Video Games

It’s less than 2 months away from the first official swing of the Major League Baseball season, but the gaming equivalent starts a week earlier with MLB 15: The Show! This year, Sony and Skinit team up to bring you this year’s Pre-Order bonus.  Read on to find out what it is, and learn why you see Russell Martin on the cover now instead of the previously announced Yasiel Puig.

A game from a studio with a Zombie survival pedigree, Dying Light stands on the experience of developer Techland’s last game, Dead Island.  A melee focused tropical get away filled with the walking dead, it was well received, selling well enough to earn a sequel.  Stepping away from the franchise, the team has turned that experience into the Undead Apocalypse they always wanted.  Free running your way over rooftops, scouring for supplies, and helping your fellow survivors, it’s a zombie fans dream come true.

If it’s content you’re looking for, The Saints, Violition, and Deep Silver, have you covered. Brought up to the big leagues with the standard up-rez, you don’t go to Steelport for the beautiful scenery, you go for the endless chaos and good times. To help get you through the cold months, it comes pre-packaged with more DLC than you can imagine, including stand-alone adventure Gat out of hell. Get Re-elected with Saints Row IV: Re-elected.

The New Nintendo 3DS XL won’t be released for a few more weeks, but I had a chance to take an early hands-on, out of the box look at the new console before it officially comes out on February 13th!

Quite simply put: Watching BluRays and DVDs on your PlayStation 4 can be frustrating at best. You have to memorize a weird button structure, and then it’s tough to scan or find menus. You almost feel like you need a remote control, right?  Thankfully, Insignia is here to the rescue with their PS4 remote, a simple (and inexpensive) way to watch movies and more.  Come take a look.

Classic RPG meets the best technology the game industry has ever had, in the best example of a pure Fantasy RPG since the Elder Scrolls introduced us to the Dragonborn.  A sprawling title filled to the brim with content and unbelievable scenery, not to mention monsters great and small, Dragon Age: Inquisition delivers an experience that will earn it Game of the Year consideration, without a doubt.  If you like questing in majestic settings, smashing horrors with arrows, blades, magic, and the strength of your will, reaping the rewards of adventure, well, I think I’ve got your next few months sewn up for you.

If you passed on Halo: The Master Chief Collection because you were Halo’d out, or you didn’t want to rebuy the titles you’d bought on the old consoles, you may want to think again. The collection is the gift that keeps giving, and today, one of those gifts was opened up in the form of the Halo 5: Guardians Beta. From now until January 18th, you’ll gradually get access to maps, gameplay styles and weapons you won’t see again until the game comes out later next year. Read on to find out more.

Do you like criminal underworlds? How about infiltrating said underworlds to get a bit of old fashioned revenge? Ok, how about driving cool cars driving really fast? Alright, now, how about an entire continental USA to drive them in? Have your attention? Fun and fast (and maybe just a little bit furious, wink wink) The Crew is open world, with co-op in mind. So, grab a controller and get yourself a race.

As a gaming reviewer, I get to play a lot of different types of games. Sports, Puzzle, Adventure, you name it.  This year was viewed as a fairly weak one amongst a lot of my peers, but I didn’t see it that way.  Despite the fact that, yes, there was a lot of disappointment, there were still a few diamonds in the rough, and some absolute gems too.  Here’s my personal top 10 for the year 2014, starting with Bravely Default (Pictured) and going from there.

A game bonanza in the desert, the Sony PlayStation Experience celebrated 20 years of the consoles history, by talking about what they have coming out next year.  Tacky?  Maybe, but it’s their party, and they can self promote if they want to.  Frankly, for PlayStation owners, there is a lot to be excited about.  Dialed into the community in a way I havent seen on this scale in gaming, the PlayStation Experience was a big success, and packed to the gills with gaming.