As someone who has covered videogames as an industry since 2002 off and on for the past two decades – big corporate events and spectacles are something I’ve seen morph from being laser focused on single titles accessible to a select few to livestreamed “events” that draw millions of eyeballs waiting for the next big trailer or reveal. With E3 dead and over The Game Awards have since taken the place as the premiere space for “world reveals” and preplanned P.R campaigns.
It is no secret that the The Game Awards are primarily a platform for upcoming games and surprise announcements to enter the cultural now and become “THE THING” people are sure to talk about for the foreseeable future. Although “Awards” are in the name, the awards are simply a formality- a justification for the spectacle without challenging establishment or up-lifting marginalized communities or even the people who made the games the awards are supposed to be centred on.
The Spike Video Games Awards (the precursor to the The Videogame Awards) literally had the US Military as sponsor in the 2000s. Multiple incidents in recent years have occurred where unexpected people have made their way onto the stage during a live broadcast. This includes YouTubers known for various stunts making right wing dog-whistle soundbites into the microphone, broadcast to millions of viewers. People within the community have speculated that it is possible that the US Military were providing either security directly or consulting on improving security that already existed.
Hey at least Kojima was there (Source: The Game Awards 2016 Stream)
2023’s rendition of The Video Game Awards felt rushed or “off” compared to other year’s offerings. It is expected that the reveal trailers for new titles will be light on details, probably under two minutes and are sometimes just pre-rendered visualizations created by external CGI companies. Those reveals were certainly present but even the select few developers or studio heads who stand next to Geoff Keighley seemed rushed. Whether it is to ensure security breaches like previous years don’t occur, or simply to fit more advertisements and potentially paid promotional placements into the program – it detracted from the very celebration the TGA claims itself to be.
2023 has seen the raised awareness of the actual genocides by Israel’s killing of Palestinians in the thousands in the last few months alone. There are much more important things happening around the world then what surprise announcements were pre-planned for TGA. Not to mention the really shitty things happening in the gaming space. Like massive layoffs continue throughout the Tech industry and gaming industry as a whole that treat talented people as disposable while taking in massive profits.
@Kayin’s excellently written blog post on Cohost (and Metroplex System’s response) points correctly points out that as an award show TGA fails to even celebrate a small amount of people who pour their lives into the creation of the games that we enjoy. I highly recommend the post, it is worth a read.
The rivalry between Nintendo and SEGA that was forged in the crucible of 90s video game marketing has been so exhaustively covered that there are multiple books about the subject (personally I’m partial to “How Nintendo Conquered America” and “Service Games” myself). Twenty plus years onward game companies are still trying just as hard to sell us their products, yes the whole Sonic Vs. Mario thing was entirely corporate marketing to sell a product, “system wars” at its’ core is absolute nonsense. Nintendo’s own Switch Console reveals two very different strategies when it comes to releasing classic titles and in my opinion SEGA is willing to do what Nintenwon’t.
Studying The Classics
Retro gaming isn’t just the domain of lesser known emulators running on a PC these days, although emulation still remains a viable and valid way to enjoy older titles – they’ve long since found their way onto modern consoles with Nintendo’s Virtual Console service pioneering the idea all the way back in 2006. The packaging of older titles together onto a number of platforms has moved from solely the domain of hobbyists into the mainstream with the accessibility of platforms like Android and the digital distribution that has become the norm. With companies like SNK putting a large swath of their back catalog onto the E-shop and SEGA soon following suit with next week’s release of the Genesis Classics Collection, Nintendo’s three different models of distribution for classic games seem inadequate.
Retro gaming collections are always a bit of gamble for players because due to the sheer volume of titles included there bound to be more than few that are simply mediocre or possibly complete unknowns. In the case of the upcoming Genesis Collection there are the well known standouts: Sonic 1 & Sonic 2, Eco: The Dolphin and Streets of Rage – all SEGA classics. It is doubtful that anyone is purchasing the SEGA Collection to simply play Super Thunder Blade or Vectorman, but for the few lesser known titles in these collections the amount of variety is impressive. Want to play an action platformer? Play any of the Sonic games. Love RPGs? Three Phantasy Star titles and Beyond Oasis have you covered. Want to play a classic side scrolling Beat ‘em up while on the way to work? Streets of Rage I through III are the games for you.
