In the world of ??gaming, we’re constantly introduced to new worlds, characters, and stories. But when the game is over, we usually have to say goodbye to that wo??rld and get back to reality. 

However, some beloved game franchises move past the scr?een and provide fans with written entries that add more detail to the canon universes. If you’re looking for a new book to curl up with, then here’s 10 video game novelizations that I strongly recommend. 

Assassin’s Creed novel series

There are many, many Assassin’s Creed novels and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend each of them, because of how accurately they follow the story of the games, giving you?? a whole new insight in??to the characters, surroundings, and hidden plot points. 

I will always favour the three novels that accompany the Ezi?o trilogy, because those were my first real deep dive into the world of gaming and had me truly hooked, bordering on obsessed. However, whichever Assassin’s Creed book you pick up, you’re going to be in for a wild ride of well written, true-to-the-source-material fun. 

BioShock: Rapture

Written by John Shirley and released in 2011, BioShock: Rapture follows multiple iconic BioShock characters in th?eir adventures through the early days of Rapture, des??cribing how it all came to be, and how it came to end. 

There’s something that never fails to grab my attention in the BioShock universe, whether it’s the post-apocalyptic themes, the desperation of humanity to live in peace, or the terrifying events that h??appened deep beneath the surface of the ocean. This book features all of them, and John Shirley captures the spirit of Ra??pture perfectly. 

Alan Wake

Written by Rick Burroughs and first published in 2010, the Alan Wake novel follows the story of the first game with additional sub-plots and side stories. While faithful to the source material, it is not considered canon wi??thi??n the playerbase, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth reading. 

If you love the dark, horror-laden world of Alan Wake, you’ll really enjoy the novelization. You’re ??likely to appreciate the added details about Robert Nightingale, or the slightly different ending, and there are eve?n additional manuscript pages between the chapters. 

Halo: The Fall of Reach

There are a lot of Halo novels, but The Fall of Reach is widely accepted as the best of the bunch. Written by Eric Nylund and first publishe?d in 2001, it acts as a prelude to Halo: Combat Evolved and explains the origins of SPARTAN-II supersoldiers. 

Master Chief takes center stage, of course, while Catherine Halsey, Jacob ??Keyes, and Franklin Mendez also appear heavily. Cortana features, although not in the role of Master Chiefs companion. Instead, she’s D?r. Halsey’s aide in the events leading up to the Spartansâ€?mission. 

Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation is a novelization of the game with the same name, written by Keith R. A. DeCandido, who previously wrote other novels set in the Alien universe. While it is true to the source material, th?e novelizatio?n dives deeper into both Amanda and Ellen’s backgrounds, giving a whole new dimension to the characters. 

You’re definitely not going to feel as scared reading the book as?? you were while playing the mic-listening game, but it’s worth the sacrifice to learn more about the characters who have become so iconic. 

Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future

The Dawn of the Future is the novelization of a cancelled DLC collection for Final Fantasy XV, so if you wanted to know more about Noctis, Lunafreya, and other characters from XV, then ??I would ??highly recommend reading the novel by Jun Eishima. 

The novel focuses on the events of Episode Ardyn, and Ardyn Izunia’s choice to reject his role in Astral Bahamut’s plans, but it goes further than that. ??It also follows on from the choice, adding far more to the story than the game ever did. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character. 

The Infernal City

Written by Greg Keyes, this novel is based on and set within the universe of The Elder Scrolls games. It’s set four decades after the events of Oblivion, when the floating city of Umbriel descends ??upon th?e coast of the Black Marsh. 

This novel is filled with twists, turns, and hardship for the protagonists, and even some slavery for our main characters Annaig and Mere-Glim. It’s definitely worth reading for any fan of The Elder Scrolls games, ??and a good introduct?ion for anyone who prefers reading to gaming. 

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy

The Umbrella Consiracy is the first in a series of Resident Evil novels written by S.D. Perry. It’s a novelization of the very first Resident Evil game, and tells the story of the goings on in Raccoon City?. 

As with anything associated with Resident Evil, there’s a lot of horror elements within the books and, at times, they can be hard to read. But if you love the game, then you’ll love the books, and all of the added detail that the written version brings to the Resident Evil universe.

Fable: The Balverine Order

The Balverine Order was written by Peter David and released in 2010. When first published, it included a one-use code that unlocked a unique weapon in Fable 3. The events depicted in the book are split between the present and the past, with the Storyteller weaving tales about things that once happened in Alb?ion. 

The story in the present is centered ar?ound the adventures of James and Thomas, friends of the last Hero of Albion who now sits on the throne. They’re on a mission to hunt down the dreadful Balverine, in a world where science and industry are taking over from magic an?d myth. 

L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories

If you’d rather read a collection of shorter stories than dive into one long novel, then the L.A. Noire Collected Stories might be for you. It contains eight stories, written by different authors. Each story expands upon a story that was touched? upon in the game, adding more details and a new level of understanding. 

1940s Hollywood is an undoubtedly ??glamorous and intriguing setting, but it’s well known that terrible things happened at the time, and this collection of crime thriller stories will have you hooked from the very beginning.

The post 10 excellent novels based on beloved game f??ranchises appeared first on Destructoid.

The best menu screens in games can be articulated in many ways, just like the sheer amount of options you can get from?? the feature itself. In my mind, they're determined by the music, the visuals, and how unique they can be. You don't want to see a bland introduction to a magnificent game. Here are the top 10 best main?? menu screens in games, ranked.

Before we start, I have some honorable mentions. While it's too soon to rank this alongside long-standing greats, Sea of Stars' main menu screen is an impressive introduction to its world. The flickering of the flames reflecting on the pixel-based characters, and the gorgeous backdrop is absolutely stunning. Additionally, Rayman 2: The Great Escape's menu features strange, ye??t enticing music with a view of the world we're about to explore. There's also a cute teensie on the left side, welcoming you to the game with its? hat.

[caption id="attachment_400167" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

10. Super Metroid

During the SNES era, gamers weren't anticipating a cinematic introduction to the game. However, Super Metroid features tense music and neat tra??nsitions of scenes that feature the creepy sci-fi world of the game. It then reveals a Metroid trapped within a pipe with the machinery flickering in green light. It's genuinely creepy to see fallen bodies ?next to the machine as well. It's a perfect introduction to this game.

[caption id="attachment_399796" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

9. Psychonauts

Double Fine is a developer known for its wild worlds, game concepts, and characters. This menu follows that same idea. One of the strangest (and coolest) is in Psychonauts, in which you're Raz running around a brain. The concept of the game is that you're trying to fix the issues of a person by infiltrating their mind. It's a clever main menu concept for a game like this and is certainly unique. I also love Double Fine's record-based main menu design in Brutal Legend, but Psychonauts just edges it out.

[caption id="attachment_399797" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

8. L.A. Noire

This may be a controversial pick, but L.A. Noire has a unique menu design that complements the subject matter. You get the old-fash??ioned black-and-white styling mixed in with a shadowy figure of the text. The light shone from the car gives a wonderful effect on the brick wall, adding to the atmosphere of the scene. While it can be annoying to have a gentleman walking in and out of the menu, it's certainly an interesting take on this classic gaming feature that we haven't seen before.

//youtu.be/cHGF302fBZk

7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Yes, this is a simplistic menu for such a huge RPG like Starfield, but it more than makes up for it with the theme alone. You hea??r a m?ajestic choir and triumphant orchestra calling to you. It gets you pumped for the adventure you're about to have. The logo also looks iconic amongst the white mist and the black background.

//youtu.be/njoPUWILwpo

6. Pokemon Red & Blue

Despite the limited power of the Game Boy, Pokemon Red & Blue still had amazing intros and menus. You see two Pokemon fighting it out in the intro underscored by a memorable theme song. It then constantly switches between the different Pocket Monsters you'll find in the game like Snorlax, Mankey, and Ditto. It's simple but "super effective"at introducing us to the world of Pokemon. 

//youtu.be/DRgLR-cPMls

5. Xenoblade Chronicles

The Xenoblade Chronicles title screen is super simple. You see the Monado sword stuck in the ground all by itself. However, the beauty of the world sur??rounds us as day turns to night. You also see the shine of the metal blade aga??inst the sunlight, which is a nice touch. The Monado also glows in the dark as the stars shine brightly above. The emotional music is engrossing as you simply stare at this stunning scene. This is one of the best main menu screens just from how stunning it is.

//youtu.be/kAwwQ7dTjRY

4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I know, many say that Ocarina of Time's menu screen is better, but the one from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess holds more prestige for me. You see Link ridin??g Epona valiantly across the Bridge of Eldin and the wilderness of Hyrule. In the background is a somewhat creepy choir singing the main theme of the game. Then, the intro transitions to Wolf Link who howls to a strange golden wall in the distance.

