Tag Archives: Xbox

iREVIEW – Goat Simulator – More Than Just Explosions and Dubstep Music

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What is Goat Simulator? Is it even a game? Or a sandbox physics simulator? What’s the story? I’m confused.

Title: Goat Simulator
Developer: Coffee Stain Studios (Double Eleven – 360 and One)
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Xbox 360 & One
Reviewed on: Xbox One

Is it fun to play?
Yes.
Is it funny?
Yes.
Well then what is it?
Ummm . . .

Goat Simulator, at its most primitive, is an open-world, third-person perspective action game. Similar to Tony Hawk skateboarding games, you’re dropped into an open area, with notable key areas, and then given the task of creating your own fun through experimentation.

The Latest in Goat Simulation Technology

The Latest in Goat Simulation Technology

Major deviation, is you are a goat, aimed at doing as much damage as possible in this world, without any larger goals or aspirations.

Initially developed at Coffee Stains Studio as a joke prototype during an internal game jam and shown off on YouTube, Goat Simulator started to gain traction and excitement just from the ridiculousness of it all. Due to the popularity of the YouTube videos, the studio was prompted to build the game out to a state where it could be released as a stand-alone. Obviously the game was buggy in alpha, and a lot of these bugs added to the humour and entertainment, so they were retained in the release product.

Most notably of these bugs or glitches is the goat’s head and neck. It is very floppy and gets caught on objects easily, sometimes to the point where it doesn’t seem attached to the body anymore.

The game was originally released on Steam, to the community, and was received pretty well; some praising the title for its originality and its humourous sandbox mode, others criticizing it as a simple, buggy product that somehow became popular through social media. Coffee Stains Studio isn’t complaining though, as it made back its development budget within hours of the game’s release, and saw more success than some of its other, non-accidental, titles.

YOU PLAY A GOAT, OBVIOUSLY

Going back to the game itself, you play a goat, obviously. You spawn in an open-ended suburban setting, and left to explore, jump, run, headbutt things, and lick objects. Licking objects will attach the goat’s tongue to said object, and lets you drag the object around.

The game also supports a ragdoll mode and slow-motion mode. At any time the player can drop the goat into ragdoll mode which allows the physics engine to take over. Slow-motion, obviously makes the game mode slower and allows more finesse while doing tricks, or more time to laugh as the physics engine does what it does best.

And the suburban environment we’re placed in allows the goat to pull off tricks or stunts – similar to a skating game – with chaining tricks together for added points. We have trampolines, mattresses and industrial fans to jump off, walls to run up, or fences to crash through. Some of the in-game goals are displayed as a checklist, meant as a type of progress report for the player throughout the game. These include destroying certain objects, or completing flips, or even doing a “manual” – walking on the goat’s front lets for a specific distance.

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The collectibles scattered throughout the game, when collected, will allow certain modifiers to the goat, such as playing as a demon goat, or a giraffe (long-necked goat), or even an ostrich.

The game is very good at poking fun at itself, while also including a lot of winks to pop culture references, and other games. Even the original trailer itself was a parody of the Dead Island trailer – showing shots of the game, reversed and in slow-motion.

PLAY AS A DEMON GOAT, OR A GIRAFFE
(LONG-NECKED GOAT)

The game is fun for a while. It includes some very easy achievements, and may have you coming back for the collectibles, trying to find hidden Easter eggs, and of course, the laughs. It’s more than a simple joke game though – more akin to a brief distraction game. Short in content, with only two worlds, but it has its own version of Flappy Bird to keep you frustrated for hours.

For those who liked playing in the sandbox, wall running, general mayhem or slow-motion . . . things.

Notable Achievements:
Alexander Goatstafsson (Win the title boat!) – 15G
Devil Goat (We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell) – 30G

-iRogan

New Games, New Cities, New News

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“Cities has a weird way of making me forget to blink, or watch the clock…” I say absently, clicking away, creating trees along a gravel path between houses.

“Don’t you have to work tomorrow? It’s 2AM.” She replies.

“Just need to add a bus depot and map the routes…” I mumble. “This traffic is brutal.”

I wish my city creation was this pretty.

