Author: Thomas Ortsik

Founder and Kinda-Editor-In-Chief at Twinstiq.
Also known as Dr. Strangethumb

New PlayStation Store Releases: The Elder Scrolls Online

This week, the new releases are a bit sparse on the PlayStation Store. Though they do have a couple of heavy hitters. Namely, The Elder Scrolls Online and Gradius. As much as I appreciate Bethesda bringing The Elder Scrolls universe to the PlayStation 4, I think I would rather see them provide us with an Oblivion/Skyrim collection (and make them playable on a Sony console for once). Maybe they could throw in an HD remaster of Morrowind to sweeten the deal.I am pleased to see a great arcade classic like Gradius hit the store. In addition to last week's release of Renegade, along with Q*bert, which has been on there for several months now, the PS4 is starting to become quite a little retro arcade machine. ESO and Gradius aside, the only other notable release this week is a Japanese dungeon crawler for the Vita. Create your character, select your class, and then venture past the break to see this list of new releases.

PlayStation 4

PlayStation Vita

[Image: Bethesda Softworks]

Andrew J Amideo

TellTale Finally Set Bigby and Clementine Free!  DRM-Free!

If you’ve passed on The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us for the longest time because they were on Steam and thus DRM’d, then you’ll be pleased to know that both up on GOG now.  And, for a limited time – which coincides with the Summer Sale over at Gog, you can get them for rather cheap.

Both games have steep, 75% launch discounts, but that only applies for the next two days.  Snag both before 11 June, 2015 at 11:59 AM GMT to get those real low prices.

If the idea of the launch prices hasn’t exactly sold you and you need to know a little more about both games, follow along after the break and we’ll discuss both in a little more detail.

The Walking Dead is based on a series of comics that have been adapted into a TV show.  In this particular set of books/TV series, the world has been thrust into a nightmare scenario as a Zombie Apocalypse has taken place.  There are no safe hiding spots and certainly no one can be trusted.

In this particular episodic adventure, we meet a young lady named Clementine, who is hiding away from the monsters because her parents still aren’t home from wherever they have gotten to.

You play as Lee, an older gentleman who isn’t exactly the moral centre of the Universe, but who does educate Clementine enough to help her understand the harsh reality of the present situation.

The Wolf Among Us is – by turns – a gritty fantasy where the Fables you knew and loved as a child have been spirited into modern day New York.  The particular Fables we meet are just trying to make a living and blend in with the Mundies [mundane folk] by taking jobs and living ordinary lives.

Their “peaceful” [for want of a better word] existence is shattered when murder comes to their small community.  But this particular slaying is just a little part of a far greater mystery.

Bonus!  The summer sale is still going.  Buy these games and add them to your running total to get more games.

Extrabonus!  For the next twenty four hours, there’s a whole raft of bundles to be had in the summer sale.

Finalbonus!  For the next 48 hours, grab a free game in the form of Battle Realms as well as its expansion, Winter of the Wolf.


Humble Indie Bundle: All-Stars

Time for another Humble Bundle, and it’s a good ‘un. The Humble Indie Bundle All*Stars features some of the best indie games available, like World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Braid, Risk of Rain, and more.
Only issue? You probably already own them all, so why would you buy them again? Good point, and Humble has an answer: Sountracks!

Even if you own the games, less than $6 bucks is still a great deal for the OSTs to World of Goo, Dustforce DX, Dungeon Defenders, Limbo, Braid and Antichamber

via Billy

Become Master Of Orion, again

What a great time for turn based strategy fans who are also into sci-fi. First we get the decent, but flawed Civilization: Beyond Earth, then the micromanagement heavy, but interesting Star Drive 2, a couple of other smaller ones, and finally the recently released Galactic Civilization 3, which actually got really good reviews (Metacritic: 84).
It looked like the trend was finally dying down, and I would be able to catch up on all of them, when suddenly and out of nowhere the above trailer appeared.
The hype was strong for a minute. I didn’t play the first 2 games in the series until only a couple of years ago, but to my surprise, they still held up quite well and I immediately understood why people loved them.
But who is actually developing the new one? Let’s take a look.

Ok, so Wargaming, the folks behind the f2p World of Tanks, bought the license and NGD Studios is developing it for them. What did they release again?

Champions of Regnum? Never heard of it. A f2p MMORPG with mixed ratings. 

Bunch of Heroes. I’ve played that. Enjoyable enough top-down shooter, but hardly something worth having. 

And Adventure Time: Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest. Steam users gave it a mostly positive, but you don’t find many reviews that say it’s really good, just that it’s worth the low price.That’s all? That’s all.
So what can we really expect from this? In short: nothing. My hype is gone, so should be yours. Supposedly “key members from the original title’s team” will work on it, but the original is rather old now and despite those games still holding up, there have been quite a few advancements in the genre.
The best thing that could come out of this is a simple, easy to get into space 4x, because those are still a rarity, despite a resurgence in the genre.

