July 23, 2017

The first generation of VR technology has been out for a year now, and take-up by gamers has been relatively slow. Part of thats due to the high cost of entry, as well as the stuffing around required to re-arrange your playing space to accommodate VR. However, I feel the apathy is mostly due to the games on offer, as potential buyers are looking for whats unique about VR gaming that cant be found anywhere else, to justify the purchase. Developers are still looking for the answer to that question, which is why weve seen so many tech demos dressed up as games hit every VR platform. However...

July 22, 2017

The original Splatoon was a surprise hit. Not only was the game an original IP but it was also a third person shooter; a genre that you just wouldn’t normally associate with Nintendo. Yet they developed the game with its own distinctive style, making it fun and accessible to gamers of all ages and providing the Wii U with a needed exclusive, must-have title. As the saying goes “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”, so with Splatoon 2 Nintendo have played it safe by offering a refined sequel that keeps the core game in tact but makes improvements in areas such as single-player. For those tha...

July 21, 2017

2015s Project CARS, or Community Assisted Racing Simulator, stands as an example of what can happen when a passionate, well organised community comes together behind a project. Largely crowdfunded, and developed with constant community feedback, Project CARS became a breath of fresh air for the largely stagnant racing genre, and has been lauded for its visual fidelity and accuracy in simulation. It may be time, though, to shift our perception of Slightly Mad Studios from that of an independent, community-assisted developer to a full blown, AAA company, because Project CARS 2 is shaping up to...

July 19, 2017

I absolutely loved Telltales The Wolf Among Us when I played through it for the first time last year; so I was incredibly disappointed when no news ever surfaced about the long promised second season...

July 15, 2017

We knew that a new world was going to be shown off at Disneys D23 Expo overnight, but we didnt know what world it would be or if it would come from Disney, Pixar or Lucasfilms stable. The brand new...

July 15, 2017

Better known for its excellent PS Vita titles, the Danganronpa franchise has slowly been making strides to hit a mainstream audience. As well as two anime series and a few manga and novel spin-offs, the franchise has received a huge boost in awareness thanks to the release of Danganronpa 1-2 Reload (a port of the first two games) on PS4 and PC earlier this year. The larger install base on those systems has exposed the brand to more players, and now to tide fans over until the Western release of the third main game, comes a port of the spin-off shooter Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair...

July 13, 2017

The seventh season of the hugely successful television show, The Walking Dead cemented the charismatic and malevolent Negan into pop culture history. Today, Entertainment One Australia have finally announced the home release of The Walking Dead Season 7 on DVD and Blu-Ray in Australia, on 27 September. In Season 7 of the iconic show, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his group will find out yet again that the world isn’t what they thought it was and the lengths they will have to go to in order to find weapons, food and new fighters is nothing short of remarkable. While they have a sing...

July 12, 2017

Wait, what? Yep. A new Half-Life patch has appeared today on Steam which fixes a set of crashes throughout the game. The patch notes include thanks to community members that reported the issues, and has literally appeared out of nowhere almost 19 years after the game launched in 1998. For some, Half-Life is where it all began. It was Valves breakthrough game which led to Steam, Source, and changed gaming forever while making Gabe Newell a very rich man. Check out the official new Half-Life patch details after the drop: new Half-Life patch release notes: 10 JULY  ALFRED We have updated the ...

July 10, 2017

Final Fantasy XII celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Australian release this year, and in that time the title seems to have been quite forgotten by much of the gaming community. In comparison to Final Fantasy titles like VII and X, who still to this day have dedicated fan-bases, FFXII was a quieter success, lacking a high-concept fantasy world and being released at the end of the PlayStation 2s life-cycle. In my opinion, it was still a success nonetheless, and thanks to Square-Enixs recent spate of remasters, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age brings the game to modern audienc...

July 9, 2017

My first real love affair with an MMO began in high school where, despite only having a dial up connection, I would spend hours every night playing World of Warcraft. While I loved the game, I’d never been a big fan of Warcraft and didn’t have any connection to the lore, so many of the cameos and references went straight over my head. So, when I found out my favourite RPG series Final Fantasy was going to become an MMO, I jumped on Final Fantasy XI. After playing the game for quite a while, I eventually drifted away from the MMO space and hadn’t touched one in years. It wasn’t until Fi...

July 8, 2017

It was a sad day when Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell was hit by heavy lay offs in 2016, leaving many of its employees having to seek new employment elsewhere. One of the co-founders of 5th Cell has since gone on to create his own studio Digital Continue and is now ready to lift the lid on their first project, Next Up Hero. Next Up Hero is a community driven arcade action rogue-like in which players take turns fighting  and dying  in community gaming sessions, working to conquer monsters and bosses together, one hero at a time. Youll be able to choose from nine different heroes with a...

July 8, 2017

Wed all worn those red/blue glasses before, but do you remember the first time you sat down in front of a 3D movie, at home or at the cinema, and were just so blown away that you thought to yourself Holy Cow, this technology is the way of the future? Me neither. No one thought that. 3D cinema, circa Avatar, was a breakthrough, but it didnt revolutionise the film industry, and it didnt inspire a great deal of innovation from production houses. Ive always felt much the same way about VR in the gaming industry; obviously a jump forward, but not being used to its full creative potential. T...

July 7, 2017

Horizon Zero Dawn patch 1.30 has just been released and with it an array of new features for players to get excited about. With Horizon Zero Dawns first major expansion titled The Frozen Wilds due out later this year, fans of the new franchise should definitely be honing their skills in the latest patch, which features a new Ultra Hard mode which includes more aggressive machine behaviour, enhanced weapons and outfits, two new trophies and best of all a New Game+ mode allowing you to start Horizon Zero Dawn again but keep your characters progression and items. Check out the full Horizon Ze...

July 7, 2017

With the launch of the first Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC pack The Master Trials now behind us, Nintendo has begun to reveal information about DLC pack 2, with The Champions Ballad detai...