“Bloodborne:” The Abomination Beloved by Meta-Critic and the Cult of From
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/29/15 at 05:57 PM CT
This week the PlayStation 4 was taken by storm by From Software releasing the same game they’ve been releasing over and over and over since 1995. The insufferable Masocore fanbase has been hyping it and praising it since the first screens leaked, despite the fact that “Bloodborne” is nothing more than an 8th Gen rehash of “King’s Field,” one of the very first PlayStation 1 games ever developed. “King’s Field” also happens to be the first PlayStation game I ever played at a demo station at Game Guy in Manhattan, Kansas… and it was the game that had me backing the Nintendo 64 until Squaresoft announced that ‘Final Fantasy’ was moving to PlayStation.
What is truly baffling about the love for From Software’s ever-turning wheel of awful action/“RPGs” is that “King’s Field” and its sequels were never a big deal back when they were released. Interestingly, it seems that there has been some sort of concerted effort amongst new-gen From Software fanboys …
Nintendo + DeNA: What Might the Future Hold?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/22/15 at 03:22 PM CT
Earlier this week, Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, gave an hour-long press conference in Japan announcing three major changes for the struggling Japanese game-maker.
1. Nintendo will partner with DeNA – one of Japans biggest and most popular mobile portal and e-commerce operators – for its online services. This partnership will result in a new membership service to replace the recently-discontinued Club Nintendo.
2. Through this partnership with DeNA, Nintendo will begin developing games for mobile phone (a.k.a., smart device) platforms. These mobile games will leverage Nintendo IPs, but will never be direct ports or emulations, since Nintendo understands the massive control scheme difference between controllers and touchscreens.
3. Nintendo is creating a hardware successor for the WiiU, codenamed “NX.”
These announcements come at a time when Nintendo is clearly running last in the console wars and has been struggling to remain relevant in the minds of most …
Nintendo and Checklist Gameplay: A Dangerous Affair
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/15/15 at 02:20 PM CT
There has been a disturbing trend in the games appearing on Nintendo’s struggling WiiU console. Where, in many cases, there were once cohesive story/campaign modes, engaging single-player content has now been replaced with a large number of disjointed little tasks. I like to call this newer style of game design “Checklist” gameplay because the games that employ it amount to little more than presenting the player with a list of discreet tasks and giving them a star/medal/badge/whatever for completing each task.
Checklist Gameplay also closely resembles one of the more insidious and banal trends of the 7th Generation: Achievements. It is surprising that Nintendo, despite expressing no interest in an overarching and all-inclusive Achievement/Trophy system like those employed by Live, Steam, and PSN, has decided to transform so many of its first-party franchises into little more than Achievement hunts.
Recently, I have been sorely disappointed with “Super Smash Bros. for …
Review Round-Up: Winter 2014
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/06/15 at 12:15 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
This long, cold, lonely Winter was good to me, as I was able to play through a sizeable portion of my backlog (yet it hasn’t really gotten any smaller…). I was quite pleased to be able to hand out two perfect scores and one almost-perfect score this quarter (along with a variety of other, lower numbers). Running into excellent titles like these is what keeps me gaming even when overwhelming amounts of crap are flooding the market.
“Hyrule Warriors” – 3/5
“Fallout 2” – 4/5
“BioShock Infinite” – 5/5
“Reus” – 2.5/5
“Shadowgate: 25th Anniversary Remaster” – 4.5/5
“Super Smash Bros. for WiiU” – 3.5/5
“Dust: An Elysian Tail” – 5/5
“Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams” – 2.5/5
“The Cave” – 4/5
“Millennium: A New Hope” – 4/5
“From Dust” – 2/5
“BioShock 2” – …
Playstation 4: The First 100 (Give or Take) Days
Chris Kavan - wrote on 03/05/15 at 08:17 PM CT
While I wasn't gung-ho about jumping into the new generation of gaming systems, I was presented with a deal I couldn't pass up and wound up with a brand new Playstation 4. The Nintendo WiiU has been fun, but nothing I was dying to get. The PS4 was likewise on my "somewhere down the road" list, but I was willing to give it time. That being said, after jumping in, have played (or am playing) two of the most highly-regarded games - Shadow of Mordor and Dragon Age: Inquisition. One will also note they are both cross-platform games.
There is nothing wrong with the PS4 - graphics-wise, it is certainly a beast. But I have never been one to hang my hat on how good graphics are (as seen my my less-than-stellar PC setup). However, at this time, it may be the most impressive thing about the system. Exclusives? Thus far they have been few and far between - Knack and Infamous: Second Son both launched with the system - though both were somewhat successful, neither were overwhelmingly good - …
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