WriteGaming

Alex Birlo on August 17, 2023

My Backlog “Kingdoms And Castles”

You know how everyone has that massive backlog of games we either got as a birthday present. Or absolutely HAD to buy on the Steam Summer Sale because it was so incredibly cheaper than usual?

Well as I’m getting though mine, I decided to at least dedicate some written reviews to games that are no longer “that fresh” or are obscure, smaller games.

So, I decided to start with a small, charming city builder (I got a lot of them on the list) called “Kingdoms and castles”.

Alex Birlo on August 1, 2023

Destiny 2: Lightfall | “As BAD as it is GOOD”

I was playing “Destiny” since the early days of the first game. And it certainly had its ups and downs, major reworks and the likes. And unfortunately, with this DLC we hit another “hiccup” so to say.

“Lightfall” would be one of these DLCs I usually would recommend to wait and get for a discount – if not for the excellent new subclass it introduces.

Alex Birlo on April 19, 2023

After the Hype: Hogwarts Legacy | “Should Have Happened Sooner”

We can safely say that this is both the most controversial and one of the most anticipated games of this year, so there was no chance I would miss it.

Alex Birlo on March 26, 2023

Warframe 10^th Anniversary

One of my most favorite games of all time is celebrating its first decade. I cannot believe that I have been playing this game for an entire decade! That is a moment worth noting.

Alex Birlo on March 21, 2023

Sifu Vs. Absolver

I finally got around to write a review for Sifu. And as a huge fan of Sloclap’s previous project “Absolver”, from 2017, I was really hyped for anything coming from this developer. But this review will have an unusual format, because half of it is basically comparing the studio’s two games.

Alex Birlo on February 8, 2023

After the Hype: Horizon Forbidden West | “Playing It Safe”

In this review, I finally get around to talk about my personal Game of the Year for 2022. Because, unfortunately, I do not think that this game had received enough attention. Specially towards the end of the year, it was dwarfed by much anticipated and extremely hyped games such as “Elden Ring” and “God of War: Ragnarok”.

Alex Birlo on January 12, 2023

After the Hype: God of War Ragnarök | The Underwhelming but Superb

The title of the review is confusing, but this IS how I feel.

Alex Birlo on December 10, 2022

After the Hype Review “Elden Ring”

This game is a crucial point in the evolution of a studio that is to be respected for their commitment to hardcore, skill-based gameplay.

Alex Birlo on May 28, 2022

Activision Blizzard Gets a Workers’ Union!

Some good news from the video game industry, that made ripples this month.
We have the first precedent of a workers’ union in a big video game company ever! And of all companies, it’s in Activision Blizzard!

Alex Birlo on July 24, 2021

Assassin’s Creed: Infinity | The Future of a Franchise

Recently Ubisoft shocked people with their announcement that future Assassin’s Creed games will become something of a “live-service”.
Here we will recap the history and the changes of this franchise and check out the potential results of this “new change”.

Alex Birlo on July 10, 2021

After the Hype: Control | Video Game Review

“Control” is the latest hit game from Remedy Entertainment. It is sort of a continuation to one of the studio’s previous game “Alan Wake” and is as excellent!
Although not for everyone, this game is definitely and experience you should not dismiss lightly.

Alex Birlo on June 18, 2021

Title: E3 2021 | Top Games Roundup

Last week we had this year’s E3, and it was – pretty good. So now we will take a look at the most notable games and announcements out of the four days – the ones you absolutely have to know about!

Alex Birlo on June 11, 2021

Battlefield 2042 – What We Know So Far

Let us take a look at all the info we have so far about the new Battlefield, before the gameplay reveal next week!

Alex Birlo on March 30, 2021

BAFTA Game Awards 2021 | Short Version

Last week, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts held their 17th annual Game Awards for the great stuff we saw come out in 2020.
The show itself ran for almost two hours, so here is a shortened version of the entire thing.

Alex Birlo on March 20, 2021

SONY Revealed their Next-Gen VR Controller

Let us take a look at the next generation PlayStation VR controller that was revealed.

Alex Birlo on March 5, 2021

Publisher Nacon Hacks and Illegally Distributes “The Sinking City”

This week we’ll take a look at the controversy surrounding the Lovecraftian detective game “The Sinking City”.

Alex Birlo on February 26, 2021

PlayStation “State of Play” Feb. 2021 | Short Version

Today we will have ourselves another shortened version of gaming presentation. This time it’s last weeks PlayStation State of Play.

Alex Birlo on February 12, 2021

Cyberpunk 2077 Developers Got Hacked!

