Auto Added by WPeMatico
There’s a fresh update from the organisers of the Stop Destroying Videogames citizens’ initiative, that being the petition asking EU lawmakers to look into the issue of publishers rendering online games unplayable when servers are switched off. Despite some concerns on their part a few months ago, the group claim that while the signatures they amassed are still being verified, “early reports from several countries” suggest “around 97%” of these are valid.
…And so the thick snow feels like a sweet variant of obscuration: an invitation to go make my own footprints. The signs are blanketed to invisibility or missing entirely, though I wouldn’t know the difference in weather this insistent. But: Easy Delivery Co.‘s map is very good. And by very good, I mean it tells me slightly less than what I want to know at all times.
Oh, Netflix’s The Witcher TV series is back with its fourth series next month, following a lengthy hiatus that’s seen Geralt regenerate from Henry Cavill into Liam Hemsworth. The new series premieres in late October, and first official looks at both the HemsGerry and Laurence Fishburne as Blood and Wine vampire Regis have been offered.
Hang on a minute, I thought, when I scrolled past this news on one of the screens in my Adrian Veidt-esque world-watching setup – Laurence Fishburne’s in it? Yep, it seems that after not getting around to watching the third series, I’ve managed to completely blot out all knowledge that the actor behind The Matrix’s pill distributor is being cast in The Witcher.
Some weeks, finding new games for the Maw is like scouring a village of octogenarians for the last remaining virgin to throw into a rumbling volcano. You awkwardly pop the question during a dozen hastily organised afternoon tea dates, and riffle through family trees in desperation as the air thickens with sulphur.
This week, it’s like the mountainside has been invaded by a horde of teenage firebugs. Stop shoving! Form an orderly queue! You are going to give the volcano constipation. Here’s a moderately curated round-up of the most promising specimens. May they burn brightly and stave off the magma for at least another seven days.
Borderlands 4 developers Gearbox have chucked more wrenches at the shooter‘s PC performance over the weekend, following issues that’ve landed it mixed Steam review fortunes since launch last week. However, if you’re looking for patch notes, you’re gonna be a bit disappointed. Ah well, at least there are essay-length Randy Pitchford Twitter threads to scroll through if you’re partial to someone waffling about how the game runs.
You might not think of it as one, but Wikipedia is a game. It has untold numbers of characters and stories, each page an interactive slate with your mouse and hand acting as the choice maker for what you learn next, thus impacting your following choices. This is, admittedly, a bit of a wanky, thinkpiecey way of talking about Wikipedia, so instead of that let’s talk about Neurocracy, a game that could quite easily fool you into thinking it is another version of Wikipedia.
Getting your game a publishing deal has never been an easy thing to do. Right now, it’s especially hard given that for many publishers, if it doesn’t seem like a guaranteed hit, it likely isn’t something they’ll take on. This is something that Vampire Survivors developer Poncle, or rather the actual person, Luca Galante, takes great issue with, and in a recent interview he spoke more broadly of his issues with publishers, and his thoughts on now being one.
In general these days it’s never a good time to release a video game unless you’re Rockstar, but in recent months it’s been made even harder due to numerous payment processors cracking down on digital storefronts like Valve and Itch.io. There’s a host of reasons this is problematic, but one less spoken about how this is also an issue of preservation. GOG, another digital storefront, this one owned by The Witcher developer CD Projekt, is known for their preservation efforts, and in a recent interview they shared a bit of their thoughts in relation to these recent issues regarding payment processors.
I don’t play online games particularly often, mostly the only ones that I do enjoy are the kind of games I can play with just my friends. People are mean, you see, and I have a sensitive soul, and also I often find them deeply boring conceptually and in practice. Take of that what you will in relation to this story about Dota 2! Moving on swiftly to a topic that I promise connects to this intro, Gabe Newell! He is a co-founder of Valve, and a noted Dota 2 lover. He also, apparently, is someone who is often subjected to ridicule while playing the very same game his company makes.
Whenever there is word of a video game’s release date being changed, it’s hardly ever surprising because nine times out of ten, it’s because it has been delayed. That’s just the way things are these days, no one can have the luxury of Team Cherry, who took so long making Silksong just because they were having fun. However, in this case, the release date shifting news is actually a positive one, as Dying Light: The Beast will be launching just that little bit earlier.
