Gaming
Steve O'Rourke
While perhaps not a vintage, 2017 was certainly an interesting and entertaining year in the world of videogames. A clutch of fresh ideas, combined with a few beautifully crafted sequels and franchise follow-ups made sure the quality still floated to the surface of a genre that was, at times, saturated with distracting titles.Let’s cut straight to the chase: as far as this reviewer is concerned, the game of the year goes to Sony’s PS4-exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn. An original title that took the mainstream by surprise, it tells the tale of a young girl growing up in a post-apocalyptic world Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
This sequel to the reasonably well-received 2015 game has attempted to address the initial criticisms of the first title lacking offline gameplay by incorporating a new single player campaign, with mixed results.Let’s cut straight to the chase, the new solo campaign is a damp squib. It’s very much blast-by-numbers stuff, with the combat objectives offering the same type of missions we have seen dozens of times before. You shoot, slash or occasionally dogfight your way through a dozen stages of mindless Rebel soldiers on a conveyor belt of generic action. Rinse, reload and repeat. Yawn.There Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
Lego games are legion; the blockbuster licenses, ranging from comicbook cross-overs to TV show adaptations and, of course, the Lego Movie behemoth, dominate the family-friendly gaming space. And with good reason: for co-operative fun that incorporates rudimentary puzzle solving with lots of button-bashing combat and witty dialogue, look no further than the consistently solid building-block games.The fundamental structure is similar to previous Lego games: It’s an open world environment featuring dozens of side quests, while the main story plays out in short stages, involving an unusually high Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
Like an incoming artillery shell, nothing screams “Christmas is coming!” like another Call of Duty game crash landing on the shelves. The mega-budget war franchise makes more money than Santa at this time of year and just to add to the annual festivities, we’re treated to a grim recreation of World War II, courtesy of Activision's latest blockbuster.From the D-Day Normandy landings to liberating Paris and ultimately pushing forward into Germany, it’s a title brimming with cinematic set pieces and epic battles.You will have seen many of the scenarios before – the Normandy beach assaults, for Read more ...
theartsdesk
At a festive ceremony on Tuesday night at The Hospital Club in central London, the winners were announced for this year's h.Club 100 Awards. The distinguished broacaster John Simpson (pictured below) gave an impassioned keynote address about the value of the UK's creative industries which concluded with amusing advice on the wisdom of eating kedgeree. The comedian Stuart Goldsmith compered with wit, flair and sangfroid. The undoubted star of the night was Lady Leshurr, who accepted her award in the Music category - presented to her by theartsdesk's Thomas H. Green - with a speech that Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
As predictable as night following day, you can almost sense the transitional change from summer to autumn by the onset of a new football season accompanied by the latest FIFA instalment. Football needs context for it to grab the armchair midfield general. A title challenge, relegation battle or lengthy cup run are the norm, but last year FIFA 17 introduced The Journey, a soap-opera style narrative that involved guiding the young talent of Alex Hunter from football academy obscurity to Premiership star striker.In FIFA 18, The Journey is back with a bigger scope than before. Hunter is tempted Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
The first Destiny game cost an eye-watering $500 million to produce and promptly banked $500 million from first-week sales. It was the biggest new franchise launch of all time. Following the lead from Hollywood, the equation of big budget equals even bigger business rang loud from the cash tills.Why so popular? Mix the slick sci-fi shooter antics of the award-winning Halo games (Destiny 2 is built by the same developer), with the addictive character levelling and multiplayer action associated loosely with the World of Warcraft titles (the most successful MMO to date). Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
We’ve been here before, May last year to be exact. The lead characters are different but the locations look much the same. We’re still swinging on ropes, jumping into duck-and-cover gunplay, searching for lost treasures and solving rudimentary puzzles. But there’s no resentment for this premature trip down memory lane. This is, after all, an Uncharted game, a bulletproof, platinum-plated franchise that, just like a Strictly finalist, tries its hardest not to put a foot wrong.This cut-price spin-off – at £25 it’s almost half the price of Uncharted 4 – represents the first stand-alone Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
Once upon a time there was a game called Grand Theft Auto that opened the door to free-roaming open-world games. It spawned a whole load of "me too" offspring, mostly bad, some good. Among the more promising relatives were the Saints Row titles, a more cartoon-esque version of GTA, but still resplendent with anti-hero crime drama and the visceral thrill of running or driving around the mean streets, looking for trouble.Fast forward a few and we have Agents of Mayhem, in many ways a natural extension of the Saints Row games – same developer, same 18-rated humour, but this time you’re on Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
In a recent review on theartsdesk, Stuart Houghton did a thoroughly surgical job of dissecting the ancient argument that video games could never be art, by serving up 10 perfect examples to the contrary. Now with the forthcoming h.Club 100 Awards, an event that recognises the 100 most influential and innovative people across the breadth of the UK’s creative industries, we take a closer look at an art form that has had to fight for its right to be accepted by the cultural establishment.Videogames have not only cemented their position as a major revenue generator (£4 billion in the UK last year Read more ...
theartsdesk
The Hospital Club’s annual h.Club100 awards celebrate the most influential and innovative people working in the UK’s creative industries, with nominations from the worlds of film and fashion, art, advertising, theatre, music, television and more. This year they are teaming up with theartsdesk.com – the home of online arts journalism in the UK – to add a brand new award to the line-up.The Young Reviewer Award is aimed at bold, thoughtful young writers aged 18-30 who are serious about a career in arts journalism. It will be presented to the author of the best review of any art-form that we Read more ...
Steve O'Rourke
Appreciating art involves applauding experimentation, but when you break new ground you don’t always land on your feet. Case in point: Get Even, a game that tells an old story in a new way, and at times, pays a high price for attempting innovation.You assume the role of Cole Black, an apt name for a hired gun with a gruff Sean Bean-style northern accent, who regains consciousness in a deserted asylum with almost no recollection of his past, apart from the lasting memory of a young girl, held hostage, who had a bad encounter with a bomb vest. Under the guidance of an anonymous captor, Black Read more ...