It’s not uncommon for the mechanics of a card or board game to make their way into a video game intact. But not many of those video games are as action-focused as Hand Of Fate, which Defiant Development are making for PCs, PlayStation 4, and, as they recently announced, Xbox One. But in talking to the game’s creative director, Morgan Jaffit, it seems there’s more to this game than what they’ve laid out on the table.
During a recent press tour, Team Ninja’s creative director Tom Lee answered questions about Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round, the latest and last iteration of this fighting game, which will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and digitally on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
While stealth action games usually have you playing as a sneaky spy, the genre has recently expanded its career choices to include a space mechanic (Alien: Isolation) and a homicide detective (The Evil Within). But none have gone as far a field as Styx Master Of Shadows (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC), a fantasy-flavored third-person stealth action game that has you playing as a real creep.
In 1999, when Sega built their South Park pinball table, it ended up being the last pinball table they would ever make. Let’s just hope that’s also not the fate of Zen Studios, who are bringing South Park Pinball — a two-fer with the tables South Park’s Super-Sweet Pinball and South Park: Butter’s Very Own Pinball Game — to Pinball FX2 for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PCs via Steam; Zen Pinball 2 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, WiiU, and Mac; and Zen Pinball for iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire.
After the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, The Last Of Us Remastered, and others, it’s hard not to be tired of next-fen remakes that only spruce up the graphics and include the previously released add-ons. Especially when you have ones like Metro Redux which vastly improved aspects of the original Metro games. Sadly, the former is what we’re getting once again with the Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition that’s being released by Square Enix on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. But while this new edition isn’t worth getting if you’ve already played the first edition, this engaging open-world action game is worth getting if you missed it before.
Over the course of their fifteen years together, the good people at Evolution Studios have made nine racing games, including 2001’s WRC: World Rally Championship and its four sequels, and 2006’s MotorStorm, its two sequels, and a spin-off. Which is why it’s so odd that their latest, DRIVECLUB for the PlayStation 4, has such fundamental flaws that it seems like it was made by a studio with far less experience.
In 1999, the co-writer of Alien, the late Dan O’Bannon, told me that once you’ve seen the movie, you should never watch it again. “It simply cannot be as effective,” he said. “We are afraid of the unknown. When it is known, it’s not as scary.”
But O’Bannon might’ve changed his mind if he’d gotten to play Alien Isolation, a very scary first-person stealth action survival horror from Creative Assembly that Sega are bringing to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
With The Pinball Arcade, FarSight Studios have brought classic pinball tables from Williams, Bally, and Stern to the PlayStation 4, 3, and Vita, iOS and Android devices, PCs, and the even the Kindle Fire and Ouya. But how exactly do they recreate those classic pinball machines so exactly, and what does the future hold for this series (and does that include bringing this series to the Xbox One)? I spoke to art director Jason Juneau (who’s been at the company for six year, starting as an animator) and Lead Designer Bobby King (another six year vet who’s also the VP of Product Development), to find out.
With combat that requires you to be tactical, strategic, and careful, the upcoming third-person fantasy action game Lords Of The Fallen — which Namco Bandai will release October 28th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC — might seem like yet another Dark Souls wannabe. But in talking to executive producer Tomasz Gop from CI Games while trying my best to play it, it became clear that Lords Of The Fallen is trying to do something different…but not a lot different.