Author: Dusty W.

And you thought that after E3 there wouldn’t be any new video game news, did you? Well, fortunately for you, we still have Gamescom. Hosted in Cologne, Germany, this has been called Europe’s answer to E3 and, not surprisingly, it deserves the title; with a huge list of presenters including Activision, Nintendo, and Square Enix all bringing out their best, shiniest products for the coming season, this four day event really does prove that gaming is a worldwide industry. Since it’s winding down this year, we thought it might be a good idea to bring out some of the highlights…

Among other things at E3, we got treated to the sequels of some incredibly popular stealth franchises, Dishonored 2, a reboot of Hitman, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, all making their debut at the show to a lot of acclaim. While these titles are AAA games, they don’t follow the popular FPS or hack-and-slash formula; these are the kinds of games where getting seen usually means getting killed. As a consequence, you’re expected to make combat happen on your terms, usually with a set of gadgets, or by sneaking by major fights altogether. Ever since Metal Gear Solid set the…

Even thought E3‘s visions of new games are still dancing in our heads, it’s important for gamers to focus on the now as well; fortunately, just this past week, we got treated to some of the best now that now had to offer. We’re talking, of course, about the latest installment in the award-winning Batman franchise and Batman: Arkham Knight. After the mediocre sales and mediocre reviews of Arkham Origins, Rocksteady is taking the helm from Warner Bros. Games Montreal for this final installment of the Arkham tetralogy, coming into great acclaim to an eager audience. Whether you’re just getting…

After a wait that seems to drag on between the giddy highs of the holiday season and the doldrums of the summer lull, gamers finally have a reason to get excited again. We’re talking, of course, about E3; for those of you who have been living under a rock for a while, E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is the single biggest event on the video game calendar. Vendors both big and small pump as much money as possible into their presentations, ready to dazzle the world with their newest games and game systems, ready to give us something to…

In what was probably the most obvious reveal since Superman’s secret identity (we were pretty dumb kids in the 80‘s, apparently), we got a countdown from Bethesda. It was a simple timer, done up in a 50s style, with the words “Please Stand By” in the background; to most people, it’s pretty unassuming, but to fans of Bethesda’s work, it may as well have been the announcement we’d all been waiting for. When the timer finally hit zero, Bethesda decided to wow the world with the first official Fallout 4 trailer, not only giving us a delivery date, but confirming…

It’s an unfortunate fact of gaming that even AAA titles can miss the mark from time to time. Sometimes it’s a weird concept, sometimes it’s bad controls and a limited story, and sometimes it’s really all of the above, but even games coming out of incredible studios aren’t always successful. With the kind of release schedule we as gamers expect for our favorite properties, we’re going to have to deal with the fact that sometimes, in a rush to meet the deadlines, developers will accidentally let mistakes slip through the cracks. Whether its bad, unfair, or even malicious isn’t really…

Now that it’s finally summer and your responsibilities have relaxed a bit, it’s time to play with other people. We don’t mean outside, either; with the extra free time you’ve got in the summer, it’s time to break out the pizza, call some friends over, and play some multiplayer games on your PS4 as late into the night as possible. Of course, behind the ever-popular shooters and sports games, the best way to have fun with your friends, either online or in person, is to beat the tar out of them in a good old-fashioned fighting game. While your 2d…

With only a matter of hours to go until The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available, it’s time to take a look what’s expected. After numerous delays and teasers, the wait is finally over, and the sword-and-sorcery genre of RPGs is getting a boost that fans have been wanting for a long time. We’re, of course, talking about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the third installment of CD Projekt’s wildly successful Witcher series and, if even half of the hype is to be believed, this one’s going to be worth the wait. For those of you who are new to…

With E3 less than a month away, we’ve still got a nice run of games coming out before the summer lull, and while there are a lot of new titles coming out, we thought it’d be worthwhile to check out some of the most anticipated new additions to popular franchises. In honor of E3 (as well as the fact that this field of new titles made it easy), these games are all the third installments of their AAA series. Aside from just being an easy way to group these reviews, this is actually a pretty solid test of these franchises…

By itself, the PS4 is a pretty solid platform for gaming, media, and most anything else; however, like any good piece of technology, it can be improved upon. With the right accessories or modifications, you can put in the missing pieces to do incredible things with your PS4 that would have been difficult or, in some cases, impossible without them. However, also like any good piece of technology, there is a big market for cheap gimmicks as well; for every brilliant gem, you’re going to have to root through a lot of otherwise worthless rocks to find it. Fortunately for…

It’s no secret that Sony’s goal is to have the Playstation 4 become the centerpiece of your entertainment system. In addition to running games, Sony wants to give you the option to stream all your media right through the console, giving you the ability to take your entire entertainment system wherever you go. Even since its inception, Sony’s hit the ground running on PS4 apps, taking care of all your basic video apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube as soon as they became available. It’s a good idea, no question, but most of these apps are also already being done…

