RE: Playstation All Stars Battle Royale. It looks completely derivative, and Sonys' characters are not as unified or cute as Nintendo's, not by a long shot, but given that Super Smash Brothers is massively popular, I can only hope that this game will be well put together. It's not massively interesting to me but it has its appeal. It looks like it's going to be a full release, but once it gets cheap on PSN it might well be worth a purchase. Sonic should be in it. Good luck with your new ventures, Koz.
I've been playing Batman Arkham City. Loved it. I can see why it's regarded as one of the best games this generation. I think i'm going to sell it and buy the Game of the Year version once that goes budget. I also finished Shadows of the Damned which I also enjoyed alot - I loved the themes and the general style of the game, although the shooting controls were pretty annoying. And now i've moved on to Silent Hill Homecoming which i'm actually really enjoying, although I was expecting it to be pretty bad. I'm finding it very atmospheric, and generally has good controls. It reminds me of L.A. Noire and Siren Blood Curse. The enemies are pretty weak though so it might become boring fairly soon, i'm only a couple of hours in so far.
The publishers argument that used sales don't bring in any profit for the developers is entirely valid and correct. Sure it seems right that consumers ought to be able to on sell products that they've bought but it appears that the publishers are attempting to restrict this only due to the massive impact used game sales has. It has such an impact that game trading is a major industry in its own right. I agree that raising DRM offers gamers no direct benefit, unless that is it coincides with significantly reduced new game prices, which I hope, perhaps naievly, that it will. DVDs and blu rays are now sold dirt cheap - is there a major used DVD/blu ray market? I don't think so. If the publishers drop the retail (or direct download) prices then I think we'll be happy with the outcome. I think there will be a need to reduce prices too due to other factors, such as the freeware and ios/android influence.
Also, this article is bemoaning internet bullying, yet scroll down half a page and you'll see at least 3 posts that are openly criticising a user (@myounage) . None have been deleted. No one's stuck up for him. This is the B.S. that sickens me. I've not read any of myounages' posts so I'm not in a position to agree or disagree with him / her, but it's bull that others users are free to bash him / her. What the hell. Totally hypocritical.
What is wrong with Gamespot. Seriously the C word? It's ok for the journalists to use the C word but we're not. Isn't that a tad hypocritical and condescending. On another note, I don't see any evidence for this sense of entitlement that you speak of. I think that comments such as "(angered players) acted on the belief that they are the only ones who can, and should, dictate how games are made and played" are baseless. Just because the angered players expressed their feelings in an utterly inappropriate and unreasonable manner doesn't mean that they believe that they should dictate how games are made and played. Your insinuation is a complete fabrication. I think the issue should be discussed, and the rabid behaviour of internet commentors heckling others for expressing their opinions is a worthy topic, but that it should be remembered to stick closely to the facts of the situation and not make unsubstantiated claims. I think a key point made is that games will continue to morph and who knows what will happen and when. Given the huge focus on CG video in games and movies over the last decade is the potential of CG dedicated games such a shock. Besides, cheats have always had a place in gaming and isn't that somewhat similar - to be able simplify or skip past or through some of the challenging gameplay elements. For me, narrative has always been secondary to gameplay but that's becoming less the case. I'm thinking Heavenly Sword, Uncharted 3.
THQ have some good IPs, and some mediocre IPs. Problem is, mediocre IPs no longer sell, and their good IPs will have to contend with very good competition and very bad management of the company. I can't help but think that THQ have squandered their chances. I'm no economist but if you've lost 98% share value, been making major losses, shedding 10% of the workforce seems too little to late.
@ swagtile I think you're on to something there, with a 1 to 5 rating system. With a 1 to 10, I think there's a tendency to make the score relate to other games - i.e. if Black Ops got 9.2, and CoD MW3 is better than Black Ops, then it must get 9.3 or higher, and so on. Yet with your proposal the reviewer just slaps a more generalised, less specific number on there. Yep it's a great game, it gets 5. Yep it's a great game, there are better games, but it is still a great game, it still gets 5. I suppose the thing to consider is, what is the purpose of the review and the score. If the purpose is to analyse every last thing about the game and compare it to all other titles on the market, then a specific, detailed review and numbering system is required. If the point is just to advise readers as to wether or not they should spend their money on the game, then a more simple, more generalised system such as your 1-5 suggestion would be more workable.
Wanted: Weapons of Fate is not a bad game. Sure, not a genre leading game but fun and exciting for sure. Same with Kane and Lynch 2. That's a good game. Great? Perhaps not. Genre leading, no. But fun, exciting, challenging, different, for sure. Worth $100? No. Worth $20, no doubt. @dabone Yes I fully agree. It's about the cost. I recently played Turok which I picked up pre-owned for $10, in immaculare condition, and I'm confident I can sell it for $10, so to me the cost is a non-entity. I enjoyed the game, quite a lot. I've not been able to play a dinosaur killing FPS before and the content of this game is a real change from shooting aliens and soldiers. It's based on the old Unreal engine, like F.E.A.R, and many others, and as such it is no better than any modern FPS but still works perfectly well. Turok has some difficulty and checkpoint issues, it looks dated and for sure is not the perfect game, but it's good fun. An enjoyable romp. On Metacritic it's score is 60ish, which in some ways I feel is too low, but in the spirit of this article I guess it's about fair, although I've played games with higher metacritic ratings that are far worse. I think reviewers should mention the cost when rating the game, because so many of us are willing to wait for a drop in price. Is Duke Nukem worth $100, no. That can't be argued. Is it worth $30, yeah sure why not.
oh and Flight Control. Super K.O.s worth a look (Punch Out clone). There's a tower defense game called Empire something, thats really good but kept crashing on my phone.
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