Videogame News

[Todinho]

Seems videogame companies are trying to 1-up each other when it comes to being scumbags latelly: https://charlieintel.com/2017/10/17/pat ... nsactions/

[Joshihatsumitsu]

Definitely on a systematic level, it will never be a utopia where no one ever treats anyone badly. After all, you can have all the laws you want: people still murder, steal, etc. But every little revelation like this helps, and it's an uphill battle, and it will be a matter of vigilance and a lot of hard work to hold people accountable for such despicable actions. Definitely no easy answers, but some positive changes can, and need to, occur.

[Whippledip]

So I don't go in for this kind of thing but some people might appreciate it. A selection of the Skyrim soundtrack is getting a Record Store Day release

http://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/9790

[Alex79]

Ha. I have no idea what that music sounds like. I used to use a custom playlist with the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack and some Brian Eno whenever I played Elder Scrolls games!

[Stanshall]

Madman!

The Skyrim and Oblivion soundtracks are two of the greatest I've ever heard. In fact, the entire Skyrim experience can, for me, be condensed and replicated by listening to Streets of Whiterun. Instantly transported. Wonderful.

[ratsoalbion]

I was going to say, I respect those choices Alex but I think you're denying yourself exposure to some beautiful music - especially as you are a fan of Howard Shore's LotR scores.



By the way, I have asked Jeremy Soule to come on Sound of Play but as yet no response sadly.

[Whippledip]

I have never even played an Elder Scrolls game, I tried Oblivion a long time ago but couldn't make a normal looking person and then when the game started in a sewer/dungeon I just gave up because boooo sewer levels

[Joshihatsumitsu]

I have never even played an Elder Scrolls game, I tried Oblivion a long time ago but couldn't make a normal looking person and then when the game started in a sewer/dungeon I just gave up because boooo sewer levels

But that's the Patrick Stewart part of the game! And later you can buy golden horse armour, with real world money!

[Whippledip]

I have never even played an Elder Scrolls game, I tried Oblivion a long time ago but couldn't make a normal looking person and then when the game started in a sewer/dungeon I just gave up because boooo sewer levels

But that's the Patrick Stewart part of the game! And later you can buy golden horse armour, with real world money!

Patrick Stewart is indeed wonderful, the other things you listed though...

I actually forgot that I have played Elder Scrolls Online, but that's such a nothing game that I remember nothing about it. It was basically used as a chat room for my buddy who lived in another city, the actual playing of the game took second place

[Todinho]

The CEO of Neogaf is acused of sexual assault:

[KSubzero1000]

Yeah, the whole site went up in flames yesterday.

I was never a fan of their radicalized cult-like tendencies and whatnot, but you can't deny that it used to be a great source of video game related news. I also thought that a lot of their smaller communities tended to have much healthier mentalities.

And while the meltdown appears to have been for a good cause, most individuals I see celebrating this news all over the internet seem rather... sketchy.

Nothing lasts forever, I suppose.

[Craig]

I’m seeing some awful takes elsewhere on the internet that can be paraphrased as “Of course this happened - NeoGAF was such a toxic community.” and not just from the alt right circles you expect this kind of thing from.

If there’s something that is really important we need to take away from the past few months of revelations coming to light is that “nice” folk can be just as bad. We really need to separate the outward public persona of someone, good or bad, from accusations or this thing will happen again and people will get away with it.

The other side of the “Oh of course he did it, that weirdo” is “What? He’s such a wonderful guy - are you sure he did that? Maybe you just misunderstood.”



But on a related note, I’m just frankly tired of the reactions in the gaming based community. It’s feeling more apparent with every story that unless it effects games they want to play, certain sections of the community don’t give a toss.

Konami is a big example. Terrible working conditions exposed which rightly earned them vitriol across the board. But it’s unlikely they would have came under nearly as much fire had they still been producing games from their franchises. They are not alone in poor working conditions, but we mostly look the other way elsewhere. You can see this most when they’re talking about making new Pachinko machines. Whilst for most people this is just the butt of a joke, there is genuine anger out there because they’re deciding that they can make more money that way.

Recently, Naughty Dog had some serious sexual harassment allegations put towards them. After they put out a statement denying these allegations, many of the comments were a depressing “who cares? Just keep making the Last of Us 2!”

A lot of these comments are the same folk celebrating NeoGAF falling, so a lot of it is tribalism. But honestly? I think a lot of the anger at bad business conditions behind games would dissipate if we continued receiving quality games, which isn’t great for the people making those games.

