General gaming |
- What We Don't Want to See at E3
- The Best Humble Indie Bundle Yet Includes Bastion and Psychonauts
- E3: Punching Above Its Weight Class
- E3 Thoughts and Predictions Vol. 2: Microsoft
- Diablo III Review: A Worthy Sequel, Once It Clicks
| What We Don't Want to See at E3 Posted: 31 May 2012 05:51 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012 What We Don't Want to See at E3Cover Story: Several reasons we might be inclined to call in sick this year.E 3 may bring with it a collection of exciting announcements, but for every amazing, forward-thinking game we'll see, five unwanted ones pop up to remind us of how shallow and cynical this industry can be. And it's not just games that hold the potential to annoy us; any number of gaming-related products hold the potential to make us roll our eyes at a record-breaking speed. We've decided to share what we're dreading the most from this year's show, and we'd love to hear your own fears in the comments section below!  |
| The Best Humble Indie Bundle Yet Includes Bastion and Psychonauts Posted: 31 May 2012 05:24 PM PDT The Humble Indie Bundles, which are sold for any price the customer decides, are great for a variety of reasons: They allow the spotlight to be placed upon a small number of indie games, they get games in the hands of gamers for almost no money (depending upon how generous they're feeling), and they support charity. While they may also devalue games, as they get gamers in the mindset of potentially being able to pay a single penny for a handful of games worth many, many times that, there are still clearly many upsides to them. With that in mind, the latest Humble Indie Bundle -- launched just earlier today -- might very well be the best we've ever seen. Despite being referred to as The Humble Indie Bundle V, there have been more than four in the past when accounting for the Frozen Synapse, Frozenbyte, Introversion, and Android bundles, among others. The best of these, in my opinion, was the fourth one, which included Super Meat Boy, Jamestown, Bit Trip Runner, Shank, NightSky, and, for those who exceeded the average sale price, Cave Story+ and Gratuitous Space Battles. Soundtracks for these games ended up being released to buyers, too, as were the games included in the third Humble Bundle. Not too shabby. |
| E3: Punching Above Its Weight Class Posted: 31 May 2012 01:18 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012 E3: Punching Above Its Weight ClassCover Story: Our fancy charticle puts the world's biggest game show in perspective.S ince its debut in 1995, the Electronic Entertainment Expo has remained steady as the single biggest event in the gaming industry -- yes, even that one year when the ESA tried to kill the show in its sleep by limiting its size and forcing everyone to hunt for their appointments in hotels spread across the entirety of Santa Monica, CA. While several game-related events throughout the year outclass E3 in terms of size, scale, or attendance, no other show compares to the number of revelations, announcements, debuts, and information that comes out of E3. Just how much bigger than E3 are shows like GamesCom and Tokyo Game Show? And what makes E3 such a big deal, anyway? Well, friend, do we have the charticle for you! Read on....  |
| E3 Thoughts and Predictions Vol. 2: Microsoft Posted: 31 May 2012 09:39 AM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012 E3 Thoughts and Predictions Vol. 2: MicrosoftCover Story: 1UP wades through Microsoft's pool of casual and hardcore products to bring you E3 predictions.H ooray for E3 2012! Each year, Microsoft, Sony, and NIntendo kick off the biggest trade show in the games industry by holding individual press conferences. This annual routine of presentations, stage demos, and unveilings brings us some of the most exciting news of the show -- especially when a new gaming platform is involved. Here at 1UP, we're just as excited for E3 as you, so we decided to throw together our thoughts and predictions in anticipation. A few days ago, we mulled over what Nintendo will do at E3 and now it's time to turn our attention to Microsoft, a company that tries to focus their E3 presentation on everyone by combining stage demos for popular core games alongside casual fare. For more on speculation on what Microsoft will show at E3, check out the May 25th episode of the Games, Dammit! podcast. Jeremy Parish: Of all the console makers, Microsoft seems the most adrift and aimless. I guess they're doing pretty well, but that success almost seems to come in spite of themselves. Each year we see a smaller number of exclusive 360 titles than the last, and Kinect seems to be slowly fading from the collective conscious with fewer releases as time goes by. This year, Microsoft needs to step up and be assertive. Yeah, OK, you have Halo 4 and another Forza game. You have a handful of Kinect games. What else? Show us your cards, and cut the B.S.; we don't want marketing speak or tiresome demos of tech that will never become a game, we just want to know why we should care. New hardware? New games? If you want to go all-in on selling 360 as a Kinect machine for casual gamers, that's fine, too. Just give us the impression that you have a solid plan, OK? Gamers love waffles, but not wafflers. |
