Author: Tom Farr
Tom is a gamer, blogger, article writer, storyteller, and screenwriter who also teaches writing for a living as a high school English teacher.
This week marks the return of the once-popular music video game franchise Rock Band and now may be the perfect opportunity to introduce Rock Band 4 to a new generation of fans playing Playstation 4, as well as to remind fans of earlier games in the series of why the game is so great. Rock Band has been out of the spotlight since the game’s last release in 2010. While Rock Band 3 was well-received, it soon became clear that the band simulation hype was dying down. But with many players adopting the latest generation of consoles, including many new…
To date, Final Fantasy XV has been in development for nearly a decade, and with the release of the game’s first official demo Episode Duscae this year, it seemed like the game would be getting a release date soon. Square-Enix used this year’s E3 conference to announce the remake of Final Fantasy VII, but there was no news on where FFXV was in development. Gamescom is another story, but the information about FFXV wasn’t quite the major announcement fans were hoping for. While there wasn’t a release date announced, a new trailer was shown and the game’s director Hajime Tabata…
Video game developer The Chinese Room has been working on and promoting their latest game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture for a couple years, but as the game has come closer to its release date, the level of promotion has increased. It’s one of the most hyped-about games of the year, and here are four reasons why I’m really excited about this game. 1. The Storytelling From the first mention of the game, The Chinese Room has always promoted Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture as a story-driven game. As a lover of stories, this aspect of the game has always…
It’s been a few weeks since this year’s E3 conference where Square-Enix announced the remake of Final Fantasy VII, arguably the best game in the Final Fantasy franchise, which would be coming, at least at first, exclusively to the PlayStation 4. The game is still in early development, so it could be years before we see it, but PS4 owners will soon be able to play FFVII on PS4 when the PC port of the game is released later this year. Since the game is a long way off, details about what a “remake” of the game will entail are…
Street Fighter V – An Early Look
Before Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and its sequels were all the rage with players who loved having the opportunity to fight as different warriors from around the world with a variety of different skills in 2D scrolling action. I remember playing against my friends when I was younger on Street Fighter II: Turbo on the Super Nintendo system. It was fun learning the different moves and capabilities of your favorite characters and fighting to be the top fighter. Street Fighter V is the next game in the Street Fighter series and Capcom plans to release the game for PlayStation 4…
Kingdom Hearts is a unique blend of Disney characters and worlds with Final Fantasy characters and gameplay. It follows a young boy named Sora who has to travel to different worlds based on Disney movies and fight a variety of villains with Disney characters such as Donald Duck and Goofy at his side, and all this in an attempt to find and rescue his friends. I’ve been a Final Fantasy fan for as long as the series has been around, but when I first heard of the concept of Kingdom Hearts right before the first game was released in 2002,…
One of the biggest announcements at this year’s E3 conference came from Square-Enix when they announced not just a release of the ever-popular Final Fantasy VII for Playstation 4, but a complete remake of the game. Square-Enix even presented a trailer to get fans excited with the word “remake” appearing at the end. Because FFVII was one of the most popular and enduring games in the Final Fantasy franchise, fans have been wanting a full remake of the game for years to take advantage of the new capabilities of modern systems. After all, the game was released three Playstations ago…
Video game development company The Chinese Room has created a lot of buzz about their upcoming game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, and the game has finally been given a release date. The game will be released August 11 exclusively on Playstation 4, and Dan Pinchbeck, the Creative Director of The Chinese Room, wrote a post on the Playstation blog about the game’s release and what fans can expect between now and the release date. PInchbeck begins with the basic premise of the game, “The world ended 31 years ago.” Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture has always been touted as…
Fallout 4 is the game everyone is talking about right now after the game’s first official trailer was released on June 3. The Fallout games have always been popular because the games present a world that is ours and yet drastically different than ours, and even though it’s a post-apocalyptic setting, the chance to explore a world that’s been completely changed by the events in an alternate history is sure to be intriguing for anyone. Of course, the gameplay itself has been a big seller for the series as you enter the game as a character facing the fallout of…
For many long-time Final Fantasy fans, Final Fantasy XV has been the most anticipated game of the last several years, and the wait doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. The game, which was previously known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII before its unveiling as the fifteenth main series instalment at E3 2013, has been in production since its original announcement in 2006, and while a release date announcement seemed near, especially with E3 coming up, the game’s director Hajime Tabata recently revealed that there won’t be any updates concerning FFXV at E3. Many fans are disappointed by the…
In 2013 J.J. Abrams, director of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve, spoke about the storytelling limitations inherent in both games and films. Films can feel immersive, but they lack the interactivity that gamers love. Games, however, are all about interactivity, but this interactivity naturally limits the storytelling ability of the medium. Developers can’t design an infinite number of story possibilities for gamers to choose as they’re playing. And many gamers are okay with that. The story doesn’t matter to them as much as the gameplay. For others, however, the attraction to…
LEGO Dimensions looks to be the perfect video game for LEGO fans who are also gamers. LEGO building blocks have always been a popular toy with children and adults alike because of the ability to create a variety of different structures, including buildings, vehicles, and weapons. But their popularity seems to have grown in the past year since the release of LEGO Movie. One of things that LEGO builders love most about the bricks, which was highlighted in the movie, is the ability to become what is called a master builder, someone able to take the wide variety of different…
