General gaming |
- Lightning Returns, and Now She Knows About Timed Hits
- PAX '12: 1001 Spikes Reveals the Secrets of an Abusive Mind
- That Difficult Question: How to Decide Which Platform to Buy a Game For
- SimCity and the Price of Community
| Lightning Returns, and Now She Knows About Timed Hits Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:00 PM PDT |
| PAX '12: 1001 Spikes Reveals the Secrets of an Abusive Mind Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:54 PM PDT Have you ever played a deliberately devious old-school game like Spelunky, I Want to be the Guy, or Mega Man 9 and wondered -- as you die unexpectedly for the hundredth time -- "What kind of sick mind would make a game this cruel?" I certainly have. And today at PAX Prime, I finally got my answer. I stopped by Nicalis' space in the incredible Indie Games Megabooth to try my hand at 1,001 Spikes (formerly known as Aban Hawkins and the 1001 Spikes), a game specifically designed to play "gotcha" at every possible turn. It's a game that starts you off with 1,001 lives, not unlike Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero?, and it burns through them at a prodigious rate. |
| That Difficult Question: How to Decide Which Platform to Buy a Game For Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:35 PM PDT Those of us fortunate enough to own more than one gaming system are faced with a tricky question anytime a multiplatform game is released: which platform should I buy it for? All other things being equal, there are some factors that make that decision much easier -- heavily discounted prices or serious technical issues, like those plaguing the PlayStation 3 version of Skyrim, can help to rule out certain versions. Continuing that example, you're still left to weigh a list of pros and cons if you own both a PC and Xbox 360. As I continue to debate which platform to to pick Borderlands 2 up for next month, I turned to the 1UP community to see how they deal with this enviable, first-world problem. "I usually purchase the PS3 version of multiplatform titles, and it's honestly almost entirely down to growing up with a PlayStation and mentally associating it with playing the sort of games I enjoy," said 1UP board member ezrabinirib. "The only reason I sometimes purchase the 360 version of a game is if it uses the triggers for a large part of the gameplay (GTA IV, FIFA, most FPS games) because I hate using the L2/R2 buttons on the PS3 controller. It always feels like I'm breaking something." |
| SimCity and the Price of Community Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:37 AM PDT 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 27 | COMMUNITY IN GAMES I wasn't the only one who felt a bit of a stomach ache at Electronic Arts' announcement that Maxis' visually arresting SimCity sequel-cum-reboot will require players to be online at all times in order to play. Not only does it mean that SimCity can't be played on, say, the train, or while you're visiting your grandparents who still use dial-up Internet, it also means that (due to the game constantly checking in and permanently recording the state of your city) there'll be no sending disasters to ruin your hard work followed by a quick reset. Once Godzilla stomps your town, your town stays stomped. A classic SimCity tradition, upended by a single, heartbreaking decision. Thankfully, EA has finally begin talking about the benefits of the game's online requirements. It's not all DRM and Origin! Maxis appears to be making a concerted effort to bring a genuine sense of community to SimCity, in both the typical video game sense of community (people collaborating and competing) as well as the "global village" meaning of the word. |
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