Today we’re going to take a look at the news that last week CD Projekt Red got hacked and lost loads of confidential data!

Alex Birlo on February 5, 2021

Google Closes Stadia Games and Entertainment

This week we will take a look at the news that Google are closing their in-house game development studio, and what exactly that means for the future of the console.

Alex Birlo on January 23, 2021

India Starts Fight Against Loot-Boxes

In today’s news we have an extremely interesting development in the fight against loot-boxes in India!

Alex Birlo on January 12, 2021

Datamined Information on Nintendo Switch Pro – Write Gaming News

New information datamined on a potential next version of Nintendo Switch!

Alex Birlo on January 1, 2021

After the Hype: Cyberpunk 2077 – Game Review

This is my personal review of the game, where I will not talk just about the bugs or advocate for future Fixes.

Alex Birlo on December 17, 2020

After The Hype: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Game Review

This year we have received yet another entry in the Assassin’s Creed series. Here is my analysis of it.

Alex Birlo on November 15, 2020

After The Hype: Watch Dogs Legion – Game Review

It took 28 hours to finish the main story. In short, I did not expect a lot from this Watch Dogs, so I was not disappointed when it all started falling apart. But it is not all bad news, so let us unpack it all in order, starting with the story.

Alex Birlo on November 4, 2020

Halo Infinite Loses its Second Director in Two Years

in today’s news we have: Chris Lee, a veteran member of the team at 343 Industries, stepping down from Halo Infinite development.

Alex Birlo on October 27, 2020

Twitter Drama – Should Streamers Pay Game Publishers?

The topic of licensing was all the rage last week on Twitter, with Twitch purging thousands of videos due to copyrighted music and a Creative director from Stadia commenting nonsense on the matter

Alex Birlo on October 18, 2020

Is SONY Actually Spying on Players?

As of a recent update to the PlayStation 4’s system, when entering a “Party” audio chat, you might have noticed a new notification at the top of the screen sating this “Voice chats may be recorded for moderation. By joining, you agree to being recorded”.

Alex Birlo on October 13, 2020

Write Gaming News: PS Store Removal from PC, PS5 Teardown, Ghost of Tsushima 1.1

This week we will talk about the rumored, possible SONY’s plans to remove the PS Store from PC and Mobile, quickly summarize the PlayStation 5 Teardown video SONY posted last week and the release date and features of the upcoming free 1.1 update for Ghost of Tsushima.

Alex Birlo on September 27, 2020

Write Gaming News: Microsoft’s buying Bethesda! Amazon’s Luna Cloud Gaming Reveal, UK Loot Box Fight

This week we will talk about the huge acquisition Microsoft had made last week – buying ZniMax Media (Bethesda’s parent company), the announcement of Amazon’s cloud gaming service and how You can contribute to the fight against loot boxes – at least in the UK.

Alex Birlo on September 6, 2020

WriteGaming News: Skullgirls studio head’s harassment case, The Division 2 “Summit” mode, Twitch PS5

This week we will talk about the “Skullgirls” studio head’s harassment case, the new “Summit” mode for “The Division 2”, and how Twitch “trolled” everyone to believe that they were revealing news about the PlayStation 5.

Alex Birlo on September 3, 2020

Mortal Shell – Review

Mortal Shell is an action RPG developed by a talented indie studio that is named – Cold Symmetry.
And this is my review of this great game.

Alex Birlo on August 15, 2020

WriteGaming News: Epic Games Lawsuit, Halo Delay, Night City Wire Ep. 2

This week we will talk about the second “Night City Wire” episode, Epic’s lawsuit against Google and Apple, and the delay of “Halo Infinite”.

Alex Birlo on August 14, 2020

Godfall

“Godfall” a combat focused “looter-slasher” developed by “Counterplay Games”.

Alex Birlo on August 13, 2020

Aeon Must Die

A short overview of what we know so far about “Aeon Must Die”.

Alex Birlo on August 12, 2020

Genshin Impact

Here we have all the information about a very interesting game called “Genshin Impact” developed by the great guys at miHoYo, the creators of “Honkai Impact”.

Alex Birlo on August 11, 2020

Spelunky 2

Recently during state of play we got a major update on the upcoming game Spelunky 2.

Alex Birlo on August 10, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077 – Night City Wire Ep. 2

On Monday the 10th of August CD Project Red had the second episode in their series of livestreams called “Night City Wire”, and shared many new details about the highly anticipated “Cyberpunk 2077”.

