We've been fucking it up here a bit as of late, with our personal lives and such getting in the way a bit, so this will be a bit of a catch-all potluck of miscellaneous stories.
Divekick has been Greenlit on Steam, and will be available on August 20th for 9.99$, releasing simultaneously with its PS3 and Vita counterparts.
Bioshock: Infinite's story mode DLC is starting to get some press time, indicating a return to Rapture, and hopefully a return to form for the once-great series(Though it's still not System Shock 3. I'm waiting.).
Speaking of once-great series coming back in spectacular fashion, Shadowrun Returns is out, and a must buy for fans of the pen and paper series(but not the 2007 PC and 360 hack job). It's also highly reminiscent of the older Fallout titles(including the oft-disowned Fallout Tactics), and handles similar to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
Another great tabletop game, Space Hulk, will also be making the jump to digital soon. Set in the Warhammer 40k universe, it is currently set to release on August 15th, and is now taking pre-orders on Steam.
Earthbound finally sees an American re-release via the WiiU's Virtual Console, however, this comes with the obvious drawback of having to own a WiiU.
Neil Gaiman is attempting to fund an adventure game that he has written. While I'm disappointed that it's not based in-part on either Neverwhere or American Gods, I'm still interested in seeing what will come of it.
Microsoft has straightened up some since the departure of Don Mattrick, and has announced that they will, contrary to previous reports, allow self-publishing for independent developers on the XBox One.
The Persona 3 animated film now has a release date for Japan, November 23rd of this year, and a new trailer.
Capcom has laid the Darkstalkers franchise to rest(for now), following disappointing sales of Darkstalkers Resurrection.
Netherrealm Studios continues to milk fans of Injustice: Gods Among Us, by continuing to release DLC after the end of the season pass. Ed Boon has stated that there is still more to come, and that, no, there will not be a second season pass.
Nintendo has decided to not put any cutscenes in the next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, in fear that they would be leaked online. With their recent litigious nature, and intense copyright protection, including claiming transformative works like "Let's Play"s, I strongly doubt they'd have any trouble with taking them down. Instead, this turns the game into an overall worse experience for the end user, and feels like a very rehearsed PR answer instead of the truth.
More bad news out of Nintendo: Nintendo Japan is refusing to work with independent Japanese developers for titles on the WiiU. With a console with so many gimmicks available, not being utilized to their full potential by the large "play it safe" corporate sector, this is obviously the wrong decision. Independent developers are making huge strides in originality, and have shown that their titles can be a huge draw to a console both in this generation, and the next. Here's to hoping that Nintendo will pull their collective head out of their collective ass for long enough to catch a breath of fresh air, so that their console can do the same.
Square Enix has admitted to pandering to the lowest common denominator with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, by increasing the protagonist's bust size, and adding "jiggle physics". Now, I'm not a key industry member by any means, but I think the first step in selling more titles is MAKING A TOLERABLE FUCKING GAME. If it's going to be 80+ hours long, at least make it an engrossing 80 hours, opposed to stuffing it with bland, repetitive combat, and tedious linearity.
World of Warcraft has lost another half million or so subscribers. The fact that roughly 7.5 million remain is dumb enough, but Blizzard's inabilty to admit that dumbing the game down("streamlining" it) in an attempt to draw in new players over the past two expansions, has actually turned away long time players due to the lack of customization, and lowering of the player skill ceiling, will likely force them to consolize it, and reduce the number of significant player actions and decisions to somewhere around five over the course of the behemoth title, and its, at times, overwhelming XP curve.
Activision Blizzard, printers of money, and corporate juggernaut, has cut a deal to buy back their controlling share from Vivendi for $8 billion dollars, in an attempt to be a somewhat more independent printer of money, and a smaller, though still intimidating, corporate juggernaut.
- Mike "Tsaikotyk" Kelly
The Good:
Divekick has been Greenlit on Steam, and will be available on August 20th for 9.99$, releasing simultaneously with its PS3 and Vita counterparts.
Bioshock: Infinite's story mode DLC is starting to get some press time, indicating a return to Rapture, and hopefully a return to form for the once-great series(Though it's still not System Shock 3. I'm waiting.).
