Xbox

Gears 5’s campaign wants to be many things. Some of it is designed for sipping, mulling, and savoring, like the hours I spent slowly and deliberately exploring large, open-world areas, discovering secrets and learning about the Gears of War universe along the way. Other parts are as rumbly and explodey as an Avengers movie, like every time I shot my way yard by yard through small corridors, big rooms, and enormous factories, peeking out from cover to reduce monsters into meaty roast-sized pieces. And sometimes it’s a bit of both, like when I discover a credible stealth sequence and botch it, and the cerebral calm transforms into a rumbling firefight. These shifts in tone and pacing shouldn’t work, and yet they do. This is what makes Gears 5 so remarkable. The Coalition seems to have set out to redefine what a Gears campaign could be, and the final product shipped with a lot of varied ideas and set-pieces, many of which sound anathema to Gears of War when described … [Read more...] about Gears 5 campaign review: an unexpected journey

After a mere 24-hour countdown, Electronic Arts launched a massive new entry to their Garden Warfare series. Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville introduces four full PvE campaigns across three open-world hubs filled with quests, collectibles, and secrets, alongside a slate of multiplayer modes and freeform social areas. The key surprise here is not just that EA continues to pump money into the idiosyncratic all-ages shooter franchise (which I love), but the method the publisher is using to release this game into the world. They’re calling it “Founders Edition,” and it’s the latest in a series of moves from creators and corporations to address the binge culture trivializing their releases in the modern media landscape. When entertainment becomes disposable What is binge culture? Binge culture is watching the latest Marvel movie on opening night so you aren’t flooded with spoilers in the morning. Binge culture is sprinting through a 10-hour season … [Read more...] about How EA and Plants vs. Zombies are battling binge culture

The Gears of War franchise has always been rooted in cooperative gameplay. Back in 2006, the original Gears of War launched with a seamless two-player campaign that offered the same experience as the single-player version, just with a friend. Now, with Gears 5, developer The Coalition is doubling down with two brilliant new cooperative hooks, features which remind me more of party games and the XCOM series, of all things, rather than a traditional third-person shooter. Allies and Honor, explained Gears 5 launched with an entirely new feature called the Allies system. Every time you complete a chapter of the campaign or the new Escape mode, a wave in Horde mode, or win a round of Versus, you earn Honor with the other members of your in-game squad. As that relationship ranks up, you’ll begin to receive bonus experience points every time you play together. Bonuses stack, so the more you stick together as a squad, the more likely you are to boost your progress at earning the … [Read more...] about Gears 5 ‘steals’ its best features from XCOM and party games

Control is a surreal game, which helps justify Remedy Entertainment’s choice of guest voice actor: Hideo Kojima, the eminent game designer and creator of the Metal Gear series. Not only does Kojima make a voice-over cameo, so does Aki Saito, Kojima Productions’ head of marketing. Kojima is the one speaking Japanese, and Saito is providing the translation. Turns out, Kojima wasn’t fooling around when his publicist tweeted back in March that he was doing “some voice recording for the other Sam.” Now we find out that “Sam” likely means Sam Lake, the leader writer of Control and model for Max Payne himself, not the main character of Kojima’s Death Stranding, due out in November. Kojima, as Dr. Yoshimi Tokui, narrates a bizarre … meditative experience? I have no idea what the hell this is, really. He lingers, unironically, on the flavor of a bag of potato chips and suggests the player talk to trees and counsel them on their … [Read more...] about Hideo Kojima is in Control, narrating a very weird mission

The biggest piece of No Man’s Sky’s summer 2019 update (called Beyond) is the Nexus. It’s a social/mission hub in the style of Destiny’s Tower, where players can meet up and engage in various activities. Beyond goes live on Aug. 12 for PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One, transforming what was originally a single-player game into a world of multiplayer possibilities. Although No Man’s Sky had a difficult launch back in 2016, the game has improved immeasurably, partly due to developer Hello Games’ hard work and partly as a result of player feedback. In the game’s fiction, Nexus is a kind of moon that exists outside of time and space. Players can summon Nexus to wherever they are in the universe. From the outside, it has a Death Star kind of vibe. Inside, it’s a world of neon, like a sci-fi themed nightclub. Players can organize missions with parties of up to 32 space travelers. This is a big upgrade from the game’s year-old … [Read more...] about No Man’s Sky new social hub, Nexus, vastly changes multiplayer