Games That Changed Our Lives #31: Fable II
My life revolved around playing games. Nothing could take that love from me – until high school, that was.
Retro
Still a 90’s kid at heart? Wish it was still 1985? Rather play Frogger than Assassin’s Creed? GameSpew’s Retro section is for you!
Here we celebrate everything yesteryear: the best games of days gone by, re-releases of the classics, and pretty much anything to do with the golden age of video games.
Games That Changed Our Lives #29: Pokémon Red & Blue
The mid-Nineties saw a huge leap in the video-gaming industry as 3D games and the consoles to play them on became available. This put the likes of the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo’s N64 up against the previous generation of the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis or the SNES; a battle which would, of course, reveal only one, true winner. What…
Thousands of Amiga Games Now Available For Free In Your Browser
Have you ever heard of Archive.org, or the Internet Wayback Machine? Well, you’ve been missing out. A service that’s been running for years, the Internet Archive captures screenshots from across the net to create a timeline of how websites used to look. Check out Google back in 1998… or GameSpew just last year! To further…
Counting Stars: A Look Back Over 20 Years of Star Ocean
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the fantasy/space series, Star Ocean. The original game launched on the Super Famicom in Japan on 19 July 19 1996. Despite its long lineage, there are actually only six main games in the franchise (not counting the remakes or the mobile trading card game). They may differ slightly,…
Sega to Re-release Mini Version of Mega Drive
Following on the heels of Nintendo’s NES mini announcement, Sega are set to capitalise upon one of their own classic consoles. A mini version of the Sega Mega Drive (known as the Genesis in North America) is set to be re-released later this year. The Mega Drive Mini features 80 pre-loaded games for players to…
Nintendo’s Classic Mini NES goes to the top of Amazon’s charts
Sony and Microsoft may have some stiff competition this coming Christmas. Nintendo’s Classic Mini NES is already top of the bestsellers list on Amazon.co.uk. Nintendo are releasing a mini version of their classic NES machine on 11th of November this year. The smaller machine boasts 30 already built-in, classic 1980’s-era Nintendo games. Games such as Super…
Games That Changed Our Lives #28: Guild Wars 2
I feel like there comes a point in every gamer’s life where they’ll try out an MMORPG for the first time and it will either show them a magical new world of gaming… or traumatise them for life. I started with the more traditional World of Warcraft in 2012. An obvious starting point, I believed, so I went…
Games That Changed Our Lives #26: Hidden & Dangerous 2
Hidden & Dangerous 2 is probably a game you’ve never heard of. I myself know only a handful of people who are even aware of the game, let alone have ever played it. The fact that this game – a classic in my eyes; a masterpiece of tactical squad-based shooting – is so underrated is…
Games That Changed Our Lives #24: The Batman “Arkham” Series
High above Arkham Asylum, a blackened sky looms behind a shawl of thick, grey clouds; each one lousy with smoke and dirt from Gotham’s factories. Licks of lightening tear apart the sullen sky and the ensuing booms of thunder send an unsettling feeling through the very bones of those caught in the storm. Atop the tallest building sits a buttress and atop that, a shadowy figure stands…
Games That Changed Our Lives #23: Grand Theft Auto (Part Two)
Not read Part One yet? Click here to read that first! A new generation has begun. One where you no longer needed memory cards, multi-taps, wires for your controller or even a real-life friend to play co-op with! With these leaps in hardware, developers were able to craft what became some seriously generation defining games:…
Games That Changed Our Lives #23: Grand Theft Auto (Part One)
With the first title released in 1997, the Grand Theft Auto series began its (so far) 18-year journey as a top-down, 2D action title and from that point on, both the series and its creator, Rockstar Games (or DMA Design at the time), became powerhouses in the gaming industry. Even since those early days, both have been…
British Company Attempt to Bring Commodore 64 Back to Life
Originally released in 1982, the Commodore 64 (or the CBM 64, if you like) was likely a lot of people’s first experience with video games – it certainly was mine. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it still holds the title for the highest-selling computer of all time, with sales figures of somewhere between…
Games That Changed Our Lives #22: Wizkid
As a young child, I spent my days sneaking into my older brother’s bedroom in the hope of scoring some time on his Amiga 500. After its launch in the late eighties it may have been used by some as a home computer, but to us, in the dawn of the nineties, it was a gaming…
Games That Changed Our Lives #21: Sonic The Hedgehog
If you needed a mascot for your brand and your competitor had a podgy plumber with a noticeable nose and magnificent moustache, who or what would you choose as yours? It needs to be bright and cheerful with features that will immediately identify them as your property. Probably the last thing I’d think of would be…
Games That Changed Our Lives #20: Bioshock
Chances are, if you had an Xbox 360 or PS3 back in 2007, you played the very first Bioshock during its prime. It came out in the same year as many other classics including Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Halo 3. So yes, first-person shooters weren’t exactly new, but they were for 13-year-old me, and Bioshock…
Games That Changed Our Lives #19: Uplink
Back in 2001, hardly anyone had a mobile phone, the internet connected using uncomfortably loud and ridiculous noises, and hacking had only really been seen in Scanners or WarGames. Despite this low awareness of hacking and the limitations of the technology of the time, Introversion Software, a small and independent British developer, decided to release Uplink to the…
Games That Changed Our Lives #18: FIFA Football
For a series that’s 23 years old, FIFA Football has done incredibly well to stay relevant. Its singular focus means it won’t appeal to many and I suspect some of you reading this are only doing so because of an interest in game history, not in football/soccer. “Association Football” as soccer is properly termed, began…
Games That Changed Our Lives #17: Deus Ex
If you’ve played a video game since the year 2000 then chances are that Deus Ex had an impact on it in some way; its large open-world hubs, encouragement of multiple play styles and an immersive and reactive story-line have left a huge mark on the industry, the benefit of which we are still enjoying…
Games That Changed Our Lives #16: Theme Hospital
Simulation games have been around since Fortune Builder in 1984 before being popularised by the first incarnation of Sim City in ’89. Since then their subject matter has taken many forms including malls, hotels, amusement parks, flying and bus driving. Despite the many variants, there is one which, for my money, has yet to be…
Games That Changed Our Lives #15: Silent Hill 2
Funnily enough, during my first playthrough of Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4, I never actually touched the controller. I sat on a couch, covered in a cocoon of blankets, and watched my friend (we’ll call him Josh) play the game for me. This didn’t dilute the scare-factor, but rather enhanced it. You see, Josh…
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