Nuclear Monster

  • For the first time the only controversy around a Wolfenstein game isn’t about the violence, nobody cares about that anymore. It’s from the republicans who feel like they’re being attacked for supporting fascists like Trump.

    GQ’s Joshua Rivera:

    In moving the action to America, Bjork and MachineGames weren’t really out to comment on the current political climate. Work on The New Colossus began in 2014, and it’s a sequel to a game that began development in 2011. But current events have conspired to give the themes The New Colossus sets out to explore an uncomfortable relevance.

    The game is reviewing well too, although I am not sure if this means that this is the end of Bethesda’s experiment with denying pre-release access to writers for review.

    Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is out now for Steam on Windows as well as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

  • The reviews are almost universally positive. Here is Dan Ryckert’s:

    Make no mistake about it, Super Mario Odyssey is a weird game. It’s wrapped around a concept featuring sentient hats, enemy possession, and Bowser making wedding preparations, but actually playing the game feels very familiar. Gone are the polarizing FLUDD from Super Mario Sunshine and the gravity-warping planetoids from the Galaxy games. While Mario may be able to occupy the bodies of numerous baddies and inanimate objects this time around, the experience feels more like Super Mario 64 than any of his other adventures.

    The only downside is the motion controls. Chris Scullion talking about them in his review:

    One thing that may irk some players is that Super Mario Odyssey tries its very best to make you use motion controls. Every time you start the game you get a splash screen suggesting you try it out because it offers extra moves.

    Don’t worry: in reality, you don’t need to play with motion controls. There are three major moves that the game claims can only be performed with motion: throwing Cappy straight up into the air, throwing him down to roll him along the ground, and a spin attack.

    Scullion also has a video guide for pulling off that spin attack move without using motion controls.

    Super Mario Odyssey is available tomorrow for $60 on the Nintendo Switch.

  • 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.