Can Microsoft Legitimize Android Games… By Making them PC Games?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/27/21 at 12:37 AM CT
Microsoft recently revealed the next iteration of Windows coming in the near future. This OS – dubbed Windows 11, even after Microsoft went on the record stating that “Windows 10 is the last version of Windows” – will include a lot of new features that are beyond the ken of the MeltedJoystick Blog, as well as an even-Mac-ier-than-ever UI refresh. However, the core feature that has the Internet abuzz is the fact that Windows 11 will natively run Android apps thanks to a dedicated subsystem that allows a virtualized kernel direct hardware access (just like the Linux Subsystem for Windows that was added to Windows 10).
When Android first appeared on the scene way back in in 2008 as a slap-dash attempt by Google, whose motto at the time was “Don’t Be Evil,” to produce a competitor for the nascent iOS that powered Apple’s new iPhones, it held a lot of promise. Android would be Open Source! Android would be Linux-based and highly secure! Android would be free to install! …
E3 Impressions 2021
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/18/21 at 10:20 PM CT
After much speculation and navel-gazing on my part last year when E3 was cancelled, the venerable trade show returned in 2021, in spirit, at least, if not in the flesh. Ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic lingering on into its second year caused all of the remaining E3 participants to produce pre-recorded video presentations and set-up online game demos instead of setting up meat-space stages demo booths, thus transforming the trade show into a virtual event, as so many other things did during the past year. Oddly enough, the ‘new’ E3 feels a lot more egalitarian and open than the FOMO-fueled, social-media-powered, influencer-narrated abomination that was supposed to appear. I guess we can at least thank China and their damned virus for that!
Of course, not everyone has been happy with E3 for a long time. Nintendo bowed-out years ago and switched (*snap*) to their ‘Direct’ format, and Sony followed not far behind (as is their wont). This year, E3 shed a bit …
The Year of Ransomware
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/12/21 at 04:20 PM CT
I don’t know if part of it’s just media spin and lumping a whole bunch of things together to make them look scarier and more epidemic than they actually are, but lately we’ve had nothing but bad news in spades. 2020 was the Year of COVID-19 and the Year of Police Brutality Complaints. Now, 2021 is rapidly shaping-up to be remembered as the Year of Ransomware, and Games Industry players aren’t immune.
Hot on the heels of a Serious Business report by “60 Minutes” (jump to the 16 minute mark) of Russian (and perhaps other foreign) criminal hackers installing ransomware on a broad swath of private American computer networks ranging from low level local governments to hospitals to petroleum pipelines, this week reports came to light that at least two of the biggest players in the Games Industry have been subject to similar attacks. And like the Serious Business outfits, nobody wants to report that they’ve been hacked so the government can possibly look into helping them …
Vaguely Related: Let’s Assemble the Worst ‘Star Trek’ Crew Possible!
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/06/21 at 05:34 PM CT
‘Star Trek’ as an IP has been struggling for a good many years. Even now as the newly-reunited CBS-Paramount throws ever-more barrels of money at it, the new flagship series, “Star Trek: Discovery” has the lowest ratings among viewers on IMDB and Metacritic in series history. But “Discovery” is really just the small, cherry-shaped turd atop a large turd sundae with turd sauce, stretching back through the somewhat-nonsensical-but-at-least-watchable ‘Nu-Trek’ J. J. Abrams movies, through the UPN-exclusive “Star Trek: Enterprise,” all the way back to the launch of “Star Trek: Voyager” in 1995, which is really where the IP first started to sink (or stink) when compared to the critic-and-fan-beloved series – “Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine” – that came before.
As videogames, ‘Star Trek’ has always struggled to find its footing, with some terrible SNES and early PC outings. These days, ‘Trek’ videogaming is largely kept alive by two …
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