Your Theological-ish gaming news for 11/5/13:
1. Call of Doodie
The Call of Duty franchise has been the butt of many game journalist jokes, but never got low review scores until now. Call of Duty: Ghosts scored a 3/5 on US Gamer, a 7/10 on Eurogamer, and a 6.5/10 on Polygon, saying “Ghosts feels like an accountant’s sequel, with just enough content to justify a new installment.”
2. Super Mario 64 Builds Brain Plasticity
A recent study found that playing Super Mario 64 for thirty minutes a day provides significant benefits to the brain. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Mario 64 makes you a better human being. But it makes you wonder why they chose the seventeen-year-old game for the study instead of Call of Duty.
3. “Holy haberdashery, Batman!”
If you’ve been waiting to get in on the Batman Arkham games on PC or Mac, you’re in luck. Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Fear 2, Fear 3, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and Lord of the Rings: War in the North round out the current humble bundle that you can own for as little as $4.33 (as of this moment). And if you’re super cheap, you can get all but Scribblenauts and Arkham City for just $1. But maybe be nice and give to charity at a higher cost?
4. Valve is a Hardware Company Now (Without System Exclusives)
Valve let Wired in on their hardware-making process behind the upcoming Steam Controllers and Steam Boxes. Details are still pretty sparse, but this well-written article does an excellent job of summing up how Valve went from being a simple game developer to being a contender with Nintendo and Sony.
5. Apparently Getting Games Greenlit Still Requires Black Magic
Valve isn’t making everybody happy. Game developer news site, Gamasutra, posted a robust write-up on the process of getting a game past the unknowable Steam Greenlight gatekeepers, examining what gets a game released or why the heck some developers seem to get a free pass.
