Agreed. Microsoft badly botched the XB1 launch, but the fact that they've been backtracking ever since shows that they realize their mistakes and aren't afraid to change course. A Kinect-free SKU would make the XB1 competitive with the PS4, and its only a matter of time before MS goes that route.
I have to agree with Cheese that GTA IV doesn't deserve to part of this discussion. In addition to the boring story, that game was semi-broken due to horrible checkpointing, bad shooting mechanics, and "friends" who pester you to play stupid mini-games.
Obviously there's some role here for personal preference, but GTA IV just wasn't a particularly good game.
I've played lots of games of Battlefield, COD, and even TLoU with a bad teammate or two and still won. That won't be happening in a 3-3-2 format.
Sorry, but that looks horrible. These matches will end up being consistently lopsided as hell thanks to one or two players being especially good or especially bad.
The author should have mentioned the Souls franchise. That one benefits a lot by not supporting in-game chat -- great for the atmosphere the game wants to maintain.
The Walking Dead was an extremely good game in its genre (point-and-click storytelling). It's no knock on TWD to point out though that it's not in the same league as TLoU, which is arguably the best game of this generation.
Yep, the train sequence is epic. Personally I like U3 better and I know that's a minority view, but U2 holds up great.
Excellent article -- very well-reasoned.
Honestly I thought everything about the game was boring. Searching for evidence was just an exercise in point-and-click. Interrogating suspects was sort of random. The action sequences felt completely forced. And the story was even boring.
I like story-based games -- The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, Heavy Rain, etc. This one just didn't do it for me. Maybe it's just me though.
I agree strongly with Spec Ops. That game was awesome and it's too bad it didn't get the exposure that it deserved. I would never have played it if it hadn't been for PS+, and I'm glad I did.
I disagree strongly with LA Noire. That one was a snooze-fest.
For those who don't want to give this a hit, the author's argument is that Remember Me sucks, and therefore Uncharted 3 sucks too. No, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's his argument in a nutshell. And then there's this gem at the end:
"As we approach next gen, we're seeing games that broaden the horizons for cinematic experiences with valuable gameplay. The Last of Us feels like an early peek into that bright future. Games like Watch ...
Anybody who scores this game below a 9 is just trolling. It has a few very minor flaws, so if somebody wants to give it a 9 because "10/10 means flawless" (I disagree with that standard), that's okay. But if you score this game lower than that, you need to stick to Farmville.
I'm not going to bother to give this site a hit, but ND does a nice job developing female characters. I doubt the author of this piece played through the Winter segment if he doesn't see Ellie as a strong character.
Um, the review score is actually 8/10, not 5/10.
Agreed. The default level of weapon sway is fine and reinforces that this is a survival horror title, not a shooter.
And yes it's a little weird that your companions never get spotted by the enemy, but if they did, it would be game-breaking. This is an area in which gameplay takes priority over realism or immersion.
I signed up for PS+ last June, and it's been awesome so far. Sleeping Dogs, Infamous 2, and Spec Ops are games that I platted but never would have even played had it not been for this service. Tack on Bioshock 2, Deus Ex, and Darksiders and this service paid for itself several times over.
I do worry though about what this will look like on PS4. It was easy to find PS3 games that were a year or two old or overlooked to feature for the IGC. The PS4 doesn't have the ...
When you rent a game, you're required to return it by a particular date (or pay a late fee). That's not the case with PS+ games. They're yours forever as long as you have a PS+ subscription.
A better analogy is to music subscription services like Rhapsody or Spotify.
I haven't even been tempted to skip a cutscene during my second playthrough of this game. I'd say that's pretty good storytelling.
It'll be on PS4 by Christmas 2014.
In before the trolls start with "It's just a rental."