Nuclear Monster

  • There’s this tiny genre of games where you make things that make things, usually by clicking a bunch at first. Sometimes, there is a plot. Universal Paperclips by Frank Lantz and Bennett Foddy is that kind of game. It runs in your browser, and you construct paperclips by clicking on a button to make a paperclip. Things get complicated after that. Enjoy it.

    The last game I covered in this genre, Spaceplan, was apparently just a prototype and the developer behind it put out the full game on iOS, Android, and Steam for Windows and macOS.

  • Microsoft released a list of 13 original Xbox games that can run on the Xbox One through a disc or download today.

    Here’s the list:

    • BLACK
    • BloodRayne 2
    • Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
    • Dead to Rights
    • Fuzion Frenzy
    • Grabbed by the Ghoulies
    • King of Fighters Neowave
    • Ninja Gaiden Black
    • Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
    • Psychonauts
    • Red Faction II
    • Sid Meier’s Pirates!
    • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

    Xbox backwards compatibility was originally announced only with Crimson Skies at E3 2017. These games won’t have any multiplayer as Microsoft took down the Xbox Live peer-to-peer matching service for the original Xbox years ago.

    I’ve hammered on the PlayStation 4‘s lack of backwards comparability enough, but it’s still embarrassing that Sony is charging for PS2 games to be downloaded to the PS4, as well as streaming PS3 games to the PS4 when Microsoft actually has this backwards compatibility program. The only downside to Microsoft’s program is that it requires the original publisher to approve their game being included.

    Microsoft also has more in their announcement, like a short list of 360 games that will run even better on the Xbox One X when that console comes out on the 7th. I guess they have to have some reason for people to buy that upgraded console when there really aren’t that many exclusive games coming out for it.

  • Nintendo’s iOS and Android adventures continue late next month with Animal Crossing Pocket Camp.

    I love Animal Crossing in general, it’ll be interesting to see if Pocket Camp really gives us a good experience but it looks pretty limited and full of traditional mobile game shenanigans.

    There’s a shorter version of the above video at this link. Nintendo has a site to get notified when the game is out here.

    The game is limited, because you’re just decorating a campsite and a camping van instead of a multi-story home and village. There’s “crafting” but it looks like just another type of in-game thing to collect and trade for furniture in addition to bells.

    The animal characters are more likely to visit if you have the furniture they like best, and your character travels around to different areas trading goods and making new friends.

    The shenanigans are countdown timers and in-app purchases for “leaf tickets” that act as a wildcard when you don’t have the right crafting materials, or to speed up those timers.

     

  • Io Interactive has their first announcement since going independent and getting ownership of the Hitman license. There’s a GOTY edition of HITMAN (2016) coming, it’ll include a new “Patient Zero” campaign and other stuff, as well as reactivating any missed “elusive target” missions starting in early November.

    I loved these elusive target assassination missions, and missed out on a bunch of them before I got the game last August. It’ll be good to get a second chance at the ones I missed out on. Any that were attempted already won’t be available again.

    The GOTY edition is going to be out on November 7th for $60 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The new campaign and other stuff included in this edition will be $20 for existing players who have the rest of HITMAN’s first season already.

  • Road to VR’s Ben Lang:

    For VR to succeed in the consumer space, an ecosystem of developers making content that users want to buy is an absolute must. Oculus for its part has attempted to kickstart that ecosystem by investing hefty sums in content developers, and now the company says it’s starting to pay off.

    This is immediately followed by three different bolded UPDATES: (with three months in-between some of them) desperately assuring us that yes there is money in VR, supposedly more than eight games have made over one million dollars. They might even be able to fund their comeback game if there’s no money in VR. Sure glad I didn’t name this site “Road to VR.”