Red Faction: Guerilla Review

Positives:

Enjoyable destruction physics and gameplay
Creative and fun missions
Good weapon variety and feel
Fun arcade-ish driving
Open world options

Negatives:

Open world can feel a little too directionless at times

Summary:

An enjoyable romp through an open world built to be destroyed but that occasionally leaves you wondering what is next

Rating:

8.5 / 10

Recommendations:

Best played with a mouse and keyboard for better shooting accuracy

Darksiders Review

Positives:

Fun, addictive, visceral combat
Enjoyable, if predictable, storyline
Some cleverly designed puzzles
Enjoyable weapon and tool variations

Negatives:

Puzzles at times feel tacked on and overdone
Last stage of the game is twice its appropriate length

Summary:

A fun, predictable, action game that does best when focusing on its strengths (combat) but loses itself a bit towards the end with excessive puzzles and dungeon crawling

Rating:

8.5 / 10

Recommendations:

Best played with a gamepad

The End of Used Games

I’m surprised it’s taken this long for used games to be eliminated, but I guess it required a new console generation.  Regardless, eliminating used game sales is an obvious move.  And I for one am actually enthusiastic about the idea of eliminating used games as I think it will reduce the cost of games overall (game publishers have profit metrics they need to hit regardless of delivery method, and if there are no more used sales, a larger share of the profits are going to the publishers lowering the burden on new games to pay for all of their profit).

I don’t however think it will behave as Paul Tassi says.  Instead, I think you are looking at a prisoner’s dilemma problem in the “older” game market.  For the game developers as a whole, it would be better to agree to a consistent slightly reduced price and not deviate from it.  That way, gamers will want games and be forced to pay the higher prices for them.  However, it is in the best interest of each individual publisher to have everyone else keep the price of their games high while that developer offers discounts and all the sales flock to their now lower-priced games.  That competition will be awfully difficult to avoid.  Now Microsoft and Sony will have the desire certainly to try to corral the developers and keep prices high, but the competition will also exist between the platforms.  Many gamers will have multiple consoles (and a PC!) and will quickly switch their gaming habits (all else being equal) to whatever platform offers the best deals.

It would be unfortunate if console gamers had to wait an entire additional generation to see one-year-old games for less than $10 which is commonplace on Steam.  Fortunately, I don’t see that happening, but of course, my opinion plus a cup of coffee can get you a cup of coffee.

Best Buy is Shrinking!

Does this surprise anyone?  If you are even semi-interested in electronics, you should know already that online retailers have significantly better deals than Best Buy almost every day.  In my experience the difference is 20%-50% for most items.  And forget about buying computer components.

The problem is places like Best Buy rely on customer ignorance and impulse purchases to keep their margins.  As customers become aware of the ease and competitiveness of the online retailers, there is just no real reason to visit a Best Buy.

If instead, they offered helpful salespeople and slightly higher prices, I could see some value there, but online retailers offer better prices and typically provide much more information.

Game Journalists Beholden to Publishers?

Paul Tassi says that instances of companies exerting pressure on gaming journalists for positive reviews are very rare.  To that I say, they only need exist to impact other journalists.  An autocratic regime only needs to beat and teargas one group of protesters before all other potential protesters take notice.  I would guarantee that every game journo knows of the “few” stories out there of this happening.  How could it not be in the back of your mind as you write reviews on a game of a goliath like EA or Activision that are so critical to your future access to the latest and greatest games?  If nothing else, it provides for a sentinel effect.  I can’t say it’s rare or common, but simple human nature (self preservation etc) would indicate that it at least matters.

Please don’t misunderstand me in that I am not saying any mainstream journalists are bad people or in any way deceitful.  Without knowing any of them, my guess would be that they are all perfectly fine people, but they are still obviously operating under a clear conflict of interest (acknowledged or otherwise).  There are probably lots of people in similar situations across any number of industries who are able to maintain professionalism, but that conflict of interest still exists, and no one should hold any illusions to the contrary.

Baldur's Gate on an iPad?

Somehow this is unsettling to me.  Maybe they can make it good, but... spend that time developing the game for a real platform.  What is the use case where someone buys a game like Baldur's Gate which takes dozens of hours to finish (IIRC) on an iPad.  No thanks for me.

Primary Threat to PC Gaming

Stardock says it Apple Airplay.  I don't know the tech, but I find it questionable (you know, just because).

Mass Effect Ending Actually Good?

If the real Mass Effect ending was so good that everyone missed it, it was actually bad.  Just sayin’.

An Elder Scrolls MMO?

Am I the only one around that isn’t interested in seeing  one more great single player franchise invest their time in a multiplayer environment?  I realize this doesn’t necessarily mean that single player game development will cease, but it would be naïve to think it will occur with the same intensity as talent will be drawn from those games.  I am one of the unlucky few who hasn’t yet played Skyrim because I am cheap and I have a ton of other great stuff to play (e.g. The Witcher), however, I am definitely looking forward to it, and I am clearly looking forward to whatever the next version will be and even the DLC.  MMOs are big bulky adventures that can be great, but because of their nature, they by definition require a huge investment of time, and potentially money (although more likely than not, all new MMOs will be free to play soon enough).

Personally, I like single player games because they allow you to be the hero.  MMOs attempt to do this, but because everyone is already in the game, they simply can't provide the feeling of uniqueness - particularly if your time in the game is limited.

New Simcity Game Concerns

Seeing the news of a new SimCity game seems like generally excellent news.  The items demoed in the video at the link seem like excellent additions.  My real concern with the agent problem comes down to scale.  Like I imagine a lot of Simcity players, I like make big freakin’ honking cities with 1 million+ residents.  Will the agents be able to scale that large without grinding my i7 to a halt or will it be limited to 10K agents or something and you will get truly strange results by grouping agents into 100 people (nobody lives in 24 houses, and 100 people live in one)?  I’m all for software pushing hardware for a change, but I just hope this is handled correctly.