Speaking of once-great series coming back in spectacular fashion, Shadowrun Returns is out, and a must buy for fans of the pen and paper series(but not the 2007 PC and 360 hack job). It's also highly reminiscent of the older Fallout titles(including the oft-disowned Fallout Tactics), and handles similar to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
Another great tabletop game, Space Hulk, will also be making the jump to digital soon. Set in the Warhammer 40k universe, it is currently set to release on August 15th, and is now taking pre-orders on Steam.
Earthbound finally sees an American re-release via the WiiU's Virtual Console, however, this comes with the obvious drawback of having to own a WiiU.
Neil Gaiman is attempting to fund an adventure game that he has written. While I'm disappointed that it's not based in-part on either Neverwhere or American Gods, I'm still interested in seeing what will come of it.
Microsoft has straightened up some since the departure of Don Mattrick, and has announced that they will, contrary to previous reports, allow self-publishing for independent developers on the XBox One.
The Persona 3 animated film now has a release date for Japan, November 23rd of this year, and a new trailer.
The Bad:
Ubisoft released a new trailer for Watch Dogs, and it looks like pixelated garbage. At least now we can understand the concessions made so the game can run on current gen hardware.Capcom has laid the Darkstalkers franchise to rest(for now), following disappointing sales of Darkstalkers Resurrection.
Netherrealm Studios continues to milk fans of Injustice: Gods Among Us, by continuing to release DLC after the end of the season pass. Ed Boon has stated that there is still more to come, and that, no, there will not be a second season pass.
Nintendo has decided to not put any cutscenes in the next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, in fear that they would be leaked online. With their recent litigious nature, and intense copyright protection, including claiming transformative works like "Let's Play"s, I strongly doubt they'd have any trouble with taking them down. Instead, this turns the game into an overall worse experience for the end user, and feels like a very rehearsed PR answer instead of the truth.
More bad news out of Nintendo: Nintendo Japan is refusing to work with independent Japanese developers for titles on the WiiU. With a console with so many gimmicks available, not being utilized to their full potential by the large "play it safe" corporate sector, this is obviously the wrong decision. Independent developers are making huge strides in originality, and have shown that their titles can be a huge draw to a console both in this generation, and the next. Here's to hoping that Nintendo will pull their collective head out of their collective ass for long enough to catch a breath of fresh air, so that their console can do the same.
The Incredibly Stupid:
In what could only be classified as wanton self-destruction, and a complete inability to be a decent fucking human being on the internet, Phil Fish has had yet another legendary breakdown, leading to the cancellation of Fez II, and the protection of his twitter account.Square Enix has admitted to pandering to the lowest common denominator with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, by increasing the protagonist's bust size, and adding "jiggle physics". Now, I'm not a key industry member by any means, but I think the first step in selling more titles is MAKING A TOLERABLE FUCKING GAME. If it's going to be 80+ hours long, at least make it an engrossing 80 hours, opposed to stuffing it with bland, repetitive combat, and tedious linearity.
World of Warcraft has lost another half million or so subscribers. The fact that roughly 7.5 million remain is dumb enough, but Blizzard's inabilty to admit that dumbing the game down("streamlining" it) in an attempt to draw in new players over the past two expansions, has actually turned away long time players due to the lack of customization, and lowering of the player skill ceiling, will likely force them to consolize it, and reduce the number of significant player actions and decisions to somewhere around five over the course of the behemoth title, and its, at times, overwhelming XP curve.
Activision Blizzard, printers of money, and corporate juggernaut, has cut a deal to buy back their controlling share from Vivendi for $8 billion dollars, in an attempt to be a somewhat more independent printer of money, and a smaller, though still intimidating, corporate juggernaut.
Miscellaneous Tidbits:
This might be a format I'll reuse in the future as a monthly recap of sorts, though I'm not sure if it'll be exactly as it is here.
As of right now, the podcast is still on hiatus, as things have been sort of hectic as of late. I'm hoping to have more news on this front for you all soon.
It's the low release period in the year of a new console generation release. There's not a whole lot to cover with any actual substance, and that keeps me up nights staring at a blank post with no idea what to write. I understand that both quality and quantity of posts from me has been lacking as of late, but there's just not that much to go on right now.
- Mike "Tsaikotyk" Kelly
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