The always wonderful to read “Art of the Title”, which focuses on the craft of creating effective title sequences, generally using film and TV, has posted its first game sequence, with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Included is an extensive interview with both Paul Furminger from Goldtooth Creative (director of the sequence) and Jean-François Dugas from Eidos-Montreal (Game Director).
Read MoreOne thing we weren’t expecting to see at Fan Expo this year was new laptop technology. While game franchises have become a major part of conventions in the past few years, with the convergence of geek culture, it’s usually a matter of game titles, not the hardware underneath it. So when we came across the Toshiba booth, which had their new Qosimo glasses-free 3D laptop on display, we had to take a look.
Read MoreUbisoft had quite a bit going on at Fan Expo in Toronto this year. One of the upcoming titles that caught our eye was Rocksmith, which puts a new spin on the rhythm guitar game. It’s specfically designed to work with any electric guitar, which plugs into your Xbox 360, PS3 or PC via a USB adapter, and uses the chords you strum to keep track. In the video above, you can catch Ryan’s talk with Adam from Ubisoft, who also demos the game using an Epiphone Les Paul plugged in…
Read MoreBefore we get into the meat of this game, I’d like to start with the lesson I most sincerely hope every other studio takes away from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. How to handle morality systems. Straight, DX:HR has the best morality system ever implemented in a game. It handles player choices in a way that is meaningful, powerful, and allows you to genuinely effect the way the game plays out. How does it do that?
Read MoreSpoiler warning: Spoilers for Hydrophobia—both the Pure and Prophecy versions. Yes, they have slightly different stories!
Read MoreE3 Is probably the biggest video game exposition, and this year it takes place June 7th to 9th in Los Angeles. That doesn’t mean you have to miss out, as Konami is hosting a series of pre-shows live across 5 different cities, including Toronto. The venue for Toronto couldn’t be more apt, as the Real Sports Bar & Grill is adorned in a slew of HDTVs, inlcuding a display over the bar itself that stands about 15 feet high, and I’m not talking about a bunch of smaller panels with seams.
Read MoreI don’t have much to say about Portal 2 for two reasons. First, posting spoilers for the game just feels like a bad idea. Letting you in on some of the gags or the overall trajectory of the plot would be criminal, so much so that even the requisite spoiler warning doesn’t feel like enough protection.
Read MoreThis coming Monday April 4th, OCADU’s game design students, along with the University of Toronto’s computer science crew will be showing off the results of their gaming collaboration at Level Up, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Read MoreSpoiler warning: Plot spoilers for Homefront. All four hours of it. Though I would love to expect a higher level of emotional engagement with my video games, when it comes to military-style first-person shooters, I don’t ask for much—probably because they almost always fail to deliver. You run through a bunch of corridors, shoot a bunch of dudes, pick up some new guns with one of seventeen different scopes, hit a slow-motion sequence, feel like a bad-ass. I’ve just distilled the essence of every modern Call of Duty game into…
Read MoreI’ve poured almost thirty hours into Dragon Age 2 since its release less than a week ago, and in that time I’ve been slowly getting a handle on what exactly I like and don’t like about the game. Narrative concerns I will probably leave for another day, but there were a few things I noticed:
Read MoreAnyone who’s been playing multiplayer FPS games for over a decade will probably remember with some fondness both Starseige: Tribes and its sequel Tribes 2, the latter of which was released a decade ago. The series introduced players to a number of new elements in competitive multiplayer, from vertical combat using jet packs, and large sprawling maps that could accommodate teams of up to 16 players. Hi-Rez Studios, which purchased the Tribes franchise last fall, announced at PAX East that they’ll be bringing Tribes: Ascend to the PC and Xbox 360,…
Read MoreBulletstorm is a breath of fresh air for FPS games. The Duty Calls parody ad, complete with in-game cries of “boring” was a statement on the state of modern shooters, as if each were as serious a look at war as Platoon, Band of Brothers or Generation Kill. Of course, this Tom Clancyesque style of fiction has as much in common with reality as Plan B’s magical super subs, but that’s another story. Eschewing the gritty ‘realism’ of modern shooters for over the top science fiction is only the beginning,…
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