Video Games

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – The Da Vinci Disappearance Review

Released almost a month go, the first paid DLC for Assassin’s Creed:
Brotherhood kind of snuck under the radar. It’s a substantial addition
to the game, adding a significant new memory sequence and a couple tombs
to the campaign as well as modes, maps, and characters for the online
multiplayer. If you’re only interested in one of those components you
might not think The Da Vinci Disappearance is worth your ten dollars,
but I found it to be a good way to spend a few hours.

Midweek Sales Tuesday April 5th

There are plenty of good sales going around the internet today, especially if you’re a fan of the Hearts of Iron Series, or if you like indie games.  Let’s take a look at today’s selection of online game sales.  Direct2Drive.com is holding a month-long event called 30 Days of Deals.  Each day there’s a different game being sold a steep discount.  Today (Tuesday the 5th) you can get Tropico 3 for three dollar and seventy five cents.  If that isn’t to your tastes, D2D is also doing their standard Two Dollar Tuesdaysale; today you can get Gardenscapes, Astro Avenger 2, and Build-a-lot fot two dollars each if you’re so inclined.

Franchise Recap: Resident Evil

Welcome to Franchise Recap, a new feature here on
Player Affinity where we take a look at the core instalments in a long running
series. For this first edition, I’m going to look at the Resident Evil series and
how it has changed over the years as well as its impact on the gaming industry
and where it could be heading for the future. 

Resident
Evil (1996) 

The first
entry in the series is widely recognised as the pioneer of the survival horror
genre for its time. The game inspired many developers to try and recreate the
same experience but there was simply nothing like Resident Evil back in 1996.
The atmosphere is still this games strongest aspect, it managed to inspire fear
in the player due to clever use of static camera angles showing you just enough
but at the same time concealing every corner. The structure went against everything
for the time, you had to conserve every item you had in order to survive and wandering
around the mansion when you were low on supplies created excellent tension. The
boss encounters were always the highlight of the act

Have Games Really Gotten Easier?

You really
don’t have to look very hard nowadays to find someone who will say games these
days are a lot easier compared to the days of the arcade. This is definitely a
point that needs a little clearing up, most of the time the notion that modern
games are easier is simply because the player has more health, frequent
checkpoints or (wait for it…) being able to save your game. While these
points are certainly valid, these things do make games easier, but more often
than not these points are thrown out with very little knowledge behind their
appearance in games.

The most
important aspect regarding this topic is also the most simple. It’s just a case
of storage space, modern games take up several gigabytes of space which is
literally thousands of times bigger than the games of yesteryear. Those lovely
cartridges back in the 80’s and early 90’s had anywhere between 8 and 64 MB to
store the entire game on, if you know anything about modelling or programming
then you know that is not much at all. Especially when you consider all the
technology that exists now which is designed to keep things as efficient as
possible didn’t exist back then.

SOE Lays Off and Cancels ‘The Agency’ MMO

In an effort to save money, Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed two horrible stories: The Agency has been cancelled and SOE has laid off 205 employees and shut down three studios.

Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot Demo Impressions

Konami’s been in a rough spot on the XBLA recently. Hard Corps: Uprising was sub-par at best, and Battle: LA was so bad I called the aliens and told them I now totally understood why they wanted to kill us. But with their latest arcade offering, maybe Konami can turn that around.
  
Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot hit XBLA yesterday, and after playing through the demo, I can honestly say this game is great. Actually, let me clarify that: the gameplay is great. Mechanics, button scheme, controls, all of that is fantastic. The rest? Not so much.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Preview

Games Workshop is known for many things, one of which is the rich and dark science fiction universe of Warhammer 40,000. Set in a far flung future, the various human and Alien empires clash in epic battles. Usually at the forefront of these battles are the Adeptus Astrates, The Emperor’s Space Marines. The Space Marines of Warhammer 40K have inspired numerous things from the Terrans of Blizzard’s hit Starcraft games to the faceless Master Chief of the Halo games. Gamers have longed to have a faithful interpretation of the sheer awesome might that the Space Marines have associated with them in Warhammer lore, but graphics limitations have long delayed that.  Although we got to see some of that awesome might displayed in the Dawn of War games, we all wanted to experience the sheer carnage that the Space Marines leave in their wake, up close.