General gaming

General gaming

OP-ED: EA Being Named America's Worst Company is Crazy

Posted: 04 Apr 2012 04:25 PM PDT

EA worst company

Electronic Arts is the winner (loser?) of The Consumerist's annual Worst Company in America tournament this year. Following a round of nominations and weeks of head-to-head, March Madness-style voting, the Redwood City, California-based videogame publisher was named the top vote-getter in the finals today in which it was squaring off against Bank of America.

Before going any further it's important to note this is an Internet poll, and as such can't be taken as an actual indication of what the population believes is the worst company around. Yet even with that caveat in mind, it's hard to fathom that a company responsible for making games could be loathed so vociferously.

The Wildest International Box Art

Posted: 04 Apr 2012 02:26 PM PDT

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The Wildest International Box Art

When game covers cross the sea, they're not always the same as they used to be.

By: Ray Barnholt April 4, 2012

Mocking bad old game cover art is one thing, because yes, there are many, many examples of bad box art from around the world. But there aren't quite as many that are complete 180-degree flips from their original source. Specifically, art that is either not quite as representative, or absolutely not representative of its original intent. And sometimes the art isn't even bad, but just kind of weird. So, before you ask where the NES Mega Man box art is in this list, at least that one still depicted a helmeted robot guy that can shoot things. And everybody knows that one. Have a look below and expand your mind.


Tasmania Story Spot Art

Minecraft Maker's New Space Game Sounds Incredibly Ambitious

Posted: 04 Apr 2012 01:50 PM PDT

0x10c

Having vacated his role as lead developer on Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson has been spending his time in recent months working on other projects. He recently spoke about an idea he had to do a game like the classic Elite (one of the many versions of which can be seen in the video below), only he would make it more like Firefly. "I want to run around on my ship and have to put out a fire," he said. "Like, oh crap, the cooling system failed, I have to put out the fire here."

That game has now been announced with the most peculiar of names: 0x10c. Persson tweeted yesterday that the "legal stuff is done" and he had registered domains for the new project, which he noted should have the "c" raised above the other letters. There has been a lot of guessing as to how the name is pronounced; some people have correctly figured it out but he is declining to officially publish the pronunciation just yet. It's hardly the only detail Persson is keeping secret (or the only thing that has yet to be decided), although what we do know is very intriguing.

Playing Through the Pain

Posted: 04 Apr 2012 10:17 AM PDT

If our recent review of Kid Icarus Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS, we praised a great deal of elements in the game. From gorgeous visuals to a plethora of features and options, Kid Icarus is one of the heftiest portable packages in a long time. Maybe it's this wealth of content that contributed to the game's major flaw: it's just plain uncomfortable to play. Uprising forces you to contort your hands into foreign positions in order to navigate the relatively complex interface. But despite this discomfort, the game still inspired us to press on and play through the pain. This got us thinking of some other moments in our gaming history that have left us battered, bruised, but still wanting more.

pain

J. Kartje - Diablo II

Borderlands 2 Trusts Your Intelligence

Posted: 04 Apr 2012 07:57 AM PDT

borderlands 2

The original Borderlands remains upon my ever-growing video game pile of shame. I like first-person shooters, I like RPGs, and I like cooperative play; I have no doubt that I'd enjoy a game that combines all three concepts into one. Alas, the stark reality of working in the gaming press is that, despite the fact that you think our job consists of nothing but playing games all the time, we rarely have enough time for the games we need to play for work and none for the ones we'd like to play just for our own enjoyment.

And so, I approached a recent hands-on demo of Borderlands sequel (which surprisingly enough is named, simply, Borderlands 2) from a position of unfamiliarity. My first course of action was to simply acclimate myself to the play mechanics; being designed for co-op play first and foremost, its rules work a little differently than your typical FPS. That meant taking it slowly, sticking to cover, retreating when overwhelmed, and searching every inch of ground for weapons and items to collect. Mission prompts and waypoints helpfully indicated the direction of my primary objective, but I cheerfully ignored them in favor of simply seeing what I could find at my own pace.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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