Games Included In The Upcoming SEGA Genesis Classics Collection
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Alien Soldier
Alien Storm
Altered Beast
Beyond Oasis
Bio-Hazard Battle
Bonanza Bros.
Columns
Columns III
Comix Zone
Crack Down
Decap Attack
Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
Dynamite Headdy
Ecco the Dolphin
Ecco: The Tides of Time
Ecco Jr.
ESWAT: City under Siege
Eternal Champions
Fatal Labyrinth
Flicky
Gain Ground
Galaxy Force II
Golden Axe
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe III
Gunstar Heroes
Kid Chameleon
Landstalker
Light Crusader
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Ristar
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
Shining Force
Shining Force II
Shining in the Darkness
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic Spinball
Sonic 3D Blast
Space Harrier II
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage 2
Streets of Rage 3
Super Thunder Blade
Sword of Vermilion
The Revenge of Shinobi
ToeJam & Earl
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
Vectorman
Vectorman 2
Virtua Fighter 2
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Wonder Boy in Monster World
Retro Consoles Reborn
Like it’s release on other platforms, SEGA Genesis Collection’s presentation on the Nintendo Switch is a love letter to the early 90’s to mid 90’s gaming scene that birthed SEGA as the first rival to Nintendo’s decade plus of domination in popular culture. Selecting which of the 50+ titles you’d like to play isn’t as simple as scrolling through a menu and selecting a game. Instead players are presented with a 3D snapshot of what a 90s teenagers room might have looked like if they’re were a total “SEGA Head”. Posters for Altered Beast and Golden Axe are hastily hung, with the edges curling. A small 13 inch-like CRT television blares static at the player with a shell of titles available to the immediate right. SEGA has taken a lot of care in capturing a very specific aesthetic when it comes to the SEGA Genesis Collection.
During my first few hours with the SEGA Genesis Collection I nostalgically flew through the opening few levels of Sonic The Hedgehog II – complete with A.I Tails sacrificing himself to the gods of speed over and over again. After clearing Chemical Plant Zone, Green Hill Zone and sadly after succumbing to the devilish hell waters of Chemical Plant Zone a few too many times I decided to switch things up a bit (heh!). Scrolling through the virtual bookshelf of games I settled upon Streets of Rage III, a game that I hadn’t played myself but was aware of – sort of. As the cartridge slide into the polygonal genesis and the small television went from static to the familiar SEGA logo, I couldn’t help but remember slipping SNES games from their plastic cases and swapping them out. For those of us who grew up during the 16-bit era or owned a Genesis / SNES, playing the SEGA Genesis Collection is a pleasant dose of nostalgia.
On the technical side SEGA Genesis Collection provides a number of modern conveniences and technical options that didn’t exist on the real SEGA Genesis. Some of these allow for multiple forms of pixel smoothing and up scaling to make the 16-bit experience shine on modern flat screen televisions. Supported pixel smoothing modes include bi-linear, EPX, HD4X and XDQ if those are appealing. For the less technically inclined the option to stretch the Genesis image to 16:9 full screen is also supported – or if you’re more of a purest 4:3 border-less is also available. For me the visual flair that drove home just how deep the emulation options SEGA has included was a virtual CRT television with adjustable viticulture and scan-lines. If you want to recreate the experience of playing the SEGA Genesis on a old, dying, CRT – you can do it here. Each of the 50 games included in the collection also support Quick Save and Quick Load with the flick of the Joy-Con’s joystick. All of the buttons are also completely remappable, something that would have been amazing to have 20 years ago. Not included are any sort of Game Genie or Gameshark like cheat menus, with an officially supported emulator this robust it’s a bit of a missed opportunity to let player become completely over powered. All and all SEGA’s emulator works fantastically on Nintendo Switch with no noticeable slowdown and a ton of tweakable options to boot.
