Ubisoft recently revealed their plans to do away with the horrendous ‘always-on’ DRM. We all remember that, right? It used to be that whenever you played an Ubisoft game, you’d need a constant online connection to play your game, even in singleplayer. Thankfully, Ubisoft saw the light and have scrapped the system altogether. However, there has been little news about what they are replacing it with. Until now…
Mass Effect has been one of the best trilogies I have ever had the privilege to enjoy from start to finish, and so I thought I’d write about how it’s affected me. While I haven’t written any specific spoilers, you may still wish to avoid this article if you care about that sort of thing.
Enigmatic game designer David Cage has revealed what his studio is working on next, and it looks rather good. The developer of Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit did something similar a few years ago, releasing The Casting, which was a short tech-demo piece showing off the kind of experience you could expect from their first outing on the PS3. We can only assume the same applies here – Kara is not a game trailer, but a showcase of what advancements they have made and gives a feel of the new game they are working on. It involves robots!
Mashup of Mass Effect 3 and The Walking Dead results in this silly but fun image. What Shepard thinks he can achieve by charging a Reaper armed only with his omni-tool, one can only imagine. Click for big version.
7 years I’ve waited for this! Alan Wake was first announced way back in 2005, back when Remedy had only just finished Max Payne 2, but after 5 years in development and the horribly justified cancellation of the PC version, it came out as an Xbox 360 exclusive back in 2010. Now, 2 years later, we can finally experience it at its best.
I am currently on a mad rush to play through Mass Effect 1 and 2 again in time for the launch of 3 next month. Thanks to a foolish reformat of the wrong hard drive last year, I have no savefile to import into the game. And I MUST continue the story with MY Shepard. I couldn’t bear it any other way. Meanwhile, there’s a new frankly excellent cinematic trailer out for the absurdly anticipated 3rd installment. Click below to see it.
Every year, Americans host a ‘big game’. Something about football, only played with hands, not feet? I don’t know, sport is something that my brain doesn’t understand any more. Still, the best bit seems to be when the two sides have a rest and watch 40 minutes of movie trailers. That actually sounds pretty good to me.
Guest Article : Steven Harbor. Steve now has a blog. Check it out here.
Near the end of 2010, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was announced to unfettered excitement at the Spike Video Game Awards. From the moment the title card showed up on that giant stage screen, Skyrim has had a red carpet rolled out for it in the gaming press every step of the way. It has always been a celebrity, a shining knight that has come to whisk us away on a journey to a far away land in the snowy peaks of northern Tamriel. Almost three months since the first sword was swung, Skyrim now sits high and mighty on its throne, having been adorned with many game of the year nods and near universal acclaim. Many who find themselves out of the loop probably scratch their heads trying to figure out why we spend hundreds of hours plugged in, worshipping at this game’s almighty altar. I have taken it upon myself to make sense of all of the fanfare, explaining in detail what this game does right, what it does wrong, and how it affects the video game industry.
Another year, another countdown. Click below to see the full list of our favourite games of 2011.
Released within one year of its announcement, Skyrim came along relatively quickly, but was met with huge amounts of praise, and sales figures to match. Gamers the world over have had any notion of free time sucked into oblivion by Bethesda’s sprawling epic fantasy world, and that includes us. It’s the game we played more than any other last year, and it was an easy decision to crown it as our number 1 game of 2011.
There was never a doubt in our minds that Battlefield 3 would be the best example of a game about warfare in a modern setting in 2011, and the day it finally hit the shelves in November all that anticipation could finally be put to rest. Despite it’s somewhat patchy launch, the game itself was fantastic. Dice’s now famous Frostbite engine is looking better than ever, and we have been given the grandest of fields to battle in – one filled with all the tanks, jets, humvees and attack helicopters we could ever wish for.
At number 3 of the BcR Top Ten of 2011 is Valve’s latest endeavour to please its adoring fans, Portal 2. Bringing Chell, GLaDOS, and more fantastic characters back for a second and final brillant instalment in the franchise.