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Archive for the ‘Features’ Category
It has been a while since The ANGRY Pixel has compiled a Thursday Top Ten list. Well, we have a Thursday on hand here so what better way to make use of it then come up with a brand new list, which happens to be a list of the ten most stupid, weird decisions that the videogame giants have taken in the recent years. So while they plowed forward, brimming in confidence that their way is the right way, all we could do is watch them slack-jawed in disbelief as they happily shot themselves in the foot.
Hit the jump to have a look at what The ANGRY Pixel believes are the top ten worst decisions of this generation.
The videogame industry can sometimes behave like a mindfuck straight out of the Twilight Zone, sometimes giving us some of the most fascinating experiences that an interactive medium can provide; and at other times, churning out such mediocre titles that you would be excused for wishing to curb-stomping the developers and the Ebenezer Scrooges that go around publishing them. But what quite clearly defies sense, logic and any sort of explanation is why so many games with great potential get ignored or put on the back burner along the way while the publishing houses busy themselves with churning out sequels to games that we never wanted in the first place!
When SONY and Microsoft announced their next generation of consoles, both tried to out-did each other with their features. While some of them took off, others fell flat in the face. In the midst of all the hullaboo, one feature slipped past unnoticed, only to rear it’s head couple of months down the lane. The Downloadable Content or DLC, which was once viewed as something quite minor is now quite the buzzword of the industry. It’s quite common now for DLC’s to be announced even before the game has hit the shelves. Multiplatform game developers have the console makers trying to woo them to churn out exclusive DLC’s for their platforms. Throw in the money generated with the micro-transactions and the developer have discovered a virtual gold mine that not only assures them a continuous revenue stream long after a game has been released, but also delays the game being sold off after one is done with it.
Clearly, DLC’s are here to stay. So The ANGRY Pixel takes a look at what the coming months have to offer in terms of DLCs. Please note that the sequence in which the game appears is not indicative of it’s importance in the scheme of things.
Here we are, another glorious weekend, another 48 hours to blow. And thanks to every single publisher who magically hit upon the last two months to release every single title in one go, we’ve practically gone under all the fantastic games that we want to play, our unforgiving work schedules and of course, managing a tiny corner of the Interwebs here at The ANGRY Pixel.
As we slowly get our reviews out and get our posting schedule back on its rickety track, we’re going to be giving you folks a lot more to chew over the coming weeks. As you can see, we’re already tweaking our site’s look and feel in bits and will slowly be overhauling it over the coming months, in addition to taking you behind the scenes of all the interesting tedious stuff that goes on to build and run a successful videogame blog (sorry, groundless rumours have another place to call home!) which should give you folks an inside look at how things work in India all the way from the top to the dirty, dirty bottom. And obviously, we just can’t wait to start pissing everyone off. Fun times ahead!
And for all the folks eagerly awaiting the return of the Game of the Year sweepstakes, well, we’re abandoning the approach we took last year. It’s not like it wasn’t hugely successful, but there’s a whole bunch of awesome stuff that we’re working on for the moment (Shh! January!) and thriving on change constantly like we do, we let our pals at GamingIndians work on the community voting feature as well as the elaborate write-ups while we focus our energies on something “else” which we hope and pray would turn out to be a much more entertaining alternative to what we did last year. As for the cool prizes and the devilishly devious contests that y’all enjoy so much, don’t you worry your pretty little heads about it – all we can ask you to do is keep checking back regularly. Something wicked this way comes! /wink
Until then, I’m just free running all over Hong Kong of the Dystopian Future The City in Mirror’s Edge, scorching and blasting through wave after wave of Locust and zombie cannon fodder in Gears 2 and L4D, and squealing with joy as I get to explore all my favourite lost underworld myths with the lovely Lara Croft. Abhinav, on the other hand is having a blast with the Prince, Elika and his donkey, Farah on the PC, even as he spends 7 hours straight hammering out 600+ swords in Fable II and getting his poor heart broken by Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Vijay seems to be in his element making Mortal Kombat and the DC universe characters beat each other silly while Jay seems hell-bent on tearing his hair out with the PC port of GTA IV. And Bobby? Well, with two broken PCs, two unused Xbox 360s and a FUBARed disc of GTA IV, he does what any sane person would do – take his tricked out Jeep out to the nearest rally track and win the damn thing. Wow!
So yeah, drop us a note or a comment telling us what kind of content you’d like to see us churn out or what craziness you’ve got planned over the weekend. Just don’t come back to us with 12 hours of sword making or 14 hours of unprotected sex in Fable II!
One can’t help but feel a speck of discomfort knowing that one of the most anticipated games of the year is sitting right in front of your two visually impaired eyeballs, yet you’re allowed only so much time to play it before you realize that you’ve barely even scratched the surface. Such is the way of not being able to have a debug unit to call our own, as we’re sure many other reputable Indian sites are fully aware. Leaving that aside, Ren and I, along with another accompanying journalist who wished to be anonymous in regards to this write-up and thus shall here forth be christened “Dinobot”, were invited to Microsoft India’s office in Gurgaon to fool around with a review code of Lionhead Studios’s Action RPG Fable II – which, by the time you read this, should be available in stores today.
