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Critical Distance's retrospective on 2018 in video game blogging and criticism, Bungie splits with Activision, Randy Pitchford counter-sued by former Gearbox lawyer and talks about how he doesn't know how orgasms work, Ed Smith examines the humor of Hitman 2, Jamie Geist on exploring gender identity in MMOs, Heather Alexandra on Metal Gear 2 as a game about invalidating player achievements, Colin Campbell discusses what he learned while taking a game writing course, Ars Technica speaks to Glen Schofield about the development of Dead Space, Nadia Oxford on Red Dead Redemption 2 use of an antisemitic trope to deconstruct Arthur, Dean Takahashi interviews Cory Barlog about the creation of God of War, Ethan Johnson on the developers and pioneers that we lost in 2018, RollerCoaster Tycoon ride lasts for 12 years, and more.
Gaming News (Announcements, previews, release dates, interviews and writing on upcoming games, DLC and game updates, company and developer news, country news, tech, mods)
Kingdom Hearts III Has An Epilogue That Will Be Patched In After Launch
QuoteSquare-Enix took to Twitter today to lay out the road map for DLC and updates to Kingdom Hearts III. And like the series' chronology, it's a bit of a doozy at first glance.
Why Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Doesn't Have Online Multiplayer
QuoteAfter the initial reveal of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, we quickly learned it would lack online multiplayer – a first for the developer’s major titles since Demon’s Souls. As part of our visit to the studio for our cover story, we asked them to elaborate on why that was the case.
Exclusive Gameplay From Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's Hirata Estates
QuoteGame Informer's Dan Tack and Suriel Vazquez share new gameplay and impressions for From Software's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice based on the magazine's cover story trip.
New, Exclusive Details On Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
QuoteIn this excerpt from the Game Informer Show, Dan Tack, Suriel Vazquez, and Ben Hanson share new details on the gameplay in Hidetaka Miyazaki and From Software's next game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice based on Game Informer's new cover story.
Here's What You Can Do In Sekiro's Hub Area
QuoteAlthough From Software is rethinking major aspects of its established action-RPG formula with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it’s sticking to a few tried-and-true approaches when it comes to the game’s overall structure by including a hub area that gives players a few things to do when they’re not slaying monsters out in the world.
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS - A Hero's Journey Trailer
QuoteLegendary hero Zhuge Liang wanders ancient China searching for a worthy master in the latest Total War: THREE KINGDOMS cinematic. A stunning showcase of the varied land your dynasty could stretch across.
QuoteTotal War: THREE KINGDOMS allows you to step into the shoes of one of 11 legendary warlords – learn all about them here
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 explains its three grand campaigns
QuoteBattlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 is almost here – due on January 24th – and the space-naval strategy sequel looks to be a tad bigger and more ambitious than its predecessor. In the very seriously narrated info-dump trailer below (it sounds like the man is speaking in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME), it lays out what its new single-player side entails. While there are twelve playable factions, the story side of the game contains just three campaigns – Imperial, Necron & Tyranid – though each has their own distinct systems and even narrative style. Take a look at the shape of ships to come below.
Commanding a fleet that wants to eat the universe in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2
QuoteHumanity can battle heresy and Chaos for millennia in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but the last page of the book will just be a couple of lines that say ‘And then the Tyranids ate them all. THE END’. They’re a hive creature with a billion mouths that spreads across the galaxy, reducing worlds to alien soylent so it can make more mouths, and so on, until everything is consumed.
Resident Evil 2 Remake trailer shows off two fan-favourite characters
QuoteLeave it out, Leon. Call it a day, Claire! We all know the true heroes of Resident Evil 2 - and now Capcom has finally let us see them in all their remastered glory. It's only Hunk and Tofu!
My Time At Portia, the Harvest Moon-inspired farm RPG, leaves Early Access next week
QuoteA launch date means a launch trailer, and also a price increase.
