Sundays are for clapping your hands to explode a fly. Before you swing, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things).
For PC Gamer, Christopher Livingstone wrote about following a Cities Skylines 2 citizen around for his entire life. Livingstone follows a fella called Archie who, errr, teaches him a lot about how Archie’s a bizarre body-swapper. And how following Archie can lay waste to your precious city.
Why are they taking separate buses to the same place? Then I notice her name is not Ida Jennings, it’s Ida Yardley. They’ve split up. On social media, they both claim to have dumped the other one. “We’ve had a good time together, but sorry, I’m breaking up with you,” he Chirps. “Sorry to do it like this, but I’m leaving you,” she Chirps. I’m definitely taking her side. Archie sucks. Ida can do better.
Wesley Yin-Poole spoke to a reformed Valorant cheater who joined the ‘Anti-Cheat Police Department’ for IGN. Yin-Poole explores this grey area of undercover vigilantism, with plenty of interesting insights into how the world of cheats operate.
Laser won’t give exact names out, since some of the cheat providers are still around, but claims to have infiltrated a significant cheat provider, gained access to their Valorant loaders and cheats, and sent them to Riot. “This one in particular had some basic interview / verification for it,” Laser says. “So I basically just pretended to be a prospective cheater using alternate Discord accounts. Just false identities, but it’s not like I’m faking legal documents. Some cheats actually do require you to send in your legal documents. It’s very, very high security, but generally that isn’t a very big barrier for a lot of us.” IGN has viewed the product page of the cheat provider in question, which is still active but does not currently offer a Valorant cheat.
Levi Winslow wrote about the need for universal accessibility guidelines for Kotaku. Winslow argues there’s good work being done, but the games industry is far from catering to everyone.
There are some truly exceptional games that’ve pushed accessibility forward recently, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Forza Motorsport, The Last of Us Part 2. But not every developer has the resources of a major first-party studio. Companies such as Microsoft and Sony are dropping accessibility controllers, but not everyone’s doing that. (Looking at you, Nintendo.) What you get is a patchwork approach to accessible gaming that’s certainly getting better, but is still nowhere near where it could or should be.
Edward Smith wrote about video games becoming the grotesque gargoyle of our modern times. Not exactly the cheeriest read, but it’s an interesting take on how games perpetuate the problems of our society.
Games that utilize the engine best focus on intimate moments of contemplation, quietness and repose. Far from the bombast of their AAA cousins (a shorthand term for mainstream game studios with multimillion dollar budgets and vast labour pools at their disposal, like Call of Duty), Bitsy games celebrate silence – both literally (since the tool doesn’t support audio without a plug-in) and figuratively: there is a hushed tone about Bitsy games, a whisper in the ear, pillow talk murmurs, airy soliloquies. For jam #77 the community chose ‘museum’: a fitting prompt for this year’s celebration. Like previous jams, contributions for this iteration are equally heartfelt and vulnerable. Fishhooks by Ellis Devereux, is one such contribution where you play as a deep sea diver exploring the depths of their own memories.
Music this week is a Ghost Town (4AM dub) by Myon and Nikol Apatini. Here’s
the YouTube link and Spotify link. A classic Edders choice, this.
That’s it for this week folks, take care of yourselves and see you next week!
