The History of the World According to Assassin’s Creed
Since 2007, approximately 4,500 Assassin's Creed games have launched on console and mobile. One of the most intriguing recurrences is the alternate history that is introduced to players within most games. Using people who really lived throughout history, and staying accurate (mostly) to the actual date of death, we’ve been introduced to villain and hero alike, all having met a tragic demise at the end of a pointed blade, a drop of poison, or some sinister plot.
While our educators try to convince us of one truth, often that someone died of natural causes or some strange ailment, Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed teaches us that history was more violent than we realize. History is written by the victors, as they say, but if Ezio, Altair, and others would be believed, history is truly written by Assassins.
Timothy Olyphant Talks the End of Justified
With Justified's final season premiere airing this week - on Tuesday, January 20th - star Timothy Olyphant, along with the cast and executive producer Graham Yost, spoke about how it felt to have the series come to a close after six seasons.
"I will say that it is nice knowing that the show will end and I have an opportunity to know the end is coming," Olyphant explained at the Television Critics Association press tour on Sunday. "Usually, when things end, I’m not the first person to find out. So that’s been lovely. And I think it’s been wonderful to just be able to see the finish line and enjoy it. Am I prepared for it? All I’m prepared for is that I’m unemployed in a few weeks, and I’m going to have to say yes to some s***ty ass, f***ing jobs. All the jobs I’ve said no to in the last five years, I’m going to say yes to them in about six weeks. F***."
Resident Evil HD Remastered Review
Nostalgia is a tricky emotion to navigate, given how it makes the things we loved so many years ago blossom into legends of the recent past. Or to put it another way: the masterpiece we remember might have been mediocre all along. Sometimes it's better to live in the bliss of our memories and avoid replaying that dusty classic, lest it dump a heavy load of reality on the lovefest.
The trick that a modern re-release must perform, then, is to be like the game we remember rather than the game that actually was, and Resident Evil HD does so admirably. The downside of a successful transition is that it's easy to say that this remake of a remake looks just like 2002's GameCube version. In reality, of course, the newer game benefits from new background textures and some attractive light bloom, not to mention its widescreen aspect ratio. That it looks like your memories of a 13-year-old reality, and not the reality itself, is a victory.
Your other memories of 2002's remake, however, should be far more reliable. Resident Evil HD reveals the same mystery, surrounds you with the same areas, and requires you to solve the same puzzles, a slight disappointment given how the remake recontextualized the story and expanded the gameplay. Yet if any lesson is to be gained from Resident Evil 6, it's that you needn't mess with a good thing, and Resident Evil, even purely within a modern context, is an engrossing adventure that benefits from tense exploration and clever environmental puzzles. Much has been made of the series' scares: that moment at which zombified dogs leap through the hallway windows and viciously attack you is one of video gaming's most iconic moments, after all. Yet Resident Evil's finest asset is how it invigorates exploration by making every room you unlock an enigma. Behind every door are glimpses at the mansion's history, hints of experiments gone wrong, and bizarre contraptions coated with an occult veneer. Solving a puzzle is to wipe away some of the fog that obscures your understanding.
Don't get me wrong: the frights remain, though I suspect that you won't leap out of your seats as often as you'd expect, whether or not you've played Resident Evil before. These kinds of horror-story jump scares are a matter of routine in modern games and cinema, though the game still makes the most of them. I yelped when those dogs crashed through the glass, even though I knew they were coming. The fear didn't come just from the loud shattering and throaty snarls, but from knowing that I was defenseless for several crucial seconds once a set of jaws sunk into my forearm. And while the dogs get all the attention, the sharks swimming around an aquatic arena are even more terrifying given their extreme mobility. You can feel the tension as you quickly wade through the water, hoping to avoid the creatures snapping at your heels.
Resident Evil, even purely within a modern context, is an engrossing adventure that benefits from tense exploration and clever environmental puzzles.
If you're a total newcomer to Resident Evil, some background is in order. You play as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, members of a special ops force called S.T.A.R.S. (The acronym stands for Special Tactics And Rescue Service.) You spend most of the game exploring a mansion in which you've become trapped while investigating the disappearances of other S.T.A.R.S. members, though it is soon clear that the fate you should most worry about is your own. Escape is your primary goal, but doing so means collecting and inspecting jewels and other doodads, and then figuring out where to put or how to combine those doodads. There is also the matter of those undead freaks roaming about, some of which are apt to return, stronger than ever, if you aren't careful enough to torch their corpses or land a blood-spattering headshot.
You don't freely control the camera during your endeavors. Every viewing angle enhances the claustrophobia while allowing Capcom to carefully place props and lights for maximum effect. Some of the most dangerous places are also given the most limited screen space: you hear the growl of a living corpse behind you, but all you see is the dingy carpet, the peeling wallpaper, and the door that leads to safety. You could move further into the room, but that also means moving closer to the source of the growls--and it takes a moment to aim your weapon, be it the pistol you start with or the more powerful firearms you find later. That specific camera angle has just activated the most primal of choices: to fight or to flee.
Elsewhere, the camera simply enhances the atmosphere. A hallway shot emphasizes the lushness of the mansion's drapes with a nearby lamp, yet cracked plates still keep you unsettled. The beauty of a waterfall is undercut by the squawking crows that descend upon you in the same scene; it's the handsomeness and hostility of nature at once. Resident Evil was created with a clear eye for shot composition, so you would be justified in calling the game "cinematic." The fixed camera can be a source of frustration, however. You are fleeing an enemy and the angle changes, barring your view and requiring a quick control adjustment. You must hurry to solve a puzzle before the sliding walls crush you between them, but the quick camera moves create confusion. With great tension sometimes come mild aggravation, whether you opt for the original controls or the updated scheme, which aligns the game with its modern counterparts.