Sega Brings Catherine To PC Without Enhanced Edition Content
QuoteAs Sega was teasing just last week, Atlus' narrative puzzle game Catherine has been announced for PC and is already out now on Steam. This marks the first time that modern Atlus games have been ported to the PC, something that the Japanese developer behind games like Persona and Etrian Odyssey has been traditionally reluctant to do. But it still makes for a very odd announcement, as Sega has brought over what they have dubbed as Catherine Classic, eschewing the game's upcoming revisions and porting the 2011 game to PC.
Anthem: Interceptor Javelin Gameplay Profile - IGN First
QuoteA deep dive into the Interceptor Javelin in Anthem and the ability combinations that'll likely make it a favorite for fans of speed and agility.
New Gameplay Today - Onimusha: Warlords Remastered
QuoteOnimusha: Warlords originally released in 2001 on the PlayStation 2. It's recently been revamped for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch, so Game Informer's Andrew Reiner, Jeff Cork, and Kyle Hilliard decided to take a look and see how the game holds up.
Left Alive Shows The Garmoniyan Invasion In Its Latest Trailer
QuoteSquare Enix shared a new trailer for its upcoming survival action game Left Alive that highlights the Garmoniyan Invasion, where soldiers of Garmonia Republic are shown taking over Novo Slava, the city where the game is set.
EA Cancels Open-World Star Wars Game
QuoteElectronic Arts has canceled its open-world Star Wars game, according to three people familiar with goings-on at the company. The game, announced alongside the shutdown of Visceral Games back in 2017, had been in development at EA’s large office in Vancouver.
Ubisoft will only release The Division 2 and other titles on the Epic Games Store and UPlay
QuoteAfter conquering the free-to-play market, Epic Games has set its sights on core PC gaming. Beforehand, there wasn't really a company out there to challenge Valve's dominance with Steam. Sure, there's the Discord Store and GOG, but they haven't garnered the attention the Epic Games Store has achieved in the past few months. Today, Ubisoft committed to only releasing The Division 2 on the Epic Games Store, therefore bypassing Steam and possibly dealing a massive blow to the platform.
Small town murder-mystery adventure Rainswept gets a release date and a new trailer
QuoteThe story-focused game about a double murder in Pineview comes out on February 1.
Chaos;Child brings another Science Adventure VN to PC next week
QuoteAnother visual novel in Mages’s Science Adventure series (Steins;Gate et al) is headed to PC, and very soon. Chaos;Child launches next Tuesday, January 22nd. It’s a dark teen psycho-thriller mystery set in the aftermath of an earthquake that wrecked Tokyo’s Shibuya ward. There’s a series of grisly murders to be investigated, and they probably related to a group of youths whose delusions and fantasies can rewrite reality itself. It’s all very anime, but the Science Adventure series is typically good stuff, even if nothing can quite top the original Steins;Gate. See the trailer below.
Civ 5 designer Jon Shafer opens up about the personal struggles that delayed his next game
QuoteSince the release of Sid Meier’s Civilization 5 in 2010, designer Jon Shafer has made more headlines for what he hasn’t accomplished than for what he has. Now, in a deeply personal essay, he has opened up about what’s been holding him back. The piece comes on the eve of the release of his next game, At the Gates, which is bound for Steam on Jan. 23.
Super Robot Wars T second trailer
QuoteBandai Namco has released the second official trailer for Super Robot Wars T.
Our World Is Ended’s Updated Version On PS4, Switch, And PC Gets Its First Trailer
QuoteOur World is Ended releases in Japan on February 28, 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. The Switch version will be digital-only in Japan. The game comes to the West in 2019 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Six minutes of Arc of Alchemist gameplay
QuoteArc of Alchemist is due out for PlayStation 4 on February 7 in Japan, and this summer in North America and Europe.
