster Monpiece is schedule to arrive on Vita in the US and EU sometime this spring.
I have bought this game so many times. GCN, PC, 360,and Wii.
I would buy it again if it has mod support so someone could update the controls. Needs the RE5/ Gears of War control scheme. I bought the HD edition for 360 and found it was almost unplayable, since playing all the modern shooters.
Some homebrew levels and full mod support would be good too, since Capcom can't make a decent RE game nowadays.
Industry veteran Tim Schafer, head of independent developer studio Double Fine Productions, has yet again expressed his admiration for the metal-inspired Brutal Legend series, telling GameSpot today that he hopes to return to the franchise some day.
"I love that world and I would love to go back there. And I think [actor Jack Black] might be up for it, too," Schafer told GameSpot today during a live-stream for his new game Broken Age. A replay of the stream is available below.
Black played Brutal Legend hero Eddie Riggs, a roadie turned warrior.
Brutal Legend fans shouldn't jump for joy yet. The original Brutal Legend cost around $25 million to develop and Schafer said raising that much money--or more--for a sequel "might be tricky."
Though a full-on sequel may not be in the pipeline just yet, Schafer said a DLC pack surrounding Brutal Legend's Lionwhyte might be more likely. Lionwhyte, leader of the fictitious Hair Metal Militia, was voiced by Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford.
"I would love to go back to that world or even just do a DLC pack...we're always trying to get Lionwhyte in there; a playable Lionwhyte army," Schafer said. "Maybe that would happen someday. I would definitely love to do that."
Brutal Legend launched in October 2009 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 published by Electronic Arts, while a PC version of the game arrived in February 2013. It is Double Fine's best-selling game ever, Schafer told GameSpot today, though it's unclear how many copies of the game have been sold to date.
There's a special kind of fear that aliens can tap into. They are often unknown, unreasonable, and unrelenting. Many 4X strategy games are strongly tied to real events, people, and cultures in human history, but some of the best games in the genre are set in space against powerful and hostile alien races. Pandora: First Contact is one such game, and it takes heavy cues from games like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. While it is meant to be a respectful tribute, Pandora is laden with awful design choices and a confusing mishmash of old and new mechanics. The pieces that stand up are pulled directly from other, better games, and the original ideas aren't developed well enough to carry the experience.
Pandora: First Contact opens with a smattering of people desperate to find a new Earth after decades of environmental destruction. The most prosperous societies have each launched their own expeditions, loosely representative of several modern-day nations and ideologies. These groups form the different factions and have their own vaguely defined play styles ranging from brutal, polluting industry to hyper-religious zealotry. Unfortunately, while they are thematically distinct, none of the factions stand out. Besides how the diplomatic options are phrased, and a few starting bonuses, they are all more or less the same. In my games, playing as the super-scientific faction wasn't terribly different from playing as the environmentalists. All of the units are the same, and the victory conditions are far too limited for any of your decisions to have much of an effect. There really is only one correct play style: extreme aggression.
Pandora borrows heavily from the works of Sid Meier, but it's missing too many pieces. Civilization has often been lauded for allowing you to seek scientific, cultural, military, or even diplomatic victory, and each of these routes is supported by an entire system of mechanics that help support that path. These systems connect with one another and can be attached or separated, giving you an enormous amount of freedom in how you play. Those choices are meaningful because they are symbolic; they represent different and distinct ideologies. Pandora, too, has "different" victory conditions, but none of them are well developed. There is a scientific victory that amounts to having 75 percent of all possible research items complete. To achieve military victory, you have to take control of over 75 percent of the planet's populace. Unfortunately, the mechanisms by which you accomplish these conditions are nearly identical, and there's virtually no way to stop a player who's nearing victory. The element of choice and the ability to consistently have any efficacy or agency in the game is totally subverted by this design.
The planet of Pandora is crawling with aliens when you first touch down, and it takes only a few turns for those forces to turn aggressive; unlike the barbarians from Civilization, these creatures are absolutely everywhere and are much, much stronger than any of your starting units. For example, a unit of marines has a starting combat strength of 2, while aliens range from 1 to 18, with 2 and 8 being the most common. How well you handle these early foes determines how much land and resources you have to work with in the mid to late game.
While it is meant to be a respectful tribute, Pandora is laden with awful design choices and a confusing mishmash of old and new mechanics.
Sadly, ignoring them isn't an option. Even if you never attack the aliens or show any sign of aggression, at a certain point they begin attacking you. Expanding and fortifying your armies, and then raiding alien hives for their massive cash reserves is the only way to play. Any land you don't grab for yourself is land a future opponent will use against you, and any aliens you don't kill feed the resources and experience of your rivals. This design choice forces the game into a two-stage system. The first stage is rapid expansion and extreme brutality against the indigenous aliens, and the second stage is focused more on developing the land you've claimed and steadily pushing back against enemies. While the first stage might be frustratingly limited, the second is fundamentally broken.
In better-designed 4X games, much of the mid- to late-game conflict stems from resource scarcity. You need a specific plot of land that an opponent has; this causes conflict, which then buttresses the final stages of a match. In Pandora, land is certainly important, but expansion is agonizingly slow. Even on the fastest setting, with the exception of a handful of rare tiles, there's absolutely no scarcity. Aside from mountains, just about every tile can be converted into every other kind, and they don't carry the bottlenecking effect that's common in other games. Without scarcity, there's very little to fight over, and the monotony of expansion across hundreds of same-y tiles wears down to tedium very quickly.
Classic sci-fi homage. In place of a varied and interesting landscape, Pandora has a fairly robust unit upgrade and operations system. As you progress technologically, you have access to a wider variety of weapons and equipment for your various units. For example, initially your legions of marines only have access to their basic machine guns, but once you develop the flamethrower, you can bring marines back to a city to refit them with the latest gadgets. This is typically done for a significant cost, though, and can become overwhelmingly expensive when upgrading masses of units. Additionally, at each new stage of technological development, you also gain access to advanced versions of every unit. The colonial marine, your bread and butter, later becomes the assault trooper. After you've unlocked the next stage, it's often more practical to simply send your old units to their death at the hands of a foe and just start production on the next batch of souped-up soldiers
To cut down on some of the banality of this cycle of production-upgrade-sacrifice, you can set your cities to crank out new units with the upgraded tech. This costs extra production time, but typically that's much easier to manage than trying to purchase all of the upgrades outright. Unfortunately, there's no system or mechanic allowing for the retrofitting of old units with new gear via production capacity, nor is there any way to take an old unit and make it into one of the newer variety. This is probably intended to be balanced by the experience system, which can dramatically enhance the combat effectiveness of older troops, but that loses relevance in the mid to late game because of operations.
