Seven years of ups and downs
The Destiny franchise should have been Bungie’s magnum opus. After providing Microsoft with Halo, a franchise so iconic and revolutionary that it helped define an entire decade of gaming, they split from the company in 2007 to focus on independent endeavours. Seven years, a publishing deal with Activision, and $140 million in development costs later, Destiny, a sci-fi shooter MMORPG with goals to revolutionize the industry, was released to polarizing reception.
By no means was it a bad game, but it certainly was not what most people were expecting from such an ambitious concept. It took a year and three…
Exploring the rise and fall of the battle royale genre…and perhaps its comeback
Trends come and go all the time. Only the test of time determines whether they stick around or get forgotten and the battle royale genre, after two years of absolute dominance, has seemingly failed the test. Even though games like Fortnite and PUBG altered the very course of the industry and raked in billions of dollars, nearly every battle royale game has fallen out of the popular and critical conversation.
And why they don’t tend to stick around
At the age of 17, Faker of SK Telecom T1 won the Season 3 League of Legends World Championship, the first of three he would eventually win to cement his status as one of the best players in the world. At the age of 17 and 18, Armada and Mango, respectively, would face off in the first-ever GENESIS grand finals, birthing a rivalry that would last a decade and establish them as part of the pantheon of Super Smash Bros. Melee gods. At the age of 15, Vaxei broke the 1,000pp barrier on osu!, a feat that took the community…
The theater of the mind can be both obstacle and opportunity
Playing a mediocre game is, most of all, torturous. It’s not reflective of the developer’s skill or dedication, but something more fundamental to the gaming experience. The image of what you want from the game clashes with what it is in reality, and that hunger, that desire of more from a universe that refuses to budge, is arguably more detrimental to the experience than any bad plotline or janky mechanics.
Many games fall into the realm of being good enough to prod your imagination but not great enough to actually fulfill the promises they set up, ultimately leaving the player…
Even after a decade of investment and technological advancement, virtual reality remains a fickle technology. Headsets don’t always track correctly, controllers aren’t precise, and the software developed for it is barely functional at times. Regardless, it is the premier place for cutting-edge companies to showcase unique ideas and break into the industry. Even though we’ve barely figured out how to do camera movement properly, forward-thinking companies have already moved onto locomotion.
Investors from many different industries are interested in incorporating movement into VR applications. The military industry, already deeply involved with virtual reality, stands to benefit massively from these developments…
Re-examining Gen 4 and its undeserved middle child status
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, which came to market in 2006, was released to little fanfare. Even though they outsold all other Pokémon titles upon launch in both Japan and abroad, the generation meant to grow up on Diamond and Pearl has shown nowhere near the same amount of continued support that the original Pokémon games received. Many people felt that Diamond and Pearl failed to improve upon the beloved Ruby and Sapphire while also not introducing new ideas. …
Get your retro rhythm freak on with this deceptively simple title
Friday Night Funkin’ is not a very complex game. You open up the webpage on itch.io or Newgrounds, press enter to start, sort through a couple of menus, and start playing. Thick lines, flat shading, minimal animation, and some simple typefaces make the game look like thousands of other Flash games out there. The premise is simple as well; rap battle against many opponents so that you can kiss your girlfriend. Yet this humble appearance and concept hide a fantastic game.
And the intricacies of an immersive experience
Escapism, whether it be intentional or unintentional, is fundamental to storytelling. The feeling of being engrossed in a good book, movie — of being taken away to another world — is one we chase all the time. Colloquially, we know this as immersion, and both creators and consumers have been pushing for perfection. Rapid progress in camera, microphone, and post-processing technology makes each film feel more real than the last, pulling viewers out of their seats and into the world of the movie. The video game industry hasn’t been at rest either. …
How does the groundbreaking title hold up after a half-decade of innovation?
Titles in the SoulsBorne series, for all of their critical acclaim, are quite simple — just dodge and hit. Boiling it down to these two ideas may sound reductive, but the charm lies in the execution. How your character moves and attacks are the basis of how the game feels, and personal preference dictates what feels fun or frustrating for you.
As online storefronts increasingly become a free-for-all, how can players identify — and support — quality?
If there’s a sucker born every minute, then there’s a trashy game released every second for them to gobble up. Not just trashy, but effortless, something akin to a couple of Unity assets thrown together with just enough effort so that the computer doesn’t burn down on launch.
The proliferation of third-party and indie developers in the past few years has led to many groundbreaking titles, pushing forward video games as a medium. Unfortunately, the same mentality that allows anybody to become the next Toby Fox or Lucas Pope has opened the door to less savoury aspects of independent content…
Victor Li
Stories about Esports, Video Games, and the Internet. Twitter @victor_liii
