May 6, 2018 | Game ON news

Sunday, May 6, 2018

News:: The worst moms in video games

Moms don't often take the spotlight in the world of video games. They're usually killed early on, take on some sort of villainous role, or sit quietly in the background while their children go off to save the world.

With Mother's Day just around the corner, I thought it might be a good time to look at some of the worst moms and maternal figures in video games before honoring the best. Your mom may not be perfect, but at least she isn't hell-bent on resurrecting some ancient evil.

The worst moms in video games screenshot

News:: Review: Solo

Love can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. When searching for advice with our love lives, we often forget to ask the most important person in the equation: ourselves. Solo is a game that explores what love means to you, personally, and doesn’t judge or ridicule you for having different opinions.

You also move blocks and solve some rudimentary puzzles, so it kind of acts like therapy.

Review: Solo screenshot

News:: Is World 1-1 the greatest first level ever?

A great weight rests on the shoulders of the opening area of a game. Be it a level, a mission, or the first quest in a role-playing adventure, this zone, barring any opening cutscenes, marks the first time players will get to experience the world developers spent tireless months and years creating. In our current era of widely available and disposable games, that first sequence is so important because if it’s poor, the player has a million options it can substitute it for.

The first level is supposed to set the tone for the rest of the game. It’s where players learn the basics of gameplay and the early evolution of concepts they’ll experience throughout the adventure. First levels can also be deceiving. Sometimes, a game will have an opening area that is so good, so jam-packed full of interesting designs, routes, enemies, décor and more that the rest of the game fails to match its output. Like Windy Hill from Sonic: Lost World. I’m fascinated by the art and science behind level design and while my personal favorite opening area of any game is the village from Resident Evil 4, World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. may still very well be the greatest first level ever created.

A few years ago, as Nintendo pushed Super Mario Maker out the door, Shigeru Miyamoto sat down for a video with Eurogamer and went over the creation of World 1-1. The very first part of the level tells you everything you need to know about the entire game: Mario starts off small, he can jump on enemies, jumping into question mark boxes brings reward, a mushroom can make you big, and a big Mario can destroy blocks, which as we all know are actually citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom because, hey, it was the 80s and children’s entertainment was pretty fucked up back then.

As players proceed through the level they’re introduced to pits, Fire Flowers, Stars and different types of enemies. Those more adventurous and curious are able to discover warp pipes and secret blocks that dole out 1-Up Mushrooms. That’s it. That’s everything you need to know about this game, crammed into a single level. It’s a tutorial without ever really feeling like one.

I’m not the type of person who’ll contend Super Mario Bros. is the greatest game of all time. It’s not even the best game on the NES. But, in the same way films like Metropolis and Citizen Kane are revered today, I recognize the significant contributions it made to the gaming medium. While much of its innovations have been surpassed over the past 30 years, I still have admiration for World 1-1 and everything that lone level was able to teach me about platformers.

Is World 1-1 the greatest first level ever? screenshot

News:: The first round of Splatoon 2's T-U-R-T-L-E powered splatfest concludes

Round one of the first-ever multi-round splatfest has come to an end. The U.S. and European Splatoon 2 communities battled it out this weekend to decide the first finalist in the TMNT-themed tournament.

In what could be considered an upset, team-leader Leonardo won the public poll with a pretty hefty 57% of the votes. However, the cool-but-crude Raphael pulled back both Team and Solo play points to be declared the overall winner 2 - 1, Raphael will now go on to the Grand Finals in two week's time.

Pearl was stoked, burning katana master "Leo-Nerd-o" while salty Marina showed her true fake-fan colours by referring to Raph as "Ralph". Still, I'm genuinely surprised that Leo took the public vote. I though Raphael would clean sweep this whole tourney.

Round two will see Donatello's bo-staff clash with Michelangelo's nunchucks. Fun fact: During the original show's run, here in the UK, every episode was censored to omit all appearance of said nunchucks. This is because, at the time, the weapon was banned from appearing in TV shows and movies. We didn't even get Enter the Dragon uncut until the late '90s.

The Donatello vs Michelangelo splatfest begins on May 11 in the U.S and May 12 in Europe.

The first round of Splatoon 2's T-U-R-T-L-E powered splatfest concludes screenshot

News:: Eve Online' turns 15 today, and its history is epic

Today is the 15th anniversary of the legendarily fascinating virtual world EVE Online, a massively multiplayer spaceship game that has become famous for the incredible stories that sometimes emerge from the community about heists and wars between thousands of players.

EVE is so interesting that it even has its own historian, Andrew Groen, a video game writer formerly of Wired who studies the politics and sociology at work in EVE's virtual community over its 15-year history.

Groen raised $95,729 from a Kickstarter campaign to independently publish his first book, Empires of EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online, which has now sold 17,000 copies worldwide and is in its third printing. He's currently Kickstarting a sequel which has already brought in more than $115,000 in support and concludes this week.

Empires of EVE is half Star Wars, half Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is a true and fact-checked account of what happened inside EVE Online from the years 2003-2009 as player factions began to accumulate power and eventually wage a years-long war between more than 50,000 real players. It's a space opera that takes place on our own internet, and all the characters are 2003 internet users attempting to build their own digital fiefdom.

The excerpt that follows is chapter four of Empires of EVE, and takes place near the beginning of the story.

via Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/2018/05/06/eve-online-15th-anniversary-andrew-groen-empires-excerpt/

News:: Pairing Simpsons episodes with video games

The Simpsons has been on our screens for coming up to 30 years, becoming a cornerstone in comedy timing and how to make quality animated entertainment content. And it's true that there are divides in the fandom: When did the show stop being funny? Season 8? Season 13? Are the Treehouse of Horror episodes the best episodes, or the worst episodes? Was the first season a load of old shite, or was it just a little rough around the edges? What should we do about culturally insensitive storylines written way back in the 1990s? Is Hans Moleman the sexiest man alive?

However, the fanbase is still going strong, with dedicated meme pages popping up all over the shop and syndication continuing into perpetuity. The Simpsons has even had a fair few video games devoted to it, some being rightly regarded as classics, while others are appropriately reviled as the worst of licensed content. (Not The Simpsons Wrestling, though – I have a strange fondness for that game despite its technical flaws, just like Homer's inexplicable love of Sheriff Lobo.)

But, ignoring bona fide Simpsons games, which video games pair well with individual episodes, like a refreshing Duff with a Krusty Burger, or a crab juice with a stick of Khlav Kalash? I gave it a good try with my list below – which is apparently the first step towards failure.

Putting this list together was actually a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. Early Simpsons episodes are more like standard morality tales, which doesn't always map well to video games. Sure, some of the biggest games of the last few years have ethical choices embedded in them, but it's also often combined with violence or other characteristics that don't fit well with a PG-rated show. For example, would I pair "Homer the Vigilante" with Manhunt, just because both involve the lead character getting back at criminals through equally questionable acts? No, it feels like a bit of a stretch. All the more reason for you to pipe up in the comments down below with your own favourite pairings of games and Simpsons episodes!

Pairing Simpsons episodes with video games screenshot

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