13 year old Willis Gibson, who goes by Blue Scuti, has done what once thought impossible - reaching level 157 and crashing NES Tetris. aGameScout has a great video explaining the history and tech behind this achievement. Watch the full run here. Legendary.
The Steam Awards 2023 have concluded and winners announced. BG3, Lethal Company, Sifu and a couple of others make sense, but the usual popularity-contest voting has revealed the problem with this format (again). Starfield ‘most innovative’ after having been universally panned as dated, and RDR2 as ‘labour of love’ after having not received an update in years. Righto!
Prepare your wallets, the Steam Winter Sale is here. Baldur’s Gate 3 gets its first discount, and Elden Ring is 40% off, so if you’ve yet to jump into these must play titles, now’s the time. Voting has also opened for the 2023 Steam Awards, so be sure to tick that off too (let’s go Yomi Hustle!).
Shamelessly combining Hades, Vampire Survivors and Diablo, Death Must Die is a bullet-heaven wherein you pick perks from (even hornier) gods, collect items and survive increasing hordes of baddies as you attempt to break the game and become OP. The inspiration verges on derivative, but it’s a compelling combination with enough new ideas to make for fun results. Give it a go.
Really fresh and interesting take on incremental games with a delightful aesthetic and charm all the way down to the tooltips. Compelling upgrades, addictive progression, great art and music. If you’re at all into incremental stuff - just get it.
As discovered by a sleuth on Reddit, and soon thereafter seemingly confirmed by a (since removed) tshirt store listing, Hideo Kojima is partnering with A24 on a live action Death Stranding film. Details about the adaptation remain undisclosed, but Kojima has previously stated that if this were to ever happen, he would be deeply involved in production. Absolutely no idea how this would work, and not super keen on it given how much of the point of the game - moreso than most, IMO - is… you know, the player interacting with it, but we’ll see! Update: Confirmation and more info has been provided by Kojima Productions.
ESA ends E3 after 28 years, citing waning interest - despite an attempted revival, the 2023 event was canceled. Their statement emphasises ESA’s ongoing commitment to industry advocacy, but the once iconic gaming showcase itself has reached its final chapter. Thanks for the memories indeed.
After only four days, The Day Before has been removed from Steam after becoming one of the platforms worst reviewed releases. If that wasn’t stunning enough, the studio behind it, FNTASTIC, has announced their complete, immediate closure and CEO Eduard Gotovtsev’s social accounts are seemingly wiped clean. Publisher Mytona are managing refunds. Colossal oof.
As previously mentioned, 2023 was rough for game devs, but there’s no denying it was a remarkable year for releases. So given all the amazing new games I played this year, it says even more about how special Baldur’s Gate 3 was - because when it came time to think about GOTY, it was not even close. BG3 is an incredibly special, once in a generation game the likes of which we likely won’t see again for some time.
Epic continues to push the Fortnite-as-a-platform strat. Understandably not as deep as LEGO Fortnite, but a fun little racing game with a big emphasis on drifting and obstacles reminiscent of Mario Kart, and wild courses à la Trackmania. Be prepared to feel like Schumacher as you first place Bronze and Silver ranks only to be met with your first decent human opponents and summarily crushed. Fun though!