[ltr]


Microsoft set up the big tent and finally unveiled the next generation of the Xbox yesterday.

To say reactions were mixed would be an understatement.

I knew going in that their press event wasn't for "us". It was a quick hour-long reveal being broadcast on live television, with all that implies. Microsoft wasn't speaking to the core (ugh I hate that term), they were speaking to a boarder more general audience. I knew that meant we might not see as much detail as we might like. I knew that meant multimedia functions were going to be a bigger part of the event than I really cared about. I figured we might not see a whole ton of games.

I had no idea I'd be so overwhelmingly terribly right.

An hour of sports and trends and internet snark later, the real meat of the Xbox One started to be laid out. But was it already too late?

Good things from the event -

Kinect in the box – Lord knows not everything about the Kinect is great, but I like that it will come with the system this time. Peripherals sold on the side always die. Developers have no reason to develop or innovate for a toy that only a percentage of the install base has. But something that comes packed in with every console is another story. Maybe this time we'll actually see some cool stuff out of the Kinect camp. I'm not a huge fan of jumping around in every game, but I think there has to be untapped potential for cool utilities there.



Mostly, I like what it says about Microsoft learning from past mistakes. If they want to make something essential or vital to the system, they need to bundle it in with every skew. The 360 always felt the sting of that budget launch version that didn't include a hard drive. A lot of games were held back since they could never count on an HD in every console.

Snap mode – When you think about it, Snap mode is actually pretty cool – it was just buried under TV shit during the conference. I'd never use it for the kind of spastic switching between a game, a TV show, a movie, and a Skype call like they demonstrated, but I can see how it might be handy to be able to quickly check something online while playing. Take a quick peak at a guide, check for an important email without dropping out of the game or digging up another device. Handy.

Booting from a rest state – a quick starting silent Xbox? Sign me up. The jet engine I currently own takes almost a minute to churn up. It's a little detail, but it makes the Xbox One seem like some kind of crazy future tech.

Quantum Break – Whaaaaa? I have no idea what Quantum Break is, but my love for Remedy, the studio that brought us Max Payne and Alan Wake, is bone deep. Whatever they're up to, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Puppies! - Call of Duty finally found a way to hook me. If you can customize your dog breed and get a Navy SEAL Eskie pup, Ghosts will be first-day buy for me.

Crappy stuff from the event - [/ltr]

[ltr]
Spoooooorts – Just gotta keep reminding myself that this event wasn't for us. I couldn't possibly give less of a shit about exclusive deals with the NFL or fantasy league garbage. I know intellectually that this is the kind of feature that will sell the Xbox One to the great unwashed football loving masses, that the games I'm interested in will be at E3, but the huge emphasis on sweaty dudes kicking around balls was still a let down for me.

TV, Movies, Trends – It's a topic that has already been beaten to death so I won't labour it, but I'm just not all that interested in the multimedia aspects of the system. The ideas and features aren't terrible and I can see how they would appeal to some people, but it's just not what I'm looking for. The whole "trending" tab thing especially stuck out to me. Have you ever paid attention to what trends on Twitter? I don't really need to know that the latest comedy about a guy in a old-lady fatsuit is making great box office recipes. [/ltr]
[ltr]
Detail light – So when it was all over but the shouting, what did we really learn about the Xbox One? Some much appreciated system specs (although I'd love to hear more), a look at the well ventilated box, a lot of stuff about how much TV we can watch on it, CoD puppies, Remedy being Remedy, and sports. For an hour of content, it was pretty damn light and left a lot to be desired.


- Nice to see the box and some specs, but I would have liked a bit more depth. Some info about Live would have been great.

All the crazy shit after the event -

By far the most interesting info about the Xbox One has been gleamed from interviews and demos that have since taken place after the actual press conference. While the one-hour sportravaganza was a disappointing bore for a lot of gamers, the stuff that we've heard since has been crazy bananas.

I feel like a lot of the hostility and backlash we've seen since the reveal could have been prevented if Microsoft got out in front of it and showed off some of the tech and details that appeal more to gamers. I have to really wonder if a one-hour TV press spot designed to appeal to a largely non-gamer audience was really the best way to present their new game console.

Why didn't they talk about this during the event!? -

Magic Moments and Streaming – The whole time during the event I was like "where is the streaming?" PS4's sharing feature got a mixed response, but it impressed the hell out of me. It seemed obvious that Microsoft would have their own equivalent gun, and the fact that Sony had to go with Ustream instead of the much more popular Twitch had me and a lot of other people assuming Microsoft already had Twitch in their pocket.