Any thoughts on this? Did you play any of the previous MOO games? Which did you like best? 1&2, or the more complex 3? Tell us in the comments.

Via: Destructoid (well, and pretty much everywhere else, but we love our buddies there, so they get the shoutout)

The Witcher 3 Sold 4 Million Copies In 2 Weeks

In an open letter from Co-Founder of CD Projekt RED,  Marcin Iwiński thanks the community by expressing his surprise and gratitude regarding the success of their most ambitious title to date. You can read the letter yourself right after the break.
"Dear Gamers,May 19th was a crucial date for all of us here at CD PROJEKT RED -- we released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, our open world role-playing game that we had been hard at work on for over 3 years. Since day one, you have given us tons of positive feedback and support -- the sheer volume of emails we’ve gotten since launch simply congratulating us for our efforts is both epic and heartwarming, and I wish every developer comes to have such a fantastic community. In terms of media reception, we’re really humbled by the scores the game has received all around the world. With an average of 90+ on every platform, Wild Hunt is our dream coming true.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the four million gamers worldwide who bought The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the first two weeks from launch. Four million RPG fans spending their hard-earned money on our game is a sign that we did something right, and you can be sure that we’ll harness all that positive energy and make the upcoming expansions worthy of the grand adventure that you’re telling us Wild Hunt already is! Until then, keep on enjoying Wild Hunt, do not forget to grab your weekly set of free DLCs, and stay tuned for constant updates and enhancement to the game we are continuously working on.

Dandelion once said to Geralt that the world is changing, the sun is setting, and vodka’s running out -- go, play, and have fun!

All the best,
Marcin Iwiński
Co-founder, CD PROJEKT RED"

We're still hard at work on our Witcher 3 Review, the game is quite long, but this is another great piece of news for a game that celebrates a people and their vast, yet harsh, history. It's always great to see a thank you from an appreciative developer.

Fallout 4 & DOOM World Premiere June 14th

In an email sent out to the email recipients who registered at fallout4.com, Bethesda lays out an overview of what we will be getting from their E3 showcase.
Save that date, June 14th. at 6:45pm Bethesda's E3 showcase is confirmed to show off more about Fallout 4, DOOM, and the new Battlecry IP. The event will be hosted by Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb live on Twitch and Youtube.
Just about everyone has seen the trailer for Fallout 4 at this point and we are all anxious to learn more, but we will also be getting a good amount of time spent on DOOM and Battlecry if this site is any indication.The pre and post showcase will be hosted by Previous X-Play hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb. Bethesda sure knows how to hit you right in the nostalgia gut, huh?

At this point we know more about Fallout 4 then we do DOOM. With only a ten second teaser above to wet our mouths over until we get more on Sunday.
Battlecry however is what I personally am most excited about. Not that I won't have to change pants when I get to see some more DOOM or Fallout, but I am huge fan of originality and trying out something new. This game is still scheduled to be hitting open beta this year, and like I said I'm glad to see Bethesda taking steps in new directions.What more are you hoping to hear about the above mentioned games? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Twitch, Hitbox, Steam, Facebook, and keep coming back for more news, reviews, and anything else barely professional.

Source: Newsletter 

New Game from Platinum at E3

After last year’s reveal of Xbox exclusive Scalebound, Platinum will show us something new again this year.
IGN will feature the gameplay reveal for the unannounced game from the developers behind the super successful Vanquish and Wonderful 101...oh...from the developers behind Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Madeupword on June 16 …and we will be right there to steal it and put it on our site! (Maybe, unless it’s boring)

No word yet on what the game is about, or if it is an exclusive, but since it’s from Platinum, we can be fairly certain that it’s pretty good but will not sell.

Source: IGN

Ready at Dawn gets new CEO

Paul Sams, previously chief operating officer at Blizzard, joins Ready at Dawn. The studio behind The Order: 1886 and God of War: Ghost of Sparta wants to take on new challenges and Sams was hired to spearhead a new business development and publishing arm in Austin, Texas.
Ex-CEO Weerasuriya has the following to say about future plans:
“With Paul's arrival, the entire team at our studio in Irvine will turn its attention solely on creative and game development, while Austin will become the focus of our business endeavors. Paul's expertise will be essential in achieving some of our goals, including our desire to seek a strategic partner in helping us create and retain ownership of our own transmedia IPs.”

Does this mean Ready at Dawn will not work on The Order 1887, since the IP is owned by Sony?
Not according to Sams: “We would love to be part of building The Order as a franchise. It is an IP that we created, that we deeply love and that we believe in. We cannot say more than that regarding The Order at this time.”

Both have more to say on the future of the Ready at Dawn, so if you are interested, head over to gamesindustry.biz for the full interview.

