The PC Gaming Show 2020: Good/Bad/Ugly
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/21/20 at 04:52 PM CT
Hot on the heels of Sony’s PlayStation 5-centric ‘Direct’ video, “PC Gamer Magazine” has produced a new entry in the annual PC Gaming Show, only this time it is, like the PlayStation Direct and… everything else in 2020… outside the context of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Look below for a list of my hot-takes on the show’s announcements and reveals, followed by a more in-depth summary.
Good: “Torchlight 3,” “Fae Tactics,” “Inkulinati,” “Troy: A Total War Saga,” “The Forgotten City,” “Weird West,” “Dungeons of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos”
Bad: Effing Survival games, effing Roguelikes, ports of bad games like “Persona 4 Golden,” the trend of so-called ‘retro-shooters,’ “Potionomics,” remasters of bad games like “Shadowman,” “Mortal Shell,” “Surgeon Simulator 2” (why?!)
Ugly: Political BS statements, atrocious pacing and long-winded ‘comedy’ intros, …
The PlayStation Direct: Good/Bad/Ugly
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/14/20 at 04:02 PM CT
This past week, Sony disgorged an enormous amount of video content on their corporate Youtube account. While E3 may have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sony had already decided to pull out of the big June gaming event prior to the cancelation, which, in hindsight, appears to have been a great move, as they were able to continue producing their Nintendo-style (because Sony loves nothing more than copying Nintendo) ‘Direct’ set of video presentations, including the reveal of the upcoming PlayStation 5 console and a swath of games that will be available on the new platform.
Since I don’t get to do an E3 Impressions article this year, I’m just going to remaster the format for the PlayStation Direct, changing “Want” to “Good,” “Do Not Want” to “Bad,” and “Not Sure if Want” to “Ugly.”
Good: “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart,” “Sackboy: A Big Adventure,” “Kena: Bridge of Spirits,” “Little Devil Inside,” “Horizon: Forbidden …
Disgruntled Dad: Tired of Nintendo’s Approach to Game Data
Matt - wrote on 06/07/20 at 08:35 PM CT
The family Nintendo Switch is dead. It no longer will charge. The pins in the USB-C are bent, and the console is lifeless. The culprit, who caused this predicament, is most likely my four-year-old, or his older brother. The boys have taken to playing Pokémon and Animal Crossing, and they probably broke it putting the Switch back into its cradle. I know, I shouldn’t let such young kids charge the thing, but the system was bought for the family, and since we have more time on our hands, I relaxed and let the little boys charge it instead of their older sister. The incapacitated Switch has made me one disgruntled dad, frustrated by Nintendo’s somewhat-Luddite approach to modern online technologies and their draconian attempt to curtail modding and piracy.
Overall, since 2018, I had been pleased with the Switch. It was the evolution of my all-in-one-game-console dream, a system for entertainment while traveling — we do a fair bit of it — and a system for a TV. Although I …
Review Round-Up: Spring 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/31/20 at 04:45 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
The MJ Crew co-oped our way through significantly more titles than usual this Spring, but only I took the time to write reviews. Oh well! Aside from those shared experiences, I also finished my Backlog Ablutions for the year, played a few Indie games I’d been sitting on for a while, and grabbed the new hotness that is “Metro Exodus” and played it right away.
“Strange Brigade” – 4/5
“Metro Exodus” – 3.5/5
“Evoland: Legendary Edition” – 4.5/5
“Evoland 2” – 4.5/5
“Burokku Girls” – 2/5
“Finding Paradise” – 4.5/5
“To the Moon” – 4/5
“Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3” – 2.5/5
“Valley” – 4/5
“Satellite Reign” – 3/5
Chris’ Reviews:
THE Disgruntled Dwarf completely spaced-off the fact that he needed to write reviews for co-op games.At least he got started on his …
Backlog: The Embiggening – June, 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/24/20 at 04:58 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future. What do you get when you combine the annual Summer Game Drought with a pandemic?
…
…
Well, I was expecting s super-small release schedule, but thanks to the ‘other’ pandemic of ports/remasters/reboots/compilations/rehashes, there are actually TONS of “new” games coming out just in time for the start of Summer… and a few regular-old new games, too.
There are only four pieces of shovelware coming in June, and they hit all of the major shovel-ready categories. We’ve got a super-casual bit of nothing in “Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics,” an officially licensed (and annually occurring) Racing game in “Assetto Corsa Competizione,” and we’ve got an anime tie-in in “Fairy Tale.” Last, and definitely least, is a licensed game that is also a remaster: “Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated.” Oh boy.
