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In a Nutshell: February 2012
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February was certainly an eventful month. In this segment, we are going to talk about the many events that have happened over the course of the month that we didn't quite think had enough to talk about to justify their own article. So, without further adieu, here's the first official monthly Gaming and Tech Roundup for the month of February!
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Guild Wars 2 is the single most anticipated MMORPG of the next year or two. Recently, a select few incredibly lucky members of the press were allowed into the beta of this game to experience and write about it on their respective websites. The resulting flood of articles and media relating to this was overwhelmingly positive in their participation of this limited beta. Unfortunately, due to the lack of players, the WvWvW combat was not reported on much, but from what videos and images floating around of it on the internet, it seems to be amazing how huge the maps are. PvP was touched on, and much positive feedback of it had come back of the balance and overall enjoyment of playing on the maps. Beta signups for the general public have been submitted, and hopefully the next beta event will include some of the people that signed up then. Any major news involving the beta of Guild Wars 2 will be posted here, as I, and I'm sure many of you, are very excited for this truly groundbreaking MMORPG!
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Two very interesting mods have come to fruition in February. Cry of Fear, a Half-Life 1 modification that has been in development for a number of years has been released recently, and Dear Esther, a polished version of a Source mod by the very same name, has gone on sale. Cry of Fear is a horror mod released a few weeks ago about a man who wakes up in a city overrun by creatures after he gets hit by a car. The game is easily one of the best psychological horror games that has come out in the past few years, even with the issue of working with Goldsrc. Though the limitations of the engine are evident in some sections of the game, overall it's one of the better games, let alone mods, I've played in a long time. A couple interesting features, such as the cell phone and camera, manage to keep the game different from other games of the same genre. If there was one complaint I were to have about the game, it would be that the "fear" component relies far too much on jump scares. Cry of Fear seems to set up much more deeply disturbing scenes, just to have it turn out to be a jump scare. There is much wasted potential there.
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Dear Esther was a mod developed by Dan Pinchbeck and Rob Briscoe. It was originally released for free, but it was polished and released as a standalone game, selling for $20.00. Focusing mainly on atmosphere and beauty, Dear Esther is a graphically astounding mod, truly pushing the possibilities of the Source Engine. I'm not sure how much gameplay there is in this game, but if Heavy Rain can tell us anything, it's that interactive slideshows and/or movies can be called games. Dear Esther isn't action packed, it won't thrill you or enthrall you with its oh-so amazing storyline, yet if the story it has to tell and the beautiful eye-candy isn't enough to immerse you into it, then surely there isn't much out there that would immerse you.
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Another big release this month was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Ken Rolston, the lead designer for both Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was also the lead designer for this game, giving many people high hopes for another game in this vein. It remained relatively unknown until very shortly before its release, where it picked up a lot of hype. The game itself seemed unsure of what it wanted to be, during my experience playing it. Half the time it seems to want to be an MMO, with repetitive "Kill 10 X" and fetch style quests, and other times it wants to be a game like Devil May Cry or Dante's Inferno with flashy combos and finishers. The game didn't really capture my attention long enough for me to do a full review of it, but it really deserves a mention in the February round-up, considering the designer and how hyped it was. There are plenty of cool ideas that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning tries, like the hybrid classes. There are six tiers of classes, and you can choose to be a hybrid class. For example, Blademaster is the tier 6 hybrid class of rogue/warrior. The ideas are cool, the setting is unique, the art style is stylized and bright, but overall, I just didn't feel like it was a really good game. The repetitiveness of everything in the game and the fact that someone prophecized the coming of a being that could break prophecies (yo dawg) annoyed me to the point that flashy finishers and a cool setting weren't enough to keep me playing the game.
One last thing I'd like to touch on, finishing up the February roundup...
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The Playstation Vita was released this month, with debatable success. The fact that, during the time it was only available in Japan, only 500,000 units were sold, caused many people to speak doom and gloom about the sales numbers that the Vita would have upon its US release. While the Vita has currently surpassed 1.2 million units in the US, it pales in comparison to its number one competitor, Nintendo's 3DS. A couple launch titles, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Touch My Katamari are enough to justify a purchase to some consumers, but others want to wait for a price decrease and a few more titles to sway their decision in not buying one of these powerful devices.
That's all for the February roundup! Join us at the end of March for more news we overlooked while writing our articles!
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