Raving Rant: The Year in Review - 2014

Another year come and gone. The old saw about time flying when you’re having fun seems apropos for gamers. Especially when some of the stuff is not fun in the slightest. But it’s been interesting nonetheless. We’ve had all new heroes and villains, as well as some old familiar faces popping up, and it’s worth taking a look back to see how we got through it.

GamerGate
I’m going to get this one out of the way right now. I spoke at length on it earlier, and I’m not going to beat a dead horse, but this is probably the single biggest story of the year. I wish it wasn’t. Arguably, the shitstorm that is GamerGate is still ongoing, although it’s now down to a dull roar. A certain segment of the Internet is being incredibly shitty to a few particular women, and pretty much anybody of a certain degree of visibility who calls them out on it. I don’t agree with Anita Sarkissian’s work, I don’t agree with her positions, but I will defend her right to make them and distribute them. People are, likewise, free to disagree with her and not support her if they choose not to. But this shit has gone way too far for way too long.

Review: Watch Dogs (Wii U)

Starting a new franchise is never an easy task. Some games make it, and some don't.

When you have a big developer like Ubisoft behind you there is more at stake but there are also more resources to draw upon to create the game. Watch Dogs is one of those new franchises that had some new elements embedded into it that made it interesting enough to look forward to. It came out on most of the video game systems in the Spring but took around 6 extra months to come out on the Wii U. So, here it is.

Review: Child of Light (PS3)

What can be best described as a video game fairy tale, Child of Light is almost like stepping into one of those beautiful short stories we used to read as kids, complete with fantastical watercolours.

The story follows Aurora, the daughter of a widowed Duke who one night wakens from her sleep in an alternate universe called Lemuria, which has had its moon, sun and stars stolen by the Dark Queen. Aurora's first inkling upon waking up is to return home, but in order to do this she must defeat the Dark Queen and return Lemuria's stolen celestial belongings.

Review: Rocksmith 2014 Edition (PS3)

I reviewed the original Rocksmith for the PS3 when it first released in the fall of 2011. At the time it came out, I had never picked up a real guitar so it was a great entry into the music world for me. However, even with all it offered, the game was held back by a clunky user interface, long load times and the fact that you had to retune your guitar between every song (even if they are tuned the same). Rocksmith 2014 (RS2014) fixes all of the problems of the original game while adding some great new features.

Preview: South Park: The Stick of Truth (360, PS3)

South Park: The Stick of Truth is in development at Obsidian Entertainment (Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Alpha Protocol) so it's no surprise that the game takes a role-playing path through the South Park universe.

Preview: Watch Dogs (Multi-Platform)

Watch Dogs puts the player in the hacker boots of Aiden Pearce in an open world environment where (it looks like) most everything is hackable. Diving into the personal details, rerouting traffic signals to snarl traffic, "leaping" from security cam to security cam to eavesdrop and help other characters sneak around undetected, but it's not just about swiping bank information and "information warfare" there's action, too.

Review: Far Cry 3 (PS3)

Far Cry 3 is a sequel in name only to the Far Cry 2. I was a huge fan of the first game in the series, but Far Cry 2 introduced too many changes for my liking. The whole malaria mechanic and running into enemies every five minutes while trekking across the African plains was one of my main criticisms of the game. Thankfully these problems are gone and Far Cry 3 is hands down one of the best action adventure titles I have played in a long time.

Preview: Assassin's Creed III (Multiplatform)

As far as this writer can tell, Assassin's Creed III's principle goal is to usurp Day of the Tentacle as the best game ever to feature George Washington (notwithstanding the Civilization series).

Oscillating between present day and "Colonial America," Assassin's Creed III looks to break the mold of what gamers expect from the series. Or at least reshape it slightly because it looks like the same kind of acrobatic stealth-ish gameplay is involved for the most part, with some naval combat thrown in just because.

Preview: Far Cry 3 (360, PC, PS3)

Island settings for video games have always seemed a natural fit.

The nature of an island, with its defined borders of water, means the action is easily contained with a natural obstacle, an aspect that is so important to any open world sandbox game. That's why Saints Row: The Third, Dead Island, GTA IV, Just Cause, Crysis, and even the original Far Cry, are all hemmed in by water. It's to the island setting that Far Cry 3 returns, leaving behind the savannah of Far Cry 2.

Preview: Marvel Avengers: The Battle for Earth (360, Wii U)

The Marvel Universe and video games go hand-in-glove. Besides the usual iterations of Marvel vs. Capcom games, there's been plenty of other properties that have had digital iterations like The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Captain America: The First Avenger, the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Iron Man, and, of course, Spider-Man.

News: Ubisoft Scraps "Always On" DRM

In what has to be one of the more excruciating interviews in recent memory, Ubisoft formally acknowledged that they have abandoned their "always on" DRM scheme.  According to Stephanie Perrotti, a director of online games at Ubisoft, the policy was discontinued in June of last year and has been replaced by the more common scheme of a single Internet verification check.  The interview conducted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun is informative on a number of levels, despite the attempts of the interviewees to obfuscate, deflect, and actively avoid any admission of responsibility.  However, one point of information that is not mentioned is whether Ubisoft will be working to patch out the "always on" scheme from titles released prior to June of last year.  More on this as it develops.

Review: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PC)

Moving at a slower step than most third-person shooters, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier rewards caution and scouting, setting up dominoes of perfect head shots, and team collaboration. Occasionally, the system branches into straight-up gun battles and on-rails blasting but that's more the exception than the rule.

The Weekly Checkpoint 21

Another week is out of the way, and it's time to look at all of the gaming news to crop up during that time.  This week we look at the troubles facing OnLive, Ubisoft diving into digital distribution of the PC games, Team Fortress 2 adding a coop mode, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2 coming to PC, among other things.  We've also cracked 100 subscribers on the YouTube channel, so celebratory high fives for everyone!

The Weekly Checkpoint 17

It's once again time for our weekly gaming news round-up, and this go around we're talking about Borderlands 2 which just got sent for the console approval process, Ubisoft UPlay problems that cropped up this week, Awesomenauts heading to PC, the Vita struggling in Japan, Mike Morhaime speaking up on the state of Diablo III, and Dead Space 3 coop mode, among other things.  Enjoy! ^_^

Preview: Rayman Legends (Wii U) Hands-On

On display at a recent hands-on event at Nintendo Canada was Ubisoft's gorgeous Rayman Legends, which is set for launch alongside the Wii U console.

Assisting me during the play session was my 3-year old son. With the Wii U Pro Controller, which feels remarkably like the Xbox 360 controller, my son controlled Rayman, while I controlled Murfy with the Wii U Gamepad.