Review Round-Up: Spring 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/31/20 at 04:45 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:
The MJ Crew co-oped our way through significantly more titles than usual this Spring, but only I took the time to write reviews. Oh well! Aside from those shared experiences, I also finished my Backlog Ablutions for the year, played a few Indie games I’d been sitting on for a while, and grabbed the new hotness that is “Metro Exodus” and played it right away.
“Strange Brigade” – 4/5
“Metro Exodus” – 3.5/5
“Evoland: Legendary Edition” – 4.5/5
“Evoland 2” – 4.5/5
“Burokku Girls” – 2/5
“Finding Paradise” – 4.5/5
“To the Moon” – 4/5
“Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3” – 2.5/5
“Valley” – 4/5
“Satellite Reign” – 3/5
Chris’ Reviews:
THE Disgruntled Dwarf completely spaced-off the fact that he needed to write reviews for co-op games.At least he got started on his …
Backlog: The Embiggening – June, 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/24/20 at 04:58 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future. What do you get when you combine the annual Summer Game Drought with a pandemic?
…
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Well, I was expecting s super-small release schedule, but thanks to the ‘other’ pandemic of ports/remasters/reboots/compilations/rehashes, there are actually TONS of “new” games coming out just in time for the start of Summer… and a few regular-old new games, too.
There are only four pieces of shovelware coming in June, and they hit all of the major shovel-ready categories. We’ve got a super-casual bit of nothing in “Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics,” an officially licensed (and annually occurring) Racing game in “Assetto Corsa Competizione,” and we’ve got an anime tie-in in “Fairy Tale.” Last, and definitely least, is a licensed game that is also a remaster: “Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated.” Oh boy.
Unfortunately, it’s time for us to all embrace the truth, that …
Dreadful DRM: Making a Comeback Under the Guise of “Anti-Cheating”
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/17/20 at 04:04 PM CT
We live in a world in which it has been statistically proven that piracy not only doesn’t harm media sales, but actually provides free advertising. Likewise, selling digital media in a DRM-free format, be it games, music, or whatever, allows sellers to improve their reputations among buyers by providing a better service that the pirates do.
But the Games Industry never did care to hear the facts, and has always insisted that DRM was necessary, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Recently, the push to foist DRM upon gamers has taken a new angle, ostensibly ‘protecting’ gamers in online games from ne’er-do-wells.
In recent weeks, Riot Games – the creator of toxic e-sport MOBA, “League of Legends” – introduced the concept of kernel-level anti-cheat software in its latest release, a meritless PvP FPS frag-fest called “Valorant.” Hot on the heels of this reveal, Denuvo – purveyor of ‘launch-window’ sales-protecting Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM – …
A Fond Farewell to the Legendary Genderless Water-Type Pokemon
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/10/20 at 05:56 PM CT
On 4/20/2020, while multitudes of people around the world spent the day smoking unimaginable amounts of marijuana and getting happy and giggly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, I, instead, spent the day sobbing at the veterinarian’s office, saying goodbye to a friend I’d known for 18 years.
In the Summer of 2002, I was still a fresh college graduate, struggling with the frustrations of finding a job – or even finding an interview for a job – in the horrible modern economy. All of my immediate family was still alive back then, and I spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm (which is now my farm). Grandma and Grandpa always had a lot of farm cats, and the long-haired, tabby-striped Maine Coons that have accompanied me through my entire life all came from Nelson Farm stock. That year, though, Freckles – a short-haired tortoise-shell colored skank who happened to be one of the most prolific Queens of her era – had a litter of kittens in the bushes just outside …
Backlog: The Embiggening – May, 2020
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/03/20 at 02:00 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future. Thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine/shelter-in-place/stay-at-home zeitgeist is has foisted upon us, game developers and publishers don’t really seem all that keen to release a bunch of new games.
This is, of course, completely ass-backwards, as videogame development is done entirely on computers, and thus can be done from anywhere, meaning that the programmers, artists, and musicians whose talent goes into making the games we love (or love to hate) can and should still be doing their thing, regardless of the state of the pandemic. Not only can the work involved in creating videogames be done from anywhere, there’s no time when people need the escapism brought by the medium more than now. The entire world is a more-or-less captive audience, staying home, bored out of their minds. Wouldn’t this be the ideal time to release a bunch of new games? Even if they aren’t the full “AAA” experience?
I guess …
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