Unsurprisingly, Fallout 4 was the highlight of the week (by a long shot). If you haven't checked it out yet, I would strongly encourage you to do so. Bethesda has added several interesting new updates to the already fantastic Fallout formula. Basically, it's Fallout 3, only more fun, and with much better graphics (and in a new setting, of course). If that doesn't sound like something you need then I pity you.
Also out this week, an interesting-looking four-player co-op shoot 'em up game, and a marble-matching puzzle game (like Zuma or Luxor) with a Puzzle Quest feel. Sadly, it's doubtful that anybody will pay any of this week's other games much attention. But that's pretty much come to be expected whenever a new Bethesda game hits. Oh well, back to the wasteland. Prepare for the future!...Then proceed further to see more of this week's new releases.
I’m back from Copenhagen just in time to get an extended vacation in the Wasteland. I doubt anyone has time this week to read anything, so let’s just get this over with before I jump back into Fallout/Halo 5/Tomb Raider/SW Battlefront.
So what’s everyone playing this weekend? Read more
Fallout 4 has arrived this week. Time to kiss dozens of hours of your life goodbye (but in a good way). I know that's what I'm going to be up to for the next few weeks and I couldn't be more excited about it!
Also out this week, Super Dodge Ball! (And not much else.) Waste away wandering the wastes, then proceed further to see more of this week's new releases.
On November 9th, the good folks at Psyonix released the new Mutator Mashup mode for everyone's favorite competitive vehicular soccer game, Rocket League. The additions include changes to gravity, ball size and speed, the levels of bounciness, and even automatically filling boost guages.
Along with the new game modes come 20 new unlockables in the form of flags and antennas including Fallout Boy, just in time for Fallout 4. Also involved are a few various fixes and changes, I'll link the full patch notes here.
Game play is still still as fun as ever, but quite a bit different in the mashups. For instance Beach Ball mode, makes the ball around a third the size of the goal itself which is pretty damn big. This is accompanied by and slower ball speed, which can throw off your timing like nobody's business. You wouldn't think it'd be difficult to hit a ball the size of a single car garage, but until you adjust yourself to the different physics the game puts in place it's pretty easy to sail right by it.
As always, click any image to see it full size.
In contrast Pinball mode, makes the ball considerably smaller than the original ball size and is super bouncy and super fast. This equates to something like playing paddle ball on the hood of your car while driving 80mph. Because of the balls size it's pretty hard to hit and the slightest touch will send it careening in another direction. I could only really get one good shot of the ball to get an idea of the size and it was at the start of the match.
A little tough to see, but it's in there.
In Moonball mode, the ball is bigger than normal and your boost guage fills automatically. Gravity is also very low, like crazy low. Jump once while you're moving and you'll probably fly across the arena. Which makes things pretty fun with your quickly filling boost guage.
There's also the Cubic mode, which presents normal physics but the ball of course will bounce all over the place from its lack of spherical form and your boost guage will automatically fill slowly. This creates some pretty uniqe challenges. Like wtf do I do when it's coming at the goal? This is also one of the original game modes from Super Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars. Pretty cool I say.
ZOMGsquareballWTF
And Finally there's Timewarp mode. The physics are all normal, the ball is the normal size etc. but every few seconds the game goes in to slow motion. This is something akin to playing with induced lag on bad hardware. It's not my personal favorite but like Cubic mode it was an original mode from Super Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars, which makes it cool.
So far it seems you can only choose to join the Mashup playlist to find matches with ever changing random settings, and it's only 3v3 so far. So no choosing your favorite mode yet, at least not online anyway. However you can choose a custom mode in private match and exhibition settings. It's a lot of fun added to what's already an incredibly fun game. And a major plus to all this is that the new game modes and new collectibles are completely free. No DLC to purchase, just a 665mb patch to download and you're ready to roll, so to speak.
It seems that this was a pretty big week on the Steam Store. Not only did the new Call of Duty hit, but also the renowned Arcade developer, CAVE, has made its Steam debut with their hit "bug princess" shooter, Mushihimesama (mooshee-heemay-sahmah). Additionally, SEGA graciously saw fit to bring over their previously Nintendo-exclusive Sonic the Hedgehog game, Sonic Lost World.
I don't know about you, but the CAVE news alone was enough to send me to gaming heaven (before their punishing shooter promptly sent me to bullet hell). Proceed further to see more of this week's new releases.
We've all played them. We've all fallen victim to the hype monster. I'm talking about those games we've seen ads for and been drawn to only to purchase them and find out that they utterly blow. Except for that one redeeming quality, the one thing that despite the rest of this steaming, quivering, vomitous mass makes it good enough to play anyway.
For me one title that sticks out in my mind is the truly disappointing, badly voiced, super repetitive, poorly optimized, not scary in the least, Dead Island. When I saw ads for this game I thought it would be the paramount of zombie titles. It looked like an emotional, and terrifying scene. But what I got were the emotions that took place after the face to palm actions I took while playing this game.
The one good thing I thought it did though was the crafting system. You could make a weapon out of almost anything and recipes were all over. That made it fun enough to play... for a while anyway. I uninstalled that load of garbage less than ten hours later.
What are some titles you can think of that made you throw up in your mouth a little, yet still managed to hold your attention because of that one thing it did right?
I haven’t really slept much over this week, not at all today, so my mood is a bit on the jumpy side and I might be easily angered, but maybe that’s a good thing today. Maybe somebody needs to throw a fucking tantrum today. Read more
It's that time of year again. Time to write off that $120+ and God only knows how many hours you spent on last year's Call of Duty game and DLC. It's time to pop that disc out of your console and fling it frisbee style straight into the trash can (please don't actually do this). It's time to upgrade to this year's installment. Call of Duty: Black Ops III is arriving this Friday.
Also out this week, the next entry in the Need for Speed series (titled, you guessed it, "Need for Speed"), and an interesting-looking triple cross buy action RPG called Dragon Fin Soup. Mistakes were made. Proceed further to see more of this week's new releases.
Just a few days ago at the time of this article's writing, Larian Studios released the enhanced version of what is in my mind one of the best turn based rpgs of it's kind: Divinity Original Sin. This new and enhanced version comes with something like 1300 changes including controller support, better graphics, better optimization, 360 degree camera control, full voice over for all characters, even split screen co-op. Of course there are many more than I want to list so I'll link the full changelog here in case you're interested in seeing everything. Even better, Larian gave us lucky folks this enhanced version for free as long we already owned the previous Original Sin title. Mac and Linux users will unfortunately have to wait a bit longer but it's coming so don't fret.
