There are many reasons why the term 'early access' has become a four-letter-word in my world, and I'm sure that many of you will know why. Much like crowd-funding, there's so much potential for good, but we've all seen the mismanagement and failures that give these systems a bad name. Unfortunately, the bad often outweigh the good, even within the same project.
It's easy to forget that Telltale Games made a bunch of excellent adventure games before they became a household name in the gaming industry. They were always around, but I'd argue that it wasn't really until The Walking Dead came around that the studio was firmly placed on the map of notable developers. Although, with their recent closure surrounded in questions of mistreated workers and other controversial headlines, it might be worth remembering some of the good work they did before turning into the 'licensed game sweat-shop' (my words, nobody else's).
I think I might be able to pinpoint the moment when I lost all interest in online multiplayer. Well, maybe not the exact moment, but it would be whenever voice chat became the norm. Back when I played Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and Quake III religiously, voice chat was the exception and text chat was the rule. Turns out hearing strangers yelling into their low-quality microphone didn't add much to the online gaming experience.
It never ceases to amaze me that mobile gaming is often more popular than any other platform these days. I guess I might just be behind the times, but using my phone for playing games always seemed a bit pointless. The combination between awful touch controls and exploitative micro-transaction models has kept me far from mobile games for a long time.
I'm not a fan of deck-building games at the best of times. I never got into Magic The Gathering, or Pokémon, or any other form of Collectible Card Games, or Trading Card Games at any point in my life. The closest I ever got was collecting basketball cards in primary school, because literally everyone collected basketball cards at my primary school.
I've considered a few things this year, as there have been a few questions come to mind while thinking about GOTYs. The first being that from here on out, I'll be considering early access games that reach their full release. I've always wondered if it's best to wait until full release, because I think that once you start selling a game it can (and should) be critiqued. However, for the purposes of GOTY considerations, I think judging a game by its full release is appropriate.
Sometimes it's worth remembering that when you've created something excellent, it needs to speak for itself. When you have a core set of compelling mechanics presented beautifully, there's no need to inflate the facts. Countless little indie treasures could learn from this, and She Remembered Caterpillars could as well.
These days it seems like there's another game being re-released or remastered every second. It seems like publishers have decided that cashing in on old classics is a much better idea than making something new and interesting. Unsurprisingly, I'm often sceptical when I see an acclaimed title getting the re-release treatment, and Shadow Of The Colossus (2018) was no different.
When Steam introduced the 'no questions asked' refund system, I saw a lot of people predicting the apocalypse of the indie game. There were heated debates over whether or not gamers would simply play a small game, then refund it because they could. It seemed like anyone making short little games was about to be ripped off royally, making any such endeavour pointless.
What is it about console launch titles that means they all have to be a bit mediocre? It seems like whenever a new system gets released, the creators failed to ever really test some of their new gimmicks in the real world. The sad thing is that games released close to launch have no idea that the new control method or camera will end up being a real pain in the butt.
It's been a long time since I've been as obsessed with a game as I was with the original Myst series. I played the games multiples times to get all the endings, I even ended up reading the novels based in the games' world. Not only was it a compelling science-fiction concept, but Myst was a game unlike any I'd ever seen before, which fascinated me to no end.
At times it feels like 2018 has been the year of over-hyped games, but maybe that's just my own perception messing with my mind. After all, I was never going to be all that interested in a Spider-Man game, no matter how well received it ended up being.
After the success of Grand Theft Auto V and the previous Red Dead Redemption game, the avalanche of Red Dead Redemption 2 hype was not unexpected. It seems like whenever Rockstar get around to releasing another game, there's reason to be excited. Few publishers manage to carry that kind of reputation, but is the weight of previous success beginning to weigh them down.
It's always interesting to see what happens when one of the biggest gaming franchises in history decides to change up their development process. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought Ubisoft's idea of taking a year off from releasing another Assassin's Creed game was a good idea. Especially after the negative sentiments stirred up by Unity. So how did an extra year of development time serve Assassin's Creed: Origins? It's kind of hard to say.
Welcome back to the land of beautifully realised, small-scale, narrative gaming excellence. I'll never ceased to be amazed at how a great little game can stick with you far beyond an average big game. Then again, we all know that sometimes good things really do come in small packages.
Hype can be a double-edged sword, as it's often a result of aggressive marketing that never lives up to its promises. Over time we've learned to avoid buying into the huge swell of praise and applause handed out to big budget "hits", thanks to a long list of disappointing experiences that were supposed to be transcendental. It's a shame then, that when a truly excellent game comes along, it's mired in doubt on account of all the hype built up in its wake.
Immersion often seems like the holy grail of game design, as it's often seen as the key to a player's overall enjoyment. It's why so much effort is put into input methods and fancy new controllers with motions sensors and vibrating functions. The more a game can draw us into its world and make us believe what we're seeing, the better, but there's one type of game that needs nothing more than a player sitting at a computer.
There are times when I think I might be a glutton for punishment, but maybe it's the same for everyone. You see, there are a number of game genres that I will always love to play, despite the fact that I am always terribly skilled. While racing and fighting games are the finest examples of this, my other favourite genre of difficulty games would have to be the twin-stick shooter.
What could make an open world racing game featuring multiple disciplines and a pretty big map even better? If you answered: boats, planes, hovercraft, and motorbikes; then have I got news for you. Not only is The Crew 2 packed with more content than its predecessor, but there's more variety than ever before!
Every now and then a game is released to mediocre reviews and practically non-existent hype, but I enjoy it all the same. The first Mirror's Edge was criticised for its empty world and bland story, while offering unique and compelling gameplay. It was short and sweet, but I loved everything about it, so the sequel must be right up my alley… right?
