Set in a somewhat futuristic world that’s deeply rooted in the past — or at least old martial arts movies — Absolver (PlayStation 4, PC) is a third-person action-RPG that has you, as a masked warrior of your own design, getting into a bunch of random fist fights. But while it’s often engaging and challenging, it has some issues that may be more matters of personal preference than design flaws, but they still make this less interesting than it could’ve been.
Category: Video Games
It never fails: you mention that you work in video games, and people think it must be the most fun job in the world. But making games isn’t easy, and running a game development studio is even tougher. That said, if you’re serious about making games, and starting your own company to do it, there are resources you can consult. Written by Michael Futter, who was the news editor at GameInformer.com (and is thus, full disclosure, someone I’ve hung out with at video game events), The GameDev Business Handbook Writer (hardcover, digital) is a helpful and detailed looked at how to open and run an indie game studio. Though in trading emails with him about this book — which will be out in October — he admitted that he didn’t just rely on what he learned while writing news stories about when the new Halo would be released.
Like so many Resident Evil games, Resident Evil Revelations has been repeatedly rereleased, with an updated version for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, WiiU, and PC coming just a year after it debuted on the 3DS in 2012. Now it’s been upgraded again for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with still another version for the Switch coming later this year, with that edition including a voucher for a copy of Resident Evil Revelations 2. But while this new edition doesn’t add enough to make it worth buying a second time, or a third, for fans of this series who missed this installment before, this is yet another chance to be the gun-totin’ hero in a horror movie.
After eight years of telling everyone who works on the Uncharted games that they should make one about Chloe Frazer — the feisty treasure hunter who was the highlight of both Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception — the lady is finally taking center with Uncharted The Lost Legacy (PlayStation 4), an epic third-person action/adventure game that finally gives this series the smart and sassy hero it’s always deserved.
Agents Of Mayhem Review
When the original Saints Row was released in 2006, it was just another bad Grand Theft Auto clone. It wasn’t until they went for a sillier approach with Saints Row The Third that this series really came into its own. Which makes it both odd and disappointing that the Saints Row spin-off Agents Of Mayhem (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC) really dials back on the cartoonish naughtiness, since it makes this game feel rather bland.
In anticipation of Sonic Mania coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC on August 15th, Sonic’s publicist at Sega, Edith Yang, recently showed off the game while agreeing to be peppered with stupid questions about how what’s old and new in Sonic’s latest Sunday jog.
At a recent event held at the Iam8Bit Gallery in Los Angeles, the good people from MachineGames and Bethesda Softworks gave game journalists a chance to play two levels from the upcoming sci-fi first-person shooter Wolfenstein II The New Colossus (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC), which will be released on October 27th. Here’s a recap of what happened when I took control of series hero William “B.J.” Blazkowicz.
Oh, and obviously, spoilers follow. You have been warned.
Nex Machina Review
For more than twenty years, the good people at Housemarque have made a career out of top-down, twin-stick shooters. But while they’ve constantly pushed this genre’s conventions, they’ve also kept many of them alive, as evidenced by how their latest gun game, Nex Machina (PlayStation 4, PC), is less like their most recent arcade shooters, and more like the classics that inspired them.
Arms Review
Nintendo is usually good about bringing its biggest franchises to every game system they make. But while you may have thought it was more a matter of when than if they’d make a new Punch-Out!! for the Switch, well, we’ve got good news and some bad news. The bad news is that it might not happen because the good news is they’ve kind of done with Arms (Switch), a cartoony, three-dimensional fighting game that’s decidedly Punch-Out!!-esque.