Yes, it’s once again time to check in on Geoff Keighley and his merry band of misfits, to see what of worth came from this year’s Summer Game Fest show. As with last week’s State of Play highlights , we’re just here to look at the interesting stuff - the games that caught my eye, either through a strong showing or a fascinating angle on their given material. How many of these titles will actually stick the landing remains to be seen, but for now here are my thoughts… Felt That: Boxing Developed by: Sans Strings Studio Doing what basically seems to be a straight “save the orphanage”/underdog boxer story, but where everyone is Basically a Muppet, is a great gag. Seems like it’s a mix of Punch-Out-like fights and an assortment of minigames themed after training montage moments, that’s some good stuff. Marvel Cosmic Invasion Developed by: Tribute Games The folks behind the excellent TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge making another pixel-art beat 'em up, this one a mash-up of Marvel Comics hero...
I'm still cooking up the next new piece, so this week I thought I'd dig through some of my past work and find something that still actually holds up well. The following is a retro review of 2003's Call of Duty , originally written for and published on a previous blog that I created and ran for a number of years. While there may be individual points and observations with which I now disagree or regard in different terms, and while certain details about the wider franchise may have changed in the time since publication, I feel that this is a solid piece from the end of that blog's run and that there's much to be learned from revisiting one's earlier productions. So, for your reading pleasure (I hope), here goes... When I think about how the first-person shooter has evolved, my first instinct is to turn to Call of Duty . The little-remembered 2003 war epic turned a niche genre – the military shooter – into a full-blown phenomenon, earning millions for publishe...