Microsoft, and in particular the Xbox brand, has struggled to get a leg up over the competition throughout the current generation. The Xbox One was controversial out of the gate, and even with continuous effort from Microsoft to improve user experience they aren’t keeping their customers. With previous major releases like Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 underperforming and potential system sellers like Scalebound getting cancelled, Microsoft has a lot of ground to make up. With only Crackdown 3, another Gears of War, another Halo, and another Forza on the horizon, Microsoft needs to make some major announcements of big, and most importantly new, exclusives to get people back on Xbox.
This week, Steam announced that it no longer plans on moderating any content put on it’s store, barring things that are “illegal” or “trolling.” What this means is obviously open to interpretation, with legality varying from country to country and trolling being possibly the most vague term they could have chosen.
The latter half of 2017 and the fist few months of 2018 were very eventful for Electronic Arts. Visceral Games was shuttered, and EA acquired Respawn Entertainment. The company almost singlehandedly launched a wave of government regulation because of the loot boxes in Star Wars Battlefront II. A Way Out was released and was very positively received by critics and players alike. More recently, the trailer for Battlefield V stirred controversy by showing a woman fighting in WWII (the gall of them).
‘Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn’ is a joke of a game. It wears the fact it’s a joke game on its sleeve. Unfortunately, the joke isn’t very funny. The gameplay is dull and repetitive, with no salvation in sight from the blandness of mashing a single button. The writing and art style are horribly dated, and not in a charming way. The music exists. And the length is an absolute joke for the cost, but even if there was more of it, it would just be terrible. Even under seven layers of irony, there are no redeeming qualities to make it worth a purchase. Finally, to add insult to injury, the game crashed at the very end during the final boss. The game got refunded after that. Do not purchase this game under any circumstances.
Overall, there was a lot of developments in this episode with the student’s demeanor and how the school is now being perceived by the public. It is a unique situation in a show for the heroes to be in a negative point of view. However, there is hope for our protagonists to still show that heroes will always prevail. As always, I am excited for next week’s episode.
'Detroit: Become Human' is an ambitious interactive sci-fi drama where your choices have a drastic impact on events, making them more satisfying than other games in the genre. Though I wish the story wasn’t so heavy-handed with game's motifs, I still enjoyed the subtlety conveyed through its tech and performances. Much of the gameplay could have been improved by giving more options with the mechanics, like the detective mode, and providing reminders of the choices I had already made. But I would still recommend this game for people looking for a story-driven game with branching paths.
‘Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon’ is a perfectly portioned appetizer to the upcoming main course of ‘Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.’ The game looks great, sounds great, and plays exactly like it should. The 'Castlevania' influence flows through all parts of this product, and despite my personal distaste for the original 'Castlevania' games, this game makes the right improvements on the gameplay to keep it fresh, fair, and fun. It even delivers a shocking amount of length for a game of this style. ‘Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon’ reaches ‘Shovel Knight’ levels of perfectly nailing the feel of an NES classic.
Show Dogs is one of the worst examples of condescending family entertainment this reviewer has seen in a long time. With extremely low production values and extremely shoddy writing, it is extremely hard to recommend to anyone who doesn’t feel nostalgic for an age of film making where movies like this were seen as tent pole films for studios across the board. However, if you have a sweet tooth for schlock like this and/or have younger family members who have an affinity for dogs… you’re still better off watching Air Bud and its cosmic smorgasbord of sequels.
'Solo: A Star Wars Story' has a lot of problems. Its writing is inconsistent, it’s too visually muddy, it needed to be about 20 minutes shorter, and it needed to have its own legs to stand on. Despite all of that, there are enough great action sequences and good character moments that the film can’t be written off as completely terrible. It can, however, be written off as bland and forgettable. Much like Han Solo himself, the film is enjoyable, but flawed and ultimately unimportant.
Nothing about Stardew Valley is inherently exciting. So what makes it so addicting to play?
Tonight the Pokémon Company announced a pair of new Pokémon titles Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!, as well as the free-to-start game Pokémon Quest for the Nintendo Switch.
This episode wrapped up an arc and began the next one. It dealt a lot with the aftermath of the attack, and highlighted what UA is going to do next. The animation is beautiful and shows some interesting scenes. It deals with the loss of a friend and how people feel about that. Overall, the episode helps excite the viewer for what is coming up next.
'Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux' is a tough game to really judge. All the parts I love about the game are present in the original, and the things added by the port ranged from neutral additions to actively ruining the experience. However, the original isn’t exactly easy to find for a low cost, despite its age. For those who are just now getting into actual 'Shin Megami Tensei' titles, 'Strange Journey Redux' will offer a great introduction with just enough anime to keep 'Persona' fans enticed. For longtime 'Shin Megami Tensei' fans who still own a copy of the original, wait for a sale before buying the port. There wasn’t enough effort put into the port to make it worth the full cost.
The humor in 'Deadpool 2' makes the movie worth watching and makes it an enjoyable experience. It’s fun to try and catch all of the references. The characters were enjoyable and grew throughout the movie. The action looked awesome, and the humor even showed up in serious moments.
So it's no secret that gaming online can be a really toxic, and playing online as a woman or a person of color comes with the hazard of ten year olds targeting you for that. There's plenty of evidence of this kind of griefing online, but what can be done? Systemic overhaul of the problematic culture around gaming? Turning off voicechat? No... clearly the only effective solution is hunting the bullies down.
A game that appeared on the Steam storefront today that will allow players to play as a school shooter is causing controversy, especially in light of the shooting at Santa Fe High School on May 18th. According to testimony from Russian developer Revived Games, the game will allow players to play either as an active shooter armed with an assault rifle, a member of a responding SWAT team, or a civilian, in what the developer calls a “survival mode.”
Deadpool unites a team of mutants called 'X-Force' for his explosive sequel. But, who exactly is on the team?
This episode was a different take on the attack on the training camp with some of Class 1-A being attacked by a classmate who cannot control their quirk. All of the villains of the Vanguard Action Squad are shown, and the viewer is able to see each creepy persona of the team. The fighting once again looks beautiful, and the stakes appear to be at the highest yet.
'Infectonator 3: Apocalypse' is certainly a Flash game brought to Steam. It keeps the simple fun gameplay of the original, but doesn’t have the meat expected of a Steam release. The game costs $13, and adds nothing to the experience to make it worth that price tag. The only thing that might be considered an “addition” from the Flash originals is added length, which serves to highlight how repetitive and shallow the gameplay actually is. Add on barely passable presentation and embarrassing jokes, and the game lacks the life of the original games. If you want to experience the Flash originals again, just go and play the originals.