Alex Birlo on August 10, 2020

The Pathless

Here we take a loot at all we know about this stylish game.

Alex Birlo on August 9, 2020

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

Here let us take a look at what we already know about this upcoming game.

Alex Birlo on August 8, 2020

WriteGaming News: TennoCon, Marvel’s Avenges Spider-Man Exclusivity

This week we will talk about: TennoCon, Spider-Man joining the Marvel’s Avengers game but only on the PlayStation and the State of Play Live stream last week.

Alex Birlo on August 7, 2020

SONY PlayStation – State of Play August 2020

Yesterday Sony hosted a smaller online showcase of State of Play. Where they focused on third party games and the smaller titles still coming to the PS4, PS VR and some more on what comes to the PS5.

Alex Birlo on August 4, 2020

Fortnite Cars Update is Here!

For the longest time players were asking the developers to add actual drivable cars into to the game. And while the game does have other vehicles such as boats and helicopters it is not the same. The update titled “Joy Ride” will be releasing tomorrow on the 5th of August 2020 and will be adding […]

Alex Birlo on July 25, 2020

Xbox Games Showcase Livestream (July 2020)

This week Microsoft finally held their “Xbox Games Showcase Livestream” where they revealed a great many details about upcoming games and even made a handful of new announcements.

Alex Birlo on July 18, 2020

Devolver Direct & Ubisoft Forward Recap

Today we will talk about the two live game presentations we had this week – Devolver Direct and Ubisoft Forward.

Alex Birlo on July 14, 2020

Things You Should Know Before Buying “Ghost of Tsushima”

Today we will talk about several things you should know before buying “Ghost of Tsushima” on the 17-th of July.

Alex Birlo on July 11, 2020

Price Increase for Next-gen Games, “Paper Mario: The Origami King” Release Date

Today we will talk about: the Atari VCS Retro Console new shipping dates, Mafia Definitive Edition being delayed, The Nintendo Treehouse Live stream that they hosted this week and the potential price increase for next-gen console games.

Alex Birlo on July 3, 2020

WriteGaming Weekly News #2: Dr. Disrespect banned from twitch, new Cyberpunk styled game CODE: SYN

Today we will talk about Dr. DisRespect being permanently banned from Twitch, Crash Bandicoot 4 microtransaction misunderstanding, Amazon studios’ “Crucible”, a new Cyberpunk-style game called “CODE: SYN”, and Ubisoft’s new Battle Royale game.

Alex Birlo on June 27, 2020

WriteGaming Weekly News #1: Mixer Shut Down, First Night City Wire Ep.

This week we will talk about Mixer’s closure, a new Crash Bandicoot game, new gameplay for Marvel’s Avengers and CD Project Red’s first episode of “Night City wire”.

Alex Birlo on June 12, 2020

PlayStation 5 Reveal

Sony is officially in the race for this new generation of consoles! Yesterday they hosted a live stream where they finally revealed the console and showed actual gameplay for titles that we can expect for the PS5.

Alex Birlo on May 7, 2020

The Future of Assassin’s Creed

Recently the next Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was announced, so I decided to go back and recap the changes that happened in the series over the last years and give an honest opinion.

Alex Birlo on April 28, 2020

The Last of Us Part 2 & Ghost of Tsushima – Release Date Update

SONY released a statement regarding the release dates for two of its biggest exclusives that were set to release this summer – The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima.

Alex Birlo on April 18, 2020

Jason Schreier Leaves Kotaku

Jason Schreier, a famous video game journalist leaves Kotaku after 8 years of great scoops and making a difference in the industry as a whole.

Alex Birlo on April 9, 2020

New Borderlands 3 Update “Borderlands Science”

The new update adds the “Borderlands Science” arcade machine on board the “Sanctuary 3” and will allow players to help the real-world science community through solving Tetris-style puzzles and earn in-game currency.

Alex Birlo on April 8, 2020

The New PlayStation 5 Controller

The new controller has Haptic Feedback, Adaptive Triggers, a Built-in Microphone, a New “Create” Button and is now called “DualSense”. It is a serious and interesting redesign of the standard formula.