| Diablo III Review: A Worthy Sequel, Once It Clicks Posted: 31 May 2012 09:07 AM PDT I wouldn't have been able to write an unbiased review of Diablo III immediately after launch; I was too wrapped up in the hype and fanboyism of it all. I've spent more time with Diablo II than almost any other game ever made, and my anticipation for this sequel had completely eclipsed that of any other game this year. Many PC gamers could say the same, and that speaks volumes of the immense expectations that Blizzard had in front of them. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time with this game since launch (70+ hours) and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Diablo III is not a perfect game, but it could come close with time. Diablo III keeps the tenets of the franchise close to its core: Choose a class, hack away at thousands of demons, level up, and collect loot. If this sounds like fun to you, then Diablo III is your game. The story has never been a primary selling point for the series, although the cutscenes are pretty.  Diablo III adds accessibility in a big way. With each level you earn, you unlock a new skill or "rune," a modifier for the skills you've selected. By default the game enables an "Elective Mode" that puts each of your unlockable skills in categories and limits you to having one of each type accessible at a time. Even though you can disable Elective Mode and put any skill in any slot, this will help any new player become acquainted with their class. You can also swap any skills or runes out at any time, which relieves the stress of potentially messing up your build. You are encouraged to equip and try out all the skills, which is a breath of fresh air in the realm of action RPGs. Smashing demons with great-hammers never felt so good. The mayhem animates smoothly, and watching an enemy fly into the air as you cut through the masses reminds you of what makes Diablo games special. You will feel powerful, and powerful in a different way than the character next to you, even though you may belong to the same class. Diablo III allows you to slay evil as a special snowflake. Each Wizard will employ different skills augmented with different runes. And every time you see someone using Hydra while you have Meteor equipped, you'll think to yourself, "Maybe I should try that out..."  The pacing of Diablo III is flawless. Never does a "good stopping point" come along. You seamlessly move into each new quest, continuously battling evil. As with previous Diablo titles, once you complete the story you are invited to play the game on a harder difficulty. Diablo II featured Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulties, while Diablo III adds an Inferno difficulty. And unlike the previous games, you don't have to grind out levels and gear to progress. You can finish Normal around level 30 and feel right at home in Nightmare Act I. You can finish the story in around 12 hours, but that's just where the game gets exciting. You can enter Nightmare difficulty (with your same character, level, and gear), where you're are encouraged to hunt even better loot drops. Diablo II met great success as a single-player adventures as well as a multi-player one, so Blizzard's decision to develop Diablo III with a mandatory always-on Internet connection earned its share of criticism. The ill-will from that decision came boiling to the surface at launch as millions of gamers attempted to log in to the game servers only to receive error messages that prevented them from enjoying their new purchase. The only-online decision makes a certain amount of sense; game additions like the global, in-game-currency auction house as well as the yet-to-be-implemented real-money auction system no doubt influenced the decision to store character information on Blizzard's servers. Yet always-online play requirements only work when the system itself is always up and running, and while the server issues seen to have worked themselves out, the problems they've introduced to Diablo III has undoubtedly affected many players' opinions of the game.  Will Diablo III last? Will gamers still care about Diablo III next year, or the year after that, the way so many have continued playing Diablo II for nearly a decade? I can't say yet, but with the addition of achievements, the no-retries hardcore mode, the extra-punishing design of Inferno mode, and the real-money auction house and PvP arenas on the way, I think the game has real legs. After more than hours of play time, Jrex the Wizard is in Act I of Inferno Mode, and I don't see myself putting the game down anytime soon. Maybe the loot drops aren't balanced perfectly. Maybe the servers were down that one time you tried to log in. Yet few will argue that Diablo III isn't a beautiful and addicting action RPG. Even Diablo II wasn't the powerhouse we know it as today back at its launch. Only after a number of balance changes, expansions, and game-altering patches years after release did it achieve its legendary status. Ten days after its debut, Diablo III is a great game, and it will only get better over time as Blizzard has time to tweak and fine-tune the formula. |
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