Well you know the old saying, when you assume...

While Twitch might still be up in the air, Microsoft has since unveiled their own capture and sharing technology – and it looks great! Very similar to Sony's Share feature, gamers can at any time capture recent game footage from the memory buffer (by shouting "Xbox, capture that" rather than pressing some boring old button) and share it on... Youtube and Xbox Live? Still waiting for that Twitch announcement.

Even more impressive however is the Xbox One's "Magic Moment" feature which will automatically record footage when certain conditions are met. It could record the final hit against an end boss, the moment a particularly impressive achievement pops, or when you go on a particularly good tear in a mulitplayer game.

This is the kind of feature I was hoping to hear about! To me this is way more interesting than being able to Skype and watch a movie at the same time. [/ltr]


- "Xbox! Record all magic moments of cute puppies doing cute things!"

[ltr]Cross-game achievements and challenges – We already heard about the new possible new achievement system a few weeks ago, but now it's confirmed. Microsoft is reworking the entire structure of the achievement system to be more flexible, expansive, and capable of issuing dynamic goals and challenges. Developers will be able to add new achievements after a game's launch and issue random challenges, keeping things fresh and interesting.

Personally, I really enjoyed the weekly challenges in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer or the daily random goals of Injustice. If the Xbox One wants to expand on that concept and even issue gamer points based on it, I'm all for it.

Along with the details on this system, there was confirmation that your current Gamertag and achievement score will migrate to the new system. I didn't think that would be something Microsoft would mess up, but it's nice to hear for sure that they didn't.
 
Not so great stuff -

Fees on used (and possibly lent) games – I get it. I don't like the glorified pawn shop business that chains like EB and Gamestop run. They get gamers to trade in used titles by the bucket load for a silver of credit then they shave $5-$10 bucks off the price of a new game and sell it again and again, cutting the publishers out of any of the profit. It's a racket that, in my opinion, screws over a lot of gamers who are giving up more then they are getting back and is toxic to the industry. I'm not some toady for EA or any other big publisher, but I'd rather see the money made from games get back to the people actually making them, not some retail chain that leeches off everyone involved. I'm not fundamentally opposed to seeing a new system that moves the money around a bit more equitably.

Strangling the entire idea of the used game market, rentals, and lending games between friends with a steep licensing fee is not my idea of fixing the problem though.[/ltr]


- Go ahead and fuck Gamestop, but don't fuck us in the process.

[ltr]It's early and reports are conflicting all over the place so it's hard to pin down exactly a big an issue this is, but I have to say it put a sour taste in my mouth. With some outlets claiming as much as a $40 fee to activate a used game on an account, Microsoft will have all but killed not only the used market, but any idea of rentals and sharing between friends. Some of this doesn't even affect me personally – I don't buy used games very often and the last time I rented something was years ago – but I know it's a big issue for others.

As far as lending and swapping games, one of the greatest joys I derive from gaming is the ability to share what I love with others. Trucking my copy of Rock Band all over the neighbourhood like some kind of garage band apostle, taking You Don't Know Jack over to the girlfriend's place to introduce her to the sarcastic love of Cookie Masterson, playing Army of 2 the way God intended, drunk as hell with my most fratboy-ish pal. If Xbox One is going to apply some kind of fee that makes those experiences impossible, that is a big blow against the new console.

There are possible solutions. Maybe Microsoft will have their own digital rental system, a sort of temporary download. As long as young gamers can get their fix I'd be alright with that. Some quick damage control has assured us that we can take a game over to a friends and sign in with our own profile to play it there, similar to bringing XBL games to a friends house. That's a start, but what if I wanted to leave the game there? What if I was done with it and wanted to do my brother a solid and save him a few bucks? Will there be anyway to transfer a licence?

Basically there are a lot of unanswered questions that need to be addressed before I feel comfortable with any of this stuff. Hopefully by the time E3 is done we'll have a better idea if this DRM fee scheme is a reasonable way to insure that games remain profitable for publishers without screwing over the consumer, or the herald of a new Orwellian age of digital oppression. Given that Microsoft is already back-peddling on some of these ideas as "potential scenarios" I think it behoves us not to lose our heads just yet, but to make sure they know it would be a bad idea.

