How The Sausage Is Made

It’s fun getting into trouble!


It’s obvious no one at Milton Fucking Bradley ever played the
Outlast series, which I can assure you, is an example of a time it
is not fun getting into trouble…

Keeping up with my ridiculous self-imposed challenge of writing everyday has certainly been an endeavor, to say the least. The irony of writing about games that I’ve found was true in the past and remains true now is that the more time you dedicate to the practice of writing about games, the less time you have in actually playing any of them, which is such an obtuse thought it becomes itself dizzying in it’s very nature and rapidly more nauseating as one continues to process the idea. I take this moment now to point out the obvious truth that it isn’t a 1:1 process: I can’t just put an hour into playing a video game and out pops an hour of equivalently interesting writing ideas mind you, as if that were the case, I could write blog posts rivaling the girth and depth of The Silmarillion on the regz.


Fairly surprised this was the first image that came up when I
googled “Silmarillion Girth” just for shits and giggles

That’s where the creativity comes in, of course, and boy one is always crossing their fingers that juice will be worth the squeeze on any given day. I think there is something to be said of thinking about the machinations and context of the games themselves, rather than maybe just the idea of discussing the distilled elements of gameplay, as it comes off to me as the difference of gawking at a muscle car passing by vs discussing what’s under the hood. Stroking one’s metaphorical willy about the aesthetics of a souped up beef machine have their time and place, but you wouldn’t even have had a chance to wag your absurdist pickle at the beast on wheels had it not the power of what’s pumping under the hood to get it there.


Some engines more impressive than others

I’ve realized I should clarify: this is more of an exposition about how the sausage is made, not really a complaint about the meat at hand (really gotta get off this phallic word play roll). I do attempt to deliver beyond regurgitating headlines, mind you, though the real world enjoys trying to intervene in the creative process with things like “jobs” and “sleeping” which really fuck up my whole ebb and flow on the matter. To the point of just throwing headlines out all willy nilly just for the sake of it, I had no idea that Netflix was trying to get an inside horse into the world of gaming so bad, even going as far as to announce several new video game based adaptations they announced at one of their own events in the past day. I am completely indifferent to this news however, so trying to get myself into a creative tizzy about this revelation, or the one where Netflix offers dozens of games you can play on mobile devices if subscribed, leaves me utterly muted in response.


Far out, Netflix

And that’s the thing, I don’t mind going on about headlines when I’m really lit up with energy or feel incredibly impassioned about a particular piece I see making the rounds in gaming circles, but I am merely mortal, not everything is super enthralling or life changing news. I am always thrilled when the perfect storm coalesces, and both interesting idea meets a fervent mind to deliver on an awesome idea, but no one bats a thousand.


The face of a man who is familiar with what a poor batting
average looks like

I remember once recently when I wanted to come up with some kind of article idea involving playing a game, I tried booting up Pokémon Scarlet, and was reminded of why I never forced myself through the title, and that’s because the game is fucking rough to play. I know Game Freak wanted to go all Breath of the Wild on us, but Pokémon really didn’t need to do that, and it reflects poorly on the whole experience as a result. But obviously, I’m not going to want to play a game that is like that, which means I am not going to want to gather any more ideas on the title, and ultimately that entire piece was just surmised into a single sentence in this very paragraph, so so much for that fucking idea.


Truly the Dunsparce of gaming article ideas

I’m enjoying The Plucky Squire, which I was proud to get a preview up for on launch day, but as I had foreseen already as a problem I was going to run into by not getting the product early enough to play through, as this isn’t an official operation as you may have noticed, people already have reviews out. Playing through the whole game would take a hot minute anyways, so how much motivation or interest would be left for the final article seems non-existent

I throw my horns to you, Plucky Squire, even if I am unable
to afford you all of my time

I’m not done writing about Castlevania, mind you, as it regularly holds a firm grasp upon my spirit as an ephemeral source of interest for me, but as the more clever readers have already deduced, it is just another piece of collateral in my war against time, and fighting in the trenches of my everyday to do my best to combat it. I think it’s fitting this post follows me last one, which was all about discussing expectations involving the eventual launch of The Elder Scrolls VI, and how Bethesda should find comfort in the fact that the game will just have to go back to basics, and just be the most Elder Scrolls like it can be to end up making people happy. In essence: it’s success will lie within it being itself.

