Win a key to gain access to the World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor beta by entering your email address! Keys will only work in Australia and New Zealand regions.
Beta keys are redeemable via Battle.net. An active subscription to World of Warcraft and ownership of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is required to activate the World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor beta key. The number of keys up for grabs is limited, so be sure to redeem one while you can!
Heading to this year's EB Expo in Sydney? So are we! GameSpot will have our own booth at the show, located between the EB Community Hub and the Robot Wars Battle Arena. We'll have multiple console stations set up for visitors to play both new releases and upcoming games, and hosting developer interviews.
We'll also be giving away a Turtle Beach headset each day! For your chance to win, hop on to Forza Horizon 2 at our booth and beat our editor Dan Hindes' lap time. We're giving away a headset on each day of the show to the best lap time, so make sure to swing by during EB Expo!
For more updates and photos from the show, be sure to follow the GameSpot Australia team on Twitter. A map of the show can be found on the EB Expo website.
Jess McDonell
Dan Hindes
Zorine Te
Edmond Tran
EB Expo 2014 will be held at the Sydney Showground from October 3 for three days. This year's event marks the fourth time the expo will be held since it first opened to public in 2011. If you can't make it in person, stay tuned to our hub for updates from the show floor.
Microsoft Australia has announced a price drop for the Xbox 360, which will come into place from October 1.
The largest price drops affect the 250GB console and the 250GB Kinect console bundle, which will both drop by $100. See the chart on the right for more details on the respective new recommended retail prices.
In addition to the price drop, a 500GB Holiday Value Bundle and Xbox 360 Special Edition Blue Bundle were also revealed. The 500GB Holiday Value Bundle will include a copy of Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, as well as one month of access to Xbox Live Gold. A 500GB hard drive will also be included in this bundle. The Blue Bundle will include the same games and features, but with a blue-colored Xbox console and controller. The Blue Bundle will be sold exclusively at retailer EB Games. Both bundles will have a RRP of A$279.
For all of GameSpot's news coverage, check out our hub. Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
Oculus talked about a lot of potential uses for virtual reality at its event last week where it unveiled the, Crescent Bay model of the Oculus Rift headset, but Chief Executive Officer Brendan Iribe said that the heart of Oculus will always be in gaming.
"For a very long time the heart and soul of what drives virtual reality is going to be a video game 3D engine," Iribe told Games Industry International. "This is not a film, this is a 3D game engine inside. So even when it's a medical simulation experience or it's architecture or whatever it is, it is a 3D game engine running inside. That's awesome, that is rooted in the game market."
During Oculus' event last week, Chief Technical Officer John Carmack, Founder Palmer Luckey, and Oculus' Chief Scientist Michael Abrash discussed many of the challenges and possibilities with virtual reality.
Carmack especially emphasized the importance of social interaction. "Getting that multiuser experience is our most important user-visible feature," he said. "It's surprising that it hasn't been done so far. As the basics mature, I expect more of that to be going on...When you see grandparents using iPads to look at pictures of their kids. It's going to be the same with VR. Everyone in the world will find something to do with it."
Iribe said that the leap between Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 and Crescent Bay is as significant as the leap between Oculus Rift Developer Kit 1 and 2. It's lighter, with improved ergonomics, 360 motion tracking, and integrated audio, a new focus for Oculus. The company didn't say when it will have a consumer version of the Oculus Rift, but that the Crescent Bay model comes close.
Bloodborne is coming out exclusively for the PlayStation 4, but many fans of developer From Software's previous games, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, were able to play them on PC and Xbox 360 in addition to the PlayStation 3.
According to the game's director Hidetaka Miyazaki, Bloodborne couldn't have come out on previous consoles. "I always wanted to make a game set in the Victorian era, but to make it look good—with all the clothing and the architecture and things—required a console more powerful than the ones that were around. the arrival of the PS4 finally gave us that," Miyazaki said in an interview with PlayStation LifeStyle when asked why the game was a PS4-exclusive. "Bloodborne isn't a game that could have been cross-generation, it was only possible on PS4."
Of course, that doesn't really explain why it's not coming out on Xbox One or PC, but that probably has more to do with Sony's negotiating skills than technological limitations.
Bloodborne will be released on February 6 in North America and Europe, a day after it's release in Japan.
Amazon's acquisition of the video game streaming service Twitch is now officially complete, according to a new SEC filing.
First revealed in late August, the deal had Amazon purchase all outstanding shares of Twitch for roughly $970 million in cash. This after reports earlier in the year that Google—through its YouTube subsidiary—would acquire the company for similar amount.
In a message addressed to the Twitch community, CEO Emmett Shear wrote, "We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We're keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon's support we'll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch."
The day after the deal was announced, vice president of Amazon Games Michael Frazzini said that "Twitch is absolutely doing a great job and we don't want to change that at all."
Twitch is the largest live-streaming website in the United States by a wide margin, according to a report released this spring, and has expanded into non-gaming ventures, like streaming concerts. That position coincides with Amazon's recent push into the game industry. Earlier this year, it hired designers who worked on Portal and Far Cry, and purchased Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games.
Mark- while I always appreciate first looks like this, you not acknowledging the huge bug problems Rome 2 had, and still has was really disappointing.
I realize that full blown journalism isn't expected here, but this falls the other way into pure advertisement territory. Maybe next time, you could at least throw a softball like: "what are you guys doing to ensure a smooth launch?"
Gamespot- If you look out for gamers more, and companies less....we'll be more loyal. Fyi.
Much like Super Meat Boy and the many clones it's inspired, Fenix Rage is an intentionally difficult platformer that aims to reward more than infuriate. It's that extremely delicate balance between fun and frustration, though, that this subgenre often fails to deliver. This latest tough-as-nails take, however, hits the sweet spot more often than not, yielding level after level of sadistic satisfaction.
Like its player-punishing peers, Fenix Rage is laser-focused on gameplay, but painfully light on story. The titular protagonist--a superhero-ish creature that could pass for a sugary cereal's cartoon mascot--is tasked with taking down an evildoing dude that's wreaking havoc in his world. And that's about it.
Do not be fooled: it might be pretty, but it's also painful. The controls and objectives are similarly straightforward. Fenix must navigate increasingly hazardous stages by jumping and dashing. Thankfully, he possesses the power to do both of these things infinitely, resulting in the game's defining hook and most differentiating factor. Where similar games have you mastering more traditional platforming moves, such as running and double-jumping, Fenix Rage first asks you with relearn what many years of Super Mario Bros. have taught you.
