Compared to every other form of media and entertainment, the video game industry is a relatively new one. Whereas music, film, and especially books have been around for a century at least, gaming hasn’t really been around for more than forty or so years. That time has allowed those forms of media to be accepted among the public, which is something that gaming is still going through. For years, gaming has been perceived by many as something that shouldn’t be taken seriously, something for kids. While this perception is changing, many do not see just how big gaming is. For instance, in the year GG, the gaming industry made more money than the film and music industries, combined. In addition, the two highest grossing media weekend launches of all time are video games. Rather than arguing for the validity of video games, I am instead going to discuss the prominence of the industry as well as the work that goes into it.

One of the things that often goes unnoticed in the gaming industry is the copious amount of blood, sweat, and tears that go into each project. Behind-the-scenes footage is constantly shared around with movies, because film companies want the viewers to see the personalities that go behind the projects. This effort goes a long way with audiences, because it gives them a new appreciation for their favorite movies. To contrast, the gaming industry has done much less of this sort of video-documentary (we will call them vi-docs). Although some companies have done these things, like Bungie with the Halo games, most have not gone to such efforts.

Because of this idea, people are not as keen with the process of making a game. However, there have been more insights into this as time has gone on, and one such insight is the importance of story. Similar to how the textbook An Architectural Approach to Level Design puts it, an engaging narrative intrigues the player and keeps them interested in the game as a whole. In television and movies, story is extremely important to people, so it should not be surprising that people gravitate towards gaming for the same reason. Not only that, but gaming can do more in the story department than the other two can. Video games are more interactive to the user, and more user engagement means more immersion. Art as well as music come into play in gaming in a more immersive way, which helps to further this idea. All of this results in gaming being more of a focus in mainstream culture.

Additionally, the gameplay in these experiences engage the user in a way no other form of media does. While things like books and television are a passive experience, gaming requires user input and can thus be more engaging. Essentially, a video game is just a series of meaningful decisions. In the third part of the textbook Players Making Decisions: Game Design Essentials and the Art of Understanding Your Players, the author Zack Hiwiller makes a very similar point. He says that the player has to make hundreds of decisions in one gameplay sitting, so the decisions given to the player must be not only important, but interesting. When games have interesting things to do, the player becomes extremely immersed. For instance, games such as Call of Duty and Fortnite require a series of survival decisions and quick thinking that people have gravitated to, and they have become extremely popular for that reason. In terms of the overall entertainment world, those two games are some of the most famous things out there right now. Especially with younger people, video games are attracting an audience like few other forms of media is experiencing right now.

The video games industry is doing more than just making a name for itself, however. Video games are also affecting other industries because of their impact. For instance, a writer for the University of Minnesota admitted in the piece “The Impact of Video Games on Culture” that even some games have made significantly more money than big budget films. The original Iron Man film was eclipsed by the fourth installment of the Grand Theft Auto series by $300 million in the year they both released. Not only monetarily speaking, but gaming is attracting more attention from filmmakers themselves. The Kojima Productions title Death Stranding featured such big name stars as Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, and director Guillermo del Toro. Out of all of the games that came out in 2019, this game was one of the most talked about. Even in the world of television, the most popular channel/content producer, HBO, is making a series for the critically acclaimed PlayStation 3 title The Last of Us. With all of these different things happening over time, it becomes easier and easier to put the fame of the industry into perspective.

Another way video games separate themselves form other forms of media is with communities within games. With the world of multiplayer, people can interact with one another in ways no other form of media can offer. Watching a movie or show with friends is still fun and all, it is just that the two offer different ways to spend time together. Anyway, Susanna Pollack writes in “Video games are transforming how we communicate with each other – and they could fix a range of other global issues too” that over 63% of adult gamers regularly play with other people, be it online or otherwise. Being able to experience something like a video game with others in such a direct way offers a fresh medium from which to deliver entertainment. Because of this, online games such as League of Legends, and the aforementioned Fortnite and Call of Duty can connect people from all over the world in a very unique way, and are popular because of it.

