QCF: Rare Replay

hen you’ve been in the business of developing games for over thirty years, the work and charm you put into your games gets more and more noticeable. In the case of Rare though, this sort of quality that truly defined them, and pushed them to get where they are today.

A brand that was once synonymous with a certain gaming giant, and responsible for vast majority of the gems available on their hardware nearly two decades before, has since found a new home, and been quietly established a new identity with the big M ever since.

Granted, it is fourteen years late, but the giant has finally decided to host one best celebrations to be found on a commemorative game collection called Rare Replay; an assortment of classics to bear the Rare name (well, most of them anyway) in a value priced package priced at just thirty dollars.

While the deal alone makes the trip down memory lane worth all the hype, the attention to detail and care put into this title, makes it one of the best love letters to video games that I’ve seen in years.

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QCF: Halo: The Master Chief Collection

efore military shooting affairs were all the rage, Microsoft penned all of its hopes on a series, one that  eventually become the flagship brand that defined it—a space marine fantasy filled with as many guns, aliens, and bits of action that could fit on to the disc; Halo set the first-person shooting genre on fire.

That was then though, and like it or not, the shooter landscape has long moved on from the prime of Bungie’s galactic odyssey, and even in spite of 343’s development of Halo 5; the relevance of the franchise is arguably still up in the air as far as mainstream shooting appeal is concerned.

Enter the Master Chief Collection, an ambitious collection that containing upgraded revisions of the four main titles, complete with online integration that allows for a combination of the various elements and nuances of from each entry to experiment and customize with.

Indeed, questioning the value offered within this arrangement of games itself, is a hard-pressed argument to counter; but considering the jump to better hardware and age of these particular games being hyped here—the expectations are respectively loftier the second time around.

So it’s sad to say that when it comes down to it—The Master Chief Collection barely justifies it’s worth beyond being anything more than a budget bundle with a savvy price tag—the reality is that it’s simply a glorified revision of games that scantly improve upon the originals that we’ve all played to death years ago.

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PPR 58

With E3 in full swing and conferences from the Big Three already in the books, everyone is buzzing with excitement about all the new games and technology that will be in store for the next year. On Sunday evening before the conference was underway, the crew sat down to discuss their predictions for this year's expo. How close were their predictions to what has actually happened at the convention so far? And will there still be some news to follow in the days to come? We will discuss this and much more on this week's episode of Press Pause Radio. Join in on the E3 conversation on our Facebook and Twitter page, as well as on the site and in our forums. Be sure to come back in a few days as we recap all the happenings from E3 2012!

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E3 2012: Microsoft Keynote Live Blog

Video Games and Contractual Business Models

The video game industry used to be very flexible. You bought a game, popped it into your console, and let the magic begin. If you wanted to, you could invite a friend over for some two-player action. No restrictions, no subscriptions, and no DRM since it was unneeded. The internet, however, changed how we play, purchase, and pay for our games -- for better or worse.

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GDC 12: Microsoft Developers day Live blog