Mastering the basics takes a bit of time--and many, many lives--but once you lock them down, the in-the-zone moments come fast and furious. It quickly becomes super-satisfying to blaze through and buzz around levels, dodging enemies and gathering collectibles as you go. The game never wants you to get too comfortable, of course, so new challenges, obstacles, enemies, and other life-siphoning elements are layered on as you progress through the 200-plus levels.
You need to play with fire to break through ice, for example, and, conversely, make friends with the frozen stuff to defy death beams; portals can pinball you around stages; and end-level objectives, as well as enemies, will similarly warp about to keep you on your toes. Boss encounters break up the more standard challenges (if you can even call them that), requiring you to call on varied strategies, from running like hell to inflicting damage with dash attacks.
Mastering the basics takes a bit of time--and many, many lives--but once you lock them down, the in-the-zone moments come fast and furious.
Ending up on the wrong side of any of these hazards brings instant death, something you can count on experiencing dozens and dozens of times during the game's most difficult stages. Lightning quick re-spawns alleviate most of the pain, but I would've also appreciated the option to skip the levels that threatened to spike my blood pressure beyond any doctor-recommended level, in the manner of 'Splosion Man.
While Fenix Rage generally tested my skill more than my sanity, it isn't totally void of infuriating moments. On top of not being able to bypass especially patience-trying stages, its later-level challenges sometimes rely too heavily on chaos over creativity; these areas are simply too cluttered with things that want to kill you, as well as those that require near-constant air-catching because there's no solid--or safe--ground below. Expect Flappy-Bird-levels of frustration.
Despite a few controller-chucking moments, I felt more rewarded than relieved upon completing the game's nefarious platforming challenges. Like the titles it takes its inspiration from, Fenix Rage is aimed at a very specific audience; if you're not part of the niche following that measures its fun in blistered thumbs, Fenix Rage won't bring you over to the dark side. That said, if you know what you're signing up for, you will appreciate the opportunity to prolong the pain in a variety of unlockable minigames and modified challenges, some of which are capable of crushing the soul of even the most hardened player. I'd still crown Super Meat Boy king of this genre, but thanks to inspired mechanics, variety-packed pacing, and satisfyingly steep challenges, Fenix Rage can proudly stand next to its protein-packed inspiration.
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Local servers are now available in Australia and New Zealand for free-to-play multiplayer action game Nosgoth, Square Enix announced today. Players who are interested in getting immediate access to the game can sign up for the Closed beta via the website.
Developed by Psyonix, Nosgoth draws its subject matter from the Legacy of Kain universe, and fans will be familiar with the setting, plot, and some of the character designs. The game pits players in a team-based versus match, with humans and vampire characters alike duking it out in a "fight for survival." The open beta is expected to launch in winter (or summer in Australia).
For more on the game, check out GameSpot's preview.
For all of GameSpot's news coverage, check out our hub. Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
I scale up a tower I have never climbed before and survey the land. There are new events in which to participate now, and new adventures to undertake. I leap to the ground below from this dizzying height, landing safely and breaking multiple laws of physics in the process.
I crouch in the bushes and wait for a sword-wielding guard to approach. I surreptitiously assassinate him when he draws in close, then rush towards a nearby lookout. I clamber up the structure until an unsuspecting archer is standing just above me. I plunge my blade into his torso, then watch as his corpse falls victim to the laws of gravity, emitting a thud when it strikes the rocks below.
You'd suppose I am describing the next Assassin's Creed, but the adventure in question is Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, a game that invites countless comparisons to Ubisoft's parkour-oriented series. On the surface, Shadow of Mordor is Assassin's Creed set in the Lord of the Rings universe. You ascend tall structures and engage in rhythmic combat against large numbers of swordsmen. You activate a special mode of vision that allows you to identify objects and people of interest. I wouldn't call Shadow of Mordor a rip-off, but its inspirations are clear: Developer Monolith chose a foundation that is instantly familiar to anyone who has met Ezio Auditore or Edward Kenway.
Shadow of Mordor's hero--or heroes, as it were--shares little thematic DNA with Desmond Miles and his kin, however. You are a ranger called Talion--but you are also a bitter wraith who shares Talion's body, the two cursed by unknown forces, each seeking the answers that would allow for peace. For all purposes, Talion should be dead, but his spiritual homecoming has been delayed by this unholy union. Their journey of discovery takes them through Mordor and a nearby region, where the cracked earth and the sight of suffering slaves serve as warning signs; Death here is more common here than the healing herbs that sometimes rise from the decayed soil.
I'll allow the more erudite Middle-earth experts to debate the authenticity of this wraith-ranger hybrid. Talion certainly seems like a good fit for Tolkien's universe, with his stringy shoulder-length hair, his stoic manner, and his three-syllable moniker, which recalls names like Faramir and Aragorn. The wraith's identity has been previously revealed, but I'd prefer not to disclose it here: the murky flashbacks that depict his past deeds are all the more impactful when you've denied yourself the spoiler. In any case, the Talion/wraith dichotomy leads to Shadow of Mordor's slickest moments. The ghostly wraith slides out of Talion's body from time to time to talk with him and then dissipates in a vaporous sigh. When the wraith's anger becomes all-consuming, Talion's face melts away to reveal the apparition underneath. Vague whispers and murmurs bring an eerie chill to an otherwise parched setting; it's as if there is danger of being frozen even in this grim hellscape.
There is evil there that does not sleep. These touches give Shadow of Mordor a gossamer coating it greatly needed. The game's occasionally iffy frame rate doesn't make a strong argument for the power of the new console generation, but the burnt orange-brown cliffs and clouded skies are nonetheless given their proper due. To exist here is to suffer a heavy heart. Your ears are invaded by the growls and grunts of the grotesque Uruk-hai that roam the land, and your eyes are overwhelmed by the crumbling ruins of once-proud buildings. The same-ish landscapes wear thin in time, though a mid-game change of scenery allows you to breathe in air not yet fully spoiled by the evil Sauron's rancid presence. They say that the devil is in the details, but in Mordor, the devil is plain to see. It is in the details that you find the glimmers of light, even though you know that no happy ending is nigh. There is hope in the hearty laugh of a dwarf that becomes your hunting partner, and in the gentle words of a daughter protective of her sorcerous mother.