While there are several different ways I could continue this description of gaming in the culture, I feel as though I have brought to light its importance. Again, this is not meant to be a persuasive piece, but rather a contextualization of the industry among other things. If nothing else, I hope I have helped you learn something new, and that you better understand how games fit in to our society, because they are not going anywhere anytime soon.

I remember the days when everyone thought the Wii was cool. Motion controls were pretty cool to 6 year old me, and I was ecstatic when I finally got one for Christmas. Nowadays, however, they are not seen with such interest. After all, the motion craze had come and gone, and all of the console manufacturers that jumped headfirst into it have all since abandoned it. Some games still implement them from time to time, with usually polarizing results. Although I can definitely see where they can go wrong, I think there can often be great benefit to using motion in games today.

Although there are some quality titles that rely on motion as its selling feature, I think that it is best implemented as a supplementary feature. For instance, my personal favorite implementation for motion controls can be seen in Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. The game controls like a standard platformer, but if you give the controller a quick shake, the character will do a roll. The roll gives the player a quick boost of momentum that can damage enemies, and is the centerpiece of Donkey Kong’s arsenal.

 Although I first assumed that the move would be easy to pull off accidentally, I actually found the opposite. Since my last playthrough of the game about two years ago, I honestly don’t remember a single time where I rolled unintentionally and it hindered my experience. The responsive movement gave me a little sense of immersion that went a long way in my enjoyment of the game, and I would say that playing the game with that feature disabled would lessen the overall package.

Although small, there is a feature in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that makes good use of the feature. When playing with multiple people, one character will be the leader. The leader has all of the same abilities as during single player, while the others cannot access their inventories or pick up objects for themselves. However, when the leader gives their controller a quick shake, one of the others can hit the A button to take the leader role. This is an extremely useful and efficient method to switch leaders that very much supersedes just going through another menu. It may be small, but it makes playing with your friends that much easier.

Although there are games that rely too heavily on a multitude of complex movements, such as most Kinect games and frankly most Wii games, I think that small movements make all the difference. It may feel like nothing, but short, quick movements really do enhance the experience in a way that a button press cannot, and I would encourage skeptics to give motion another chance. If they are anything like me, they may be surprised.

Whether you are a hardcore gamer that spends every hour of your day playing games and following the industry, or a more casual fan who sees it as just a relaxing pastime, you have probably been following the news from next generation consoles. With the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X launching this holiday season, news is coming out, and rumors are circulating; however, not all of it is positive. 

While we’ve seen virtually everything that Microsoft has to offer aside from pricing and a concrete release date, we’ve also seen virtually nothing about the PlayStation 5. Since the Series X was unveiled at the Game Awards in December of last year, all we know about the PS5 is what the controller looks like and that the console is less powerful than its competitor. So after the golden age Sony experienced with the PS4, why all the confusion, and why do they not appear confident in their device? Well, I have a couple theories.

First of all, the sheer lack of information is the most concerning bit. If you recall back in 2013 when Sony was showing off the PS4, they came out swinging when they saw the opportunity. After the dumpster fire that was the Xbox One reveal event, Sony held absolutely nothing back, and appeared indestructible. Not only that, but they acted comparably bold during the PS1 and PS2 eras; and great success followed. We’ve seen Sony at their best, and I certainly know their pride when I see it. 

If I have anything to say about the optics Sony is putting out about the PS5, it would be that it appears extremely self conscious. In the last six months, Microsoft has been extremely forthcoming about their confidence in the power and accessibility of the Series X, something that reminds me very much of Sony in the last console generation. If there wasn’t something going on behind the scenes, I am sure Sony would be singing a different tune, and this is most apparent in their PS5 presentation held by the lead system architect, Mark Cerny.

Although many wanted this event to be a reveal of sorts of the hardware akin to the Series X reveal, that was not the case. Cerny went on to explain his philosophy when designing the system, such as the benefit of having a high speed SSD, high definition audio and hardware accelerated ray tracing. All of this sounded terrific, but no gameplay or live hardware demonstration was shown. I believe in the technical prowess and brilliancy of Cerny and his team, but this felt like something that should come after a hardware reveal. That way, the more casual fans are satisfied, and the more technical fans can be happy knowing the context of this in-depth information.

