Aside from one attempt at a Need For Speed iPhone game, I’ve never played any of the games in this franchise. I’ve never held any sort of grudge against it, though its particular brand of racing action hasn’t really grabbed my attention, either. With Rivals, EA caught me at just the right point where their latest entry built up a lot of positive word-of-mouth during a weak console launch. Is this the game that hooks me in for good?
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playstation 4
Skylanders: Swap Force Review
The Skylanders franchise fell victim to the sophomore jinx. Skylanders Giants failed to address the issues of its predecessor while its biggest innovation was a boring character class that actually made the game less fun and more difficult to play. Clearly having learned its lesson, the Skylanders are back in their best adventure yet.
Contrast Impressions
One of the first products to come out as part of the PlayStation 4’s big indie push is Contrast. Created by Compulsion Games, this is a puzzle platformer that forces you to think of shadows in a different light (no pun intended). While it definitely looks cool and has an interesting gameplay hook on paper, some glaring production issues put me off fairly quickly.
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NBA 2K14: Travelling?
I’m experimenting with posting my PS4 videos here. It doesn’t let you spit out to YouTube, but it does let me host it in Facebook. I can’t embed a Facebook player here, but I can link to it. We’ll give it a shot and see how this goes. You don’t even need a Facebook account to watch the video! Magic.
First up, my create-a-character gets away with a few extra steps. Click on the image to see the video!
Call of Duty: Ghosts Review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was a bit of a write-off. Sure, it sucks that we as gamers got a sub-par experience due to the turmoil between Activision and former studio heads at Infinity Ward, but there’s nothing anyone can do about that now. With Ghosts, now is an opportune time to make good on their last misstep while proving that they can continue to deliver the goods even without many of the staff that originally established the franchise. On one hand, I think they’ve done just that by providing an experience that is on par with their past efforts. However, the innovations we saw in Black Ops II are sorely absent here, while Infinity Ward’s new ideas do little to liven up a stagnant formula.
Next Gen Bandwidth Usage
Most Canadians are subject to bandwidth caps by their internet service provider. Once you go over, you’re subject to steep overage fees. If you go even beyond that, they’ll just cut you off. I seldom break my cap, but we use most of what we have through our day-to-day online activities. The few times that I have broken the cap are usually caused by downloading one or two full-sized games, or from Steff going through one Netflix binge.
In this new era of video uploading, live streaming and digital game sizes that easily weigh in at dozens of gigabytes, it very well could put additional strain on my wallet in a way I originally didn’t anticipate.
The Great Game Purge of 2013
Pictured above is a receipt about two feet long. After making a snap judgment to trade in Battlefield 4, I also decided that there were 21 other games that were due to go, too. I generally don’t like to trade in games. Part of that is from the relatively low payouts that stores usually give. Also, after an incident many years ago where I was robbed of almost all of my video games, I’ve grown reluctant to let anything go. If a game has any sort of sentimental quality to me, or if I feel like I’ll ever want to play it again, I’ll keep it. However, over the course of many years, I took chances on a number of games that ultimately didn’t prove fruitful. Along with Battlefield 4, I blew out many of them in one fell swoop.
Resogun Review
From the makers of Super Stardust HD comes Resogun. This PlayStation 4 launch title is clearly building off the foundation of its spiritual predecessor and Geometry Wars, but that’s not a bad thing. Featuring a distinctive art style and gameplay that is a bit more involved than your traditional dual-stick shooter, Resogun makes a great first impression.
NBA 2K14 Review
NBA 2K14 and I got off on the wrong foot. Upon first booting up the game, I was immediately thrown into a quick match between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs while the game installs in the background. This took a good 30 minutes to complete. It’s odd being forced to play as the Miami Heat in a game where there’s only background music, but I guess I’ll take that over waiting a half hour for it to install. Once I completed that, I thought I’d finally get to play some hoops in its MyCareer mode. Instead, I largely sat through what seemed like hours of exposition that played out through a barrage of painful cutscenes.
First Impressions of the PlayStation 4
After months of waiting with bated breath, my PlayStation 4 finally arrived. Showing up at 10:30am, it sat at my building’s concierge desk until I could pick it up later that night. Once I did, I cracked the box open and stated noodling with it immediately.
In Third Person 