Without scarcity, there's very little to fight over.
Operations can range from nuclear strikes and satellite scans to field training missions. They are produced much like standard units but are immediately consumed upon use. These field training missions are ridiculously cheap, particularly in the late game, and I often had one city of mine constantly producing them. After I finished a new batch of troops, I'd march them all to my most forward base, dump 10 field training missions on them to max out their level, and then let them heal up for two or three turns before marching out my legions of tanks, airplanes, and marines to conquer whatever stood in their way. It's much faster and less risky than trying to naturally level up fresh recruits, and it always ensured that my warriors would be at the top of their game.
At the end of the day, unit management is bogged down by a plethora of underutilized mechanics. Instead of adding to the gameplay, they simply encourage you to abuse other systems to circumvent the poorly designed interface. That seems to be par for the course for Pandora. There are a lot of neat ideas here, but none of them pan out. The game's creators clearly adore 4X strategy games in general, and Alpha Centauri specifically, is clear here, but Pandora: First Contact is not a proper tribute. I want to love Pandora, I really do, but nostalgia can't fix a game that doesn't work even at the most basic level.
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Mon, 20 Jan 2014 23:54:44 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-haunted-memories/2300-6416879/ Jess and Zorine get more than they bargained for in this Slender-esque game where they employ a trusted crowbar whilst being attacked by headless naked corpses. Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:18:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-haunted-memories/2300-6416879/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-positive-xbox-one-coverage/1100-6417235/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/280/2802776/2421749-microsoftmachinima.png" data-ref-id="1300-2421749" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/280/2802776/2421749-microsoftmachinima.png" data-ref-id="1300-2421749"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/280/2802776/2421749-microsoftmachinima.png"></a><figcaption>Credit: Neogaf.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Microsoft recently launched a promotion that offered Machinima video partners payment for publishing videos featuring the Xbox One.</p><p style="">Reported by <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/stealth-marketing-microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-xbox-one-mentions/" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">Ars Technica</a>, participants were required to post a video that included a minimum of 30 seconds of footage from an Xbox One game, mentioned the Xbox One name, and were tagged "XB1M13" to be eligible for payment.</p><p style="">According to a <a href="http://pastebin.com/vec6vjv5" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">leaked copy of the full legal agreement</a>, video creators were not permitted to say "anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One, or any of its games". Participants were also prohibited from mentioning the promotional agreement to be eligible for payment.</p><p style="">Payment was allegedly limited to the first 1.25 million video views in the promotion, which reportedly concluded on January 16.</p><p style="">A Microsoft representative was not immediately available to comment.</p><p style="">Microsoft recently announced that the Xbox One <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-sold-3-million-units-in-2013-microsoft-says/1100-6416955/" data-ref-id="1100-6416955">has sold over 3 million units worldwide</a>. The console launched on November 22 in North America, the UK, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and New Zealand.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6416249" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6416249/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:19:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-positive-xbox-one-coverage/1100-6417235/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/consortium-review/1900-6415633/ <p style="">One thing's for sure: Consortium isn't afraid to hide one of its chief influences. Mere minutes in, responding to a quip from the pilot of a futuristic craft crammed with quasi-military types, I jumped on the best of three possible responses: "So you're the ship's joker, right?" Had it used a capital "J," developer Interdimensional Games might as well have shouted out its inspiration. Indeed, Consortium is partly <a href="/mass-effect/" data-ref-id="false">Mass Effect</a> stripped of all that business of exploring worlds and drilling planets, opting instead to unfold events in an aircraft from 2042 that feels like the Normandy and looks strikingly similar to a Boeing 747. L. Ron Hubbard would be proud. But this isn't some soulless rip-off; look past crippling bugs and visual oddities, such as water faucets that seem to spit mercury and the <a href="/tomb-raider-collection/" data-ref-id="false">Tomb Raider</a>-circa-2003 faces, and you'll find a role-playing game experience that's at least worthy of breathing the same air as BioWare's space saga.</p><p style="">Consortium presents us with a distinctly European vision of the future, down to quips about how Americans no longer make the best stuff in 2042. It's populated with a motley selection of nationalities and races that work for a peacekeeping organization that may or may not have sinister intentions, and the entire concept hinges on a military hierarchy that labels people with the names of various chess pieces. You, for instance, take on the role of Bishop Six, a warrior enforcer of sorts on his first day on the job, and your presence leads you to butt heads with the knight in charge or tease unfortunately named pawns about relieving themselves in the brig toilet. As the plot reveals, it's a fun job, and you end up investigating murders, sniffing out traitors, attempting to tame mercenaries with diplomatic skills, and sometimes even fighting.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419863-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419863" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419863-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419863"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2419863-0002.jpg"></a><figcaption>Consortium might look dated, but it's the story that counts.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Taking on roles isn't a figure of speech in this case. One of Consortium's most fascinating quirks is that its meta-narrative assigns you the role of a contemporary player in a satellite-based game that lets you slip into the minds of figures from alternate futures. (Top that one, Oculus Rift.) It initially seems like little more than a tired Assassin's Creed-inspired conceit, but only minutes in, Consortium lets you blurt out the truth to your underlings if you wish. Part of what makes Consortium so appealing is that such playful sallies affect the game's more serious preoccupations with murders, subterfuge, and even cocky Bulgarian recidivists who attack you with antique fighter jets in order to stay off the sensors. Push it too far, and the talking chess pieces around you might start to doubt your ability to lead them to checkmate.</p><p style="">It's generally fun to hear them talk. While some of Bishop Six's responses exhibit an unfortunate smidge of juvenile phrasing, the surrounding crew members exude a degree of humanity barely suggested by their antiquated models. Pause too long before answering as I did while taking notes, and they cut off the conversation out of a belief that you're either rude or just don't want to answer. Conversations flow well from one to another regardless of shifts in subject matter, and Consortium tops it all off with a generally competent voice cast. This works well when you hear Knight 15's confidence waver in the face of little human errors, which makes her leadership seem more believable, or even when crewmembers of various ranks argue over whether to announce the discovery of a murdered rook's corpse.