You also have a hint of the "Midna's Theme" from the music, hinting at how prevalent your partner will be in the plot and gameplay. You're then left ??with a feeling of dread as you only have the sound of wind to keep you company. It'?s a brilliant main menu that pulls you into the intended darker atmosphere of the game.

//youtu.be/IM-r2hxtO8g

3. Kingdom Hearts 2

Possibly with the prettiest main menu theme ever "Dearly Beloved," Kingdom Hearts 2 has one of the best intros in gaming history. The credits roll and the music begins to build up. As you begin to see Sora emerge into the title screen, you hear the harp play and the bass strings r??efer to the protagonist.

It sounds like an orchestra prepping to play before a concert occur?s. It then calms down for a brief second until the full menu appears. Then, the piano begins to play the main melody, and each wonderful instrument of the piece blends together in a truly "beloved" way.

Seeped with the sound of waves from Sora's home world Destiny Islands, you remember where the end goal lies. The blue streak to the right also has a wave-like gradient to it. I just noticed this as I was writing, but the col??or of the streak goes from navy to turquoise to yello?w like a beach. Neat!

[caption id="attachment_399816" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

2. Persona 5

Persona 5 has so much style behind its UI and graphical ingenuity. However, the main menu stands out as well. The introduction of the train pop art and then the Phantom Thieves at a stop is f?antastic. I love the striking red and white style as y??ou see the trains beside them rush on either side.

The music gives you the depiction that this is going to ??be a cool, suave adventure. When Futaba gets off her seat, you'll see a graffiti mark on her seat. It also shows Haru in the back, showing her more shy side.

Personally, I prefer the calmer nature of this scene to the more energetic Persona 5 Royal's, but it's a personal taste, for sure. It gives a more undergr?ound feel that matches the Phantom Thieves better.

//youtu.be/ZT9DST_M_g8

1. Mega Man 2

Admittedly, I haven't grown up during the NES era, but my goodness, this is one of the greatest main menu screens in a game, bar none. You start with an overview of the city with a brief summary of the story. The music begins slow and pleasant, but as the camera moves up the skyscraper, the music gets faster until you get one of the most bada??ss menu themes ever. You can't help but get hyped.

You see Megaman's hair waving in the air as he readies himself for his tough adventure. When you choose a selection, he then teleports away. Despite having better technology today, this main menu st?ill stands as one of the most e??pic. Let's set out and defeat each of the bosses (or at least hope we can). This is one of the best main menu screens ever just due to the excitement I get every time I boot it up.

The post Top 10 best menu screens in games, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

It's more than just memes

Welcome back! I'm loving these mysterious puzzle games that we've been playing �Detroit: Become Human was so heart-wrenching at points that I almost wanted to go back today to try to fix my bad endings. But, there's time for that later! Tonight on our Twitch stream, we'll be exploring L.A. Noire, an iconic experience that brought us many ?memes and inspired?? other games after it.

As usual, I haven't played this one so I hope to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I'm very happy to be catching up on it now! If you have a big brain that's cut out for detective work, swing by the L.A. Noirestream tonight to help us solve these myst??eries and make the right choices... o?r, leave it to my intuition and watch me go for the any% chaos speedrun like last stream. Either is good! Hope to see you there.

Drop by Destructoid’s Twitch channel every Friday starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

The post We’re streaming L.A. Noire appeared first on Destructoid.

It was a weird day in Houser's house

This week has been a bit of a strange one for Rockstar Games, at least in regards to its PC store. It began on April 19, when the Grand Theft Auto developer's entire catalog vanished from the Steam platform. It was quickly reinstated without explanation, and (for a brief period), complete with Midnight Club 2, which has not been available to purchase in? three years.

One further oddity, however, concerns the surprise arrival of new updates for 2011's detective title L.A. Noire, and 2012's shooter sequel Max Payne 3, both of which have autom??atically dished out their entire DLC for free, gifting all those who own the ti?tles on Steam a selection of skins, weapons, missions, and other goodies.

Today, things seem to have returned to a sense of normalcy, with Rockstar's Steam catalog all present and correct. L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3 are admittedly g?etting a little creaky in the bones in their latter years, but they're both pretty good games in their own right. The free DLC is a welcome, if slightly bizarre, bonus.

The post New PC updates for Max Payne 3 and L.?A.? Noire gift all DLC for free appeared first on Destructoid.

The PS3 is dead! Long live the PS3!

_{[We ran this in February, but we loved it so much we bumped it again for those who missed it. Enjoy! -Niero]}

The figures are out, and the PlayStation 4 is already close to catching up with the PlayStation 3 when it comes to lifetimes sales. We're reaching peak PS4 time, with huge releases such as Monster Hunter: World and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus coming to the console in the past few months. To be frank, we're drowning in good current-gen games, so it's probably time to sell old consoles to buy extra games, send slightly battered mod??els off to the scrap heap, or simply leave them untouched, gathering dust, on the shelf. 

Hold it right there, though! Now is absolutely not the time to be even thinking of getting rid of your PS3. I would even argue that now is the perfect time to buy a PS3, if you missed out on that era of games. There's still life in the old gal yet, and what's more, it's becoming a very cheap console to collect for. I play my PlayStation 3 probably about 60% of the time I'm gaming, while 30% goes on my PlayStation 4 and a measly 10% goes on low-res ??adventure and point-and-click games on my battered old laptop. And I can't say I've got bored yet.

So, why should you rush out and get a second-hand PS3? And how do you make the PS3 an exciting, useful?? console in 2018, when you have a PS4 already sitting in your cabinet? Let me discuss why I think the PS3 still has?? legs, and what to do to fall back in love with the console.

Why now?

Right now, we're in that collectors' sweet spot where the PlayStation 3 is distinctly unfashionable. It's not old enough to be attractive to the retro crowd – the PlayStation and even the PlayStation 2 is starting to go that way – while those who want to play the most up-to-date games have tossed it aside. Furthermore, sellers want to get rid of their old PS3 games for something new, and want you to take the games off their hands. And, unless you're going for something quite rare like a Katamari game, they don't tend to want much money for parts of their colle??ction?.

Since mid-2016, I will often bid 3 euros each on a bunch of PS2 and PS3 games on eBay, and see what I win. Very often, PS3 game bidding won't go much above that, and through this practice, I've built a 40-strong PS3 boxed disc collection for the cost of two or three Day One PS4 releases. It's been pretty horrendous for my backlog, but great for those lazy Saturday mornings where I can browse my col?lection at leisure and pick something out at random to pop in my console.

Furthermore, the PS3 is not THAT outdated that it is a pain to use. It's composite cable and HDMI friendly, meaning it will work without too much hassle on any TV. This is unlike some retro consoles, where having a 4k HDTV will require a lot of fiddling and adapters. Also, as I'll talk about below, PS3 games were getting pretty polished and beautiful towards the end of the console life-cycle, so unless you have a top-notch TV (which I most certainly don't), the games will actually look very good, despite being "older" games. There are also a lot of games that are now only playable if you have a PS3, so the console is a must if you want access to as many games as possible that were ??released over the past 12 years.

OK, Deadly Premonition isn't the best example of the PS3's graphical crispness.

Maybe I've convinced you to dig out your old console, or you're counting your pennies to pick up a refu??rb?ished model. How should you proceed?

Original PS3 versus Slim versus Super Slim

The PlayStation 3 didn't quite have the massive, systemic problems that early Xbox 360s had, with the "Red Ring of Death". Sure, there was the "Yellow Light of Death" common to original consoles, but levels of outrage about f??aulty hardware were somewhat lower. The age of hardware is still something you'll want to factor in when making a purchase.

Original PS3s have the added benefit that they are PS2 backwards compatible (with some exceptions), but this addition was removed, in part because it was expensive, in part because it was an unstable addition to the console. Because these consoles were the first produced, the model you get your hands on is likely to be from an early production cycle and so will need more e??xtensive age-related refurbishment to run properly. 

The Slim model has no PS2 backwards compatibility but has a plethora of advantages: 1) was release??d more recently, so you're more likely to get one in good nick, and 2) it's much lighter and much more energy-efficient (but still a pretty big bugger, in my opinion).

A photo from Sam Hughes of his ginormous original PS3.

If you want something you can carry around w??ith you, get the Super Slim, but then upgra?ding the hard drive will be absolutely necessary if you want to play more than a handful of games. 

