I Don't Trust EA Access

Thursday, July 31, 2014


Recently EA announced EA Access, a subscription service offering a selection of EA titles up for "unlimited play" at a cost of $4.99 a month. It's comparable to the PS+ Instant Game Collection or Xbox Live's Games With Gold, but is perhaps more analogous to Netflix and their streaming service. EA doesn't have a good history of being up front with consumers, so I'm trepidatious about accepting this new service as it is.

Most of the press releases sent out regarding Access tout it as a cheap and easy way to play all of EA's latest games. The perpetuated idea is that of an unlimited well of EA games available from The idea of it seems nice enough but I don't think the actual product will line up as well with consumer expectations. Have a look at the surprisingly short Terms of Service and the cracks in this little golden egg start to show.

Amid The Ruins: The Walking Dead, Season 2

Tuesday, July 29, 2014


It just doesn't get any easier. The Walking Dead has always tugged at my heart. The first season made it clear that choices are not always easy, and the right thing to do might end up getting someone killed. So it is. Season two's Clementine continues to become a more responsible and capable member of the group, but choices are still hard, and people still die. 

Fistful of Links: Destiny Beta Swings Wide, SqquareEnix gets Humble, and More

Thursday, July 24, 2014


Here we go again folks, another week has passed. Here are a few of the things that caught my eye in the news.

The Wolf Among Us, Episode 5: Cry Wolf

Tuesday, July 22, 2014


A good Crime Noir story keeps you guessing. What starts as a murder eventually goes deeper and deeper until it's revealed an enormous crime ring. Accusations fly from one suspect to the next and the reader is left to try and make sense of it all until the very end. That is the journey The Wolf Among Us has taken players on over the last nine months. Bigby Wolf, Fabletown Sheriff brings the first (and hopefully not the last) season of Telltales trip into Bill Willinghams universe to a close as only he could.

Beautiful, Intimidating and Enthralling: Endless Legend

Thursday, July 17, 2014


Amplitude Studios are masters of 4x strategy. Their masterpiece Endless Space has completely supplanted Master of Orion and Sins of a Solar Empire as my favorite 4x space strategy game. Now they've expanded their universe and brought the same mechanics to a fantasy realm. Enter Endless Legend, currently in Early Access on Steam.

Taking flight with Aion

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Aion is one of the games which first came out as a subscription based game before switching to f2p. While it was released in South Korea in November 2008, we didn’t see it here in the US until September 2009. My husband and I picked up our copies at release, and we had a lot of fun with it as we were starting to get burned out on playing World of Warcraft. 

The graphics were beautiful and the UI system was easy to understand since it was modeled after the current norm. We played for about six months before we took our normal break from online gaming. However, I found it difficult to get back into the game when we returned. It seemed to take itself a little too seriously at that time. 

I personally like my games to be jovial and fun. I gave it another try when it went f2p, but I only played it once or twice, and then I played again for another day or so when houses came out. Still nothing to keep me wanting to truly come back. With this MMO series I’m doing, I thought it only fair to give it yet another chance, and I’m glad that I did. 

A Fistful of Links

Thursday, July 10, 2014
You shouldn't pre-order Alien: Isolation (or any other game) 
via Polygon 

I have to say, if the hype so far is to be believed, Alien: Isolation looks like a deliciously terrifying ride.

Unfortunately the varying pre-order bonuses have left me conflicted. Now I am tempted to follow Ben Kuchera's advice and not pre-order at all. He makes some excellent points in his piece for Polygon and I think it is a worthwhile read, whether you intend to pre-order or not.

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La Grand Guerre; A Post-Game Retrospective

Tuesday, July 8, 2014


Through the enormous generosity of Sslarn, I was able to play through Valiant Hearts last week. I am shamed to say that I never knew that much about WWI or the horrors its soldiers faced. I considered it less interesting since it lacked the ever shifting front and iconically evil Nazi army. I say I am ashamed with the deepest sincerity I can muster. I had no idea how much it changed the world we live in now. My time in the game taught me much, and I emerged a different person than I am now.

You've already been introduced to the characters in the game. Let's talk more about the experience of playing the game.

Quest Accepted: A Summer of MMOs

Thursday, July 3, 2014
The Guild, featuring the Knights of Good.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, or MMORPGs  as they are more widely known, have a strong following. Over the last ten to fifteen years they have expanded immensely from fantasy to space odyssey to the Wild West, and everything in between. The internet has become so attainable and almost a necessity for everyday life. Gamers from all over the world are able to play together and form relationships, be it friend or foe, with people they have never, and may never, meet in person.

The Great War, A Great Story, An Incredibly Great Game

Tuesday, July 1, 2014


I use Steam fairly sporadically and probably only own about half a dozen games on it, all of them fantasy RPGs, so when it recommended a little game to me called "Valiant Hearts: The Great War / Soldats Inconnus  Memoires de la Grande Guerre" I began to wonder if there was a tiny psychic living inside the magical box in my living room. "How could you know that I'm a history buff with a particular interest in the World Wars?" thought I.

A little breakdown of what this game actually is:

Valiant Hearts is a side-scrolling comic book style adventure set in World War I. At first I worried that this almost light-hearted portrayal would fail to do the setting justice. I soon learned that this "softer" style of art was probably the only way they could convey the story without reducing would be players to tear-soaked wreckage.