Sim City Beta Experiences

Mechanics and Imagery in Persona 4's Boss Battles

*CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 4 GOLDEN READ AT YOUR OWN RISK*

There's a game I've been playing lately that I've fallen in love with. That game is Persona 4 Golden on the Vita. There's something I really like about this game (well, actually, there's many things I like about it, but that's a story for another day), and that's the boss battles. The majority of boss battles in the game are what are called Shadows- manifestations of suppressed thoughts and emotions of a person that take on a monstrous form when someone denies that they're part of them. The boss battles and the dungeons they reside in contain some really powerful imagery that helps you understand the characters and their struggles better. The game’s characters face some difficult issues that you don’t see explored that often in games, and I find them really interesting. I'm not overly far in the game (I say that, but I've played for about 25 hours- it's a long game) but two of the boss battles I've encountered so far have really stood out from battles I've seen in other games- the ones with Shadow Yukiko and Shadow Kanji.

Survivor’s Dilemma: Being Disadvantaged by Morality in DayZ

At the end of one of my uni subjects this year, we had to write an essay about a topic related to a game of our choice. We were only allowed 1,500 words (give or take 10%, not including citations, captions or footnotes), and were told we could write it in the style of 'New Games Journalism', but were warned that this would be harder to pull off well. I decided to take the risk because I felt this was a lot like my natural writing style, and it paid off as I ended up getting a High Distinction for the course :) I was really happy with this essay, especially given the strict word count which forced me to cut out a lot of it, and made it harder to word myself properly. I wrote about DayZ, and how it made me ponder about why we act according to real life morals (or don't!) inside virtual worlds. Hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think! :) And forgive the formatting, Blogger's a bit poopy in that regard :P

5 PlayStation All Stars Rivalries That Need to Happen Through DLC

The launch of PlayStation All Stars is just around the corner, and Sony have confirmed that the game will most definitely be getting stage and character DLC, revealing the first pair of characters to be Kat from Gravity Rush on the Vita, and Emmett Graves from the PS3’s Starhawk. The best bit is, that for two weeks from their release you can download these characters for free, even if you don’t have the game. So I got thinking about who would be good to see as DLC using both my personal wants and the wants of the fanbase, and decided on 10 characters that would be cool to see and at least semi-plausible because that sounded like a nice, even number. People make lists like these all the time but I figured I’d do something different and come up with pairs of characters that seemed like a good fit together, and come up with a rivalry like in the game, giving them a reason to fight each other. And because I could, I chucked in a mashup stage of the two characters’ franchises. So without further ado, let’s begin!

Guild Wars 2: Lost Shores Event Key Giveaway

From November 15th-18th Guild Wars 2 will be having a Refer-A-Friend trial period in celebration of the Lost Shores update and event running from the 16th-18th. This allows people who've purchased the game to invite three of their friends to play the game for free during this period. But, luckily for you, if you've got an access code you can still join in on the fun! And I have 3 of those very codes to give away! :D

Origin Partnering with Twitch- In-Game Streaming!

In a surprise reveal today, EA have said that their Origin service is partnering up with streaming service Twitch in order to provide in-game streaming of your Origin games to your Twitch.tv account with the upcoming beta update for Origin rolling out this week to those who have opted in.

Final Boss of PlayStation All Stars Leaked?

Update (9/11/2012): The final boss has been confirmed to be Polygon Man. Much more fitting, I believe.

It seems everything about this game has been leaked, so it was only natural that someone would discover the game's final boss, who up until now has been kept secret. GameFAQs user rumbalumba seems to be that person. Rumba has uncovered various files from several of the latest betas for PlayStation All Stars, and in the latest beta, he has discovered audio files linked to a 'Boss Arena' stage, that seem to reveal the game's boss. This is your last chance to back out from spoilers. You've been warned.

PlayStation All Stars Revisited

Battlefield 3 Map Pitch: Blood Sports

So the winners of the Battlefield 3 map pitching contest have been announced, and unfortunately I wasn't among them. And like any loser of a contest I'm a bit sore because I think my entry was a bit better than some of them (not to mention the fact the judging wasn't actually handled how the terms and conditions outlined it would be!), but what's done is done, I'm not gonna cry about it. Publicly. But I figured I'd post my pitch here for all to see so that all the effort I put into my pitch wasn't for nothing. I think you'll agree it would actually make a pretty cool map :) If you like you can just grab the pdf file here.

Josh @ EB Expo

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the EB Expo on Saturday, and got to play some really cool new and upcoming games. I wasn't allowed to record footage of them all, but I'll be posting the footage I did get over the next couple of days.