Brett's Gaming Blog

This article was featured in the latest issue of Wingman Magazine. Check out this preview and for the full piece support this local publication and grab a digital copy.  http://www.wingmanmagazine.com E3 is the biggest games show of the year, each year bringing the biggest announcements and painting the gaming landscape for the next twelve or more. In this internet age, it's hard to keep things under wraps, so a lot of companies will divulge, or unfortunately get leaked their plans, but we are always a fan of a good surprise. So here is everything we know about E3, and then some pretty good guesses that we hope will come true. I’m going to break this down by publisher because they each have a big presentation where most of their announcements will happen. Microsoft Microsoft made waves this year by moving their big showing up from their typical Monday time slot to Sunday 5PM Eastern time and beat out the other big competitors. Being a console maker, this show is guarant...

I first learned about TumbleSeed because it’s one of the select games that is going to coming to the Nintendo Switch. So when I saw it I was drawn to play it. From only previously hearing the concept I was very intrigued. It’s a game about a seed who goes on a quest to reach the top of a mountain. The developer likes to call it a rolly roguelike because it;s roguelike in the idea that each time you have to start at the base camp and work your way to the top, but it’s also a game where you don’t control your character directly, you control a vine that your seed rolls along. The inspiration for the game came from the old arcade games like Ice Cold Beer, where you are attempting to raise a ball to the top of the game, avoiding holes along the way. I’ve never been much for roguelikes, but this game has me intrigued. Talking with Benedict from the team, he told me there would be ways to teleport your way from the start up the mountain, that way you don’t have to wo...

If you are unfamiliar with the 2017 game Inside , maybe you will recognize Playdead's previous game Limbo , the black and white adventure of a young boy in a treacherous and puzzle filled world. Limbo was one of the first games to show the world that a unique small scope game could really be stellar and pull in a crowd. The games artistic style, side scrolling elements, and numerous ways to die, made it a staple, and all those motifs are carried over into this developers newest game. For context Limbo came to Xbox Live back in 2010, and besides porting the game to numerous other systems, Playdead has been working on this game ever since. Inside launched in mid 2016, putting six years between game releases. But when you play Inside you can see where all those hours over those years went. The first place you'll see all those man hours are in the environment and art. Although this game has a decidedly simplistic art style, the way Playdead designed it's levels is masterfu...

News broke yesterday that AAA game Scalebound by Platinum games and published exclusively for Xbox by Microsoft has been given the axe. This comes as a shock, because besides a what seemed like a normal delay from 2016, the game seemed perfectly on track. The game was originally revealed at E3 2014 as a hot new IP coming to Xbox adding to it's impressive first party line up. At this early stage in the console life cycle, enthusiast are eager to soak up any new ideas and welcome new IP into their hearts, and Scalebound was no different. It was even on my most anticipated of 2017 list. Now when it comes to Scalebound there are a few things we need to touch on. The big one is it's developer, Platinum Games. Platinum had long been known as a quality developer, by had been flying under the radar by the wider audience. Games like Bayonetta and Vanquish showed off their talents, and gathered them a niche audience. As bigger publishers caught wind of all the good vibes this tea...

Yesterday's post was the start of my 2017 games list. Today I wanted to add onto the list and showcase some more games coming out a bit further into the year. The list started yesterday with Horizon Zero Dawn, Pyre, and Pit People. Today the list contains games that are all looking to come out in the first half of this year. First on the list is probably the one that could be the biggest hit, but also might have the biggest chance for failure. That is going to be Sea of Thieves from Rare coming to Xbox One. I can't find any concrete proof that his game is on schedule for the first half of this year (besides Wikipedia) so it might just be on track for some point in 2017, but I'm confident we will see the final game in the next 12 months. The developer Rare has kinda been twiddling their thumbs for a long time, making xbox avatars and Kinect Sports, but it's easy to see the glint in their eye for bigger and better things. The one thing I love about Rare are their gam...

New year, new games, right? 2016 was a great year for games, and stay tuned for a list of things I liked last year, but the future is now, and it's time to see what is going to be playable soon, and what we will hopefully be blogging and talking about next. There are very few games I tell myself are going to be day one purchases, so when I decided to buy a game right up front it means a big deal to me. So all these games are contenders to be purchased on launch day for me. The first one is Horizon Zero Dawn. I don't typically get PS4 games, but I do make exceptions for great ones like The Last of Us, and the next one I think is going to be Horizon Zero Dawn. Now I said this was going to be a day one buy for me, but since this is a new IP and game I'll probably wait for some reviews before I decided to buy it, but from what I've seen so far the game looks like a complete blast, and has potential to be something really special. Pulling elements from games like Fa...

If you have never been on the Plants vs Zombies hype train, then for shame! They are one of the darn cutest new IP of the last decade. Their breakout strategy game back in 2009 started a PvZ craze that has spawned a sequel and now a few spin offs. The first spin off was Garden Warfare, a game that had no right to be as good as it was. It took a 2D cellphone game and turned it into a console third person shooter. It sadly came out at the same time as Titanfall, but I never kept my eye off of it and a year after it's release I really got into the multiplayer focused game. With a sequel to that game already released, the developer Popcap seemed to turn their turn their attention in a new direction, and have turned PvZ into a card battling game. Collectable card games have been a niche rage for I'd say 20 years now, with Magic the Gathering being the big dawg in town. But with the digital age a new crop of card adventures have come to the forefront, and the one setting the exa...