Record of Agarest War: Mariage launches February 1
QuoteRecord of Agarest War: Mariage will launch for PC via Steam on February 1, publisher Idea Factory International announced. Upgraded from the original PSP release, it will feature graphical enhancements and English, Japanese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese subtitles.
2D action game Dark Devotion is coming soon, so let's watch some fights
QuoteA new gameplay trailer shows off some fierce Castlevania-style combat.
Real-Time Syrian Refugee Game Bury Me, My Love Is Now On Switch And You Should Play It
QuoteThen, there’s Bury Me, My Love, a game about a Syrian migrant named Nour trying to find a better life in Europe, as told through the texts between her and her husband. Originally released at the end of 2017, Bury Me, My Love is based on true stories—most prominently the story of Dana, featured in a piece by Le Monde journalist Lucie Soullier, “The journey of a Syrian migrant through her Whatsapp thread.”
It looks like the Dark Souls Trilogy collection could finally be coming to Europe
QuoteBandai Namco has confirmed that its Dark Souls Trilogy collection, which arrived in the US last October, will indeed be making its way to Europe soon.
Battlefield 5 battle royale lets you kill with tractors
QuoteBattlefield V’s steady march through World War II continues, and we’re just about to the famous moment where a whole bunch of soldiers did battle inside a shrinking fire circle in an effort to be the last squad standing. You may not remember that one from the history books, but Firestorm – DICE and Criterion’s take on battle royale – launches in March.
More details on Celeste’s free DLC, but no release date yet
QuoteThe new levels are to be very, very hard.
Rocket League Now Has Cross-Play Across All Consoles
QuotePsyonix announced today that Rocket League has entered the PlayStation Cross-Play Beta program and is playable with people across PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Steam, making it only the second game to do so after Fortnite.
Monster Hunter: World x The Witcher Crossover Dated for Next Month
QuoteRight at the end of 2018, Capcom revealed that there would be a crossover event between The Witcher's Geralt of Rivia, and Monster Hunter: World. We now know the release date for this crossover event, on consoles at least: February 8.
All-devouring Tyranid swarms arrive in Warhammer 40k: Gladius this week
QuoteThe grim, dark 4X gets a fifth race.
Tencent takes minority stake in Warhammer: Vermintide developer Fatshark
QuoteFatshark says the investment will strengthen its position as an independent developer and help facilitate future growth.
Valve slaps Wandersong, a very real game, with fake-game restrictions
QuoteSteam is still ‘learning about’ the game, despite its recent award nominations
QuoteThe former general counsel of game studio Gearbox (Borderlands, Aliens: Colonial Marines) and CEO Randy Pitchford are suing one another in a messy legal battle that sees both men accused of violating their legal duties to the company. The suit against Pitchford is full of sensational allegations, including the accusation that the Gearbox CEO received a secret $12 million bonus from publisher Take-Two Interactive as an advance against Borderlands profits.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s Pinkerton agents are at the center of a lawsuit
QuoteThe publisher of Red Dead Redemption 2 has thrown down a legal gauntlet against the security company Pinkerton — which demanded royalties for using its name in the game. According to a complaint filed late last week, Pinkerton sent Take-Two Interactive a cease-and-desist letter over the characters of Andrew Milton and Edgar Ross, a pair of Pinkerton agents and major antagonists in the game. Now, Take-Two is suing to have the characters declared fair use, arguing that they’re part of Red Dead Redemption 2’s detailed historical setting.
Valve announces 8 changes coming to Steam in 2019
QuoteMachine-learning discoverability, a new library, updates to Steam TV, and more are on the way.
Bungie Splits With Activision, Keeps Destiny
QuoteDeveloper Bungie and publisher Activision are splitting up, an industry-shaking divorce that will see the shared world shooter series Destiny enter fully into Bungie’s control.
Mike Morhaime is leaving Blizzard for good in April
QuoteMorhaime stepped down as president of Blizzard in October, but remained as a strategic advisor.
