So, after over a decade long wait, Diablo III was finally released yesterday, and pretty much everyone who has ever cared about video games is talking about it. Never have my Facebook and Twitter feeds been overtaken by the release of a game to the extent that I’ve seen with Diablo III; the long awaited action-RPG sequel that has even retired ex-gamers dusting off their old gaming PCs, or in some cases, asking for advice on how to upgrade their PCs/laptops/Macbooks to play the game.
Diablo III is out and people are either loving it or hating it. Personally, I haven’t made up my mind, but one thing that strikes all of us at NAG as odd, is how much of the game’s good stuff is disabled by default. Diablo III is presented in its most simple form to those who don’t take the time to dig through the game’s options, and taken at face value it’s easy to feel disappointed in the simplicity of it all. Take a few moments to do so (or just read this handy guide), and you’ll discover that it’s a lot closer to what a veteran of the series would expect.
There’s been a lot of excitement lately over PSN indie hit Journey. The developers, Thatgamecompany, are renowned for whimsical art-y games and their first effort, Cloud, certainly deserves attention.
Piranha Bytes kind of has a reputation for releasing RPGs that are on one hand masterfully ambitious, but on the other hand, painfully annoying. The two hands go “hand-in-hand” so to speak, and you’ll have to forgive me for overextending that metaphor. The interesting flourishes and unexpected game design elements are betrayed by often rickety production values which tend to detract from the overall playability of the games. But at the end of day, we’re usually still left with titles that are still relatively enjoyable, and somehow even memorable, like Gothic and its sequels, as well as Risen.
Minecraft is entirely what you make of it. Quite literally, I mean. Me, I made a lot of holes. Then I had a friend come over and join me, and together, we made more holes. It’s not that there was really any good reason to make the holes, but that’s what I wanted to do. This is probably the most important thing anybody should know about Minecraft – it’s not what it is, but what you do with it – whether it’s making holes or a big heap of rocks that’s supposed to look like balls or the words “TECHNICALLY, I GOT PAID TO BUILD THIS” in 100-metre letters of solid gold.
Fotonica is an abstract, first-person running game. Utilizing single-key controls, you take hold of a polygonal figure as he races through dream-like duo-chromatic landscapes and obstacle courses.
The key to Fotonica is precision jumping; large chasms litter the tracks and surmounting them often requires accurate button-mashing at breakneck speeds. Gain enough momentum and the world takes on a yellow glow, with the game’s audio becoming muted as the velocity alters your perception.
I recently spent some time in Amsterdam where I got a good few hours of hands-on time with upcoming Darksiders II. It was, without a doubt, one of the more memorable hands-on events I’ve attended because the whole thing took place in an old church – rather apt considering the religious overtones of the game.
On top of slicing through hordes of enemies and riding undead horses, I got to speak to the game’s director, Marvin Donald. In a balcony overlooking the church’s main area (which was packed with Xbox 360 consoles), I fired off a bunch of questions about the game’s scope, the reasons why Vigil left War behind, and the shift in genre focus.
Gaijin Entertainment’s Blades of Time is much like a dog sh*t sundae. On the surface it seems rather tempting, all covered in chocolate sauce and whipped cream, but it isn’t until you dig deeper that you realise most of the package is made of poo. While it might be disguised with chocolate and sprinkled with nuts, it’s still just dog poo in a fancy sundae glass.
I’m going to be completely honest here: if this game did not have a half-naked heroine in it, it would have disappeared into obscurity, never to be played by ninety-five percent of the people who actually wound up playing it in the first place.
“But Miklós, surely it can’t be that bad, because bewbs?” I hear from the stalwart hack-’n'-slash junkies, so allow me to elaborate on my previous, canine excrement infused analogy – chocolate sauce, nut sprinkles and all.
Façade is an experimental AI game for Windows and Mac in which you’re cast as a friend of a yuppie couple, Trip and Grace. You’re invited to their apartment one evening for drinks, but it’s pretty obvious from the onset that they have a seriously troubled relationship. The tense atmosphere gets increasingly hostile as the evening progresses, and it’s not long before accusations start flying around and you’re caught in the middle of a heated argument.
Back in 2001, Capcom released the first in a new series of action games that kickstarted not only a new franchise for them, but an entirely new sub-genre of action games – the flashy, stylish and often brutally difficult Japanese action games we get on a regular basis today.
The creator, Hideki Kamiya, stated that they were originally working on a new Resident Evil game, but didn’t really feel like doing another one and experimented with different styles of gameplay. The result was Devil May Cry, a fast-paced action game with a heavy focus on stylish fighting. It was also very difficult compared to other action games of the era, but was popular enough to spawn two sequels on the PS2 and another on the PS3 and Xbox 360, with a fifth sequel – sorry, prequel – for our current consoles due out sometime soon.
