First it giveth, then it taketh away.
Last June, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said the publisher's objective for Dead Space 3 was to increase accessibility without upsetting established fans. To give credit where it's due, EA was half successful—the first half. But with its compromised and uninspired design, Dead Space 3 is streamlined almost beyond recognition. And I'm upset.
Get in on this Game Freak gem before Nintendo cuffs them back to Pokémon.
Pretending to be a rock star with mini-guitars was pretty cool for a few years, but we’ve thankfully moved past that fad and can start getting music-based games that aren’t just for fulfilling your leather pants wearing fantasies. We’ve had a few highlights in the rhythm genre here and there as those plastic instruments made their way from Best Buy to Big Lots, but now that they’re completely gone it looks like we should get more innovative and quirky music games like we used to. If HarmoKnight is an indicator of the upcoming rhythm game onslaught, then I say “bring it on.” Mixing platforming with call-and-answer beat matching, HarmoKnight is a wonderfully cute and addictively fun journey that will keep you on your (tapping) toes.
In light of the possible cancellation of Dead Space 4, Jesse loses his cool and goes on a rant.
At PixlBit we pride ourselves on reporting news and reviewing games with as little bias as humanly possible. That being said, there are times when we don’t want to sit all quiet and polite and instead rage into the vastness that is the internet.
Will Kratos' latest tale grow stale?
Upon learning about the direction of God of War: Ascension, I was hesitant to fully back this game. Instead of re-inventing the series, or continuing from the somewhat ambiguous ending of the third installment, Ascension was to be yet another prequel that would tell I was already familiar with. While the plot of the game still screams “useless filler” to me, my time with the game reminded me why God of War was so good to begin with. The absurdly high production values, a simple and stylish combat system, and larger than life set pieces in this thirty minute demo roused my interest in the series once again.
Publishers aren't the main reason horror franchises are quick to lose the scares.
It’s hard to talk about games like Resident Evil 6 and Dead Space 3 without having someone go off on a tangent on how the publishers “ruined” these series by trying to broaden the series fanbases – moving beloved franchises away from their horror roots and towards the more spectacle driven action genre. There is an idiom of truth to this complaint. Horror doesn’t generate Call of Duty sales volume. It’s a niche genre where only the exceptional few break into the mainstream. Action titles, counterparts of the money eating summer movie blockbusters, appeal to a much greater audience and are thus able to bring in much more cash. So yes, it makes sense that the “big bad” publishers would be responsible for the taming of your favorite horror franchise.
Available now for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
We went a little off the rails...
Hello again! Julian here, joined as always by Patrick and Rob for another episode of Nerds Without Pants. No topic this time...we decided to just wing it with some random discussion. Yes, a hodge podge of talking points brought together to form a pleasant bouquet. Some potpourri, if you will. We can all enjoy a little P O T. And if you got that obscure Laugh In joke, congratulations! I love you.
A unique concept that fails in execution.
Aside from ambitious, the only other word that can be used to describe Orgarhythm is disappointing. Given that Tak Hirai of Space Channel 5, Shenmue, and Meteos fame was behind the unique blend of action, strategy, and rhythm gameplay, I couldn’t help but be excited. However, the execution of these concepts simply doesn’t match up to the ambition of the idea.
Does Tryst find a way to liven up the slowly changing real-time strategy genre?
Having purposely kept away from real-time strategy games after an unhealthy period with Age of Empires II over a decade ago, I was unsure what crazy changes had taken place in the genre. What insane new systems had evolved and how would I cope with them? If Tryst is any indication, not too much has changed in all that time, though Tryst tries really hard to inject some new ideas. Even adding on a few good-intention bonus points, Tryst is still a bland sci-fi entry in a genre that could really use some juicing up.
