Backlog: The Embiggening – May, 2026
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/01/26 at 01:21 AM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Spring is almost over, which means Industrial Gaming should start winding down for the annual Summer Games Drought. What with the global economy in chaos, will we see our Industry continue to stay the course with its traditional – and not particularly successful – ritualized behaviors, or will we see a shake up? Let’s take a look at what’s coming down the (sewer) pipe in May.
Oof! There’s quite a bit of Made-to-be-Mocked shovel-ready crap coming in May... and ALL of it falls into the Licensed Swill category (or maybe we should start calling it Licensed Slop to keep up with trendy terminology). There’s yet another ‘LEGO Batman’ game, a ‘Bluey’ game, and the first new ‘James Bond 007’ game in a coon’s age (with no movie tie-in to be seen... which seems dubious), all hitting multiple platforms. PC is getting the timed exclusive release of a new ‘Nickelodeon Sports’ game (other platforms will be assaulted …
Final Fantasy is in a Catch-22 Situation
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/26/26 at 04:39 PM CT
Alas, ‘Final Fantasy’ has been in freefall for FAR too long now, as I’ve pointed out previously. Each time a new game is announced, there’s the fleeting possibility that it will redeem the last TWENTY YEARS of flops and garbage, but it never manages to deliver.
Inexplicably, the second MMO entry in the series - “Final Fantasy 14 Online: A Realm Reborn” – seems to be the most recent title to garner a substantial amount of praise, even after flopping at launch and needing a complete revision into its more-or-less current incarnation. This praise comes in spite of the fact that the game is a) an MMO RPG, b) a subscription-based MMO RPG, and c) incredibly EFF-ing boring. Yet it is still getting plenty of support, with a new expansion, “Evercold,” revealed at the recent North American Fan Fest.
Of course, the game’s director, Naoki Yoshida, had a lot more to talk about than just the newest expansion for the last surviving revenue stream with ‘Final Fantasy’ …
Gaming’s Newest Curse: Dynamic Pricing
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/19/26 at 03:53 PM CT
It seems that we are just flat-out not allowed to have nice things, peace, or happiness anymore. Just when it seemed that Industrial Gaming had already plumbed the deepest depths of enshittification, something new is on the horizon, and it seems that Sony is leading the way into even greater hostility toward its customers.
As reported by Bellular News, it seems that Sony is going to be the first major gaming company and platform-holder to start adjusting prices based on what each individual can be expected to pay, rather than offering products at fixed prices with occasional blanket discounts. It’s entirely possible that we’re witnessing the beginning of the end for MSRP - Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price – as, if Sony and other like-minded corporations get their way, all product pricing will change from “MSRP” to “How Much You Got?”
Unfortunately, HMYG dynamic pricing isn’t actually a “new” thing. It has existed for decades under the guise of …
Amazon Luna to Follow Google Stadia on June 10
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/12/26 at 02:59 PM CT
Remember Google’s disastrous attempt at transforming gaming into a Cloud-based experience? Remember how it flopped after a single year and how Google kept it going as a backend service for a while after that before shutting it down altogether?
Well, apparently, Amazon thought they could do better when they launched their Luna game streaming service. Presumably the online retail titan thought they already had the gaming rep needed to launch such an endeavor due to having a de-facto monopoly on the other kind of game streaming through their Twitch platform. Amazon even tried partnering with the (sometimes inexplicably) well-liked DRM-free PC game shop, GOG.com, in order to help new Luna users flesh out their streamable libraries with a bunch of dubiously-Good, definitely-Old, Games.
Too bad for Amazon, but great news for us: Luna has been a complete failure and will be going away on June 10, 2026. Amazon has officially stopped selling new games through the Luna interface, and …
Microsoft: Co-Pilot is Mandatory, but “For Entertainment Only.”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/05/26 at 09:48 PM CT
It seems that ever since Windows 11 launched, Microsoft has been obsessed with cramming their AI assistant, Co-Pilot, into every facet of the OS, including bizarre and nonsensical appearances in such barebones programs as MS Paint and Notepad. These OS-level AI features have also had a grating tendency to re-install themselves during updates, even if the user has gone through the effort of trying to remove them.
And if Windows 11 is beyond saving, then Windows 12 is positively sunk, because Microsoft is currently planning to make it an entirely “agentic” OS, in which AI agents within the operating system interpret the user’s intents and desires, then manipulate the system based on these interpretations instead of allowing the user to manipulate the system directly. Indeed it looks like the future of Windows MS has been building towards is one entirely driven by AI...