No backward comparability (for anything?) - I was shocked to hear that the Xbox One won't support back-compat. I thought this was an area where they would get a real leg up on Sony. The PS4 has to live with the legacy of the goofy and difficult to work with cell-processor of the PS3, but the 360 has always had a much more open and easy to work with PC-like architecture. I would have thought getting 360 games to play nicely with the new box would be a given, but I was wrong.

Even worse though, apparently even downloaded XBLA games might not even work on the new system. That's a big problem to me.

I can live without disk-based back-compat. If I'm being honest I'd have to admit that when I jump to a new console generation, it's pretty rare for me to dip back. My PS2 rapidly collected dust when the 360 hit my home. As a stereotypical gamer, I'm overly fixated on the new and shinny.

But new and shinny wasn't the point of all those digital titles I bought for the 360. Those were timeless. Retro platformers and action games I picked up out of nostalgia. Technologically simplistic but stylish games like Bastion, Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars, and Braid. Classic fighters like SFIII and MvC2 that require an internet connection to be worth playing. I  hate the notion that I have to keep my old (and increasingly dodgy) 360 around and plugged into an internet connection, or watch those games plunge into the abyss of progress. It's a huge bungle that I never would have thought Microsoft would make. Hopefully they can find some kind of solution or workaround that doesn't erase the value of my 360's digital library. I know if they don't I'll be more hesitant to make similar XBL purchases in the future.

No mention of Oculus Rift support – Alright, can't blame them for this one. But wouldn't it have been cool?



Overall -

That press conference eh?

Woof.

It wasn't what we wanted. A detail-light, mass-market slick, sports filled hour didn't do anything to turn my crank. And some of the news items afterwards – the hostility to the used game (and lending) market, the spectre of an always-online requirement still haunting the Xbox One, the no-go on back-compat – it got easy to be negative fast.

But there were some gems. A slew of new IPs, magic moments, Remedy still treated like a star by Microsoft, puppies. There is promise there. It just got burred under a lot of other features I couldn't care about, or issues that give me pause.

Maybe I didn't give the Xbox One a fair shake. Maybe my expectations were too high. Call it naive, but I expected Microsoft to wow me. After the genuinely impressive showing by Sony and their PS4, I expected my boy Xbox to get in there and trade them punch for punch, to match every feature and then some, to name games that would make Infamous and Killzone blush. We didn't get that. What we got was a press event designed for an entirely different market. A good solid day of actually impressive info couldn't compete with that initial disappointment, even if some of what is getting out there sounds great.

In the end, we'll just have to wait till E3 before passing judgement. I'd like to think the Xbox One is still a contender. I'd love to stick with that eco-system and keep my Gamertag and friends list (and hopefully my XBLA games) but they are going to have to do more to sell me on it.

* - Straight from GlowBear's mind and into your feels. Emotionally despondent Sonic isn't the only one who has trouble getting out of bed some days.

* - Call of Duty Ghosts WILL be a work of art. I mean, it's got puppies right? How could it go wrong?

* - I've actually made a point of sending people on Injustice some "GG" messages lately just to balance out the crazy negativity and rage in that community. Baimhas blog hits home with me. Why do people got to be such enormous douche nozzles online?

A - Digital distribution is the future right? So why are so many otherwise awesome studios so bad at it?

A - Kenneth Cummings has no love for the Xbox One reveal, a big underwhelming wetfart.

A - The menacing floating head of Nicolas Cage does not approve of this Xbox One chicanery.

A - Whoops! Wish I hadn't used that wetfart line before looking at Pedrovay's response to the Xbox One. I don't want to spoil anything, but his opinion isn't very high.

A - AndyLonn takes a good lonn look at the Xbox reveal and finds it doesn't measure up.

A - Everyday Legend asks some tough questions about this new console and comes up with some tough answers.

A - TitusGroan makes some great points – if Xbox One is pushing some tight used-game DRM, you can bet an equivalent system will exist on the PS4, even if they're a little looser on the surface. Then his blog takes a weird turn into a pulp detective novel. I think it's been a long day for the poor guy.

A - I though console reveals were supposed to ignite the passion in a gamers heart, not burn em out. Bummer.

A - EA will be developing for the Wii U after all, that's some good news!



N - It's so sad to see Xbox turn to the Dark Side. If it wasn't for used games a good chunk of us wouldn't even be gamers. I hope they don't totally forget that and provide some kind of lower-cost option for older games.

