Friday, October 11, 2013
Portland Retro Gaming, The Last Of Us, and Cronos
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Events: Just this past weekend I made the trip down to
Oregon for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo.
I went last year and had a great time not only because it's great to see the old stuff I grew up with, but also because it's family-friendly event, it’s not nearly as crowded as PAX, and the vibe is mellow and relaxed.
If you've never been, it takes place in the Oregon
Convention Center, and the floor is roughly divided into two sections. The
first is the sales floor when there are all sorts of game-oriented arts and
crafts, in addition to all of the vintage stuff that you might be after -- everything
including consoles, games, arcade parts, toys and so on. The other half of the
hall is the free play area, where there are dozens of home consoles set up for
anyone to play, in addition to arcade machines and pinball as well.
It's wonderful to see these classics in action, and it was
especially nice to go this year because my youngest (page 4) finally understands
pinball and was able to play with a purpose, so seeing him get lost in the
flashing lights and clacking flippers was a true high point as a parent.
The event runs well into the night both days, and there are also
panels and other events happening at the same time. If you're ever in the area
when the PRGE is happening, I definitely recommend it… It's great to get such
an intense blast from the past, and it's one of the things I look forward to
all year.
See you there in 2014!
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Podcasts: Although the @Gamecritics crew will be recording another formal podcast episode this Friday, we've been experimenting with Google hangout and streaming that to YouTube, and tonight was the first time that we made it available for public viewing. It's rough as hell and a work in progress, but in case you're interested, you can click this link and check it out. It's a good chunk of talk and we had a couple of surprise guests who don't usually make it onto the proper podcast.
In case you weren't watching it live, will definitely be
doing it again and will be open for questions and comments while we record.
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Games: Although I've been dabbling with a few things here and there, what I had planned to focus on was The Last of Us from Naughty Dog.
I'm sure that it’s old news by now to many of you reading
this, but I didn't have a chance to play it earlier due to other review
obligations, and since I'm sure it's going to be brought up in discussions as
we get ready to close out 2013, I figured I should probably get around to it.
That was the plan, anyway.
 |
| The part I was enjoying. |
I got about four hours into it, and although I’m not much of
an Uncharted fan, I found myself really enjoying the game. The story and characters were interesting,
the opening scene was amazing, and apart from a few issues here and there, I
was glad to go along for the ride.
Then, I got to Bill’s area.
There’s one particular scene where the main characters are
being chased, and they need to go inside a room to take cover
from enemies. Every time I got to this
point, the game hard-locked my PS3 and I could not continue. At first I thought it was just a random freeze,
so I re-loaded and tried again with the same result. I tried again, and again, the console locked
up.
 |
| The part where I got stuck. |
At this point I went online to see if anyone else had had a
similar problem, and I immediately found several messages on different
forums from people complaining about the same issue. (I hadn’t heard much about this, but
apparently plenty of people are having issues with TLOU.) There were some suggestions on how to get the game back on
track, and I tried them all – I turned off cloud saving, I tried to make sure
that Ellie went into the room first, I started the entire chapter over and made
my way back to the same point… Nothing
helped.
I would genuinely like to continue playing the game but it’s
just not possible, and I’m not going to start over from the beginning with no
guarantee that I won’t get stuck in the exact same place, or in some other
place afterward. I’m calling it quits
for now, and I’ll probably started again when it becomes a free game for PS
Plus members on the PS4…
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Movies: Finally, just a quick shout out to the movie Cronos from Guillermo Del Toro.
I remember seeing this film at my local video store (in VHS,
no less) when it first came out back in 1993 or so, but although I picked it up
off of the shelf several times, I never rented it. Now that I'm a fan of his, I
only recently remembered that I had never seen it, and quickly made up some
popcorn before downloading it from iTunes.
The gist is that an old man finds a device which is capable
of providing everlasting life, but course there’s a downside. Of course there’s more to it than that but I
don’t want to spoil it for anyone, although I will say that it ended up being
something entirely different from what I was expecting. Still excellent, but very different.
