Latest Articles
Articles 11 years ago
The Pros and Cons of Blocking the Second Hand Market
More than once, the second hand video games market has been called worse than piracy. Like piracy, the actual creator of the game gets absolutely nothing from your playing their title, but unlike if you'd just downloaded the game for free, you're actively giving your money to somebody else, and the difference in cost that that makes is often either very small (a matter of £2-3, especially at launch) or available specifically because the developer isn't getting a single penny from the sale.
Articles 11 years ago
The Art of Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite is quickly becoming one of the top rated games this generation and, more, taking its place amongst the Final Fantasy 7s and Ocarina of Times that make up the best games ever. A huge part of that is thanks to its emphasis on the world the player inhabits. Columbia is a meticulously built paradise in the sky, a paradise that it's impossible not to want to explore.
Articles, News 11 years ago
Evoland – Interview with Sebastien Vidal, CEO of Shiro Games
Evoland takes the key gameplay components many of us grew up with and melds them together into a game that not only relives some of the best adventures of the late-eighties and nineties, but also is just pretty fun in its own right. Beginning life as a Ludum Dare competition winner, Shiro Games built upon the initial concept and created something that anyone old enough to remember the massive change between Final Fantasy VI and VII, or how rapidly games…
Articles, News 11 years ago
Kings & Warlords – Producer Interview
Kings & Warlords is a popular MMORTS game with tens of thousands of fans and many dedicated players. It's a genre that has grown in recent years, thanks in part to games like Farmville acting as a gateway to other, more fantasy-driven casual experiences. Today it's the genre of choice for film tie-ins - both The Godfather and The Hobbit have seen MMORTS games based upon them - and its popularity doesn't seem to be waning. We were lucky enough to be able to speak with the producer of Kings & Warlords, Miika Tams, about how developer Digital Chocolate differentiates themselves from the crowd, about conversing with their fans and those who are unsure of the free-to-play market, and the future of their game.
Articles 12 years ago
The Mobile Movement: How The Indie Revolution is Changing the Industry
At some point over the last six or seven years, the gaming world completely changed. The omnipotent power of the big publishers started to wane and, thanks to more open platforms like Steam, Android and the App Store on iDevices, smaller developers could release a game and have it sell hundreds of thousands, if not millions of copies. Perhaps the biggest indicator of this shift in recent weeks was at the BAFTAs. Indie games took home almost every single prize, the most surprising of which was when industry mega-sellers like Forza and FIFA lost out in the sports section to New Star Soccer.
Articles 12 years ago
“You Asked For This” – The Road to SimCity is Paved with Anti-Piracy Emotional Blackmail
It's difficult to get an unbiased view on piracy. People who download content illegally are either thieves or are paving the way for a more consumer-friendly tomorrow; publishers are either protecting their intellectual property or are pushing honest gamers to jump through hoops in order to enjoy their purchase (often when pirates get access without any issue). Sometimes the line between the two options blurs and all the statements end up being true. This has come further into light thanks to EA's SimCity, which boasts a need for an always-on connection. We've all been told that piracy is stealing, that each game pirated is a meal out of a developer's baby's mouth. Many of us have believed it. Many of us have defended it. What if we were wrong?
Articles, News 12 years ago
PS4 Backwards Compatibility Explained: Why Sony Ditched Offline BC and Why The Cloud is the Future
The big issue for the PlayStation 4 is its lack of offline backwards compatibility. It’s the most often repeated complaint, often followed some variation of the phrase “it’s not a deal breaker, but really Sony should have made more of an effort.”
Articles 12 years ago
ACIV Reveals more than Expected on Next-Gen
Ubisoft's press release revealing Assassin's Creed IV Black Flags was a masterclass in not saying things, but it left a pretty large set of lines within which to read between. Given that this is one of our first official announcements of a multi-gen game, it was interesting to see whoever wrote it squirm between too much information and not enough. Although it largely only confirms things we already knew, it's possible to make a few vague conclusions about release dates and power based on where the press release fell short.
Articles 12 years ago
History Reveals the plot of ACIV
Assassin’s Creed IV has been officially unveiled today, along with information on the main protagonist, Edward Kenway, and on the age it’ll be set in. Based at the beginning of the eighteenth century, we know for a fact that the story absolutely has to take place between 1700 and 1725 (the year Edward’s son, Haytham, was born). There’s always a chance that part of the game will have you controlling Haytham, but for now let’s presume that Ubisoft are being…