by writergamernerd | Jul 13, 2020
(Originally posted at SpawnFirst.com.) This is how I imagine the planning session for Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag went: Ubisoft brings in some branding guru, who says to them, “Hey, guys, you know what you need? ...
by writergamernerd | Jul 13, 2020
Holy. Crap. Grand Theft Auto V is, in a word, awesome. It’s hard to find a game that so seamlessly combines gameplay and story in a way that isn’t just rewarding– it’s impossibly fun. The characters are funny, the missions and side missions contain so...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
(Originally published on SpawnFirst.com.) Telltale Games did something incredibly right when they put together last year’s The Walking Dead. It probably could have been a disaster: an existing and hugely popular intellectual property (though Telltale has...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
(Originally posted on SpawnFirst.com.) It’s probably easier to start by describing what Burial at Sea is, rather than what it does for the BioShock legend: it is, quite simply, BioShock in the first, recast with Elizabeth and Booker Dewitt. BaS doesn’t really make...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
(Originally published at SpawnFirst.com on 27 December 2013.) Waking the Dead Telltale Games returns with season 2 of the superlative The Walking Dead game, shaking its choice-based moneymaker for all that it’s worth. It’s an emotional, occasionally scary,...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
I’m imagining all of you sitting across from me at a very long banquet table, staring me down like I’m on the receiving end of the world’s weirdest interview. There’s Elizabeth from BioShock: Infinite, Lara from Tomb Raider,...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
(Originally published on SpawnFirst.com on 10 October 2013.) Whatever else I say here, however critical, there’s one thing you should know up front: I played this game all the way through in what was, in essence, one sitting– of my own volition. This...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
(Originally published at SpawnFirst.com.) Outlast, by Montreal-based Red Barrels, is an exercise in pure survival horror. Red Barrels has a doozy of a team made up of EA and Ubisoft vets who clearly decided to take what makes survival horror games most successful and...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
(Originally published at SpawnFirst.com.) A disclaimer: Before I played Star Wars: The Old Republic, my only real experience with MMORPGs – except for running, terrified, in and out of IRC chats back when that was a thing – was a brief foray into...
by writergamernerd | Jul 12, 2020
(Originally published at SpawnFirst.com on 1 September 2013.) The one thing that can sum up BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, the worthy and exciting follow-up to BioWare’s sometimes-disappointing Dragon Age 2? “Shut up and take our money.”* There was something...