Had I been more invested in the game's outcome, I might have appreciated those glimmers even more. Shadow of Mordor hits the ground running, referring to the past and future both while crafting its own story within the crevasses left unexplored in book and movie form. Gollum is as disquieting a presence as ever, and actor Liam O'Brien's excellent vocal performance is so on point, you would assume Andy Serkis, who portrayed Gollum on film, had reprised the role here. But for every recognizable character there is a less-established one, and both variations weave in and out of the story with little explanation, kickstarting the plot when necessary and then departing before you can truly come to know them. The game's main villains appear before they're even properly introduced; a Tolkien fanatic may be intrigued by their identities, but Shadow of Mordor does too little to make them anything more than mean guys in fancy armor. The incomplete storytelling, combined with a series of tepid final encounters, unfortunately softens the sting of the conclusion's slashing and gnashing.
Your ears are invaded by the growls and grunts of the grotesque Uruk-hai that roam the land, and your eyes are overwhelmed by the crumbling ruins of once-proud buildings.
Of course, this is Tolkien, whose novels have always been about the unexpected journey, not the expected destination. Shadow of Mordor is a raucous adventure. You hold a single button to rush up towers and leap improbable distances, and fluid animations make the locomotion feel (usually) breezy and fun. An Uruk archer may be waiting atop that tower, but no matter: another button allows you to stab him from below, though you could always sneak up from behind and sink your hidden blade--er, your totally unhidden dagger--into his stinking flesh, if you'd rather. Yes, it's easy to make the Assassin's Creed connections, particularly when you encounter the frustrations Shadow of Mordor shares with that other series: a lack of precise movement that makes certain simple actions more trouble than they're worth, clumsy camera angles, and animation quirks that turn close-quarters battles into awkward, jittery dances.
Luckily, Shadow of Mordor greatly refines and improves other aspects of that established formula. Combat, for instance, has a similar kind of flow, but it's more challenging than you might be used to. Hordes of Uruk-hai surround you, and your experience with other games might fool you into thinking you can manage the mob. That little voice telling you can handle the challenge could be lying, though. There are times when you must simply run. You might be able to hide in a bush a few hundred feet away, or you might rush to a higher vantage point until the crowd calms down. But to face the Uruk swarm, even when you time your counter-attacks properly, is often to face your own demise and subsequent resurrection.
The addition of a real challenge to this recipe has a lot of rewarding repercussions. Stealth becomes a vital tool, for instance, even when the mission at hand doesn't demand it. Orcs can be oddly oblivious when you brutalize the fiends walking directly behind them, but iffy AI aside, sneaking around is both helpful and exciting. Thinning the herd is a wise move, and doing so often means gliding up to your target from behind in a crouched stance that recalls Batman: Arkham Asylum, Shadow of Mordor's other great inspiration. Try murdering Uruk-hai from a perch above, or fire the wraith's spectral arrows into their heads. You'll be glad you did so when you command the attention of an Uruk captain or the region's warchief.
A captain's arrival is a big deal, and Shadow of Mordor ensures you know it. Your sword meets the leader's, the camera zooms in, and the Uruk taunts you with howls and hisses that expose his situational awareness. Upon a first meeting, the Uruk may promise you a grisly dismemberment; should you die and face the same captain again, he will wonder how you cheated death, or ask if you are that other ranger's twin brother. He might remark on the sneaky way you approached him, or declare that he's now on to your combat tricks. The game's database of potential responses must be enormous: I rarely heard the same lines twice, and when I did, I was still amused by the Uruks' grand posturing. Such melodrama! Each captain is so incredibly certain of his own victory that he must bare his fangs and puff his chest up with pride.
The only problem with making a mountain out of every orcish molehill is one of pacing: after a while, I became annoyed by the incessant theatrical introductions, which would sometimes occur just when nearing my target. It doesn't matter if you're in the midst of battle or just rushing through the area: the Uruk demands your respect, even if it means disrupting the flow and forcing the camera away from its original direction once the hullabaloo is complete. But what to do? Each captain craves his 15 minutes of fame.
Captains aren't impossible to defeat, of course, but you'll be better equipped to defeat them once you add a few additional skills to your repertoire, which you do by performing missions and assassinating enemies. The move I came to most appreciate allowed me to stun an enemy by leaping over his head, then unleash a barrage of strikes that culminated in a cranial explosion. Repeating this move is the closest I came to exploiting the combat system, unless you count my reliance on converting Uruks to my cause, an option that doesn't unlock until the game reaches its second act. In fact, Shadow of Mordor's best asset, the hierarchical machinations it terms the nemesis system, doesn't truly shine until the latter half.
Talion certainly seems like a good fit for Tolkien's universe, with his stringy shoulder-length hair, his stoic manner, and his three-syllable moniker.
You see, a dead Uruk doesn't tell tales, but there's always a mouthy filthmonger ready to replace him. You can view the Uruk-hai's reporting order at a glance, though you don't necessarily know every captain's identity or combat weaknesses: you'll have to gain some intel for that. You most commonly gain intel by dominating your foe rather than outright killing him. Shadow of Mordor's executions are gory indeed, but domination is an even more fearsome process: Talion's flesh fades away and the wraith is revealed in all his ferocity. You roar out a battlecry--even simple shouts like "You are mine!" are pregnant with barely-contained rage--and then violate the Uruk's mind. You then examine the organizational Uruk flowchart, expose a captain's identity and/or combat weaknesses, and then squash your victim's head like an overripe cantaloupe. (Or, later, allow him to go free to spread word of your reign of terror.)
This is useful information to have. Again, overthrowing a captain or warchief is not always a walk in the park, so knowing that your enemy is invulnerable to your phantom arrows, or will succumb to a stealth kill, makes all the difference. You can even instill fear in captains by shooting explosive barrels and catching them on fire, or by riding a caragor into battle. Oh--did I not mention you can mount a four-legged feline beast and command it to feast on Uruk entrails? You can even clamber up walls while riding a caragor. Try that, Altair!
A dead Uruk doesn't tell tales, but there's always a mouthy filthmonger ready to replace him.
