Three fallacies I’m occasionally guilty of believing:

1) The Oculus Rift does not involve any of the physicality of the HTC Vive2) VR gaming is riding a cart to minigame hell3) There’s a ceiling on how good VR games can look

Crytek’s beautiful and involving Oculus Rift game The Climb [official site] is a pretty good riposte to all of the above. … [visit site to read more]

Global illumination.Volumetric clouds.Sub-surface scattering.

These are words that make me hot.

But I know this feeling is forbidden. I should care about games>, not the empty pursuit of photorealism. But oh my, it s so exciting, and not empty. In fact, I think that right now photorealism is becoming crucial to games, and that we should celebrate it.

… [visit site to read more]

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

When later entries in a series go wrong, the disappointment tends not to blight the original people liked so much. Unfortunately Crysis [official site] couldn’t maintain the things people liked about it for even its own running time. Yeah, the aliens were a bit guff, but there was so much in Crysis to like from its open stealth-action beginnings to its bombastic finale.

… [visit site to read more]

Hello youse!

We’re off the back of a string of five reviews, so it’s time for a NEWS UPDATE. Let’s call this the NEWS UPDATE OF MAY, or the MAY NEWS UPDATE. Of board games, obviously. And you might be thinking – Well, Rab, you just did a news update last month, called the April News Update or something. Is there even more news about daft board games already? And I’m all like that – Well, yes.

… [visit site to read more]

Gathering together the best shooters is no easy task, but if you’re looking for a new PC FPS to play, look no further.

Your favourite game is at number 51.

… [visit site to read more]

There’s an open stretch of grass between me and the thin exterior wall of a small island village. The place is crawling with enemy troops, who move along the dirt roads and populate the ramshackle buildings in groups of two or three. Defensive turrets would already be firing at me if I my nanosuit wasn’t keeping me invisible, the energy bar barely moving for as long as I remain still.

So I start to run.>

You want Advanced Warfare? Crysis did that seven years ago.

… [visit site to read more]

In June this year, rumours began to circulate that developer and publisher Crytek were in trouble. Anonymous sources told Kotaku and GameStar [article behind paywall] stories of wages being late, staff going two months without pay, and a lack of communication from the company’s management. Crytek initially denied everything. Then last week Crytek made staff redundant at their Austin office, and sold their UK office and the Homefront IP to Koch Media.

Which brings us to today, upon which Eurogamer have run an interview with Crytek co-founder Cevat Yerli. The interview is long and wide-ranging, and covers the current financial situation at the company, why wage payments got “delayed”, and where the company is now headed.

… [visit site to read more]

I’m not sure how a Homefront sequel that I didn’t really care about became a Crysis game that I really want to play, but that’s what I saw the other day. Homefront: The Revolution is Crysis. Hilariously Crysis. So very very Crysis. And yet it’s a Crysis game that Crytek haven’t even managed to make, despite having all the component parts.

Now they are, and it’s a Homefront game. I am confused. >

… [visit site to read more]

GameSpy giveth, and – years later – it shutteth down due to the cruleth realities of modern busineth practices and, in doing so, taketh away. The list of games affected by said untimely (but also kinda timely) demise is long and prone to billowing ominously in the wind, and we still don’t know what exactly will happen to a number of those trapped in its server purgatory. Sometimes, though, no news is good news. Case in point: it turns out that Crysis and Crysis 2 won’t be coming back online after GameSpy goes dark.

… [visit site to read more]

GameSpy, a relic from times long before the modern Internet – or indeed, games and spies – existed is closing down. This on its own is not surprising as the multiplayer service is, by modern standards, buggy and kind of a joke, but it leaves a startling number of games with their e-wings clipped and their online-heaving hams strung> in its wake. How many, you ask? Well, Reddit’s /r/Games board compiled a massive list, and the results aren’t pretty.

… [visit site to read more]