Video Games

Jane McGonigal To Deliver Keynote Speech At PAX East

On March 11th, the Penny Arcade Expo East will start off with an address from Jane McGonigal, the Author and Game Designer behind the book Reality Is Broken, as well as the Halo 2 Alternate Reality Game I love Bees, and other ARGs which address real-world problems.  Full of positive energy about how games can bring out the best in us, and change the world for the better, expect McGonigal to deliver a keynote which will inspire attendees to “…bring our love of games to our real lives… unlocking our natural ability to be more motivated, more optimistic, more curious, more collaborative, more determined, more resilient and more ambitious”.

Dead Space 2 – PC Review

I was late to the game with the original Dead Space; I only played it a month ago in preparation for reviewing its sequel and I feel like an idiot for not jumping onto the Dead Space franchise as soon as it came out.  I absolutely loved the first one, and the second installment exceeds the original in many ways.

F.E.A.R. 3 Preview

Back in 2005, Monolith Games, a studio known for it’s atmospheric and creepy first person shooters, released what many consider to be it’s magnum opus,F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon).  It was and still is one of the best first person shooters of our time, with great graphics, atmosphere, and gameplay. It received numerous accolades and praise from critics and players alike. 4 years later, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was released, with similar expectations. This time, however, the critical and player reception was far more divided. Nevertheless, it was still considered an enjoyable first person shooter. Now, in 2011, the F.E.A.R. license has passed over to Day 1 Studios, the company behind games such as Fracture and MechAssault 2. It’s also worth mentioning that they were responsible for the ports of the original F.E.A.R. to consoles. With Day 1 Studios creating F.E.A.R. 3, there’s definitely some differences between previous F.E.A.R. games and F.E.A.R. 3. 

Scott Pilgrim Vs. Duke Nukem Mashup

The new Duke Nukem Forever trailer is pretty badass, and so is Scott Pilgrim. What happens when you combine the two is magic beyond your wildest dreams. The mashup is made by Youtube user Crocodude and is easily the best Duke Nukem crossover I’ve ever seen. 

 Here’s the awesome video:

Battlestar Galactica MMO Enters Open Beta Soon

With the recent and horribly unjust cancelation os Caprica, Battlestar Galactica fans have been left without a fix of their favorite sci-fi franchise.  Fortunately, a new MMO based on the series has been in development for a while, and it will hit open beta on February 8th.  Battlestar Galactica: Online will be a 3-D space shooter which lets players choose to play as a Cylon, or human to join in large-scale space battles.

The Future of DLC

If you’ve bought a new game within the last couple of years, odds are you’ve been miffed by the almost instantaneous announcement of DLC that is priced at one sixth of the game you just bought. Due to the way games are made nowadays is largely the reason for the surge of DLC being released so soon after the release of a game. We’ve all heard the official statements that state x section of x game was developed by a different team and therefore was held back, or certain parts were developed under a separate budget. Both of which are true in some cases but it’s simply the price of the DLC that carries the sting. When you’ve gone out and paid £40/$60 for a game and then content that is already on the disc is announced as DLC, customers have a right to be annoyed. How would you feel if you bought a car and then found out you had to pay for your doors separately?

The rules for DLC have changed dramatically over the last couple of years. Pricing has always been roughly the same, but in the beginning you were actually paying for new content, not something that was simply locked at the release of the game. Now it’s almost expected that a game will release some sort of DLC to try and milk more money out of the people that bought the game at full price. Surely companies should be thinking of ways to reward people for buying their games on launch day, not thinking up ways to rip them off. This will simply eliminate any desire to buy a game at launch, when you can just wait a few months and pick up a used copy and then buy the DLC anyway. By that time, you’re paying what you normally would at launch.

Bulletstorm Preview

One of the more unique titles coming out in the next month is Electronic Arts’ Bulletstorm, a creativity-based first person shooter by developers People Can Fly and Epic Games. Ironically, Bulletstorm isn’t all about guns. Rather than pushing forward what has become an exercise in repetition, Bulletstorm changes the goals of a FPS from the standard “shoot everything you see before you die” to a whole new paradigm: Skillshots. Itself a tongue-in-cheek title with overlarge weapons and cartoony effects, Bulletstorm rewards players by finishing off enemies as creatively as possible be it from kicking them into electric fences to juggling them off a cliff. With the focus taken off clearing stages of enemies and onto the Skillshots, Bulletstorm has the chance to innovate the genre above convention.