General gaming

General gaming

Battlefield Getting a Call of Duty Elite-Style Service Makes Perfect Sense

Posted: 14 May 2012 06:46 PM PDT

Battlefield 3

Downloadable content has been one of the most popular trends this generation. Last year Activision tried to find out if a market exists for a subscription service for a non-MMO with Call of Duty Elite. As the latest numbers peg Elite subscriptions -- which cost $50 a year, or were free with Modern Warfare 3's Hardened Edition -- at 2 million, an audience does apparently exist that is willing to fork over money for more than just a la carte DLC. Electronic Arts is now rumored to be preparing a premium service for the Battlefield series which is said to be launching in only a few weeks' time.

Battlefieldo reported on Friday a "very reliable source" had shared with it a timeline for the forthcoming updates Battlefield 3 is receiving. In addition to a mention of a fifth expansion pack (beyond the already released Back to Karkand and the previously announced Close Quarters, Armored Kill, and End Game) is a strategy guide being released in June and, more notably, something called Battlefield Premium.

Resistance Burning Skies' Multiplayer Feels Like a Small Version of Traditional FPS Shooter Gameplay

Posted: 14 May 2012 04:34 PM PDT

Resistance Burning Skies presents another interesting facet on top of an issue I generally notice first with PSP titles and now in certain Vita ones: it's an admirable example of making a home console level experience fit onto a portable device, but it's not necessarily a good example of a great portable game. From playing the multiplayer for a couple hours, it already excels at feeling like a close approximation of a good console shooter, but its features seem to run slightly counter to the system's portable nature.

Burning Skies features the same bleak and oppressive aesthetic as 2011's Resistance 3, and of course, thanks to the dual thumbsticks, it generally controls like you'd expect a Resistance title to. Unlike Uncharted Golden Abyss, which felt like it had an obligation to shoehorn every Vita hardware feature into the game, Resistance: Burning Skies takes a more conservative approach to touch screen gimmickry. It took a bit of getting used to, but quickly tapping the touchscreen for a melee attack -- while not quite as immediate as clicking in a thumbstick -- didn't feel so bad. It probably helps that you're not required to swipe gestures for melee -- though some other touch screen actions called for some goofy gestures that seemed a bit impractical at times. I was content with tapping the screen to toss a grenade, as holding and swiping the arc to "aim" your toss felt a bit too distracting for me.

The Problem with Preservation

Posted: 14 May 2012 03:23 PM PDT

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The Problem with Preservation

Talking HD remastering with the teams behind Silent Hill, Sly Cooper, God of War, Ico/Shadow Collection, and Metal Gear Solid.

By: Anthony John Agnello May 14, 2012

Note: There are some terms used throughout this piece that some readers may not familiar with. These are linked to outside articles that can add clarity.

Nothing lasts forever, not cold November rain, and not video games. The battery in your Earthbound cartridge will die, the cathode tube in that old Joust cabinet will burn out. Even code isn't immortal; emulators -- software that mimics old hardware to run classic games -- don't always offer a perfect solution, so that version of Super Mario Bros. on your PC might be close to the original, but not entirely. Time spares nothing. You'd think that between the twin marvels of emulation and digital distribution, it would at least be easier to preserve classic gaming. Anyone who's played an emulated PlayStation 2 game on their PlayStation 3 knows it's not that simple, that even something as basic as a new television standard can greatly alter a classic experience.

Valve and GameStop Sensibly Team Up to Offer Steam Codes In-Store

Posted: 14 May 2012 02:37 PM PDT

Steam Wallet

Starting today you can purchase Steam Wallet codes at GameStop stores. These codes, which are available in $20 and $50 denominations, can be added to a Steam account and used to purchase content through Valve's immensely popular digital distribution service. This move may come as a surprise to some as GameStop last year purchased Steam competitor Impulse, yet it actually is a very sensible move for both sides.

For GameStop, this is another way for it to insert itself into the sale of digital content. It already offers things like downloadable content and points for the console manufacturers' respective platforms, as well as (more recently) digital PC games through Impulse. Getting a cut of money spent on Steam is an obvious benefit, but there is more to it than that.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II Review: Blue Renewed

Posted: 14 May 2012 01:21 PM PDT

It wasn't too long ago that Sega gave us Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I, a new 2D Sonic game that aped the original Genesis games. It wasn't amazing, but wasn't exactly the grand betrayal many made it out to be, either. Nevertheless, it was defecated on by the gaming public for many reasons ranging from the valid to the insane. Sega apparently acknowledged the vitriol and spent a couple of years producing Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II, redoing the graphics, adding a couple of new features, and addressing the myriad of quirks that only added to Sonic 4's bad reception. The result is a game that neutralizes virtually all of the bullshit that stood out in its predecessor, though on the whole, it carries a tradition that probably still won't sit well with Sonic purists.

The set-up is about as pure as can be, though: as usual, Dr. Eggman is up to no good, so Sonic, joined this time by trusty pal Tails, dashes through a handful of different worlds to defeat Eggman and Metal Sonic, the sub-antagonist from Sonic CD. Sega's earlier insistence that Episode II had anything to do with Sonic CD was tenuous at best, as it basically begins and ends with the presence of Metal Sonic, and Episode II's stages are more a melange of references to Sonic 2 and 3. But that was just marketing, and regardless, those stages look pretty good. Whereas Episode I had a decidedly plastic pre-rendered look to it, Episode II's stages, like the lush Sylvania Castle or the rolling dunes of the Oil Desert zone, don't rely on 2D assets and look downright gorgeous at times instead of looking cheap and pasted-in. In that sense, it's a different game for sure.

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Max Payne 3 Review: Death Transformed into an Art Form

Posted: 14 May 2012 09:02 AM PDT

max payne 3

There's a moment in Tony Scott's 2004 film Man on Fire where Christopher Walken attempts to make someone understand just what kind of a man Denzel Washington's ex-CIA operative John Creasy is. He calmly explains that, "A man can be an artist... in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death, and he's about to paint his masterpiece." This statement could just as easily be used to describe the state of Max Payne in his third outing, which fittingly draws ample inspiration from Man on Fire. No matter how nightmarish his life may become, Max remains a steadfast angel of death who'll stop at nothing on his road of revenge.

The many story and thematic elements that Max Payne 3 shares with Scott's underrated film should not be frowned upon, but rather embraced. Anyone who's played their share of Rockstar games knows that the studio has never been one to be shy about the works of art that influence them. Without the films of Martin Scorsese, Grand Theft Auto would not exist in its current state. Without the contributions that Sergio Leone made to the western genre, Red Dead Redemption would've never been able to ride off into the sunset of gaming history. In this respect, sitting down with a Rockstar title is akin to taking a lesson from a team of true pop-culture historians, and Max Payne 3 does not disappoint in leading us on a journey through genre film and literature past.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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