M - Check out ColtonPhilips indy album! Never before has making a sandwich involved so much aggression.

V - Sadly it's out of audio sync, but Mikki Saturn dives into the recent dust up between Nintendo and the Let's Play makers of the internet. God knows Nintendo of all people should realize the power and potential of dedicated fans that share their passion, I have no idea how they're mucking up so bad.

V - JordanLloyd's video response to the Xbox One. Dudes got the crazy eye – I can dig it.

L - If that lovable puppy dies, nothing will stop me from  following a scripted path of high-adrenalin action set-pieces and awkward story exposition until I get my vengeance (unless I get distracted by the multiplayer half-way through).

C - TheKodu gives us a great tour of all the jokes we've already heard done to death yesterday afternoon. Hope that new Xbox doesn't take an arrow to the knee hur hur.

C - Yeesh, more flat tire humour.

C - Hur hur hur.

F - Um, goodbye? It's a shame to see AlexiusY leave, his violence blog was pretty well made and I would have liked to see more. Still, posts where someone declares how they're leaving the community in a huff just irk me.

F - Two 30 second meme clips does not a blog make



- Wrenchfarm

FPotD[/ltr]

Due to a slight change late in the day, I'm cappin Sunday's CAPS as well as Monday's.
Hey what up, community?!? YEAH! That's what I like to hear! Are you guys ready for tomorrow's Xbox reveal? If comments and social media are to be believed, y'all are SUPER EXCITED mildly interested. Sounds about right.

With these console reveals you can be sure of a few things:
-Bingo cards/drinking games
-Complaining
-Stupid stuff/people
Boom.

I guess I have a couple of predictions of my own for this:
1) They won't show any Playstation games.
2) Nice fingernails.
3) A horrible lack of Daft Punk.
4) Batman
5) Sandwiches (not for us, obviously)
6) Someone will slip on something
7) Buzzwords
8) Nice fingernails
9) A controller without a D-pad.
10) They won't show any Nintendo games.
11) Anti-grav skateboards
12) Bad shirt/tie combos
13) Sexism
14) Need For Speed
15) Fifa 14
16) Pretty much EA
17) Nyarlathotep
18) Gifs
19) Repeated news posts
20) A fist bump

Okay I love you buh-bye

Hey I recognize that guy!

Capsizing lol
* - StriderHoang has 5 very good reasons why Animal Crossing is way better than real life. Escapism at its finest!

* - UsurpMyProse tells us what we already know...#XboxReveal #XboxInfinity #PizzaHut #SeeYouInHell

* - Panzadolphin56 has a great retrospective on the Resident Evil REmake.

* -Zovfreullia introduces themselves with a lovely haiku.

* - Lance Icarus thinks Nintendo is making a mistake by claiming Content ID on Let's Play videos.

* - Marcunio also thinks Nintendo is going down the wrong road with their stance on Let's Plays. He then asks, "Why?"

A - Ronin4life thinks there is a double standard when it comes to judging Nintendo consoles versus judging companies' machines

A - TheDustinThomas owns a couple of games...a couple of times. Why do we sometimes buy things we already own?

A - CaimDark asks why we all care what's going on in this industry, especially in the case of Nintendo.

A - The Salty Hippo was disappointed with Max Payne 3, and wishes they would have actually explored Max.

P - LowerTierPodcast episode 10: It's Squirting Out. They're giving away Orion: Dino Horde and Cart Life, and talking about 7th Heaven. Does it get better than that?

A - TheKodu says by placing arbitrary rules on how people can be portrayed in videogames, we're making things worse.


C - LowerTier Podcast is giving away some good stuff as usual. Win Orion: Dino Horde or Cart Life.

C - PK493 is going to MCM Expo London and wants to know if anyone would like their avatar adopted for the trip!

S - Retrofaction stopped playing competitive games so much in favor of no-pressure single-player games.

C - shaxam1029 contemplates life & death, and the idea of permadeath in videogames. We don't know either, shaxam1029. We don't know.

D - POstudios gives us an update on episode 3 of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. It's detective time.

N - Apparently, there are a lot of Brazillians that play online and are total dickbags. It's a shame they give Brazillians with manners a bad name.

T - ZombieGadget tells us about a couple of his treasures found at Goodwill.

