Weekly Fix #1

Hello everyone, 

And welcome to your weekly fix for February 23, 2015. Since we're starting with one article each week, it made sense to cover all the latest happenings in the gaming industry for the week in a cumulative and predictable way. If there's something you'd like to see added (such a discussion piece with a topic for each week for instance) leave your comments below!

Let's get started. 

The Order: 1886 Falls Short of the Hype

The Order:1886 has you battling an ancient enemy with futuristic (for the period) weapons in a Victroain-Esque London as a member of an elite unit of Knights known as The Order. 

Leading up tot he release of the game on next-gen consoles, the amount of hype surrounding the game was staggering. Trailers, blog posts, and reactions from viewers and spectators in anticipation of the game were flooding the interwebs. 

Although it turned out that this title would push the new consoles farther than (probably) any other game has pushed them this generation in terms of shear graphical fidelity; it fell very short of all the hype it had generated prior to its release in a variety of areas. 

Achieving a mere 65 on metacritic, some people cited that the game was extremely short (4-6 hours in the campaign), had very uninteresting narrative and character development, and basically felt as a showpiece to demonstrate the capability of the two powerhouses that we know as the next generation consoles. Personally, I will not slander nor praise the game as I have not yet had the opportunity to play it; but logic dictates that such a mass of people agreeing on something are probably not entirely out of their minds.

Star Citizen Reaches over $73 Million in Funding

Star Citizen, a long awaited space simulator for the PC has now reached well over $73 million in funding from people around the world. Making it the most successful kickstarter/public funding project ever in the history of...history.

At its inception, Chris Roberts, the game's creator, hoped it would achieve $100 million some day. It seems that his vision is finally starting to look like a very possible reality. 

Star Citizen is supposed to make you feel like a colonist in space, having to do all the things you already do in real life. Work, fight, survive, and so much more. There are a variety of vessels available in Star Citizen, each meant to fill a different role and appeal to almost every play style. 

I became personally invested in the game about a year ago. Unfortunately over the period of a month or so, I didn't feel like the game would be for me and contacted the developer to retract my funding. I had purchased a ship for around $125, which included a business style hanger. Unfortunately at this time there were very few modules available to actually fly through, so the game because very monotonous for me and I decided it wasn't for me. 

Clearly this decision was made prior to the release of the game, which is still a far ways away. However, it is with this decision that I realized I only wanted to invest in games that have already reached a certain milestone, and seen some level of success. As with some games out there (such as Rust) development in early access can suddenly become non-existent and the people who invested their hard earned money feel deceived and ripped off. 

Either way, I am excited and eager to see what Star Citizen will be able to achieve once it can be considered a finished AAA title. 

$185 of Games - Pay What You Want!

Well it's no surprise that the Humble Bundle seems to be getting more generous each and every time. This time, up for grabs is the second Square Enix bundle which includes Hitman: Absolution, Supreme Commander 2 and Hitman: Go. 

If you decide to pay above the average of $7.49, you can also get games like Thief, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Deus Ex: Human Evolution Director's Cut and more!

And if all that wasn't enough, you will also get Tomb Raider and Sleeping dogs if you pay $15 or more. 

Even if you decide to pay more than $15 you are still getting an amazing assortment of mostly awesome games for dirt dirt cheap. If saving money wasn't good enough, you also get to decide how much of the money you pay goes to a variety of different charities, the Humble Bundle itself, and the developers who made these great games. 

This is honestly a great way to help others while helping yourself, and had I not owned most of these games already, I would have been picking up the bundle myself. Here's to many more awesome bundles in the future!

Well that's going to do it for this week's fix. Make sure to follow the blog and subscribe on YouTube for more great gaming content. And make sure to come back every Monday (and throughout the week too!) to GET YOUR FIX.