Various outlets are reporting that Activision/Blizzard has begun registering domain names for future Call of Duty titles, despite ongoing legal action from former Infinity Ward chiefs Jason West and Vince Zampella (now of Respawn Entertainment) insisting that they – not A/B – are the rightful owners of the IP. After firing West and Zampella, Activision reorganized itself, committing one of its business units to future Call of Duty games. Presumably the Other CoD developer Treyarch …
Normally this would be filed under First Impressions, because that’s what we use when we’re talking about our first impressions of stuff. Clever, huh?
But these aren’t my first impressions of The Void. They are my eleventh impressions. And we don’t have a category for that.
So here are my eleventh impressions of The Void, a game by Russian studio Ice-Pick Lodge, creator of Pathologic and one of the great underappreciated art houses of development. Bear with me, as we’re about to talk about one of the oddest, smartest, hardest, and… dare I say it? Sexiest games I’ve ever played.
Well, that was a fairly lengthy wait. After initially penning my thoughts on the iPad and my own personal purchasing dilemma back in March, the iPad has finally been made available for pre-order beyond the state lines and borders of the good old Yoo Ess. It’s been a long old wait, one not helped by an almost constant desire to import, but one I’m hoping will prove to be worth it in the long run. …
Cipher Prime, the musically-inclined two-man indie studio that last producted the gloriously elegant and lovely Auditorium, is back today with Fractal, another ethereal puzzler with roots of Tetris, Bejeweled, Peggle, beepy music, clean art direction, and a steadily ramping difficulty curve that quickly turns ferocious. Check out the demo here.
If you aren’t aware, the ASCII matrix that is Dwarf Fortress has a reputation of procedurally generating some of the most incredible (and hilarious) strings of events you’re likely to see in a game, and naturally, players have chronicled these events through storytelling. These stories, in many cases, are so nuanced that it beggars belief that they occurred verbatim in a game and not in the mind of some zealous (and slightly deranged) storyteller. Anyway, …
Tired? Stressed? Working too long? Struggling to muster up enough energy to get busy with the better half? Perhaps your smartphone is to blame. According to Gizmodo sister site Jezebel, a recent study conducted by pharmaceutical company Bayer revealed that 28% of women blamed the iPhone and Blackberry for the lack of their partners sex drive. Sitting alongside other predictable factors such as fatigue and the everyday stresses of the working man, smartphones increasingly appear …
I miss things sometimes, and I’m definitely guilty here – a new indie from UK-based Mode 7 Games called Frozen Synapse has, despite being in the works for some time, just recently crossed my radar screen. A tactical, simultaneous, turn-based PBEM infiltration and ass-kicking game, its simplistically lush visuals and haunting score so far remind me of Introversion’s upcoming game Subversion. Beta’s available now with a pre-order, and looks fascinating. Just imagine, now Lewis will …
Brace yourselves, here comes the crazy train. The new Humble Indie Bundle features five highly acclaimed indie games (with a combined cost of about $80) and is available for whatever price you see fit. What’s more is that the games are DRM free and you can divide your payment whichever way you like amongst the developers, the Child’s Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It’s win-win-win. Did I mention how much win it was?
Those of you with a certain degree of self respect, who have resisted the mighty pull of Just Dance, will be rejoicing today as the May 1st sales chart for entertainment software shows Just Dance has finally been toppled. The title synonymous with lonely housewives, scarily happy families and disillusioned grandparents has spent a staggering 3,243,000 weeks at the number one spot. Sadly it has been replaced by Fifa World Cup South Africa; a case …
I watched Avatar on Blu-Ray over the weekend. A great deal has been said about the largest grossing film of all time. The quality of its visual effects, however, have never been in doubt. Its high definition clarity absolutely mesmerizing on Blu-Ray, so much so you forget that you ever saw it in 3D, and wondered why you had in the first place. What surprises me most though, is that critics and individuals continue to …
Hey kids, you’re about to learn a fine new piece of Videogames Industry Phraseology. It’s new, even for my kind! We’ve only been using it for like a month, and now you’re about to uncover its mysteries… When a publisher – say, hypothetically, Microsoft – announces that a game – say, hypothetically, Remedy’s upcoming Alan Wake – will utilize “Project Ten Dollar” style DLC, what do you think that means? UPDATE: despite my concerns, Kotaku …