Epic Games store establishes new refund policy
QuotePrevious contact form request system amended to unlimited refunds under 14 days, two hours played
Epic, Improbable team up for $25 million fund to bring SpatialOS developers to "more open engines"
QuoteSaga of Unity, Improbable, and SpatialOS continues as Epic opens door to developers "left in limbo" by terms of service changes
Unity explains Improbable license revocation, says SpatialOS creator's claims "incorrect"
QuoteUpdate: SpatialOS devs are safe, Improbable calls for "code of conduct" in development ecosystem
Unity say Improbable games don't need to shut down after all, as Epic offer devs cash to go Unreal
QuoteGames built in Unity using Improbable’s SpatialOS cloud server platform will not need to shut down, Unity’s makers have stated. Improbable claimed yesterday that a recent change in the popular game creation software’s rules would bar developers from using their cloud multiplayer services. This caused a big panic yesterday for developers who yesterday suddenly thought they might need to kill their games. Unity say it’s not a recent change, that Improbable have in fact been in breach of the terms for over a year – and knew it. Improbable have vaguely admitting to having made unspecified “errors” but said it’s time for game technology to be more open and accountable.
Epic sued over yet another Fortnite dance, this time by Orange Shirt Kid's mom
QuoteThe thrust of the case is much like the others, stating that the "Defendants have unfairly profited from exploiting Orange Shirt Kid’s protected creative expression, likeness, and trademark without consent or authorization." The suit also alleges that Epic's inclusion of the dance was the impetus for a wave of cyberbullying directed towards McCumbers' son that forced him to deactivate his Instagram and YouTube accounts.
Microsoft Removes Carlton, Floss Dances From Forza Horizon 4
QuoteThe Carlton and Floss dance emotes are no longer available in Forza Horizon 4 following changes made to the game as part of today’s big Series 5 update. Although publisher Microsoft won’t say why it removed the emotes, both dances are the subjects of lawsuits against publisher Epic Games for using them in the mega-popular game Fortnite.
AGDQ 2019 hits $1 million with 2 days to spare
QuoteThis year’s Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) has officially raised $1 million for charity well into its fifth day.
AGDQ 2019’s 10 best speedruns from a record-setting week
QuoteTwo world records, and $2.39 million for charity
Longtime Twitch Streamer Summit1g Tops Ninja's Subscriber Count
QuoteJaryd “Summit1g” Lazar is no newcomer to Twitch. The mostly retired Counter-Strike pro has been one of the platform’s most recognizable faces since 2012, but over the past few weeks, he’s worked his way into Twitch’s highest echelon.
UK industry braces for no-deal Brexit
QuoteHow developers, publishers and more are preparing for the worst following next week's vote
The 8-player co-op mod for Skyrim is entering closed beta
QuoteSoon you'll be able to explore Skyrim with your friends at your side in Skyrim Together.
Esports News
Competitive Halo Goes Old School With The Halo 3 Classic Tournament
QuoteWhile the competitive Halo scene has been losing some steam in recent years, there’s no end of love and nostalgia for the earlier games in the series, especially Halo 3. This weekend a mix of pro teams and grass roots teams will duke it out in St. Louis in the first of many Halo 3 tournaments in 2019 as 343 Industries takes a few steps back from promoting big Halo 5 events.
FIFA's fight to join the "big three" of esports
QuoteMore than 300 EA staff are working on esports, but can the publisher's football franchise challenge Dota, League of Legends and CS:GO?
Content I found interesting this week (interviews, recommendations, think pieces, history, music, culture, design, art, documentaries, criticism, etc)
THIS YEAR IN VIDEOGAME BLOGGING: 2018
QuoteIn going through the criticism of 2018, it wasn’t so much about 2018 as much as it was about how we got to 2018. The things we take for granted, so much so that we don’t even think about them anymore, were reappraised and often found wanting. It was a year of no longer accepting facts without support, nor truth without wisdom. For the 2018 edition of This Year in Videogame Blogging, let all assumptions be challenged and no myth given the credence of reality.