I wish my city creation was this pretty.

Continuing with my review-in-progress of Cities: Skylines, my 2nd play through last night was definitely more successful as I slowly learned the hidden intricacies of the game. The game will tell you how to build a road, but skips on the minutia of creating a successful highway off-ramp. Go figure it out, I guess? It’ll tell you how to paint districts, and glaze over the district specializations, but how about letting me know how to find the resources on the map for specializations?

*4 hours later* Oh there’s an Info Pane for that. Wait WHAT, there’s an info pane that shows me all this? You didn’t think to maybe mention this first, Game?

My city did survive the night this time. Didn’t need to skip town as Mayor like last time, while the power was out. Check mark in the positive column.

Stay tuned for further impressions throughout the week.

Out today, new and notable, for March 17th, 2015:

  • Battlefield Hardline (Xbox One, PS4, PS3, XBOX 360, PC) – Started playing this last Thursday during the EA Access trial on the Xbox One. I’m excited that it’s now out fully and I can play through the campaign. You can read my first impressions: Here
  • Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 2 (Xbox One, PS4, PS3, XBOX 360, PC) – Titled Atlas Mugged. The  Telltale Bundle is still sitting on my “ready to be installed” list, waiting to be played. Thursday I’m picking up an external HDD so I can install my full library. Man, that’ll feel good. Much bandwidth. I do think the first series I play will be Wolf Among Us. Starting to get worried about my ever-growing list of unplayed games. Might need to hire an intern to play my games for me.

There is absolutely nothing of interest to me, out there, on Earth, at all. Save these tidbits of news today:

Nintendo’s New Partnership and New Hardware?

Nintendo announced today a new partnership with DeNA to develop a mobile platform, to bring their library to mobile devices. They were also quick to point out that they’re not out of the console market, stating that they are developing a next-gen dedicated gaming system, code named “NX”. No further details on the console till next year.

The Last Guardian Trademark Filed Again

Announced back in 2009, Sony’s The Last Guardian is vapourware at this point. Sony has filed for the trademark for a 3rd time, and stated that the game is still in development. Whether that means it’ll be the same envisioned game, still on the PS3, now on the PS4, who knows. It’s gone the ways of Prey 2 for all I’m concerned.

Weekly Deals With Gold

Grand Theft Auto takes the front line this week for Xbox’s game sales.

On the Xbox One you can purchase the in-game credit card, which included $500,000 in-game currency for $10 off the retail price. $59.49 USD. Gross. OlliOlli is on sale as well.

On the Xbox 360, GTA V, GTA IV, San Andreas, and GTA IV expansions are on sale.

All for naught, you should probably go outside…

-iRogan

Cities: Skylines’ Impressions and Some News

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Paradox Interactive’s city-building sim reached an impressive milestone today, surpassing 500,000 sales. This announcement follows last week’s 250k sales in 24 hours. 500k in less than a week is truly impressive, and the game has been received well. But 2013’s SimCity reboot also sold very well and was received well. But that all turned sour quick once the launch of the game was hindered by server issues.

Cities: Skyline will not suffer the same fate. Skyline won’t be bogged down by the same server issues as it doesn’t share an online world economy requiring EA’s mandatory internet access.

That being said, Cities: Skyline does borrow from SimCity extensively, but simplifies the gameplay. The game plays quick and loose, full in-game days whiz by in a blur, no day and night cycle will have you forgetting that time is moving, and your towns folk seem pretty content as long as you keep their lights on, and their streets cleared of garbage.

I had a 4 hour sit-down last night (I think without blinking), and figuring I was doing fairly well, just to find the power suddenly go out, leaving me with an abandoned city and piles of debt. Not my most notable achievement by any stretch, I quickly packed up my remaining dignity and skipped town, off to the next soon-to-be sprawling metropolis. “THIS TIME, MY CITIZENS, I PROMISE TO DO BETTER!”

Keep an eye out for my review soon.

In other, non-city related news…

Battlefield Hardline’s Couch Warfare

Someone has found a drivable couch Easter egg in Battlefield Hardline. The couch, appropriately named “The American Dream” is found in the Hotwire gameplay mode on the Dust Bowl Map. Seats 4, and drives faster than any of the other types of vehicles.

