General gaming

General gaming

RE: Operation Raccoon City Review: A City Worth Saving

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT

When I put out the call for help with 1UP's Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City review, I wasn't sure what to expect. The idea seemed simple enough in theory: 1UP would give this multiplayer-heavy game a fair shake by inviting fans and members of our community to play along and help shape the site's review. Review together or die alone, and stuff like that.

I was happy to see our community participate and share their opinions and unique perspectives with us. While a few entries didn't make the final cut, I appreciate the effort and contributions made by all. Honorable mention goes out to 1UP user dayeight, someone who chose not to participate in our multiplayer sessions but offered this surprisingly succinct take on ORC: "Moving parts create a puppet menagerie of pain, online is fun-ish but isn't it always." Nicely put, dayeight. And with that, let's kick off our first community review and see what our panel had to say about ORC's strengths and weaknesses.

PS4 May Join Xbox Successor in Restricting Used Games

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 01:12 PM PDT

PS3

The PlayStation 4 is widely believed to be between one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half years away, meaning it may still be more than a year before any official details make their way out. Yet we're already hearing some preliminary information about Sony's next home game console, including details which will not be welcomed by those who value the ability to buy, sell, and trade used videogames.

As digital content has become more commonplace, games have increasingly become non-tradable commodities. Anything purchased through Steam is yours forever; even if you never play a game you've bought (unless it's purchased as a gift), it is linked to your account for good and cannot be borrowed or sold. Digital games on consoles, whether they be from the Xbox Live Arcade, Wii Virtual Console, or PlayStation Network are also permanent purchases. The same can be said for app purchases on iOS or Android, and this extends beyond games to digital music and movies acquired through iTunes or Amazon.

Silent Hill Downpour Review: A Faithful Sequel that Struggles to Define Itself

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 08:05 AM PDT

Silent Hill is the most ambitious survival horror series in video games -- one that (ideally) tosses aside its previous characters and repurposes a sleepy tourist town into a home for scattered souls and psychological terrors. This philosophy of starting anew each time is one of the signature elements that define the series, while other factors have contributed to making the horror more psychological. Rather than play on with the same terrifying creatures and gimmicks, the best Silent Hill games go one step further by attempting to challenge the player's understanding of reality, often presenting emotionally weary characters who slowly unravel a looming, and sometimes personal, mystery. While Silent Hill Downpour gets a lot of this right, it also stretches that last aspect a little too far.

Downpour is the eighth Silent Hill game and the third created outside Konami. Of course, the Silent Hill series has never thrived on consistency, but this approach both helps and hurts the latest entry. Developer Vatra takes impressive steps to help revive the series after the abysmal Homecoming, but Downpour gets tied down by lackluster combat and inconsistent plot progression and, in the end, struggles to define itself.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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