[The article previously said that swapping out the hard-drive on non-Slim models was difficult. Apparently this is not the case, and I've been corrected in the comments. Sorry for the misinformation, folks! – CC]

Buying the console

If you're lucky, your local electronics superstore may still be selling off new PS3s cheap. I seem to remember that my local Saturn department store was still sel??ling them a year ago, but a year is a long time in games.

However, I didn't get mine new - I got my 120GB Slim PS3 in July 2015 from Rebuy, bundled with Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and LittleBigPlanet 2, plus one real DS3 and one crappy third-??party controller, for 115 euros in total. Rebuy tells you exactly how close to new the console is, and puts a 18-month warranty on all consoles, ??regardless of the state they're in. I would advise looking for something similar wherever you live – 18 months is a fairly reasonable amount of time for old hardware to last, so I'd be willing to eat the cost of buying a new console if it broke after then.

The first thing you should do...

...is upgrade that flippin' hard-drive. Unless you already have a 500GB or higher model, then you can probably manage. If you want to play a lot of chunky digital-only games like Yakuza 5 or, sa??y, lots of JP-only downloads from the PS Store, you're going to need a large hard-drive.

Get your hands on (ideally, a new) 2.5" hard drive. SATA will do; no need for a more expensive SSD, since performance boost seems to be minimal at best. You can find instructions on how to open up your Slim or Super Slim console to swap out the hard-drive here; the newer the type, the less fiddly a?? job it is.

Be warned! Opening up the Slim is a tricky job, and the screws holding the d?rive to the mounting bracket are extremely fragile. Make ??sure you have a very small Phillips head screwdriver to hand, because if you try to batter away at it with a bigger tool, you'll end up stripping the screws to shreds.

It goes without saying that doing this voids any warranty, but any Sony-specific warranties are useless by this point. Whether you want to void any resale warranties or not is entirely at your own discretion; I upgraded my hard-drive after my resale warranty had lapsed. ??My PS3 is a lot noisier and has freezed a couple of times since I upgraded, but again, I'm willing to eat the cost of getting a new PS3 to Frankenstein by this point.

Optimising the PS3 for modern use

??So, let's talk about the th??ings you do not need from your PS3 right now, and that's the apps. Speaking from an EU user perspective, Spotify hasn't worked properly the entire time I've had my console. Netflix worked the last time I tested it but runs much smoother and loads quicker on the PS4. I would say that overall, this is not a console you want to use for streaming TV or any other side-ops; this is what your most modern console, laptop, Amazon Fire stick, etc. is for. Delete apps where you can. Of course, some people report using their old consoles as dedicated streaming boxes, but that's not worked out super well for me so far.

What you should have to get the most out of your PS3 is a PS Plus subscription, even if you don't go online much. I can say I've never been disappointed with PS Plus service (well, some months are better than others) because I own all the consoles Sony releases games for on this service, except for the PSVR. Very often, pretty impressive games for the PS3 will come out on the service because people aren't buying them in droves anymore, such as the port of Syberia (the less said about the awful port of Syberia II, the better), Darkstalkers Resurrection, Child of Light and, of course, the aforementioned Yakuza 5. Sure, there's a lot of PS3 shovelware pushed out on the service, but you're more likely to stumble across something you really, really like if you have the full breadth of cons??oles serv??ed by the online shop.

[Note: since this article was first published, Sony has announced that PS Plus will stop ?offering PS3 games ?from March 2019 onwards. Enjoy this extra PS Plus perk while you can! – CC]

And it goes w?ithout saying to hook it up to your TV with a HDMI cable. My console arrived only with composite cables. I don't know about you, but my HDMI cables seem to reproduce with each other, and the cables are cheap nowadays, so this should be a pretty easy upgrade.

Which PS3 games should I focus on?

There is something there for everybody with the PS3. OK, if you want to play only the most modern fighting games, then you're going to want to eschew older consoles and get good on Tekken 7/Street Fighter V/pick your po?ison. Same goes for sports games, if having an up-to-date roster is important to you. But for almost everyone else, there is something there.  

(Note: this is where you might be yelling, "but what about PS Now?!", given this allows you to stream some PS3 games to your PS4. Well, some regions don't have that service at all – Germany doesn&rsqu??o;t – and not all of us have a great internet connection. So that's not a solution for everyone.)

There is a range of PS1 and PS2 Classics that is for the PS3. Aside from the fact that you can still only play Persona 3: FES on a PS2 or a PS3, there are a handful of other Shin Megami Tensei releases available, if JRPGs are your thing. If you want a hard time of it, see if you get far enough to meet Dante in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Aside from this, the entire swathe of Final Fantasy PS1 games are ther??e for the taki??ng on the PS Store, if you have a PS3.

The same applies for horror fans. Sick of waiting for news on a remake of Resident Evil 2? Why not play the original on your PS3 to tide you over? It's there on the store for dirt cheap, alongside the DualShock version of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3. If you're not a fan of Crimson Heads and Lisa Trevor, then the former might be for?? you; if you're missing your old paramour Nemmie Boy, the latter might be your bag.

So it goes on and on. LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2 still hold up remarkably well; I would never say no to a cheap copy of Borderlands on which to play the single-player campaign; if you never played the Arkham ?games, then this is your chance. Wh??atever your tastes, you can find something to entertain you on a snowy Sunday afternoon. Here are my favourite purchases for my PS3 that are actual PS3 games:

• L.A. Noire. Yes, it's since come out remastered, but you can get a much cheaper copy for the PS3. While it may not be 4K, the facial animations and detail is still amazing. There are some games where it's worth getting the remastered version, such as Resident Evil 5 and 6 and the Bioshock collection, and some games where you may as well get the cheaper original. This is one where I would advise that the original is still an excellent game.

• Atelier Rorona. A super relaxing JRPG with inventory management and potion-making components. I used to play this with the sound off while listening to podcasts, as my post-work de-stressing ritual. It comes in a three-pack with Atelier Meruru and Atelier Totori, which was well worth the 12 euros I paid for it. An enhanced version is also available for sale on its own, titled Atelier Rorona Plus.

• Tales of Xillia. OK, this game absolutely whooped my ass and I'm currently stuck in a forest area. It's a grindfest, sure, but the story absolutely had its hooks in me until I came unstuck during a boss battle. Worth it if you want a challenge.

• LittleBigPlanet 2. Surprise, surprise, I have a soft spot for the game that came with my console. But it's timeless platforming, and who can say no to a bit of Stephen Fry?

• XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I'm still pissed that I lost half my team during an ill-fated zombie-fighting mission. Word of advice: don't name your teammates after friends or relatives.

• Steins;Gate. If you don't have a PS Vita and fancy playing Steins;Gate on the couch, get it for your PS3. You won't regret it - it's the best VN ever made, in my opinion.

***

Overall, I think there's value in looking backwards, as well as looking forwards, when it comes to games. There are many people who can't afford to keep up with modern gaming, and I was one of these pe??ople until just a few months ago. Also, unless you spent every waking moment gaming in the past ten years, you're likely to have missed something. If you want a thorough overview of the development of modern gaming, it is completely worth taking a glance back at the previous generation. And what a generation it was.

Do you still have a PS3? What advice would you give to people who want to get into PS3 gaming at this stage? Do you have any similar advice for budding Xbox 360 fans? Let me know in the comments down below!

Want to read some more great stuff from our archives?  This stuff is golden

The post Getting the most out of your PlayStation ?3 in 2018 appeared first on Destructoid.

YOU'RE LYING, I KNOW IT!

L.A. Noire's remaster just released on each new console, but some people might not own them. Maybe they also just really like the adventures of Cole Phelps and want their platform of choice to reflect that. If you somehow fall into either of those categories, take a gander at these "lovely" beasts.

Rockstar is holding a contest where each week, a new console will be up for ??grabs. You can enter into the drawing for an Xbox One X from now until December 7th, a PS4 Pro between December 8th and the 14th, a Nintendo Switch between December 15th and the 21st and a nice micro-PC from December 22nd to the 28th. You just need a "Rockstar Social Club" account and you're good to enter. My only beef happens to be that hideous color scheme.

That being said, Nintendo should definitely release some black joy-con. That front side looks really slic??k.

The L.A. Noire Custom Consoles Givea??way Series: En??ter Now to Win the Xbox One X [Rockstar Social Club]

The post Rockstar is holding a contest for some pre?tty hideous L.A. Noire themed consoles appeared first on Destructoid.

Just as bizarre as it was in 2011

Cole Phelps: professional asshole.

As I solved case after case in L.A. Noire upon its origina??l release in 2011 (feel_old_yet.jpg), that's the only thought that consistently popped into my mind. But as absurd as this crime-stoppin?g romp was, it stayed with me for a very long time.