Couch Warfare

Couch Warfare

Unknown is if the couch is an Easter egg for the EA Access preview, or will be made available tomorrow during the proper launch. I guess we’ll soon find out. I’ll try to find it tonight for myself.

LEGO Jurassic World June Release

New info started coming out today about the next LEGO game from TT Games: LEGO Jurassic World. Announced a little while ago with a teaser, today there was a gameplay / a more fleshed out trailer. We know the game will focus not on 3, but actually all 4 movies, hence Jurassic WORLD, and will include almost 2 dozen dinosaurs, and all the characters from the movies. Briefly shown from the trailer are some of the key scenes from Jurassic Park.

Crytek’s New Licencing Deal?

Known for their Crytek engine, FarCry, Crysis, and Ryse – Crytek teased a new licensing deal today. No further details though.

Crytek is currently going through some restructuring, or “transitioning” as they work on some free-to-play projects and recent “strategic” moves. They’ve had their recently purchased rights to Homefront, moved to Dambuster Studios along with their Crytek UK staff. Crytek USA remains stateside to focus on their Engine.

Some positive news is better than all the recent negatives, or no news, I guess.

GTA Online stability released on Xbox

And finally, GTA Online gets its stability patch out to the Xbox community, improving Online stability for Heists, and fixing minor issues for both Online and Story Mode. Released last week on the Ps3 and Ps4.

Currently I’m in the process of staring at this game, on my shelf, willing the game’s sizable 43GB install to shrink so that it fits on my already over-full Xbox One Harddrive. I’m past the last notch on the belt guys, I’ve already purged 3/4’s of my library to the “ready to be installed” list. That last bite of dessert is a faded memory.

Thursday, though! Thursday, I’m picking up a 4TB external HDD for my XBOX One which should resolve all of my HDD woes.

New games tomorrow, till then, Go OUTSIDE!

-iRogan

New Game Release Tuesday, and the Report

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Tuesdays come and go, and my wallet becomes a tad lighter, and my game shelf, or Steam account, a little fuller. Also, after the break is some news. Tomorrow we’ll discuss current works in the pipeline, and what I’m playing.

We’ll start things off with some new and notable releases for Tuesday, March 10th, 2015:

  • DmC: Definitive Edition (Xbox One, PS4) – I played this game when it first came out on the 360 and really enjoyed it. It was very stylized, quick paced, and didn’t require the same amount of  practiced button mashing sequences it’s predecessors required. Definitive Edition includes the DLC and some different modes. I don’t need to re-buy it.
  • Hotline Miani 2: Wrong Number (PS4, PC) – I played the first on the PC, and will likely play this one as well. The first was original, and colourful, and brutal. And difficult. While it was interesting, I quickly found it to be repetitive, and inevitably didn’t make it much further than the first few levels.
  • Assassin’s Creed Rogue (PC) – The PC release of last year’s, last-gen finale to the Assassin’s Creed III and IV Black Flag trilogy. This game came out the same week that Assassin’s Creed Unity was released on the current gen consoles, and was plagued with some bugs and lack of polish.
  • Cities: Skylines (PC) – I’ve always loved simulation games. I’ve never been particularly good at them, as I’m usually pretty quick to go bankrupt. That being said I am excited for this new City Sim game. Reading through some of the reviews, the game sounds like a better version of the SimCity reboot in scale and management, but lacks the visual quality and helpfulness if something is going wrong within the city, and does not have any disasters to play with. Very excited to try this out.
  • Far Cry 4: Valley of Yetis (Xbox One and PS4) – DLC for Far Cry 4. A further reminder that I have yet to open this game, yet its been sitting shiny on my shelf since November.

In other news…

Turkey Bans Minecraft?

Last month, the country’s family and social policies department initiated an investigation into Minecraft, for allegations that it’s too violent. Arguably, Minecraft is a game that encourages creativity. Granted, there are monsters in the game, and you have some weapons to defend yourself, but the game doesn’t encourage the player to attack the other players or villagers. As of today, the proposal to outright ban Minecraft is moving forward, as the report shows that the game is too violent.

