Entries in Open World (6)

12:02PM

QCF: BioMutant

he last decade of gaming has been a veritable smorgasbord of titles to choose from, with a steadily growing hustle of developers working hard to release their big AAA software, and players scrambling to play them. An unfortunate side-effect of that never-ending hamster wheel of cycle is that with so many options, some games are just doomed to be overlooked, and sometimes at no fault of their own either.

Which brings us to Experiment 101’s debut release, BioMutant; a quirky Open-World Action-Adventure title that tries to do way too many things at once in hopes of appealing to a broader base of players. The premise of its Post-Apocalyptic Kung Fu critter tale is certainly one of the more unique games of its kind, sure, but unfortunately, the exotic blend of Fallout meets Planet of the Apes meets Enter the Dragon makes for a bloated melting pot that fails to deliver a consistent flavor in its own right.

Click to read more ...

2:03AM

QCF: Ghost of Tsushima

uring the Feudal era of Japan, the land of the rising sun saw many conflicts, ranging from invading forces to civil unrest within its regions, balancing out into an age of strife and prosperity. To maintain order and peace through the land, the Shogun appointed Samurai, soldiers who adhere to a strict code of honor, to oversee the safety of its people, and protect the sanctity of their laws.

But what happens of the sanctity of your honor means nothing to an enemy that threatens everything you hold dear? What do you place your faith in more to uphold your Samurai code?

In the last three generations of PlayStation hardware, the developer Suckerpunch has pumped out some hard hitters in the Stealth and Open-World genres with titles like Sly Cooper and inFamous, but this time, they’re aiming to combine dynamics of both gameplay styles into one unforgettable experience with the Ghost of Tsushima. While there are some valid arguments against a western studio being able to do justice towards delivering an authentic-feeling Samurai tale, the Sony studio spared no expense in ensuring that Ghost of Tsushima conveys the mysticism of the Japanese warrior, in a world that’s beautiful beyond compare, if not a bit too familiar all the same.

Click to read more ...

1:37PM

QCF: Yakuza Kiwami 2

fter The success of both Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on the PlayStation 4, it was no surprise that SEGA had announced to Weekly Famitsu Magazine that it was planning to re-release the entire series of the mega-hit property onto the PlayStation 4. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is the latest entry to spear-head the effort shortly after the release of Yakuza 6, an update to the second entry of the franchise, and the last one to have released on the PlayStation 2 before Yakuza had made the transition to the PlayStation 3 years later.

In what may arguably be the strangest title of the lineup in contrast to the spin-offs and seventh-generation entries, SEGA didn’t pull any punches in ensuring that Yakuza Kiwami 2 captured all of the wacky narratives and tongue-in-cheek writing of the original game. This PlayStation 4 remaster brings it all together with the new Dragon game engine that was introduced in Yakuza 6, and an assortment of other enhancements that make the trip back to the Kamurocho the best one yet.

Click to read more ...

9:48PM

QCF: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

he Yakuza franchise may owe a great deal of its legacy to Shenmue, but it’s done a great deal more on its own, and rightfully escaped the shadow that Yu Suzuki’s classic had once cast over it. Spanning across five epic chapters, a host of non-sequitur spin-offs, and a stellar prequel in its own right, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is the newest title to enter the fold, and was announced to be the final chapter in the RyĆ« ga Gotoku saga.

Although the future of the property seems uncertain, SEGA hasn’t spared any expense with the finale; Kazuma Kiryu’s last hurrah is every bit of the bittersweet epic that it sets itself out to be and then some.

Click to read more ...

7:49AM

QCF: Sunset Overdrive

t’s no secret that I take a particularly guilty joy out of the dichotomy that defines the éclat of video games—it’s a pretty silly identity crisis that I can’t but find amusing. On one hand, I want to the art and impact that video games create to continually expand into legitimate expression of art that can stand on par with some of the greatest literature and film ever produced by mankind, and yet on the other, I still want games to indulge into some of the stupidest shit imaginable.

Sure, that sounds unreasonably flippant, since making headway in one of directions would congruently set back the other, but I’d like to think that we can live in a world where gaming can cater to both of these worlds respectively—Insomniac’s Xbox One exclusive, Sunset Overdrive, is living proof of that.

Yeah, we live in a world where things like Deadpool and Tumblr have saturated our culture with facetious satire and fourth-wall humor to an obnoxiously pandering degree, but the latest effort from the same people behind Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, is one of the most refreshing games to have released in 2014. A world and action woven by the over-the-top chaos and fiction of this modern open-world odyssey of caffeine and attention-deficit youth has all the makings that truly define the special kind of enchantment that only a video game could offer.

Click to read more ...

5:25PM

QCF: inFamous: Second Son

he idea of being larger than life leads down many paths to those who aspire for that sort of spotlight; stuff like entertainment, professional sports, or politics, but the most fantastical of them all is obtaining super powers, humanity’s ever present castle in the air.

Sucker Punch ventured into such territory and the grand moral compass that proceeds over it with inFamous, an ambitious open-world game that stumbled a bit out the door before it found the right beat for the tune it was pitching with inFamous 2.

Fast forward to present time and we see Sucker Punch at it again with inFamous Second Son; a sequel that introduces some novel features to the series, but unfortunately regresses the all-too-important advancements from its predecessor to a disappointingly mediocre degree.

Click to read more ...