Of course, that's the Resident Evil conundrum: mechanics that keep you nervous and cautious can also lead to a sense of wasted time. There's that limited inventory, which has you juggling items from your stash to your inventory and vice versa, and trudging back to the closest safe room when you don't happen to have the item you need on hand, or don't have any room for that healing herb you just found and so desperately need. There are those room transitions that feature door-opening animations each time. (Walk for three seconds, wait for three-second door animation, walk for another three seconds, wait for another three-second animation: it's a jerky rhythm that stops being charming and becomes tedious over time.)
All the same, there's a beautiful simplicity to Resident Evil HD that serves as a reminder that the best mysteries don't need convoluted stories to be enthralling. Later Resident Evil games would add more viruses and unnecessary subplots, but the original allows that menacing mansion to do most of the talking. In this series, less is more. There is backstory to uncover, but the focus is on the here and now. Your motives are clear and your monstrous enemies are plain, and the scant cutscenes always serve a purpose. (The infrequency of cutscenes is just as well, given the high compression of those old audio files, not to mention the general awkwardness of the voice acting and dialogue.) It is you, the mansion, and your imagination. As it happens, that trio makes for a fine adventure, without the need for more monsters, more outbreaks, and more guns.
Firaxis Announces Sid Meier’s Starships
2K and Firaxis Games have announced Sid Meier's Starships.
Due for release in early 2015 as a digital download for Windows-based PC, Mac and iPad, Starships is a turn-based adventure-driven strategy game set in the same universe as Civilization: Beyond Earth.
It’s said that players command a fleet of starships before setting out to explore the galaxy, defend planets and their civilizations, while building a federation to usher in peace.
Exclusive Venture Bros. Clip: Casino Heist In Space
The Venture Bros. returns to TV for the first time since the summer of 2013 with a brand-new special, "All This and Gargantua-2", on Monday, January 19th at midnight on Adult Swim.
The Venture Bros. Special Review
Check out our exclusive clip from the episode, featuring the Revenge Society - Phantom Limb, Underbheit, Fat Chance, and Professor Impossible - robbing a space casino, and running across an imprisoned Brock Samson in the process.
The official synopsis for "All This and Gargantua-2" is as follows:
"The Ventures and their stellar crew head out into the final frontier of deep, deep space on an epic adventure to the Gargantua-2 space station that is destined to change everything the world knows about the Ventureverse."
Hyrule Warriors’ Upcoming Majora’s Mask DLC Fully Detailed
Nintendo has detailed the upcoming Majora's Mask DLC coming to Hyrule Warriors on February 5.
While we knew previously about Tingle and Young Link joining the game as playable characters, we now have further information about the new adventure mode map and three additional costumes making their way into the mix.
According to Gematsu, the DLC will be accompanied by Version 1.5.0 of the game, which will also raise the level cap, add new mixing materials, medals and weapon skills, with the Junk Store and Adventure Mode information screen also getting updated.
Nemesis Draft Comes to League of Legends
Nemesis Draft has come to the League of Legends public beta environment.
The news comes via the League of Legends forums, where Nemesis Draft was announced, then released in beta form.
“Our first Featured Game Mode for the year, Nemesis Draft, is on its way to the PBE,” writes L4T3NCY. “This time around, you’ll be choosing the champions for the enemy team, then making the champs you’ve been given work in battle on the Summoner’s Rift. Let the 'creative' comps begin.”
Nemesis Draft features two teams of five battling on Summoner’s Rift, with the catch being that each team can choose one champion at a time for the opposition. Each team will then be given the chance to ban up to three champions, meaning players will need to act tactically in order to leave themselves with something they can work with.
Sony Reveals Top-Selling PlayStation Store Games of 2014
Sony has revealed the top-selling PlayStation Store titles of 2014 for PS4, PS3 and PS Vita.
The lists for both North America and Europe reveal Minecraft's reign shows no sign of letting up, dominating all three platforms in Europe and coming first for PS3 and second for Vita in North America.
On PS4 in the States, however, it had to settle for fourth place behind Destiny, Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Destiny did equally as well in the NA DLC chart, where the expansion pass was the most downloaded add-on of the year, though it only managed to net seventh position on the European PS4 chart.
The Order: 1886 Goes Gold, Pre-Order Bonuses Revealed
Ready at Dawn has announced upcoming shooter The Order: 1886 has gone gold, confirming pre-order bonuses in the process.
The developer revealed on Twitter that development on the game has finished and it's now at the stage where discs can be manufactured and distributed ahead of its February 20 release.
It's also been announced pre-ordering the game unlocks The Knight's Arsenal DLC, which enables players to equip Galahad with alternate uniforms and variant weapons after completing the game. The Red Lightning Pack offers a Red Knight uniform and Arc Rifle Prototype, while the Arsonist Pack gives the Black Knight uniform with the Arsonist Rifle.
Riot Reveals Ocean Week Challenge for League of Legends
League of Legends developer Riot has announced what it has dubbed Ocean Week, a week-long event challenging players of the popular free-to-play MOBA game to band together to unlock a host of rewards between January 23-31.
According to Riot the overall goal will be to unlock a vote to select a League of Legends Champion to be fashioned into a statue; a statue that will be sunk to the bottom of the ocean as an artificial reef. The statue will have the Summoner Name of every player that contributes at least three points during the week recorded on it.
Riot explains there will be 12 Ocean Week champions on free-rotation and “rewards can be unlocked when playing a PvP game of Blind Pick, Team Builder or Twisted Treeline when it's available.”