Archive for the ‘PC’ Category

Why I’ve Decided to Give Up All Other Games and Just Play League of Legends

My dear friends, I am tired.

I’m tired of videogame release after videogame release, all vying for my attention and my increasingly dwindling pool of time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last several hectic months of my life, it’s that there is such a thing as spreading yourself too thin. If you play too many games, regardless of your good intentions, it becomes near impossible to do justice to any of them.

So I’m done.

Not with games per se, but with playing so very many games. The Final Fantasies, Legend of Zeldas and Call of Duties of the world will hardly miss me if I leave them in my past in order to focus on new horizons. New and insanely popular horizons. Yes, the world’s most played game is calling my name, and its name, of course, is League of Legends.

I may only have dabbled in the game in the past, but what I have played is enough to convince me that I’m making the right call here. There just isn’t a more replayable game out there – it just flat-out doesn’t exist. Every game of LoL is different, and though it’s surprisingly easy to get your head around at first, its sheer, near-bottomless depth, constantly shifting metagame and regular content updates have made it one of the biggest eSports on the planet. And, i mean, have you seen an official League of Legends eSports broadcast? They are so polished I sometimes can’t tell whether I’m watching a traditional sporting presentation or not.

It’s bananas, yo.

I’m not saying I’ll ever be any good at the game, but I’m starting to see what all the hype is about, and it’s just about time to take the plunge. Faced with less free time than I’ve ever had in my life before, League of Legends offers me what other games cannot – an experience that never truly ends, but can be enjoyed in bite-sized pieces. 27 million daily players cannot be wrong.

See you online.

 

Game Review: Towerfall Ascension

This review was an unfinished draft destined for obscurity a month or two ago, but now Sony has announced that the game is free on Playstation Plus this month, so hello relevance! Only a couple of days left to add this one to your cart for no cost, though.

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Platform:
PS4, PC
Developer:
Matt Makes Games
Rating: PG
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I've never reviewed a download-only game before on this blog, so this presentation style is a trial.

I’ve never reviewed a download-only game before on this blog, so this presentation style is a trial.

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It’s Bow-etry in Motion.
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Spawning, taking a split second to line up a perfect cross-stage shot, loosing an arrow that pins one opponent to the wall, double-jumping over to his corpse to retrieve both your arrow and his, leaping down to meet a fresh airborne assault, timing a button press just right to catch an incoming projectile, retaliating instantly with a pair of arrows to nab a second kill, feinting a ranged attack on the sole remaining player before accelerating your fall and ending her with a swift head-stomp. All your opponents are in the same room as you, and all you need to do is glance around with a grin on your face to confirm their priceless rage.

The spirit of cut-throat local competitive multiplayer is not dead, nor is it exclusive to Nintendo consoles. Towerfall Ascension is proof enough of that. It’s charming, manic and highly customisable, and over four months after its launch it remains unquestionably my favourite game currently available on the PS4.

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The Power of the Steam Sale

Day number two. Here’s a friend of mine who has recently followed the light at the end of the Steam-powered tunnel.

—Written by CrAk3rs—

—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—

Steam and sales – two words that are burnt into the minds of the lucky people who are part of the glorious PC Master Race, (sorry console kids). The sales are those of legend, creating hysteria, hype and pandemonium, ravaging our wallets of the hard earned cash that we have so long worked for.  But Steam hasn’t always been the go-to marketplace for PC. Believe it or not there once was a time where people were highly critical of the platform.

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My Titanfall Beta Impressions

Shortly after it went live (in closed form) on February 14th, I dived into the very exciting beta version of Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming Xbox One pseudo-exclusive Titanfall and played quite a bit of it. Since then it has moved into open status and then finished up entirely. If you didn’t have a chance to play it or simply feel like reading about a different perspective on the whirlwind week, read on.
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MOTION FLOW

The first thing I noticed when I got started in the Titanfall beta was the immense focus on constant movement. Titanfall thrives on ensuring that every action flows easily into another action and it is this, rather than the presence of Titans per se, that defines the game. At least half of every match (much more if you’re me) is spent outside of a Titan, but that part of the experience doesn’t feel like a standard FPS might, due mostly to the ability to “wall-run” and double jump with the aid of a jetpack-style implement. Sure, you can stay low and take people on at street level as a Titan-less pilot, but that puts you at a tremendous disadvantage should you meet one. Verticality is the name of the game and going up is easy. Once you get the hang of the airborne movement mechanics, which are all about just one button and a sense of timing, the feeling is awesome. Comparing it to the action of anime series Attack on Titan yields more than just name-based similarities.
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Game Review: Remember Me

I’m in d-d-d-danger, Pinocchio…

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Platform:
PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer:
DONTNOD
Rating: M
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Yes, that is the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Yes, that is the Eiffel Tower in the background.

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I won’t forget.
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The general internet consensus on Remember Me hasn’t been too kind. The conveniently pun-tastic line that the game is “forgettable” dominates many sites and forums. However, with some caveats, I beg to differ. The game does have the misfortune of releasing very close to the excellent The Last of Us and, yes, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. Remember Me may be a rather flawed videogame experience, but it packs enough memorable moments to be worth a play.
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Infinite Musings

There you have it, a hat-trick of Bioshock Infinite posts!

So I just finished Bioshock Infinite last night. This is a game that people are likely to want to talk about for a long while yet, and for good reason. I’m no exception, so here I’m just going to post some of my freshly spun thoughts on the game. I see no point giving it a serious review, if for no other reason than to avoid confusion on the site later on. It’s wall o’ text time.

I’ve separated my helter-skelter thoughts into positive, neutral and negative categories for, well, just for the sake of categorising them really. I will keep all mentions of the game’s ending in their own section at the end for people who don’t want it spoiled.

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Top 5 Tomb Raider Moments

Ooooh

I am quite fond of Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics’ latest effort, the rebooted Tomb Raider (You can read about just how fond of it I am in my review here). While playing through the game I came across quite a few memorable moments worth mentioning and thought they deserved their own post. If you haven’t played the game yet, I recommend that instead of reading this, you go and play it right now.

Spoilers

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