In retrospect, one of the biggest downsides of The Last Guardian’s 10-year development cycle is that people knew about it.
Not for those who worked on the game, of course. I’m sure they dealt with political and organizational hurdles that make player expectations seem tame. But for those of us on the sidelines, watching the game pop its head up every few years then disappear for long stretches, the past decade led to lots of speculation and questions about what happened behind the scenes — most of which Sony and GenDesign reps haven’t yet been willing to answer, and journalists haven’t yet been able to uncover the answers to.
For me, at least, that cloud of confusion hung over the game as I played it.
“Were those framerate issues because of long-standing dev struggles?” “Does the game keep showing button prompts because of creative arguments behind the scenes?” “I wonder what the graphics would look like if the game had started development on PS4.”
I didn’t want to think this way, but I’d heard so much chatter about the lengthy process that it was hard not to.
When I got out of my head and enjoyed what was on the screen, though, The Last Guardian presented one of the year’s best experiences. It’s a rare case of creative restraint that simultaneously feels intimate and expansive. It doesn’t feel like an adventure game; it feels like an adventure.
I’ll call special attention to Trico, the massive bird/cat/dog who accompanies you on your trip. Despite the design challenges of putting a creature that large in a series of small rooms, the developers built an animal that acts naturally in nearly every situation, and animates more like something out of an animated film than a game. Whenever I saw Trico leap too far and struggle to pull up on a ledge, I felt like I was playing inside a cutscene.
Certainly, the game isn’t without technical flaws, and they may sour your experience at times. It’s not like you’ll dislike the camera issues enough that you’ll go play other similar games instead, though. There are no other analogous games of this scale. In recent years, a number of games have nailed a similar tone, but none have come anywhere close to building a creature as elaborate and impressive as Trico.
And Trico, more than anything else, helped me forget about all the discussions of the game’s development and focus on the game itself. Thanks to how well the developers nailed that character, the game feels fresh despite the practical proof otherwise.
People often talk about it being hard to predict the market for a game that takes two or three years to develop, because the game industry changes so quickly that it’s hard to catch the waves as trends and tastes change. And with The Last Guardian, Sony and GenDesign made something that feels right at home despite taking 10 years.
This Bundle supports The Pablove Foundation, which invests in education and research on childhood cancer, and CéKeDuBonheur which is another organization benefiting hospitalized children.
The base bundle, AKA the “pay what you want” tier, includes the Chronicles games and the original Assassin’s Creed.
Paying over the average will net you Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD, Assassin’s Creed 3 and the first chapter of its Tyranny of King Washington DLC, as well as Assassin’s Creed 2.
The $15 tier adds on Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. The games are made available to download through Ubisoft’s UPlay client for Windows PC.
As of this writing, the Humble Bundle has pulled in almost $500,000. It will be available for 13 more days.
Correction: Only the first chapter of The Tyranny of King Washington is included with Assassin’s Creed 3, rather than the entire DLC.
As stressful and difficult as 2016 was for the real world, it was an incredible year for video games. Some of the most anticipated games of the decade — Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian — finally saw the light of day, Nintendo changed mobile gaming forever with the release of Pokemon Go and Super Mario Run, and life simulator Stardew Valley provided the perfect escape from reality.
Rather than just list the games 1-100, Valve has separated the list into four tiers: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. There’s no indication as to whether or not the games in each of those tiers are listed in order of their gross revenue, or even any indications as to where the cut off point was for each tier.
Nevertheless, it’s an interesting list, with plenty of familiar titles clogging up the top tiers. The Division, Fallout 4, Grand Theft Auto V and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive all managed to climb into the platinum tier, along with the free to play Dota 2 and the most controversial game of the year: No Man’s Sky.
Dota 2 was one of several free to play games to make the list, alongside Team Fortress 2, Warframe, Smite and a few others. If you thought that microtransactions were reserved for mobile games, PC gaming wants to have a word with you. Gamers clearly love cosmetic upgrades, and are willing to pay for them.
Best of all, virtually every game on the list (save for a few new releases) is on sale as part of the Steam Winter Sale, so be sure to check and see if anything on the list interests you before the sale ends.
Game releases throughout the first couple of months of the year can be a bit sparse, but if you’re looking to pick up a bunch of games for a discounted price, the Humble Assassin’s Creed Bundle is worth a look.
On Tuesday, Ubisoft partnered up with Humble Bundle to give gamers a chance to buy up to nine Assassin’s Creed games for the incredibly low price of $15. Altogether, these nine titles would typically cost $177, but as long as you pick up the bundle before January 17th, you can get them for a fraction of that price.