T - Asterion doesn't like that buzzword, "Mature." Can't blame him. I do, however, think he's wrong about MGSV.

T - "So is it that female gamers don't care one way or the other, or is it that we're so rarely given a choice in the matter that we've learned not to care?" Tankfox on playing as your own gender.

T - DiceeciD thinks Nintendo is well within their rights to claim content on Youtube, and thinks fellow LP-ers are whiny jerks who need to 'get a real job.'

R - TroyFullbuster reviews Super Mario 3D Land.

D - Jared Ramone Burks takes us through the process of making a side-scrolling hack & slash for class.



R - randombullseye lays out a couple of definitions he's going to be working with for some upcoming blogs.

R - Jared Ramone Burks played some D&D mods for class.






--smurfee mcgee
FPotD

Sometimes, I'm reminded just how shit life can be. This week was a hell of a week for that. I don't understand people sometimes. Don't have much to say, emotionally drained from personal matters on top of some of this internet drama and some realizations. But I will leave with this link to a lovely roundtable discussion, between Chloe and Allistair. I wish them both the best.

*- Damn right you should watch Saturday Morning Hangover. Damn effin right.
*- Nihil is back, back again. Nihil is back, tell some men. Tell some men, tell some men.

A- A fantastic write up on life changes and Mass Effect 3. Which I just started playing again for the third... maybe fourth time? Then 7th run of ME2. Thank you Amazon.




I- Say hello to Vexingaura. She seems pretty darn cool and has some good points to make.
C- Bob summerwill wins a shitty award.
C- MrPlow8 has another blog on sexism for us.
E- That ignoring, hateful blue bastard is hosting another Rearend Warriors. Classy Smurf.
S- TriplZer0 shares a -wait for it...... wait for it.....
C- Coffeewithgames ponders NSMB Wii U's online status.

R- TheKodu reviews The Blitz.
T- Cody has a reason why RE6 didn't suck TOTAL ass. I still maintain, that's a decent horror/action/b-movie style game for $20. Just not a good RE. Mercs is awesome though.
R- DarthSnider has a re-review of Dust 514 for dat azz.










These caps have been brought to you, by the letter 'K'.

K


-PhilK

FPotD

Way back in January, when everyone was doing their Top Games of 2012 lists, Grethiwha chose Way of the Samurai 4 as his favorite game of the year, which intrigued me as I hadn't really heard much about the series until then. Well, it took me a while, but I'm finally getting into the series. I decided to start with Way of the Samurai 3, since it was cheaper, and then possibly get 4 depending on how much I liked 3. So far, I'm really enjoying 3 a lot! It seems to be slightly less wacky than the way Grethiwha described 4, but it's still a pretty silly game. If you look past the silliness, it's still a fairly solid samurai game. But the humor is where the game shines. 



The very first thing I did in the game was pick up a green onion off the ground, which turned out to be a weapon you could use. So obviously I equipped that deadly veggie immediately, and then proceeded to beat a thug to death with it. And with that, within a few minutes of playing the game, I was already in love with it. 

I continued into the village, where I helped a housewife chop vegetables with my vegetable, retrieved an old lady's lost underwear, and spoke to a beestung man who wished he'd been stung on his junk, so that maybe it would look bigger for the ladies. 

Silliness aside, the gameplay is kind of strange but actually pretty unique. If you die in the game, you'll have to start over from the beginning of the story again, but any items, points or unlockable content you obtained in that playthrough will carry over into the next one. Permadeath gives the game sort of an arcade-y feel, but since the game can be beaten in only a few hours, and most progress you make carries over, it doesn't really feel unfair. It might become tedious for some people to have to replay parts of the story over and over again if they die, but you can keep things interesting by choosing different actions, dialogue options or story paths each playthrough. It might take a while to get used to, but it can be very rewarding when you finally get it. 



So now I'm really looking forward to finding out what Way of the Samurai 4 holds. But in the meantime, I've still got plenty of thugs to kill with my trusty sideonion, while running around in my underwear, with a falcon on my shoulder.

* - So much truth in this blog regarding the Sagal/Pinsof fiasco. Thanks, GlowBear!

A - TitusGroan shares their love for Nintendo, and hopes you will too!

A - ClashOfPenguins finds EA's decision to forgo online passes suspicious.

P - This is the first I've heard of the Go For Rainbow podcast, but apparently it's their 7th episode.

