Xbox One Eighty
I love that play on words above, and a one eighty it truly has been. Like many, I am truly amazed that Microsoft backpedaled this much. And maybe I’m cynical, but I don’t trust it. This is how I see it (and its hardly a unique perspective). Microsoft knew that, all things equal, they would sell a crap load of systems, pretty much no matter what. They would sell a crap load of games. They would make money. Because they’re Microsoft, becuase they have the Xbox (and Halo) and they’ve been successful so far. So what they did, was take a gamble. They said, lets throw out a maximum profit plan. There would be no room for their customers to wiggle out of their grip if they wanted their Xbox games. The publishers would make more, Microsoft would make more, and most retailers would probably make more as well. And then…
How To Share a PS4 Game
Sony has a new video showing how to share a PS4 game. This pretty much sums up their attitude when it comes to next gen as well. I’ll be the first to say the PS4 can be a pain in the ass to use, but I think Sony has learned their lesson. I’m sure they’ll come along and released something as bad as Xbox One, but at the moment they are definitely giving a better showing.
Parallells Between Video Games Industry and Publishing Industry
Gamepolitics published Microsoft’s FAQ for the Xbox One today, and it’s really interesting to see some familiar ideologies. Ones I’ve been reading about in publishing. Namely, paranoia. Basically, if you don’t connect to the internet every 24 hours, it won’t play games. Publishers will have the option to disable used games. They can also choose what retailers will be able to participate and whether or not a fee will be applied to the trade in. They will have the option to disable allowing your friends to borrow games. They will have the option to disable game rentals. Now, it’s really too soon to tell, but if this is true, it reeks of a paranoia I would usually ascribe to Apple. They want to monitor every purchase you make and ensure they don’t lose one solitary sale. And if it were were digital sales only, it wouldn’t be as big a…
Shadowrun
I wanted to write a review for X-Com, because I just bought it and it’s a lot of fun and was a pretty big deal in gaming…but I don’t really have anything to add at this point. It’s fun, go play it. So, instead I’ll discuss the reason I bought it in the first place. I was checking out Gamestop’s digital sales and when they didn’t have anything I switched over to Steam. That’s where I saw a game coming out this month. I’d read an article in GameInformer sometime last year and it caught my attention. The more I looked at it, the more I learned about it, the more intrigued I became. I spent about three hours reading about the world of Shadowrun and its upcoming game, Shadowrun Returns. It got me so excited to play something that when I found X-Com on sale for ten bucks I…
Bioshock Infinite: A late Review
First and foremost to say about Bioshock Infinite, it is a fantastic video game and one of the single greatest arguments I have ever seen for the artistic quality of the medium. It is vibrant, with strong characters, and a great plot. So let’s talk about some of this. By now, everyone probably gets the gist of things. Bioshock has always been a world driven production. Whereas the first two took place in the underwater city of Rapture, this one takes place in the floating city of Columbia. Whereas Rapture was driven by personal development, hard work, science, the arts, business, Columbia is driven purely by fanatical religion and nationalism. Now, some people might have a problem with some of the portrayals in the game. White people, Christians, religion in general, and civic pride are depicted as horrible, the root of all evil. Keep in mind though that the Bioshock…
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