Backlog: The Embiggening – July, 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/30/18 at 02:32 PM CT
The annual Summer Game Drought is upon us as July closes in. As has become a trend in recent years, publishers have taken the opportunity to shower us with shovelware and ports in an attempt to fool us into thinking the drought is less severe that it is. Instead of a downpour of watery diarrhea, however, we’re getting a light sprinkle, as the numbers are drastically lower than they have been recently.
Shovelware is back in full-force after largely disappearing for a good long while. New games based on the latest ‘Jurassic Park’ movie, the latest ‘Hotel Transylvania’ movie, and the thankfully-canceled/ended ‘Adventure Time’ cable cartoon are going to land like so many steaming cat turds in a sandpile.
After the cat got done with our Summer Sandbox, a pack of wild dogs moved in and had their way with the place, spraying, ports, remasters, and reboots over every available surface. Once again, the Switch is proving itself to be the new king of rehashed crap, with a …
Steam is Patient Zero: The Flood of Crap is Contagious
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/24/18 at 03:31 PM CT
Just a short time ago, I proposed the idea that Steam’s uncurated storefront as of the 8th Generation was a Darwinian approach to game sales, while the curated stores on PlayStation Network, Nintendo Network, and Xbox Live (notwithstanding Microsoft’s temporary experiment with Xbox Indies) were more mythological, where an all-powerful overseer separates the ‘good’ from the ‘bad.’ It seems that the age of faith may be coming to an end sooner rather than later when it comes to digital videogame storefronts, as just a single season later, these console storefronts don’t feel nearly as curated as they did last year.
Between March 1, 2018 and May 31, 2018 – one ‘season,’ the way we here at MeltedJoystick calculate things – Steam added countless crap titles to its ever-growing pile. However, it wasn’t alone. The Nintendo Network eShop gained nearly 300 titles, while PSN’s PS Store raked-in roughly 200, and Xbox Live acquired around 150 new titles. And that’s …
E3 Impressions 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/16/18 at 05:50 PM CT
I had no expectations for E3 once again this year. I had hoped to see a handful of titles to help justify my Switch ownership, as well as a few multi-platform titles coming to PC that the MJ Crew could play cooperatively. I was not, however, prepared for the absolute tsunami of titles shown off at E3 2018. It was tough to take notes on everything shown off during the three console press conferences, the PC Gaming Show, and the individual publisher conferences… especially when I kept running out of space in the Do Not Want category.
Microsoft:
Want: Tunic (still!)
Not Sure if Want: “Ori and the Will of the Wisps” (still!), “Battletoads”
Do Not Want: Game Pass, “Halo Infinite”/“Gears 5”/“Forza Horizon 4”/“Crackdown 3,” Touting “Exclusives” that… aren’t, Add-On Content for Crap Games (“Sea of Thieves,” “PUBG”)
Microsoft is clearly struggling, as this year’s E3 was a pale shadow of last year’s. The non-gaming company touted their …
The Money Game
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/10/18 at 02:42 PM CT
Recently, I was surprised by something said by rotund gaming pundit, Jim Sterling. While usually, I’m very impressed with Sterling’s ability to keep his thumb on the pulse of the modern games industry, this video, in which he reversed a previously held opinion about platform exclusive titles completely threw me for a loop.
I used to love exclusive games, but that was when the competing platforms were all significantly different. When the 7th Generation homogenized all of gaming into a big blob of Gray Goo and all non-first-party exclusives evaporated like so much dry ice, both Sterling and I saw the writing on the wall and decided to embrace the homogenization.
Sony’s release of the latest ‘God of War’ game, simply entitled “God of War,” caused Sterling to backpedal, but it seems he’s missing the bigger picture here. The argument goes that only first parties, like Sony or Nintendo, who are deeply invested in the success of their hardware, will sink the …
Review Round-Up: Sping 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/03/18 at 02:24 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:
I had a pretty good Spring as far as volume goes… but not so good with regard to quality. The MJ Crew managed to wrap up 2 coop games we’ve been working on for a while (one of which I loved, the other of which… not so much), while I was repeatedly disappointed by both fanslations and backlog scrapings.
“Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart” – 3/5
“Diluvion” – 3/5
“Seiken Densetsu 3” – 2.5/5
“Titanfall 2” – 2.5/5
“Treasure Hunter G” – 3.5/5
“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” – 4/5
“Shadow Warrior 2” – 4.5/5
“Treasure of the Rudras” – 2/5
“Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas” – 2.5/5
“The Bard’s Tale (2004)” – 3/5
Chris’ Reviews:
Chris finally (grudgingly) submitted a review for “No Man’s Sky,” even though he insists he’ll go back to …
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