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Last year I covered the demo for Void War, robotically describing it as FTL meets Warhammer 40,000, because that is what it is, and sometimes, you have to call a Spade Marine a Spade Marine (I did enjoy the demo, as flagrantly combinatory as the game may be).
Late last year, horror game Horses was denied a release on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Both Valve and Epic judged that Santa Ragione’s surreal work violated their rules regarding adult content, while the studio have asserted the the game “uses challenging, unconventional material to encourage discussion” rather than sexually titillate.
Now, an interview given by one of the Epic Store’s executives has reignited the war of words between the storefront and Santa Rangione, with the latter accusing Epic of making “provably incorrect statements about the game’s content”.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties‘ director Ryosuke Horii has addressed the controversial casting of actor Teruyuki Kagawa in the remake, which has resulted in fan backlash due to a 2022 report from Shukan Shincho detailing sexual assault allegations against the actor. Kagawa apologised at the time, but didn’t specify what he was apologising for or confirm the events reported in Shukan Shincho’s article.
Hello reader who is also a reader! It’s finally time for another edition of our thrillingly erratic column on game developers and their bestest books. This week, we’re having our ears bent by Marcia Shange, chief operating officer of South Africa, Johannesburg-based developers Nyamakop, creators of puzzle platformer Semblance and the forthcoming postcolonial heist ’em up Relooted. Cheers, Marcia! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
For all of their faults (the list may be endless), the interesting thing about live service games, when done well anyway, is the way they can change from day to day. There’s an actual living quality to them that, even if I’ll always prefer them, a singleplayer game can’t capture as well. One such game that can change quite drastically is Arc Raiders, with its varying map conditions and events, swapping in and out at the whims of its developers. This rotation isn’t something universally loved, but CEO Patrick Söderlund has said that they’re here to stay.
Last month, Ubisoft pretty unceremoniously cancelled a bunch of games, the most notable of the bunch being that long gestating Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. This came as part of a major restructuring at the company, putting up to 200 jobs at their Paris HQ at risk, ultimately leading to a call for an international strike, and the firing of one Assassin’s Creed designer. It’s all a concerning mess, and now the creator of Prince of Persia and lead designer on the original Sands of Time Jordan Mechner has shared his sympathy to devs affected by the remake’s cancellation.
In a few months time we’ll be approaching the anniversary of Square Enix realising that actually, their commitment to releasing certain games only on particular platforms isn’t that good for them after all. These following two years will supposedly have been a time of internal change for the studio, with that translated externally via the Final Fantasy 7 Remake games releasing on more than just PlayStation. Perhaps they’re finally making smart choices! And then last year, instead of finally showing off something like, I don’t know, Kingdom Hearts 4, which was first revealed four years ago now, they announced Killer Inn. Okay! And now, you can try it out for yourself.
You know, you’d think that with decades worth of RPGs in existence, side quests would have been more or less figured out by now. And yet, there are still enough games releasing that seem more interested in going for quantity over quality. But for the devs over at Archetype Entertainment, the goal is to make the side quests in their upcoming sci-fi jaunt Exodus not feel just “tacked on.”
My Menace campaign hasn’t been a rousing success. In my first mission, I failed a string of optional objectives and saw one of my squads gunned down by a group of heavily-armed, jetpack-wearing space pirates. I got revenge by running them over with an APC. So, we’ll call it a draw. But I need to up my game if I’m to kick these freeloading bandits off the planet Backbone.
This week saw the early access launch of turn-based tactics game Menace, created by the piss-swigging misanthropes behind Battle Brothers. Julian has been having a wonderful time playing it and learning about the importance of spare ammo and adequate reconnaissance. It could have been worse, Julian. Your antivirus software could have deleted some of the game’s files. This being one of the currently known issues listed in the patch notes for the game’s first proper update.
