Update & Q&A

Hello everybody,

Whether or not these updates accompanying Q&A becomes a regular thing, I don't know. All depends on my work, and right now, I'm working pretty consistently, however, the light at the end of the tunnel I described before? It's coming fast.

I've also given Jack Coster, responsible for my Thumbnails since Ferrari: A Gaming Overview, a much bigger role, developing lower thirds, graphics, and the intro, where many experiments have and are still taking place.

What at first seemed to be a compromise on my end, is looking to be the longest and most fully featured video yet, and while drained at the moment of writing this, I haven't stopped getting up and hopping on the grindstone.

So thank you to everybody whose stuck around through this dry spell, and hopefully it'll be a thing of the past, though I've learned ages ago, not to make those sorts of promises, because I cannot predict my actions.

Rough estimate, I'd say we're 90% there, with the first and final three minutes, being the only things that need to be filled out.

And now...

The Great Leveler Asks
If you could replay any game for the first time what would it be and why? 

Spec Ops The Line.

I've described before that the year 2012 for me was a real wake up call with the wombo-combo of Spec Ops & Walking Dead Season 1, not in terms of gameplay, but of where games can potentially go emotionally. Though another answer might actually be Call of Duty Black Ops.

Not for positive reasons however, as I've sort of turned on Treyarch's campaign design. Not World at War, that still holds up, but Black Ops' sufficiently linear structure and over reliance on pointless set-pieces that feel more like vertical slices cut-up for trailers, really gets on my nerves compared to Infinity Ward's style, even in their worse outings like Ghosts.

So playing it for the first time again would allow me to evaluate the story as an adult, rather than a tween who never seen movies like Fight Club, Revolver, or Moon, that fuck with the viewers head, and as such, was very much entranced by the idea that a Call of Duty game can lie to you.

OzarkTempses Asks
What do you think about the state of E3 and other various gaming events? I'm thinking mostly of EVO but others have been hit hard due to COVID. 

Stop. Doing. Live. Shows.

For the love of my previous time.

I can't say it stopped being cute, because I'm not sure if it ever was cute.

Trailers lie to us. Vertical slices lie to us. The idea of pitching an incomplete product to an audience judging it as what should be the final product, is a lie that's peddled regardless if the show is live, or pre-recorded. So save yourselves the embarrassing skits, awkward pauses, and Geoff Keighley's flesh-woven pants, and show the damn games.

Livestreams are definitely going to become the standard, even in a post-COVID world, however, I'm not sure how long it'll be before the terrible liveshows vanish, or if they even will. They seem so ingrained in our culture, that they'll never fade, though, one could've said the same thing about E3 ten years ago.

Don't get me wrong, part of me will miss the days of spending hours going through pages and pages and pages of trailers, interviews, and news, however, when Devolver Digital's 15 minute parodies are routinely the best things to come from it, perhaps its time to hang the coat up.

I'm sorry if that didn't answer your question, Gamescom's poor showing's still fresh in my memory.

Holy Shift Asks
The Avengers, Gotham Knights and Rocksteady's Suicide Squad all turned out to be coop experiences, 2 of which are loot-based. Are we seeing a new trend and what will it mean for the market, specifically, is there no how for single-player Arkham-style superhero games now.

At this budget, it seems not.

Personally, I think Marvel/Disney should take advantage of this bland market and thrown in a mid-market Daredevil game, though Daredevil as a character also seems shelved, keeping Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex Prequels for company.

We're absolutely seeing a trend of loot-based games ever since Destiny, but without just copying Destiny's core-shooter loop. The more I think about it, this is just a repeat of the World of Warcraft fiasco in the early 00's. Games started with copying WoW's Horde vs Alliance and hotkey combat before moving on and using much bigger licenses and different gameplay styles to compel people.

Though just like before, by its very nature of the multiplayer space, only a couple can stand tall, and personally, I don't have much of a stake in any of these games.