</p><blockquote data-align="center" data-size="large"><p style="">Push it too far, and the talking chess pieces around you might start to doubt your ability to lead them to checkmate.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419864-0008.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419864" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419864-0008.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419864"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2419864-0008.jpg"></a><figcaption>There's gotta be a paper on free will in all this.</figcaption></figure><p style="">It's fitting, then, that the ship itself is as much of a character as the crewmembers who populate it. Not unlike Cowboy Bebop, Consortium walks a fine line between the familiar and the far-fetched, and that mixture adds a touch of creepiness as you hunt the rooms for clues and hobnob with crewmembers who balk when you question things that someone in your position should know. You spend almost all your time on the ship, and it's thus a good thing that its three decks offer plenty of exploration to make up for the absence of any ground exploration on your way from Bulgaria to London. Partly thanks to the inclusion of a sweeping musical score by composer Jeremy Soule of Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars fame, the mere act of exploring its air ducts and closed rooms is a pleasure in itself.</p><p style="">Consortium also serves as a decent if uninspired first-person shooter, even to the point of including a prompt at the beginning that adjusts the difficulty for story or action. It's a familiar enough concept, but Consortium goes further than most games by letting you avoid almost all of the gunplay by focusing on careful answers and juggling the dispositions of various enemies and friends. It's a more rewarding approach to Consortium, much like playing Dishonored with an exclusive focus on stealth. Yet shooting is so secondary to the general drive of Consortium that much of it occurs in training exercises in a holodeck of sorts, or through a brief virtual dogfighting sequence. There are no specializations or skills to tinker with--only a smattering of weapons and the ability to incapacitate downed soldiers or to heal allies around you.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="small" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419865-0006.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419865" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419865-0006.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419865"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_small/416/4161502/2419865-0006.jpg"></a><figcaption>Almost all of Consortium takes place on the ship, but your actions could impact the world around it.</figcaption></figure><p style="">And man, is Consortium glitchy. I spent my first few days with the game occasionally unable to get far beyond the loading screen without the computer locking up; I later learned to wait it out for about five minutes. And there's an otherwise impressive sequence late in the game that can cause all manner of problems. I struggled with it myself until the devs posted a workaround on the Steam forums last Tuesday that allowed me a peek at what passes for the end. The issues are so severe that Interdimensional now has a disclaimer on its Steam page acknowledging and apologizing for the troubles, along with the hopeful news that the problems should clear up with a bulky patch toward the end of the month.</p><p style="">It's a shame, because Consortium delivers a uniquely enjoyable RPG experience despite its rather disappointing running time of around four to five hours. That's not as bad as it initially sounds, however, since you discover remarkable differences in gameplay depending on how you make your decisions throughout the game (and on whether you decide to shoot up the place), thus lending Consortium a dose of replay value. For now, at least, it's best to wait. Consortium has a fascinating story to tell that leads you down some bizarre narrative pathways that break the fourth wall, and it's likely best experienced when you can get it to play without crashing or bugging out. Considering that it's partly a game about time travel, a couple of weeks isn't that long to hold out.</p> Fri, 17 Jan 2014 22:46:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/consortium-review/1900-6415633/
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Mon, 20 Jan 2014 23:54:44 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-haunted-memories/2300-6416879/ Jess and Zorine get more than they bargained for in this Slender-esque game where they employ a trusted crowbar whilst being attacked by headless naked corpses. Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:18:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-haunted-memories/2300-6416879/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-positive-xbox-one-coverage/1100-6417235/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/280/2802776/2421749-microsoftmachinima.png" data-ref-id="1300-2421749" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/280/2802776/2421749-microsoftmachinima.png" data-ref-id="1300-2421749"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/280/2802776/2421749-microsoftmachinima.png"></a><figcaption>Credit: Neogaf.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Microsoft recently launched a promotion that offered Machinima video partners payment for publishing videos featuring the Xbox One.</p><p style="">Reported by <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/stealth-marketing-microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-xbox-one-mentions/" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">Ars Technica</a>, participants were required to post a video that included a minimum of 30 seconds of footage from an Xbox One game, mentioned the Xbox One name, and were tagged "XB1M13" to be eligible for payment.</p><p style="">According to a <a href="http://pastebin.com/vec6vjv5" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">leaked copy of the full legal agreement</a>, video creators were not permitted to say "anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One, or any of its games". Participants were also prohibited from mentioning the promotional agreement to be eligible for payment.</p><p style="">Payment was allegedly limited to the first 1.25 million video views in the promotion, which reportedly concluded on January 16.</p><p style="">A Microsoft representative was not immediately available to comment.</p><p style="">Microsoft recently announced that the Xbox One <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-sold-3-million-units-in-2013-microsoft-says/1100-6416955/" data-ref-id="1100-6416955">has sold over 3 million units worldwide</a>. The console launched on November 22 in North America, the UK, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and New Zealand.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6416249" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6416249/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:19:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-positive-xbox-one-coverage/1100-6417235/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/consortium-review/1900-6415633/ <p style="">One thing's for sure: Consortium isn't afraid to hide one of its chief influences. Mere minutes in, responding to a quip from the pilot of a futuristic craft crammed with quasi-military types, I jumped on the best of three possible responses: "So you're the ship's joker, right?" Had it used a capital "J," developer Interdimensional Games might as well have shouted out its inspiration. Indeed, Consortium is partly <a href="/mass-effect/" data-ref-id="false">Mass Effect</a> stripped of all that business of exploring worlds and drilling planets, opting instead to unfold events in an aircraft from 2042 that feels like the Normandy and looks strikingly similar to a Boeing 747. L. Ron Hubbard would be proud. But this isn't some soulless rip-off; look past crippling bugs and visual oddities, such as water faucets that seem to spit mercury and the <a href="/tomb-raider-collection/" data-ref-id="false">Tomb Raider</a>-circa-2003 faces, and you'll find a role-playing game experience that's at least worthy of breathing the same air as BioWare's space saga.