Team Bondi, may it rest ??in peace, didn't really get a chance to shine. At the very least, this set of newly minted r?e-releases will remind people of the team's flawed brilliance.

L.A. Noire (PS3, PC, PS4, Switch [reviewed], Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Developer: Team Bondi
Publisher: Rockstar
Released: May 17, 2011 (original release) / November 14, 2017 (re-release)
MSRP: $39.99 (PS4, Xbox One) / $49.99 (Switch)

Cole is an asshole, sure, but he's our asshole. Broken down, tired, and back from a campaign in the Paci?fic??, he starts out as a beat cop and eventually earns his stripes as a detective, which really brings out his true colors. 

You don't get to hear the phrase "recover the gat, boys" in an old timey accent very often. As hammy as the performances could be on occasion (which are drawn from some fantastic character actors of our time), L.A. Noire nails that grimy 1940s feel. I mean, you have the legendary John Noble? playing a bit part, for For Christ's sake. The facial technology, while constantly creeping up on uncanny valley territory, is still impressive. 1080p when docked and 720p undocked is more than acceptable, especially when you stop to take in just how well a portable version of a PS3/Xbox 360 game runs just six years after the?? fact.

What I also dig about Noire is its commitment to try something other than being a GTA clone. You aren't riding around or shooting stuff up aimlessly most of the time, as all that takes a backseat to dialogue and following the narrative thread. While investigating errant trash for clues might be rote for some, I appreciate that roteness. ??Even little things like having your partner (or the fact that a partner is even in the picture) tell you to "come here and check something out" key me up when working on a case. Tacking on all prior DLC isn't a bad deal either (Naked City and Nicholson Electroplating Disaster are good, Reefer Madness and Slip of the To??ngue aren't bad).

When it comes time to confront someone though, I'm just a little torn on the recent change from "truth, doubt, lie" to "good cop, bad cop, accuse" -- a mechanic found in all new?? versions of the game. Although the latter new system is dangerously close to the bellend "Paragon/Renegade" model, there's still plenty of room for nuance in the performances and dialogue. Plus, seeing someone twitch incessantly and give you crazy eyes is still amazing.

But as far as the Switch-centric stuff goes (read: gyro, touch, motion), I can do without it. Like I feel with pretty much every game that stuffs it in -- it's good that it's there for those that want it, and it's even better that I can disable it. Playing Noire with a traditional [Pro] controller is just as fine as it was six years ago. I will say that Rockstar are onto something with the touchscreen parts though, as manipulating objects and your notebook with flips and pinc??hes is pretty neat.

As great as it is to dig back into this world though, it's just as easy to spot its faults. L.A. Noire tries to do so much that it spreads itself thin every so often. Melee, gunplay, driving, open world (ish) gameplay -- none of it is bad, but there are hiccups that pop up. You'll notice it when you awkwardly hit a wall and the physics engine poops itself, throw an enemy into the wall and have them fall down in an exaggerated ragdoll fashion, or you feel like you were unfa??irly killed in cover.

Little details also expose the engine's age even with its slightly upgraded coat of paint, especially if you p??ay attention to mi??nute things a lot of folks won't notice like the reflection in your car's hood. Again, you're mostly playing this for a feel akin to an old school adventure game, everything else is just along for the ride. So much emphasis was put on the facial expressions and the characters themselves that the gamey parts fall by the wayside sometimes. It never bothered me and it's not a dealbreaker now.

I can forgive a lot of its shortcomings every time I see Cole's nose crunch a little bit or hear my partner crack wise. L.A. Noire isn't the prettiest p??roject, but it still holds up because there isn't anything quite like it even t?oday.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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YOU'RE LYING, I KNOW IT!

Team Bondi's L.A. Noire had a very troubled history? before its launch in 2011. Numerous delays and completely unacceptable working conditions led to Rockstar Games stepping in?? to publish the title. Even before that, though, came some subtle script changes that inevitably ruined the end product.

If you aren't up on the history of the title, the original premise for L.A. Noire was th?at you were playing a cop that doubted everyone. As such, the original three prompts were "Coax," "Force" and "Accuse," and all dialogue was recorded with that in mind. Later, these prompts changed into "Truth," "Doubt" and "Lie," but everything else remained the same. It had the side effect of turning Cole into a psychopath when ??selecting "Doubt," which has spawned a bunch of memes based on his angry demeanor.

For the remastered release of the game (as Eurogamer points out), it looks like Rockstar is tweaking those button prompts to better reflect the performances. I'm not sure if "Good Cop" and "Bad Cop" accurately reflect "Coax" and "Force," but "Accu?se" is certainly more in line with the original intention for the game. It also would make more sense for Cole suddenly going Hulk on that rape victim in case nine.

You can get a quick look a??t the change in this Switch trailer, though it barely shows the tweak.

This may not be enough for most players, but at least Cole's erratic behavior won't seem out of the ordinary anymore. Now you can scream at those innocent v?ictims and understand Cole is?? just an ass.

LA Noire remaster changes tho?se infamous interrogation button prompts [Eurogamer]

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The case of the 14GB patch

It appears that upcoming Switch titles L.A. Noire and WWE 2K18 will likely need a microSD card for their releases, particularly if in digital format,? as both games struggle to fit within the Nintendo console's native memory.

The digital edition of Rockstar's noir mystery will weigh in at a whopping 29GB, too much for the console's 32GB limit (given that 6GB is reserved for the Switch itself). Even thos??e buying the physical release of the title should be made aware that there will be a 14GB day-one patch, which will obviously take up half of the console's capacity in itself.

In related news, wrasslin' fans should be forewarned that 2K Games announced that the upcoming WWE2K18 will receive a 24GB download file on launch day, even more surprising, that's an addition for the physical release of the poorly-received wrestling sim.

Clearly, third-party developers are having some grief condensing their games to the Switch. Whether this is through unfamiliarity with the software, limi?tations of the hardware itself, a lack of time to rework code, or a combination of factors, it seems that Switch owners would do well to ex?pect this to be the case for many big third-party releases in the foreseeable future.

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TRUTH

Rockstar is revisiting its 2011 detective adventure L.A. Noire with a remaster for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and even Nintendo Switch. It's maybe not our first choice of game for the company to spruce up and re-release, but that's? what we’re getting on November 14.

How's it look? Great, I'd say. In terms of specific touch-ups, the official line from Rockstar is to expect "enhanced lighting and clouds, new cin??ematic camera angles, high resolution textures, and more."

This latest trailer is a hint of what it’ll ??look like at 4K on PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox O??ne X.

As a reminder, the Switch version will have "a Joy-Con mode with gyroscopic, gesture-based controls, HD rumble and new wide and over-the-shoulder camera angles, plus contextual touch ??scree?n controls."

My memory of L.A. Noire is reserved exclusively for Cole Phelps' funny facial expressions, the basic path his career takes over the course of the game, and not liking the ending. I couldn't begin to tell you about the individual cases, so I'm probably overdue for a replay. That said, if I'm returning to 1940s Los Angeles, I'd prefer to do so with L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files for HTC Vive -- even if it i?s only seven cases, I bet this type of game lends itself well to virtual reality.

The post The L.A. Noire remaster is looking sharp in 4K appeared first on Destructoid.

RIP

Yikes! This Switch tax likes to creep up on us.

Wait, the Switch tax? Yeah, it's that thing that makes Switch physical copies $10 more expensive because of the need to use a c?art instead of a disc. It's happened several times in the past (and it's even been tak?en back once), and at the moment, Rockstar is joining in on the Switch tax revolution.

As listed on their official site, the "HD rumble, touch-screen, and motion control" features exclusive to the Switch will basically run you $50, as opposed to $40 for the other editions (digital will be priced at $40, as is the case with other Switch tax situations). The more shocking thing here is that Rockstar, a company that usually shows Nintendo no love, is supporting the Switch at all.

Everyone, consumers and publishers alike are riding high on the system, and support lik?e this will keep that chain going.

LA. Noire [Rockstar]

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Now we wait for Bully

As everyone patiently waits for Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar is bringing something to tide us over with enhanced ports of L.A. Noire to modern consoles. All versions release on November 14, 2017 and will inclu??de all th?e DLC previously released.

PS4 and Xbox One versions will run natively at 1080p (Xbox One X and PS4 Pro run at 4K) with "enhanced lighting and clouds, new cinematic camera angles, high resolution textures and more." The Switch version will not see such graphical enhance??ments, but will receive support in the form of HD rumble, contextual touch screen controls, "wide and over-the-shoulder camera angles,??" and "gyroscopic, gesture-based controls" via the Joy-Con.

