*Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite.* The BioShock franchise is one of the most beloved in the modern era of gaming, being a model for storytelling and world-building to developers and creators across the industry. With the rumored existence of a BioShock collection for the Xbox One and PS4, …
With Failure to Connect, we asked our writers what games they were unable to connect with, regardless of their fiscal and critical success. For the month of May we will attempt to explore this issue in detail on a case by case basis. Bioshock and its spiritual-sequel Bioshock Infinite (and to a lesser extent its …
AAA (triple A) video games and the people who play them need to get over their embarrassing and childish insecurity. If I spent as much time getting in shape as gaming culture spends defending their chosen art form from mostly imagined assaults, I would have the abs of Ryan Reynolds. “We’re art too!” everyone cries, …
For a publically traded company that is “dependent on the future success of [their] Grand Theft Auto products”, it takes an unwavering amount of confidence and respect in RockStar to allow a 5-year development cycle for GTA V. Take-Two Interactive is dependent on this franchise to survive and yet, unlike the majority of AAA publishers, is uninterested in exploiting its cash cow. The company doesn’t publish quick cash-in games like Activision, cut corners like Ubisoft, or chase the mobile and FPS money train like Electronic Arts. Their strategy is a humble one: create few, but high quality video games. It’s right there in their 2014 Annual Report:
If you’re anything like me, the ending of Bioshock: Infinite will have made you dump your controller, stare agape at the screen and yell “no!” in disbelief over and over. It is a conclusion which shakes up the game experience like no other. It is cathartic, unsettling, and joyous. It’s a clear example of the developers following the storytelling maxim of beginning at the end and working backwards while serving as an enormous impetus for players to immediately restart the game and piece together the clues that fit into this monumental narrative. I, for one, started a new game right away.
Rarely, if ever, is a game so exceedingly great it warrants a remake only a year after release. This is, however, the case with The Last of Us, the late PS3 entry from Naughty Dog (the Uncharted series) that is coming to the PS4 in the way of The Last of Us: Remastered. Perhaps this is merely an effort …
2013 has been an interesting year as far as gaming has been concerned. Not only have there been some new and interesting games as well as sequels to popular franchises, we have also seen the release of new gaming consoles — both big and small. The Sony and Microsoft juggernauts have unleashed their new machines …