Backlog: The Embiggening – October, 2016
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/25/16 at 02:01 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! October is nearly upon us, which means that the official start of the Holiday Shopping Season is just a week away. We can look forward to three solid months of constant commercial bombardment and cluttered release schedules, all in the name of confusing grandparents into buying little Timmy the wrong gift for Christmas. It’s like game publishers haven’t heard of return policies and gift cards…
Shovelware is pretty bad again this month, with 7 titles looming before us. Now that Disney is out of the game dev/pub business, they’ve got Namco-Bandai working on their next effort, “Disney Magical World 2” (and it REALLY pisses me off that every Disney game needs to have ‘Disney’ in the title, apparently). Someone at BigBen apparently thinks these terrible ‘Sherlock Holmes’ titles are worthy of being released on more platforms. Warner Bros. wants PS4 owners to re-buy every ‘LEGO Harry Potter’ game in a compilation. …
Vaguely Related Review: EA’s Origin
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/18/16 at 02:14 PM CT
It has been quite some time since I gave the review treatment to Steam and Desura. I would like to do the same for GOG Galaxy, but I feel it’s a bit unfair to review software that’s still technically in Alpha. I could look at Uplay, but I don’t have it installed currently, as I have cleared the whopping two Ubisoft games I own from my backlog and don’t intend to buy any more…
That leaves EA’s Origin client. Recently, I intentionally installed this particular strain of malware on my Steambox and spent $40 on EA games. While this behavior is incredibly uncharacteristic for me, it stemmed from Sony really pissing me off lately (even before the PS4 Pro and PS+ price hike announcements), to the point of making me double-down on the idea of never owning a PS4, not even for the handful of EA games I would otherwise only be able to play if I installed Origin on my Steambox. I was further tipped over the edge by a week-long Origin sale, during which I was able to get “Dragon …
PlayStation: Hubris Awaits
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/11/16 at 01:56 PM CT
Look! What’s that up in the sky!? Is it a supernova? Is it a meteorite? No! It’s Sony entering a self-inflicted death spiral thanks to a couple of horrible decisions over the course of the last few weeks.
This past week, we finally got a look at the PlayStation Neo… except the thing Sony revealed wasn’t even close to the PlayStation Neo gamers have been teased and tempted by for months now. No, the thing that Sony revealed – the PlayStation 4 Pro – isn’t a next-gen competitor for the upcoming Nintendo NX and Xbox Scorpio. It doesn’t support PC-style modding of Bethesda games. It doesn’t include a UHD Blu-Ray drive, either. At first it also wasn’t clear whether or not the triple-stacked Pro hardware, which looks frighteningly like the ‘hamburger’ menu buttons that have exploded in popularity amongst interface designers lately, was an entirely new console or a Sega CD-style add-on for the old PS4 (it’s NOT an add-on). No, the single selling point of the PS4 …
Review Round-Up: Summer 2016
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/04/16 at 01:10 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:
Summer was kind to me and allowed me a significant amount of free time to plow through a portion of my backlog. It really helps that so many Indie games are short and can be completed in a single session. Amongst the wide variety of stuff I played this Summer were a couple of unfairly maligned RPGs, some overrated crap, and a rare perfect-scoring platformer.
“TowerFall Ascension” – 3/5
“The Last Remnant” – 4/5
“Shantae: Risky’s Revenge” – 4/5
“Coldfire Keep” – 3.5/5
“Skyborne” – 4.5/5
“Dungeonland” – 2/5
“Fable Anniversary” – 2.5/5
“Sword Coast Legends” – 4/5
“Mercenary Kings” – 4.5/5
“Freedom Fall” – 5/5
“Rocket Knight” – 4/5
“Megabyte Punch” – 4/5
“Glare” – 3/5
Chris’ Reviews:
Chris, on the other hand, did not have a particularly …
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