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In today’s market, it’s incredibly important to nail a game’s launch by providing players with everything they have come to expect in the months leading up to release. The titles in the “games as service” camp not only need to deliver the developer’s vision at launch, but continue to deliver that vision well beyond that launch. Though many good and mediocre games have crashed and burned upon release (i.e. Lawbreakers ), the following titles did manage to recover from what the industry deemed unfortunate launches. Today, each game serves as an example of how “games as a service” models could be implemented in a good way to satiate fan concerns and maintain healthy player counts. Mediocre Games Turned Good: For Honor Ubisoft’s For Honor earned positive reviews from critics upon release, garnering a 78 average Metacritic score  across all PS4, PC, and Xbox One. Unfortunately, that same positivity didn’t … [Read more...] about Mediocre Games That Are Actually Worth Playing Now

The Order: 1886, for a little while, was a big deal. It was the first original IP from independent studio Ready At Dawn — a team on the rise that had established itself with games such as God of War: Chains of Olympus and Daxter. Billed as Sony’s next big franchise, the company positioned The Order as a landmark title for its then-new PlayStation 4. It was a game, Ready At Dawn said, that set the foundation for sequels and deeper lore. And then the game came out, and it underperformed both critically and commercially. When the game released in 2015, many critics called out the game’s length relative to its cost, and its emphasis on aesthetics over gameplay mechanics. Since the release, Ready at Dawn has moved on to work on other projects and IPs. I recently chatted with the game’s creative director, and Ready At Dawn’s CEO, Ru Weerasuriya about the lessons he and his team learned, the fairness of criticizing art, and what it’s like to build an … [Read more...] about Revisiting The Order: 1886 with developer Ready At Dawn

Though September usually begins the bevy of game launches that usually accompany the end of the year, there are still plenty of PS Plus and Games with Gold titles to pick up. Whether it be re-releases or games looking for a wider audience, September seems like the perfect month to capture consumer interest before the cold seasons freeze us over. The following is a list of games with potential to be featured in either service in September. August Games with Gold and PS Plus Predictions – The Big Ones Though the Resident Evil 6 re-release for PS4 and Xbox One may seem more fitting for October, don’t be surprised if publisher Capcom offers up this game next month instead. Seeing as how major titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, Soulcalibur 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and Battlefield 5 are all due out in October, the house of horror may opt to let the sixth iteration of their popular series take the reins in September so it won’t be drowned out by other scary … [Read more...] about Xbox Games With Gold and PS Plus Predictions for September 2018

In catching up with games we’ve skipped over or set aside, it’s important to pay tribute to entire platforms shoved over into a forgotten corner and covered in dust. You know ... like Wii U, the least successful Nintendo platform this side of Virtual Boy. Unlike Virtual Boy, though, Wii U saw a lot of best-in-class games; they were simply squandered on an unappreciative world. At least Nintendo recognizes the gold mine of content it has lurking in the cobwebbed wasteland that was Wii U. Nintendo has been quite proactive about converting lost Wii U classics to Switch — most recently with the charming Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It could go further, though. There’s so much more to be salvaged from the flaming wreckage of the Wii U! To help, I’ve selected the 11 Wii U games that absolutely, 100% still need to make their way to Switch. These are all top-flight works just begging to enjoy the light of day on a console people not only own but are proud to … [Read more...] about The 11 Wii U to Switch ports we need immediately

One of my all-time favorite games is Mother 3. Its combat represents the pinnacle of the franchise; the characters are wonderful; its story is engaging, emotional and tragic. But I don’t think I’ll actually ever go back to finishing that story, because I can’t for the life of me remember what’s going on. A crashed computer and a mountain of schoolwork meant I lost my Mother 3 save file, and the fear of starting over made me spend months avoiding the game entirely. Eventually, a friend convinced me to return to it ... at which point I couldn’t remember where I was in the plot, or why, or pretty much anything I’d done to get to the place I was in. As much as I loved, and still love, playing Mother 3, I can’t see myself going back to it without that context. Yes, there are ways to catch up online, with wikis and whatnot. RPG stories can be summarized in text, but they are meant to be played — and that’s why an in-game, visual recap … [Read more...] about RPGs need in-game recaps to help us out