Review Round-Up: Summer 2012
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/26/12 at 02:32 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
Unlike last quarter, the MeltedJoystick crew had a very difficult time finding co-op games to play. As such, our only co-op game turned out to be “Tales of Graces F.” Other than that, I strove to knock-out as much of my Wii backlog as possible.
“Spectrobes: Origins” – 2/5
“PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure” – 3/5
“The Witcher” – 4/5
“Tales of Graces F” – 2/5
“Monster Lab” – 3.5/5
“Orcs Must Die!” – 4.5/5
Chris’ Reviews:
Chris’ review of “Tales of Graces F” barely made it in under the wire because he spent so much time playing through the optional “F” part by himself after everyone else bailed on him. Other than that, he reviewed new games in three of his favorite series and a new IP that caters specifically to his interests.
“Saint’s Row: The Third” – …
The Life and Death of OnLive
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/19/12 at 02:14 PM CT
OnLive, the video-of-a-videogame streaming service that launched in 2010 died this week. I can’t say I will mourn the loss, nor do I think the entire videogame industry will even notice such an insignificant passing. Only those who think The Cloud is the universal solution for everything computer-and-data-related should have even cared about OnLive and its wacky plan to turn videogames into software-as-a-service.
When OnLive first launched, I remember breathless coverage in the gaming media about how it would revolutionize PC gaming. Gamers would no longer need to own a $2000+ gaming PC to experience “AAA” PC games. Gamers would instead be able to “purchase” licenses of these games that would dwell on OnLive’s servers. These servers would then run the games remotely, streaming a video of the on-screen action to the player via an OnLive app or OnLive “console” (really a dumb terminal) and uploading inputs from the player’s controller/mouse/keyboard. It sounds …
Vaguely Related: Gopher Mods
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/12/12 at 01:14 PM CT
Catastrophic hardware failure: It almost seems like Microsoft and Sony purposefully engineered a limited lifespan into their 7th Generation consoles. Could it have been a clever ploy to sell more units to customers who needed to replace a broken Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3? Who knows? But there is a way to fight this seemingly-systematic cycle of purchase-malfunction-repurchase: Refurbishment.
It seems like nobody is immune to catastrophic hardware failure, and I am no exception. Back in April, I went to play a PlayStation 2 game on my fully-backward-compatible PlayStation 3, only to have the console beep at me and turn off after a short period of use. I turned it back on and, fearing the worst, attempted to do a hard drive backup, only to have the console give up the ghost entirely midway through the process. It beeped, flashed a yellow light at me, and refused to turn back on: It appeared that despite my low usage and careful handling of my PlayStation 3, I had received the Yellow …
Backlog: The Embiggening - August, 2012
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/05/12 at 02:37 PM CT
Welcome to another look into the near future. This summer’s game drought is proving to be just as bad as the actual drought currently baking the entire Midwestern United States. Will the drought break, or will gamers wither on their stalks like so many ears of corn?
One thing I didn’t see coming this summer was the bi-annual Steam Sale, as I am still a new user of that service. The Steam Summer Sale, which ran from July 12 to July 22, took the bored, weather-beaten gaming populace by storm, providing discounts between 40% and 80% on pretty much everything currently available. As a result of this irresistible pricing, my backlog unexpectedly grew by 8 games. Sure, none of them are particularly new, but embiggening is embiggening.
But July and the Steam Summer Sale are in the past. What does August hold?
In an unprecedented move since the 7th Generation began (at least it feels that way), we are getting a second month without any new FPSes. I could almost be gleeful about …
Why you should buy a Nexus 7 tablet
Nick - wrote on 08/01/12 at 07:47 PM CT
The Nexus 7 Google tablet has been a long awaited release to compete with the popular Kindle Fire 7 inch tablet by Amazon. Many people don't want to pay the outrages prices of Apple products or for large screen sizes like the Galaxy tablets. Asus has done a good job in producing a Nexus tablet that has everything you need at an affordable price. Price is one reason why the Kindle Fire has done so well. Unfortunately, Amazon re-skinned the Fire (modified Android OS) and locked it in to use with the Amazon store. Still a great device, but the Nexus 7 blows it, the Nook, and the iPad, out of the water. And here's why.
Screen
The screen on the Nexus 7 looks spectacular. It has a 1280x800 resolution, which beats all the other 7" tablets which only have 1024x600 pixel screens. This is one place where price increases the most, it is amazing Google and Asus were able to use this great looking screen and keep the starting price at $200.
Android OS
The Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, …
View Archive
