Welcome back to Wednesday friends, which means it's time for another WIRED Games newsletter! I don't have too much to say at this point, other than that I know I mentioned it last week, but Party Animals is ridiculous fun with friends. I wound up playing it with a bunch of streamer friends last week and it was hilarious–definitely the kind of party game that will have everyone laughing by the end of the round, so if you're looking for a fun, four-on-four brawler à la Gang Beasts or Human Fall Flat, it's worth checking out. Let's get into the news, shall we? First up, Megan Farokhmanesh has a full look at the past troublesome few days for game engine (and global surveillance) company Unity. First the company announced pricing and licensing changes that would have cost developers an incredible amount of money, enough that many of them promised to switch their game engines entirely and leave Unity behind, and that's me being charitable. Unity has walked back the changes, but it remains a master class in how to anger your entire customer base. In brighter news, Callum Baines has a piece this week about how we're currently living through a golden age of console strategy games. It wasn't too long ago that in this very newsletter I mentioned that strategy games, specifically real-time strategy games, are making a comeback. Now, we're seeing a bunch of those old, remastered games come to consoles, and even new strategy games launching on consoles at the same time as their PC versions, or exclusively designed for console play. That's a huge change compared to even a few years ago, when strategy games seemed the domain of the keyboard and mouse alone. Meanwhile, Sam Fogel has been spending time in one of his favorite strategy games, Stellaris, and asks a very important question: "Why do video games want to turn me into a war criminal?" A lot of strategy games reward things that out here in the real world we would probably call "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity." Sam walks us through a couple particularly fun ones, and then talks to a number of psychologists about whether or not that means anything at all for our own perception of violence on a small or large scale. Daniel Dockery has a great rundown of what makes game remakes good or bad, and how developers can choose whether to entirely reimagine the game and its gameplay, story, and themes to retell a story in a new way (like Square Enix did with the Final Fantasy VII remakes), or stick closer to the story and honor the original (the way the Resident Evil 4 remake has). Of course, those are the good ways to do it; there are plenty of bad ways to remake a game, but let's focus on the successes, shall we? Next up, Will Bedingfield spoke with Joanna Fang, a foley artist who has worked on titles like God of War: Ragnarok, among other Sony published games for PlayStation. We actually hung out with her while she spent a day at work in her studio, pulling out random objects and turning them into highly identifiable sounds that you can close your eyes and visualize. Definitely read the interview, but stick around for the video at the top of the piece, it's really special. Finally, check out our freshly updated rundown of amazing couch co-op games to play. There's forty (40) games on that list! Surely you'll find something everyone in your household would be happy to plop on the couch and play. So order a pizza, pop some drinks in the fridge to cool, and check out the list. Let me know which games on the list are your favorites, OK? Drop me a line at games@WIRED.com. See you next week! |
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حبيبي ليس يعدله حبيب *** ولا لسواه في قلبي نصيب حبيب غاب عن بصري وسمعي *** ولكن في فؤادي ما يغيب يا حبيب ...
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