Many have predicted that in the not too distant future, the games industry will see a crash in which giants would topple and a new status quo would be established. I do agree that in the last few years the main players in the industry have been pushing monetisation very hard, too hard it would seem and maybe now we are seeing the start of this culling. Like a forest fire, there will be casualties and painful changes as long-established systems start to break. The diminishing influence of mainstream media outlets is evidence of this shift in power. However, from the ashes of this inferno and the void left by these corporate behemoths, new life would flourish. All sounds a bit dramatic, right? Well based on how many major gaming companies have started to implode; it might be time to buckle up.
A few years ago Bethesda was seen as a marque studio, even the rough edges of the Fallout games were considered to be part of the charm. Skip to current day, Bethesda has become a cautionary tale and it is hard to see them ever getting back to the studio we once loved. Fallout 76 was released in such a shambolic state that the subsequent backlash was devastating for the series. However, what followed was a rapid-fire cluster fuck which included flawed merchandise, doxing customers and outright lies from the people who run Bethesda. Just when the embers were starting to cool, they decided to pour some more gasoline on their reputation by asking the remaining players to pay a yearly subscription for the most requested features. This is the equivalent of a burglar knocking on the door and offering to sell you your belonging back. It is difficult to understand just how a company could be so utterly tone-deaf.
Bethesda has not been alone in the season of self-sabotage, because this year also been witness to Anthem. EA (and Bioware) have been on thin ice for years now and it seems this was the straw to break the camels back. It turned out that the ‘gameplay’ trailer for Anthem at E3 2018 was a complete mock-up and the actual game didn't even exist at that point. The game we got, while a great concept, was under-baked and a pitiful shadow of the experience people were promised (and sold for a premium). While Ubisoft has been making amazing games for years, in recent times I have noticed their projects increasingly bleed into each other. Ghost Recon Breakpoint (ironically named) seems to have been the game where this asset and game system sharing ideology sadly came crashing down. Breakpoint was a disaster both critically and also from a reputation standpoint: Ubisoft has since pushed all their projects back which I hope will precipitate a more idiosyncratic development model. Even the almighty Google has been getting in on the action this month with the unmitigated disaster that is Stadia, a cloud gaming service that is literally not fit for purpose. I am thinking of writing an article on the evolution of gaming, but for now, just consider that we should be wary of any system that takes even more ownership away from the gamer.
We could discuss why these gaming giants have been going through such a rough few years and why so many are despised by the very people they want to sell games to. However, the answer is very simple; money. Whether it be a beautiful unspoilt beach in Thailand or a beloved gaming series, there will always be those who are willing to diminish its splendour in the name of a profit margin. I get it, many gamers don’t care for the politics of how the industry works and after a hard day in the office; they just wanna get home and play. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that gamers are going to have to be the guardians and the gatekeepers if we don’t want gaming to become saturated by monetisation. We can affect change in the wider gaming world by standing together and letting our wallets do the talking.
In contrast, there have been some fantastic success stories this year, like the procession of excellent games from the land of indie development. The indie scene is still a refuge from the greed that has plagued mainstream development and is a place where games made out of a passion for great design. My game of the year awards will be finished soon and I can tell you, a good portion of the candidates are from the indie stable. Even in the last few months, we have seen some absolute corkers like Disco Elysium, Children of Morta and Knights & Bikes. These games (and their respective developers) give me hope that when the gaming apocalypse arrives there will be a hotbed of new talent to carry us forward.
There is a game that while initially became famous for being outstanding in its own right, then went on to become a legend because of the conclusion it never reached. Half-life was a revolutionary first-person shooter that thrust the unlikely hero, Gordon Freeman, into an epic fight for survival. Then came the sequel of sequels, Half-life 2 was what every fan of the series dreamed off. Powered by the brand new source engine, the series was invigorated by superb physics and sublime world-building. As the story was pushed forward with two smaller episodes, this was the cliff hanger that infamously never achieved closure. I will never understand why Valve chose to stop here and leave fans in perpetual limbo. Well, this month we finally saw an announcement many thought would never come: a new Half-Life game. Within seconds the gaming world was buzzing with the news but fans were also sent reeling by the twist; this new Half-Life game would be exclusively built for VR.
I have not yet owned a VR headset but have been fortunate to have a friend nearby who has both VR and the space to enjoy it. The evolution of VR has been in an interesting ride for sure, early attempts were made over two decades ago (plus one bad movie) but the tech finally became realistic in 2012 thanks to efforts made by John Carmack. Mainstream VR headsets have been a thing for a few years but with companies holding back through fear of the platform collapsing (see Minidisc, 3D TV’s etc), adoption has been slow. It’s not that there haven’t been any good games, the likes of Beat Sabre and Budget Cuts really show off the potential for VR: but gamers have been waiting for that killer game to arrive. The Half-Life: Alyx trailer shows some truly mind-blowing gameplay and if nothing else, it is wonderful to see this universe running on a modern engine. As anyone who has tried VR will attest, it can give the most simple situation an unbelievable feeling of presence and scale. The idea of playing a Half-Life game in VR is beyond exciting and now I have had chance to adjust to the idea; it makes total sense. In the meantime, I’m going to be playing the fan reforging of Half-Life (Black Mesa) as well as the Half-life 2 games. Just goes to show, in gaming you can never say never.
It has been a long break since my last blog post which has been due to the heavy number of games to review but also my medical condition has been getting in the way. However, I am fighting back and once Christmas has passed I have some very exciting plans for the new year. My last few reviews include the epic western Red Dead Redemption 2 and an interesting (if very short) indie game called Mosaic. Red Dead 2 has not landed in the best state on PC, which I cover in my review and this is travesty considering what an utterly groundbreaking game it is. Even now, as the game has just landed on Steam, many are still having problems with the obligatory Rockstar launcher. Let’s hope these issues and a good amount of optimisation can make this game shine bright on PC.
As is tradition my last piece of work for the year will be game of the year awards. I will have the usual ‘five of the best’ and a final winner. I am also going to try a few other categories this year which will give some recognition to some of the less publicised games. So please check back nearer the big day and also watch out for the announcement on Twitter @riggedforepic