7.5; seven and a half out of ten; seventy five percent. In the United Kingdom, it equates to achieving an A grade in any standardised school test, which would suggest that the work was made up of content that was at least three quarters excellence. Which seems pretty fair. With that in mind, why is the internet up in arms over a review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword by GameSpot, which has awarded the game an overall score of, you guessed it, 7.5?

The answer lies in our general attitude to review scores and our expectations of what constitutes a “good” rating – and how we’ve been spoiled on 10/10s.

(more…)

Not all of us – and not even I – are sufficiently flush to deck out their gamer cave with a fantabulous sound system.  Instead, we tend to rely on the less than cinema quality speakers that are shoehorned into our TVs.

But, never fear, good denizens of the intertubes: Turtle Beach have a wide range of gaming headsets that should spiffify the audio side of your gaming experience. I’ve had a chance to get ears-on with the most basic model in their new line-up, the X12 headset. Does it sound run-of-the-mill, or does it punch well above its audiological weight?  Find out after the jump!

(more…)

On the heels of Extra Life‘s success, we want to bring some attention to another organization trying to help gamers in need. In case you weren’t aware of it yet, we have soldiers overseas. These soldiers are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, co-op partners that sacrifice everything to protect us back home. They go through grueling situations and are away from their loved ones to make sure we can live peacefully.

The 11^th of November is Veteran’s day, but Gamers Outreach and their subdivision Fun For Our Troops wanted to go beyond honoring soldiers for just one day.

(more…)

It’s Modern Warfare Eve, and all over the world gamers are idly sitting, waiting for the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise to touch down in their consoles and for the media blitz to begin all over again. Except, a few folk have been lucky enough to land a copy through some unscrupulous independent retailers who just don’t give a foque about the official release date of a game. Why do some stores endeavour to ignore their legally binding distribution deals, putting the ones that care to follow the rules in a tricky situation?

I journeyed into Glasgow today to find out for myself, and found myself hounded out of one store quicker than you can say bacon.

(more…)

PSN game-sharing was never among the most moral of acts, but I’m not here to judge – that’s the devil’s job when you burn in hell for not paying for video games.  Though long after the practice began, Sony has finally tightened the clamp on game-sharing – while not explicitly saying, “eat that, gamer-sharers.”

Under the new policy, PlayStation Network users will be able to activate each game purchased after Nov. 18 on two PlayStation 3′s – quite a step down from the five activations you get with content purchased before Nov. 18.  The new rules also apply to PlayStation Portable games.

Even with the new policy, you can still share a game with one other PSN user, but the switch from five to two activations gives game-sharers, who, from some reason, feel entitled to a game that they either don’t want to or can’t buy, a lot less wiggle room. (more…)

Devil May Cry is getting split into two universes: Capcom’s Devil May Cry nos. 1-4 Dante and new Dante, brought to us by the fine folks at Ninja Theory.  The root of the decision is pretty obvious: Capcom and Ninja Theory don’t want to piss off hardcore Devil May Cry fans… or, piss them off more than they already have.

Think back to the reveal for Ninja Theory’s Devil May Cry.  There were a lot of angry gamers who spoke out against the look of younger Dante.  The Devil May Cry mythos split obviously takes care of those objections.  Gamers will be able to enjoy the newest Devil May Cry without it tainting the old games, which wouldn’t happen anyway, but you can’t really argue with annoyed gamers who feel that they know what’s best for a video game series they didn’t create.

We’ve seen game developers acquiesce to fans before.  When you’re trying to market and sell blockbuster video games, I guess you can’t irk your target audience; however, speaking as someone watching from afar, this decision is the coward’s way of dealing with the whole situation. (more…)

GTA V‘s trailer has gone live, and with it I have produced a comprehensive list of things we know (and the speculation that could follow them) now based on what Rockstar North has packed into the minute and a half long video.

No more filler than that needed: hop on over and have a read and share your thoughts!

(more…)

For nearly four years, we’ve enjoyed Yamster’s ramblings about video games and nerd culture.  You might coo at the soothing sound of his Scottish accent or stumble over the European “U” that he sticks in words like “armour,” but you can’t argue with his writing ability.

Yamster has always been a talent, but he’s come such a long way during his time at Sarcastic Gamer.  Now he is a published author.  Yep, you can actually buy a book written by Yamster; a thing with pages on which Jon scribbled and doodled.

Normally this scenario might play out as the perfect hook for a Fiction Friday article, but Yamster has an actual book that he can crow about and sign for his legions of adoring fans – many of whom have yet to shave for the first time!

I only kid, of course.  I speak for everyone at Sarcastic Gamer when I say that we are incredibly proud of Yamster for this tremendous accomplishment.

On behalf of the Sarcastic Gamer staff, congratulations, Yamster.

In his book, “Global Game Jam: 48 Hours of Persistence, Programming, and Pizza at Scottish Game Jam,” Yamster details the exhausting 48 hours of Global Game Jam 2011 in Scotland, which brought more than 100 video game creators and designers to Glasgow Caledonian University.  The alliteration in the title includes pizza, so you know it’s got to be a winner.

If you’re interested in buying a copy of Yamster’s book, US folks can buy it from Amazon.com as a hard copy, or you can buy it as a Kindle book.

UK buyers can pick it up on Kindle here.

I only hope that Yamster will remember us when he’s carousing about with P. Diddy, Ricky Gervais and David Hasselhoff.

In case you hadn’t noticed, small-time unknown publisher Rockstar Games announced relatively low-budget indie sequel Grand Theft Auto V yesterday, along with a date for the trailer: Wednesday November 2nd. Since this announcement, a Flash countdown has gone live on the site, an embedded version of which you see above.

With a logo revealed and the timer ticking, it’s inevitable that we find ourselves asking: what can we expect from Grand Theft Auto V?

(more…)

This is absolutely precious. Warner Brothers Interactive has included redeemable online pass codes inside new copies of Batman: Arkham City – a title that will sell a bazillion copies anyway — in an attempt to prevent used sales. The redemption code grants access to the Catwoman missions which, if not played through, keep some of the game’s main storyline withheld and also prevent players from gaining all achievements/trophies.

And it’s gone totally tits up.

(more…)