So when coming back to the game blog my first intention was to talk about all sorts of aspects of Final Fantasy 15, and now could not be a better time to dive into the story for me. I just spent the past weekend plowing through a good chunk of the latter half of the story. *Minor Spoilers* I guess... If you were unaware FF15 is divided into two parts, you start in an open world where half the story takes place, but 99% of the game play is, and then the second half of the story is delivered in a very linear fashion, with very little freeroam available. Now I have to say I'm not completely through to story yet, so I'm sure my opinions are going to change slightly, or at least I hope they do, but I have truly no clue what is going on in the story. I was following along for awhile, Prince Noctis was having a grand ol' time with his buddies. But once the real conflict started things started to get lost really quickly. The motivations of the characters outside the party and ...

I don't know if back is the right word, more like restarting? Maybe. So four years ago I starting this gaming blog. I enjoyed writing blog post on Facebook, but wanted a site to call my own, so I started on Blogger. I really wanted to be a game journalist, and although that would still be a dream come true, it's not a dream I'm still chasing. But I still really love video games. So that's why I'm coming back. Maybe it's just for me, but maybe it's for you too. The other reason I wanted to start writing again is Final Fantasy 15. This game has been a long time coming, and I can't help but want to talk about it with the world, as I have been doing for the past month. I was going to start back on the blog sooner, but I kept putting it off, like I do most things in life, especially creative endevors, and ending sentences. One thing that was holding me back was trying to make sure I had a voice, a cohesive message, but who am I kidding, I don't at all. ...

I've been wondering what it would be like to visit IGN's offices ever since I started following their site pretty closely a few years back. The videos just don't do it justice. I finally got my opportunity yesterday. The illustrious podcast Beyond celebrated a milestone event, their 300th episode, by hosting one killer of an event at their headquarters. Myself and 400 other fans packed ourselves in a small room to witness Greg Miller, Colin Moriarty, and Andrew Goldfarb do their thing. The podcast was amazing and had a slew of guests including Chris Roper, Ryan Clements, and Shuhei Yoshida. I got to meet Ryan McCaffrey, head of Xbox at IGN and host of podcast unlocked (which I follow intently) and also got to meet up with Mitch Dyer co-host of the same show and personal buddy (we've met twice, were buddies now). I also interrupted Mark Ryan Sallee's time to ask where the Tech Fetish Fresca machine was. He is as handsome as they make him out to be. I did not end up w...

Hello San Fransisco! I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I'm currently in the big city taking a little time off, but also to visit IGN for the first time. So far I have not seen much of the city, at least not yet (the local transit scared me after my experience leaving the airport), but just being here has inspired me to push myself harder to write more. San Fransisco is home to a lot of great things when it comes to the video game community, and I'm here to take that all in. I'm crashing on an old friends couch and I after only being here for 12 hours I can already tell this is going to be a fun trip. The two guys I am staying with are currently developing a games and knee deep I'm the games industry. Getting to hear about their story and their lives in San Fransisco is life inspiring. That's why I'm writing right now! If I want to be a writer I need to take action. Does it have to be about games? Nope. Can it be about the two guys I'm crashing with ...

The Last of Us is a unique game. It's hard to put my feelings about it into words. At it's core the game is about survival. You play the role of Joel, and aging male who has lived through the apocalypse. You travel across the United States with a young girl, Ellie. I don't want to get into too many spoilers, but each stop along your journey plays out in different interesting fashions. The different encounters, especially the ending of the game, really make you think. Think about life, about what you're doing, and about what really matters. At the end of the game I was left with more questions than answer. Not questions for the game to answer though, but questions I needed to answer for myself. What would I have done? If I were there what would be the most important thing in my life? What could I not live with out? These questions still go unanswered. It's hard to answer them without being put in the situation. I'd like to think I'd make the right decision,...

I have been waiting for Battleblock Theater since the second I finished Castle Crashers. For those of you who don't know The Behemoth, they are a developer who for the past several years have been working on mainly Xbox Live Arcade games. They released Castle Crashers back in '08 to huge success, and have hotly been working on a follow up game since then. It is finally here in the form of Battleblock Theater. BattleBlock is a platform puzzler on it's surface, but it's also much more than that. The game includes co-op and an online arena mode, but that's just the beginning. The animation, action, and decapitation is really the heart and soul of BattleBlock. With everything The Behemoth put into BattleBlock it's no surprise the game turned out as amazing as it did. My favorite mode in the game is by far the main story. In story mode you either play solo or co-op. While playing co-op you are forced to help each other through the level to be successful. The inte...

