Always searching for JRPGs that respect my time, I’ve made some happy discoveries in the demo for the upcoming 3DS game Bravely Second I shouldn’t have been too surprised that the demo has some player-friendly features. The game’s 2014 predecessor, Bravely Default, already let players lower (or raise) the frequency of random encounters on the…
Remember back when everyone was making cute third-person platformers? Or when everyone was making World War II shooters? Now we’ve got three different VR bird games, all showcased at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Up top is Birdly, a game we first saw in 2014. Not only can you fly as a bird, but you…
One of the coolest things Kirk Hamilton and I saw at the 2016 Game Developers Conference was Mike Lazer-Walker’s game Hello, Operator, which uses a real switchboard that he bought on eBay and turned into a game. In the video here, Kirk plays Hello, Operator while Mike explains what’s going on. You can’t hear it…
We asked one question to the winning game developers at last night’s Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival awards: “What is the one game that inspired you to go into the creation of video games?” Here’s what they said: Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games), IGF Winner for Excellence In Design “StarCraft.…
Hey, game developers! We’d love to meet more of you at GDC. Kirk Hamilton and I are carving out a couple of hours this Thursday (3pm-5pm PT) to meet anyone who wants to swing by at the show. Location: Near the big windows on the second floor of Moscone West. We’ll have a sign.
First impression in a room full of people playing virtual reality games: these people look goofy, and the games they’re playing look dull. Then you put on the headset. With the headset on, wow, some of them are so impressive! This is how it is with VR, and let’s not pretend otherwise. These games do…
Not every game at this year’s GDC is a VR game! Here’s five minutes of Kingdom running on an Xbox One. This side-scrolling strategy game has a great look, as our Nathan Grayson explained last fall. Here, I’m playing a newer build at a showcase for indies coming to Xbox One. Kingdom is slated for…
“Everyone has done something and disappointed someone–or hurt someone–whether it’s a small thing or a big thing,” the game designer Adam Orth was telling me a couple of Fridays ago, after I played a few hours of his newest game. “And recovering from that, everyone has had that. It’s a universal truth. It’s a universal…
On a rooftop in Gotham City in the video game Batman Arkham Knight, I had to beat up six ninjas without getting hit. It took me 46 attempts, one after the other, during one frustrating hour. This article originally appeared in October, 2015. It wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve done in video games, nor was…
“At E3, there was one game we introduced that left fans with some questions,” Nintendo’s Bill Trinen said today in a Nintendo Direct, which was basically an indirect way of acknowledging the backlash to the multiplayer-centric shooter that the company unveiled last June. Fans still seem upset about it. Seconds after the game’s new trailer…
Far Cry Primal is frequently violent and occasionally, unexpectedly sweet. The caveman action game is an excellent concept best experienced by people who haven’t been playing every entry in Far Cry, another of gaming’s perpetual franchises. It’s an iteration. It’s a tweak. It’s another reprise of 2012’s Far Cry 3 formula of first-person open-world hunting…
The beginning of my least favorite Zelda game makes a much better impression the second time around. It probably helps if you haven’t played it in nine years. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is an interesting time capsule that gives me a sense of where Nintendo’s great franchise was a decade ago while exhibiting…
Who needs guns in a video game when you can tame and command bears and saber-toothed tigers to kill for you? That’s what I’ve been doing in Far Cry Primal, though there’s something to be said for just stopping and petting these furry four-legged instruments of death. I made a video of my favorite new…
There were no easy opportunities for any of the characters in today’s new Stone Age Far Cry Primal game to overlap with those of 2014’s modern-day Far Cry 4, but publisher Ubisoft has found a way to confirm they’re in the same universe. The connection—which isn’t a spoiler for the game, in case you’re wondering—holds…
A full one hour and 30 seconds into this Giant Bomb video of Witness lead designer Jonathan Blow playing and talking about his team’s new game, he takes onThe Challenge. That’s the hardest puzzle in the game. He struggles, probably because it’s not as easy when people are watching. It’s still illuminating to watch him…
There were many bad omens foretelling the demise of Jeb Bush’s laughably ineffectual run for the White House. There was his confusion about his position on the invasion of Iraq, his awkward performances in the debates. “Please clap.” That desperate gun tweet. On top of all those real life failings, he also got thrashed in…
I guess at some point I rated the EA Access service I subscribe to on my Xbox One. I know this, because my EA Access app just asked me to explain my 8 out of 10 rating. That’s not a bad score, right? It’s not like a simple, unvarnished “YES,” but still pretty good. How…
The Division’s open beta is now live on Xbox One, a day before PC and PS4 Several of you had asked if your progress from the closed beta carried over. Not for me. The game had me start a new character. The beta adds a new mission involving flamethrower enemies and makes several other tweaks
The annual DICE Summit begins today in Las Vegas, where hundreds of developers, publishers and other gaming titans gather to network, talk and be merry. Kicking things off at 1pm ET will be Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford and Penn Jillette talking…magic. Watch the stream live right here. Here’s the rest of today’s schedule, times converted…
It’s easy to get lost when you’re swimming underwater in a video game. You’re moving in the right direction, but you look down for a moment, lose your bearings, swim some more and wind up back where you started. I guess you accidentally turned yourself around. Whoops! Come on, that never happened to you? Not…
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