My earliest memories of gaming involve a Nintendo Entertainment System, a television that still used tubes, a family room, and my brother. Before we even had a game where two people could play together, I remember sitting and watching my brother play Super Mario Bros. Occasionally, he’d let me play a life or two, but that was all I needed to get hooked. Pretty soon, games like Blaster Master and Final Fantasy were finding their way onto my Christmas list alongside the Transformers and GI Joes. I used to play so much that my family nicknamed me “Nintendo Boy”, a moniker that occasionally still gets brought up today. From the Nintendo I moved on to playing PC games, thanks once again to my family. I was too young at the time to really understand them, but my mom used to play the “Zork” series and I’d sit next to her while she played trying to contribute and follow along as best as I could. Nowadays I mostly play Playstation and Nintendo DS games, although I still occasionally sneak in a PC game or two and a large portion of my co-op time comes from playing with friends.
Aside from gaming, I also enjoy watching movies, listening to music (anything but country), re-learning to play bass, and reading authors like Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, and whatever good science fiction/fantasy novel comes my way. It is my hope that one day I might be able to switch jobs from government contractor to full-time games journalist or freelancer. A man can dream, a man can dream…
Over the past 20 years, there have been a number of action-RPG titles that fall in line with the reductive/encompassing idea of "Monster Hunter-like." The latest entry into this field - Wild Hearts - comes from Koei Tecmo and Omega Force and published by Electronic Arts, and it shows a lot of promise... if it can just get out of its own way.
The first open beta for Nexon's The First Descendant wrapped up last week to mixed results. While there is definite potential there, it's largely going to depend upon how the game gets supported and how the time-investment/reward structure for players shakes out. We were fortunate to get some questions answered by Lee Beom-jun, Producer and Head of Magnum Studio (the development team within Nexon that's working on The First Descendant), and while it may not lay all concerns to rest, I appreciate how committed and enthusiastic he sounds about the title.
Illfonic's latest 4v1 multiplayer game, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, arrived last week to scratch that certain itch you've been feeling for a while now. You know the one; you strap on a Proton Pack, pull out your PKE Meter, crank the Ray Parker Jr tunes, and destroy just a few chandeliers while trapping a class-five full-roaming vapor.
The latest "shooter looter" to hit the scene - Nexon's The First Descendant - wraps up its open beta later today, and after spending 12 hours with it I've got a few thoughts...
Ah, fall (in the Northern Hemisphere)... the weather starts to cool, the leaves begin to change, and the holiday video game releases loom on the horizon. While the start of summer typically marks developers and publishers hyping up the gaming community with big announcements for what's to come in a year (or two or three) via digital presentations and "Keigh3," the fall is when we usually get teasers of more immediate releases. For example, the September Nintendo Direct dropped yesterday and not only did it finally give a full name and release date for the next Zelda game (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, May 12, 2023), but there are four new co-op games, two remastered co-op games, and one existing co-op title that are coming to the Switch within the next 6 months.
The much anticipated "massive expansion" to Monster Hunter Rise - Sunbreak - arrived yesterday (June 30) and earlier this week, in anticipation of its release, we figured we'd dip back into Rise for a quick High Rank hunt before checking out a couple of the new monsties in the Sunbreak demo.
Nick's got his Riskrunner, Mike's got his snark, Jason's got his unbridled enthusiasm... yep! It's another Destiny 2 co-op stream! This time we're checking out the most recent expansion, Witch Queen, and discussing what's new with the Light and Darkness.
For our latest "Let's Play Co-Op," Jason talks a lot, Mike rejoices that someone else on staff is now an advocate for Final Fantasy XIV, Locke tries to keep up, and Nick takes a nap.
It's been awhile since our co-op crew has gone on a monster hunt, but last week Locke, Mike, and Jason donned their armor and doot horns to check our the Monster Hunter Rise demo on the PC. Everything went exactly according to plan and they definitely have no rust from not playing for a while...
Square-Enix's flagship MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, has been through its share of ups and downs over the past 11 years, including an entire reboot three years after its release. We've touched upon the title here and there throughout that time between Tally's MMO Co-Opportunities articles and the occasional stream of it, but this week we're giving it a little bit more of its due as Jason and Mike sit down for a nice relaxing chat about this particular behemoth.
Rainbow Six Extraction, the co-op title that started as a spin-off mode for the popular competitive FPS Rainbow Six Siege, has gotten pushed back a little bit. During E3 last month, Ubisoft announced that the game - which was previously known as Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Rainbow Six Parasite before that - would launch on September 16 this year. A few days ago, though, Ubisoft announced that they would need just a little more time to get it done.
Around this time last year (which only feels like 5 years ago), we heard about a new action-survival game called Tribes of Midgard, which showed players running around a world fighting monsters from Norse legends, collecting materials, and building a home base. The title looked promising - particularly as it supports up to 10 players online - and during this year's Summer Game Fest, we finally got news of an official release date. Fell giants and defend the Seed of Yggdrasil with your buddies on July 27, 2021.