L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files rebuilds seven (out of 21??) cases in virtual reality for HTC Vive. I'm not sure why only seven but with improved visuals on an already impressive looking game why not try it out in VR?

L.A. Noire delivered on the story front and made every aspect of the game feel cinematic (I loved just walking up and down the stairs and trying on different suits), but outside of the main story there really isn't much to do gameplay-wise. Even so, if you haven't played it yet it's definitely worth a playthrough, although sometimes you may not like how Cole answers certain prompts.

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There are great games, and some not-so-great as well

Looking for a new game to play well into the weekend while I hit up Chicago for the Queens of the Stone Age show? You are? Boy, do I have a sale for you! Hit up the PlayStation Store this weekend early for some sweet deals, including BioShock, Red Dead Redemption, Duke Nukem Forever, GTA IV, and L.A. Noire for just $5 apiece. You could buy a cheap McDonald's lunch, or you could start a new game. Pri??orities, people, and I think we? all know where ours lie. 

PlayStation Plus is not required to take advantage of this deal, and there's something for everyone if you look hard enough. The Mark of Kri is a good buy if you haven't picked it up, and Spec Ops: The Line is an interesting romp with a pleasing twist. Eith?er way,? it's $5! Rack 'em up, homie!

Check out the full selection via the webstore here and let us know what you snap up.

NA PS Store $5 Flash Sale (RDR, Max Payne 3, GTA 4, Gua?camelee!, MK, Spec Ops, more) [NeoGAF]

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Get 'em while they're cheap!

Newegg is running a sale right now on some older Rockstar games for the PC. All of the games are downloads, and are up to 76 percent off. Titles available include the Max Payne series, Bully, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto IV, L.A. Noire, Manhunter, and Midnight Club 2.

Most of these are only three bucks, so go grab something. All of these are good games, and I'm sure you can skip a cup of coffee today to get yourself a videogame. Max Payne?? is one of my favorite series of all time, and if you haven't played it you need to drop everything and spend $10.50 to get all thre?e games. It's totally worth it.

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Or; Another reason why Persona 4 is still cooler than most other games

As I was knee deep in the glorious Persona 4: Golden, something curious happened. A hea??vy 50 hours into the game after something resembling a climax, the game ended. It was an ending that felt hollow, strangely devoid of resolution. Something was off. After being treated to a bleak cutscene, everything was over, with little fanfare. It didn't seem right and so I took to the internet to find I had received a bad ending. One of them. Nowhere near the worst one -- I didn't mess up that badly -- but a wholly unsatisfactory one. I reloaded my save, corrected my slight error, and, as it turns out, ther??e were another 30 hours of gameplay waiting for me. That's a lot.

I couldn't help but wonder how many people might have gotten to one of the early alternate endings and thought that was that. Surely everyone would have that drive to figure out what was really going down with so many plot threads left limp, right? That moment was a little sobering. The game was putting the impetus on me. I had to be paying attention. Close attention, it turns out, because there were a few more unwanted ??endings I could wind up going down if I di??dn't do some careful detective work.

Failure is fantastic.

One of the singularly unique features of videogames is your ability to lose them. A movie isn't going to stop 3/5 through ??and ask, "Hey, smart guy, who's the bad guy?" and then shut off if you’re too dense to figure it. Or maybe you were too busy fantasizing about a quixotic life in a small, but modern apartment with your waifu, eating steak fresh from the local butcher. Books don't quiz you on the moves and tactics you've learned and ask you to write a page before carrying on. Games can do this, and it can be a wonderful thing.

I was thinking back to X-COM: Enemy Unknown and how it allows you to fail spectacularly at saving the world. With all the games that task you with being the Ultimate Savior of All Things, few offer a sense of urgency or suspense. You generally know you'll save the world, even if some grind is involved. Eventually. Whenever you're good and ready. In X-COM, you can play for 20 hours, fail to prepare adequately for an alien invasion, and lose the game. Ga??me over, man. Game over. Feel free to try harder next time, you twit.

It's easy to fall into the "ain't nobody got time for that" camp, but there's something delightfully droll about the game telling you you've reached absolute failure. And something in me that makes me want to try again. After all, I knew the stakes going in, and I should've been a bad enough dude to handle th??em, right?? There's an untapped level of tension that keeps you engaged and on your toes when the impetus to succeed is put squarely on the player. It's the same feeling that encourages people to do self-imposed permanent death runs of games.

Developers don't even have to be as damning as Firaxis was with X-COM, though. It would be neat to miss a QTE and end up with a scar that follows your player for the rest of the game. Just some semblance of consequence that elevates things beyond circumstance, or more ambiguous states of failure and success beyond the "dead/not dead" binary. In Persona 4’s narrative, you -- that’s you, the player, by way of a mute, surrogate main character -- are trying to catch a criminal. It's easy to lull yourself into a state of passivity and? complacency, busying yourself with the tertiary mechanics and wonderful trivial details while you wait for the story to play out and tell you what's what.

If you do that, ??though, the only things that will get you to the best, fullest endings are either a guide? or plum luck. The game assumes you're properly invested. The quest for truth and, subsequently, what truth means, seems to be the highest thematic goal of the narrative and it’s reflected on the metagame level of rewarding players with a thirst for satisfaction and an attention span to match. It’s a good thing. It encourages an attuned, critical audience.

There's something to be said for a challenge, whether reflexive or mental. I'm not advocating arcane rules, difficulty spikes, or cheap mechanics aimed to preclude potential players. I don’t mean to perpetuate insularity. But death or failure in games doesn't have to be pointless, or merely a brief respawn to a previous, uncorrupted state. Imagine a pure detective game that, unlike L.A. Noire, actually requires you to do proper detective work to succeed rather than scurry you up the promotion ladder because of player nepotism. There was something arresting about playing Myst and being told, “Figure it out,” as I scrawled across notebooks record of each and every little island discovery. Why is this market so painfully underserved while?? companies churn out samey games. Didn’t anyone ever tell them not to go chasing waterfalls?

I'm reminded of the visual novel/puzzle game 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, which ended with me being stabbed in the back by an unknown assailant. It was awesome. It was infuriating. It had me yearning for another playthrough in which I do a better job of staying on my? toes, unraveling its mysteries, and avoiding an empty death.

What we need less of, in part, is what we’re inundated with: linear adventures in which we’re led by the nose by way of noisy, arrow-laden UI, toward inevitable, empowering success. Having actual threat and consequence to the player can make for unique experiences -- Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls come to mind as games in which you fully inhabit their worlds -- and serves as one way to heighten engagement as players explore the finely tuned digital space. It is also a means through which less stagnated design can be born as genre conventions would have to be either interestingly worked around or entirely cast off. In the case of the L.A. Noire example, ??a team would have to work out a viable way to make an actual ?detective game.

Even some games in which you can’t “lose” offer a fresh alternative to the whitewashing of failure and instantaneous reversion to a comfortable, safe save state. During a particularly treacherous portion of Journey, I felt more possessive and protective of my lengthy, hard-earned scarf than I would have a lives counter ti?cking away and subsequently resetting me a c??ouple of minutes.

Failure is part of life. It's most of life for most of us. It also has room to be a meaningful part of a game beyond a temporary state to be overcome with the smallest amounts of added insight, skill, or chance. Giving failure meaning or consequence -- and exploring different modes of failure b?eyond the kill or be killed dichotomy -- is a chance to inculcate players with another experience beyond reckless abandon and lethargic play. It can add tensi??on or engagement. If I’m just carted around on a sightseeing tour, made more voyeur than participant, my actions and attention both meaning little, it becomes easier to disengage.

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Why do we care what our mom thinks about videogames?

It’s ironic that I once wanted games to be validated by my mom so badly, since now I give her worrisome glances as she cycles through her reality TV programming. I think we all have that one game that we think will be the game which shows our moms how glorious, beautiful, and life-altering our hobby is. There will be curbstomps that speak to the soul like Camus and rocket launchers that set fire to the heart like Stendhal. We all have those moments, and it’s unfortunate that we don’t all move past them.

Even grown journalists, in their 30s and beyond type embarrassing flowery dedications to games like Journey or Proteus, ??throwing a temper tantrum for their parents’? attention and affection through garish prose. I won’t name names, but you don’t have to look far for these examples -- I have no doubt we may have run a few on this website.

With all of this mind, I sat my mom down with me as I played through the first two hours of BioShock Infinite. The goal wasn’t to usher my mother into the world of “meaningful” (ugh) videogames, but to see where games stand with her now and what my feelings are towa??rd her feelings??.

As it turns out, BioShock Infinite isn’t a 10/10 in my mother’s eye??s, but I can hardly care.