A Fragmented Legacy
When all is said and done, SEGA has outclassed Nintendo in terms of their classic offerings on Nintendo Switch with the impending release of just the SEGA Genesis Collection. While not every noteworthy SEGA Genesis or even cross-console release is contained within the small 1GB download, the technical features, presentation and sheer variety of titles is leagues ahead of Nintendo’s official offerings via the Nintendo Entertainment System app. Nintendo banked on the low price-point ($20 USD) and Netflix style addition of games over time to sweeten the deal when paid online was introduced earlier this Fall. What we got was a bare bones selection of NES games which have appeared on multiple iterations of the Virtual Console over the past decade+, but with new restrictions like not being able to play them offline after a week because the NES App has to phone home. Honestly, who is looking for classic games and is going to subscribe to Nintendo Online simply to play Baloon Fight for the 100th time?
SEGA took the time to curate a selection of their first party offerings from the 9 years of the Genesis’ life and offer up most of the essentials plus some cool extras. Allowing players to re-map controls, forward and rewind gameplay. tweak graphical smoothing settings and even bypass the technical limitations of the Genesis Hardware puts their offerings miles above Nintendo’s own and on par with the complete cabinet customization that SNK has been offering on their single title Arcade Archives releases since the Switch launch. Icing on the cake is SEGA’s ability to nail down the 90’s aesthic in the menu presentation and the inclusion of in-collection achievements for a selection of the titles available. Did we need two versions of Columns? Probably not, but what they delivered more than makes up for it.
Where does this leave Nintendo? Well most of their big name retro games either aren’t available on Switch because SNES and GBA compatibility hasn’t been confirmed. This means first party games like Super Metroid, Super Mario World, A Link to The Past and others are locked behind aging digital store fronts like the Wii U E-Shop and are not portable. Or trapped forever on a limited number of units of 3DS ambassador units, or lastly, set to be forever unavailable – like Ogre Battle (SNES), Final Fantasy 3 (SNES), Super Star Wars Trilogy (SNES), Clayfighter (SNES / Genesis) and a whole pile of Turbo Graphics 16 games -that will be lost when the Wii E-Shop goes offline next January.
With the 2017 entry of E3 coming to a close tomorrow let’s take a quick look at how Destiny 2 fared in terms of publicly available coverage coming out of the show. An in-engine “PlayStation Exclusive Content” trailer debuted at Sony’s press conference this past Monday, the PC version was delayed and Bungie devs took questions on PlayStation’s live stream but very little tangible video content came from the expo floor. It is likely that while anyone attending E3 can try out Destiny 2, video capture is probably not permitted.
Major Announcements Surrounding Destiny 2:
Player Vs. Player Combat will be divided into a more “casual” and “hardcore” set of playlists. Exact specifics were not announced.
Guided Games will allow clans to help prepare new Guardians for the trials ahead of them by learning from series veterans who are in the same clan.
In-game clans will be limited to 100 members.
Destiny players who invested 100s of hours in the original Destiny will receive some kind of flair or a small reward. Devs described these as “certain identifiers” but did not elaborate.
The PC version of Destiny 2 has been delayed until October 24th with the console version coming earlier than expected – September 6th.
Beta dates were announced with all platforms: PS4 July 18th | Xbox One July 19th | PC: TBA August 2017.
Exclusive PS4 Content:
“Lake of Shaows” Co-op Strike
Exclusive armor for all main classes
Exclusive Ship – “City Apex”
Exclusive Exotic Weapon with three different damage modes
Exclusive PVP Map
Overall Conference Rating: Poor
Unfortunate to see a game with such strong marketing muscle behind it falter when it comes to available media and coverage after a huge event like E3 – but Destiny 2 did just that. After an absolutely explosive gameplay reveal last month – with dozens of journalists, streamers and influencers going hands-on with the game – this was Activision’s chance to really let people know exactly how Destiny 2 plays by allowing attendees to capture media. Sadly, most impression pieces – including IGNs – are vague at best: describing access to the opening mission of the game and one unnamed strike, without giving any in-depth details about what exactly happened within the Strike. Also, Destiny 2 didn’t get an on-stage demo during either Sony or Microsoft’s press conferences. Nor was a live streamed demo on used on the PlayStations channel when developers were releasing new information – all of the footage used was taken from last month’s “homecoming” mission reveal.
