Backlog: The Embiggening – August, 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/28/18 at 03:02 PM CT
Happy birthday to me, once again, as August rolls in. Usually July and August are the worst months of the year for new game releases, colloquially known as the Summer Game Drought. Like last month, publishers are flooding release channels with ports to fool us into thinking the drought isn’t as bad as it has been in past years, but they aren’t fooling me.
Shovelware starts us off with a friggin’ ‘Naruto’ game. Does anyone still watch that crap anime? Anyway, there are plenty of annual Sports releases, including motorsport “F1 2018” (when 2018 is already half over) and two different kinds of Ball played with Feet: “Pro Evolution Soccer 2019” and “Madden NFL 19” (the latter of which is returning to PC for the first time in years).
Once again the Nintendo Switch is leading the way with more ports and remasters than you can shake a stick at: “Victor Vran,” “Monster Hunter Generations,” “Tennis World Tour,” and detestable Roguelike “Dead Cells” …
Freemium Economies Mirror Real Ones in Odd Ways
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/22/18 at 03:20 PM CT
As much as we may try to avoid them like the plague, the MJ Crew has become entrapped by a handful of Freemium entertainment software – that is to say, games and apps that are ostensibly “free,” but in actuality have a cost tied to them, be it paid in time or macrotransactions. Some of us are more invested in these than others.
One of the more interesting meta-game things that has revealed itself to me in the mobile app “Star Trek: Timelines” is the way its variety of Freemium currencies mirror the real world.
For those who are mercifully ignorant, Freemium currencies are the eternal plague of Freemium games. An array of these made-up monies are present in every Freemium game with the end goal of confusing the player/user/customer into no longer understanding the value proposition of any of the available macrotransactions.
In “Star Trek: Timelines,” the basic unit of currency is the Federation Credit, which, like all basic Freemium currencies, is absolutely …
A Handy Flow Chart for Pokemon GO
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/15/18 at 03:11 PM CT
The additions of Friends and Trading to 2-year-old mobile app, "Pokemon GO" are long overdue features, and their sudden appearance has sparked at least one of my acquaintances to fire-up the app again and try, in vain, to Catch 'Em All. This same acquaintance also has a hard time digesting large amounts of information all at once, including which Pokemon to keep and which to throw into the candy grinder. This flow chart was made just for you, and should probably be set as your iPhone wallpaper for easy access.
Microsoft Could Shake Things Up With New Xbox Peripheral
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/08/18 at 03:14 PM CT
Ever since they started producing Surface tablets, bundling Kinect peripherals with their Xbox consoles, and partnering with third-parties to create their Hololens Mixed Reality headsets, Microsoft, the non-gaming software developer that owns PC gaming thanks to Windows but doesn’t seem to know what to do with it, has been on, or at least near, the bleeding edge of hardware design. And it looks like the House that Gates Built is making waves yet again with a device they’re calling the “Adaptive Controller.”
Ostensibly designed to facilitate videogame playing for people with physical disabilities, the basic core of the Adaptive Controller looks like a large plank pretending to be an Xinput controller, with a large d-pad, two huge buttons, and a few other function buttons. This device isn’t, however, limited to the buttons and pads built into it, but accepts a huge array of USB add-ons ranging from the familiar – like a USB Wii Nunchuck adapter – to facilitators truly …
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