The Impact Factor

News & Views

8/6/16-8/12/16

We’re living in plentiful times, folks. Everyone expects summer gaming to be slow and boring, but I’ve had an experience quite the opposite. Summer 2016 has been a fantastic time for indies & other smaller games. I recently finished I Am Setsuna, a nice throwback to the JRPGs of yesteryear. Early this week I finished and platinumed Double Fine’s Headlander. And now I’m deep into Hyper Light Drifter (which is freakin’ fantastic so far.) Once that’s done, I still have ABZU, Bound, and Batman: A Telltale Series to get to. It’s a good time to be playing video games.

News & Views collects the week’s best writing about video games. Check out the links below for stories about how food can evoke a particular brand of fantasy, why putting a score on your video game review is useless, and the galaxy-wide quest to find No Man’s Sky’s giant sand serpent.

And of course please check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight

Patch the Process

Rami Ismail, Ramiismail.com

Worth Reading

The More You Know: Making Decisions Interesting In Games

Jon Shafer, Gamasutra

Furi is Difficulty Done Right

Matt Sayer, Unwinnable

Food Is the Secret Ingredient in Vanillaware's Games

Todd Harper, VICE

Sonic boom: Ellie Gibson on nostalgia, novelty, and that 9/10

Ellie Gibson, Eurogamer

The Elder Scrolls: Legends is Too Similar to Hearthstone

Holly Green, Paste

Why Video Game Scores are Useless

Josh Bycer, Gamasutra

With Comments

The Game Germany Deemed 'Harmful to Minors'

Patrick Klepek, VICE

Klepek’s investigative reporting gives us insight into something we almost never see: the reasoning behind why a game gets its content rating. This article takes a look at the German video game review board and their decision to not rate the controversial Criminal Girls 2. If nothing else, this is worth reading for insights into the previously only speculated.

The Hunt For No Man's Sky's Mysterious Giant Snake

Patricia Hernandez, Kotaku

I love stories like this. No Man’s Sky had a lot of trailers, but even I remember the giant sand snake that slithered its way into the hearts & minds of fans around the world. The procedural generation in the game means that it is unlikely for a giant snake to spawn that perfectly resembles the one in the trailer, but that hasn’t stopped the hunt. Fans across the world are scouring No Man’s Sky’s billions of worlds in search for the elusive creature. I hope they find it!