This past week RosterTeeth, the well known creator of web content, celebrated its tenth anniversary. During their weekly podcast they celebrated the momentous date, but something the founder Burnie Burns said during the extravaganza struck a chord with me. During the show he stated he enjoyed hearing how people first heard of RoosterTeeth and Red vs Blue. Gavin Free, who was on the panel, shared his story from back when he was 14 and started watching what is now a ten season machinima back around episode five. I fell in love with Rooster Teeth during it's first season of Red vs Blue as well and that's where my story begins. The story is nothing to glorious but still a nice trip down memory lane. I'm 25 years old now, so back then I must have been only 15, a year older than young Gavin. I was in high school and played a lot of Halo like any good teenager was in those days. I remember my friends and I were at a local playground after dark (because th...

Pax East has come and gone again for me. Being a Massachusetts native this is the one gaming convention I can readily get to. And boy am I glad I got to be there this year. I got to see a lot of great games. Although it seemed like a scaled back show, mostly due to the fact that the console generation is coming to an end soon,  there was plenty to be seen in the nooks and crannies of the expo floor. The biggest highlight for me was a game out of the Supergiant Games booth, Transistor. For those of you who don't know who Supergiant is, they are the folks that created Bastion which hit back in 2011. I loved the game so much I played it through twice just to see the second ending, a feat I rarely do. Bastion has been ported off the Xbox and on to almost every platform (PC, Mac, Ipad, and even the Chrome browser store) so if you have not given it a shot yet I recommend you do. Transistor is aimed to hit in early 2014, but had it's first playable event during Pax East. The l...

If your like me I'm clicking to another page after I read the first paragraph of a videogame story. There is just too much data and news out there to be had. So here is a summation of all the 2013 games I'll be playing and looking at critically, in an easily digestible format. Tomb Raider 3/5/13 Tomb Raider's non-stop action and adventure make for a terrific game. The story and character didn't grip me like I was expecting, but they are not even needed when the game is as fun as it is. Level design is spot on, which is what kind of polish an amazing game like this needs. Final Score: 9 Amazing Crysis 3 2/19/13 Final Score: 6.5 OK Dead Space 3 2/5/13 Final Score: 8.5 Great Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch 1/22/13 Final Score: 9.0 Amazing DMC: Devil May Cry 1/15/13 Final Score: 7.5 Good

So I'm not sure how popular these podcast posts are but your stuck with them so take it. The good news is that new upgraded from Mix Cloud to an actual good service with helpful tools and things. So here is the [link] to the site where we will be hosting now. You can download, and take it with you or just listen on your computer. We make it so easy for the modern day lifestyle. The show should be subscribable now as well (still working on iTunes), just click on the buttons until it works for you. Or ask me for help and I'll get you hooked up so you'll have every new episode every month. So enjoy our talk about Dead Space, DMC, and the next gen hardware. Until next time, Cheers! Your browser does not support the audio element. Podcast Powered By Podbean

Dead Space 3 was an interesting game for me. Never having played much of the first or any of the second, I was going into Dead Space 3 pretty cold. The only hook that got me was co-op (guess it was a good thing they added it). I ended up enjoying the co-op aspects of this game so much I just had to write about it. Co-op in Dead Space 3 doesn't play like any other game I've played. You and your partner are not just playing as two Master Chiefs, or playing as a character that just so happens to be by the protagonists side, be it AI or human controlled. Instead in Dead Space 3 player two is in control of John Carver, a bodyguard for the captain that has recruited you for this mission. So what makes this game different is that the scenes of the game play out differently whether or not you have an actual partner playing with you. An example is that a tractor is falling off a slippery hill side (This is a scene from a trailer, so no spoilers). As Isaa...

I talk a lot about the next wave in gaming hardware. If you couldn't tell I'm very excited. So when Sony posted a cryptic teaser video last week, we all knew that it was on. The rumor mill has been going crazy since the launch of this teaser ad. What is Sony going to talk about at this huge event on February 20th? Everyone thinks it's PlayStation 4 related, but what excatly will it be? Will they show games? A date? A price? No one is sure, but we don't have to wait much longer to find out. For the sake of discussion we are going to assume they are going to at least announce the next PlayStation (verdict is still out on what the name is going to be, I think a reboot to just 'PlayStation' would be awesome.) One big question this raises is, if this is a new PlayStation announcement where does that leave Microsoft? Obviously Microsoft is planning a next gen system as well. So does this this screw up their plan? Or does Microsoft just continue down their pred...

I have been itching to play the Unfinished Swan since its release last year, but recently this idea came to me; what would a gamer do with this game if they had no prior knowledge of the title such as the game mechanics behind it? Hopefully this does not spoil anything for you, but the game mechanic at the very beginning of the game is you are in complete whiteness and you can throw black paint balls to see where pieces of the environment lay. Since I read reviews and coverage of the game, the first minute or so of the game was spoiled for me, but of course it had to be for me to be intrigued by it. But what if it hadn't? What if someone's guiding hand brought me to this inaugural white screen and I had no clue what was going on? Well for me that was out of the window, but my girlfriend who gets 90% of her game knowledge from me had no clue what this game was. Perfect. So I sat her down, let her watch the thirty-second intro, and then the screen went all white and ...