</p><p style="">Consortium presents us with a distinctly European vision of the future, down to quips about how Americans no longer make the best stuff in 2042. It's populated with a motley selection of nationalities and races that work for a peacekeeping organization that may or may not have sinister intentions, and the entire concept hinges on a military hierarchy that labels people with the names of various chess pieces. You, for instance, take on the role of Bishop Six, a warrior enforcer of sorts on his first day on the job, and your presence leads you to butt heads with the knight in charge or tease unfortunately named pawns about relieving themselves in the brig toilet. As the plot reveals, it's a fun job, and you end up investigating murders, sniffing out traitors, attempting to tame mercenaries with diplomatic skills, and sometimes even fighting.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419863-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419863" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419863-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419863"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2419863-0002.jpg"></a><figcaption>Consortium might look dated, but it's the story that counts.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Taking on roles isn't a figure of speech in this case. One of Consortium's most fascinating quirks is that its meta-narrative assigns you the role of a contemporary player in a satellite-based game that lets you slip into the minds of figures from alternate futures. (Top that one, Oculus Rift.) It initially seems like little more than a tired Assassin's Creed-inspired conceit, but only minutes in, Consortium lets you blurt out the truth to your underlings if you wish. Part of what makes Consortium so appealing is that such playful sallies affect the game's more serious preoccupations with murders, subterfuge, and even cocky Bulgarian recidivists who attack you with antique fighter jets in order to stay off the sensors. Push it too far, and the talking chess pieces around you might start to doubt your ability to lead them to checkmate.</p><p style="">It's generally fun to hear them talk. While some of Bishop Six's responses exhibit an unfortunate smidge of juvenile phrasing, the surrounding crew members exude a degree of humanity barely suggested by their antiquated models. Pause too long before answering as I did while taking notes, and they cut off the conversation out of a belief that you're either rude or just don't want to answer. Conversations flow well from one to another regardless of shifts in subject matter, and Consortium tops it all off with a generally competent voice cast. This works well when you hear Knight 15's confidence waver in the face of little human errors, which makes her leadership seem more believable, or even when crewmembers of various ranks argue over whether to announce the discovery of a murdered rook's corpse.</p><blockquote data-align="center" data-size="large"><p style="">Push it too far, and the talking chess pieces around you might start to doubt your ability to lead them to checkmate.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419864-0008.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419864" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419864-0008.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419864"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2419864-0008.jpg"></a><figcaption>There's gotta be a paper on free will in all this.</figcaption></figure><p style="">It's fitting, then, that the ship itself is as much of a character as the crewmembers who populate it. Not unlike Cowboy Bebop, Consortium walks a fine line between the familiar and the far-fetched, and that mixture adds a touch of creepiness as you hunt the rooms for clues and hobnob with crewmembers who balk when you question things that someone in your position should know. You spend almost all your time on the ship, and it's thus a good thing that its three decks offer plenty of exploration to make up for the absence of any ground exploration on your way from Bulgaria to London. Partly thanks to the inclusion of a sweeping musical score by composer Jeremy Soule of Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars fame, the mere act of exploring its air ducts and closed rooms is a pleasure in itself.</p><p style="">Consortium also serves as a decent if uninspired first-person shooter, even to the point of including a prompt at the beginning that adjusts the difficulty for story or action. It's a familiar enough concept, but Consortium goes further than most games by letting you avoid almost all of the gunplay by focusing on careful answers and juggling the dispositions of various enemies and friends. It's a more rewarding approach to Consortium, much like playing Dishonored with an exclusive focus on stealth. Yet shooting is so secondary to the general drive of Consortium that much of it occurs in training exercises in a holodeck of sorts, or through a brief virtual dogfighting sequence. There are no specializations or skills to tinker with--only a smattering of weapons and the ability to incapacitate downed soldiers or to heal allies around you.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="small" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419865-0006.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419865" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419865-0006.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419865"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_small/416/4161502/2419865-0006.jpg"></a><figcaption>Almost all of Consortium takes place on the ship, but your actions could impact the world around it.</figcaption></figure><p style="">And man, is Consortium glitchy. I spent my first few days with the game occasionally unable to get far beyond the loading screen without the computer locking up; I later learned to wait it out for about five minutes. And there's an otherwise impressive sequence late in the game that can cause all manner of problems. I struggled with it myself until the devs posted a workaround on the Steam forums last Tuesday that allowed me a peek at what passes for the end. The issues are so severe that Interdimensional now has a disclaimer on its Steam page acknowledging and apologizing for the troubles, along with the hopeful news that the problems should clear up with a bulky patch toward the end of the month.</p><p style="">It's a shame, because Consortium delivers a uniquely enjoyable RPG experience despite its rather disappointing running time of around four to five hours. That's not as bad as it initially sounds, however, since you discover remarkable differences in gameplay depending on how you make your decisions throughout the game (and on whether you decide to shoot up the place), thus lending Consortium a dose of replay value. For now, at least, it's best to wait. Consortium has a fascinating story to tell that leads you down some bizarre narrative pathways that break the fourth wall, and it's likely best experienced when you can get it to play without crashing or bugging out. Considering that it's partly a game about time travel, a couple of weeks isn't that long to hold out.</p> Fri, 17 Jan 2014 22:46:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/consortium-review/1900-6415633/
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SubscribeOne thing's for sure: Consortium isn't afraid to hide one of its chief influences. Mere minutes in, responding to a quip from the pilot of a futuristic craft crammed with quasi-military types, I jumped on the best of three possible responses: "So you're the ship's joker, right?" Had it used a capital "J," developer Interdimensional Games might as well have shouted out its inspiration. Indeed, Consortium is partly Mass Effect stripped of all that business of exploring worlds and drilling planets, opting instead to unfold events in an aircraft from 2042 that feels like the Normandy and looks strikingly similar to a Boeing 747. L. Ron Hubbard would be proud. But this isn't some soulless rip-off; look past crippling bugs and visual oddities, such as water faucets that seem to spit mercury and the Tomb Raider-circa-2003 faces, and you'll find a role-playing game experience that's at least worthy of breathing the same air as BioWare's space saga.