QuoteCritical Distance is proud to present this Critical Compilation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, brought together by Dan Parker. Dan is a videogame critic, socialist organizer, and budding literary scholar from Philadelphia, PA. They can be found on Twitter @Dapskier.
How to write a video game story
QuoteMy first attempt at writing a video game script begins with the socialist journalist and activist Marina Ginestà, a remarkable woman who died five years ago, at the age of 94.
Although she lived an eventful life, she’s most famous for a photograph taken of her when she was 17 years old, standing on the rooftop of a Barcelona hotel, a rifle slung over her shoulder. It’s one of the most arresting images of the Spanish Civil War, in which young, idealistic Europeans like Ginestà fought for democracy, against a coalition of fascists and aristocrats.
I’m going to use that photograph as the first building block of my game. You see, I’ve signed onto an online course called Story for Video Games, a six-session investigation of interactive narrative. By the end of the course, I hope to have created a fully fleshed story for a game. There’s no coding or art. I only have to write.
Critical Values: In Defense of Prey and Those Who Made It
QuoteWhen people who make a living out of critically examining a medium routinely fail to see the full picture of a work, there’s good reason to suspect a coming sea change. The existence of the following arguments may seem unwarranted — after all, 2017’s Prey was received fairly well critically — but I’ll be arguing that an assumption unknowingly held withing the video game community has still caused those critics to mistake some of the game’s most interesting aspects for flaws. In order to discuss both Prey and its reception, you first of all need to understand the ways in which the game itself forces you to interpret it’s events under flawed assumptions until the very end of the game. Once that understanding is in place, the game becomes one which manages to leverage a familial drama into a meta-narrative about video games — seemingly in response to its genre in general and what Bioshock tried to do in particular.
Text format of one of the videos I had in the best of 2018 list.
How 'Slime Rancher' Made a Ton of Money And Stuck to 40-Hour Workweeks
QuoteThat it's surprising a studio made this a priority tells you everything about the modern state of making video games.
QuoteIn this context, a very laden vocabulary is routinely employed: salty victims are “triggered snowflakes” unequipped to enter the competitive arena of PvP gaming. Pampered by “entitlement culture”, “carebears” should stay in their “safe spaces” (single-player games), since they lack strength of character and are not ready to take responsibility for their lack of skill — leading to their in-game demise and their (hilarious) overreactions. Just like trolls, salt miners therefore conceive of themselves as more enlightened, more internet-wise, and more intelligent than their “easily triggered” victims. Once again, an unacknowledged contradiction emerges: griefers are adamant that nothing about their own psychology can be inferred by their in-game disruptive acts (although research suggests it can) but are certain that frustrated reactions to these actions do offer a clear insight into the victim’s personality.
How Gaming Helped Me With Gender Dysphoria
QuoteAs I’ve stated in previous articles, I realized I was trans at a rather young age and my dysphoria really started to kick in when I hit puberty. In the 90s there weren’t a whole lot of options available for trans people, especially since during that time being trans was still viewed as a sexual paraphilia that needed to be “cured” and had a massive stigma attached to it. Hell, we were just barely becoming ok with people being openly gay, so that should tell you the sort of environment that I was in at the time. While my parents I assume would have been supportive (since they are now) I was still afraid and struggling internally with my dysphoria.
QuoteThe game world is a place to escape; we all know this much to be true. But the ideal escape is different for everyone. Every game has a narrative of sorts, and every game has a world to experience. These worlds are countless, and their differences equally as innumerable. The level of narrative shifts and changes in each of these, whether the environment is focused on prominent storytelling or allowing the player to create their own narrative experience. Every single person, whether they know it or not, has an ideal place they want to escape to. I wanted something unique; an environment where I can recreate myself to my whims and choosing, creating my own path and future. A world that I can push against, and one that pushes back against me without being scripted or predetermined. For this, I naturally sought out the realm of online roleplaying.
