I'm not old enough to have enjoyed Pac-Man during its heyday, but I am old enough to have had it on my Atari. I'm also old enough to have been around people who really dug it. (Somewhat related, our online director, Gina, is apparently a…
Are you a gamer? Do you like free things? Of course you do! We here at the Tech Deck are just like you - poor gamers looking for a good deal. And you can't beat no price tag. So we'll be on the lookout for...
The world falls dark as the power plant is overrun. You hear a helicopter in the distance. Get to it first and get out of here! The only thing stopping you is a horde of zombies and your crazed, probably bitten friends. Can you survive?
Title: Grand Theft Auto V Genre: Open-world crime simulator Platform reviewed on: Playstation 4 (also on Xbox One, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, $59.99) Publisher: Rockstar Games Developer: Rockstar North Release Date: Nov. 18, 2014 (current-gen edition) Warning: This review discusses a game that is...
The Internet is abuzz this morning after Japanese developer Capcom posted a teaser trailer for Street Fighter V (apparently prematurely, since it has now been set to private on YouTube) that indicated the next installment in the massive franchise would be a Playstation 4 console...
Spokane isn't exactly known as a hotspot for indie game development, but pockets of Washingtonian creativity do exist east of the Cascades. Take, for instance, the Spokesman's own Andrew Smith, who recently introduced himself as a new contributor to the Tech Deck blog. An avid...
Board games and tabletop games are fun boiled down to their basic components. In this blog we are here to figure out which games are packed full of good solid fun. Hope you enjoy my reviews and I look forward to hearing your responses.
Title: Mercenary Kings Genre: Platform action/shoot ‘em up Platform reviewed on: Playstation 4 ($8.99, also available on PC, Mac) Developer: Tribute Games Publisher: Tribute Games Release Date: March 25, 2014 I never poured quarters in a Neo/Geo machine for Metal Slug action in the 1990s....
I don't know if you were paying attention to the Twitters this morning, but NASA started off the morning with an awesome announcement: We're sending humans to Mars! Watch our #JourneytoMars briefing live today at 12pm ET: http://t.co/6XtjOi1yJo #Orion pic.twitter.com/wrf89sn35A — NASA (@NASA) December 2,…
Light sabers are getting crazier and crazier.
Title: Destiny Genre: First-person “persistent online shooter” Platform Reviewed On: Playstation 4 Developer: Bungie Publisher: Activision Release Date: Sept. 9, 2014 I entered the Vault of Glass this weekend. And I did not survive. Playing the only Raid currently available for Destiny is a lot...
Licensed video games have garnered a universally low quality standard; their rushed development cycles to meet narrow release windows result, more often than not, in products that are middling at best. An argument could be made that this trend changed at some point during the…
Title: Strider Platform reviewed on: Playstation 4 (Digital-only, $14.99, also available on PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One) Developer: Double Helix Games Publisher: Capcom Release Date: Feb. 18, 2014 The last several years have seen a renaissance in the 2-D, action platformer genre. Updates to once-proud...
I'm a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed series. Ever since being roped in by the beautiful Assassin's Creed II (which remains one of my favorite games of all time), I've gone on to play each subsequent major entry in the franchise. Out of love…
Title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Platform reviewed on: Playstation 4 Developer: Sledgehammer Games Publisher: Activision Release Date: Nov. 4, 2014 It would be difficult to overstate the influence the first-person shooter genre has had on gaming. While competitive gamers traditionally flock to fighters, the...
This narrative add-on fails to live up to the masterful base game.
Title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Platform reviewed on: Playstation 4 Developer: Sledgehammer Games Publisher: Activision Release Date: Nov. 4, 2014 Perhaps the most divisive franchise in gaming today is the Call of Duty franchise, which went from a trailblazing squad-based shooting experience in World…
With photorealistic graphics, sports video games in the current generation have sought to simulate, hyper-realistically, the action on the field. Gamers are asked to ooh and aah over the sweat dripping from Kevin Durant's nose in NBA2K, the weekly tweaks to stats and abilities for…
Video games being a relatively nascent medium in comparison to film, literature, and television, the realm of classic video game preservation is just beginning to emerge. Downloadable emulators allow PC enthusiasts to access huge classic game libraries, but their questionable legality and confusing reliance on…
Editor's note: This post focuses on games that have been rated "M" for Mature by the Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB). The links and videos contained below include violence and some graphic language. In September, a fleeting post to Rockstar Games' official website left fans…
Title: 'Watch Dogs: Bad Blood' (downloadable content) Platform reviewed on: Playstation 4 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft Release Date: Sept. 30, 2014 My review of 'Watch Dogs,' the digitally neurotic current-generation answer to the progression of the open-world genre, criticized the UbiSoft title for two…
A review of the Mexican-themed side-scrolling beat-em-up.
One of the most widespread complaints about the multiplayer in Destiny, Bungie's latest blockbuster title, was that it stripped players of the sought-after loot that made your character feel like a bad-ass. That legendary sniper rifle it took you fifteen bouts with a Vex boss…
Title: Destiny Genre: First-person “persistent online shooter” Platform Reviewed On: Playstation 4 Developer: Bungie Publisher: Activision Release Date: Sept. 9, 2014 Researchers have established a link between visual cues and chemical responses in certain areas of a gamer's brain. It's these reactions that make us…
