The gaming community has largely been abuzz about the upcoming space game from Hello Games called No Man’s Sky, dating back to at least E3 2015. With a total of 18 quintillion planets – a number so large that it’s basically just words to me since I can’t wrap my mind around it – and a fresh, clean visual aesthetic, many gamers are waiting with bated breath for a chance to play it. That time is coming soon, although how soon depends on your platform of choice.
Few things stir up the gaming masses like an open beta for a highly-anticipated new game, especially one from a developer with the pedigree of Blizzard. Such is the circumstance surrounding Overwatch, their new 6-on-6 team based first person shooter, who is free to play in open beta until Monday, May 9th on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. I’m not great at online first person shooters (see my Battlefield 3 review for more on that), but with Overwatch, there are a few mitigating factors that keep me coming back.
As someone who cannot drive (I have depth-perception issues, which as you would imagine is a bad thing when operating several hundred pounds of metal at any speed), packing up one day and taking myself on a road trip is something is something I just can’t do, despite the appeal. I’ve often tried to use video games as a surrogate for that urge, but most of the time I’m misusing a game for that purpose. For example, Grand Theft Auto 5 has believably rural areas north of down to drive through to simulate going out on a trip, but sooner or later I’m going to find someone with a nicer car, and the urge to jack their ride takes over and suddenly I’m just playing GTA again. Jalopy promises something different, a driving game that’s about the trip as much as the destination.
I began my journey into the Fallout 4 without many preconceptions. I had not heavily followed its development, so much so that its release damn near caught me off guard. Now, hours upon hours into the game, it’s time to finally dispense our take on Fallout 4 in our new Final Opinion format (which you can read more about here).
Today we’re making a shift in our review process, something of a monumental one for us. I personally have been the review editor for AAGH since it launched, and as such I’ve led us through a number of review format changes. From stars to numbers, with ranges from 1-5 to 1-10, our reviews have had a bunch of makeovers over the years (as you can see by going through our review archive). This time we’re undergoing our largest change yet: we’re removing the game score entirely.
You normally visit AAGH for game news and reviews, but did you know that we have a free games hub? We do, and it’s called AAGH GameCenter. The games include a number of releases by our game development team at AAGH Games. They’re fast, they’re fun, and most importantly, they’re free, so why not shoot some birds in Chicken Boom or explore the maze-like worlds of Party Ball Arcade? You don’t even need to bring any quarters.
Having reviewed the NBA 2K series for AAGH since NBA 2K8, I can say I’m pretty familiar with the series. 2K series vets all know its strengths, its weaknesses, and what it needed to improve on from previous years. NBA 2K16 is the best NBA 2K yet, and considering that this was already pretty much the best annual major professional sports series running, the dynasty shows no signs of slowing down.
Just letting everyone know that we have had some minor site outages today due to hosting upgrades. Our hosting company did some server maintenance and has resulted in the site going down for short periods of time the past few days. The issues should be solved now, and we should be up and running full-time again. Thanks for your patience.