I think this write up is very much in the same spirit.

~Pashford

Random Gaming News Round Up

Trying not to sound like a broken record I think makes me sound like a broken record, I think.


I think, therefore I game?

Putting philosophy only slightly to the side as we focus on a sampler platter of news items to confront today, I’m not quite sure how much Gamescom contributed to my current levels of exhaustion, but this week has felt like a mighty one. I reported recently on just the tip of the iceberg in terms of gaming news from the show, including Borderlands, Indiana Jones, Wukong, and Masters of Albion in some detail, and there’s yet more I will likely discuss in the following week relating to the show with the ridiculous breadth of content that the gaming world was a party to in the past week or so. The news marches on of course, even outside of Gamescom, as there is always something popping off in our little gaming world.


Or not, as the problems seems to be

Sony’s new team based hero shooter Concord is getting dragged through the mud for low player count following launch, with reports saying under a thousand concurrent users were enjoying the new FPS during launch, not numbers I’m sure Sony is thrilled about. On the one hand, the game did just launch, and sometimes you need to let players really dig into the experience for update improvements and word of mouth to roll out. On the other hand, hype for this kind of game really should start building early on in betas and the like, much like Valve’s shooter Deadlock, which albeit is a slightly different beast in terms of design, but to my point, a badly kept secret until very recently, where people were just dying to talk about the title, inspite of the company trying to keep it low key to the point of seemingly ignoring it’s existence entirely.


A visual representation of Valve’s marketing strategy with Deadlock

I’m always torn in moments like these, as I don’t want to see a developer fail with what could be considered a less than stellar product, especially with layoffs continuing to be a problem left and right for the industry, but on the other hand, how many team based FPS games (and the like) in general can even coexist on the market before the entire field feels flooded with choices? At some point, you will reach a saturation point, and with gamers sinking countless hours into a title and unlocking both skins and racking up stats in more prominent shooters or a title they have at least put a bunch of time into with a friend group that is already all about it, the prospect of just up and moving to another game is a hard sell.


Sometimes, even acclaimed titles are sales flops

There are a lot of realities to this business that I don’t necessarily have all of the info at the ready on to make a totally sound judgement call as well, so it’s hard to say whether something like Concord needed to launch with gangbuster numbers in order to justify it’s existence immediately or whether or not people are overreacting and the game just needs to play the long game to be deemed a moderate success. I guess in a fast moving market, if a title at launch is already struggling to maintain excitement levels and is already falling off fairly quickly in terms of player base, at least on Steam, it’s hard not to assume the worst for the longevity of the title.


Just one of many examples that spring to familiar mind

Publishers may have lofty expectations for developers in terms of recouping losses and making a general profit, if the recent news involving the cancellation of the development of Crash 5 is any reminder. The title was planned on being a crossover with the Spyro series, as a proper 3d platformer where you could play as either titular hero, but Activision scrapped the idea due to low sales numbers from Crash 4. A damn shame as I think many can agree, as that kind of collab sounds very much like a chocolate and peanut butter scenario most people would have jumped at.


Activision: The consumate cockblocker strikes again

In slightly less depressing news, the King of Fighters series celebrates it’s 30th anniversary today, with KoF 94′ having launched on this very day in a much different era, helping to usher in a glorious ongoing rivalry with Capcom for dominance in the 2d fighting space for years to come. SNK promised a slew of announcements in celebration of the event, and has continued to remind people of the awesomeness that is KoF with Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui appearing as guest fighters in SF 6, as well as a rerelease of Snk vs Capcom: SVC Chaos, and an upcoming title Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves launching mid 2025. Trailer below.

Not all is bad in the world of gaming, and at the very least, we all have the fortunate problem of being haunted by choices, which comes as much of a relief as it carries a horrifying reality to it. Even in moments when I’m totally zonked out due to tiredness on top of not even having had much time to play much in the past couple of days, I remind myself that this is all suppose to be in the name of fun, and return down back to Earth before I let myself get overwhelmed with choices. We may live in anguish in the face of freedom, but we remain capable of finding comfort in our random moments of zen amidst the chaos.

~Pashford