The Post’s resident video game expert looks forward to several new releases.
Welcome back to the bricks, Bobcats! If you're returning back to campus for another year, I’m glad to have you back as a reader. If you're a newbie, let me introduce myself: I'm a senior who loves all things tech and gaming. I started Gamer Girl nearly three years ago as my outlet to talk about the role of females in games, but it's bloomed into my weekly chance to talk about anything related to gaming, the web or technology.
Like many of you, following E3 — the Electronic Entertainment Expo — is always a summer highlight for me. While there wasn't anything revolutionary announced, in my opinion, there are plenty of games and new features that will be coming up that are worth getting excited about. Here are a few of them.
One major development is that Xbox One will finally be backwards compatible! I've held off on purchasing a new next-gen console — partly because my roommate is nice enough to share his PS4 with me, but mainly because I also haven't had the extra $400 lying around for something that doesn't seem quite practical yet. Don't get me wrong: I really want to get a new console.
This is something that probably should have been announced and executed with the release of the console. While it still won't be applicable to all 360 games, at least the folks at Microsoft are trying to take a small step in the right direction. I still won't be shelling out the big bucks to upgrade quite yet, but this makes me feel better if I choose to do it eventually. We'll just have to see how many games this will actually apply to.
I'm also pretty excited for a few games. I've been a long-time Halo fan, and “Halo 5: Guardians” looks like it will be a successful addition to the series. The game was built with co-op in mind, so it won't be a game you'll want to play on your own. However, rumors say it won't support split-screen. This has been a feature found in the past games. Also, interestingly enough, it's the first title in the series with a “T” rating. It will definitely be worth checking out. This will come out in October.
The same goes for “Rise of the Tomb Raider.” I was impressed with the last Lara Croft title. As I've mentioned in past columns, I didn't get into gaming until high school. That means I missed out on a lot of early games. When classics are rebooted and made new again, I feel like I always have to check them out because I didn't get the chance to play them earlier in life. This will be released for Xbox in November.
Another standout is “Unravel,” a physics-based puzzle game that looks absolutely adorable and fun to play. This is the one I'm most curious about and interested in because it seems so different than other games coming out. You play as Yarny, a cute little character made out of, you guessed it, yarn. He has a loose end dangling from behind him, which you use to solve puzzles. According to game creator Martin Sahlin, “the yarn, it represents love, the bonds we make.” I'm willing to bet there will be some emotions felt when playing this.
“Unravel” won't be released until early 2016.
Sophie Kruse is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in business and marketing. What games are you looking forward to playing later this year? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or tweet her @kruseco