How often when you’re watching a horror movie do you wish that you could control what the character onscreen is doing? It’s those moments when we see the killer on the other side of the door, and we want to scream, “Go the other way!” Horror stories tap into emotion, particularly the emotion of fear, in a way that other stories don’t. It makes sense. In horror, it’s life or death stakes. And, sure, you have those stakes in other genres, but no other genre deals with death and the desperate longing to survive against terrible evil the way horror…
Call of Duty is easily one of the most popular video game series of all time, and two games in the series, Black Ops I and Black Ops II, have sold millions of copies and are arguably the most talked about games in the series. Both games were developed by Treyarch with a game story penned by Batman Begins and Man of Steel screenwriter David S. Goyer. Both games were popular for their multi-player modes, as well as the Campaign mode that features the game’s primary story. A highly popular Zombie mode was also included. Black Ops II set out…
When it comes to role-playing games, Final Fantasy has reigned supreme ever since the series’ first release on NES in 1987. This is ironic, considering that Square, the game’s developer, released the game under the assumption that it might be the last game the struggling company would ever release, hence the name Final part of the game’s title. But Final Fantasy ended up being the first in a series that has been loved by millions over the past two decades and continues to be so as more games are developed. While many fans have their favorites in the series, and…
Batman: Arkham Knight looks to be one of the most anticipated games of the year and possibly the best superhero game of all time. The game features some of the most formidable foes that the Dark Knight has ever faced, such as Penguin, Two Face, and Scarecrow, and a new villain who seems to be a mechanically enhanced version of Batman himself called Arkham Knight. The conflict is amped up significantly as Batman faces the battle of his life to protect Gotham City and keep his greatest enemies from stopping him once and for all. The story and gameplay are…
Episodic games have become highly popular recently with Capcom jumping into the fray with their Resident Evil: Revelations 2 episodes finishing up last month. But the developer that has mastered the art of episodic gameplay is easily Telltale Games. They’ve been developing episodic games for years, but in 2012, they seemed to reach their stride when they adapted the popular post-apocalyptic television series The Walking Dead into an episodic video game. The episodes sold millions and defined what episodic gameplay looks like. Season Three of The Walking Dead video game is set to release sometime later this year, and in…
Video games are much too difficult for most new gamers to devote their time to learn. As least, that was the thought communicated by Electronic Arts chief creative officer Richard Hilleman at the recent D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas. Hilleman expressed concern over the two hours that the average player will spend learning to play a new game and suggested that game developers are asking too much of players to devote this much time to learning how to play a game at the front end. Gamers have had much to say in the weeks since Hilleman’s statements about the future…
Batman seems to be a character who is always going through a constant evolution. From the silly Adam West television show, to Tim Burton’s film adaptation, to the dark Batman: The Animated Series, to Christopher Nolan’s gritty Dark Knight trilogy, to the newest Batman origin story in the television show Gotham, it’s clear that the Batman story is its own narrative force that refuses to be limited to comic books. In recent years, the Batman story has been the source of one of the most popular video game series to feature a comic book character, and the iconic series comes…
When Destiny was released in September 2014, players knew they were entering a game experience that was designed to be ever-evolving. Bungie, the developers behind Destiny, revealed their strategy to make new content for the game available on a continual basis. This naturally got players excited, in addition to the concept of the game as a first-person shooter with elements of MMO and RPG, set in a futuristic sci-fi world where the future of humanity is challenged by a powerful outside force. Bungie is also the developer responsible for the Halo franchise, and there are definitely similarities between the games,…
H1Z1 from Sony Online Entertainment is one of the most anticipated games to come out on PlayStation 4 this year, and Sony’s taken an interesting approach to making it a game that players will love and play for a long time. The game is set to release for PS4 later this year, but players can take advantage of the H1Z1 Early Access beta release now on PC. The game, which envisions a world completely overrun by a disease that turns a large portion of humanity into zombies, is an MMO that pits survivors against the undead in a world where…
Top 12 PS4 Accessories
Wanting to take your PS4 gaming experience to the next level? You’ll be pleased to read that there are a growing number of great accessories you may want to check out for your PS4. Here we take a look at the current top 12 PS4 accessories… 1. Wireless Controller Remember the days when the only multiplayer option was to get a friend over and play split-screen? Whilst many of us now play multiplayer games via the internet, the need for a second controller is still an option for some. Another great addition of having a second controller is that you…
Resident Evil HD Remaster Review
It could be argued that a horror-based game like Resident Evil creates one of the most immersive gameplay experiences. After all, the game requires you to make your way through a creepy mansion in search of a way out, fighting zombies along the way who pose a threat even after you kill them if you don’t properly dispose of them, and the challenges and puzzles you have to solve require a level of focus that often makes the real world seem like a distant background. Originally released in 1996, Resident Evil quickly became one of the most popular games for…
Citizens of Earth Review
Citizens of Earth for the Playstation 4 lays like a game fitted for the 16-bit Super Nintendo system, having been developed with this retro feel in mind by independent developer Eden Industries. Players who remember playing the old-school RPGs on SNES like the early Final Fantasy games will recognize some of the same gameplay features in Citizens of Earth. More specifically, the game heavily borrows from the RPG classic Earthbound. In the game, you are the vice president of the world, and you’ve fought hard to achieve your powerful position. Now that you’re there, you see how pervasive problems are…