It’s awfully strange to picture it, but that may because I never actually witness it: My mom was a gamer before I even picked up a controller. On my family’s Atari ST, she played adventure games like The Colonel’s Bequest, and many years later, Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (DS). Currently, she games more than I do, playing Facebook games with friends and family all morning and night. Though she never took to The Sims, Tetris, and SimCity as my aunt once did (be careful what you wish for;?? do you really want your system taken away from you by an obsessed relative?).

We all have that one game we want to show off to our parents in an ill-advised attempt to share the magic of videogames, the new media that they only hear about in terms of child murder and outdated pop culture references to Pac-Man and Mario. For me, that game was Final Fantasy IX.

Yes, Final Fantasy IX. Hardly my favorite in the series but it was a very exciting release for the time, one that boasted a lush soundtrack, visuals, and a light, fantasy story that lacked the macho qualities of action games and the overbearing angst of FFVII and FFVIII. Perhaps it didn’t help that she joined me halfway through the game -- at a point ??where even I couldn’t follow the story -- but she didn’t have much interest, looking at it as merely cute. I thought, “If only they talked in these games!” In reality, that’d probably make the situation worse.

But it’s 2013 and motherfucking BioShock Infinite is upon us -- yes, Ken Levine’s epic is permitted to fuck? my mother. Yet, she had no interest in taking this skybird home. At first, she excused the awkward beats in action (waiting for a door to open, characters disappearing from a scene), but once the game presented itself as a first-person shooter instead of the adventure she suspected it may be, she lost interest.

“It has taken a gruesome bloody, twisted turn &hell?ip; and I was just enjoying the serenity of it all,” she wrote on the laptop I ga??ve her.

The rich visuals and detailed art direction continue to carry her interests, but the gun fights continued to bore her. Yet, this is supposed to be the crossover hit that would get everyone’s Grandma to buy an Xbox 360! Ok, Levine and Irrational never said that but BioShock Infinite may be the closest we ever get to a first-person shooter that is about?? more than just the shooting -- yet having the shooting (and so much of it) is enough to turn away my mom. No? mystery, story, or visuals can ever be enough to get away from the inherit disgust and boredom that prolonged firefights summon in her.

I went into this experiment suspecting this would be the case. I’m hardly disappointed in her, the game, or Ken Levine. Most of all, I’m not disappointed in myself because I don’t need my mom to validate my gaming interests nor any other adult, especially as that desire in so many consumers has brought about an industry where every major franchise must imitate The Dark Knight in a bori??ng attempt to be more mature and realistic. ??Why so serious? Because moms.

Did I pick the wrong game? Of course. I can see her enjoying Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire, but I see little point in uncomfortably shoving her outs??ide her comfort zone of Facebook games and TV. I used to judge her and put an effort into getting her into “better art,” never realizing how much of a jerk I was, especially since she never did that with me and my vide?ogames.

"I ALSO READ BOOKS ?MOM!!!!! TAKE THAT MOM!!!!" says the ?game journalist.

Must we always be so self-conscious and defensive about our favorite hobby, hoping for games that present real emotion (lol Journey lol) and narrative (lol Dear Esther lol) when these things mostly just make f??or a dull game? We are an industry that con??stantly wants to appease our mothers, afraid to admit our arrested development instead of embrace it.

This is a large part of why I love Japan, a country where gaming doesn’t occupy the same divide between gender and age. While people bemoan Metal Gear Rising’s eccentricities over here -- “Ugh, why can’t we have an emotional meaningful Metal Gear story, guys?” some may type on Twitter -- in Japan, they celebrate these goofy moments that throw all good logic and sense out the window. They don’t ca??re what their moms think, or maybe their moms? are just cooler than ours.

Now, I got a BioShock to play. Alone, happy, an??d conscious-free is how I will do so.

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Motion capture sneezes!

L.A. Noire used a very advance motion capture setup for the detective drama that was able to capture anything the face did. Best of all, it would capture when the actors wou?ld screw up their lines too.

Nothing creepier than a computer graphic to??ngue?? getting flicked out of someone's mouth. Gross.

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GTA IV DLC, L.A. Noire, Midnight Club: LA, and Red Dead Redemption

[Update: Rockstar has just off??icially confirmed this collection, coming out on November 6 for $59.99.]

Retailers Buy.com and CDUniverse.com have outed a Rockstar Games Collection which is set to include Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, L.A. Noire, Midnight Club: Los Angeles Complete Edition, and Red Dead Redemption. This collection is set for a November 13 6 release on both the ??Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and will run about $60.

The box art that was dug up by NeoGAF also shows that this is Collection?? Edition 1, indicating that there will be more collections coming down the road.

This is looking like one hell of a collection. I'm also glad that this isn't yet another HD re-release?? collection of a bunch of last-gen games for once.

Retailers Leak Rockstar Games Collection [IGN]

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_{Check out the first part of the feature, here!}

The last few years have been an interesting time for the adventure game genre. After a decade of disappointment, fans finally started to see more and more titles appear and most importantly, become successes. Big changes in the industry, such as the rise of digital distributio?n and the popularity of episodic content created a more favorable environment to craft these games in. More opportunities for indie developers started?? to appear as well.

In this, the second part of the feature, I'll be taking a look at what impact these changes have had on the developers and their games as well as what we might be able to expect in the future (hoverboards, hoverboards, hoverboards.) Providing us with words of wisdom are: Al Lowe, creator of Leisure Suit Larry; Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale Games; Dave Gilbert, creator of the Blackwell series and founder of developer/publisher, Wadjet Eye Games; and Josh Nuernberger, creator of Gemini Rue.

I was something of a late adopter when it came to digital distribution. I clung to my boxes and physical media for as long as the world let me. Everybody has a price, though. It turned out that my price was the complete Space Quest collectio?n on Steam. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that it was far from the only example of a classic adventure game on the platform, indeed, there were plenty of new ones as well. Steam already had a massive user base and it offered a great space for promotion. 

Telltale Games is no stranger to digital distribution; its games can be found on all manner of digital platforms, including those of the console variety. CEO Dan Connors explained, "Digital distribution allows i??ndependent publishers to reach the customers without taking on the costs associated with building and marketing a retail title." Telltale sells directly to their customers via their own site, as well. "We're going to be relaunching that soon, because we've learned a ton and we're really going to start making that a big part of our mission again, to get a community there and get people excited and offering them things they can't get in other places. It's a way you can test experiences, try new things, message however you want, position product however you want, provide information on products, and let people participate."

Along with Steam, indie bundles have been a massive boon to smaller adventure game developers. The first three titles in the Blackwell series and Gemini Rue were both featured in indie bundles, last year. Those games were the work of Dave Gilbert and Josh Nuernberger, respectively. Dave told me, "It was like launching the games all over again. I think more people have played Blackwell in the [week since it featured on the bundle] than they have in the last five years. My inbox and forums have exploded since the Indie Royale launch, and the association also gave Blackwell the final push it needed for Steam to accept it. We’ve been trying to get the series on Steam for two ??years but they always said no. So we’re very grateful for that."

One of the largest problems for adventure game developers in the years since the golden age of the genre was publishers' lack of faith in the products. When they were willing to invest in such a game, it was lazily marketed and rarely got the support ?it needed. With promotion and direct access to players, developers have been able to show that there's a healthy audience out there, which will hopefully lead to more publishers investing in these types of titles.

Better tools have also made it easier for small developers to make a finished product. Adventure game studio (AGS) is a free development kit inspired by Sierra's interface for its adventure titles and it's been used to create a vast number of games, including many commercial ones. Most of Wadjet Eye's catalog used AGS. "The creation of third-party tools like AGS enable idiots like me to make these games, so more of them are being made every day." Although AGS games frequently favor a retro aesthetic, that's a design choice rather than limitations imposed by the software. Dave explained, "It’s a big misconception that AGS can only handle low-res games. It can actually go as hig??h as you want, just most people prefer not to. So the decision to use AGS has nothing to do with aesthetic choice, but it has everything to do with money and time. Right out of the box, it has everything you need to make a point-and-click adventure game. Not having the experience or knowledge to make an engine of my own, it was the most logical choice."

Dave's own games have a distinctly retro look and thematically they are similar to the much-beloved Gabriel Knight series. Playing the Blackwell series instantly transported me back in time to the days when Sierra were still blowing my mind with new adventures. It's a wonderful feeling. "Blackwell is very much me trying to do Gabriel Knight. The story of Joe Gould and Joseph?? Mitchell was my Jensenian attempt at merging real-life historical people with supernatural events."

As Al Lowe reminded me, these smaller teams using AGS are a lot like the teams that developed adventure games in the '80s and early '90s. "I think that's great because it brings back the small team concept of one or two people working closely together on a project and actually putting the??ir own personalities into it. I think that so much of what we see that's wrong with games today, that there is no key personality that comes through."