... Which is why it’s so strange that, in their Autumn 2025 EULA update for Windows 11, they snuck in …
Backlog: The Embiggening – April, 2026
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/28/26 at 02:56 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! The most foolish month of the year is almost upon us, once again. So I guess we shouldn’t expect the Games Industry to act in any other way as it continues to destroy itself through greed, overreach, and bandwagoning. Let’s look at the crap we are being so graciously offered for consideration.
At least there’s not a ton of shovelware coming in April. In Licensed Swill releases, there’s a new ‘Winx Club’ game for little girls, based on a a Nickelodeon TV show that started in 2004 (when today’s little girls’ moms were little girls) and ran until... wow! 2019? So maybe there are still a few little girls who are both old enough to remember this IP and young enough to want to buy this game... maybe. There’s also a 3v3 Fighting game based on the Amazon streaming superhero deconstruction show, ‘Invincible.’
The other April shovelware all comes in the form of Noteworthy Ports... and saying these compilations of …
nVidia Reveals DLSS5 Tech: Civil War Ensues
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/22/26 at 03:20 PM CT
It seems that the massive AI investments are starting to bear their first fruits in the realm of videogaming. nVidia recently revealed the brand-new, bleeding-edge 5.0 version of their DLSS upscaling software. DLSS has been around for a few years, mostly as a frame-generator or resolution upscaler, with functionality that “fudges” game visuals on low-end PCs or in games set to “low” in order to stabilize frame-rates and smooth-out low-end visuals on large, Ultra-High-Definition displays. DLSS5, however, aims to use AI for much deeper image analysis, allowing it to enhance the lighting and textures in a game to be closer to “photorealistic” than they actually are.
Unsurprisingly, in our idiotically-polarized world, the Internet has already drawn a line and chosen sides in a civil war over whether or not the results of DLSS5 look good or not.
For the record: They DO look good!
We have seen several examples of DLSS5 in action that were shown off by nVidia, and older …
Tenth Gen: It Looks Like We’re Doing This... Again.
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/15/26 at 03:36 PM CT
All of the news last year was pointing to a final winding down of the long-running console wars, with PC and Mobile gaming as the ultimate winners. With Sony allegedly cooling on hardware sales and wishing to pivot into developing “community,” Xbox seeming to throw all of its resources into the “Everything is an Xbox” campaign, and even Nintendo’s Switch 2 sales cratering after a strong Launch Window, it looked like all of the major players in console gaming (and Xbox – LOL, Xbox) were ready to disappear into the long night.
Alas, those of us who were looking forward to Unified Gaming may have counted our chickens before they were laid, as early 2026 has seen a spate of bad news that seems to have reversed everything we thought we knew was coming.
First, in a surprise move, Xbox fired both Phil Spencer and his presumed successor and protege, Sarah Bond, only to replace them with an executive with no gaming experience who used to be part of Microsoft’s AI …
He’s Everywhere X!: MOAR Yu-Gi-Oh! Edition
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/07/26 at 07:37 PM CT
It’s that time of year, again! The coming of March means that MeltedJoystick’s very own Resident Evil (and Biohazard), Chris, is another year older and another year more irredeemably corrupted. Last year, it was Time to Duel, as I revealed 10 different forms of Chris that were resident in Konami’s Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, Duel Monsters.
Well, I’ve still been playing a LOT of "Master Duel," and it turns out that the game’s late creator and original artist DEFINITELY had Chris on the brain, as there are EVEN MORE of them than the ones I looked at last year.
10. Soitsu"A vaguely-abstract representation of an out-of-shape naked man daydreaming about his hidden potential by flexing while riding on the back of a paper airplane just feels too familiar to anyone who deals with Chris on a regular basis."
9. Goblin of Greed"Known internationally as ‘Greedy Goblin,’ this character has his own riches-to-rags story arc told through the variety of support cards …
Review Round-Up: Winter 2025
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/01/26 at 02:27 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
Erg, my Winter gaming wasn’t particularly inspiring. I mostly played mediocre games, and most of them cooperatively. The “Next Big RPG” I was excited about turned out to be a major dud, while Sony’s first-party PC ports did nothing to restore my faith in their ecosystem. Let’s hope 2026 manages to be better.
LEGO: The Hobbit – 2.5/5
Sackboy: A Big Adventure – 3/5
Dad of Boy – 3.5/5
Zoria: Age of Shattering – 2.5/5
River City Girls – 3/5
Chris’ Reviews:
Chris finally posted some late reviews of coop games, so that’s good. He also got done with “The Outer Worlds”... then immediately started “Greedfall,” so his Sandbox addiction is still in full effect.
The Outer Worlds – 3.5/5
Baldur’s Gate 3 – 4.5/5
It Takes Two – 4.5/5
Nick’s Review:
Nick’s only Winter review was his …
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