With a main mission that clocks in around two hours, the third-person stealth action game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes — which Kojima Productions has made for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 — might seem like just a glorified demo, not worth the money. But with numerous reasons why you’ll want to play this really fun game more than once, the real question isn’t “if” you should buy Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, but “when.”
Never let it be said that the people at Respawn Entertainment aren’t loyal to their friends. In making their first game, Titanfall, they not only brought back their old pal Jesse Stern — who previously worked with them on 2007’s Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and 2009’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — to help write the game, but they also reunited with composer Stephen Barton, who had the music for the first Modern Warfare.
Though in talking to Barton, composing the music for Titanfall wasn’t like working on a second Modern Warfare.
When Abbie Heppe was first hired by Respawn, it was to be their company’s Community Manager. But as so often happens in game design, one thing led to another, and now Heppe is also the voice of the Militia commander Sarah in Respawn’s new sci-fi shooter Titanfall, as well as the face model for pilots on both sides of the conflict in the game. Which means she’ll probably be running the place inside of six months. Though in talking to Heppe about her career path, it’s clear this isn’t all part of some carefully crafted master plan devised by a career-minded genius. Or so she says…
In the online-only, multiplayer-focused, first-person, overly-hyphenated, sci-fi shooter Titanfall, soldiers use futuristic weapons and giant robot suits to battle it out on alien worlds. And with the game being made for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC by Respawn — y’know, the people who, at their old jobs, made Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — it’s not surprising that this game boasts smooth, intuitive controls and addictive multiplayer.
But what might surprise you is that, while Titanfall can only be played online and with other people, the game’s story-driven campaign is still as engaging as its competitive counterpart.
Warner Brothers Interactive have announced that Batman: Arkham Knight — “Rocksteady Studios conclusion to the series” — will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC later this year.
Stealing is wrong. Whether you shoplift a candy bar from the corner store, nick a handful of quarters off your dad’s bureau, or download a pirated copy of a new video game, being a thief is not cool. And if you don’t believe me, just play Thief, a deeply flawed and ultimately dull first-person stealth action game for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC in which you make your living by stealing anything that isn’t nailed down.
When the new Tomb Raider was first released in March of 2013, it was rightfully hailed as the year’s first great game. Now, nearly a year later, an updated edition dubbed Tomb Raider Definitive Edition is coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with spiffy new visuals and all of the original’s added content thrown in. But while it makes this great game look even better, is that enough to warrant an upgrade?
As a Halo fan who’s old enough to remember when shooters couldn’t be first-person, you’d think a Halo-flavored version of Robotron: 2084 or Smash TV would be right up my alley. But while Halo: Spartan Assault for the Xbox One never hits the effortless stride we’ve come to expect from a Halo game, it’s still has plenty of addictive arcade-y action.
If there’s one thing you can say about most next-gen games that’ve come out so far, it’s that they kind of feel last-gen. Sure, they look amazing, and are fun in their own ways, but when you play such games as Ryse: Son Of Rome (my review of which you can read here) or Forza Motorsport 5 on the Xbox One, or such PlayStation 4 games as Knack or Killzone: Shadow Fall (which I also reviewed), you quickly realize they’re nothing we haven’t seen before.
And the same can be said for Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood, a puzzling, side-scrolling platformer for the Xbox One that’s good looking and engaging, but doesn’t do anything on Microsoft’s new system that couldn’t be done on their previous machine.