It’s hard to say which game is the best of 2013 so far. But two games are in a dead heat for worst: Aliens: Colonial Marines and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct Kirk was blunt about his thoughts on The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct: he thought it was the worst game he’d played all year.…
Well, that’s it guys and gals. The console wars are over now that VoucherCodesPro (who??? what???) found that Xbox players are better in bed than PlayStation and Wii owners. What does this mean for people who own multiple consoles, though? You have more Very Important questions to answer, science.
The eerie, kind of creepy atmosphere of 2010’s Limbo is captured perfectly in this short film by Jesper Eriksson. It’s kind of uncanny, to the point that I was surprised to find no mention of the game in an interview with Eriksson about the short. If you told me this was Limbo-inspired, I’d have believed…
They let anyone have lightsabers these days, including babies. But good luck trying to get the lightsaber back from a little kid without some casualties. Let this video by gnarlytooth serve as a lesson in why we need stricter lightsaber laws, or at least, pressure for manufacturers to stop making lightsabers for toddlers. I mean,…
I suspect that the video game industry’s obsession with DARKER, MORE “MATURE” STORY might have influenced the way I look at stuff like this gritty re-imagining of Calvin and Hobbes by GrittyReboots. Like, it doesn’t need to be grittier and darker. But everything is nowadays! So I could totally see this type of Calvin and…
Clementine, the little girl that Lee Everett has to raise during a zombie apocalypse, is the bulk of what makes The Walking Dead so excellent. Telltale managed to create a character that we cared about, so much so that many of us shed tears by the end of the first season of the franchise. And…
If you’ve ever played a game with dialogue choices, chances are you’ve encountered the dreaded vague dialogue tree (if not vague dialogue options). While it’s not ‘fun’ to mean one thing and say another, at least you can restart a game. You can’t really do that in real life, though if you got into the…
Bioshock Infinite released on March 26th, 2013. If you look at the Google Search Trends from that point onward, you might notice something curious: people are looking up the search terms “Wounded Knee Massacre” a hell of a lot more than they did before Infinite’s launch. What does Bioshock Infinite have to do with the…
Developers have found clever ways to advertise brands in the games we play. Last year, we discovered that Sim City Social featured a Dunkin Donuts building that was much, much better than the normal bakeries in the game. So much better that a smart, savvy player will likely exhibit brand loyalty to Dunkin Donuts because…
When your characters die in Fire Emblem, that’s it. They’re dead, forever (unless you’re playing on the new casual mode). The idea is that permanent death forces players to be mindful of their actions, the idea is that permadeath adds gravity to the situation. Idea is the key word there. Instead, permadeath adds tedium: why…
Just what the world needed, a (fake) bodypillow dating site. I think I might have to send Magikarp Mike a message…
Hugo Dorison knows that big, over-the-ear headphones are where it’s at. Not only do over-the-ear headphones look cooler than in-ear headphones*, but you can take up art projects like these video game headphones with them, too. Watch Dorison’s video above to see what I mean. *Yes, yes, audiophiles. Looks aren’t everything, I know.
Here is something that I wasn’t expecting to read on Thought Catalog: why Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z is better than Goku. The author, Alfred MacDonald, makes a compelling argument: “real people have anger, drive, ambitions — real people are selfish, if not embarrassing.” Vegeta seems like more of a real person, and put that…
Team Fortress 2 on virtual reality is a real thing; you can try it out if you happen to have an Oculus Rift developer kit. Since playing games on virtual reality will be new for most of us, players will likely have to undergo an adjustment period in order to avoid a possibly disorienting experience.…
Remember that crazy cat lady game? It’s by Edmund McMillen, and you can think of it as Pokemon-meets-The-Sims. Like Pokemon, your kittens will “evolve” when they become cats. You can also tell hidden stats at a glance, based on visual characteristics. Cool.
This spring, Vita owners will be able to play Hotline Miami. That much we know. But what does the game look like in action on the portable? Kirk Hamilton and I are at the Game Developers Conference this week, and we captured some footage of the game. Turns out, the gruesome indie game is a…
Every year, the Game Developers Conference holds awards in celebration of excellence in games. There’s the IGF (Independent Games Festival)—you can think of it as something similar to Sundance. There’s also the Game Developers Choice Awards. The event was held today, and these are the winners. Independent Games Festival Excellence in visuals art award: Kentucky…
If I could just focus, Lat Ware (pictured above) told me, then I’d be able to launch a vehicle across the room. Simple, right? Earlier this year we told you guys about Throw Trucks With Your Mind, a game that’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like—not that that makes mind-controlled games any less, well,…
If gamers have a favorite buzzword, I’d say it’s “immersion.” We want to be immersed in the games we play, we want the experience to envelop us as best it can. To that end we’ve had motion controls, virtual reality—things that enhance our experience by involving more of our senses. But smell? Smell is mostly…
Sound crazy? The idea comes from the Game Developers Conference, during an “Indie Soapbox” where developers took the stage to talk about indie game development. Ben Foddy, who is behind the ever-ridiculous QWOP, had some out-there ideas about how people pay for games—but that’s what makes them rad. Take the idea of not having to…
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