Most Recent: Opinions
7 Ways The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Made Me Crazy
Having played every console entry in the Legend of Zelda series, I was as giddy as a school girl meeting Justin Bieber when I unwrapped The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on Christmas Day. While at first it proved to be the standard Zelda fare, including swordplay, shields, dungeons, and the lovely Zelda herself (sporting some sexy new bangs), I had a growing sense of frustration at some of the new features, degrading my love of all things Zelda. These grew and grew until I was hurling my Wiimote at the TV, wondering why Nintendo would implement these annoying features in their flagship RPG. (more…)
Saving Benny: The Bromance of Fallout: New Vegas
Howdy Folks! This article includes spoilers for Fallout: New Vegas. There is also some swearing, partly because the game is rated Mature, and partly because the writer is Scottish. You have been warned. Have a good ‘un.
“You sick, vindictive fuck!”
These were Benny’s last words to me when I finally gave up trying to save him, opting instead to crucify him and pushed forward through the rest of Fallout: New Vegas, a brilliant yet bug-ridden game that entertained as much as it frustrated. By the bitter end, after numerous screen freezes and load errors, stuttering frame rates and other exasperating glitches, I stumbled through to the final fight, killing Legate Lanius and handing General Lee Oliver the conditions for the New California Republic’s withdrawal from New Vegas as dictated by Mr. House. All this while wearing a spacesuit helmet. I watched the epilogue narrated by the various characters I had met, but through it all, someone was missing. (more…)
Why I Hate Hearing the Words “Borderlands and Fallout 3 Are the Same Game”
Many people say that they don’t want to play Borderlands because it’s just like Fallout 3, or that the settings are identical. While I understand the idea that a wasteland populated mostly with freaks building things out of trash sounds like it would make two things exactly the same, this is not the case at all. While the settings may appear to be similar, there’s nothing at all the same with these two games – location, gameplay, and plot aren’t even remotely similar. Add to this mixture the brand new Rage, which also looks and feels similar, and you’ve got a recipe for confusion and indecision. So without further ado, I present to you the differences between Borderlands and Fallout 3 – or why you should never, ever mistake one of these games for the other. (more…)
Warp Zoned Wish List: What We Want From Borderlands 2
When Borderlands first came out back in October of 2009, I was smitten. I got it, played every single mission alone, and basically just devoured the game. Playing it on the PS3 was what some saw as my major handicap; most of my friends had it for the Xbox 360. However, I had a fantastic time playing the game alone. I played as Lilith the Siren, friendless and badass; I made that game my bitch, and then set it aside to move onto the next one. By the time the DLC came out, I was involved in other games.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when Borderlands was on sale for $14.99 – with all of the DLC – for PlayStation Plus subscribers. I gobbled it up, lent my hard copy to a friend, and dove right back in again. Podcast Producer Ryan Littlefield and I beat the game in just two short weeks, and as we approached the vault, he told me he’d found a copy of the GOTY edition at Target for $8 in the clearance section. “Of course you did,” I laughed, “they’re probably doing all this to gear up for the announcement of Borderlands 2.” That night, the rumor broke on Eurogamer; the next morning, Borderlands 2 was officially announced by 2K Games.
What this means is that there is massive potential here for a sequel that goes off the charts. There’s so much awesome in the first game, but there’s so much that could be adjusted to make the sequel even better. If they find the right balance, Borderlands fans will have much to rejoice about – and many more players to rejoice with. What follows is a detailed list of what I think should be included, discluded, and just plain married to Borderlands 2. (more…)
Why the 3DS Price Drop Isn’t As Desperate As It Looks
Nintendo shocked the world yesterday when they announced a new price tag for the 3DS. The announcement will drop the handheld’s MSRP to $169.99 on August 12, a cut of $80. Slashing 32% from the system’s retail price is great news for gamers, but it’s being seen as a desperation move by many.
Or is it? (more…)
Redbox vs Gamefly: Which One is the Better Value?
UPDATE: Redbox discontinued offering games in their kiosks in December 2019.
With the weekend upon us, gamers everywhere are looking for a new title to spend their free time with. But for those of us who try to limit our game purchases, a new player has emerged to offer the latest and greatest games for rent. Redbox added video games to their self-serve kiosks a week ago and it looks like the service is off to a rousing start with consumers. But can it unseat the popular rent-by-mail service Gamefly as the king of game rentals? Well, that’s what we’re going to find out: (more…)
Warp Zoned Wish List: 11 Predictions For E3 11
The industry’s biggest showcase, the E3 Expo, is just around the corner, and gamers are already buzzing about what they’ll see. With the Wii 2 and Sony’s Next Generation Portable making their debuts this year, there’ll be no shortage of jaw-dropping reveals. But what else might happen at this year’s big show? The Warp Zoned editors have compiled 11 predictions of what we expect to happen at E3 2011. They may not all come true, but we would bet good money on most of them… (more…)
The G-Spot: Why Other OS Isn’t Worth Bringing Back (Much Less Stealing Credit Cards Over)
As the PlayStation Network is set to recover from the worst outage in the history of the service, there’s been a lot of talk about the feature this whole debacle started over. In the early days, one of the distinctive features Sony touted of the PlayStation 3 was its Other OS option, the ability to install operating systems such as Linux on your system. With the advent of the PS3 Slim, Sony removed this functionality, setting off a terrible chain reaction. First, the homebrew community managed to bring it back, which almost immediately opened the floodgates for hackers to destroy public matches on the PlayStation Network. Thereafter, Sony pursued litigation against modders looking to jailbreak PS3s, which led hacking groups like Anonymous to launch even more attacks on the PSN. It’s a complicated debate with valid points on both sides, but there’s no end in sight for gamers who have been written off as “collateral damage” by Anonymous. Given how few people actually ran Linux on PS3, it seems most don’t know what the feature they’re arguing about actually did. This installment of the G-Spot chronicles this ultimate irony: that one of the most lamentedly lost features on the PlayStation 3 wasn’t even worth keeping around to begin with. (more…)