In today’s busy times, it’s sometimes difficult to keep on top of all the big gaming news.
Although there are a number of high quality websites out there reporting news on a daily basis, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to sift through hundreds of articles.
Yer man Scullion is here to help with The Fortnight in Games, a fortnightly (obviously) rundown of the bigger and more interesting stories of the past two weeks.
Every story below contains a link to the wonderful Video Games Chronicle (VGC), the spiritual successor to CVG and the very best place for high quality, well researched daily gaming news (and I’m not just saying that because I write the odd review for them).
If you want to know about any of the stories you see below, clink on their respective links to head to VGC and get significantly more detail. And fewer shit jokes, which is an extra bonus.
If you enjoy this article, let me know and spread the word. If it becomes popular enough I’ll happily do it every fortnight. Now let’s get cracking.
The creative director for E3 2020, Iam8bit, has quit its role.
The company tweeted that it was going to be responsible for “an evolutionary E3 2020 floor experience”, but has since decided to resign.
In an interesting twist, the Entertainment Software Association has decided to hand the creative director role to the coronavirus, which plans to revolutionise the E3 floor experience in its own way by ensuring there’ll be no queues to play anything.
Also in creative director news: The Last of Us is being turned into a TV series for HBO, with the game’s creative director Neil Druckmann co-writing and executive producing.
Joining Druckmann in these roles is Craig Mazin, the creator of the Chernobyl series, so it’s clear that there’s some real talent involved here.
The show is set to cover the events of the first game, which means fans are already eagerly anticipating episodes 3, 5 and 9, all of which see Joel and Ellie spending an entire hour setting up ladders for each other.
Shigeru Miyamoto has told Famitsu magazine that Nintendo is no longer considered a ‘childish’ brand.
According to Miyamoto, their work on the Wii and the way it changed gamer demographics meant people no longer assumed it only made kids’ games, and that from that point the brand was associated with ‘peace of mind’.
This opinion was only strengthened when the Wii U was released, and everyone who bought it wanted to give Nintendo a piece of their mind.
Hideo Kojima has told the New York Times that the reason he thinks Death Stranding got lower review scores in America is because they prefer shooters.
In reality, research has shown that most of the game’s lowest review scores came from Europe, and when it comes to average scores there really isn’t much difference between Europe, North America and Asia.
“In America, they’re used to shooters, so they don’t gulp it down,” Kojima nevertheless explained to the New York Times.
And given the cutscene that runs when Norman Reedus drinks a can of Monster in the game, he’s clearly an expert on gulping things down.
Google has opened a new studio focusing on developing new games and entertainment for Stadia.
Set up in Playa Vista, California, the new studio will focus on delivering exclusive games for the Stadia platform, which will be great news for all seven people still using it by the time they’re ready.
“While we’re not ready to share specific game plans yet,” explained VP and head of Stadia Games and Entertainment Jade Raymond, “rest assured we are listening to what gamers want and adding our own Stadia twists to create new IP and experiences.”
Gamers have welcomed the news that more content is coming, particularly those who run YouTube channels focusing on cancelled games.
The PlayStation 2 turned 20 years old this week, which had the knock-on effect of making me feel about 80.
When the console launched in Japan on 4 March 2000, a million were sold in one weekend with over 10,000 people queuing for it in Tokyo alone (the Japanese bloody love a queue, even more than us Brits).
A couple of years ago Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida revealed that the best-selling PS2 software during launch weekend wasn’t actually a game but The Matrix, because of the console’s ability to play DVDs just as well as far more expensive standalone players.
Sony will doubtless be hoping lightning strikes again when the PS5 launches with the ability to play UHD 4K Blu-ray discs and everyone rushes out to watch Cats on it.
DuckTales: Remastered is available to buy again, after it was pulled from all digital stores last August due to its licence expiring.
If you missed out on it before, you once again have the chance to purchase this entertaining WayForward and Capcom remake on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and Steam.
The week before it was pulled, DuckTales Remastered shot up the EMEAA retail charts from number 1,191 to number 3, as gamers realised that could have been their last chance to own it.
Rumours that EA is tempted to pull Anthem to see if people will actually give a shit about that again have yet to be confirmed.
Virus containment strategy game Plague Inc has been pulled from sale in China, to the confusion of its developer Ndemic.
The studio has been told the game is now considered “illegal” content, and it assumes this is because of the spread of the coronavirus.
It would appear that the Chinese government is uneasy about its population playing a game about a topic that hits fairly close to home.
That said, Minecraft is still available for sale there, meaning millions of Chinese children can continue to construct things with very little payoff.
Microsoft has revealed more details about the upcoming Xbox Series X.
The console will be able to suspend numerous games at the same time, allowing players to switch between them and resume right away instead of fully booting them from scratch.
It will also make use of ray tracing, a hardware accelerated trick that will result in better reflections and more realistic lighting.
“The techniques of ray tracing have been around for many, many years but we’ve never actually had the power to do this in real time,” explained Xbox’s Jason Ronald during a podcast.
This will presumably come as a surprise to Ray Tracing of Vienna, Austria, who is a real person (according to Facebook) and may be unaware that a multi-billion dollar corporation is trying to emulate his abilities.
Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the creator of the famous Konami Code, passed away recently at the age of 61.
The Konami Code is the most well-known cheat code in video game history, and was used in hundreds of games and website easter eggs.
It was even featured in Disney’s movie Wreck-It Ralph and included in a baby toy (which I discovered myself).
Mind blown. Well played, @FisherPrice (needs sound) pic.twitter.com/Ld94QpUOAt
— Chris Scullion (@scully1888) December 17, 2018
Konami staff paid tribute to Hashimoto-san at a company service, where they toasted him by raising their glasses, then raising them again, then lowering them twice, then swishing them left and right a couple of times before realising what was going on.
The delay of Final Fantasy VII Remake won’t affect plans for Part 2’s release date, according to Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda.
Work on the second part of the game is currently underway, despite the first game being held back until 10 April.
The game’s producer explained back in January that it was delayed to give the development team a little more time to add extra polish.
It presumably doesn’t give them time, however, to add ‘Part 1’ onto the box and make it clearer to customers that they won’t be getting the full story.
A Sony patent suggests that future controllers – maybe even the PlayStation 5 one – could use players’ biofeedback to affect the game.
Sensors on the side of the controller could measure players’ heart rate and sweat secretion and change the game accordingly, such as raising or lowering the difficulty.
This is a great idea for horror games, where a player may have to try to control their fear in order to prevent the game picking up on it.
It’s less welcome news for your uncle, though, who was always a sweaty bastard.
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