One of the most interesting things – out of a wide field – that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has done is reignite the ongoing discussion about race in video games. While CD Projekt’s latest outing does many things so right, race is something it gets quite wrong: the cast of The Witcher 3, it cannot…
Grand Theft Auto V’s Identity Crisis
Note: This post about the plot and characters of Grand Theft Auto V contains minor spoilers about the plot and characters of Grand Theft Auto V. Playing as the Grand Theft Auto V character Michael De Santa, there are points where you’ll be walking around your McMansion and overhear your 20-something layabout son Jimmy playing…
Dark Souls Diary: Day 2
The enormous Asylum Demon blocking my path isn’t actually a terribly difficult boss – I just can’t fight him yet. The only weapon Dark Souls has felt like outfitting me with is a broken sword hilt. The best way through this fight is to run, and run I do – right into a little hallway off to…
Dark Souls Diary: Day 1
A little while ago I mentioned From Software’s Bloodborne as a game I was excited about in 2015. Well, it’s out now, and the reviews are pretty damn good. The trouble is, I don’t own a PlayStation 4, and the likelihood of Sony sharing rights to this property with anything that has ever even been…
Pile of Shame – Batman: Arkham Asylum
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was one of my favorite games of last year, so it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to the baleful glare of the Dark Knight, staring at me from beneath my Pile of Shame. Mordor of course borrows heavily from other games – perhaps most notably its combat,…
Everything Old Is New Again: Dying Light and Darkest Dungeon
I’m probably sailing dangerously close to Andy Rooney waters saying this, but it strikes me every now and again how much video games tend to be rehashes of familiar ideas served with a fresh daub of hi-resolution ketchup. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – hell, it’s a good thing that we’ve had enough iterations…
Games for People Who Don’t Like Games
While there’s not yet hard data on Bitter Empire’s readers’ preferences, I’m going to assume that at least a sizeable percentage aren’t big fans of video games. And those of us who do like games certainly know people who just don’t get the appeal. That group of people is shrinking, however: in 2014, the ESA…
The Pre-Order Pox – How Exclusive Content is Hurting Gaming
Next-gen zombie parkour-‘em-up Dying Light hits shelves in North America Tuesday, and I’m pretty excited – it boasts a weighty free-running system, a large open world, and hordes of shambling undead to introduce to your new friend the Flamethrower Butcher Knife. And there’s more good news: developer Techland announced Friday that the “Be The Zombie”…
GOG Drops Huge Load Of Classic Star Wars Games In Our Laps
If you were a giant Star Wars nerd who played video games in the ‘90s, now is probably a good time to head over to GOG, which has just released its second wave of classic LucasFilm games. This second wave includes Dark Forces, Knights of the Old Republic II, Star Wars Battlefront II, and for…
Hatred Receives ‘Adults Only’ Rating From ESRB
Hatred, the forthcoming shock game wherein the player takes on the role of a spree-killer, has been given the rare “Adults Only” rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, one of the game’s developers disclosed Friday. As reported by Ars Technica, the rating means Hatred will most likely not be listed on Valve’s Steam distribution…