By Jonathan G. Lee
Greetings! Jon here with our first Circle Roundup of November. This week’s Circle Roundup is brought to you by chickens, which are delicious, but did you know they also make excellent pets? Plus, free eggs. How many pet owners can say they get compensated for their TLC with groceries? And with that, the Roundup!
First off, let’s give a very warm welcome to our newest member, Heather Alexandra! Heather reviewed Titanfall 2, a game made on the hopes and dreams of a small but loyal fanbase. The first Titanfall was critically acclaimed but failed to retain a large audience during the months after its release. This sequel addressed several criticisms of the first game, namely the lack of a proper singleplayer campaign and barebones multiplayer features. Though Heather still found the multiplayer modes and customization in Titanfall 2 lacking, the short but memorable campaign more than made up for it. Read Heather’s full review here.
The Battlefield series has always prided itself on zaniness. It all began with the legendary LoopZook, which was eventually topped by the LoopSnipe. And just when players were coaxed into the notion that Battlefield feats couldn’t get any crazier, along came Jet Swap. Michael Thomsen reviewed Battlefield 1, which tried to infuse solemnity into the series without compromising the series’ trademark arcade-y gameplay. Unfortunately, the game’s mixed messages couldn’t sustain it beyond a few hours of fun. Read Michael’s full review here.
The latest update to Animal Crossing: New Leaf adds an RV park, new currency, Amiibo support, and even lets you sell off your old town to Tom Nook. Scott Stein reports that the latter feature can help you avoid pangs of nostalgic angst a la Cinema Paradiso because the town you left behind in Animal Crossing may not be the town you remember. As Heraclitus said thousands of years ago, you can never step into the same river twice. Once you’ve been somewhere, it’ll never be the same when you come back. That’s beautiful, but also pretty freaking sad. Read Scott’s full report here.
“My dear Corvo. . .” The latest story trailer for Dishonored 2 features a new voice actor for a beloved character, and some say it’s a change for the worse. Robin Lord Taylor has replaced Billy Lush as the new voice of The Outsider, the amoral demon-angel-demigod being that marked Corvo Attano with his supernatural powers in the first Dishonored. Allegra Frank reports that a number of YouTube comments don’t like the younger update to The Outsider’s voice. Arkane Studios maintains that Lush was replaced over scheduling difficulties, but Lush went on reddit to claim that he was never asked to return. Read Allegra’s full report here.
In the market of a gaming desktop? Sherri L. Smith has written up a helpful guide that covers everything from design, performance, price, and customization. You can get started with a nice mid-range system starting from $699, but for roughly $1000, you can build a rig that’ll be melting your face off in glorious 4K. Read Sherri’s comprehensive article on PC building here.
And now for news outside of the Circle. . .
The group stages of Blizzard’s international Overwatch World Cup have concluded and South Korea has been one of the tournament’s biggest upsets. The nation of South Korea never had a tradition of arena shooters until Overwatch, which made it an underdog going into the tournament. Despite this, South Korea is the only team in the Overwatch World Cup to emerge from the group stage with a perfect record of 6-0. The team has yet to lose a single game. South Korea’s most recent match-up was against Finland. Though Finland was the favored team because of its ace, Timo “Taimou” Kettunen of Team EnvyUs, South Korea ended up winning the series in a close 2-0 sweep. The Overwatch World Cup will conclude at Blizzcon 2016. Other upsets of the tournament include Spain’s 2-1 victory over Sweden. Sweden is considered the strongest team in the Overwatch Cup because of its star-studded roster featuring Kevyn “TviQ” Lindstrom, Andre “iddqd” Dahlstrom, Sebastian “chipshajen” Widlund, Sebastian “Zebbosai” Olsson, Kalle “Zave” Haag Nilsson and Christian “cocco” Jonsson. Watch replays of the group stages and see the final Round of 8 at Blizzcon here.
A few years ago, Skip Bauchman, an actual LAPD detective, sat down with G4tv to do a playthrough of L.A. Noire. The end product is just as interesting as the premise sounds, with some really cool insights into how actual detective work is done. Also, it turns out the game is surprisingly authentic in its portrayal of law enforcement and the city of Los Angeles. Watch it here.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is now free on PC. If you read this and thought “what’s Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon”, (1) how dare you and (2) MARK IV STYLE, M******ER. Yes, those really are the voices of Michael Biehn and Phil LaMarr. Read more about this glorious game and how to get it for free here.
Owlboy is finally here! The 2D sprite platformer which took 9 years has been released on PC. Designer Simon Stafsnes Andersen said the game took so long to finish because he was suffering from depression. I know the feeling, brother. I haven’t played the title yet (Editor’s Note: It’s worth the wait!) but there’s one thing I can say: it looks beautiful and the music is breathtaking. Watch the debut trailer here.
And that does it for this week’s Roundup! Thanks for reading! See you all next week!
