Gaming Archives

March 9, 2015March 9, 2015

Will Sony’s Project Morpheus Totally Revolutionize the Way People Play Games?

Sony has upgraded the internals of its VR headset and announced a release date for the first half of 2016.

Source: NewsyTech

December 1, 2014December 1, 2014

Is Halo The Best Video Game Brand Of All Time?

As I’ve written, and written and written, I am a ridiculous Halo fan.

I still contend that outside of Half-Life, no other game has changed the First Person Shooter genre more since the big green guy in the Mark IV MJOLNIR armor arrived. Despite the dismissive hand-waving of Sony Fanboy lifers, Halo is still the largest single platform shooter of all time (whose sales still rival Call of Duty as a multi-platform juggernaut) and a big reason that Xbox survived its embryonic stages after launch. Its 2004 follow up, Halo 2, was the largest entertainment release at the time. Considering there have been four official releases since, other Halo strategy games, merchandise, Legos, fiction novels, comic books, mini movies, etc, the canon that is Halo is strong and enduring and thick like a Jackal’s energy shield. So, is there any possible way of damaging that monolithic brand?

This question comes about because of Halo’s most recent release, the Master Chief Collector’s Edition that debuted November 11th, developed by 343 Industries. Now, this should have been a slam dunk. All the Halo games featuring the 7 foot man of few words protagonist, Master Chief (Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach don’t apply), all games that were legitimate Game of the Year nominees (and some winners), all games that had incredible sales records and all games worthy of a next gen upgrade. So the games are already great. And they were released for the 10-year anniversary of Halo 2, the series’ most ambitious and fabled entry. And a huge budget was allotted for Halo 2’s complete (and stunning) makeover with a multiplayer suite and tons of options across all 4 games. Retailers were charging $60 for this game, but Halo-stans like myself probably would’ve paid twice that for all that was included and folks, we’re talking about games up to 13-years-old. So what could possibly go wrong? Well, how about everything.

For context, the first three games of this collection were developed by Bungie, who is currently commanding this year’s biggest release in Destiny (which I’m still playing more than any other game by the way, but that’s a column for another day). Bungie left Microsoft to develop games for Activision, but Microsoft had already acquired Halo outright years before and hands it over to 343, who exceeded expectations and continued the storied legacy of Master Chief in Halo 4. It was 343’s first huge test and they passed with all skulls active, so when we finally heard about the Master Chief Collection, we trusted that 343 would deliver.

Read More from William Evans at blacknerdproblems.com

October 27, 2014October 27, 2014

The iPhone 6 Plus Could Be the Worst Nightmare for Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita

Apple has boasted about the new features its iPhone 6 Plus brings to the world of cellular devices, but it seems like the latest iPhone could also revolutionize the gaming world as well.

Slowly but surely, Apple was on a clear path to disrupt the gaming industry in a major way.

Apple’s iPads were the first major steps to making the devices more gamer-friendly, but even those sleek tablets can’t hold up to the promise of the iPhone 6 Plus.

While some consumers worried about the new iPhone’s larger screen size, gamers have found that the screen is perfect for on-the-go gaming.

In addition to boasting more screen real estate than previous cellular devices by Apple, the Retina display makes a spectacle out of every image that comes across the device’s screen.

According to the New York Daily News, watching The Avengers was a particularly beautiful experience with “flawless” visuals and “little details, such as the veins in the Hawkeye’s arms” being easy to spot.

Of course, the beautiful resolution and a larger screen aren’t enough to push the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita off the market.

What does pose a larger threat, however, are the number of games that are making their way to the App Store.

Incredibly popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and certain versions of Final Fantasy are already available for iPhone users – something that Android devices don’t have the same access to.

Many of the major video game titles don’t seem to pop up on the Google Play store, which puts the latest Galaxy devices at a major disadvantage.

Even more exciting for Apple users is the fact that the iPhone 6 Plus has not even tapped into its full potential just yet.

The device will give developers the ability to push game play and graphics to the next level.

Of course, there are still some downsides to the device – none of them being incredibly major.

As a video released by TechCrunch pointed out, the placement of the speakers can be a little annoying for most gamers.

For many games, the phone will actually be held on its side by both hands, which forces the users to cover the speakers with their hands.

To make matters worse, plugging in headphones isn’t a much better solution.

TechCrunch’s Kyle Russell demonstrates in the video, the placement of the headphone jack can be inconvenient for gameplay.

Another disadvantage of the iPhone 6 Plus compared to the 3DS and Vita is the fact that it can be difficult to see the full screen once users place their hands on either side of the device.

Fortunately, this has a much simpler solution.

Developers have released wireless controllers that sync to the iPhone 6 Plus through Bluetooth.

This means that all gamers would have to do is prop up the device, connect the controller and suddenly they can take full advantage of all that gorgeous screen real estate.

It’s still too early to say that the new iPhone will become the new king of portable gaming, but it certainly boasts enough impressive features to have Nintendo and PlayStation scrambling for new ideas.