Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
(Photo by Sam Shirley) In the Nintendo universe, Waluigi is supposed to be as villainous as his cartoonish mustache and perpetual frown would suggest. But what made him that way? Perhaps it is Nintendo’s insistence on humiliating the character in front of his friends and the general public. On Tuesday for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo…
Some very aggressive Battlefield fans are upset that the game includes women, or has a woman on the cover. Some of them are convinced that women didn’t exist during the past, so putting them in a game set in the past is wrong. It’s all kinda muddled. The general situation is that some gamers are…
Image: Tara Jacoby Yesterday, Valve announced a sweeping new policy for Steam: From now on, the platform will allow “everything” except for games Valve decides are “illegal, or straight up trolling.” In light of controversies like the recently removed school shooter game Active Shooter, the announcement came as a surprise to those who were expecting…
Fallout 76 will have nukes. Provided players find the keys, they will be able to fire these nukes off whenever they please. This gameplay feature, announced at last night’s Bethesda press conference, is presumably meant to encourage player-created drama in the upcoming online survival game. It’s also the clearest signal yet that the Fallout series,…
The next Assassin’s Creed is going to turn heads. That won’t just be because it’s set in ancient Greece, nor simply because it lets you play as a man or a woman. It’s also changing the series’ combat yet again, offering more options for stealth, and even fleshing out the modern-day stuff that’s been lacking…
Image: EA (Anthem) I sat down with Anthem, BioWare’s upcoming shared-world third-person shooter, for 30 minutes today. I came away surprised at just how good it feels to move around in the game’s fantasy sci-fi world. Flying through its gorgeous environments on my way to kill some bad guys, fix an ancient relic, or take…
In the past few days, Harebrained Schemes designer Tyler Carpenter has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment by at least six women on social media. The allegations range from inappropriate groping to repeated expressions of romantic and sexual interest after repeatedly being told to stop. Carpenter, who recently worked as a systems and missions…
Valve has stopped trying. Today’s blog post makes something explicit that many of us have seen for a while: The company doesn’t really care about the content on its platform. It doesn’t want to be put in the sticky situation of being responsible for the things being sold through Steam, so it won’t anymore. Anyone…
“Defendant is a cheater,” said Epic Games in its October 2017 lawsuit against a 14-year-old boy. “Nobody likes a cheater. And nobody likes playing with cheaters.” Epic isn’t the first games studio that’s sued over cheating. There was a lawsuit over a PlayStation “game enhancer” — a console hardware hack — as early as 1999….
Batman: The Telltale Series is already up to its fourth and penultimate episode, and has firmly established itself as a unique take on the Batman universe. Whether it’s rewriting the Wayne family history, redefining classic relationships, or giving an infamous villain a much-needed modern redesign, Telltale are breathing new life into the franchise by offering a…