Alex Birlo on April 6, 2020

Head of Xbox Answers Questions

A couple of days ago, IGN had a remote video interview with Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, about the state of the company and the current developments as we approach the release of the next generation of consoles this holiday season. Several very interesting questions have been answered in this almost half-hour-long interview and here […]

Alex Birlo on April 3, 2020

Pokémon and Apex Tournaments, QuakeCon and Bethesda’s Online E3 Events – All Canceled

A new wave of canceled gaming events hits the gaming industry as big developers pull out due to delays and complications caused by the current virus outbreak. “Play Pokémon” leagues First, let us talk about the esports tournaments that were scheduled to happen within the next few months. Two of them are related to the […]

Alex Birlo on March 31, 2020

Microsoft and Sony Statements Regarding COVID-19 Impact on Game Releases

Recently both Sony and Microsoft talked about the impact that the COVID-19 outbreak may have on the development and release windows of upcoming PlayStation and Xbox titles. Both statements were short and vague but imply that troubles are most probably going to arise. Sony Group Statement In a general statement about the impact of the […]

Alex Birlo on March 28, 2020

Sony Caps PSN Download Speeds

Internet traffic hits the peak In a post, over on the PlayStation blog, titled “Preserving Internet Access for the Entire Community” Sony announced their intention to artificially lower the download speeds of the PSN in the United States, as they already did in Europe, so as to lower the strain that the internet providers in […]

Alex Birlo on November 18, 2019

“Death Stranding” Review

First thing, there are no story spoilers here, I discuss only mechanics and concepts. This review will be split into several topics, the biggest of which are: Story, World, and Gameplay. Also, you must understand that this game is a thing you can fully understand only if you play it yourself. This game is based […]

Alex Birlo on November 1, 2019

What is Fallout 1-st?

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, you probably at least heard of how the latest installment in the Fallout series, from the legendary developer Bethesda, became a major… meme! The game is widely accepted as a total failure but it still kicks. In a time when games that failed […]

Alex Birlo on September 20, 2019

Kojima’s New “Strand” Genre

In a recent interview with GameSpot Kojima talked about his ambition and what he wants to achieve whit the new IP that “Death Stranding” is. Apparently he is out to create a new genre, again – seeing as his “Metal Gear” became the father of all action stealth games – and introduce certain fundamentals that […]

Alex Birlo on September 17, 2019

Call of Duty Finally Does it Right

Jus yesterday ended the first round of the public multiplayer beta for the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare rebut that Activision are scheduling to release this year on October 25-th. I have played around 15 hours of it and I can tell you that finally the developers “Infinity Ward” are given all the resources […]

Alex Birlo on September 10, 2019

Valve Clarifies What Was Said About Epic Exclusives

We all remember the shock of the day when it all began, the streak of exclusivity deals with the Epic Games Store. And the first of the big deals was Metro Exodus in January of this year. A lot of things have been said since then, and the argument continues on whether the actions of […]

Alex Birlo on September 6, 2019

Pokemon GO and 4 Million Dollars

Back when Niantic released Pokemon GO in 2016, various news sources were chuck-full of stories about players trespassing on private property in order to catch a rare pokemon or ones that made weird discoveries – like a dead body in a river – while playing Pokemon GO. Today’s story lasted for 3 years, all the […]

Alex Birlo on September 5, 2019

Nintendo Direct 9.4.2019

Yesterday we had a big show from Nintendo. It was well packed with a lot of new information about the projects we already knew and new announcements. So I would recommend you watch the full Nintendo Direct presentation, but here we will go quickly about the bigger games that were shown. Pokemon Sword and Shield […]

Alex Birlo on September 3, 2019

The Order 1886 a Re-Review

Back in 2015, we saw the release of a game called “The Order 1886”. It checked all the boxes as a SONY PlayStation 4 exclusive: hype built up, high quality, talented developers. But it did not do as well as expected. The game received mixed reviews, a 63 on Metacritic and a controversial reception from […]

Alex Birlo on August 13, 2019

Crunch in the Video Game Industry

What is Crunch? In the video game industry, this term refers to times when developers are working extra and overtime hours to reach milestones in the production process of a game or to manage to hit that very important release window stated by the higher management. Crunch crunch crunch Crunch often entails unpaid weekends and […]

Alex Birlo on August 11, 2019

Epic Games Face Class-Action Lawsuit for Personal Data Security Issues in Fortnite

Up until now all everyone was focusing on – when it comes to Epic Games – is their business practices and the poor quality of their digital store. But this time major news came up hitting Epic Games from another direction. They are being sued as a result of the quality of their cybersecurity. What […]

Alex Birlo on August 9, 2019

President Trump Blamed Videogames for the Recent Mass Shootings

Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America had recently spoken about the Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas shootings and in his speech said – as he likes to phrase things –  that “grisly videogames” are glorifying violence across the nation… Essentially it is the conversation to which politicians were returning time […]