That’s Just Your Opinion, Man Or Why People Who Hate Reviews Have Me So Confused (Part 2:  Confusion Boogaloo!)

Last week, we talked a little about why folks seem to have such negative perceptions about reviews.  This week, I’d like to talk a little more about that.  About the things people say in passing about reviews and how flawed some of those particular ideas really are.

We covered the idea of “the reviewer not paying the game enough attention” as well as the idea that reviewers get paid to write reviews.  So let’s tackle some other things that people say that have me totally baffled.

Sometimes, folks misunderstand bias to be a bad thing, but in the same way plants are biased toward the sun, or dragons like treasure, so humans are predisposed to certain formats of media.  Some prefer RTS games.  Some just like a fun platformer.  It's all good.

Like dragons are biased toward treasure, reviewers are biased towards certain themes or game genres.

Why Are You So Biased?

This comes up a lot when people don’t like the review for various reasons.  It might be that the person in question panned the game, or it might be that they’re praising the game without seriously looking at any of the flaws.  Either way, this – to the would-be commenter screams bias, which might also include being “paid to write that review.”

The truth is: everyone is biased in some direction or another.  I’ve been mulling a lot about this idea lately, because I’ve been thinking I want to review things outside of my comfort zone, but the problem for me is that because those things are outside of my comfort zone, I’m probably never going to do them justice.

I’ve talked about this before, but I’m going to bring it up again:  I don’t like shooters ...of any kind.  My very biased and overly opinionated view of shooters is that they’re lowest common denominator games that are played by people with either too much testosterone or who are sadistic to the nth degree.  These people would probably have no trouble with selling their grandma for their next inhale of Call of Duty.  [or whatever’s current in shooter circles right now.]

Now, the truth of the matter’s probably wwwwaaaayyyy more benign.  Those guys who I just wrote off as lowest common denominator pond scum?  They probably buy their girlfriends great anniversary gifts and take long walks on the beach with their dogs reflecting on life, the universe and everything.

But from my biased perspective, all I see is a group of sweaty man-children screaming into microphones about how that guy who just killed them should die in a fire.

So, I could never review a shooter as a result.  And if I did review a shooter, you can imagine that I probably won’t give it terrifically high marks, EVEN IF it is the most innovative shooter, ever.

Bias is OK.  Bias means that the games I love, I really do love with all my heart and soul.  And I will review those games well, paying attention to every little thing – nitpicking them, even.  [I’ve certainly done this before:  I liked the idea of Rise of the Dragon a whole lot, but phooey, that timer!]

My point is, very often, once you “connect” with a reviewer, chances are you’re coming back to that reviewer for their writing [one would hope] but also because their bias – the games they like – meshes well with your own.

Bias is good.

Just like it's easy to lose a piece of a puzzle, so it's sometimes difficult to fit everything you want to say into a review.

Skyrim. A reviewer's dilemma. There will always be missing pieces in any review of that game.

Your Review Is No Good!  You Missed Nitpicky Item Y!

Before we talk about this, we need to talk a little about the review process.  Usually, if you’re doing reviews, and you’re doing them large-scale – I’m talking one after the other in short succession, like you normally would for a paper publication or a site like Twinstiq, chances are, you are SWAMPED with things to review and there’s no good way to get any of your work done on time.

The other big problem with review writing is that – very often – the editor will set a word cap on how much you may write.  If you were reading some of the old magazines in the 80’s or 90’s you would see everything from real short “micro reviews” all the way to six page mammoth spreads that detailed the game in great depth.

What I’m driving at is that UNLESS you were looking at the spread, you could count on having one thousand or so words to get your point across.  If it’s a big game like Skyrim, or even a little one like To The Moon [which is quite complex under the hood, for the story it’s telling and the themes it’s hinting at] as a reviewer, the problem becomes, “what do I talk about?” and inevitably, something slips through the cracks.

So, that mini game that you fell in love with while playing?  The reviewer might have had to skate over that because of the deadline.  Or when you found weapon x hidden in cave y and it changed the game for you?  Maybe the reviewer didn’t have time to go off the beaten path to do that.  Or maybe it was something smaller.  Like how the character jumped between platforms.  All of these things are small things that might have made a momentary impression, but in the grand scheme of things, the reviewer just forgot that particular instant.

Again, this is OK.  Usually, if it’s important enough, the reviewer will tell you about it in a sentence or so.

Conclusion

Lots of people get bent out of shape for all sorts of reasons with regards to reviews.  Over the last two weeks, we’ve talked about some of the issues facing a reviewer.  Ultimately, when next you read something by someone else putting down their thoughts, be glad they were willing to share them with you.  And share back.  There’s never “one true, completely valid opinion.”

But do try and keep it civil.  This works best if we’re having a conversation where differences are expected, not a screaming match in which one side is absolutely right and the other is always wrong.


Images courtesy of Pixabay
Pixabay