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Our Week in Games – Week 160

Our Week in Games – Week 160

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It’s been a wild week in the games industry, can’t we have a calm one once in a while? We’ve had EA publicly state that Battlefield 2042′s sales were “disappointing” while distancing themselves from NFTs. There was a crazy 24-hour period where Worms developer turned indie publisher Team 17 announced a MetaWorms NFT project, then quickly scrapped it.

Perhaps one of the biggest events this week was Sony taking what I think was a defensive move with the purchase of Destiny developer, Bungie. In the announcement from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s boss Jim Ryan it was confirmed that Bungie would be part of the PlayStation family, while remaining independent and able to continue multi-platform development and self-publishing. For me, this is Sony taking a significant ex-Microsoft asset off the board, preventing Microsfot making any further moves to bolster their portfolio.

Will we see any further moves from Sony and Microsoft to buy-up other companies? Maybe not.

Will we see further developers talk up NFT plans, only to quickly abandon them? More than likely.

Now, on with Our Week in Games.

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Our Week in Games – Week 157

Our Week in Games – Week 157

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The Steam Autumn Sale lumbers into life like a predictably re-animated zombie corpse that is clumsily foreshadowed at the start of an 80’s B-movie. Or something.

Gone are the days when my wallet would be denuded by the wares on display- 33% off here, 50% off there, even- some say in hushed whispers… 75% off in some cases. Yet, I find myself resisting and not forking out- despite a number of games from my wishlist being on (rather good) sale. This coupled with Black Friday and the cornucopia of tech-deals available (Elgato have some particularly good deals if you’re that way inclined good reader) means the pre-Xmass assault on our finances has a worryingly co-ordinated feel to it.  But we here at Reticule Towers believe in you, you’ve got this.

Perhaps the sale is part of the reason Steam recorded 27 million concurrent users recently; a record that is slightly mind boggling to think about.

In more gaming-gaming news; Battlefield 2042 has had a…. wobbly start. The predictable (though still painful) server issues aside, players are reporting stability issues with a LOT of rubber-banding, very suspect hit-box registration, and bugs a plenty. My current favourite being the ability to affix a grappling-hook to a cloud of smoke… or even tornadoes.

You spin me right round, baby right round.

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Our Week in Games – Week 156

Our Week in Games – Week 156

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Lo, we are still here! After a few weeks of real life (and games, of course) taking priority, we’re back with another Our Week in Games. These past few weeks have been dominated by the fall from grace of Activision, but more specifically their CEO Bobby Kotick. It’s a fiasco which is eerily reminiscent of Succession, the prestige drama from HBO that parodies the likes of FOX and other media conglomerates, where the board and other senior leaders are massively out of touch with the real world, and either ignorant or culpable for the culture within their organisations.

If you want some serious analysis of this situation, check out this piece over on GI.biz. Once you’ve perused that, hit the break for the lowdown on Our Week in Games.

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Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 remake
Our Week in Games – Week 155

Our Week in Games – Week 155

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There’s been a lot of talk in recent weeks about Dbrand, the third-party peripheral supplier, and their mini-feud with Sony over their design of custom faceplates for the PlayStation 5. I think this has been a canny bit of marketing from Dbrand, with their rallying shout of “Sue us, Sony” when they first revealed their product. That was bound to get the attention of some mainstream sites, while the recent reveal of an entirely new design for their faceplates as a response to a cease and desist from Sony has sparked a new round of coverage.

As ever, GamesIndustry.biz has a great lowdown of the legalities around the IP rights at play which is well worth a read. Personally, I think the general coverage that this situation has seen shows that there is a growing demand for Sony to release some official custom faceplates. I’m happy enough with my PlayStation 5 tucked behind my TV, but for those who have a more prominent console, I can well imagine that they are crying out for something even slightly more subtle than the default design.

With that said, hit the break for a breakdown of Our Week in Games.

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Our Week in Games – Week 153

Our Week in Games – Week 153

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The big news last week was Nintendo surprise dropping a new Nintendo Direct. Those rumours of a Switch Pro still aren’t turning into anything substantial, but Nintendo did reveal that in late October they will be releasing an “expansion” to their Nintendo Online offering. This will bring a range of N64 and Sega Mega Drive titles to the service.

For some serious analysis of this change, take a look at this piece on GI.biz then hit the break for Our Week in Games.

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Our Week In Games – Week 152

Our Week In Games – Week 152

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Well, that was a lot of drama wasn’t it.

CEO of Tripwire Entertainment making public comments on the Texas Supreme-court ruling (preventing women from having autonomy over their own bodies), and then paying the inevitable price when he ‘moved on’ from the role shortly after. One can’t help but wonder, given how often this sort of thing happens, why those who decry games for being “political” are the same people making comments like this. Hopefully the damage to the developers under the Tripwire umbrella wasn’t too severe and we can all just move along now.

In other news the Knights of the Old Republic remake has been announced to much squeeing (it’s a word) on the internet. Interestingly Bioware, the original games developers, appear to not be involved. Watch this space for more on this as and when we get it, but colour us very excited.

Feel free to make the lightsaber swoosh/vroom noise in your head now.

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Our Week in Games – Week 151

Our Week in Games – Week 151

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This week saw Blizzard confirm that Overwatch’s Jesse McCree, the wise-cracking DPS cowboy, would be renamed following fallout from the sexual harassment suit filed in the state of California. McCree was named after real-life Blizzard developer Jesse McCree, who was shown to be aware of the heinous ‘Cosby Suite’. McCree has since been terminated by Blizzard.

It’s something many fans were clamouring for in the wake of the damning revelations, painting a toxic workplace rife with discrimination and sexual harassment. Good riddance, we say.

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Our Week in Games – Week 149

Our Week in Games – Week 149

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Idris Elba being cast as Knuckles in the next Sonic film, rumours of Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City and San Andreas remasters, plus the announcement of Frostpunk 2 have made for a very busy week of gaming news. In a different world, we’d be covering some of these big news items…or at least the Frostpunk 2 news as that is brilliant, but sadly we all have busy day jobs. Apart from Ross who floats around as Editor making all of our words sound so much better.

If you haven’t checked out Jon’s impressions of Back 4 Blood, then before reading on for Our Week in Games, do check that out.

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Our Week in Games – Week 148

Our Week in Games – Week 148

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Another week rolls by here at The Reticule, and all is quiet. Well, it was until Jon returned! 

As we explained last week, we are still looking for new diverse voices to join our motley crew. Even if you aren’t looking to write with us, feel free to join our Discord server to hang out and talk about whatever takes your fancy. With that, on with Our Week in Games. 

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