E - TroyFullbuster's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest. That's not at all what I imagined Troy would look like.

E - PlayBoyMan's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest.

E - And with the final paragraph, this blog about God of War suddenly turned into a Next Top Streamer entry, I think? Or: How I learned to fuck off with this Dr. Strangelove shit already.

E - ScottyG's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest. Do it for the black Yoshi!

E - Morty's entry (?) for the Next Top Streamer contest. He wants to win because cats!

E - Redfish00's entry for the Next Top Streamer contest.

F - Friday Night Fights on the PS3 + Daft Punk!

F - Friday Night Fights on Nintendo + Nintendo Direct!

F - Friday Night Fights on the 360 + Yakko!

R - willza reviews Game Dev Tycoon, a game about making games and getting reviews. How meta.

T - Shuuda gives us an overview of Inquisitor.

$ - May 17th UK releases and bargains!





L - The results of acidtechnologic's drunken Nintendo Direct predictions/hopes.

C - scizzle64 is reviewing Mega Drive games, this time it's Batman Forever. I've never been a fan of straight reviews of very old games, there's so much more you could do with a series on Mega Drive games.

C - I'm very confused about what the point of this blog actually was. Maybe the point was that Jimmi likes looking at girls? Cool, dude. Rock on.

C - I'd have to agree with Alphadeus here, this list sort of felt like a cop out.

F - CaimDark refers us to a Gamasutra article... while it might be an enlightening article, I'd rather hear your thoughts on the topic, CaimDark.



- bbain

FPotD

So, last time on Young Just- Oh, wait. I promised video games, didn’t I?
Well then video games ye shall have!

First things first, though: as you saw yesterday in Strider’s caps, we’re looking for a new recapper to take on Sundays. I don’t want to alarm any of you, but if we don’t find one I have it on good authority that Phil will sadface. And not just a regular old sadface, but Phil will be all like:  
 


And nobody wants that.
So if you think Phil doesn’t deserve to sadface and/or magically transform into a pony, get off your lazy butt and cap Sundays! Just send a PM to any of us or the Recaps account. As the freshest Recapper of the bunch (so fresh you guys) I can tell you that it’s a lot of fun to do. My experience is that a good portion of every day consists of good blogs, with some okay-ish ones making up the rest, and one or two shitty ones for you to throw on the Fail pile. And as an added bonus to reading mostly good stuff, in your own exclusive –isms or –gasms you get to talk about whatever the hell you’ve been spending time on during your week.

Like Young Justice! Which, incidentally, I’ve been watching this week and got up to the second season in which Robin is now Nightwi-NO! BAD SHADE. VIDEO GAMES!

You wouldn’t know it, but I actually played video games over the past week(s). Genuine, honest to god video games. ‘magine that. For one, I finished Papo & Yo and Anodyne, both of which are really great. I’ve got a lot to say about Anodyne in particular, but I’m probably going to save that for a blog of its own. I bought and started Of Orcs and Men, which is another awesome little game, as bbain will attest to.
What I want to talk about now, however, is Primordia.

Primordia is one of the best point-and-click adventure games I’ve ever played. No hyperbole. The fact that this game had to go through Steam Greenlight is also literally the reason I lost faith in the Greenlight system. Sure it set an amazing record for getting greenlit, but it should never have been on there in the first place, especially since it came from a well-established dev. Still bitter about that.



It’s the latest game by Wadjet Eye, who previously did Resonance and Gemini Rue, both of which I’ve yet to play unfortunately.

This game takes place in an apocalyptic future, where the only thing left on earth are robots, most of which don’t even remember what “humans” are anymore. The ones that DO remember worship them as the deity called “Man”. The protagonist is one of those latter robots. He lives in the wastes with his witty sidekick friend Crispin, until the power core that’s providing them with energy gets stolen by some big laser-shooting ‘bot, who takes it to the robot-city Metropol. Cue Horatio and Crispin going into pursuit, and finding more than they bargained for.

What follows is a story that borrows a thing or two from 1984, but which places it in a universe that is very well fleshed out and absolutely brimming with atmosphere. In particular, I felt that all of the different robots you meet throughout the game are really well done. Every single one of them has a very unique personality intertwined with them, well…being a robot. There are robot-Britons, robot “sir, yes, sir!” soldiers, robot prophets, and even robot lawyers.
 


