Backlog: The Embiggening – February, 2016
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/31/16 at 02:18 PM CT
Now that the gaming industry has had time to recover from its New Year’s hangover, we should be seeing some better stuff start trickling out. “Should” being the operative word. Instead the industry’s unabashed love affair with selling old material as though it was new continues unabated, with a glut of ports, compilations, and remasters padding what would otherwise be a very unimpressive month. Let’s get to it!
Is there shovelware? Of course, there is shovelware. Like the poor, shovelware will always be with us. February is bringing us three new anime-inspired games: a ‘Digimon’ PS4 exclusive – which apparently ties-into the 2015 anniversary of the original TV show, another ‘Naruto’ fighting game, and a typical Tecmo-Koei large-scale Beat ‘em Up with a coat of paint inspired by a Japanese novel series entitled “The Heroic Legend of Arslan.” Honestly, the ‘Arslan’ game sounds like it would be pretty interesting… if it wasn’t just another “Hyrule …
Vaguely Related Review: Nvidia Shield Tablet
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/24/16 at 06:01 PM CT
I bought an Nvidia Shield Tablet and its stable of accoutrements back in November of 2014, and only now feel like I have had enough experience with the thing to give it a proper review. Before I bought one of these Android devices, I mused that it might be ‘the ‘Droid we’re looking for,’ as OUYA certainly demonstrated that it was emphatically not. After a year of Shield Tablet ownership, however, I can’t recommend it.
About the Hardware
The first negative of Shield Tablet ownership is that the thing is not cheap. $300 for a wi-fi Android device is triple the price of an OUYA, and well into the smartphone price range. Of course, since the Shield Tablet is an 8” touchscreen device, it is a smartphone in every way, barring the lack of a cellular radio and monthly subscription plan (which are, conveniently, available for the $400 4G LTE version of the Shield Tablet). And since the Shield Tablet is incomplete, it takes another $40 to buy a magnetic screen cover and …
Vaguely Related Review: Sony Bravia 3DTV
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/17/16 at 03:07 PM CT
Way back in 2014, my old Vizio television – the one with all of my consoles and my Steambox hooked up to it – started playing tricks on me. When turning it on from a ‘cold off’ state, it would randomly have large portions of the LED backlighting that were dimmed out. It would correct itself after a time, but I found that I had to make accommodations to the television and treat it with kid gloves by never turning it on and off in rapid succession, and leaving it on if I was going to come back to it within a few hours.
Click to Enlarge
As time went on, the screen got progressively worse, and in the middle of 2015, the dimmed sections of the screen began to flicker as well. I knew the moment the backlighting started to dim that I would need to replace the entire TV sooner or later, but with the advent of 4K resolution, I was determined to put-off replacing it for as long as possible. I could still play games with random patches of dimmed pixels… but the flickering… it …
8th Gen Consoles: Now Streaming on Your PC
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/09/16 at 03:44 PM CT
Astute readers will have noticed that when I review a multi-platform FPS or TPS, I typically rate the PC version half a star higher than the console versions. The reason behind this non-arbitrary point dock is the fact that the PC versions of these games allow for a wide range of control options, including my beloved Razer Hydra, while the console versions… don’t. I don’t always dock console shooters for lacking control options, however, as certain console versions, such as the PlayStation 3 version of “BioShock Infinite” do support a wider range of control schemes (in this case, the PlayStation Move, which, while a pale imitation of the Hydra, is at least an attempt on the developer’s part).
Some new tech coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, however, might render my point-docking ways irrelevant, as Microsoft has already made it possible to stream XBONE games to a Windows PC, while Sony has similar functionality for the PS4 in the works.
The ability to stream …
Backlog: The Embiggening – January, 2016
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/01/16 at 12:50 PM CT
Happy New Year, 2016, dear readers! As the 4th full year of the 8th Generation kicks off, we are all left with a feeling of awe and wonder – that this new year could bring us anything. Unfortunately, with the “AAA”-ification of the game’s industry, we all know what we can expect, and it’s not ‘anything,’ it’s ‘more of the same.’
January is typically a light release month, and this year is no exception. We’re only getting a handful of new releases (that have been announced ahead of time!). There’s one piece of shovelware, a Marvel Comics and LEGO mashup, “LEGO Marvel’s Avengers,” presumably to tie-into the upcoming “Captain America: Civil War” movie.
There are two repackagings of older games coming this month. The formerly digital-only “Life is Strange” is getting a physical release, while some old ‘Resident Evil’ games are getting compiled and remastered on the PortStation 4 and XBONE.
There aren’t any significant multi-plat …
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