Guardians all around the world will get their chance over the summer to see exactly how Destiny 2 plays during the closed & open beta on all three platforms. Is it worth your $60? Hang on for a couple of weeks and decide for yourself during the open beta test.
Back in the winter of 2015 Bethesda released their sprawling open world RPG, Fallout 4 to critical and commercial success. Azzuen O’Connor discovered the series in the past couple of years and after playing through the likes of Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas and catching up on Bethesda’s latest has quite a few critiques about the game. Read on to find out about her journey through the world of Fallout and how the removal of item repair, some narrative flaws and an overabundance of power armor show just how far Bethesda dropped the ball with Fallout 4.
War, War Never Changes
When I first heard Ron Perlman speak these words when booting up Fallout: New Vegas on my Partner’s Xbox 360 I was hooked. Yes, the voice acting for Mister House was bad. But to be fair this was one of my first times trying out a AAA game title in a very long time. And you know what? I LOVED IT. The characters were memorable and you had a clear final objective – find out who shot you, get revenge on the man in the checkered suit and explore your own story along the way.
Now, this may seem odd, but I’ve always enjoyed large scale games that have featured weapon durability – allowing you to repair and maintain your weapons, armor, and equipment. It greatly adds to Fallout’s sense of immersion, allowing me to stay in the game’s world. Yes, I know I’m playing on my couch in my apartment, but still, just like in real life your weapons won’t always be in perfect condition all day every day. You need to clean them, fix them and maintain them.
Hyped To Finally Explore The Wastes On My Own PC
Now like many Fallout fans and my friends I was HYPED for Fallout 4. I thought this was going to be the best damn game out there. Now I did buy the game for myself eventually on the advice of my brother that Amazon was having a New Year’s sale.
I was so excited to start to play it but soon after opening the package, I found out that the little card that came with the disc was a retail key for steam. I nearly cried at the mandatory 40GB install. This was the first time in my 26 years of living I saw a Triple-A game being maxed out on a PC I owned, not on loan, not “borrowing a friend’s pc for a bit. “No, I owned it this was my baby to do with as I please.” I booted it up and was amazed that MY PC could run Fallout on ultra – albeit slightly disappointed they didn’t bring back Ron Perlman for the voiceover for the iconic introductions that I had grown to love since discovering the Fallout series.
Modding weapons in Fallout 4 just like you can mod your own PC! (Image credit: Youtube.com)
I started my adventure and was mildly shocked you started off in a pre- war setting. No worries after a quick Skype call with a friend and some advice from my boyfriend I worked out my stat points. Later on in the story, after I ‘woke up’ from cryosleep and got my first weapon (I think I got the baton first then the good old trusty 10mm), it was time to begin exploring the world, which would be made ever more interesting with no official governing body controlling the post-apocalyptic United States. I figured “meh explore some chat with people loot kill etc.” My first encounter involved a few really nasty bugs (the software kind, not radroaches) – some floor tiles weren’t there, causing me to get stuck in odd areas a few times. But still, I made it into my old town where I met good old Codsworth. After some conversation with the robotic butler, I was told: “go forth and find the Minute Men”.
Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy? (Image credit: Youtube.com)
I also first met the most iconic dog in recent memory, Dogmeat. Now I must say I do enjoy the fact that Dogmeat is not just a silly looking face, he can attack and he can carry stuff. Awesome! So, I go forth and find the Minutemen where they’re being attacked by raiders, standard RPG cannon fodder. Kill them rescue the good guys be the hero you know the drill by now. So afterwards I find out we’re stuck here because of one big mean and ugly Deathclaw. “Okay” I thought to myself “this is just going to be one big ugly dude kill him but find out he’s very nerfed you just started, after all, Bethesda usually doesn’t throw you to the wolves so fast.” NO you get power armor, from the get go? This is odd… I thought in most previous iterations of Fallout you worked your ass off to just get a glorified suit of medieval plate armor, maybe they’re giving you the old “here have this taste of power for mere moments before we whisk it away from you.” Nope, that was yours to keep and do your thing with.
How Far Did They Drop The Ball?
Previous Fallout games encouraged you to explore, to do your own thing and to try different types of character builds. The issue was, through, in my eyes, Fallout 4 HEVELY encouraged you to go with the power armor – even so far as providing you a functional power armor set early in the campaign. Another glaring issue is that the main campaign revolves around your character’s quest to save Shawn, your kid. But yet you didn’t really develop a connection with him. You saw him for maybe at most two minutes in the pre-war introduction sequence.
This is when I asked myself: “But why do I need to save Shaun?”
To which the game’s narrative responds: “Well, he’s your kid.”
Finally, I ask myself (and by extension the game): “Kay. But I didn’t really know him, shouldn’t I focus more on finding out who killed my wife?”
I get where they were going with all of this, Bethesda wants the narrative to appeal to your parental instincts to save your child. Your child is the future, in contrast, your wife is dead, game over, period end of statement.
So many power armor suits (Image source gosunoob.com)
Coming back to the power armor there are more suits of power armor that are readily found throughout the Wastes. This kind of pushes your play-style towards power armor rather than the number of other options available. In previous entries I liked having to repair my items, needing to maintain them in the best possible condition, to make them as effective as possible. In my opinion, Bethesda focused more on making Fallout 4 an FPS-RPG (First Person Shooter Role Playing Game) or to be more specific, an FPS with RPG-like elements. They seemed to want you to focus more on the main quest to find Shaun, to be amazed at the shiny power armor and let me not forget to mention the settlement system where you build up your various bases and maintain them. With settlements, you need to populate them with NPC characters whose only purpose is to be maintained and possibly give you the odd uncommon item.
Pick your favorite perk in Fallout 4’s Perk Screen (Image source: Youtube.com)
I mean sure all of this can get annoying at times, but when the developers remove key mechanics from the game at start; then modders step in and fix things up. Why did we all start to play video games? Just to have fun and get the best possible score? Or to get that one super rare item before any of your other friends did? Was it to feel a deep sense of immersion in impossible worlds? So, how did Bethesda drop the ball on Fallout 4? A faltering narrative that focuses on the wrong major hook, giving players the power armor too soon, forgettable settlements system and the removal of the durability system show that Bethesda dropped the ball pretty far on Fallout 4.
SnipperClips is a physics puzzler designed for multiplayer co-operation for the Nintendo Switch. Despite that rather generic sounding description, it seems to be a stylish and charming co-op puzzler with a unique premise – the ability to modify the shape of your co-op partner to solve puzzles. Despite the game not having any elements that are unique to the Nintendo Switch it looks like the perfect game to play with close friends are family and the Switch’s portability lends itself to games like SnipperClips.
During the 5 hour Tree-house live-stream two Nintendo employees attempt to take on a handful of stages from SnipperClips. It starts out adorably enough with the pair of shapes – one yellow & one purple – forming a heart together and progresses from there. Basically when player 1 overlaps player 2 a button can be pressed to cut out the material from the other player. Throughout the course of the 12 minute demonstration we witness the partners work to sharpen a large pencil, attach a paper elephant to a balloon and score a three pointer thanks to a well placed basketball net. It is unfortunate that the pair gave up one particular puzzle that – at least to me – appeared to have more than one solution.