All of them, from the first to the last, absolutely nail their role. I mentioned this before, but while “robot prophet” may sound ridiculous, the dude completely sells it. And as for the main character? Horatio’s voice was provide by the Bastion narrator. Yeah. You get to hear that dude in a starring role. It’s bloody awesome.

Because of all of these peculiar robots, there’s a fair share of humor in the game as well. Crispin in particular has some great lines. I heard some people criticizing this aspect because they felt it clashed with the more suppressive and dark story, but personally I felt that the game manages to keep the right balance pretty well. It knows when to be dark and when to be humorous; I for one never found something that bothered me. Instead, I think it did both aspects pretty well indeed.

I haven’t yet seen all of Primordia’s endings yet (from what I hear there are 10) but I’ve at least gotten one I can be satisfied with. Most importantly, the ending I got featured the full backstory on the game’s protagonist: there’s really interesting stuff in there. It probably wasn’t the absolute 100% “good ending”, but that doesn’t matter to me. It was more of a middle-of-the-road type of deal where some things get solved while some don’t, and it reminded me of Bastion’s ending a little bit. I actually like these kinds of endings a lot better than the standard “everything is all sunshine and flowers now” ending. Primordia definitely leaves the door open for some grey areas, which only serve to make it more compelling if you ask me.

So yeah, if you like point-and-click, sci-fi, the Bastion narrator, or simply well-written games, check out Primordia. Do it.

* - This is a really interesting view on games journalism and the people who do it. Sure, everyone wants to get a job writing for Dtoid, but why should we want that in the first place? ccesarano gives an interesting view on the whole state of affairs.

* - I think the whole mess with Chloe Sagal hit Hairy Downstairs Kitchen pretty hard. Can't blame him. He's trying to deal with it the only way he knows how: by playing some games and giving some away. 

* - Always awesome taterchimp has a great blog about the things he loves about video games: specifically Halo.

A - Lewisgn understands Nintendo's new policy on Let's Play videos. If anything, I'm just happy Nintendo's not taking them down.

A - Are we 'gamers' here at Dtoid? Of course we are! CaimDark explains why identifying as a gamer isn't a bad thing. 

P - In today's Zero Cool Podcast, robots are taking over. Seems like Zombie Orwell is about to get some competition for enslaving the human race!

A - Should we really be talking about sex and gender in video games in the first place? Asterion thinks no.

E - I THINK this is an entry for the Next Top Streamer contest. It isn't very clear.

I - Not much of an introduction here. Maybe you guys can convince him to share more of himself?

S - We have a recordholder in our midst! Paul S has the largest collection of fighting games, but is really just looking for somebody else to claim the title.

F - PC FNF and Anamanaguchi. Listening to Endless Fantasy as I write this! It's good!

D - There's been some troubles over the Eternal Darkness sequel between Dyack and one of the Two Best Friends.

V - Some guys talk about technology and possibly the most voyeuristic game ever made: Night Trap.

V - A video on Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.

R - TheKodu does a request review for Planetary Shield....the game isn't very good. In fact, it's very bad.

M - Music Worth Howling About: One of Anamanaguchi's songs in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It's a good song, so listen up!

C - This blog could use some fleshing out, but I like his analogy of microtransactions in games as being a regular in a strip club.

L - Here's what you get when you write down your hopes for the next Nintendo Direct...while drunk!

C - What's with this sudden problem of people posting text in ridiculously tiny font? Either way, once you copied it to Word and enlarged it, you'll find that Kalysren talks about Bioshock Infinite's difficulty spikes.

? - Not sure if spam, or...

F - Try again, but without the completely unwarranted anger next time. Read Lewisgn's blog for inspiration if you want.



                                  

- ShadeOfLight
May you always find water and shade

FPotD

Ok Strider. Three things to check off tonight: Weekend recaps, Injustice update, anime update.

Oh, and Animal Crossinggodmotherfuckingdammit.

So first off, ever since I first joined the Recaps team, I always found it strange that everyone recaps one day except the weekends guy. Is it because the Weekend guy has more disposable time? Because he really likes weekends? Because they're a glutton for punishment to recap two days worth of good and shitty blogs?

Well, I guess I should've vocalized my thoughts earlier because we're thinking of splitting the weekend recaps into Saturday and Sunday recaps because Phil is losing sleep over his damn deal.