Consortium presents us with a distinctly European vision of the future, down to quips about how Americans no longer make the best stuff in 2042. It's populated with a motley selection of nationalities and races that work for a peacekeeping organization that may or may not have sinister intentions, and the entire concept hinges on a military hierarchy that labels people with the names of various chess pieces. You, for instance, take on the role of Bishop Six, a warrior enforcer of sorts on his first day on the job, and your presence leads you to butt heads with the knight in charge or tease unfortunately named pawns about relieving themselves in the brig toilet. As the plot reveals, it's a fun job, and you end up investigating murders, sniffing out traitors, attempting to tame mercenaries with diplomatic skills, and sometimes even fighting.
Consortium might look dated, but it's the story that counts. Taking on roles isn't a figure of speech in this case. One of Consortium's most fascinating quirks is that its meta-narrative assigns you the role of a contemporary player in a satellite-based game that lets you slip into the minds of figures from alternate futures. (Top that one, Oculus Rift.) It initially seems like little more than a tired Assassin's Creed-inspired conceit, but only minutes in, Consortium lets you blurt out the truth to your underlings if you wish. Part of what makes Consortium so appealing is that such playful sallies affect the game's more serious preoccupations with murders, subterfuge, and even cocky Bulgarian recidivists who attack you with antique fighter jets in order to stay off the sensors. Push it too far, and the talking chess pieces around you might start to doubt your ability to lead them to checkmate.
It's generally fun to hear them talk. While some of Bishop Six's responses exhibit an unfortunate smidge of juvenile phrasing, the surrounding crew members exude a degree of humanity barely suggested by their antiquated models. Pause too long before answering as I did while taking notes, and they cut off the conversation out of a belief that you're either rude or just don't want to answer. Conversations flow well from one to another regardless of shifts in subject matter, and Consortium tops it all off with a generally competent voice cast. This works well when you hear Knight 15's confidence waver in the face of little human errors, which makes her leadership seem more believable, or even when crewmembers of various ranks argue over whether to announce the discovery of a murdered rook's corpse.
Push it too far, and the talking chess pieces around you might start to doubt your ability to lead them to checkmate.
There's gotta be a paper on free will in all this. It's fitting, then, that the ship itself is as much of a character as the crewmembers who populate it. Not unlike Cowboy Bebop, Consortium walks a fine line between the familiar and the far-fetched, and that mixture adds a touch of creepiness as you hunt the rooms for clues and hobnob with crewmembers who balk when you question things that someone in your position should know. You spend almost all your time on the ship, and it's thus a good thing that its three decks offer plenty of exploration to make up for the absence of any ground exploration on your way from Bulgaria to London. Partly thanks to the inclusion of a sweeping musical score by composer Jeremy Soule of Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars fame, the mere act of exploring its air ducts and closed rooms is a pleasure in itself.
Consortium also serves as a decent if uninspired first-person shooter, even to the point of including a prompt at the beginning that adjusts the difficulty for story or action. It's a familiar enough concept, but Consortium goes further than most games by letting you avoid almost all of the gunplay by focusing on careful answers and juggling the dispositions of various enemies and friends. It's a more rewarding approach to Consortium, much like playing Dishonored with an exclusive focus on stealth. Yet shooting is so secondary to the general drive of Consortium that much of it occurs in training exercises in a holodeck of sorts, or through a brief virtual dogfighting sequence. There are no specializations or skills to tinker with--only a smattering of weapons and the ability to incapacitate downed soldiers or to heal allies around you.
Almost all of Consortium takes place on the ship, but your actions could impact the world around it. And man, is Consortium glitchy. I spent my first few days with the game occasionally unable to get far beyond the loading screen without the computer locking up; I later learned to wait it out for about five minutes. And there's an otherwise impressive sequence late in the game that can cause all manner of problems. I struggled with it myself until the devs posted a workaround on the Steam forums last Tuesday that allowed me a peek at what passes for the end. The issues are so severe that Interdimensional now has a disclaimer on its Steam page acknowledging and apologizing for the troubles, along with the hopeful news that the problems should clear up with a bulky patch toward the end of the month.
It's a shame, because Consortium delivers a uniquely enjoyable RPG experience despite its rather disappointing running time of around four to five hours. That's not as bad as it initially sounds, however, since you discover remarkable differences in gameplay depending on how you make your decisions throughout the game (and on whether you decide to shoot up the place), thus lending Consortium a dose of replay value. For now, at least, it's best to wait. Consortium has a fascinating story to tell that leads you down some bizarre narrative pathways that break the fourth wall, and it's likely best experienced when you can get it to play without crashing or bugging out. Considering that it's partly a game about time travel, a couple of weeks isn't that long to hold out.
Developer Edge of Reality announced that Loadout, its free-to-play "over-the-top" multiplayer shooter, will launch on Jan. 31, 2014.
Loadout claims that its weapon-crafting system will allow over 44 billion possible variations for players to assemble, allowing them to define their own class and play style.
Edge of Reality has 15 years of experience in the industry, contributing to projects like Mass Effect, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, The Sims, and Dragon Age. Loadout is its first original game. "We couldn't be more excited to open it up to the masses," CEO Rob Cohen said in a press release. "We started this as a passion project, working on it when we could, and trying to create something original and truly player-friendly. What we've got now is a game that's a blast to play, quick and easy to get into, and empowers players with insane amounts of customization."
Currently in early access, Loadout will be available through Steam when it launches, but you can create an account and reserve a name tag now here.