While cost is obviously a concern, I do think that there's a tendency for adventure game fans and developers to be incredibly nostalgic and thus gravitate more towards retro design. I'm guilty of this, myself. My love of the genre classics means that I'm immediately more interested in titles which are inspired by those particular art styles or certain mechanics. In Telltale's case, Dan defends nostalgia, believing that older franchises still have much to offer. "Well I think that for us, with having Sam & Max as our flagship, we looked at the content as being so rich and relevant in the modern day... [It] needed to be brought up now. Having Sam & Max in 2004, and 2010 and all the times we've been able to use them as characters ... I mean ?they're just great characters and it's a great franchise. So for us introducing that content to a new audience was a huge thing."

Expanding into new markets such as consoles and handhelds has also increased the userbase. Adventure games used to be pretty much a PC only affair, with the occasional shoddy console port. While PC is still the focal platform, titles like Phoenix Wright, Ghost Trick, and 999 made the DS a must for lovers of strange adventures and interactive stories. PSN and XBLA have also seen their share of adventure ports, most of Telltale's games can be found there, for instance. Fans of the genre can even get their adventure on with their phone or tablet. Machinarium on iOS is fantastic and might be even better than it was on PC, thanks to it becoming a mo??re tactile e??xperience.

Dan seemed to be willing to embrace new platforms and technology. "It can bring more imagination to how you interact with the characters in the world and how you experience the story." He acknowledges the risk of doing that when it comes to traditionalist fans, though. "It moves away?? from traditional stuff and is a bit risky. So you have to be pure adventure?? game or you're in this vanguard story game type of place."

When I recall playing most of my favorite adventure games, I remember pouring countless hours into them.?????????????????????????? Getting stuck on a puzzle meant that I was going to be doing a lot of ?trial-and-error experimentation, exploring loads of areas, doing a lot of pixel hunting and then finally leaving the computer to go and contemplate it elsewhere -- maybe in a dojo or on top of a mountain. Failing that, I'd pester my friends.

Now there's a strong temptation to just go online and find a walkthrough, even if you've only just been stuck for a couple of minutes. It can ruin the pacing of the game and rob the player of their satisfaction at being able to think of a solution. In an effort to keep gamers immersed, or at the very least to stop them alt-tabing every time they get stumped, many modern adventures contain an in game hint system or simply less taxing puzzles. This can certain??ly frustrate old fashioned players, like myself, but one cannot deny it has lowered the bar for?? entry and possibly increased the genre's fanbase.

Dave doesn't think this is really anything new, however. "You often hear that gamers are less patient these days. I’m not sure if that's true. Back in the '80s, I would spend several months playing the latest Infocom game and never think of ordering the hint book unless I was desperate. But then I got the game Enchanter, which mysteriously shipped ?with the hint book. I finished that game in less than a week. If I got stuck for maybe ten minutes I'd reach for the hint book, because it was so accessible. The only thing that has changed since those days is that we all have instant access to that hint book via Google. There's no reason to force hard puzzles on people, because ever??yone can solve them. So the trend has moved away from difficult puzzles and more towards making the experience of playing an adventure game more enjoyable. It's a very hard balance to strike."

The importance of story in adventure games cannot be overstated. It's what drives the exploration forward and it's the motivation for completing the puzzles. One of the positive aspects on these titles not relying merely on head-scratchers is that there's even more effort put into the narrative. Josh Nuernberger's Gemini Rue contains one of my favorite stories in the genre of late. It's a tale of loss and identity set in?? a bleak neo-noir future. Even though it's an understated adventure built using AGS, it's gained a lot of attention and you'd be crazy for not checking it out. 

Josh advocates the importan??ce of telling the story through gameplay. "What I'd really like to see is games that make these complex stories your experience in the game -- e.g. you are hunted by a mysterious oppressor, or you must face your alternate personality in physical form. Many games today are unfortunately sequences of simplified gameplay strung together by cut-scenes that provide context for your actions (see many first or third-person-shooters). Great games tell stories through their gameplay -- you understand the world and the story by the way you interact with th??em as a player."

Gemini Rue also has several action sequence??s: cover-based gun fights. "Although in adventure games you can't a?lways go the route of totally removing all cut-scenes, you can at least integrate other aspects of gameplay so they don't just turn into quick time events. I knew when incorporating combat I wanted it to be meaningful and to work on its own as a mechanic. The ultimate goal is to give players a unique experience and a quick time event doesn't really capture a gunfight in the same way that a developed combat system does." I personally think that the integration of interesting mechanics is something the adventure genre desperately needed to continue expanding its audience and I think we're starting to see a lot more of that.

A great example of a game that does this is Double Fine's Stacking. It was built around the delightful premise of controlling a matryoshka doll and jumping inside larger ones to gain their abilities and overcome puzzles and obstacles. It was incredibly inventive and its unique gameplay mechanic really made it stand out. Double Fine seems to have had more success with the downloadable market than it did with Psychonauts or Brutal Legend. Their use of Kickstarter to fund their lat?est project seems to have paid off, as well, with fans almost throwing money at the company. It will be interesting to see the long-term impact of Kickstarter on independent de??velopers as more start to use it to secure funding.

Along with shorter downloadable titles like Stacking, episodic adventures have become increasingly common in recent years. It has always struck me as a perfect fit for the genre. Most classic adventure games can be completed rather quickly if you know the solutions to the puzzles. The games' lengths were augmented by the challenge of solving the puzzles yourself. It also meant that each episode could fund the next one, making it financially more viable. It's far from an automatic route to success, however, according to Dave Gilbert. The Blackwell series has been going since 2006 and contains four games, but not all episodic series are so fortunate. "The most obvious thing that can go wrong is that the game flops. What then? Do you forge on ahead and finish the series, knowing that the ??first one didn’t do well? If you do, then you run a much greater risk of the sequel doing just as badly. If you don’t, then you lose a lot of faith and goodwill and that is hard to get back."

Episodic games require a big investment from players as well as developers. Dave continues: "The main problem with episodic games is that isn’t a lot of faith in the format yet. Only Telltale has managed to pull it off successfully and gained the trust of the consumers. While opinions on their games vary, nobody doubts they will finish what they start. By this point, the gaming public probably has a bit more faith in my ability to deliver than most, but I still get a lot of emails from people saying they don't want to get invested in Blackwell not knowing if it will ever be finis??hed. I can totally understand that.??"

It's not just independent developers and publishers working to bring adventure games to a new audience, though. Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain, an interactive thriller that reminded me a lot of FMV titles from the '90s, made some big waves a couple of years ago. While it enjoyed both commercial and critical success, it also got criticized for being more movie than videogame. Our own Jim Sterling is far from a fan. However, its success may lead more publishers to ??take ??risks on games with such a strong focus on story.

The now-defunct Team Bondi made quite the impression last year with their investigative adventure (and driving simulator,) L.A. Noire. It made an even bigger impression with its implosion, some might say. The game itself, if not the treatment of the people that worked on it, still deserves praise, however. Before the genre started to have problems, it was ahead of the curve when it came to animat?ion, so it's good to see so much effort being put into making believable game worlds and characters again. If you'd asked me, back in 2005, if I ever thought big stu?dios would be designing AAA adventure games again, I would have laughed. Now it doesn't seem nearly as absurd.

I'm not going to be drama??tic and suggest that we're seeing an adventure game renaissance. I wish I could, but it's simply not true. We're definitely seeing it making something of a comeback, though. There's a lot more faith in them, both from publishers and players and that's gone a long way to start bringing them back into the mainstream. The fact that the market is growing at all is a massive step forward and looking back just five or six years, we can see how far the genre has come. There are a lot of talented developers out there bringing us more and more experiences to enjoy. It might no?t be a renaissance yet, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

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The years-long L.A. Noire saga had a sad ending last year, but fans of the game may yet have a reason for optimism. In the latest edition of its "Asked & Answered" series, a Q&A with fans, Rockstar Games responded to a question about L.A. Noire with a glimmer of hope.

The publisher nixed the thought of any additional content being released for L.A. Noire, but hin??ted? that the world may not have seen the last of the detective simulator:

... don't count out the possibility of a new game in the L.A. Noire franchise in the future. We simply have not decided anything. We're all very pleased with how that game turned out and are considering what the future may hold for L.A. Noire as a series. We don't always rush to make sequels, but that does not mean we won't get to them eventually -- see Max and Red D??ead for evidence of that -- we have so many games we want to make and the issue is always one of bandwidth and timing.

