Fanboys – and Fangirls – unite! This week’s Bosscast topic of the week revolves around console loyalty. We also talk about Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, The War Z, The Walking Dead Episode 5, assorted Wii U games, and more!
Head over to Splitkick to listen to episode 3!
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Jett – In Third Person
Jason – Downstab
Mat – Biff Bam Pop
As I tend to do every year, December is year in review month. Throughout the month of December, there will be a bunch of retrospective posts relating to video games and this site, which will ultimately lead to my pick for 2012 game of the year! Last year, Catherine pulled off an epic upset against Skyrim. Will another upset happen again this year? Or will I just choose the latest Capcom fighting game like I usually do?
SPOILERS: Street Fighter X Tekken will not be In Third Person’s 2012 game of the year.
So yes, stay tuned for all of the retrospective posts starting on December 1st!
Though it’s one of the most storied franchises in all of gaming, I’ve largely ignored Castlevania. Having only played bits of the original, and Super Castlevania IV, its demon-slaying action didn’t grab me at the time. Though I understand that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is revered as one of the greatest games of all-time, I’ve passed on it repeatedly, knowing that I’m terrible at the Metroid style of world.
If it weren’t for the God of War influence, coming across it for cheap, and my girlfriend wanting to play this together, I probably would have passed on Lords of Shadow too. After a year or so of it sitting on my shelf, I finally gave it a shot recently.
When it comes to 3D fighting games, Soulcalibur is my bread and butter. Say what you will about Tekken or Virtua Fighter, I’ve generally enjoyed the fast-paced, weapons-based combat of the franchise over any other 3D fighting game offering. Soulcalibur II was my introduction to the series, and was incredible for its the time. However, by the time I got around to Soulcalibur IV, the formula felt dated, especially when compared to Street Fighter IV, which came out in the arcades at the same time. Street Fighter IV went on to define the modern-day fighting game blueprint, while Soulcalibur IV just felt old and was quickly forgotten.
With Soulcalibur V, Namco was clearly looking to make a title that better fit the modern era of fighting games. Besides some major gameplay system overhauls, they took the extra step of blowing out roughly half of the original roster and replacing them with all-new characters. Was the shake-up worth it?
Metacritic as a service is viewed as divisive among gaming enthusiasts. On one hand, it’s the major site that gives you an easy-to-find aggregate of numerous major gaming reviews for one game in one place. On the other hand, critics hate how it marginalizes full reviews into a number, its methods for aggregating reviews, and the significance certain entities place on the final Metacritic score.
My stance on Metacritic is a bit from column A, and a bit from column B, but I do oftentimes refer to Metacritic to inform my gaming purchases. I’m sure everyone has a way of interpreting the data, though I thought I’d share how I use it.
This is it. After 4 episodes of strife, the conclusion to The Walking Dead is upon us. Writing reviews for this particular franchise has proven difficult, as basically everything is a spoiler. Now that we’re at the conclusion, pretty much everything I could say is going to spoil something. I guess ultimately, I need to answer the burning question: does the series end on a high note?
Yes. Yes it does.
Ambition hasn’t been part of the Assassin’s Creed playbook for awhile now. Ever since Ezio’s debut, the last two spin-off titles felt like cash-grabs to strike while the iron’s hot. They didn’t do much to push the story forward, and their gameplay innovations varied wildly from great (the ability to call out fellow assassin’s for help) to bafflingly awful (tower defence). Though I’ve gotten some enjoyment out of these two games (more the first than the second), I’ve been waiting with bated breath for the real next step in the series.
Sporting a new world, a new main character and numerous revisions to its gameplay, Assassin’s Creed III has no shortage of ambition. In fact, had it delivered on everything it set out to do, this really could have been one of the best games ever. Unfortunately, this same ambition is the root cause of its many shortcomings.
After months of sitting on a pre-order, Steff and I’s Wii U came to us in the mail not long after launch. Though I’ve had the opportunity to play the system a few times at demo stations, I was really excited to try out the system for realsies in the comfort of my own home. Here’s how our initial experience went with setting it up and using it for the first few hours.
The biggest day in video game new releases is here! That is, if you pre-ordered or are standing in line right this second.
The Nintendo Wii U and its gigantic touchscreen controller are destined to be essentially sold out between now and Christmas. With that said, there are probably a bunch of you who got one at a midnight launch, or are in line for one this morning. I pre-ordered mine online, so it won’t arrive for the next few days, but I’m cool with that.
If you’ve got it, tell me what you think! If you don’t, do you have any interest in tracking one down while Wii U hype is at an all-time high?
My initial impressions of the Wii U back in August 2012 were lukewarm. While I approved of the general build quality and feel of the Wii U GamePad, neither Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition or Scribblenauts Unlimited did much to demonstrate what it was really capable of. Recently, I got to get my hands on a demo of Rayman Legends, which is the current showcase game at Wii U demo stations. Based on my experience with Rayman Origins, I was expecting this demo to show positively. What did catch me off guard was how well it leveraged the functionality of the Wii U GamePad.
In Third Person 