QuoteThe heady combination of the relentless passage of time and plain old life in general have lead me to what just a few years ago would’ve been an unthinkable place: Living in a SCART-less home and without the time, space, energy, or plain old money to keep shelves of increasingly esoteric consoles, computers, and PCBs all nicely set up and ready for what in reality would amount to ten? twenty? thirty? minutes (if I was very lucky) of retro-tastic action.
QuoteNostalgia is often defined as a desire to return to the glories of the past, but often a close examination of our nostalgic urges will reveal that past to be largely imaginary. Perhaps a better definition would be one that acknowledges its performative aspect; nostalgia as a way of preserving the past as it should have been instead of as it actually was. What possible futures might we be able to build if we do not limit ourselves to the past that existed but instead to the past we choose to remember?
The Millennial Burnout Conversation Also Applies to Gamers
QuoteGamer burnout. It’s worth giving it a name if we’re going to treat it as unique in some way, and I think it is. There are a lot of games, and there’s only so much time to play them, and the reward for completing them or even making a solid effort seems to diminish year after year. I keep hammering them into my mind and body, looking for the game that’s really going to make me feel something exciting and not like I’ve been running on a treadmill for the past few years. And when I can’t find it, I feel like I’m coming apart at the seams.
How Red Dead Redemption 2 Successfully Uses an Antisemitic Trope to Deconstruct Arthur Morgan
QuoteBeing a Jewish woman, I'm always keen to see my ethnoreligion represented in video games. Unfortunately, when I say, "I wish for more Jewish representation in games," a picture of a monkey's paw pops into my head and slowly folds one gnarled finger into its palm. There isn't a lot of Jewish representation in video games (though at least Wolfenstein hero B.J. Blazkowicz is a recently-confirmed Member of the Tribe), and what representation we do receive is usually attached to depressing reminders of the Holocaust. Moreover, representation of Jews who aren't white-passing is practically nil.
Gris and the problem of symbolic hurt
QuoteSome games have an identity crisis. Let’s call them “art games”. It’s a reductive attempt to genre-fy, but I use it to describe games that try to tell a story in metaphors rather than addressing the real thing.
To Be Gay in Mass Effect Is An Act of Rebellion
QuoteIt’s a harrowing feeling realizing how much your favorite game doesn’t like you. Or at least, how much it didn’t like you at one point.
Metal Gear 2 Retrospective: The World Spins Without Snake
QuoteMetal Gear 2: Solid Snake’s defining attribute is texture. Metal Gear shaped an initial world, and Metal Gear 2 embellishes on that world by adding frictions that complicate the player’s previous relationship with the series. The results are often inconsistent; Metal Gear 2 is a game with a reach that exceeds its grasp but, also, an intoxicating and undeniable confidence.
The Eternal Castle: Remastered is a remake of a game that never existed
QuoteA non-existent game with an intriguing, fabricated history
“Splitting Sides,” by Ed Smith
QuoteIt’s often counterintuitive and jarring, trying to extrapolate precisely why comedy—in a film, a game, or even a single joke—works. Once you begin dissecting why something is funny, you not only strip it of its power, turn it from something that’s emotive and sensorial into something practical and banal, but start sounding like you’re the wrong kind of person to appreciate humour in the first place. As a general rule, things aren’t funny owing to some schematic or design; things are funny just because they are. Why I think the humour in Hitman 2 is worth disassembling is because the entire Hitman series has often been described as “funny,” without that funniness ever truly being defined, and the nature of the game itself, whereby you observe, investigate, and forensically discern how best to assassinate your target engenders and rewards an analytical mindset. Hitman takes something primal and dramatic—murder—and asks that you regard it as a logic puzzle. It feels right, or at least not as incongruous as if you were discussing a stand-up routine or a cartoon or a doctor, doctor joke, or something, to try and work out exactly the ways that this game generates laughter.