Indeed, there was a six-year gap between Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption, and by the time Max Payne 3 launches in May, eight and a half years will have passed since the release of its immediate predecessor. Team Bondi may not exist anymore, but Rockstar does own the L.A. Noire IP.

If we do ever see another L.A. Noire game, its existence will have defied the odds once again. While the long-in-development title launched to critical acclaim last May, its makers -- the Sydney-based studio Team Bondi -- became embroiled in an embarrassing cavalcade of post-release controversies. These included reports of missing credits for scores of employees; allegations by former employees of being overworked and not compensated properly; rumors of an irreparably soured relationship with publisher Rockstar Games; and ultimately, a sale of assets and IP before going into administration (the Australian equivalent of bankruptcy) with over AUD 1.4 million of collective debt to staff and creditors.

That said, L.A. Noire was one of my top ten games of 2011, a?nd I'll gladly wait half a decade or more if Rockstar can make a sequel t?hat turns out as well as the original. What about you?

Asked & Answered: Max Payne 3 and More... [Rockstar Games]

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L.A. Noire writer/director Brendan McNamara is getting back on the saddle following Team Bondi's demise, putting together a brand new game with a rather flavorful title. It's called Whore of the Orient, and word of its development come?s by way of Aussie production company KMM.

No details have been provided, but McNamara says the game is based on "one of the greatest untold stories of the twentieth century." It would seem very possible that the subject matter concerns Mata Hari, the courtesan who was executed in Pari?s on suspicion of espionage. 

I loved L.A. Noire so I'll definitely be intrigued by whatever he has coming. That said, KMM is also working on a Mad Max game, so Brendan will have to work extra hard to draw my attention. Because, y'know, Mad Max!

LA No?ire creator's next game is Whore of the Orient [Videogamer]

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Of course most people are only thinking about Modern Warfare 3 today but there's some other releases of note. PC gamers get their hands on L.A. Noire today in a "Complete edition" that includes all the DLC released for the game. I'm glad L.A. Noire has arrived on PC even after a wait of over 6 months; after Red Dead Redemption's non-appearance I was ??worried Ro??ckstar were abandoning the PC as a platform.

Looking back, I think I would have rather played L.A. Noire with all the DLC available, making it one complete experience. The DLC was still fun, I just think it would have maybe been more enjoyable as part of the main game's story. Any console gamers still on the fence will have their chance to snag the L.A Noire Complete Edition when it's released on PS3? and 360 later this month.

The post Rockstar unveil new L.A. Noire launch trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition is coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on November 15 (November 18 internationally). Does that mean? those who spent $60 back in May bought an incomplete ve??rsion?

This new version of the game -- out half a year after the original title launched -- contains all the released DLC, including Nicholson Electroplating, Reefer Madness, The Consul's Car, The Naked City and A Slip of the Tongue. If you were holding out, ??looks like your patience has been rewarded. 

I loved L.A. Noire, but I can't help thinking of things like this as a big "F*ck you" to those consumers who helped the game become one of the fastest selling new games o??f all time. Still, more fool the gamers -- we shouldn't be surprised anymore.

The post L??.A. Noire: The Complete Edition arrives November 15 appeared first on Destructoid.

Team Bondi creative staff are among a slew of other creditors owed big amounts of money following the destruction of the L.A. Noire studio. Over forty people are owed more than $1.4 million (Austr?alian) in collective ?debt.

Developers in production, gameplay, design and programming -- as well as one intern -- are owed amounts ranging from $1,600 to $99,000. Even the vilified former ?boss of Bondi, Brendan McNamara, is due $102,000. Oh, and since the company's getting liquidated, there's a good chance nobody will get even a decent fraction of what they're owed.

We hear of studios closing after a failed game, but this goes to show that even a studio w??ith a major worldwide hit can fall apart if handled badly. So, let that be a lesson to you!

Team B??ondi staff amongst ?creditors owed more than $1.4m [GI.biz]

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Rockstar has promised that it's not forgotten about PC gamers, and that claims to the contrary are unfounded. The studio said this in the face of Red Dead Redemption being restricted to consoles and L.A. Noire taking months to find a home on computers. 

"We hope that with the announcement that L.A. Noire is coming to PC this fall," said Rockstar, "and the knowledge that our next big game Max Payne 3 will have a PC release (plus that we've released both Grand Theft Auto IV and the Episodes from Liberty City fo??r PC), we can finally put to rest any misconceptions that we've 'ab??andoned the PC platform'."

"We do know that, yes, there is just one title absent from our PC release plans -- that game of course being Red Dead Redemption, and of course we're well aware that some fans have been asking for it. All we can say is that whenever it is viable (technically, developmentally an??d business-wise) for us t?o release a game for PC (or any other particular platform) -- we will and we usually do; unfortunately, that is just not the case 100% of the time for all platforms."

Rockstar added that it hoped the upcoming PC titles, as well as GTA IV, will ensure the??re's "plenty of great Rockstar actio?n to enjoy" on PC. 

Asked & Answered?: Max Payn??e 3, L.A. Noire, Red Dead and More [Rockstar, via CVG]

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It's official folks -- the studio behind one of the biggest games of 2011 has officially begun the process of dying. You usually hear of a studio closing after they release a flop, but it would seem that not even L.A. Noire could stop this Australian developer going down.

Documents were filed with the Australian Securiti??es And Investments Commission, notifying that a liquidator has been appointed and that the studio's admin??istration resigned. Another document has been filed, titled, "Special Resolution to Wind Up Company."

Team Bondi came under fire earlier this year due to accusations of excessive crunch time and poor working conditions. It also allegedly excluded certain developers from L.A. Noire's credits, refusing to acknowledge anybody who got fed up and quit before the game was f?inished. 

L.A. Noire Dev Team Bondi To Officially Shutter [Gamasutra]

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Good evening, videogamers! It's Wednesday and that means another episode of The Destructoid show is on its way to your eyeballs and earholes. On tonight's menu, I discuss L.A. Noire making its way to PC and the Foo Fighters headlining Blizzcon, while Max preps us for Starbreeze's upcoming Syndicate reboot and then talks about his love/hate relationship with Bethesda.

On the second half of the show, Jim Sterling joins us to chat a little bit about the Battlefield 3 beta. Spoiler alert: it's a realistic military shooter! I love those!

The post The DTOID Show:?? Jim Sterling talks Battlefield?? 3 beta! appeared first on Destructoid.

Good evening, Destuctikids! As it's a Friday, we shot today's Destructoid Show in front of a LIVE internet audience. In case y?ou ??missed it, here it is.

Today, in addition to giving away some Assassin's Creed Revelations beta codes, we also covered some hard-hitting news. By "hard-hitting," I of course mean "video game related." First, the Dead Island comic book that was given away at Comic-Con is now available online. It looks like Team Bondi, the Australian studio behind L.A. Noire, isshutting its doors. We also talk about chainswords and devastation in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. If you're too much of a sissy for Serious Sam 3: BFE, Croteam's got a support line just for you. Next, the folks at Bethesda the possibility of an Elder Scrolls MMORPG, as well as their approach to bugs in Skyrim.

Destructoid editors Hamza Aziz and Nick Chester are in Los Angeles right now for the Call of Duty: XP event, so we talked about some of the news coming from that. Details surface on the pricing of CoD: Elite, as well as its integration with Facebook Connect. There are also new weapons and new modes. There's a full news recap HERE.

This Monday's episode will be an all-Dead Island review special. That'll go live on our YouTube channel the minute the embargo's up, at 12:01 AM. So be sure you're subscribed. We're also giving away five more Assassin's Creed Revelations PS3 beta codes over the course of the weekend. If you haven't already, follow us on Twitter.

The post The DTOID Show: Se?rious Sam, Skyrim Bugs, and CoD: XP appeared first on Destructoid.

The Sydney-based developer of L.A. Noire hasn't had the best of times since its 1940s-era crime epic was released in May. Despite strong sales and positive reviews, Team Bondi's troubles extended to employees' lack of proper game credit and apparently sub-par working conditions. The L.A. Noire intellectual property, along with all the assets, was then sold to Sydney firm Kennedy Miller Mitchell.

However, today seems to be the final nail in the coffin as the studio has been placed into administration, which essentially means that it can no longer pay off debts and that an external company can take control of the studio. This basically spells the end for Team Bondi. According the SmartCompany report, the offices of Team Bondi have been closed, and there are no employees available to handle?? media commitments. By all accounts, this is the last chapter in a very strange story for the studio that produced only one game, albeit a highly successful one, in seven years.

Team Bondi goes into administration [GameSpot Australia]

The post ?Team Bondi closes its doors and enters administration appeared first on Destructoid.