The Oscars are this weekend, and the expected viewing rates are likely to drop once again this year. While a good amount of this has a lot to do with less and less people having traditional TV providers these days, including myself, I believe there are deeper reasons behind this as well. And it’s The Academy Awards dropping viewership that should give us gamers more confidence, both in our hobby and how we celebrate them.
With the end of #4if approaching quickly I was curious about what to do next. So I was looking at some article suggestions on our boards and one of those was the question of: Are there any games you're looking forward to in the near future? And I thought to myself, "Self, there are games you're looking forward to, you should write about that." Read more
Although spring may be right around the corner, I am still trying to enjoy what little of winter is left. It may be the coldest season (sometimes ridiculously so) but it can also be quite a lot of fun. What other time of year can the entire landscape be magically transformed into one giant playground? Winter is the time for snowball fights, sledding, hot chocolate, warming up next to a roaring fire, and for some, fighting for your virtual life on a frozen, hostile alien world. When it comes to gaming, the best titles to play this time of year are the ones that have the most in common with the season itself. Here is a list of 6 great games to play when it's wintertime.
It's been a year. Well, as of this writing, it's been a year and a bit. A year since I was last able to go to Joystiq and participate in the comments section as people discussed their WRUP's. A year since I could download and listen to a Joystiq Podcast - basking in the familiarity of the voices and the banter and the thoughts on video games. A year since the last time I've had terse arguments against DRM with other regulars of a video game website.
And you know what? I still miss it. Read more
Those of you that have been playing it already know that XCom 2 is a step up from Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within. I was expecting a bit more of the same great game play that those previous titles handed us, but what XCom 2 doles out is nothing short of punishing. And it's excellent!
I'm only playing on normal difficulty and I'm having to reload saves several times per mission so that I'm not losing my veteran soldiers. I think by the third mission I played, my basic, barely promoted soldiers were already coming up against mechanical units and mind controlling Sectoids. No unit in this game is easy to go toe to toe with.
Each project that's researched, each improvement made is met with furious resistance. Just get your best soldiers healed up? Ready to take on that black site finally? Awesome, let's go... Well, now there's an urgent mission available, if it's skipped the enemy gets guaranteed reinforcements for a month... shit guess we gotta do that. At least we've got experimental armor for our soldiers... well they have heavy units with plasma weapons that can bypass armor... what now? Grenades, perfect, take that!... wait, Shield Bearers... They cast an energy shield on all of their allies in a radius that soaks up damage before allowing units to be vulnerable... Get up there with your power sword Rangers and slash that guy up!... Great but now we're out of cover... and oh good a Viper has come to bind our ranger and take them out of combat until they're either dead or the Viper takes damage... Now we have wounded soldiers and it'll take days or maybe weeks before we can assault that black site that we were so prepared for. Who knows what will happen between now and then?
It's like that every step of the way and it's wonderfully stressful. 
If you were into XCom: Enemy Unknown, you're gonna be into XCom 2. Just be prepared to lose, a lot. If you're already playing XCom 2, good luck and godpseed Commander.
And I have to say it was a fun little side-scroller platformer. But I do mean little, it only took about three hours to complete from start to finish. Some quick thoughts follow. Read more
Hey guys! I will take a break from doing the hard hitting investigative journalism you know me for. Why? Well, I had an epiphany. The world is a dark place. Video game companies are evil and plotting against humanity.
But there is a group of people who are trying to save us by freeing what they call “Great Old Ones”. I really don’t have time to explain all of this to you now, but if you want to understand, just mark your consoles with goat blood and a messenger will arrive in time, giving you a glimpse in what I understand is the futurepast. Anyway, I’m off to their underwater base. See you soon! Read more
Our friends over at Videogamer.com recently found out that the PS5 will allow developers to build “far more interactive worlds” than with the current generation of consoles. That’s some quality journalism over there (actually it’s based on an EDGE article), but why stop with the PS5? So let me present to you:
Why the PlayStation 6 will allow far more dynamic, interactive AND intimate gaming experiences than the PlayStation 5.
There aren't enough interesting games about people and the most intimate way they can spend their time: in a relationship. Very often, games are peripherally aware that people get together and very often, those steps toward getting together are sometimes charted in fumbling missteps that lead to pixelated lovemaking. It's often pretty vapid and uninteresting. It's also completely misrepresented.
Very often, the lady/man is at the end of the quest. Something to be won.
Sometimes, the lady/man is up front and you play the bad innuendo game all the way through.
But mostly, games want us to feel lust for the lady/man we're after. They're beautiful and sometimes eager and they feel no shame in being objects.
This isn't the sort of game I'd like to see at all.
I'd like to see something with more substance. Read more
