The Evil Within Review
The Evil Within is the stuff nightmares are made of. I’m not being dramatic, almost everything in this game will cater to the popular nightmares that plague humanity – in my case that happens to be clowns – and throws them right in your face. That’s not to say it is a scary game, because unlike other contemporaries the goal of The Evil Within is to disturb you and create tension rather than grab you with a quick jump scare (although it can’t resist the urge to do that as well at times). Bundled altogether it creates the closest representation of a haunted house without forgetting that it’s also a video game and therefore can make death a reality for all parties involved. This would be a fantastic reality for the definitive horror experience if it weren’t for the abundance of setbacks that range from visuals, to AI, and even creep into gameplay that no matter how big a fan you are just cannot be ignored.
Length Does Matter?
Video games are much longer than they used to be. It makes sense, the technology was originally geared toward coin-op experiences that wanted you to get as addicted as possible to pay as much as possible to keep playing. Arguably that still holds true today with “free to play” or “freemuim” gaming, mostly on mobile devices, but for most home console or PC games there has been a growth in how long you’re playing the game. I think the consensus is that with a longer game you are getting more for your money, which certainly seems to be the sentiment of everyone more concerned with The Order 1886‘s length rather than content. On the other hand I get much more enjoyment out of a five minute game of Donkey Kong or even a fifteen minute run in Rogue Legacy than I can speak for with all 22 hours I’ve spent with the Dragon Age trilogy. Personal taste aside, that last example speaks to the fact that this new dollar:hour ratio is shy of calculating actual value out of a game and thus suggests that longer is not always better.
Podcast: Did You Hear The One…
Urban legends are a phenomenon that has always fascinated people with how they offer plausible stories that in the end turn out to be true, false, or inconclusive, but always entertain. Video games are no exception and with the golden age of gaming pre-dating mass online use there were some great urban legends that came out. Not that the Internet eliminated urban legends, as the later stories of this episode prove, but regardless of that fact there are crazy urban legends of gaming and some of which are remarkably true.
Snatcher Longplay Videos (Sega CD)
The February game club is only a week away and there are two Hideo Kojima adventure games on the list: Snatcher and Policenauts. Haven’t gotten a chance to play Snatcher? Want someone to do all the work for you pre-game club? Well look no further, here’s the entire game from start to finish in seven hour-ish videos. I’ve put the first video in this post for embedded watching here if you prefer.
Life is Strange Review
Please Note: Many reviewers out there seem to think it is appropriate to discuss the events of previous episodes of Life is Strange as if everyone who would read it damn well should have already played the previous episodes. It has been my experience that if you have held out this long and haven’t already played this episode then you are most likely wondering how the game progresses throughout the season and will decide whether or not to buy when all episodes are out. This is why each episodic review is spoiler free for the entire season, not just this episode.
Episode 1: Chrysalis
Adventure games have always been a bit of a split for me. I was never good at them, never completed many of them, and thus I wanted to write them off as worthless but what they did for storytelling is undeniable. TellTale somewhat switched up the definition of what goes into an adventure game, but try as they may I was hindered by either losing investment in the story or just not valuing these games any more than my current frustration with trying to beat Grim Fandango Remastered because I had never played before. I guess the biggest problem for me was the balance is never quite there. In a point-and-click adventure game there’s too much emphasis on puzzle solving and figuring out the developer whereas the TellTale games traditionally have too little and stand as nothing more than slightly interactive movies (that always seem to end in the same place regardless of those decisions). Life is Strange stands out because developer Dontnod (known previously for the great action title Remember Me) acknowledges the reality that you are a player interacting with an environment, but also allows you to relate to the person on screen so distinctly that you get the best of both worlds.
Remember Me Review
Remember Me is not a sum of its parts. That’s an important factor to keep in mind as you progress through this game, and frankly, is quite counter to a majority of experiences out there. This title is trying to tell a complex story in the world of interactive fiction, which has been tried before with varying results, and manages to keep its focus on the big picture instead of being bogged down by the limitations of a video game. As I played through it was fascinating to me how I wanted to keep note of the little gripes and problems I was seeing instead of paying attention to what was going on. This is the one large hurdle, or caveat if you choose to view it as such, that separates whether you will enjoy Remember Me or pitch it to the wayside as a product of the end of this cycle. Keep in mind it is by no means perfect, or even groundbreaking, but it offers a story and world that are unique and manages to maintain suitable gameplay that makes progressing the plot intriguing.
Podcast: Beloved Games That Suck
This week Fred and Jam are responding to a listener mail from Blake regarding games that we know are bad but love to play anyway. After only a few short minutes they discover that it’s mostly childhood nostalgia and that everyone has their own long list. Then the onslaught continues as both hosts and the chat confess and defend the skeletons in their closets.
#IDARB (It Draws A Red Box) Review
#IDARB, much like the name suggests, is intended to initially have you make a weird face and a question mark appears above your head. Developed by Other Ocean, makers of one of my favorite retro throwbacks Dark Void Zero, the title began as a single drawing of a red box and took input from friends and Twitter to evolve into a game. That game, while simple in nature, is a very meta representation of what could be the next big party game. Since its release earlier this month on Xbox One (and free for anyone who currently has XBL Gold) #IDARB has definitely become the zeitgeist of the moment. With retro-style graphics, social media integration that changes the game, and a whole glut of coverage, what’s not to love? Well, that all depends on the type of gamer you are.
Opinion: Re-Releases, No One Understands Them
This weekend I sat down and spent some time with Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered and while the responses were mixed, it dawned on me that no one – publishers, developers, gamers – has a clue as to what they want out of a re-release. It sounds funny and foolish at first, but the concept of the re-release has, in recent years, become quite the quandary. As a fan of the past and games of those time periods, I can’t say that I even know what I want and this shines light on the daunting task of trying to make sound business decisions around it. Furthermore, the vocal minority don’t often account for the way sales work out, and often times, are the exact opposite of what actual sales data states. Couple all of this with the stubbornness, and I do mean that term specifically, of gamers who would rather a publisher waste time to bring an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 game to the Xbox One or Playstation 4 simply because they didn’t hang on to their old system is – in an exaggerated overstatement – a sin. To be clear I’m not even talking about games like The Last of Us Remastered or Halo: The Master Chief Collection, because at least those games were redone and improved upon visually, but rather direct ports of simple games like the arcade port of Double Dragon on XBLA coming to Xbox One. It’s a waste of time and it won’t generate more than a few thousand sales, stop wasting everyone’s time asking for it.
Retro Game Night: Fahrenheit Indigo Prophecy Remastered
This week we take a look (in glorious 1080p) at the remastered edition of Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy). After recently booting this up for our review, I’m not quite sure who this particular port is for. It looks just like Fahrenheit, plays just like it too, and I could be wrong but I think the original could be pushed to 1080p on PC (where this version is currently exclusive to) so I think they just did some re-rendering of textures, glossed it up, and slapped it online. Perhaps that was all we should expect, I don’t know. Anyway, check it out for yourself in the video below.
Gaming History 101 