This week’s roundup includes new articles on AR game Minecraft Earth & intriguing new action adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence, as well as pieces
[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from video game industry ‘watcher’ Simon Carless (GDC, Gamasutra co-runner), rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.
This week’s roundup includes new articles on AR game Minecraft Earth & intriguing new action adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence, as well as pieces on Rage 2, strategy guides, the intrigue behind Ingress, and a multitude more besides.
Until next time…
– Simon, curator.]
——————Rage 2 is a fun game that makes me feel like garbage (Chris Plante / Polygon – ARTICLE)
« Every time I begin to enjoy Rage 2, it finds a new way to treat me like shit. There’s a lot of individual bits I’ve liked in Bethesda’s new post-apocalyptic shooter, created by the open-world geniuses at Avalanche Studios and the gunplay experts at id Software.. But never has a game so personally, directly bummed me out. [SIMON’S NOTE: A very personal story from Chris – here’s some more in-depth impressions from VICE, which echo some mixed reviews in general.] »Is Using a Mouse and Keyboard on Consoles Cheating? (Emanuel Maiberg / VICE – ARTICLE)
« Call of Duty multiplayer has a reputation for being a meat grinder… It’s been years since I played a Call of Duty game on consoles, so I’m out of practice and should be tender for the grinder, but I’m kicking ass… I’d love to say that I’m just that good, but the truth is that I’m using a device that allows me to play with a mouse and keyboard (and other input devices that aren’t officially supported). »Telltale: The Human Stories Behind The Games (Noclip / YouTube – VIDEO)
« Who were the people behind the games at Telltale, and how did its sudden closure affect them? We talk to four former Telltale Games employees about the highs and lows of their time at the studio, and the human cost of games development. »28 years later, hacker fixes rampant slowdown on SNES‘ Gradius III (Kyle Orland / Ars Technica – ARTICLE)
« Many gamers of a certain age (this author included) remember the early ’90s disappointment of buying the SNES version of hit arcade shmup Gradius III… Now, Brazilian ROM hacker Vitor Vilela has righted this nearly three-decade-old wrong with a ROM patch that creates a new, slowdown-free version of the game for play on SNES emulators and standard hardware. »The Overwatch Workshop is already a hit, and it could be the future of the game(Andrew Webster / The Verge – ARTICLE)
« Early signs are encouraging. Blizzard says that 2.7 million games have been created so far, and creators have shared more than 60,000 game codes, letting others play around with what they’ve built. The mode has seen a steady stream of small updates since launch, focused primarily on stability and ease of use. »Examining SUPERHOT’s Innovative Action, Three Years On (Writing On Games / YouTube – VIDEO)
« In which I revisit 2016’s SUPERHOT to talk about how its originality goes far beyond its delightfully simple gimmick; with the game using it as a jumping off point to pull apart almost every element of its genre. »China is the next battleground for Epic and Steam, but why haven’t they been banned? (Steven Messner / PC Gamer – ARTICLE)
« »It’s one of the ongoing mysteries of the modern age, » Iain Garner told me. He’s the co-founder of Another Indie, a Taiwanese-based indie publisher with extensive experience operating in China. « Everything I know about the Chinese government and how they operate and about how they’ve treated other similar things suggests that Steam should have been blocked a long time ago.