Shadow of Mordor's second half introduces even more ways to mess with Uruks' minds. Ultimately, you are able to command individual captains and assist them in battle as they fight their way up the pecking order. The story gives this system a purpose so that your political shenanigans don't come across as neverending busywork, though even without narrative context, the nemesis system is remarkably absorbing. It is the orcish congress, and I am a muscled version of Kevin Spacey's character in House of Cards. I am the puppetmaster, and the Uruk-hai are my puppets.
All of these tasks are dotted across the game's two expansive maps, which invite you to chase one waypoint after another, murdering captains, infiltrating Uruk feasts, and collecting artifacts that unveil truths about the wraith's past misdeeds. This structure (of course) recalls Assassin's Creed, but it is now imperative that the Assassin's Creed series learn from Shadow of Mordor. Easy comparisons aside, this is a great game in its own right, narratively disjointed but mechanically sound, made up of excellent parts pieced together in excellent ways. I already knew what future lay in store for Middle-earth as I played Shadow of Mordor; I'm hoping that my own future might one day bring another Lord of the Rings adventure as stirring as this one.
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Final Fantasy XV has been in development for a long time. Revealed back at E3 2006, the game has gone through several big changes over the years, but the most interesting has been the change of directors. Formerly helmed by Tetsuya Nomura, he has since shifted over to directing Kingdom Hearts III. Meanwhile FF15's director has passed to Final Fantasy Type-0 director Hajime Tabata.
In an interview with Tabata at Tokyo Game Show this year, Tabata talked about where FFXV currently sits in terms of completion. "It's about 55 percent complete, but the quality of the demo itself, compared to the final product, is about 80 percent." So doing the math, you might assume that that means we have another eight years of waiting for the game to get into a final state, but Tabata clarified, "When asked if it's going to take another eight years: definitely not. I'm afraid we can't say how long it's going to take from here. But, since the transition to XV, we've gotten this far in two years."
Tabata also revealed that he actually took on the role of director during the shift of FFXV from PS3 to PS4 two years ago. "The game was first established as Final Fantasy Versus XIII for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms, and we transitioned to Final Fantasy XV for next-gen consoles. That transition was made about two years ago, and I was put in charge of that project. Since then, we've re-evaluated the development team, the development structure, and the process."
With all the shifting, Tabata said that the reason they're putting out a demo next year is "because there are fans that have been waiting for eight years, and because it's in a playable state, we want to bring it to the fans as quickly as possible."
But how long will that demo experience last? Tabata clarified his earlier statements about the demo's projected length. "If you play through the story campaign, it should be about an hour of gameplay," Tabata said. "But, that being said, there's also the world map and there are different monsters that appear, as well as dungeons. So it should allow for 3-4 hours of gameplay."
While Square Enix has not clarified exactly when the demo for FF15 will be released, they have said that access will be given to people who purchase Final Fantasy Type-0 next year.
Sometimes the Wii U can't catch a break. After Ubisoft stated earlier this month that,"We will have more information on the Wii U version of [Watch Dogs] in the coming weeks," the company clarified its stance on DLC for Nintendo's system: It's not coming.
While streaming the single-player Bad Blood DLC today through, the official Watch Dogs Twitter account responded to the question from a fan, "Wii U DLC?" with the seemingly definitive: "No, the WiiU version will not have the DLC."
We've reached out to Ubisoft to clarify the statement and to find out whether that means the DLC will just not be available at launch, or whether it is not planned for the Wii U at all. After a very long delay, the Wii U version of Watch Dogs is slated for November 21.
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Valve has announced a host of changes to hit with the latest patch for Dota 2. Named the Rekindling Soul update, patch 6.82 introduces a host changes that alter the game's map, introduces a new rune, and alters most heroes and items.
The most prominent change brought on by the update is that of the map in Dota 2; in addition to paths and tower locations being moved, large neutral creature Roshan has also moved spots.
A new Bounty Rune has also been announced. Upon being picked up by a player, the Bounty Rune will "enhance your wealth" and "speed the accumulation of abilities." Runes will now spawn on both sides of the river every two minutes.
Most heroes and items have been subject to balance changes, and interface changes are also present, including new chat wheel options. You can check out the full changelist on Valve's site.
Earlier this year Valve held its fourth annual Dota 2 sports event, The International, in Seattle. The event marked the world record for biggest reward for an esports tournament, sporting a prize pool that exceeded $10 million. Don't know what Dota 2 is about? Check out GameSpot's review.
The Lobby has become real shite lately since there haven't been any interesting games. The show needs a new format, not just one based on showing 3 games per show and talking about news. It is no On The Spot yet and tbh the only person who caries the whole thing is Danny, pretty much the only reason I've stuck around on Gamespot, especially after my 2002 account being banned for no reason after the redesign.
Kevin Van Ord is a great reviewer, always spot on, I love Tom's opinion on Bioshock Infinite, that game was a load of shite! Chris Waters has a great rapport with Danny... but no one seems to be doing anything to improve the show, seems stuck in a rut during a time it cannot afford to be.
Also what happened to the Gamespot podcast? I remember for the longest time it wasn't even advertised on the main page, I still struggle to find it, but Kevin hasn't done an episode in months. All they need to do is get rid of the quiz crap and just talk about games more and it'll be perfect, there aren't enough game podcasts any more, they seem to all have died but a few.
What happened to Gamespot UK and Aus? I loved the different personalities, as a guy from the UK I found I could relate to them more, especially on topics of Nintendo where they are far more popular in the US than here. They all seem to have gone now, where is Guy Cocker and Jane and the rest of them? I still see the two Aussie girls on House of Horrors, but after the whole Twitch acquisition thing it has become so hard finding anything, I used to just view all the archives on Twitch.
Oh well I guess I better bow down to the Youtube overlords and subscribe to Pewdiepie or the Yogscast or something... even though they make my skin crawl.
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If patience is the cardinal virtue shared by all role players, then Natural Doctrine will be the game that turns a lot of saints into profanity-slinging, rage-quitting sinners. To some extent, this is what developer Kadokawa Games wants. Many of the game's most sadistic battles are laid out with cruel intent, the designers beckoning you closer and closer to the evil jack-in-the-box waiting for you behind a rock wall, or sitting in a cave after you pull the wrong lever. Unfortunately, most of Natural Doctrine's greatest challenges to your patience don't arise from a fair and balanced battle system, but from the game's failure to adhere to comprehensible logic.