So what audience is perfect for SnipperClips? Well indie game aficionados? Yup check, folks who love indie games will gobble up this game but there is also one important audience that Nintendo helped bring to the gaming space along with smartphone companies – casuals gamers who wouldn’t otherwise be interested in the Nintendo Switch. For some reason, gods know why, the Big N decided that they should oppen their conference with “1… 2… Switch”, a game that doesn’t require players to look at the television or Switch screen at all.
They instead relegated SnipperClips to an end sizzle reel where if you’d blink you’d miss the like three seconds of gameplay shown at the end of the conference. “1..2.. Switch” simply confused people, and at one point more than one friend of mine thought the reveal of “1…2..Switch” was in fact a live action reveal for Red Steel 3, until further into that game’s debut trailer. Nintendo’s reason for spending so much time on a glorified party game with very little traditional game elements instead of a title like SnipperClips which while not making the best use of the new technology, offers a compelling gameplay experience that is easily understood and immensely adorable and would have resonated well with casual gamers in my opinion.
Id Software, developers of this year’s breakout shooter DOOM and the upcoming Quake Champions, are looking to bring aboard an expert on in-game monetization according to a recent job posting found online. While it is highly improbable that this will have any impact on DOOM’s existing player base it could have ramifications for the mostly still under wraps Quake project that is supposed to have a larger presence / possible release next year.
The responsibilities of the “Monetization Designer” according to the job posting include “develop[ing] and manag[ing] the economy/monetization components for competitive multiplayer” as well as “balancing free vs. paid currency in the game economy” and that the successful candidate will “collaborate with the design team, analytics group, marketing and tech department”. It looks like whoever lands this position will have a lot of influence regarding a number of different facets of whatever project their involved with.
So, let’s talk about Quake Championship for a moment. While the game may have been in development for sometime it wasn’t unveiled until this past E3 and even then our in-game look was only through the lens of a highly edited cinematic trailer. QuakeCon 2016 brought some more news, screenshots and Twitch streams from pro gamers. The fact that Bethesda has not committed to disclosing a monetization method for the game and that as of that event developers stated that they hadn’t ruled out free to play means that there is still a possibility that this position is related to Quake Champions. How exactly a team based, role dependent FPS title would work is a bit of a mystery. Would they go the Paragon route and make all of the characters free but lock away skins and other items? Perhaps a lower priced “buy to play” model with additional maps and characters as in-game purchases? Maybe id will follow in Valve’s footsteps and give everyone hats!
This brings me to DOOM, Bethesda’s critical darling was lauded for its strong single-player campaign and excellent world building but the multiplayer left something to be desired. In the months after release Bethesda released 3 DLC packs that come packed with new weapons, mods and maps as well as releasing several free updates to the game that have expanded upon the Snap Map technology, allowing creators to produce small campaign like experiences. It is highly unlikely that DOOM will see further post-release support as Bethesda already positioned “Bloodfall” as the game’s last premium DLC. To make the multiplayer free-to-play is like reanimating the dead, even if it moves around the heart that beats underneath is still cold and lifeless. With DOOM Multiplayer only averaging 2000 – 2,500 average concurrent players on PC there doesn’t seem to be much hope of reviving this multiplayer blood bath.
Quake Champions is expected to have an open beta sometime next year.
So the first trailer for the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dropped yesterday and after amassing 23 million views in just one day and featuring what looks to be a great performance by Felcity Jones in the lead role you’d think that the internet would be ecstatic to see the franchise continue its return to form. Sadly on the dark side of the internet fake nerd boys rage at ‘feminist propaganda’ in a social network not so far far away.
With the year coming to an end and game of the year awards being bestowed upon some of the biggest games of the year on other outlets, I’d like to take a few moments to share some of the best gaming moments I’ve experienced these past twelve months. We’re all about being different here at Broken Joysticks so instead of a series of GOTY choices here is one of the four games that left an impression on me.
Let’s kick things off with one of the best action titles of this year, the story of a bond formed between two unlikely protagonists Joel & Ellie as they attempt to survive a post-apocalyptic version of the United States. Yup, it is time to honor Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us….Read More