Once again, Sony is moving the game market out of the realm of physical media and into purely digital gaming in a new way. Back in 2014, Sony introduced the PlayStation Now, an online service that streams video games over active Internet connections. Emulating the success of streaming video services like Netflix and Hulu, PS Now lets you purchase a monthly subscription to access their library of video games and play them with a streaming connection, cutting hard drive space and download times out of the equation completely. PS Now even has individual game rentals for players who want to…

A few months ago, we brought you guys the Morpheus headset, Sony’s personal virtual reality system designed to be the next step in gaming. Since then, it’s come to rave reviews for both its design and performance, and, according to IGN, it’s slated for a 2016 release. We’re all excited about it; just seeing the demos, we know that VR with PS4‘s graphics can be done. However, trying to do a VR system for video games isn’t a new concept, and the fact we’re not all doing it now should tell you how well it turned out. Even back in…

Just last week, the PS4 got an exclusive that it’s wanted for a long time. Straight from the folks behind Dark Souls comes Bloodborne, the story of an unnamed protagonist’s journey into the Gothic town of Yharnam, a town plagued by creatures and beasts. Combining a rich atmosphere of terror with intricate gameplay mechanics, Bloodborne has already come to rave reviews across all the major review sites. But why? Aside from its beautiful graphics that really take advantage of the PS4‘s processing power, it’s because Bloodborne and its predecssors from From Software have taken an interesting approach to AAA gaming…

We all may wait anxiously for the big AAA titles every E3 season, but what you may not be aware of are the many, many other games that, while successes in their own right, never really make it to center stage. Just looking at the big-name titles is just the tip of the iceberg, and if you’re a Sony fan, that iceberg goes pretty deep; after all, Sony has always had a rich library of indie games to its credit, designed to appeal to wider demographics than Microsoft. Of course, we won’t kid ourselves and say that all indie games…

The way video games across all platforms are going, there’s a pretty clear divide between big studios with big names, big budgets, and big press coverage, and the smaller indie game marketplace. Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking one is outright superior to the other, especially when games like Minecraft and Counter-Strike have already proven bigger successes than a lot of AAA titles, while series like Uncharted and God of War routinely run circles around indie games. However, it’s usually pretty easy to tell which is which; AAA titles use time-tested formulas and jaw-dropping graphics, while indie games are experimental,…

Earlier this week, we were treated to an unfortunate surprise. According to directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, the next (possibly last) installment of the Uncharted series, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, was pushed back from this year to spring 2016. While this does really put us in a bind for exclusives, was have to take it on faith that Naughty Dog wouldn’t do this to one of the most beloved PS4 franchises without a valid reason. Nevertheless, we do want to take some time and speculate on what exactly made the Uncharted series so great, and what we hope…

With the competition for the next generation console in full swing between Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s Playstation 4, both consoles are certainly delivering on their promises. Of course, now that the initial novelty has worn off, it’s time for some real work to begin if one side wants to dominate the North American market. Fortunately, fans of the PS4 already know what they want, and more importantly, will make their PS4 the full home entertainment system the want it to be. Even from launch, we know exactly what the PS4 is capable of; with a few little changes, it…

Yes, it’s that magical time of year again. After the Christmas rush of new games and before the summer drought, we’ve got E3 to keep us excited about what’s to come for the next year. Of course, like every year, we don’t really know what’s going to get announced until, well, it gets announced, so we’re left to our own devices to speculate on what we’d like to see, what we think we’ll see, and what we really wish actually existed (Grand Theft Auto: Space. Just leaving that one there). Fortunately for you guys, we’ve compiled a little list of…

Ever since the world witnessed the dozens of Oculus Rift demos spring up on YouTube a few years ago, players have wanted more. Virtual reality (VR) has been nothing more than a fever dream for players for decades, reserved only for science fiction. That isn’t the case any longer; VR is here, and it’s going to be commonplace very soon. In Sony we trust; why not also read: The Future’s Bright – The Future’s PS4. Yes, that also means it will be available on consoles; and yes, that includes the PlayStation 4. It’s time to get excited, because the mere…

Creating a list of the top PS1 games that need to be on PS Now was hard enough, but when I begin crafting the list for PS2 games that need to be on PS Now? It was even more difficult! I sincerely believe that the PlayStation 2 is the greatest console to ever be released: yes, even better than the Atari 2600, NES, and SNES. It may not have had the power or the (at the time) seamless online functionality of the original Xbox, but what it lacked in power and an online presence (although SOCOM was awesome) it more…

It has been nearly two years since Sony unveiled its PlayStation Now (PS Now) service. Since then, speculation has run rampant: What could this mean for the PlayStation 4? How will this affect Sony going forward? Does this mean players will have access to an ever-growing backlog of PlayStation games? It is still too early to accurately predict the ramifications PS Now could have on the PS4 and Sony at large. Even so, it is impossible to not think about the advantages a service like PS Now could offer players that long to revisit the past. Especially for players that…