Game jobs

A rare harmony of developer and licence makes Insomniac's open-worlder a total treat. Can you truly say you have lived until you have lamped someone with a manhole cover in Insomniac's new Spider-Man game? Sure, you may have known happiness to a certain degree. You may have known love, even. You may have rolled the dice, as the saying goes, and landed a few sevens. But lamping someone with a manhole cover? It's top-tier. Top of the shop, as an older generation might put it. Bam! The tension of the thing! It is beautifully done. And it is a risk. To grab the manhole cover with your webs you must first find a highlightable manhole cover and then squeeze R1 and L1. Brilliantly, this takes a bit of time to pull off - you have to wait for a brisk little meter to fill up. While this is happening, whoever was already attacking you is presumably still attacking you. Your spidey-sense will be tingling and warning of an incoming punch or kick or burst of suit-shredding gunfire. But … [Read more...] about Marvel’s Spider-Man review – a classic hero gets the game he deserves

The strongest reminder that GTA 4 is now an old game is that Niko Bellic’s phone has buttons on it. Somehow that one detail – and the fact his mobile can’t access the internet – makes this game feel like it came out 10,000 years ago. It’s actually been an entire decade since the release of the first HD GTA, though, and you can sense that in the slightly blurry visage of Rockstar’s hyper detailed version of New York. Like early HD games Gears Of War and Oblivion, it showed a true generational leap was happening. GTA 4 essentially ended the era of clones that followed GTA 3, simply because no one else could make an open world that looked and sounded as good as Liberty City.Read more: Red Dead Redemption 2 review: “When the credits roll, you’ll have created enough incredible memories to fill ten lesser games” GTA 4 is the story of Niko Bellic, a Serbian war veteran who comes to the city to start a new life. He doesn’t try … [Read more...] about 10 years later: how Grand Theft Auto 4 raised the standard for open-world games and helped shape GTA 5

Fresh meatWhat is it about the everyday job of butchering meat that makes it so frightening in a horror context? Is it the thought of the those big, shiny knives and cleavers slicing up human victims instead of steers and pigs? Is it the idea of encountering a madman inside a walk-in freezer with blood caked on the walls and floor? Does no one want to know how the sausage is made?Whatever it is, butchers are scary as hell when you run into them in video games. Some stab at you with giant meat hooks, while others opt for even crazier weapons like buzzsaws and sharpened bone. But these are the choicest cuts of all. Let's start with a nice chunk of...Condemned: Criminal Origins' loco lunch ladyDetective Ethan Thomas travels all over Metro City during his investigations, and at one point he finds himself in St. Joseph's Secondary School. A large figure taunts him as he explores the hallways and classrooms, dispatching minions to stop the gumshoe for good. Eventually, he reaches the … [Read more...] about Chop chop! 13 big bad video game butchers

Earlier this year, Google promised the future. A cloud-powered streaming service named Stadia would change how we find, play, and share video games. At least, that was the thesis of a flashy press event at the annual Game Developers Conference in March. On a stage ensconced by abstract statues, a parade of influencers, designers, and Google bigwigs teased breathtaking advancements in the scope of multiplayer, the ease of game development, and the power of artificial intelligence, all available to consumers without the need to buy new and expensive hardware. I was in the room, and reader, I was smitten. Soon, Google explained, players would simply click a hyperlink and, boom, they’d be instantly transported into a game on any screen of their choosing. No more downloads, no more installations, no more limited hard drive space. Google would handle all that for you. Sitting in my living room today, far from that loud Northern California theater, I am curious about when … [Read more...] about Google Stadia review: cloud gaming brought down to earth

In the past year, you may have stumbled upon Facebook Gaming livestream of a grown man in a crown and war paint plays games like Call of Duty or Fortnite. When live, he is known as Kingslayer, and has been on the rise ever since joining the platform.Kingslayer didn’t start out as a top streamer. He didn’t even start out on Facebook Gaming. His first shot at game streaming was on Twitch, where he jumped online to livestream some long gaming sessions with almost no viewers. He eventually started up a YouTube channel, where he learned what did and didn’t work for audiences, but he still didn’t see much traction there either. Even though Kingslayer was confident that he had what it took in terms of gaming skill, he felt he was looking at an uphill battle on the streaming platforms. In spite of the large number of viewers on each platform, it was hard to get noticed. At the time, Kingslayer had a masters in business and worked a corporate job with a … [Read more...] about Leveling up as a streamer on Facebook Gaming