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:40:41 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/don-t-starve-console-edition-review/1900-6415632/ <p style="">A swarm of agitated frogs. Tentacles that sprout from the earth. Poisonous mushrooms. Winter's frosty embrace. Rotten food. Giant cyclops birds. The darkness. Rampaging subterranean bunny things. Packs of hellhounds. Your own slithering hallucinations. Starvation. The laundry list of things that can kill you in the eerie world of Don't Starve is as excessive as it is intriguing. I've succumbed to just about every ill-fated demise imaginable in this brutal but addictive indie survival sim. Despite the frustration that comes from dying and losing everything--a common occurrence in this unforgiving and mysterious realm--it's hard to pull away once the engrossing cycle of exploration, crafting, and survival grabs hold.</p><p style="">A hasty introduction to Don't Starve's vast danger-filled realm leaves little time to consider the particulars of why you've been summoned out into the middle of nowhere by a mysterious demonic gentleman. As Wilson, a scientist-turned-survivalist, you're plunked down into this randomly generated world and left to figure everything out on your own. Outside of some light questing and very minimal story elements, the emphasis is placed on your survival. Rather than being a detriment, the hands-off direction paves the way for the world's grim Tim Burton-esque vibe and entrancing visual design to unfurl, telling its own harrowing tales as you struggle to stave off death.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419698-acrevdon%27t+starve+-+living+-+2014-01-14+10-35-0393.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419698" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419698-acrevdon%27t+starve+-+living+-+2014-01-14+10-35-0393.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419698"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2419698-acrevdon%27t+starve+-+living+-+2014-01-14+10-35-0393.jpg"></a><figcaption>Come on baby, light my fire.</figcaption></figure><p style="">When it comes to figuring out how to stay alive, there's precious little handholding here. The lack of any tutorial means that every resource, creature, and curiosity you encounter poses a two-pronged question: how can I use this to my advantage, and will messing with it somehow result in getting killed? Considering that many vital resources can be perilous to acquire or have an ill effect if used improperly, each choice you make at any given moment has the potential to usher in your own doom. This trial-and-error nature is a real pressure cooker at moments, since even a simple slipup like overharvesting a scarce material can send you into a downward spiral. The constant tension that builds as important supplies dwindle ratchets up the stressfulness of each dire situation, but it makes each victory, however small, feel like a major achievement. It's an unpredictability that also adds to the thrill of your survival.</p><blockquote data-size="medium" data-align="left"><p style="">The hands-off direction paves the way for the world's grim Tim Burton-esque vibe and entrancing visual design to unfurl.</p></blockquote><p style="">As you explore, gathering food, material resources, and fuel for a steady campfire is critical. Whether you scavenge berries and vegetables or kill and cook wildlife to consume, keeping a supply of edibles on hand staves off hunger that can sap your meager health if left unchecked. A steady day-night cycle weaves several more layers of complexity into the mix. You can freely explore during the daytime, but nightfall ushers in a new threat: get caught in the dark for more than a few seconds without a light source, and the darkness itself consumes you. Spending too much time out in the dark, even by torchlight, saps your mental health as well. Activities like eating flowers, resting, and tinkering away restore your sanity. Let it deplete too far, however, and the increasingly hallucinatory visual effects that warp the gameworld onscreen spawn imaginary nightmare creatures that attack. Really, you never feel truly safe. Ever. That's not a bad thing though.</p><p style="">Don't Starve smartly entwines all this danger and tension with a well-designed crafting system that provides the real hook for risking life and limb to push onward. The raw materials you harvest on your travels let you cobble together crude implements to help you survive, which is your sole means of gaining ground in your pitched struggle. Mundane materials like wood, flint, grass, and rope can be forged into axes, spears, torches, and more. Your collecting and tinkering thankfully don't end there. With depth and complexity that rival similar survival-centric offerings like Minecraft and Terraria, the expansive crafting system really kicks into high gear once you develop alchemy and science stations to boost your options.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419699-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419699" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419699-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419699"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2419699-0002.jpg"></a><figcaption>This guy's attitude is as icy as his surroundings.</figcaption></figure><p style="">The jump to the PlayStation 4 brings a welcome speed and fluidity to the tasks of gathering, exploring, and crafting, thanks to thoughtful use of the DualShock 4's control scheme. Simple updates, such as the ability to hold down the action button to automatically harvest whatever is on the ground nearby or to interact with nearby objects, have a big impact. The dual thumbsticks make quick work of juggling inventory items too, and the overall scheme is a comfortable improvement for crafting. If you've played the PC version, it takes some time to adjust to using a controller, but even as an avid PC gamer, I just can't go back to using a mouse and keyboard after playing on the PS4.</p><p style="">Don't Starve's console port remains largely in line with the latest PC version, including all of the updated content like subterranean caves and a new Default Plus mode, which offers a steeper challenge but gives you a bunch of goodies from the get-go to help more-seasoned players motor through the sluggish stretches of a new game. Aside from the lack of mod support, one notable difference is the reduced control for fine-tuning custom games in the console version. There's some wiggle room to toggle the frequency of individual creatures and elements, but it's scaled back here. That's a minor concession, since the core game is well done and is a great fit on the PS4.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419700-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419700" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419700-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419700"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2419700-0001.jpg"></a><figcaption>The flames of change are roaring.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Even so, some of the underlying problems still linger. Don't Starve's roguelike aspect is utterly grueling in the way it doles out punishment. While there are a few means to prolong your life beyond the grave, most games that end with you dying wipe out your progress completely, leaving you agonizing over the numerous hours you just spent chipping away to gain a foothold in this harsh world. Your experience carries over and goes toward unlocking new characters with special perks to play as, so it's not a total loss, but this doesn't negate the agony of having to grind through from the beginning after getting killed in a later-game run.</p><p style="">If you're up to the challenge and precariousness of exploring this stark landscape bristling with danger, Don't Starve delivers unique charm, exhaustive depth, and brutal punishment. On the PS4, it remains a frustrating, fascinating, and beautifully grim experience that controls nicely and packs the same absorbing punch as the original.</p> Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:07:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/don-t-starve-console-edition-review/1900-6415632/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-5-top-selling-game-in-2013-in-us-call-of-duty-ghosts-leads-december-npd/1100-6417186/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/0/2/3/0/2050230-703504_20130814_002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2050230" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/0/2/3/0/2050230-703504_20130814_002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2050230"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/mig/0/2/3/0/2050230-703504_20130814_002.