In addition, there are many things rumored behind the scenes that do not bode well for the system’s state. Jeff Rickel on Twitter reported that Sony is having issues with the PS5’s performance. He has heard from his sources that Sony is experiencing difficulties with maintaining high GPU clock speeds (which are a bit lower than the Series X) and that the consoles are overheating at an alarming rate. Rickel tells us that the company is even considering a console redesign -and therefore a potential delay- in hopes that they can lower the failure rate. Whether or not this report is true is up to you, but it seems to me to be a plausible reason as to why we have not seen the box yet. If Sony had something they were proud of, I don’t see why they haven’t shown us anything if there isn’t anything to hide.

All of this could just be false conjecture, but I cannot help but think that there is something wrong with the PlayStation 5. While the future is not set in stone, I would still encourage people to keep an eye out and be hopeful for the future.

Before I begin, I want to preface this by stating that I love Nintendo. I have grown up with their consoles and have been a fan of their franchises for a long time. Heck, even my favorite game of all time is a Nintendo game. However, I feel that they are in many ways stuck in the past and need to evolve with the times. While they do a lot of great things, their online infrastructure is nothing short of braindead.

In the age of the cloud, Nintendo’s incompetence with the internet has become everso obvious. While universal cloud saves for games and other apps has been a console standard since 2013 with the PS4 and the Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch still has cloud saves locked behind a paywall. While its competitors have cloud saving enabled out of the box, the Switch will only allow you to use cloud saves if you have Nintendo Switch Online (NSO), which is twenty dollars a year. 

On top of that, there are several first party games that don’t even support it. Splatoon 2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Pokémon Sword and Shield have cloud saves disabled, and that is just plain backwards. Nintendo said that they had cloud saves disabled for Splatoon 2 because they didn’t want people to cheat, but I would retort by saying that online competitive shooters like Call of Duty for years. If Activision could get that to happen a while ago, then why can’t Nintendo? People still cheat on Splatoon 2 anyway, and that still doesn’t account for games like Animal Crossing. If anything happens to my Switch, all of my time spent in those games will just disappear, and I’ll just have to start over. This practice is purely anti-consumer, and I don’t get why Nintendo doesn’t get how to do it like everybody else has been for over five years.

Since I mentioned the online service, now would be a good time to go into that further. Ever since the Wii days, Nintendo has started to trickle in online functionality in their titles. Although the connection and overall service was lackluster at best and unplayable at worst (check out Smash for the Wii and Wii U to see what I mean), we didn’t have to pay for it, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. However, in September of 2018, that changed. When NSO was announced, the community was ready for an upgrade to their online gaming to finally bring Nintendo up to speed with everybody else.

We were pretty surprised to find out that almost nothing new was brought to the table. Connection with many online games (including Smash) was still poor, the vast library of classic games from Virtual Console was removed, and voice chat was relegated to a crappy phone app. They have since added a handful of NES and SNES games, but little else has been changed. Microsoft had this nailed down with Xbox Live in 2004, so I again don’t see why this is so difficult for Nintendo to accomplish over fifteen years after the fact.

I will reiterate that I really do love Nintendo, but they need to evolve as a company when it comes to their online philosophy. These things really matter, especially in this day and age, and it is a real blemish on what should be a golden age for the company. I wish that these complaints may be remedied in the future, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Before I dive headfirst into this boiling hot take, I would like to get one thing out of the way: yes, the Xbox One launch was in every way a failure. I remember all too well when Microsoft revealed that the console must always be online, and when Don Mattrick, then President of Xbox, told Geoff Kieghley in an interview that if the consumer wanted a console that didn’t need internet connection, they could get an Xbox 360. Now I know that most of those design decisions were cut before launch, but the damage was done before they could make a move.

However, I want to forget all of that and talk about the console as it stands in 2020, just half a year before the Xbox Series X launches. There are many terrific aspects of the system that don’t get enough credit, and in some ways those things make it better than the PS4 in my eyes (I have both, so I’m not just being a fanboy). I still hear a lot of anti-Xbox sentiment going around these days, be it online or around friends, so I’d just like to share my feelings in hopes that I might give my preferred 8th generation console a good defense.

