Last year I put together a story about all the pinball tables I really wanted to see for Pinball FX 2 and Zen Pinball 2 — including Indiana Jones, Robot Chicken, Resident Evil, Game Of Thrones, and the BioShock games — and why none of them will ever be made…probably. And wouldn’t you know it, I was right. So far, none of these have been made into pinball tables. So I thought it would be fun to think about what other tables I’d like to play…and why I’ll probably never have the chance to play them, either.
When Strike Vector was released on PC in 2014, the sci-fi dogfighting game was online-only, and just had a handful of arenas and multiplayer modes, though they added more of the former later on. But in bringing the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as the rechristened Strike Vector EX, which they’ll be doing soon, the good people at Ragequit Corporation are not only adding more multiplayer modes, reworking a couple of the maps, and rebuilding the game on a new (read: better) engine, but they’re also adding a story-driven campaign and a training arena as well.
Though it was clearly delayed to avoid spoiling the film — what, Han Solo has turned into a silver metal ball!?! — Zen Studios have finally released their Star Wars The Force Awakens Pack for Zen Pinball 2 (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Vita), Pinball FX 2 (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC), Zen Pinball (iOS), and Zen Pinball HD (Android, Amazon), which includes two tables inspired by the titular film. Though it may be a spoiler for the next movie that the better table is the one that embraces the Dark Side.
While much was made about this game’s length, or lack there of, the real issue was how it wasted that time with dated mechanics and way too many cutscenes. But my biggest problem with The Order: 1886 was that it took a cool idea — a Gears Of War-style shooter set in a proto-steampunk London — and squandered it.
What should’ve been a fun and frantic arcadey, top-down, sci-fi shooter was instead a frustrating slog thanks to a lot of little problems that included, but were not limited to, pointless mechanics (I mean, seriously, what kind of a trained soldier doesn’t know to reload their weapon), bad graphical choices, and a wildly inconsistent difficulty.
Caught somewhere between low-budget and low-rent, this game is not only overly simplistic and repetitive, but it also has counter-intuitive movement that makes this more frustrating than fun.
This game isn’t so much bad as it is a waste of your money. I would’ve loved a new version of this classic 1996 game with upgraded graphics and better controls. I can even understand why someone would want a faithful recreation of the original game with the original controls and the original graphics. But what we got instead was the 2002 remake of the game that Capcom put out on the GameCube, but with that game’s awkward controls and the original graphics in HD. And why would I want that? Oh, right, I don’t.
While it would be easy to condemn this game for being overtly sexual but not all that sexy, it actually has bigger problems than just being potentially offensive. It’s terribly redundant, which makes it rather tiresome after a while, and I say that as someone who really likes hack & slash games you can just button mash to victory.
As someone who liked, but still saw the flaws in, the original Afro Samuraigame, I was encouraged when the people behind this sequel said they weren’t happy with the original either, and we’re striving to make something better. Which makes it even more sad that they failed. Miserably. Not only was it a bad game, but it was so flawed and buggy that the publisher gave everyone refunds and cancelled the other two volumes.
I’m not going to lie to you: I gave up watching the TV show Heroes at the end of the second season, and haven’t bothered with the new Heroes Reborn. But after seeing a demo of the upcoming game Gemini Heroes Reborn (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC), and talking to Phosphor Game’s Steve Bowler, the game’s Lead Designer, I may have to…okay, I’m still not going to watch the show. But I’ll probably play this game when it comes out digitally on January 12.
One of the great things about both the current and previous generations of video games is that no matter what kind you enjoy, you can find classics to play again as well as new games in those styles. But making a new game in an old style can be tricky. Take Zotrix, an arcade-style shooter that was previously released on PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam, but is now available on PlayStation 4. While it captures some of that old school arcade fun, there are times when it’s too old school for its own good, and others where it’s not old school-ish enough.
As a fan of ’80s action flicks who saw actually some of them in theaters, I’ve always appreciated what Avalanche Studios have tried to do in their over-the-top, action-packed Just Cause games, even when I haven’t liked them. But while it has some new wrinkles and some old problems, Just Cause 3 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC) still manages to be as much fun as a flick from when Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, and Bruce Willis weren’t too old for this shit.