Recommended!
********************PR/NEWS/INFO****** **************
BetaDwarf Entertainment, an award-winning independent game
studio, today announced it will hold a tournament for its debut title, the
co-op action RPG Forced, from October 11 to October 13, 2013. The
tournament, co-sponsored by a number of high-profile partners, provides gamers
with the early opportunity to win gear and experience the fast-paced
multiplayer gameplay that made Forced a hit at this year’s PAX Prime
and Gamescom. The game will officially launch on Steam and other popular
digital distribution platforms for PC, Mac, and Linux on October 24, 2013. Forced will
also see Wii U and next-gen releases in 2014, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
launches planned.
To participate in the tournament, simply download the Forced demo
from Steam and follow the info here: forcedthegame.com/tournament.
Here you will also find more information about the tournament, including exact
timing and prizes.
View the tournament trailer here: http://youtu.be/foX4NJQQ3Xc
Learn more about Forced’s unique multiplayer
mechanics in the newly released “Spirit Orb” trailer: http://youtu.be/p-C3efKGjJs
Visit: www.forcedthegame.com
Like the game on Facebook: www.facebook.com/forcedthegame
Follow BetaDwarf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BetaDwarf
Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/betadwarf
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The 2013 IndieCade named this year’s award winners, including
the Grand Jury Award going to Quadrilateral Cowboy,
created by Blendo Games. IndieCade recognizes superior examples of story
development, visual, technological, audio and all-around independent game
titles as well as creators who have greatly contributed to the independent
gaming field.
Ten of the winners, including the Grand Jury Award, were
announced at the Red Carpet awards show on Thursday, Oct. 3. The Grand
Jury Award allows IndieCade’s Distinguished Award Jurors to select a game
that they feel deserves a special citation for overall excellence. This could
be a game that couldn’t fit into any other category, but the jury each year
determines the criteria for assignment of this award. Past recipients could
have included Gravitation (2008), Moon Stories (2009), Groping
in the Dark (2010), Fez (2011) and Unmanned (2012). This
year the jury chose from more than 850 games from six different
continents. On Sunday, Oct. 5 the Game Changer, Audience, Developer
and Media Choice Awards were announced at the closing party.
This year’s IndieCade included the debut of two new awards:
The Media Choice award, given to the game the most media members selected as
their favorite, as well as The Trailblazer Award, given to a relative
newcomer who has shaken things up and used games in original as well as innovative
ways.
“Every year IndieCade’s awards recognize a diverse array of
titles and some of the brightest developers in indie gaming, increasing
awareness for this exceptional craft,” said Stephanie Barish, CEO, IndieCade.
“It is an honor to identify these amazing projects and we are proud to provide
a platform which helps distinguish these games and their creators.”
The game and developer winners this year are:
Grand
Jury Award: Quadrilateral
Cowboy – Blendo Games
Visuals: Kentucky Route Zero – Cardboard
Computer
Audio: Gone Home – The
Fullbright Company
Impact: Dog Eat Dog –
Liwanag Press
Interaction: Spaceteam – Henry
Smith
Game
Design: NIDHOGG – MESSHOF
Technology: Spin the Bottle:
Bumpie’s Party – KnapNok Games & Redgrim
Story/
World Design: Kentucky
Route Zero – Cardboard Computer
Special
Recognition: Porpentine’s Twine Compilation – Porpentine
The
Trailblazers Award: Tracy Fullerton
Game
Changer Award: Anna
Anthropy
Developers
Choice Award: Killer
Queen Arcade – Joshua DeBonis & Nikita Mikros
Audience
Choice Award: Slash
Dash – Nevernaut
Media
Choice Award: TowerFall –
Matt Makes Games
For more information, visit http://www.indiecade.com/
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In 1993, a rash of ritual voodoo murders took place in the
swamps and back alleys of New Orleans. With local police baffled, only one man
was equipped to solve the case: Gabriel Knight, owner of a French Quarter
bookstore, struggling novelist, and an unwitting descendent in a long line of
shadow-hunting Schattenjägers. Armed with little more than a sacred dagger and
talisman, his N'awlins drawl, and his own irresistible brand of charm, Gabriel
Knightquickly became a gaming sensation when Sierra On-Line released his first
adventure, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers®, in December 1993.