Rather than trying to speed-run through the game’s main storyline, Ren and I felt it was best to get ourselves acquainted with the large, open world you’re presented with right after awakening from the initial training you’ll go through as a young pup. Options abound everywhere you go. You could take up various odd jobs, pose for a sculptor, rummage through dungeons in search of loot with your canine companion, or be a complete douche bucket and beat the townsfolk into a bleeding pulp (Dinobot was principally fond of this activity). But one feature all of us were pretty keen on trying was to raise a family. And if having babies meant having to engage in some sex practices of the polygonal variety, hey, no objections here. Alas, little did we know how much work was really required to get things rolling.
(Note: Spoilers!)
Four beautiful women gathered from around the world. Each one has been mentally violated by the horror of war. As their sole means of survival, they are modified into the ultimate bio-mechanical arsenal: The Beauty and the Beast Corps. Can Solid Snake finally uncover their humanity and rescue them from their lucid nightmares? Or will they simply be another notch or four on the casualty list?
Director Hideo Kojima’s vision, a physical beast on the outside and a woman’s beauty on the inside, has finally been realized with the approaching release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Two voice actors were provided for each boss in the English voices department, one providing the beast’s voice, the second portraying the human voice and both voices subsequently over-lapped to further the personality divide. The high-grade production values don’t stop there. Kojima commissioned four real-life beauties and used advanced modeling and digital photography techniques to have them provide the framework, so to speak, for the feral four.
We know some of the powers displayed by each beastly beauty, and the references to famous and infamous Metal Gear Solid bosses and Snake Eater pathos. What of the beauty beneath the beast? Let’s take a closer look at the models who have gamers head-over-heels in love with their rampant murder mixed with a dash of stylish mangling and post-traumatic stress echoing in their desensitized mechanical hearts.
For me, fighting games continue to be a part of my everyday fundamental, button-mashing diet. It only seems like yesterday when I was able to execute my first Hadoken in Street Fighter II. The first time I managed a Fatality off Mortal Kombat’s Johnny Cage, ripping his pretty little head off in supreme satisfaction. The first time experiencing Kasumi’s bouncy-breasty radiance in her Rabbit swimsuit from Dead or Alive Xtreme Volleyball… Oh wait, that last one didn’t have any fighting it in, did it? Ok, more or less, it still had the bouncy-breasty radiance that DOA games are still known for. Upon further reflecting on perpetual conundrums, even cruddy fighting games still had a memorable gimmick or two, like how Primal Fury was essentially Mortal Kombat but with prehistoric animals. Or how Kakuto Chojin so hilariously ripped off Fight Club’s plot. Ah, how one mingles in the memories of the inconsequential!
Getting back to the point, there are still game companies which have stayed long with the fighting genre and continue to support it, despite knowing that the days of coin-op arcades have long passed (Japan notwithstanding). Newer entries continue to be pumped – and thanks to the advent of better net infrastructure, more and more franchises are taking the leap to online matchmaking. No longer content to just playing your homies from the hood or the local game cafe, you’ll now be given the opportunity to fool around with players from all sorts of regions. You haven’t played a real game of Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves until some random 15-year-old Asian munchkin promptly hands over your carcass in less than a minute.
Thusly, I solemnly declare that a brief rundown on potential, forthcoming Beat em’ Ups shall be in effective order. Heaven or Hell, let’s fight!
You’ve played them. You’ve heard of them. Hell, you’ve probably written bad fanfics about them (no, it doesn’t matter how realistic your portrayal of TifaxSquall is. It’s just not happening, fangirls). Japanese Role Playing Games (JRPGs) are one of the must-haves of just about any video game console you can name, with at least one of the most popular coming bearing the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest stamp. The quality of JRPGs vary just as much as their irreverent spiraling plot lines do, and finding a derivative troll that feeds like a parasite on your patience is nothing new. However, sometimes you stumble upon a real gem that claims you right from the first Limit Break, and once every ounce of gameplay is experienced, a sequel is the next natural course of action. Here are some of the greatest Japanese RPG franchises that haven’t yet received a new iteration, but which occupy the top of the waiting list.
For all those who have been following the Indian gaming scene, Mohit Anand’s departure from Microsoft India came as quite a shocker. The news of him stepping down from his post of Country Manager for Microsoft India’s Entertainment and Devices Division was completely out of the blue and caught everyone by surprise. In the ensuing confusion, quite a lot of news sites came out with their take on the circumstances that led to the event, which frankly, seemed to be quite a study in contrast with what we have known about the relationship of Mohit Anand and Microsoft India. So, to set the record set, we decided to talk with the man himself and clear out some of the rumors that have been swirling around on the World Wide Web.
Of course we aren’t here to discuss centuries old games that have withstood the test of time. No, we’re here to discuss the very best of RTS games – the ones that have excelled in game play, story and/or just sheer awesomeness that allows them to stand out amongst the crowd of copy-cats that inhabit most genres these days. Without further ado, on with the show!