While I quite enjoy both the PS4 and Xbox One, I play my my Xbox much more, mostly because of backwards compatibility. I always love going back and playing my favorite 360 games such as Fable II, and Red Dead Redemption, and with the Xbox One, I don’t need to keep my 360 plugged in to do that. Not only that, but I can also play my original Xbox games with the service, like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Psychonauts. All I have to do to get hundreds more hours of gameplay out of my Xbox One X is pop in those old games and wait through a short download time. One could argue that this shouldn’t be counted as a pro for the system, as those really aren’t Xbox One games, but I would strongly disagree. Just as any other console features can be selling points, I don’t see why it would be valid do exclude this one.

Another part of the Xbox One that I prefer over its rival is the controller. While I feel that the PS4’s Dualshock 4 controller is an immense upgrade over its predecessor, I think that the Xbox One controller is the best game-pad I have ever used: the sticks have the perfect amount of resistance, the handles are beefy enough to get a good grip while maintaining a good overall size, and the triggers feel very well designed. In general, I haven’t had any issue with my Xbox One controllers. If I had to nitpick, I would say that the plastic controller shell Microsoft opted for could be of higher quality, but they fixed that in the second iteration controller for the Xbox One S and X. In contrast, many of these things, such as plastic and stick quality, have been consistent issues with my PS4 controllers.

Although the Xbox One isn’t known for its exclusives, what little they do have is really good. For only $30, Halo: The Master Chief Collection gives you Halo 1-4 as well as Halo: Reach. As well as having all of the campaigns fully intact, the game also offers a full multiplayer suite that contains all of the multiplayer maps from the entire series. In general, the overall value in this title is unparalleled. Rare Replay, one of my personal favorites, contains thirty of Rares classic titles, with some of the standouts being Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Battletoads, and Perfect Dark. This collection contains some of the greatest classics from the 90’s and 00’s, and I got my copy used for a mere $8. Aside from collections, though, there are other standouts. Sunset Overdrive, made by the creators of Marvel’s Spider Man for the PS4, as well as Gears 4, Gears 5, and the Ori games. Although there are few exclusives, they make make up for it in terms of sheer quality.

If you play a lot of games but haven’t played on Xbox, I think the Xbox One is worth a shot. Although many see it as the lesser of the two current gen consoles, I think it has more to offer than one might expect.

If there was ever a question that has plagued the minds of gamers more than any other, it would be this one. Over the decades, both dumpster fires and masterpieces have come and gone, and there are many opinions as to why these games failed or succeeded. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 has been praised for its captivating story and intuitive puzzle design, while Bubsy 3D for the PlayStation has been hated for virtually everything about itself. What is it that these good games have, but the bad ones do not? Some think it’s good graphics, others think it’s a quality story, and while those are important, I think there is a more lucrative option that few have mentioned.

The one necessity for a good game is solid, well designed gameplay. This might sound like common sense, but believe me when I say it is more important than you may realize.

While well written stories, beautiful music, and striking visuals definitely help make a game good, those things are meaningless without engaging gameplay. For instance, Paper Mario: Sticker Star has a gorgeous paper esthetique with an upbeat, jazzy soundtrack, but is one of the worst games ever made. I dread playing it when doing my yearly playthrough of the Paper Mario series because the gameplay is not only meaningless in context with the rest of the game, but is just not fun. While I love these other things about the game, the fact that combat, the most integral part of gameplay in any RPG, is better avoided than engaged with ruins the entire experience. 

Jaime Griesemer, Game Design Lead for Halo: Combat Evolved, put this perfectly in the Making of Halo 2 documentary: if a developer doesn’t nail the most basic parts of their game’s gameplay, or the “thirty seconds of fun” as he puts it, it will not be good. Not only does the original Halo have this thirty seconds nailed down, but it also has a stellar soundtrack composed by the legendary Marty O’Donnell and a captivating narrative to go along with it. The graphics may not be great by today’s standards, but the game remains a classic to this day because of its innovative first person combat.

Another great example of great gameplay making an experience is the Xbox 360 cult classic Crackdown. For those who aren’t familiar, Crackdown is an open world sandbox game where you play as a cop with super strength taking down the three biggest gangs of the city. It isn’t perfect, as the graphics were outdated even for the time and the story was hardly Shakespeare, but its strengths lie in its gameplay. Your character in-game can jump incredible heights, pick up (and throw) cars, and use thousands of combinations of guns. Despite Crackdown’s problems, the gameplay makes it shine.