Unfortunately, it’s time for us to all embrace the truth, that …
Dreadful DRM: Making a Comeback Under the Guise of “Anti-Cheating”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/17/20 at 04:04 PM CT
We live in a world in which it has been statistically proven that piracy not only doesn’t harm media sales, but actually provides free advertising. Likewise, selling digital media in a DRM-free format, be it games, music, or whatever, allows sellers to improve their reputations among buyers by providing a better service that the pirates do.
But the Games Industry never did care to hear the facts, and has always insisted that DRM was necessary, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Recently, the push to foist DRM upon gamers has taken a new angle, ostensibly ‘protecting’ gamers in online games from ne’er-do-wells.
In recent weeks, Riot Games – the creator of toxic e-sport MOBA, “League of Legends” – introduced the concept of kernel-level anti-cheat software in its latest release, a meritless PvP FPS frag-fest called “Valorant.” Hot on the heels of this reveal, Denuvo – purveyor of ‘launch-window’ sales-protecting Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM – …
A Fond Farewell to the Legendary Genderless Water-Type Pokemon
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/10/20 at 05:56 PM CT
On 4/20/2020, while multitudes of people around the world spent the day smoking unimaginable amounts of marijuana and getting happy and giggly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, I, instead, spent the day sobbing at the veterinarian’s office, saying goodbye to a friend I’d known for 18 years.
In the Summer of 2002, I was still a fresh college graduate, struggling with the frustrations of finding a job – or even finding an interview for a job – in the horrible modern economy. All of my immediate family was still alive back then, and I spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm (which is now my farm). Grandma and Grandpa always had a lot of farm cats, and the long-haired, tabby-striped Maine Coons that have accompanied me through my entire life all came from Nelson Farm stock. That year, though, Freckles – a short-haired tortoise-shell colored skank who happened to be one of the most prolific Queens of her era – had a litter of kittens in the bushes just outside …
Backlog: The Embiggening – May, 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/03/20 at 02:00 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future. Thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine/shelter-in-place/stay-at-home zeitgeist is has foisted upon us, game developers and publishers don’t really seem all that keen to release a bunch of new games.
This is, of course, completely ass-backwards, as videogame development is done entirely on computers, and thus can be done from anywhere, meaning that the programmers, artists, and musicians whose talent goes into making the games we love (or love to hate) can and should still be doing their thing, regardless of the state of the pandemic. Not only can the work involved in creating videogames be done from anywhere, there’s no time when people need the escapism brought by the medium more than now. The entire world is a more-or-less captive audience, staying home, bored out of their minds. Wouldn’t this be the ideal time to release a bunch of new games? Even if they aren’t the full “AAA” experience?
I guess …
Trump Unknowingly Touts Videogame Mechanic as COVID-19 Cure
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/26/20 at 03:10 PM CT
The wholly-unqualified, perpetually-bankrupt (both financially and ethically), conspiracy-mongering, insult-flinging President of the United States (and sometimes Troll Doll), Donald J. Trump doesn’t like videogames. And he will gladly throw the medium under the bus whenever he can use such action to gain brownie points with the religious fundamentalist nut-jobs in his voting base (such as when a mass shooting can be attributed to the shooter’s love of gaming instead of Jesus). However, this past week, President Clown inadvertently came up with a solution to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been sweeping the world and crashing economies for months now, that comes straight from the unspeakable world of gaming.
Speaking at a Federal Coronavirus briefing, Trump – whose vocabulary is largely limited to the words “tremendous,” “beautiful,” “powerful,” and a small handful of other similar adjectives – was impressed by the ability of both disinfectants and UV light to …
“The Woke of Us”: Sony Sequel to be Less Game, More Propaganda
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/19/20 at 05:43 PM CT
Earlier this April, a leaked plot synopsis for “The Last of Us: Part 2” made the rounds in the dark underbelly of the Internet gaming community, before being removed by a DMCA takedown notice. In this synopsis, it was revealed that, far from being a post-apocalyptic zombie story that just happens to contain lesbians, the long-awaited cinematic sequel will, in reality, be a LGBTQ+ gender dysphoriac story that just happens to take place after a zombie apocalypse.
Series writer, Neil Druckmann, is a self-professed male feminist and follower of Anita Sarkeesian, who, emboldened by both the positive reactions toward and negative backlash against his “The Last of Us” DLC and graphic novel, which revealed main character Ellie’s lesbian leanings, has decided to cram as much divisive identity politics into the sequel as possible. While leaks and rumors are inherently disreputable, veteran voice actor, Troy Baker, who portrays former-lead-character, Joel, in ‘The Last of Us’ …
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