Ever since OnLive took the world by storm offering instant access to triple-A video games by means of YouTube-like streaming video and controller input data other companies have sought to turn game streaming into a real industry and simultaneously grab their share of the pie in the process. But while the technology’s roots may lie in giant servers feeding games long-distance for a fee—often a recurring one, at that—as time has gone on a necessary shift in focus has taken place from the large-scale to ...

Steam In-Home Streaming – This is What You’ve Been Waiting For

If you cringed at the word ‘social’ in the title, my apologies. I did the same thing. No, really, I did. Because up to this point, ‘social’ and ‘gaming’ (which virtual reality is definitely linked to) have always gotten together to spawn the likes of Zynga and other infamous companies which like to exploit social media platforms by bombarding the world with games that everyone is playing, so, you know, you totally should too. For the next five minutes at least, until the next fad outdates the ...

Virtual Reality: It’s All About Social

Remember when Square Enix teased the next installment in the Chaos Rings series of Japanese role-playing games would be Chaos Rings Sigma, a F2P card-based social RPG? Well, they lied (thank goodness). And not just because the latest trailer for Sigma, shown at TGS 2013, shows that Square Enix has dropped the card-based genre. Supposedly Sigma is still happening and will be released TBA 2014, but now, after a long period of silence regarding the popular mobile series, Square Enix has come forward with even ...

Square Enix Announces Chaos Rings III for iOS, Android, and Vita

With the videogame industry generally settled on a few select genres that like to reiterate the same style and mechanics over and over it’s easy to forget just how artful, creative, and unique the medium can be, but even two years after its original release Gravity Rush (aka Gravity Daze in the east) does an excellent job reminding us just how much more games can be than the accepted norm. Inspired by the style of French comic artists Moebius and Hergé, Gravity Rush takes place in the cel-shaded ...

Gravity Rush – Dizzyingly Enjoyable (Review)

Mention the name “Type-0″ to just about any fan of Square Enix’s long-running Final Fantasy series and passions will immediately run hot. Out of all entries in the troubled Fabula Nova Crystalis sub-series, Final Fantasy Type-0 won arguably the most affection from gamers worldwide…even though it never officially left Japanese shores. The PSP game didn’t hit the Japanese market until 2011—the beginning of the end for Sony’s first handheld platform—and even in the best of cases it wouldn’t ...

Final Fantasy Type-0 Translation Pulled--More than Meets the Eye?

Portable gaming consoles got off to a rough start this generation. With smartphone gaming on the rise Nintendo and Sony weren’t entirely sure how to compete and draw gamers’ attentions. Furthermore the last generation of handhelds sold incredibly well and boasted libraries of games that are tough to one-up even today. But that was the scenario a few years ago. Since then we’ve had time to realize that smartphone gaming can’t compare to dedicated hardware with physical buttons, and we’ve mostly ...

Playstation Vita Review – Third Year’s the Charm