There are an infinite number of examples I could choose, but my point still stands: there are many things that make a game better, but well made gameplay makes a game good. Without a captivating control set or minute to minute gameplay loop, playing the game won’t be fun, no matter what else, good or bad, is there.

With the From Software title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice winning Game of the Year at the annual Game Awards last December, the question of difficulty in games has become an increasingly hot topic. Video games with punishing gameplay and high learning curves have been From Software’s specialty as of late, as Sekiro, Bloodborne, and the Dark Souls series have all been praised and criticized for their unforgiving difficulty. Some journalists have called for easy modes to be added to them, saying that their difficulty is too steep for the average gamer to play. While From Software games can sometimes be unfair, I believe that the difficulty is inherent in their design, and would not be the same without them.

I think that if gamers find these games to be too difficult, they should not play them. This is an important point, as understanding the audience the game was intended for is important in these instances. It is true that a developer needs to properly and fairly balance their games so they can be played the way they are intended, but something like Sekiro is designed with this learning curve in mind. I understand that many folks probably tried the game out and quit because they thought it wasn’t for them, but that does not mean the game is unfair; it means that it was not for them. If I play Grand Theft Auto V, for example, and find that I do not like it, that does not mean the game is poorly made. In fact, the game is unanimously considered one of the greatest games ever created; it’s just that my feelings on the game likely have more to do with my tastes than its quality. The same thing applies to From Software games: if someone does not like the challenging nature of Sekiro, then they should understand that their interests do not align with this kind of game.

If this gamer does decide to play a From Software game though, they need to understand how important the difficulty is to its design. Because their games have such steep learning curves, learning to overcome their many challenging bosses and worlds is one of the most satisfying things in gaming. For instance, when I first started playing Dark Souls, I hit several roadblocks because I had a hard time getting used to the games combat and overall difficulty. Even though I was ready to give up, I persisted and ended up completing the game. Just like getting a good grade on a challenging test or pushing through a grueling workout, I felt proud of myself. Because I was able to overcome the challenge and get over the difficulty, the game became so much more fun. Because other games aren’t as well balanced with their difficulty, they can often be too easy and boring. However, the immense amount of time the developers put into fine tuning the game’s combat really shows in its hard, but rewarding feel. If what I just described is not your thing, then understand that the game is still a quality product, but just not something you enjoy.

Though From Software isn’t the only company making difficult games like these, the same message still applies: some games are designed around their difficulty. Even though many people find it fun, there is a chance you may not. However, that does not mean it is poorly designed, but rather that it is just not your thing.

For anyone getting into game development, joining the indie scene has become an increasingly enticing proposition. As console manufacturers like Nintendo and Microsoft continue to actively support and promote indie devs and their games, small team developers are pretty hot right now. But as the scene gets larger, it is becoming harder to acquire this coveted popularity. Even though the scene is getting larger by the day, finding success is not impossible in today’s landscape; in fact, the hit title Cuphead has become even more popular than the industry would have possibly imagined. Many have wondered why it is that games like this have stood the test of time, especially considering that there were other good indies around at its release. Although this may be a controversial opinion, I believe that their long lasting success is due to their unique art styles, and more specifically that they did not use pixel art.

This is not to say that there have not been popular 8 or 16 bit indies in the past; in fact, there have been many quality titles that chose to use this art style. However, I still believe that a simple art style choice makes all the difference, and Behemoth’s Castle Crashers is a terrific example of what I mean. At the time, the indie scene was seeing its first boom, and there were a ton of quality titles being released. Although there were other indies I had played and enjoyed at the time, none stood out to me as much as Castle Crashers.

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The game not only had a fun gameplay loop, but it had a really clean cartoony style that set it apart from the rest. There were other games that I thought were well made, such as 1001 Spikes with its great level design and fun platforming, but it did not stick with me nearly as much as Castle Crashers did due to its 8 bit art. Although I believe both were well crafted and deserve the positive press they received, 1001 Spikes blended in with all of the other pixel art games of the time. It was a pretty fun game, but the benefits of having a special presentation gave Castle Crashers the edge.

