News & Views
11/7/15-11/13/15
Whew! Today
is a doozy. Been running around frantically all day as I prepare for an
enormous series of experiments next week. I’m going to be running about 4 to 5
experiments simultaneously. It’s going to be fun? (Not really, please someone
save me from myself) So without further ado let’s get into this week’s News
& Views.
News &
Views is your weekly compilation of the best video game writing from the past
week. In this edition, I’ve found great stories about how the TPP may affect
video games, the important of remembering reality, how Fallout 4 is unapologetically hardcore, and how Cibele portrays an era of internet
lovers.
And of
course you can 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
COMPLEX, Magnum Opus
Games, YouTube
Worth Reading
Claire
Napier, Women Write About Comics
Ben
Kuchera, Polygon
Laura
Hudson, Offworld
SuperBunnyHop,
YouTube
Mike
Zaimont, MikeZ.blogspot
With Comments
Richard
Lai, engadget
Lai reports on the infamous and
much-debated hybrid console: the Nintendo PlayStation. It turns out that not
only are the rumors true, but the prototype actually works. Incredible. I love stories like this. We get the
evolution of myth to truth, and a view into a present (or future) that easily
could have been.
Ben
Kuchera, Polygon
I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve died a
couple times in Fallout
4 already. The game will kill you with
barely a moment’s notice. You have to manage health and radiation and encumbrance
and stats and perks and ammo and and and. Fallout 4 is a western RPG that feels true to its ancestry, for better and
worse. I’m glad Bethesda did not feel compelled to water down their hardcore
experience for the sake of a wider audience—and as we can already see (with the
game shipping 12 million copies in
one day), their decision paid off.
Leigh Alexander,
Offworld
Cibele is a game that spoke to me in unexpected
ways. Nina Freeman and her team at Star Maid Games have a real winner on their
hands. The game covers a wealth of concepts with finesse. One that struck both
me and Alexander was the game’s representation of the age of internet lovers.
Though I didn’t participate, I was a part of that era. Everyone knew someone
who had that anonymous internet connection turned not so anonymous. The
representation of an MMO-romance in Cibele is fantastic, and I recommend everyone give it a chance.
Matt
Paprocki, Unwinnable
I always knew Batman was a jerk. He’s
the dictator of Gotham. The villains never stood a chance.