So PM anyone on the Recaps team or the Recaps account itself to express interest in taking one of the weekend days off of Phil. He's specifically said he doesn't want to let go of his usual recapping position because he's so close to tenure. But two days for arbitrary reasons is a bit weird and we're fixing that. Because Animal Crossing.


Injustice update: I'm playing Green Arrow now. I played him all wrong on launch day. His keepaway is shitty because he needs time to load trick arrows to make his keepaway decent and even then, the need to load trick arrows lets other zoners outpace him. He's all about rushdown and pressure, though unfortunately he needs time to load trick arrows to become decent. The good news however is that his freeze arrow, the crux of all his good combos, is completely free. Sure Green Lantern and Superman only need one bar for combo extensions but one bar means a lot when you need to save for pushblock, clash, and armored moves too. Green Arrow on the other hand can load freeze arrows for free or even end strings with a reload. He also has a combo with a low/high/low built into it, which makes him way more interesting for my Can he block it? series. Speaking of Can he block it?



I'm tempted to post a new Weeaboo Corner blog but I want to briefly touch on what I've been watching on Crunchyroll. Because Animal Crossing.

Attack on Titan
Every dedicated anime fans' most anticipated anime for the season due to its critically acclaimed manga. Nearly every human on Earth lives in literally the last bastion of humanity, a massive walled fort that probably encompasses the space of Texas within its three walls. All to protect them from mysterious giants whose only purpose seems to be to eat and kill humans. As good as the action is going to be with humans equipped with fancy grapple machines to slice at the titan's weak spots (the nape of the neck), there's a ton of mystery involved as the humans in the show know about as much about the titans as the audience does, and the plot only thickens from there. The design of the titans are also consistently... unsettling.



The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat
We love immature jokes here on Destructoid. Perhaps some of us are all about stupid jokes. Perhaps those people aren't their true selfs when they get up and go to work. They need a facade to function normally in society. But in this show, what if you lost your facade or whatever other emotional mask you need? The protagonist is a horn dog really, but feels sad that he can't be his true self in public. But the cat statue at the edge of town promises to take what you don't want and give it to someone else. Now the protagonist can't help but remark at girls' bras in the rain out loud.

While it might sound like any other ecchi comedy, I really must stress that this show respects its character more than you expect and you get a lot of great development in the characters. Honestly, I started watching this series on a whim and didn't expect much when I saw your usual pervert shenanigans but by the end of the episode, I was hooked on seeing how Yokodera, Tsukiko, and Asuza turn out in the long run.

Valvrave the Liberator
I thought it was going to be Gundam. It was Gundam with high school drama. Then three episodes after its hook of a pilot and it just became high school drama that happened to be in space with a Gundam. Not cool man.

Seriously, the titular robot was teased to have a mysterious curse. Something powerful enough to not only imbue the hero with the skills needed to pilot a powerful robot, but also bring him back from the dead to continue.

Instead, I get what is essentially Japanese Van Wilder. In space.




* - DMC's Limbo clearly doesn't get the praise it deserves for it's design and art, especially when juxtaposed against the philosophies at work at open-world games

* - C Turts returns with the buy it- the Play It/Avoid It Report

A - Tia feels the burn from Sony's ignorant gender views

A - AceOfSkulls really wants us to wake up and smell the DLC

P - Taco Tuesday is here to say bad stuff and not get arrested about it

A - Well SuperCrow still believes in BioWare and certainly nothing dampens my love of Tali, Garrus, or any Krogan ever

P - I want Animal Crossing the podcast: the New Adventures of Fapcast 14

C - YoungCovii wants the Elgato. Next up, the swimsuit competition

C - Hoss Delgado does not repeat himself. Which is why these recaps are here to recapsulate what he says for the contest

C - I am going to put this volatile discussion here. Not in topsauce and not in failtoid. There is a discussion blazing in it right now that deserves to be contemplated. But I do not support the idea of a man losing his livelihood over one mistake outside his profession when it's already happened to Adam Orth from Microsoft

T - Check out Data Dealer courtesy of Roberto Plankton. It sounds cool!

R - AndyLonn reviews Heavenly Sword after much introspection

R - Darkerman doesn't review Bioshock Infinite so much as he rags on it endlessly

R - Kenny C reviews Blade Wolf, the DLC with the coolest name ever

L - LEARN ABOUT  EGYPT MOTHERFUCKERS

V - It's certainly a thing that looks like it wants to talk about Under the Ocean






~ StriderHoang

FPotD