Even in today’s landscape, some of the most popular indies are ones with unique art styles. For instance, for the 2017 title Cuphead, a small handful of artists hand drew the entire game in the style of a cartoon from the 1930s and ‘40s. When it was first shown off in a highlight reel of indie titles on Microsoft’s E3 2014 showcase, there were many run-of-the-mill pixel art games shown with it. With less than one second of screen time, Cuphead was able to stand out with its unique art style, and was the talk of the show for weeks on end. Just like before, there were many great titles shown with Cuphead, but it was able to set itself apart from the others because it stood out from the 8 bit crowd. Now, being three years removed from its release, it has sold over 3 million copies (as of 2018) and has been ported to the Nintendo Switch. 2008’s Braid had a very similar story, with it being a hand drawn game that both gained and retained popularity because of it. Both were celebrated for their great gameplay, but their art styles were what truly made them unique.

I know the reason indie devs choose pixel art is due to their limited budgets and team size, but if they truly want their games to be remembered and celebrated in a decade, they need to consider taking their artistic talent to the next level.

In our society, the faith people have in large corporations is waning by the day, and this is no exception when it comes to the gaming industry. As big budget AAA studios implement predatory microtransactions and game-fixing downloadable content into their flagship titles, there is a growing distrust in many of gaming’s biggest companies. Even developers such as Bethesda and BioWare, who were known for creating top of the line single-player RPGs that helped shape the genre and gaming as a whole, have been criticized for releasing buggy, sub-par multiplayer games with expensive and unrealistic microtransactions. However, there is one studio that has been going against the grain. There is one company that still manages to understand their fanbase and give them the games they want while innovating in fresh, exciting ways: that developer is Capcom. As you know, Capcom is the company responsible for creating beloved games such as Mega Man, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and many more. Although the company has only seen a comeback recently, they still set the standard for how to be a successful developer in 2020, and I would like to explain why it is that they are doing so well right now.

The key factor of Capcom’s prosperity in recent years has most certainly been their understanding of the fan bases that support them. Just like any other developer, their games have a certain identity, and their job is to find out how to retain that identity while modernizing it in a way fans will be pleased with. For instance, Bethesda is currently having this issue with their RPG series Fallout. Fans of the series have a preconceived notion of what a Fallout game should look like, and Bethesda has been toying around with that formula ever since Fallout 4 in 2015 and even more so since Fallout 76 in 2018. While wanting to bring new ideas to an old franchise is great, Bethesda clearly went too far with features such as a voiced protagonist, the absence of ability stats, and shared world multiplayer. On the other hand, let’s take Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise as an example of how to treat your series right.

By the early 2010s, the studio had realized that replacing the atmospheric and methodical survival horror gameplay of the originals with campy, over the top action probably wasn’t something the fans were into, so they brought the classic formula back in the form of Resident Evil 7 in 2017. Although using fixed camera angles and tank controls would have made for a safe, but successful game, Capcom decided to step it up and take the main series into first person instead. Despite fans seeing the decision as a cheap way to cash in on the FPS horror game streaming craze with titles such as Outlast being watched constantly on Twitch and YouTube, they all changed their minds when they saw the TLC that was put into it. However, Resident Evil was not the only series to receive this kind of treatment. Both Mega Man 11 and Devil May Cry V acted as a return to form for their respective series, and received rightful critical acclaim for doing so. Not only that, but Capcom released several well rated Mega Man collections as well as a remake of the fan favorite Resident Evil 2 that was nominated for (and won) several awards at the annual 2019 Game Awards. In addition, Capcom continued to put polish on games like Monster Hunter World and Street Fighter V , which fans had been wanting them to do for some time. Because of their efforts to focus on quality, Capcom was the highest rated developer in 2018.

Throughout their hard work in recent years, Capcom has truly demonstrated how to be a successful developer in the modern age of gaming. By focusing on the desires of their fans while also pushing their creative abilities to their apex, they have once again become one of the most trusted names in the industry, and I hope others will follow in their footsteps.