FORUM

It’s in no way surprising that the mantra of "…but what do I do?" or variations thereupon, has lingered over Sea of Thieves like a pungent-but-irremovable odor. While there was always a strong case that there’d already been a fair amount of intrigue built up for what Rare — proper Rare that is, not Kinect Sports-shackled "Rare" — was cooking-up, prior to and since its reveal back at E3 2015 (which admittedly garnered somewhat of a deflated "eeeeeehhhhhh" reaction from yours truly), details pertaining to its content, its progression, its finer details outside of an odd sample of footage and some rather unfunny plodding through voluntary player commentary, have been somewhat conserved. For what purpose though; after all, you and I both know Microsoft need all the good marketing they can get their hands on if they’re to give Xbox a reasonable chance in 2018.

This isn't commentary on the fact that Skull & Bones has all the potential in the world to muscle in on Sea of Thieves ' territory, either. We went hands on with Rare's upcoming multiplayer pirate experience and came away wanting more, both in terms of gameplay (because it was good) and features (because it seemed largely the same). Sea of Thieves is still a good game, and there's some enjoyment to be had within its colorful pirate world, but it feels like it hasn't evolved since the last time we saw it, and that's cause for some disappointm

Is this a game of substance or a game of potential -- clambering to the hope that players will "just make their own fun?" Yes, there’s a little silliness and due reactionary disbelief as you watch your ship sink beneath the ocean as a swell of string arrangement signal open water once more being the most terrifying concept in existence (especially at night), but these are unintended accidents outside the supposed "bulk" of the game’s content. When you seemingly have more engagement in the surprisingly-detailed ocean physics — rather than the focal content on show — well then that’s a problem. And in Microsoft’s/Xbox’s case, a big problem.

Of course, the abundance of open water does inevitably lend itself to islands to stop by and pillage -- hearkening, of course, to the more casual affairs of Wind Waker and the game does indeed share many similarities — obvious or otherwise, good and bad. But if anything, Sea of Thieves Treasured Fish of Thieves reminds me more so of Jalopy — a rather unexciting-yet-ironically-stimulating simulation of driving one’s car down a highway. And just like that game, there’s an uncanny loft of satisfaction to be had in the mundane and the repetitive. Particularly when you’re lucky enough to land yourself with a crew equally as focused as yourself...and not just there to troll or ruin the fun for everyone's sake, which sadly me and a friend got paired up with on our venturing for treasure. Disappointing as it is for some to play mutiny (albeit unintentionally) and ride your ship away from the island you’re stuck on, perhaps that’s just part of the general risk. After all, this is a game about pirates; just like the Souls games, the anarchy and unruliness of the real world bleed fittingly into the context of the premise.

What Redditor m4rx hauled in from their dive into the Sea of Thieves data was pretty interesting. While many of the assets have yet to be decrypted, it turns out some the elements found were also present in the Pirate Legend video released previously by Rare. But there's also quite a lot m

This is certainly going to strike a lot of hardcore Mega Man fans the wrong way, but the past fourteen or so months have been pretty bad for Keiji Inafune. From the change in Mighty No. 9's art-style to the failed Red Ash Kickstarter, which took place in the middle of the development of another partially crowd funded title, to the countless delays for the Mega Man spiritual successor, we've seen a member of video game royalty sully his good name a little bit. ReCore, the Armature Studios Xbox One exclusive that we actually know next to nothing about, is yet another Inafune project, and the hope here is that it fits in with Microsoft's new consumer-first messaging. If ReCore turns out to be another slightly shady situation, it could be the beginning of the end for this once-powerful developer. The real hope here is that ReCore winds up being an incredible new IP for Microsoft to focus on going forward, as the Xbox platform won't be able to rake in that Halo cash forever.

"When we talk about visual effects in games, we normally mean particles. That's what we're using to create all of the cannon effects for example, like the different explosions. You want to give the player strong feelings when they're playing the game... You should just feel like you're really part of this beautiful wor

It's been a while since we've heard new details about Capybara's long-in-development dungeon crawler, hasn't it. I continue to maintain that the demos of Below that I've spent time with are some of the best gaming experiences I've had in quite some time, but we are getting to the point where it's hard not to wonder what the hold up is. Capy is a studio loaded with immensely talented people who take a ton of pride in what they do, and the hope here is that the final touches are being put into place. Below was originally set to be a 2015 title, and Capy has gone into the portion of its development cycle where it falls completely silent until the final title is released. Now that it's 2016, it would be wonderful to see a new trailer or two before a launch before March 31 of this year. Let's face it, if we go through another six months without hearing anything about Below, it's going to be hard to remind gamers why they should care about this wonderful title all over again.