In many ways, Natural Doctrine is a traditional turn-based role-playing game, but it's one that finds a number of unique ways to annoy you. The fields of play are typically wide enough to allow breathing room, but Natural Doctrine still often funnels your party members down cramped corridors for fights, with occasional high grounds for riflemen to gain the advantage. The game screen is often absolutely choked with information, exacerbating the sense of claustrophobia. Button guides are at the bottom, the turn order is at the top, attacks options are on the left, information about them is underneath, and if you've switched the graphics style for the dialogue into full mode, character portraits often block the right half of the screen. Once you start arranging actions for your turn, the lines of attack look like Jackson Pollock's interpretation of the New York Giants' playbook. When the game is at its cluttered worst, you watch your characters move in a space the size of a Tetris block; at its best, the act of even seeing and targeting enemies is a kaiju-scale grappling match with the unwieldy camera, and that's before you endure 10 minutes of watching enemies move into place and perform overelaborate attack animations.
And so we are all connected in the great circle of HUH? This is the irony of Natural Doctrine: it overwhelms you with unnecessarily detailed data, but rarely communicates anything truly essential. There's an extensive amount of voice acting and text dedicated to the game's mawkish and inconsequential anime story, for instance, yet the tutorial leaves volumes to the imagination. In time, you learn that Natural Doctrine's big gimmick is the link system, in which one character's action can allow some or all of the others an additional crack at the enemy; furthermore, just the right positioning grants each attacker damage or defense bonuses for the entire turn. When the link system is at its best, your team of heroes circles three or four enemies, seeking just the right vantage point from which to do the most damage.
Should you perform this deathly dance properly, you may be able to completely shut the enemy down. Sadly, performing it correctly means devoting hour upon hour to trial and error, because the tutorial only teaches you a few scant basics. Learning how to guard allies, why you can't open chests and doors on a linked turn, how to configure your party for maximum buffing, what your movement limitations are, how accurate your gun-wielders may or may not be--you must wing your way through these considerations and many more until the game forces you to figure them out in increasingly unforgiving ways. For what it's worth, Natural Doctrine's upgrade system is a fine one, allowing you to intuitively swap around skills and attributes at will until your characters play the way you need them to, but even so, you're going to have to die, and die often, just to determine what each character's particular strengths are.
Sadly, this scene does not end with the Orc King belting out Seek and Destroy. Again, the patience of strategy role-playing veterans cannot be underestimated, so you may persevere. Even on easy mode, you may spend many an hour learning the game's intricacies, replaying stages, practicing your favorite strategies on hordes of bad guys, and tweaking your preferred combat style. You will struggle, fight, die, and grind for experience for days, and a moment will come when you realize that your enemies are and will always be better at Natural Doctrine than you are.
Anyone who's played a Souls game at this point will be used to the theory Natural Doctrine is trying to espouse here. Victory is paid for with trial and error, with heavy emphasis on the "error" part. But where Dark Souls and its brethren reward experimentation, improvisation, and just plain cunning, there is quite often only one viable solution to a problem in Natural Doctrine, and it's your responsibility to find out what exactly that one solution is. The alternative is being stuck for 30 minutes on an encounter in which one false move results in the enemy linking dozens of attacks together in an unstoppable string of death. It's not strategy: it's Byzantine safe cracking. Many of the early battles involve getting to one specific room, being confronted with the possibility of a boss battle, and discovering that the conditions for victory involve escaping behind a closing door. That might have been acceptable if making a run for it didn't take 30 minutes just to move two rooms away. See, you can link attacks and heal to your heart's content, but escaping to a different area must be done one character at a time. You spend most of your time with Natural Doctrine restarting stages after spending close to an hour escaping an enemy you can't even fight. That's not "hard, but fair." That's suffering of the kind that's legendary even in hell.
All of this is in aid to a watery thin story that mimics the plot of Attack on Titan, with generic World of Warcraft-style castoffs supplanting Titan's creepy frozen-faced abominations. There's the occasional twist, including an early one whose suddenness and brutality you will never see coming, but the story is otherwise a great nothing. The times when the game offers joy--typically, when you actually do figure out the perfect link to completely decimate your enemies--don't outweigh the pervading sense of overwhelming frustration.
Despite the aggravation, there's an audience for Natural Doctrine, a brand of uber-patient strategist who focuses with laser precision on how to manipulate the system and do his dirty deeds. The tools are there to do so, and with enough commitment and dedication, there's a point in which the true joys of the game open up for you to see. With that same commitment of time and energy, however, you could also play a better role-playing game several times over.
Plate from Nintendo's original headquarters. via Wikipedia Nintendo began as a playing card company in 1889 but it was the transition into video games in the '70s that earned it the worldwide recognition it has today. Technically, Nintendo's 125th anniversary doesn't start until tomorrow for us here in the US, but since it's already September 23 in Japan, we thought we'd kick off the congratulations a little early.
What's your earliest/best Nintendo memory? For me, it was going over to a friend's house to play through the original Metroid on NES. We slowly worked our way together through the game's labyrinth's, not using guides and way before walkthrough videos. At the time, it was intense, scary, and one of the reasons that Mother Brain still freaks me out.
It has been five years since Keiji Inafune--the influential and respected creator of Mega Man--spoke out against the flagging standards of games development in Japan. Asked at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show what he thought of the projects on display, Inafune said, "Personally when I looked around at all the different games at the TGS floor I said 'Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished.'"
As controversial and infectiously repeatable these words have become, what was most disappointing was that Inafune was right. At the time, the games industry was in the midst of a tectonic shift of power from East to West, driven in part by Microsoft's US-built Xbox 360.
Meanwhile, the dramatically escalating costs of console software development made it a necessity that games carried global appeal--in particular in the US and Europe, which are the two biggest markets by far--and under these new demands, Japan's empire of studios struggled to adapt.
But, judging by the exciting and promising content on display at the Tokyo Game Show 2014, the spiritual home of video games appears to have ascended from its creative stupor.
Granted, the show itself hasn't been especially momentous; it has lacked major announcements and most of the game demos have already been showcased at prior events such as E3 and Gamescom. Attendance figures, meanwhile, were down.
At the same time, core consoles are not selling particularly well in Japan. The PS4, which is the clear frontrunner in other key markets, is hardly a hot product in its homeland. Andrew House, the group chief executive of PlayStation--a man who could talk to you for hours about the PS4's trailblazing success--could only muster the words, "It's doing OK," when asked what he thought about PS4 sales in Japan.