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">The NPD released December sales data on both the top-selling games for December 2013 in the US and overall for 2013 in the US:</p><p style=""><strong>December 2013 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms including PC)</strong></p><ul><li>Call Of Duty: Ghosts (360, PS3, XBO, PS4, NWU, PC)** -- Activision Blizzard</li><li>Battlefield 4 (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Just Dance 2014 (WII, 360, NWU, XBO, PS3, PS4)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>Madden NFL 25 (360, XBO, PS3, PS4) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>NBA 2K14 (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, PC)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, NWU, PC)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Lego Marvel Super Heroes (360, PS3, 3DS, XBO, PS4, NWU, PSV, PC) -- Warner Bros. Interactive</li><li>FIFA 14 (360, PS4, XBO, PS3, PSV) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Skylanders SWAP Force (WII, 360, PS3, NWU, 3DS, XBO, PS4)** -- Activision Blizzard</li></ul><p style=""><strong>Annual 2013 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms including PC)</strong></p><ul><li>Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Call Of Duty: Ghosts (360, PS3, XBO, PS4, PC, NWU)** -- Activision Blizzard</li><li>Madden NFL 25 (360, PS3, PS4, XBO) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Battlefield 4 (360, PS3, XBO, PS4, PC) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, NWU, PC)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>NBA 2K14 (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, PC)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, NWU, PC)** -- Activision Blizzard</li><li>Just Dance 2014 (WII, 360, NWU, XBO, PS3, PS4)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>Minecraft (360) -- Microsoft</li><li>Disney Infinity (360, WII, PS3, NWU, 3DS) -- Disney Interactive Studios</li></ul><p style="">**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)</p><p style="">Console hardware sales are up 50% over December 2012; the Xbox One sold the most home consoles overall in December, <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-is-top-selling-home-console-in-us-for-december-npd/1100-6417183/" data-ref-id="1100-6417183">as reported earlier today</a>, but the PlayStation 4 sold more cumulatively during Microsoft and Sony's launch period. Video game software sales for the year are down 17% percent primarily because of "the poor performance of November launches in December 2013," according to the NPD report.</p><p style="">Take 2 Interactive was the top game publisher in 2013, because of the success of Grand Theft Auto V, BioShock Infinite, and the NBA 2K franchise. The NPD writes, "Grand Theft Auto V ranked as the top game in 2013 (based on units sold), and after four months of sales is within striking distance of surpassing <a href="/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas/" data-ref-id="false">Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas </a>as the highest selling game within the Grand Theft Auto franchise."</p><p style="">The NPD also stated that, "For the fifth year in a row, the standard 360 version of Call of Duty was the top-selling [version of that game] for December." The absence of best-sellers like Pokemon X/Y and The Last of Us is attributed to those games' platform exclusivity; it's worth noting that Pokemon X and Pokemon Y are distinguished as separate games by the NPD.</p><p style="">Game controllers, point/subscription cards, and "interactive gaming toys" were "the top 3 accessory types in 2013 based on revenue" according to the NPD. And despite competition from Disney Infinity, December 2013 was the best month ever for Skylanders Interactive Gaming Toy sales on a dollar basis."</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6414479" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6414479/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p><p style=""> </p> Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-5-top-selling-game-in-2013-in-us-call-of-duty-ghosts-leads-december-npd/1100-6417186/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/don-t-starve-video-review/2300-6416853/ Survival and crafting take a turn for the brutal in this fascinating adventure. Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:55:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/don-t-starve-video-review/2300-6416853/
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:40:41 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/don-t-starve-console-edition-review/1900-6415632/ <p style="">A swarm of agitated frogs. Tentacles that sprout from the earth. Poisonous mushrooms. Winter's frosty embrace. Rotten food. Giant cyclops birds. The darkness. Rampaging subterranean bunny things. Packs of hellhounds. Your own slithering hallucinations. Starvation. The laundry list of things that can kill you in the eerie world of Don't Starve is as excessive as it is intriguing. I've succumbed to just about every ill-fated demise imaginable in this brutal but addictive indie survival sim. Despite the frustration that comes from dying and losing everything--a common occurrence in this unforgiving and mysterious realm--it's hard to pull away once the engrossing cycle of exploration, crafting, and survival grabs hold.</p><p style="">A hasty introduction to Don't Starve's vast danger-filled realm leaves little time to consider the particulars of why you've been summoned out into the middle of nowhere by a mysterious demonic gentleman. As Wilson, a scientist-turned-survivalist, you're plunked down into this randomly generated world and left to figure everything out on your own. Outside of some light questing and very minimal story elements, the emphasis is placed on your survival. Rather than being a detriment, the hands-off direction paves the way for the world's grim Tim Burton-esque vibe and entrancing visual design to unfurl, telling its own harrowing tales as you struggle to stave off death.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419698-acrevdon%27t+starve+-+living+-+2014-01-14+10-35-0393.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419698" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419698-acrevdon%27t+starve+-+living+-+2014-01-14+10-35-0393.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419698"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2419698-acrevdon%27t+starve+-+living+-+2014-01-14+10-35-0393.jpg"></a><figcaption>Come on baby, light my fire.</figcaption></figure><p style="">When it comes to figuring out how to stay alive, there's precious little handholding here. The lack of any tutorial means that every resource, creature, and curiosity you encounter poses a two-pronged question: how can I use this to my advantage, and will messing with it somehow result in getting killed? Considering that many vital resources can be perilous to acquire or have an ill effect if used improperly, each choice you make at any given moment has the potential to usher in your own doom. This trial-and-error nature is a real pressure cooker at moments, since even a simple slipup like overharvesting a scarce material can send you into a downward spiral. The constant tension that builds as important supplies dwindle ratchets up the stressfulness of each dire situation, but it makes each victory, however small, feel like a major achievement. It's an unpredictability that also adds to the thrill of your survival.</p><blockquote data-size="medium" data-align="left"><p style="">The hands-off direction paves the way for the world's grim Tim Burton-esque vibe and entrancing visual design to unfurl.</p></blockquote><p style="">As you explore, gathering food, material resources, and fuel for a steady campfire is critical. Whether you scavenge berries and vegetables or kill and cook wildlife to consume, keeping a supply of edibles on hand staves off hunger that can sap your meager health if left unchecked. A steady day-night cycle weaves several more layers of complexity into the mix. You can freely explore during the daytime, but nightfall ushers in a new threat: get caught in the dark for more than a few seconds without a light source, and the darkness itself consumes you. Spending too much time out in the dark, even by torchlight, saps your mental health as well. Activities like eating flowers, resting, and tinkering away restore your sanity. Let it deplete too far, however, and the increasingly hallucinatory visual effects that warp the gameworld onscreen spawn imaginary nightmare creatures that attack. Really, you never feel truly safe. Ever. That's not a bad thing though.