Carl’s doing this review since Joe began ranting about how Ubisoft destroyed everything since they quit being quirky French publishers and basically we needed to be able to talk about the game instead of listening to yet another rant about corporate consolidation. There’s an unpleasant reality: Beyond Good and Evil is simultaneously one of the best action adventure games ever created and a textbook example of why incredible games sometimes fail commercially. Released in November…
Right, the main issue here is that we’ve been debating about what really constitutes an Immersive Sim for years and every time we bring up Deus Ex, the debate escalates. I keep saying that the proof that player choice is more than just a marketing term is Deus Ex and that’s why I always come back to it. Deus Ex was released on June 23rd, 2000. We had passed the point in PC gaming history…
Joe here, and yes, Carl asked me to review a PlayStation game. I know what you’re thinking – the Genesis fanboy reviewing Sony’s console? Well, I am a Genesis fanboy but I am not blind. The original PlayStation had some fine games and Syphon Filter is definitely one of them. And it illustrates exactly why Sony’s first party development strategy was so great whilst Sega was too busy killing itself with horrible business decisions. Again.…
Right, Tim here, and I am looking at a title that pre dates my gaming experiences by around fifteen years but has been sitting in my collection since last summer due to multiple individuals stating it is a “lost classic”. The Operative: No One Lives Forever arrived in November 2000 as a spy shooter that apparently captured the Austin Powers spirit better than any actual Austin Powers video games. As I play through this in…
Samuel here – trying to get the kids off to school whilst wrestling with a colour drifted CRT television. I’ll be honest I was sceptical when Mark of the Ninja came out in 2012. A 2D stealth game from Klei Entertainment? Same people behind the wacky animated adventures? Seemed like a huge mismatch of genres to me. Stealth games were 3D games – cameras moved freely and the environment affected how you played. How were…
Hey guys, Joe here. Why has it been twenty plus years since the greatest “F*** You” in video game history? As Carl stressed about the frame rates and Sam cried about the balance patches, I’m still angry about the biggest trolling game design in history. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty didn’t simply break the 4th wall. It loaded it with C4 and asked you to question if walls really existed in the first…
Tim here, and I am going to defend a game that may not be clear to anyone who only knows stealth through modern stealth titles such as Hitman or Metal Gear Solid. Thief: The Dark Project was not a friendly game. Thief did not label enemy locations on your mini-map. Thief would not save your game automatically after 30 seconds. As someone who missed this game when it first came out, I had to unlearn…
“`html A few years ago I realised that the last twenty years of stealth gaming had seen some incredible developments and in my mind there was one title that stands above all others for its innovative design and overall excellence – Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Released in 2002 (Wikipedia), this was not simply a stealth game with added stealth elements. It was a fully-fledged murder puzzle that required players to use their analytical skills and…
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is a stealth action video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Released on 21 March 2005 (PCGamingWiki), Chaos Theory represents the series reaching its creative and technical peak. Whilst the original Splinter Cell established Sam Fisher as a legitimate alternative to Solid Snake, and Pandora Tomorrow expanded the formula, Chaos Theory perfected it. Ubisoft invested heavily in this vision, with development and marketing budgets of $10 million each…
Right, let’s get this sorted. Tim’s been going on about Metal Gear Solid being the first game to introduce stealth gaming for months now, completely overlooking the fact that Tenchu got there first by a matter of weeks. Not by much, but first is first. Here’s why this ninja game deserves proper recognition for pulling off PlayStation stealth mechanics before Kojima did. Released in August 1998 (Metacritic), just a few weeks before Metal Gear Solid…