Architecture

In retrospect, I'm pretty sure I hated this game. Its content is so repulsive to me that no amount of technological wizardry can atone for how disgusting it makes me feel.

Mark Millar even followed the "Batman, but evil!" concept to its logical conclusion in a 4-issue miniseries, Nemesis with Steve McNiven. Arkham City is one of the better representations of the Caped Crusader, regardless of medium. I hope Rocksteady can not only deliver on their promises, but actually want to be making this game. It seems entirely plausible that they'd be burnt out after living and breathing Batman for nearly a decade at this point.

Yeah, Rises really bugged me in this respect. It's about a rich white man flexing his considerable financial muscle to uphold the scoio-economic status quo.

Is that more objective games journalism?

The word is it's a true open world. It's also current-gen only, so there are no PS3 & 360 ports to hold Rocksteady back or divert their attention.

I worked in a comic shop for a year and a half, and it was usually my job to unbox the Hot Toys and pose them for display. Amazing pieces, and each one is hand painted by a small team. The craftsmanship and packaging is usually unparalleled. I'm pretty sure they're also producing a sixth-scale '60s Batmobile. Here are some photos:

Weirdly, I found the side missions to be the best part of Blacklist as they played the most like traditional Splinter Cell. I did not much care for the control scheme, however. Also, strangely enough, I found it to be one of the best-written games of the year.

This is one of those franchises I really admire but cannot seem to find fun in actually playing myself. I think it's really the animation priority that infuriates me about the game over anything else.

Dishonored II: Swindler on the Roof

Fuck. Yes.

There's a dryness to Mr. Parish's writing that I can't really get past. I don't want to call it glibness, but I guess that's best I can articulate it. I really do enjoy US Gamer in a general, and I'm glad that he and Kat Bailey among others landed on their feet.

You really need some objective video content as well.

The only piece of games criticism that's really stuck with me was Junot Diaz's critique of GTA IV in the WSJ: Most of the writing around games is fucking atrocious, however.

I've been too busy working on improving TressFX to accurately render John Romero's hair. For anyone who'll be in the Austin area for SXSW interactive, Oculus is hosting an exhibition open to the public next weekend: http://sxsw.com/interactive/news/2014/explore-virtual-reality-games-oculus-loft I confirmed via email that this doesn't require a badge for access. I might go both days.

I'm going to do my damnedest to see this at SXSW.

If no one else has dibs, I'd love Fez.

There was a Kingston 120GB SSD on Newegg today for less than $70, nearly bought it just to give Titanfall a dedicated home. I just might purchase another modest SSD to use for dedicated game storage.

That looks maximally painful.

It's literally twice the size of Assassin's Creed 4. I find it impossible to believe there's twice the content in a multiplayer-only shooter versus a 50-hour single-player adventure that also contains an entirely separate multiplayer experience. I knew I was going to need to clear space to make room for the game, but 50 gigs? What about the size of the inevitable DLC? They better let me pre-load the goddamn 21GB download.

I have a 1TB HDD, but I don't want to install ANY games to the HDD. Maybe it's less important in an online-only game, but the decrease in load times from an HDD to an SSD cannot be understated. It takes literally 20 seconds to go from off to desktop on my machine. Also, I'd wager that most of the bloat here is uncompressed international audio and localization files, for which I have absolutely zero use.

So it's come to this: or I'm going on a bike ride. I expect a decisive answer when I return, as I plan to pick one of these up this very evening. Help me make the right decision.

This is a wonderful, well-reasoned article and I'll admit it did a lot to almost get me to buy a Razer. In fact, I reread the whole article this evening on my phone while palming mice at Best Buy. In the end, however, I went with the Sensei Raw, and I'm confident I made the right choice. The Rival is a great mouse, technically speaking. The software does lots of cool things, the mouse is more customizable than just about any other (from an aesthetic perspective), it has a killer sensor and the build itself feels fantastic. The problem's in the details, however, and I've got to say I absolutely loathe the ergonomics of the Rival. the ass of the mouse--for lack of a better term--is overly bulbous and tall, especially for a mouse of this length. The thumb buttons are hard to reach from a comfortable grip, and they offer too much resistance when clicking. I took the mouse to work today and even after 9 hours of Photoshopping, internet browsing and general use, I could not find a comfortable position on the mouse. Factor in the false advertising (the Steelseries software did not load per-program profiles as stated, the colored LEDs refused to reproduce anything resembling the color yellow) and the added cost, and I simply could not justify the purchase. The Sensei Raw alleviates most of these problems (it only glows one color! it feels much better in my hands! It advertises less so it disappoints less! It's $15 cheaper!) so while I'll miss the rubberized side grips and the fancier options available in Steelengine 3, the Sensei Raw just feels so much better in my hand after an hour than the Rival did after 12. I'm sure some folk would lambast me for picking a laser mouse over an optical one, but you know the old adage--the hand wants what the hand wants. At least, I think that's how it goes!

Holy shit. There is no earthly reason for that game to be that big. That's like half my SSD right there. These developers need to stop being so fucking lazy and start compressing their audio files.

Because it's a well-regarded mouse and I hadn't put my hand on it until I went to Best Buy last evening. Luckily they have the Logitech line on display, so I was able to make an informed choice on the sales floor. You can do all the internet research in the world, but you might as well throw it out the window when you get to the store. I chose these two mice because they were on sale and both interested me. I have no desire to buy a Razer product (they seem so gimmicky to me) and I hate the way most gaming mice look, so I'm left with precious few options.

Except that everyone wants me to buy a Logitech mouse, and I absolutely hate the way it looks and feels.