Yet, while Japan's own consumers have not exactly embraced the new generation of home consoles, its development studios have started to prioritize them again. And as showcased so effectively at TGS, Japan's new wave of core games can demonstrably allure western audiences.
What struck home in particular from the TGS floor was the desire to flaunt new IP--a sentiment broadcast by the likes of Bloodborne (From Software), The Evil Within (Tango Gameworks), and Deep Down (Capcom Online Games).
That's not to suggest Japan's games sector has bet the whole farm on its console blockbusters (the Makuhari Messe show floor was swamped with indies in development for mobiles and handhelds), yet much of Japan's future as a purveyor of core multiplatform games hinges on the commercial and critical response of those aforementioned titles.
And games like Deep Down are a demonstration of Capcom's taste for new business models; it's is a free-to-play action RPG funded via microtransactions. Whatever you think of free-to-play--and certainly there are many examples where it is exploitative and buzzkilling--the underpinning financial model of triple-A games is laced with increasingly severe risk, which is why it's so crucial that the likes of Capcom takes a more progressive stance and experiments with its business plans. It doesn't want to fall behind again.
Inevitably, there are still orthodox blockbusters too, in particular Metal Gear Solid V (Kojima Productions) and Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix)--two properties that have become tokenistic of Japan's craftsmanship in creating franchises of lasting appeal. But the show was also a reminder that some of Japan's most prominent studios have more than one major triple-A project underway, with Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games) and Silent Hills (Kojima Productions) underlying how much investment is flowing into its core studios again.
It's a big ask, but if enough of these games succeed commercially and critically, Inafune's controversial words would begin to lose their relevance, and I suspect no one would be happier about that outcome than him.
| Rob Crossley is GameSpot's UK News Editor - you can follow him on Twitter here |
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| For all of GameSpot's news coverage, check out our hub. Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com |
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The review scores for Destiny may not be as high as developer Bungie might have liked, but the people who bought it sure are playing it a lot.
In a post to Bungie's official website, Community Manager David "DeeJ" Dague revealed that the average play session in Destiny is three hours hours on weekdays, and four hours on weekends.
Dague also repeated a statistic that Activision revealed earlier this week, which is that since launch, players have put in a combined 100 million hours into the game. Together, they played 137 million of the game's activities.
Though the corporation previously noted that it had already made more than $500 million from selling copies of the game to retailers and first parties, since release the game has made about $325 million from individual customer purchases.
"Destiny fans played more than 100 million hours of the game in the first week. That's on par with the engagement levels of our most popular Call of Duty games, which obviously is an industry leader," said Activision publishing executive Eric Hirshberg.
Developer Bungie continues to update its shared-world FPS. On Tuesday, it unlocked the first Raid mission for players on level 26 and above, while one day later it doubled the frequency of its Public Events.
For more on Destiny, be sure to check out GameSpot's review.
How much time did you put into Destiny so far? Let us know in the comments below.
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"Look for D," she says, and I giggle. Internet culture has ruined the fourth letter of the alphabet, and D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die is drowning in D-driven dialogue. "I must find D," he says, and I become a puerile manchild; every line becomes a double entendre, and I can barely contain my laughter.
Perhaps you don't know why nine-year-old me is so tickled; you've never heard the lewd interpretation of the letter D, and that's OK. I suspect that D4 creator Swery 65 didn't intend for his lines to take on such sexual meaning, so feel free to disregard the naughty undercurrent. But I also suspect that Swery would approve of my salacious laughter. D4 is insanity distilled into adventure-game form, more self-consciously wacky than another Swery game, Deadly Premonition, but more human, too. Or, at least, as human as can be expected for a game in which a grown woman preens herself like a cat and sells you lollipops in the privacy of your own home.
Phillip appears to be high. And you might suspect the same of yourself while playing D4. Ah yes--that woman is Amanda, and it's never clear whether she is (or was) a real feline, or even if D4 protagonist David Young sees her as everyone else does. She slinks around David's Massachusetts apartment, and swipes and hisses at him like a real cat might on occasion, perhaps due to his inconsistent Boston accent, which comes and goes more often than D4's connections to reality. I recommend cutting the man some slack, however: he lost his wife (and presumably his unborn child) to a violent murder stemming from ex-cop David's detective work, and his unwavering goal is not just to expose the murderer, but to alter the past in the hope of reuniting himself with the love of his life.
David's in a unique position to do so thanks to his ability to transcend time and space by inserting himself into the past, though it's best not to spend too much time parsing the specifics of David's skill: logic is a rare commodity in D4, though every event and possibility makes a certain kind of intuitive sense. It would be easy to dismiss the game for its apparent stupidity--this is a game that features a flamboyant (and seemingly gay) fashion designer who claims his mannequin to be his significant other, after all--but D4 is very smart about its stupidity. In cracking open one of the game's many magazine articles, I discovered a shrewd and self-aware essay on the insular nature of Japanese culture that compared Japanese social evolution to natural evolution on the island of Galapagos. I didn't expect such thoughtful commentary in a game whose gestures are so very big and loud, yet that commentary is a reminder that when you laugh, D4 is laughing with you.
You can change different characters' outfits, and even remove David's facial hair. That won't keep other characters from talking about your (nonexistent) beard, though. Like the point-and-click adventures it harks back to, these first few chapters of this episodic game are primarily concerned with narrative, and they accordingly lift ideas from other games that share that inspiration. D4's connection to Myst manifests in the way you move from one pre-prescribed node to the next, rather than walk freely. From these locations, you can swivel in 90-degree arcs, or look slightly to the right or left, to view and interact with the people and objects around you. In other respects, D4 resembles Heavy Rain and Telltale's Walking Dead games, in which you perform timed button-presses and stick-wiggles (or arm-swipes and fist-bumps, if you prefer to interact with the game using Kinect, which you can do from beginning to end) that vaguely relate to the melodramatic action occurring on screen. L.A. Noire, too, is invoked in the way D4 has you examining environments and seeking clues to the mystery at hand, though you won't be exercising any ingenuity to decipher what you find: David follows the evidence to its proper conclusion once you collect it.
