Videogame News

[Alex79uk]

The Megadrive mini looks like a great lineup of games. A few on there I wish were on the collection that came out recently on current-gen (the one that if I'm honest I regret picking up already on PS4 now I have a Switch, doh!)

But stuff like Castle and World Of Illusion, Earthworm Jim and a few others on this mini edition would have been great to have on the collection. There seem to be a few games that never actually got an official release too, which is nice.

Tempted as I am, I won't be getting one. They do look good, though. I suppose it all comes down to emulation, but seeing as it's M2 then I'm sure they won't go far wrong. It's about time the Megadrive got a decent package after years of terrible quality knockoffs.

http://megadrivemini.sega.com/

[KissMammal]

As with the SNES Classic, my dilemna is that I want one, but I specifically want the PAL version. I'm British but live in the US, and can't bring myself to buy the 'Genesis', it just doesn't have the same appeal, nostalgia wise.

[duskvstweak]

I might have picked up the Mega Drive Mini if they didn't just have that $7.50 sale for the Sega Collection on Steam a few weeks back. If that collection didn't exist, then Sega would have got me!

[Chopper]

Frostpunk is coming to PS4 and XONE 'later this year'.

It's a game I've had trouble pulling the trigger on, on PC. Yesterday they gave me a 50% off voucher for owning Banished, but I can't help thinking, with the Steam sale around the corner, that it's a trap.

[KSubzero1000]

Frostpunk is coming to PS4 and XONE 'later this year'.

Great news. One of the very few PC style strategy games that interests me, and my stone age laptop obviously can't run it. Looking forward to it!

[Scrustle]

THQ announced Darksiders: Genesis! This one is a spin-off prequel of sorts, and it looks like a Diablo-esque isometric dungeon crawler. Also has co-op, and you can play as either War or Strife, who is getting their first playable appearance here. Strife uses guns, so playing as them will be a little like a twin-stick shooter it seems. Also this game is being made by Airship Syndicate, who are the other studio made up of ex-Vigil staff, which is where Joe Madureira ended up. Really cool to see those guys come back to the series too. The music sounds somewhat like Jesper Kyd's word on Darksiders 2, which bodes well. I really like the look of this game as a little side-adventure, and I hope it could mean that both Gunfire and Airship get to collaborate when making a Darksiders 4 as a bombastic finale for the series.



THQ also announced a remaster of Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom the previous day too. I hear that game actually has a bit of a cult following, and people are excited about it coming back. It also looks like this remaster is going to be in the style of a full graphical overhaul like the recent Crash and Spyro remasters/remakes. There should be another final announcement from THQ today too, but Darksiders seems worthy of being pointed out in particular. I hope there's not long to wait for release.

[James]

I suppose Darksiders: Genesis also means that Strife will have his own solo outing, so Darksider IV could be a four horsemen game?

I guess we'll see!

[Scrustle]

I think this is supposed to be "Strife's game", even though he isn't the only one playable. Maybe they thought that him using guns meant his gameplay style would be too different to the others to really work as a mainline game. But yeah, I would expect after this for the 4th main game, they would finally make good on that ending in 1 and bring them all together for a multi-character adventure.

[Alex79uk]

This is really cool!

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2019/06 ... next-week/

Rocket League goes all 80s!

[Flabyo]

This is quite the thing...



Little bit of the Scott Pilgrim game about it, especially on the soundtrack side...

https://wayforward.com/wayforward-unlea ... s-details/

[Alex79uk]

Looks pretty fun. An update of River City Ransom?

[Flabyo]

Looks pretty fun. An update of River City Ransom?

More of a semi-sequel I think. It’s inspired by it, I assume given the obvious references that it’s using the name under licence.

[clippa]

Yay! EDF 5 coming to pc

[KSubzero1000]

Hey, Darren...

CLICK ME

[ratsoalbion]

He’s already seen it. He’s excited.

[Alex79uk]

Oh wow that's odd timing, I was only thinking yesterday I wonder if a new Monkey Ball game would ever come out!

[ratsoalbion]

We’ve been posting all these news stories about Monkey Ball on our Facebook page... I know it can be selective about what it actually lets people see though!

[Alex79uk]

There is a very high chance that's what I'm remembering rather than me wondering whether there would be a new game in the series. Anything past a few hours ago gets very murky

[Alex79uk]

Almost difficult to tell whether this is a piss take or not (it's not).

https://uk.changeincorporated.com/cultu ... to-smoking

"Experts fear children and young people could pick up the habit after seeing characters reliant on cigarettes, cigars and vaping to power up"

I mean come on now. Can you think of more than one or two games in which smoking grants you an in-game bonus? This is farcical. Video games have become as artistically valid as film or television, and smoking within a dramatic production should not be censored. It also sets a dangerous precedent for future censorship, I feel. There is no provable correlation whatsoever between videogame violence and real world crime, why should this be any different? Of course this sort of argument is nothing new (although it's been a while since anything got major coverage I think) but I wonder in the current climate of the world whether it'll gain more traction?

[Craig]

There aren't many games I can think of with cigarettes featured (only really Metal Gear Solid (which also shows negative effects) and Vanquish) but I guess if you want video games to be taken as seriously as TV, you unfortunately end up adhering to similar standards. From the 90s onward, cigarettes in shops and movies aimed at kids have been pretty much axed. We grew up with things like Tom and Jerry smoking cigars, Disney characters (usually villains) having the odd cigarette and further back you had things like the Flintstones flogging them. Nowadays, thanks to pressure groups such as this, that doesn't happen which leads to some interesting edits to Japanese shows where the standards aren't the same. Whether it helps or not I don't know, but I can understand reluctance to show smoking as cool to impressionable young minds.

That said, of all the examples of cigarettes in gaming I can think of are games that kids probably shouldn't be playing anyway. It's not like Mario's idle animation in Odyssey is him sitting on a park bench and taking a drag on a pack of Lambert and Butler. I think unfortunately this stems from the mind set that games are for kids and thus if something is in a game that is inappropriate for kids, it's an inappropriate product. Which is an issue with the wider media at large and parents who don't think twice about buying GTA V for their little one.