Twenty years later, the charismatic Schattenjäger is making
a welcome comeback thanks to the work of Gabriel Knight® creator Jane
Jensen's indie development studio, Pinkerton Road LLC, which licensed the Gabriel
Knight IP from Activision Publishing, Inc.. The Gabriel Knight: Sins
of the Fathers 20th anniversary edition is planned for a mid-2014 release
as a digital download for PC, Mac®, iPad®, and Android™. The game is being
reconstructed from scratch with all new retina display quality visuals and
voice recording, in a development process overseen by Jensen.
The revamped Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers will
feature the same mature storyline and puzzle solving as the 1993 version, with
research assistant Grace Nakimura, the inept Detective Mosely, and the local
color of New Orleans supporting Gabriel's paranormal investigation. Stunning
high-res (2048x1536) 3D graphics will replace the original 640x480 resolution
pixel art, presenting the authentic New Orleans environments with more detail
than ever before. The remake will also have a remastered soundtrack by Robert
Holmes, the game's original composer, and will include special edition content.
Today CCP released the latest of its promised updates
to DUST 514, titled Uprising 1.5. As always, CCP remains
committed to improving and tweaking the core game experience of DUST 514 as
well as incorporating community feedback. Uprising 1.5 is the
latest installment in the series of these rapid-fire updates.
Uprising 1.5 focuses on new and expanded Corporation
Roles as well as a revised New Player Experience and the all-new Squad
Finder. Some of the updates include:
Revised New Player Experience: Initial tutorials have
been completely revised, now following a task-driven structure that rewards
players for demonstrating proficiency in joining battles, creating fittings and
training skills. Rewards are granted in the form of militia dropsuits,
vehicles, weapons and modules.
Squad Finder: Squads are designed to help get players
grouped up and battling together in DUST 514. The new Squad Finder
will list all available squads that are not yet deployed into battle and are
waiting on new players to join them.
New Corporation Roles: Corporation CEOs and directors
can now distribute specific roles to other members within the corporation. The
roles that can be assigned are: Accountant, Personnel Director, Terrestrial
Combat Officer and Terrestrial Logistics Officer.
More details can be found in CCP’s Uprising 1.5 dev
blogs on the Squad Finder feature, Corporation Roles and the New Player Experience. Full patch notes available here.
DUST 514 brings intense infantry combat, large-scale
warfare and deep character advancement to the PlayStation 3 in an exclusive
free-to-play massively multiplayer shooter. Set in, and integrated with, the
massive universe of EVE Online™, players wage war in the next generation of
first-person shooters, where a single victory could prove the crushing blow to
a galactic empire of thousands of online gamers. For more information,
visit www.dust514.com
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Dark Matter Arkfalls, launched alongside the Castithan
Charge Pack DLC are an entirely new breed of Minor and Major arkfalls in Defiance that
are raining down across the Bay Area. Each event puts the player in an
incredibly tense and exciting situation where players must race against time to
defeat increasingly difficult waves of Dark Matter soldiers, destroy arkfall
cores, and in the Major "Extraction Force" battle - take revenge
on The Monolith itself.
The Defiance team has included a detailed spotlight on Dark Matter arkfalls here - http://community.defiance.com/en/2013/10/09/feature-spotlight-dark-matter-arkfalls/. The blog highlights the objectives and provides useful tips, tricks and strategies to surviving and gaining valuable rewards.
The Defiance team has included a detailed spotlight on Dark Matter arkfalls here - http://community.defiance.com/en/2013/10/09/feature-spotlight-dark-matter-arkfalls/. The blog highlights the objectives and provides useful tips, tricks and strategies to surviving and gaining valuable rewards.
Trailer: http://youtu.be/-Wyk-hQl_Xw
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