One of the most shocking moments of E3 2017 was when Nintendo announced not one, but two Metroid games. Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS was quit the surprise, but the even bigger bombshell was the announcement that Metroid Prime 4 is in development for the Nintendo Switch. Despite only showing the game’s logo, Metroid Prime 4 ended up as one of the most-talked about games of
Another big improvement is that of the interfaces. The previous ones were rough even in 2004, seeming basic enough to be more at home with PS1-era Adventure games news. Thankfully, they’ve been completely overhauled for this release, matching up better with the subsequent Fable games. Navigation-wise, they’re a bit too clumsy. The triggers, shoulders buttons and analog sticks all come into play when scrolling around, resulting in a learning curve that shouldn’t exist for menus. Still, there’s only so much that can be done and at least the old interface wasn’t simply re-skinned.
Another cool feature is that of photograph locations throughout the map that when touched display a viewpoint from the original Xbox game. This is quite nifty as it allows you to match up with your television and see exactly what has been improved for the Anniversary edition. It’s also said that backgrounds for key players have been written and are viewable upon meeting them, but I was unable to find how to access these. A title update will be supposedly be released on launch day, so perhaps they will become easier to find then. The only real negative of the experience is that it doesn’t show the NPCs that can be interacted with on the map. Unfortunately, this makes it so you can’t rely solely on your tablet/smartphone, which is a bit of a bummer.
To be fair, we were warned ahead of time that Death Stranding wouldn’t be at E3 2017. Even so, Hideo Kojima’s reputation for tricking fans meant that there was still a slim possibility the game would make a surprise appearance during Sony’s E3 press conference. Unfortunately, Death Stranding was nowhere to be seen at the show, meaning fans are still largely in the dark about its gameplay features, story, and whether or not there is any truth to the Emma Stone casting rumo
Choosing to be good or evil was usually straightforward. Several of the main quests had an optional way to end them depending on the outcome, typically spare the foe for good points and kill them for evil. There were a couple quests where there were two available quests but they were the same event, the choice was just to determine what side the player was on which actually was a cool way of making it feel like you were choosing a side. A more fun way to rack up the evil points was to just go on a Grand Theft Auto style rampage in town and kill a bunch of guards and civilians, but again no killing children since they take away your weapons in the towns with kids. This can actually cause some problems, since you may want to go to town but end up having a massive bounty in several towns that doesn’t expire for a few days.
In Final Fantasy II , players could saddle up and take a trip not on horses, but ‘Chocobos’; large, birds capable of sprinting at impressive speeds. The creatures were used primarily as a gameplay conceit to begin with, but soon became so embraced by fans, the feathered pets became a staple of the ser
Rush’s various special abilities over the years haven’t all been winners, but his ability to bring the best traits of a loyal dog and a transforming robot to life make him a truly unique entry on our l
There aren’t all that many good movies based on video games, but maybe that’s just because the right adaptation hasn’t come along yet. Video games are more cinematic and visually impressive now than ever before, and their popularity means that Hollywood is continuing to try and find ways of turning major video game franchises into major movie franchi
ARK 2 was recently announced at The Game Awards, and while most players are just surprised and bewildered at Vin Diesel’s inclusion in the trailer, the trailer did show off a few of the iconic dinosaurs that will be returning for the sequel. The original ARK is all about taming dinosaurs and using them to make surviving on the Island easier, so it shouldn’t be that shocking that fans of the franchise want to know what dinosaurs will be in the game. The trailer didn’t confirm too many yet, but there are some that are easy to miss after watching the trailer just o
Anyone who’s played Fable knows that it fell short of these amazing claims and there’s a good chance they felt disappointed when they saw it failed to live up to everything it was supposed to be if they pre-ordered. This is unfortunate, because once we get past Molyneux’s grandiose claims for what Fable will be and just accept it for what it actually is, Fable turned out to be a rather impressive final product. Raising children wasn’t an option in the first Fable and sadly neither was killing the little brats that ran through the town, but overall the game seemed to match the goals of what Molyneux wanted to create, even though it came in a much more scaled back version of what he raised our expectations to be. The story progressing across a lifetime basically got reduced to the hero would whenever they leveled up and the world didn’t seem to change at all from when the hero when from his teenage years to entering his sixties. On the other hand, Fable had a bit of an unexpected Monty Python quality with a narrator. He wasn’t the most useful voice as he would typically tell you there is a quest card at the guild or randomly ask “what’s that?” but having a disembodied British voice throughout the game was a nice touch.