2018

The Growing Disconnect Between Developers and Their Community

January 18, 2019 Editorials

“Do you guys not have phones?” A phrase that will live in infamy as the moment where people of the what I would define as more “hardcore” gaming audience realized that mobile games had worked their way into even the most “sacred” of gaming franchises. Mortal Kombat has one, Diablo is getting one and now the much-loved Alien: Isolation is getting a mobile sequel. But that is old news now and acts more as inspiration and example then the breaking of a story, so this one’s for you Alien: Blackout. What I am trying to say here is that there are basically two things that are examined when a game is put into development and that is money and popularity. The gaming community is at a crossroads where those two things are starting to butt heads which is ultimately hurting the people caught in the crossfire. No one can deny…

Spider-Man: Arkham City

February 19, 2019 Editorials

With 2019 underway, I was reflecting back on 2018 and some of my favorite video games of the year. One that immediately sticks out is Spider-Man. The gameplay mechanics were great, the story was wonderful and touching, but I can’t help but think it’s exactly like any Batman Arkham game, except you are controlling a more athletic, web-slinging Spider-Man instead of the Dark Knight. The Spider-Man combat relies heavily on combos, many of which you earn and unlock as you level up throughout the game. You can also rally these combos together into a multiplier where you can then knock out opponents with a single hit if you reach a certain point on the multiplier scale. If there is a big dude, you have to web him up, or stun them with a gadget, and then you can proceed to beat them to a pulp. If there’s a guy with…

Activision Blizzard is Being Weird

January 5, 2019 News

Activision Blizzard is just outright being weird. It started many years ago when Activision bought Blizzard. At that point everyone declared Blizzard dead and that profits will rule the kingdom. That wasn’t… true you could say? Blizzard, under Mike Morhaime one of the co-founders of Blizzard, continued to prosper and be the one game launcher (Blizzard App, previously Battle.net) that no one complained about, Then 2018 hit and like many things, Activision Blizzard got weird. Mike Morhaime left the company, the CFO was poached twice and they basically began mothballing their very popular game Heroes of the Storm. All the while they spent most of the year being besieged by positive press about their profits. Then, there was BlizzCon where they announced the Diablo: Immortal game to basically people pausing and going what. Why did this happen? There is a lot to it, with many moving parts. If I had…

Soulja Boy Has to “Boss up” in Controversial Console Debacle

November 4, 2023 Editorials

Soulja Boy had released four consoles for sale on his website which were quickly withdrawn. His original offering was part of his now defunct SouljaGame line and according to gamesradar.com included ” SouljaGame Console, SouljaGame Handheld, Retro SouljaBoy Mini, and SouljaGame Fuze” and that is a mouth full. There were questions about his plans legitimacy and it would appear the skeptics were right. Days after releasing his consoles he had to withdraw them from the market and the speculation is that Nintendo may have issued him a cease and desist letter. This speculation arose from a now deleted tweet in which he stated: “For anyone that thinks Nintendo is going to sue me you’re retarded. Nothings going to happen everything is legit. My console isn’t going anywhere trust me 😁 ” — Soulja Boy (Drako) (@souljaboy) December 28, 2018 Complex.com Rolling Stone did multiple stories on his console releases here and…

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate Breathes Fresh Life Into Unlockables

January 3, 2019 Editorials

Having released on December 7th of 2018, we have once more been blessed with another entry in the Smash Bros franchise. Bringing back the entire playable roster across the previous four entries, Super Smash Bros Ultimate boasts a hefty 74 playable character roster, with an addition to online features and new modes. Starting the game you are given a handful of characters instead of a huge array to blindly choose from; Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. In a nostalgic throwback to the N64 version, these eight fighters mirror the starting roster of the game that started this insanely popular series. If you choose the new World of Light mode, in which you start with only Kirby available, you will then have to rescue each of the other fighters. Saving those fighters will unlock them for all other modes. This method can be extremely tedious, especially…