Like the games it sometimes mirrors, D4 is less concerned with specific interactions than with the events they accompany--and it's those events that make the QTE, that widely-hated embodiment of game-design sloth, so joyous in this context. A fistfight aboard a mid-flight jet is a pas de deux of pain in which David engages in ballroom dance with a frightened passenger, hits a baseball with a plastic limb, deafens his opponents by screaming through a megaphone, and dislodges a glass eye, all while cavalierly blowing bubbles. Mimicking these actions using the Kinect enhances the connection you feel with these preposterous moments, which makes it a shame there aren't more of them. Basic events like turning and touching aren't so compelling, even with motion controls, and for all its improvements, the second-generation Kinect still doesn't correctly react to every movement. There's no shame in using a gamepad; doing so makes the slower stretches more tolerable.
D4 is insanity distilled into adventure-game form, more self-consciously wacky than another Swery game, Deadly Premonition, but more human, too.
There are enough of these stretches to make the game occasionally drag, though even the monotony has its own brand of D4 charm. A tall man wearing a surgical mask appears from time to time, ready to confuse you with cryptic comments and piercing stares while he menacingly plays with a knife and fork. He has little to say but uses a lot of words to say it--short words that he stretches into five-second phonetics until you're ready to scream "Just get on with it!" When not grinding to a halt, D4 occasionally enjoys engaging with stereotypes so exaggerated it's difficult to tell whether Swery intends to mock the people that perpetuate those stereotypes or the individuals that demonstrate them. Authorial intent aside, I wasn't always laughing. That aforementioned fashion guru, for instance, is a hyperactive vessel overflowing with every effete mannerism imaginable--and the stereotypically gay behaviors he doesn't personify are brushed onto a perpetually snide flight attendant.
D4's charm and cheekiness typically mask its discomforts, however. David's ex-partner Forrest Kayson (a carryover character from Deadly Premonition, though gussied up in a suit and facial hair here) is a Hoover on two legs, vacuuming up frankfurters four at a time. I cannot remember what the conversation was about; all I can recall is the gross and hysterical display of gluttony gone mad. Even when D4 goes wrong, it's difficult to stay mad at it. Depending on the order of the options you choose, you could respond to a query of 'What's wrong,' with a second 'What's wrong?'. Elsewhere, a quiz minigame (one of several small detours D4 provides) responds to a correct answer with dialogue assigned to a different and incorrect answer. Little errors abound, and in a game meant to immerse you, they might have been distracting or even game-ruining.
Click above for more D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die images. D4 is not an adventure you get lost in, however, at least not in the way you get lost in Mass Effect or Red Dead Redemption. No--D4 is both the game you are playing and your cooperative partner. I was never not aware of its 'game-ness,' I was never swept away into its world, I was never not aware of the real world around me. I do not mean those statements, however, to serve as a criticism. On the contrary, D4 and I laughed together at its own absurdities. How could we not? The game gamifies its own mechanics, for heaven's sake, awarding you points for thoroughly examining your surroundings, and taking them away when you interact with people and objects. There are even online leaderboards that somehow rank you against other players, an absurd and unnecessary feature in an absurd game that doesn't benefit from it in any meaningful way. No, I believe D4 understands itself, and I understand it too. It speaks an unusual language, certainly, and I couldn't blame anyone for finding it nigh incomprehensible, or just plain barmy. But if you're foolhardy enough to buy what it's selling, then welcome to the D4 Appreciation Society. There are worse clubs to belong to.
@homelessgamer
But now, there's no where left to hide
Since Jess pushed our love asiWe're out of out head
Hopelessly devoted to Jess
Hopelessly devoted to Jess
We know we are fools who are willing
To sit around and wait for you
Jess can't you see
There's just no getting over you
We're Hopelessly Devoted To You
Hopelessly Devoted To You
--Olivia Newton John (modified)
And for the rest of you, that song wasn't meant to be too serious, truthful, a compliment, but too serious.
Character creation. That it? btw the messing with time and story isn't new to these games... e.g. SS3 Brolly, bardock fighting goku, and a ton of other 'what ifs'. Let's face it, this helping trucks in time is just one big 'what if' story just like all the other games did.
I'd personally like some more mechanics in the game rather than 100 more what if stories...Would a couple more unique combos per character kill them?
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Top 5 Skyrim Mods trawls the enormous mod catalogue so you don't have to, bringing the very best world-changing mods to your screen. From high detailed armour mods to exploding chickens, there's nothing our bold adventurers won't try.
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SubscribeI played Last of US to death on PS3 and then bought the PS4 version and played it 3 times through. I'll do the same with GTAV - I'd rather play a great game 3 times than a crap game 1/10 of the time through.
Out of 10 games I buy, 1 or 2 are great. 4 or 5 are diversions, and the rest so so (I only buy games that get 8 on metacritic or GS)..
And hell, I just love playing GTAV golf. I hope the graphics look a lot better. "Look at that bad boy!"
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In what is more than likely a pricing error that will be fixed very soon, the Dell Store currently lists the Collector's Edition of Assassin's Creed Unity for PS4 and Xbox One at the budget price of $60. The tip comes from the deals site Dealzon, and the Dell listing says you get:
You can read more about the Collector's Edition and other pre-order bonuses here. The edition is currently listed as unavailable on Amazon and GameStop, but Best Buy is still selling the same version for the standard price of $130. So, that's a pretty good discount if you were thinking about picking up a current-gen version of the game and wanted a few fancy extras.
Unity launches November 11 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, alongside Assassin's Creed Rogue for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. And we also recently learned about Assassin's Creed: The Americas Collection, which is a bundle coming October 28 that collects Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and Assassin's Creed III Liberation HD for Xbox 360 and PS3.
The song you hear calling from the center of Lichdom: Battlemage is one of ice and fire. A chorus chants from within, urging you to chill your personal demons with the ray of frost you blast from your fingertips, and to burn them with showers of brimstone. Elemental powers aren't the only ones you command in this magic-driven action game, but they are the two that define the initial hours of Lichdom's overlong campaign, which hobbles to a close long after it milks the joy out of its excellent but single-minded combat.
Let's return, however, to those initial hours. Lichdom: Battlemage is built around the most satisfying spellcasting this side of Kingdoms of Amalur, and it's this one system that drives the adventure from beginning to end. There is no mana bar obstructing your access to deadly magic. The only cooldowns you need consider are the intrinsic casting times of the spells themselves, not additional timers that dole out casting permission at specified intervals. Wizards and skeletons spawn into the level from nowhere, and you fling icicles at them or soften them up with a hive of buzzing parasites that floats above your head.