Who knew?

Xbox’s Weekly Gold Deals

The latest offering of Deals with Gold for Xbox Live Gold subscribers is up, offering some new discounts for established titles. XBox One has 2013’s Tomb Raider Definitive Edition on sale, Ryse: Son of Rome Legendary Edition, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Xbox 360 has 3 Assassin Creed games for sale: Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, and Assassin’s Creed III.

Battlefield Lo-Res

Visceral Games announced today that Battlefield Hardline, the next installment in EA’s Battlefield franchise, won’t be able to hit today’s standard TV resolution (1080p) on either major console.

As Visceral is targeting 60 frames per second, Battlefield Hardline will run at 720p on the Xbox One and 900p on the PlayStation 4. This is the same situation as we saw for Battlefield 4, which launched at the end of 2013.

Hardline on the PC will be optimized for 1080P of course, with higher quality settings. March 17th is the launch. I’ll be playing it March 12th, with EA Access, to let you know my impressions.

Out!
-iRogan

New Ideas, and the News!

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So over the past little while I’ve been thinking of new things to add to the site. I’ve come to the realization that I do not play enough games quick enough to ensure constant updates via Reviews only. So I’ve started thinking of different types of content to add, to cushion the gaps between reviews.

One idea that came to me was to comment on the video game news of the day, and try to update every day. I sit on a computer at work all day so it should be easy enough.

This will be more focused, big news stuff, related to the 3 platforms: XBox, Playstation, and PC, but with a focus on the Xbox. News that appeals to me.

Tuesdays we’ll talk about the new game releases. Wednesdays I’m going to start a feature called What I’m Playing, in which I’ll provide a progress update on what I’m currently playing. And Fridays is usually game night with Friends, which is streamed via Twitch.

And finally, obviously, the Reviews will keep coming, albeit slowly. I recently wrapped up Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) in co-op, so I’ll be writing about that shortly.

So…lets talk about the news that appeals to me:

Forza Horizons 2

Forza Horizon 2’s Rockstar Energy Car Pack is now available for $5 or free for Season Pass holders.

With the new pack, racers get to enjoy five new cars: the 2014 Volkswagen Beetle GRC, the 2015 Subaru WRX STI, the 1996 BMW 850CSi, the 2015 Jaguar XFR-S and the 1970 Volkswagen #1107 Desert Dingo Racing Stock Bug. Acura Integra Type-R is the free car of the month.

Last month, the Top Gear Car Pack was released, adding six new cars, including the 2015 Lexus RC F, 1986 Lamborghini LM002, 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale, and the 1993 Jaguar XJ220.

Also announced was the Fast and the Furious 7 movie tie in, later this month. It looks like the DLC is just some tie-in cars. Free for all players for a 2 week window. Afterwards it will be a paid DLC. All those who download it during the free window will keep it for free.

Metal Gear Solid V – Phantom Pain

We were finally given a firm release date today, by Hideo Kojima, for the upcoming MGS V. Tuesday, September 1st, 2015 on all the major consoles, and a PC release a couple weeks later. Kojima has stated that this will be the last game in the Metal Gear Solid saga.

““I always say ‘this will be my last Metal Gear,'” Kojima said, “but the games in the series that I’ve personally designed and produced — Metal Gear on MSX, MG2, MGS1, 2, 3, 4, Peace Walker, and now MGSV — are what constitute a single ‘Metal Gear Saga.’ With MGSV, I’m finally closing the loop on that saga.” “

Wolfenstein

Bethesda has announced a stand-alone prequel to the surprisingly excellent 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order, called Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Due out in May, the game is a digital release for $20. The prequel takes place before the Allies lose the war.

Mad Max

Unbeknownst to me, Avalanche Studios is making a Mad Max game. The post-apocalyptic, open-world game will focus on driving, and surviving the wasteland. Food and water, which is scarce, will both be used to replenish Max’s health. That being said, the game will make available a large amount of fuel to the player, as the designers want the player to drive around, not walk around.

September 1st release, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions cancelled.

This will be a work in progress, as like anything, I suppose.

See ya later.
-iRogan