Backlog: The Embiggening – June, 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/28/23 at 03:19 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Summer is on its way, and after decades of precedent, gamers everywhere are preparing to dig-in for the annual Summer Games Drought, wherein, despite the largest portion of gaming’s marketing demographic being off of school for 3 months with nothing better to do than spend time and money on new gaming purchases to keep them out of trouble, the Games Industry publishes nothing new or of value. Let’s see if the Drought is going to come-on in-force all at once, or if it will be a bit more gentle this year.
There’s a healthy dose of Shovelware coming in June, with all three major categories represented. In Licensed Swill based on non-game IPs, we’ve got “Aliens: Dark Descent” based on the movie franchise, as well as “AEW: Fight Forever” based on the third-rate pro-wrestling franchise. In Casual Non-Game Swill, there’s quite a variety: “Powerwash Simulator,” “Charade Maniacs,” “Pretty Princess Magical Garden …
GOG’s Customer Friendly Façade is Failing
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/21/23 at 02:32 PM CT
While nowadays I consider myself to be among Steam’s biggest fans, a little over a decade ago, I had heard of the service but never tried it. In fact, my first experience with “modern”-style PC gaming (i.e., PC gaming that actually works) was with GOG, back when they were officially known as Good Old Games.
Over the years I’ve spent blogging about the Games Industry and its countless terrible trends, GOG has always tried to buck the new normal. The company started life as an emphatically DRM-free store that would allow PC Gaming Neckbeards to purchase clean, functional copies of OLD games that would work without fuss on modern operating systems, either through GOG’s official modding of the game files or via pre-packaged emulation in DOSbox. This seemed like a strong basis on which to build a business, but, unfortunately, GOG has largely alienated most game publishers with its DRM-free stance.
Small, independent game developers, however, don’t seem bothered by …
Vaguely Related Review: Bunkers & Badasses – The Tabletop Game
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/14/23 at 04:35 PM CT
When the MeltedJoystick Crew first encountered Gearbox and Nerdvana Games’ D&D knock-off, Bunkers & Badasses, during the “Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep” DLC pack for “Borderlands 2,” we all quickly agreed that it was hilarious and one of the best pieces of ‘Borderlands’ content ever created. That was way back in 2014.
Thus it was with great surprise and delight that I learned of a planned release of a genuine tabletop Bunkers & Badasses game in 2020, and pre-ordered two copies – one for MJ’s most obsessive ‘Borderlands’ fanatic, Chris, and one for myself – of the Deluxe Edition. It was with some surprise and significantly less delight that I learned that the final product would not, in fact, ship in time for our annual Yuletide gift exchange that year. And it was with great irritation and annoyance that I learned that Bunkers & Badasses would not grace us with its presence until the bitter end of 2021.
Thanks to a large combination of factors, we …
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is a Massive Hit?!
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/07/23 at 02:41 PM CT
Back in 1993, Nintendo partnered with Disney to bring a film adaptation of their signature videogame franchise and mascot platform, “Super Mario Bros.” to theaters. The result was so disastrous and completely unlike the source material that it not only bombed at the box office, but also scared Nintendo away from movie collaborations for decades.
While times have changed over the last 30 years, some things have remained the same: Such as the fact that Disney is bending over backwards to mutilate movies into abominations that hardly resemble their source material… even when that source material is a movie that Disney themselves made decades ago. Nintendo, for their part, finally cooled off enough to give a Western movie studio a second chance at adapting their ‘Super Mario’ franchise – now with decades of canonical videogame story behind it that it never had in 1993 – to the Big Screen. Of course, this time, the Japanese console-maker opted to go with Universal instead …
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