Alex Birlo on August 6, 2019

EA Lost 16.5 Billion Dollars in Stock

Around July last year, EA had its stock price around the highest point ever. It was near 149 USD per share, but from then it was only in decline. As I am writing this, Electronic Arts’ stock price is at 89.55 USD per share. Which is a crazy decline of over 37%, this amounts to […]

Alex Birlo on July 4, 2019

SONY About Marketing the PlayStation 5

The Wall Street Journal has recently released an article with some information regarding how SONY is going to treat their next console and how they will be positioning it. The information is based on the words of two anonymous SONY officials and what was recently published or stated officially by the company representatives. “PS5 – […]

Alex Birlo on June 29, 2019

Unskippable Advertisements in NBA 2K19

Several days ago a user on the NBA 2K subreddit had posted a screenshot that has since sent waves across the internet, sparked conversations and rants regarding the advertisements that show up in the new NBA 2K19. Apparently, there is no way skip them and the matches do not begin until the ad finishes. What […]

Alex Birlo on June 14, 2019

Microsoft Xbox E3 2019 Briefing

On Sunday, June 9-th Microsoft had their big annual press conference at E3, where they showcased 60 games – even if almost all of them were indie games – and revealed their next console “Scarlett”. Let us go through these announcements quickly about the smaller games and more in-depth regarding the bigger things like the […]

Alex Birlo on June 9, 2019

EA Play 2019

Yesterday we had the EA play event of 2019 with some information about their plans for 2019. There were presentations for 6 games in total – accept Star Wars Battlefront and Anthem that were mentioned in the intermissions between the bigger presentations – so I will list them in order and we will go through […]

Alex Birlo on June 9, 2019

Google Stadia

Google Stadia “The Future of Gaming” Just recently Google announced their long-awaited streaming console “Google Stadia” and dropped a lot of information regarding the games that will be available on it, how it works and what are the release plans, so let us dive right in! How it works The game you play itself will […]

Alex Birlo on June 6, 2019

E3 2019 Conference Schedule

We are just a few days away from the beginning of the biggest annual event of the video game industry – Electronic Entertainment Expo or simply E3.E3 2019 will begin Tuesday, June 11 and end Thursday, June 13 and will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Centre in… Los Angeles.But the fun begins much earlier, with […]

Alex Birlo on June 3, 2019

Death Stranding Release Date

The time is nigh! Finally, we received a release date for the next – highly anticipated – game form Hide Kojima “Death Stranding”. On the twenty-ninth of May, an eight minutes trailer was released, showcasing a lot of areas, characters, some gameplay and ambiguous story moments from the game. And of course – a release […]

Alex Birlo on May 23, 2019

“Steam Vs. Epic”

Let us finally talk about the “PC war” that began almost four months ago. The aggressive attempts of the EPIC games store to gain market share, over the giant that is Steam.

Alex Birlo on April 24, 2019

“Community Management Mismanaged”

Kids, gather around the campfire I would like to bring up a discussion about how community management is functioning currently. And let me say that there is a definite problem with it, but not a universal one. While you read this article you will begin to connect the dots to various personal or wide known […]

Alex Birlo on April 17, 2019

“Single-Player is Important Heritage”

As I grow “old and grumpy” Yes, it is this topic again. By now hearing someone who talks about ‘single-player is the true way of playing games and it is better than all those multi-player games kids play nowadays’ is like hearing your grandpa yell from the front porch about how it was better before […]

Alex Birlo on April 13, 2019

“Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order”

A New Hope for gamers Stop right there and drop whatever you are doing now! We are talking about Star Wars my friends and we have just received a juicy bit information about the next game from under the Electronic Arts umbrella – “Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order” by “Respawn Entertainment”. Let us analyze this […]

Alex Birlo on April 13, 2019

“Apex Legends – A Success or Disappointment”

The big deal Let us talk this time about the elephant that has been in the room for two months now. Let us talk about “Apex Legends”, what it is, what it means and what it brought to the table. I consider it to be important to bring this up because you do not have […]

Alex Birlo on April 13, 2019

“Gamers as the Most Conscious Customers to Date”

The hypothesis This time around I would like to share a hypothesis with you “Gamers are some of the most conscious customers in the world”. It struck me not long ago when I was trying to explain to someone – who is not a gamer – how gamers are different from customers in other industries. […]

Alex Birlo on April 12, 2019

“The Fake Nature of Anthem”

What are we talking about? What could be a better place to start writing than at the point where we all had about enough… I want to talk to you today about Anthem, or Beyond? Or was it D… something with a D, this game had so many names that people at the studio were […]