If you want to keep your distance during rough battles like this, craft shields that give you unlimited access to the short-range teleport called "blink." Casting these spells from Lichdom's first-perspective feels oh so good, and they come in three types of magical flavors, called sigils. Each sigil allows for three casting techniques: a focused attack, an area-of-effect attack, and a parry--termed a nova--that typically offers its own kind of offensive enhancement. A focused spell might take the form of a continuous ray of elemental energy or a ball of filth, though I was most taken by homing missiles, which I could fire off in quick succession or charge up for a more thorough display of destruction. To turn an archer into a pile of ash is simple enough with such a missile: hold a mouse button, then release that flaming projectile and watch your target skeleton dissolve into the wind when it hits.
Forgive my focus on fire and ice. It's easiest to describe these types of magic in light of the more complex sigils, such as kinesis and delirium, which allow you to control the battlefield in various ways, turning enemies against each other or halting them in their tracks. I grew fond of a slaughterous trio comprised of necromancy, corruption, and ice. Necromancy does what it says on the tin, turning fiends into friends when the grim reaper comes to visit, while corruption allows you to spread an epidemic of tumorous growths and ravenous parasites. These sigils often work in tandem with each other, turning a sequence of properly-timed blitzes into a colorful spectacle of frozen sorcerers shattering into a trillion pieces. This may be magic, but I am more than a mere magician: I am a demigod.
Mr. Freeze would have an excellent ice pun to accompany this image. More specifically, I am a Dragon, capital-D, and a significant figure in Lichdom's baffling story, which stars you--a battlemage of the gender you choose--and a scout of complementary gender whose role would best be described as "exposition faucet." He or she flits in and out of your travels to share the details of a story that's never properly established, making every line of Lichdom's dialogue a mess of white noise. "Here's a story about something cool you'll never witness for yourself," says the scout, in essence, and you move on to making your own story. The beautiful environments thankfully have stories of their own to share; twisted tree trunks and tarnished temples rise from a fetid swamp, and you see massive sea vessels encased in ice, as if they were frozen in time before their captains were aware of such an unlikely danger. CryEngine 3, the same graphics technology that humbled many a PC in 2013 in Crysis 3, has returned to remind you that your machine really needs a new graphics card. To be fair, however, the game looks great even with medium-ranged setting activated, though the game's liberal use of motion blur will have you rushing to tweak its visual options to diminish the discomfort.
As tempting as it is to compare Lichdom: Battlemage to Skyrim, what with the early snowy environments and all that magic, this is no role-playing game--at least, not in the traditional sense. Lichdom does, however, grant you plenty of agency over how you exercise your magical talents. Your spells are not assigned to you as if they are medicines prescribed by a doctor (burn two brutes to a crisp with this bog-standard fireball and call me in the morning). Instead, you drive your own destiny by designing your spells using the various materials that occasionally rush to your body after a kill as if drawn to your magnetic personality.
Elemental powers aren't the only ones you command in this magic-driven action game, but they are the two that define the initial hours of Lichdom's overlong campaign, which hobbles to a close long after it milks the joy out of its excellent but single-minded combat.
I couldn't possibly begin to detail Lichdom's convoluted spell creation, which isn't ungraspable, but requires that you make sense of various terms--mastery, control, critical effect multiplier, apocalyptical chance--and interpret the results of each step of the crafting process. At first, it's difficult to tell why spells behave as they do, especially when there are countless statistical minutiae differentiating one spell from the next. ("These two spells are the same except one offers a slightly larger attack radius and the other does slightly more damage. Is it worth spending time on a decision that won't likely matter much on the field of battle?") It's both empowering and somewhat tedious to have so much control over so many magical attributes, but whether or not you fall in love with this system, you'll spend plenty of time attending to it: more powerful demons shall arrive, and you will have to create higher-level spells to destroy them.
After several hours of winding your way through Lichdom's linear levels, it becomes clear that developer Xaviant relied on this combat system to the detriment of other basic aspects of game design. One by one, combat scenarios appear, each one exactly like the last. Enemies spawn into being out of nowhere--and should you die and have to relive the battle, they always materialize in the same locations with no concern for your position relative to their spawn points. You wave your hands about, spreading disease and death, until every demon has fallen--or until you are wholly annihilated. You then interact with a floating sphere that generates a purple hologram depicting two or three characters talking about apparently vital story events you never get to witness for yourself. And then you repeat this scenario, with only boss fights and the occasional appearance of your opposite-gendered exposition vessel to disrupt the flow. Necromancy, ice bolt, ice bolt, fiery aura--once more, with feeling.
Click above for more Lichdom: Battlemage images. To be fair, the flow is also disrupted by frequent deaths, an annoyance that's sure to hound you when you enter new areas with spells that no longer adequately protect you, but without the components that would allow you to create stronger magic. Some battles are teeth-gnashingly, hair-pullingly grueling, particularly those with enemies that enjoy freezing you in place, and Lichdom almost takes a perverse delight in how far apart its checkpoints occur. And so you take part in a tedious video game version of Groundhog Day in which you perform the same amazing supernatural feats so often, and in the same repetitive scenarios, that those feats become as boring as collecting Gandalf the Grey's dry cleaning.
That isn't to say that I don't appreciate the inherent diversity of Lichdom's spellcrafting; a ray of focused flame behaves differently than the necromantic conversion of dead demons, after all. But the game's general approach takes the burden off the design and transfers the impetus of creating variety to me--and without innate structural variety, Lichdom stretches its one excellent idea to the point of tearing. The game's inordinate length only reinforces the monotony. I hesitate to suggest a game should be shorter than it already is, but Lichdom itself makes an excellent argument for brevity. Xaviant miscalculated the formula. (Great spellcasting) - (mana bar) + (meaningless story) + (unvaried battles) is not, in fact, equal to 15 or 16 hours of consistent enjoyment and $39.99 of your money.
While Lichdom makes a strong case for a shorter game, it also makes the case for another Lichdom game. If there is any game this year deserving of a sequel, it's this one. With a steely backbone of meaningful world-building, sensible storytelling, and proper pacing, a Lichdom 2 could have an unassailable place to hang its best asset. The game at hand is concerned only with the magic. A few hours in, I was convinced that it might be enough. The love affair didn't last, but I'll always have those golden memories.