Romancing The Code: the unknowable love of Heaven Will Be Mine
QuoteOne of the things I find endlessly fascinating about us, people, is the way we form emotional attachments to things that aren’t, y’know, things. Paint a face on a mug and good god, you’d better not break that mug. People marry walls and have sex with cars. They get all tingly over books. And they feel real feelings about fake people in video games.
How Dead Space's Scariest Scene Almost Killed the Game | War Stories | Ars Technica
QuoteGlen Schofield, the co-founder of Sledgehammer Games and the creator/director of Dead Space, goes in-depth on the development of the classic third-person horror shooter. Glen set out to create the scariest video game of all-time, borrowing gameplay elements from Resident Evil 4 to create a product with a unique blend of horror and action. Always upping the ante, the Dead Space team decided to create a massive dreadful tentacle that attacks and drags the game's protagonist around the environment. Little did they know, this element would prove far more difficult to develop then they had ever realized..
What Makes a Good Metroidvania?
QuoteI play a lot of Metroidvanias, but what separates the good ones from the bad ones?
Support me on Patreon!http://bit.ly/2sEpf0M
Daria Reviews Snatcher (Sega CD) - The Films that Made Snatcher
QuoteA critical review of Hideo Kojima's Snatcher. A cyberpunk adventure released in 1988 for the PC-8801 and MSX2 and then remade for the Sega CD (and Mega CD). The game is very heavily based on the films Blade Runner and Invasion of the Body Snatchers as well as draws visual inspiration from various cinematic sources..
Odd Time Signatures in Video Game Music
QuoteEveryone loves odd meters, right? Whether it's to add a little wrinkle in an otherwise straightforward tune, or an attempt to completely discombobulate the listener, odd time signatures are one of my favourite ways to add interest to a piece of music. In this video I take a look at some of my favourite examples of odd meters in video game music and the effects that they have on each piece.
Noclip Podcast #04 - Mikey Neumann
QuoteIn the first episode of the all-new-format Noclip podcast, we talk to Mikey Neumann about media criticism and his time working at Gearbox on games like Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Brothers in Arms & Borderlands. (Recorded January 8th)
Become a Noclip Patron: https://www.patreon.com/noclip
Things I Missed From Previous Weeks
God of War full interview — The definitive story behind the crafting of God of War
QuoteGod of War is the result of the labors of 300 people at console industry leader Sony’s studio in Santa Monica, California. Yet it was the underdog in the battle for Game of the Year at The Game Awards, as Red Dead Redemption 2 was built by a team at Rockstar Games with 10 times more resources.
QuoteA year goes round, a year goes down. We are back once again with another morbid post hopefully flecked with fond remembrances for the people who have shaped the video game industry. Time marches on and work continues to capture the stories of those who shaped this wonderful hobby that we indulge in. To those we miss, to those we have still yet to find, and to those we have spoken with, we salute you all.
Things I found entertaining throughout the week relating to the game industry
Watching Someone Beat a Mario Game Without Pressing Right Is F'ing Wild
QuoteCeave Gaming, like so many things on the Internet, is a channel about Nintendo’s beloved Mario series. It emerged three years ago, in early 2016, not long after the release of Super Mario Maker, kicking off with 10 “tips, tricks and ideas” for using bob-ombs while creating levels. Every few weeks, there would be a new riff on various ideas involving Mario Maker.
RollerCoaster Tycoon Ride From Hell Lasts 12 Years
QuoteThe point of RollerCoaster Tycoon is to create a successful theme park. Usually that involves keeping people coming back with fun attractions, like elaborate roller coasters, and charging high margins on food and drinks. One player decided to throw that logic out the window and dedicate most of their park to a truly nightmarish abomination: a roller coaster ride that lasts 12 years, or 30 million days according to the game’s internal time scale.
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