[KSubzero1000]

Konami is a big example. Terrible working conditions exposed which rightly earned them vitriol across the board. But it’s unlikely they would have came under nearly as much fire had they still been producing games from their franchises. They are not alone in poor working conditions, but we mostly look the other way elsewhere. You can see this most when they’re talking about making new Pachinko machines. Whilst for most people this is just the butt of a joke, there is genuine anger out there because they’re deciding that they can make more money that way. I think a lot of the anger at bad business conditions behind games would dissipate if we continued receiving quality games, which isn’t great for the people making those games.

As much as I believe in ethical consumerism and voting with your wallet and all that... I have to admit that if a new MGS or Z.O.E. or (proper) Silent Hill was on the horizon, I'd be much more inclined to turn a blind eye toward any negative news coming from Konami. So Craig is right, and I suppose I'm a part of the problem in that regard...

[Joshihatsumitsu]

Konami is a big example. Terrible working conditions exposed which rightly earned them vitriol across the board. But it’s unlikely they would have came under nearly as much fire had they still been producing games from their franchises. They are not alone in poor working conditions, but we mostly look the other way elsewhere. You can see this most when they’re talking about making new Pachinko machines. Whilst for most people this is just the butt of a joke, there is genuine anger out there because they’re deciding that they can make more money that way. I think a lot of the anger at bad business conditions behind games would dissipate if we continued receiving quality games, which isn’t great for the people making those games.

As much as I believe in ethical consumerism and voting with your wallet and all that... I have to admit that if a new MGS or Z.O.E. or (proper) Silent Hill was on the horizon, I'd be much more inclined to turn a blind eye toward any negative news coming from Konami. So Craig is right, and I suppose I'm a part of the problem in that regard...

Considering that the next MGS is Metal Gear Survive, I don't think you'll have to worry about wanting it.

But yeah, you both hit the nail right on the head: it's very easy to be selectively righteous when it comes to these issues - something that I am definitely guilty of myself.

And there are no easy answers or magical solutions that solve everything. But recognising and reflecting on our own behaviours is a positive step at least. As consumers, like you say, we can vote with our wallet, and like you also say, easier said than done.

I have mixed feelings too. Change is going to take a lot of time and hard work, and it requires engagement from people... yeah, no simple solution to this.

[Craig]

Yeah it’s tough. McDonald’s food makes it easy enough to boycott, but something that’s good?

Take Nintendo’s NES business practices. Completely anti consumer and anti competition. Ultimately this caught up and bit them in the arse somewhat with 3rd party developers, but for a few years they made a lot of money from ethically questionable practices.

If Nintendo continued on that way today but also continue to release Mario Odyssey’s and Breath of the Wild’s, well, it would be tough.

[Chopper]

I dunno, I'd just be careful about using forum posts, blog entries etc as a basis for boycotting or otherwise.

In regards to sexual harassment, there are laws and companies have HR departments to deal with these things - and yes, there may be massive failures and gaps in both of those - but to condemn Naughty Dog, for example, based on one allegation, when we know this is a problem every company deals with, seems premature.

Then we're into the tricky area of determining what the tipping point is when you personally determine that you won't buy someone's product.

[dezm0nd]

The Xbox One will be able to play 13 of your favourite original Xbox games both via disc or purchased on the store digitally.

[KSubzero1000]

I have no intention of buying an Xbox One at any point in the foreseeable future, but it certainly warms my heart to see NGB still being supported after all these years. May it bring joy to as many new fans as possible!

[Scrustle]

I'm not sure "joy" is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Ninja Gaiden. Still, good to get the support for it. It looks like this feature will actually be pretty good. Much more than just a basic 1:1 emulation. It's actually pretty impressive how much they've improved the resolution on KotOR. Ninja Gaiden is getting 16:9 support too, as well as the resolution improvements. Widescreen may have been in the game originally, I don't know, but that was something they announced as if it was new.



I really hope they add support for much more games though. I'd really like to see Morrowind on there. Maybe Fable and Jade Empire too. Perhaps Forza 1, but I'm not too bothered about that one. It would also be very cool if they could add games which never came out in this region too. Put them on the online store to download. Those Otogi games seem really cool, but I've never had a chance to play them because of them not making it over to PAL territories.

[ratsoalbion]

Those Otogi games seem really cool, but I've never had a chance to play them because of them not making it over to PAL territories.

Both OTOGI games came out on PAL in the EU. I bought them!