</p><p style="">Don't Starve smartly entwines all this danger and tension with a well-designed crafting system that provides the real hook for risking life and limb to push onward. The raw materials you harvest on your travels let you cobble together crude implements to help you survive, which is your sole means of gaining ground in your pitched struggle. Mundane materials like wood, flint, grass, and rope can be forged into axes, spears, torches, and more. Your collecting and tinkering thankfully don't end there. With depth and complexity that rival similar survival-centric offerings like Minecraft and Terraria, the expansive crafting system really kicks into high gear once you develop alchemy and science stations to boost your options.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419699-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419699" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419699-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419699"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2419699-0002.jpg"></a><figcaption>This guy's attitude is as icy as his surroundings.</figcaption></figure><p style="">The jump to the PlayStation 4 brings a welcome speed and fluidity to the tasks of gathering, exploring, and crafting, thanks to thoughtful use of the DualShock 4's control scheme. Simple updates, such as the ability to hold down the action button to automatically harvest whatever is on the ground nearby or to interact with nearby objects, have a big impact. The dual thumbsticks make quick work of juggling inventory items too, and the overall scheme is a comfortable improvement for crafting. If you've played the PC version, it takes some time to adjust to using a controller, but even as an avid PC gamer, I just can't go back to using a mouse and keyboard after playing on the PS4.</p><p style="">Don't Starve's console port remains largely in line with the latest PC version, including all of the updated content like subterranean caves and a new Default Plus mode, which offers a steeper challenge but gives you a bunch of goodies from the get-go to help more-seasoned players motor through the sluggish stretches of a new game. Aside from the lack of mod support, one notable difference is the reduced control for fine-tuning custom games in the console version. There's some wiggle room to toggle the frequency of individual creatures and elements, but it's scaled back here. That's a minor concession, since the core game is well done and is a great fit on the PS4.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419700-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419700" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2419700-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2419700"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2419700-0001.jpg"></a><figcaption>The flames of change are roaring.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Even so, some of the underlying problems still linger. Don't Starve's roguelike aspect is utterly grueling in the way it doles out punishment. While there are a few means to prolong your life beyond the grave, most games that end with you dying wipe out your progress completely, leaving you agonizing over the numerous hours you just spent chipping away to gain a foothold in this harsh world. Your experience carries over and goes toward unlocking new characters with special perks to play as, so it's not a total loss, but this doesn't negate the agony of having to grind through from the beginning after getting killed in a later-game run.</p><p style="">If you're up to the challenge and precariousness of exploring this stark landscape bristling with danger, Don't Starve delivers unique charm, exhaustive depth, and brutal punishment. On the PS4, it remains a frustrating, fascinating, and beautifully grim experience that controls nicely and packs the same absorbing punch as the original.</p> Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:07:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/don-t-starve-console-edition-review/1900-6415632/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-5-top-selling-game-in-2013-in-us-call-of-duty-ghosts-leads-december-npd/1100-6417186/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/0/2/3/0/2050230-703504_20130814_002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2050230" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/0/2/3/0/2050230-703504_20130814_002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2050230"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/mig/0/2/3/0/2050230-703504_20130814_002.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">The NPD released December sales data on both the top-selling games for December 2013 in the US and overall for 2013 in the US:</p><p style=""><strong>December 2013 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms including PC)</strong></p><ul><li>Call Of Duty: Ghosts (360, PS3, XBO, PS4, NWU, PC)** -- Activision Blizzard</li><li>Battlefield 4 (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Just Dance 2014 (WII, 360, NWU, XBO, PS3, PS4)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>Madden NFL 25 (360, XBO, PS3, PS4) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>NBA 2K14 (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, PC)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, NWU, PC)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Lego Marvel Super Heroes (360, PS3, 3DS, XBO, PS4, NWU, PSV, PC) -- Warner Bros. Interactive</li><li>FIFA 14 (360, PS4, XBO, PS3, PSV) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Skylanders SWAP Force (WII, 360, PS3, NWU, 3DS, XBO, PS4)** -- Activision Blizzard</li></ul><p style=""><strong>Annual 2013 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms including PC)</strong></p><ul><li>Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Call Of Duty: Ghosts (360, PS3, XBO, PS4, PC, NWU)** -- Activision Blizzard</li><li>Madden NFL 25 (360, PS3, PS4, XBO) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Battlefield 4 (360, PS3, XBO, PS4, PC) -- Electronic Arts</li><li>Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, NWU, PC)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>NBA 2K14 (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, PC)** -- Take 2 Interactive</li><li>Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, NWU, PC)** -- Activision Blizzard</li><li>Just Dance 2014 (WII, 360, NWU, XBO, PS3, PS4)** -- Ubisoft</li><li>Minecraft (360) -- Microsoft</li><li>Disney Infinity (360, WII, PS3, NWU, 3DS) -- Disney Interactive Studios</li></ul><p style="">**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)</p><p style="">Console hardware sales are up 50% over December 2012; the Xbox One sold the most home consoles overall in December, <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-is-top-selling-home-console-in-us-for-december-npd/1100-6417183/" data-ref-id="1100-6417183">as reported earlier today</a>, but the PlayStation 4 sold more cumulatively during Microsoft and Sony's launch period. Video game software sales for the year are down 17% percent primarily because of "the poor performance of November launches in December 2013," according to the NPD report.</p><p style="">Take 2 Interactive was the top game publisher in 2013, because of the success of Grand Theft Auto V, BioShock Infinite, and the NBA 2K franchise. The NPD writes, "Grand Theft Auto V ranked as the top game in 2013 (based on units sold), and after four months of sales is within striking distance of surpassing <a href="/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas/" data-ref-id="false">Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas </a>as the highest selling game within the Grand Theft Auto franchise."</p><p style="">The NPD also stated that, "For the fifth year in a row, the standard 360 version of Call of Duty was the top-selling [version of that game] for December." The absence of best-sellers like Pokemon X/Y and The Last of Us is attributed to those games' platform exclusivity; it's worth noting that Pokemon X and Pokemon Y are distinguished as separate games by the NPD.</p><p style="">Game controllers, point/subscription cards, and "interactive gaming toys" were "the top 3 accessory types in 2013 based on revenue" according to the NPD. And despite competition from Disney Infinity, December 2013 was the best month ever for Skylanders Interactive Gaming Toy sales on a dollar basis."</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6414479" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6414479/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p><p style=""> </p> Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-5-top-selling-game-in-2013-in-us-call-of-duty-ghosts-leads-december-npd/1100-6417186/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/don-t-starve-video-review/2300-6416853/ Survival and crafting take a turn for the brutal in this fascinating adventure. Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:55:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/don-t-starve-video-review/2300-6416853/