As always, there are different tiers to the bundle, depending on what you’re willing to pay. Spending at least $1.00 will give you access to Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia and the original Assassin’s Creed from 2007.
Beating the average payment (which is currently sitting at $7.34 at the time of writing) will unlock three additional titles: Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD, Assassin’s Creed II: Deluxe Edition and Assassin’s Creed III (along with the first episode of the Tyranny of King Washington DLC).
Finally, if you’re willing to pay $15, you’ll receive all seven games listed above as well as Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Once you’ve decided how much you’re willing to spend, Humble Bundle will send you Uplay keys for all of the games within the tiers you unlocked.
Following the busy fall season, the video game release schedule in January is typically somewhat unexciting. We did get The Witness last January, but all in all, it was a relatively tame month, especially in comparison to October or November. While you aren’t likely to break the bank this January either, there are a surprising number of highly anticipated titles scheduled to launch before the end of the month.
Below, we’ve highlighted a few of the biggest releases coming to consoles and PC this month. At the end of the post, you’ll find a complete list of every game that has a January release date:
Gravity Rush 2
Release Date: January 20th | Platform: PS4
The sequel to one of the most well-received PS Vita games of all time is coming exclusively to the PS4 on January 20th. We’ll have a full review on the site later this month, but if you like the idea of platforming and battling while shifting gravity, Gravity Rush 2 might be up your alley. In the meantime, if you want to catch up on the story, you can watch the two-part anime that bridges the gap between the games on YouTube.
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
Release Date: January 24th | Platform: PS4
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 will be the final Kingdom Hearts game/compilation released before Kingdom Hearts 3 finally arrives on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The 2.8 collection is comprised of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD (an HD remake of the 3DS game), Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage (which uses tech from KH3) and Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover (a series of cinematics that will fill in some of the game’s untold back story).
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Release Date: January 24th | Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Resident Evil 7 is a first-person survival horror game that attempts to bring the series back to its roots after it nearly went off the rails with Resident Evil 5 and 6. The entire game takes place in one location, with an ordinary man trying to escape the clutches of an insane, seemingly unstoppable family.
Tales of Berseria
Release Date: January 24th | Platform: PS4, PC
The latest entry in Bandai Namco’s Tales RPG franchise, Tales of Berseria was released to solid reviews in Japan last August. If you’ve ever played a Tales game before, you should know what you’re getting from Berseria, but it does hold the distinction of being the first Tales game ever built for the PS4.
Yakuza 0
Release Date: January 24th | Platform: PS4
Yakuza 0 is the latest open-world, action adventure game in the long-running Yakuza series. It will actually serve as a prequel to the original Yakuza game, which released in Japan way back in 2005. If you have any interest in the franchise, this should be a good jumping off point, both in terms of the story and the gameplay.
January Release Schedule:
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone | PS4 | January 10th
Road Redemption | PS4, Xbox One | January 15th
2064: Read Only Memories | PS4 | January 17th
Gravity Rush 2 | PS4 | January 20th
Urban Empire | PC | January 20th
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King | 3DS | January 20th
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue | PS4 | January 24th
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard | PS4, Xbox One, PC | January 24th
Tales of Berseria | PS4, PC | January 24th
Yakuza 0 | PS4 | January 24th
Disgaea 2 | PC | January 30th
Double Dragon IV | PS4, PC | January 30th
Constructor HD | PS4, Xbox One, PC | January 31st
Divide | PS4 | January 31st
Hitman: The Complete First Season | PS4, Xbox One, PC | January 31st
Digimon World: Next Order | PS4 | January 31st
Check back next month for the complete list of video game releases scheduled for February.
The latest update to hit Minecraft for consoles is now available, bringing the console version to near feature parity with the PC version.
Minecraft 1.10 for consoles is now available, making significant changes to endgame content, and adding a brace of new mobs, blocks, and items.
According to the release notes, new End Cities and End Ships have been added to The End, adding more life and character to the otherwise bland final area of one of the most popular games on the planet.
Players can also now get Elytra, a chestplate-slot item that gives the player wings. While equipped, players can glide from high ledges until they reach the ground, controlling their rate of descent by looking up or down. While a small amount of altitude can be gained by looking up, players will stall if they do so for too long. Elytra cannot be crafted, only found in The End.
Update 1.10 also adds brewing, new tutorials for banners and elytra, and status effects such as levitation and luck.
