Ewan Clowers

Since, contrary to popular opinion after the Microsoft press conference, players will actually be able to explore a large chunk of Albion in Fable: The Journey , we thought it important to report-on the context for this advent The industry's current infatuation with motion control gaming is openly seen as a clever (or not so clever) ploy to divert the attention of the "casual" gamer from Nintendo’s very successful Wii console. It has been common knowledge for some time now that both Sony and MS are developing their own approach to motion control gaming, the Move and Kinect respectively. But to take the world's largest annual industry platform, at which many of gaming's biggest showcases have occurred, and focus on this single, controversial piece of hardware as the centerpiece has left many fans, myself included, shaking their fist in the air and wondering what the heck happe There was one new IP shown that got our attention as gamers for a brief moment, Codename: KINGDOMS , with no game-play or true promotion. This was quickly watered down for those of us at home who saw those covering the event immediately drawing comparisons between this and the God of War franchise. Eventually they revealed the Xbox 360 S (a.k.a. Slim) which did little to entice owners of functioning Xbox 360s. Another thing that worked against MS was the decision to demo Call of Duty: Black Ops , a multi-platform game for a longer period of time than most of their other showcases. Yes, there was talk of some timed exclusivity for the DLC (wouldn't be MS without some) but this too was little to parade over since this deal has already been standard with bestseller Modern Warfare 2 . All things considered, the Microsoft Press Conference was almost hard to watch. I had thought ahead of time that MS could show many strong new IPs and win E3 2010, but boy was I wr Oftentimes, the other concern, when discussing ported games, is the controls. Lionhead claimed that this was their number one priority in building the PC version of the game. They completely reconfigured the control system for the PC - taking advantage of key things like the mouse wheel (which is used to switch between magic, guns, and swords, similar to how it is used in shooters to switch weapons). The game controls well, and even for a native Xbox player I found it easy to pick up and play. Of course, the game also supports gamepads, and using the 360 controller offered a equivalent experience to playing on the X It looks like there's a lot more to look forward to this month, with more releases on the PS4 and Xbox One. Although it won't be until March that the next-gen titles start pouring in, February should have many releases to keep gamers occupied. Ranters, what are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments section below! As for me, I'll be counting the days until Thief releases on St Opening up the month is the anticipated Fable magic guide|https://fablelegendary.com/ Anniversary , a re-imagining of the hit RPG originally released on the Xbox nearly ten years ago. It arrives February 4th for the Xbox 360. On the 5th, internet "let's play" sensation Outlast will be available on the PS4. Later in the month, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII makes its way to the PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 11th. Rayman Legends jumps into the next-gen fray on the 18th, giving some much-needed platformer action to the PS4 and Xbox One. The Wii U gets its own taste of more platformer goodness on the 21st, when Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze swings into action. Finally, the long-awaited Thief reboot finds its way to all major platforms after nearly a decade of abse It's a source of controversy whenever a game developer favors a console over the PC (many would say that Crytek shackled Crysis 2 on the PC for this reason). In some ways it makes sense to be critical - as gamers usually put down astronomical amounts of cash for the latest, most powerful, hardware for their gaming machines. As a result, they rightly want to see it used prope By incorporating the idea of spell-weaving into the combat of Fable: The Journey , the player will not be taken out of the experience, but instead will fall deeper into the idea that they are creating and controlling a wide variety of spe Molyneux explained that the problem many gamers have been encountering with Kinect is its lack of tactile feedback. When a player swings a sword or shoots a gun via a gesture, they inevitably expect to receive some sort of response. But since Kinect puts you into the role of the controller, there is no tactile response, and thus the action feels f All in all, as a lover of the X360, I felt significantly disappointed, in a dramatic way. I am not too excited about any of the exclusives and as an overweight nerd, dork, geek, and gamer, I feel like I would never play with Kinect. Even a month after E3 I still feel pretty uncertain about the future of my beloved console of choice and I certainly hope MS has some announcements later in the year to prevent Xbox 360 from completely fail to satisfy in 2010, for the hardcore audience that i