Reading List (July 2022) (Patreon)

Another month, another reading list folks! This month, a few different websites all ended up tackling singular topics from multiple angles, giving me a very easy time picking out the theme categories. Enjoy some of the weirdest angles I've seen people cover DOOM from and some commentary on Blizzard's latest, Diablo Immortal, alongside numerous other interesting takes on all facets of games from around the internet!

Second Opinions

This month’s Second Opinions section is largely a mini history lesson on The Order: 1886, highlighting several reviews from back in the day alongside an interview with the developers over the game’s then-controversial game length.

The Order: 1886 Review by Brandin Tyrrel: Back in 2015 when The Order released, Tyrrel at IGN found the game’s gameplay to be far too restrictive. Bouncing from walking segments to its bog standard gunplay, it seemed to have left Tyrrel fairly whelmed.

The Order: 1886 Review: London Calling by Justin McElroy: McElroy over at Polygon, meanwhile, also blasted The Order for its lack of interactivity, particularly when a player wanted to go off script, and its incomprehensible narrative.

The Order: 1886 is the Best Game From 10 Years Ago by Jeff Grubb: Grubb at Venturebeat perhaps summed it up best, however, pointing to how neatly The Order’s narrative setup mapped to the big franchises of the aughts without advancing beyond any of the gameplay ideas of that era. Grubb did, however, was the least down on the game of these three reviews and did praise its pacing.

Ready at Dawn Responds to Concern Over The Order: 1886 Campaign Length by Wesley Yin-Poole: Yin-Poole caught up with the developers behind The Order to talk about the game’s length. The developers mostly rambled their way to saying that they stood by their work, but along the way, they did plant a flag pointing out the appeal of shorter games long before anyone (myself included) was really thinking about the issue in those terms.

Unwinnable Tackles DOOM

Out of the blue, Unwinnable launched a themed issue of essays all about granddaddy fps DOOM, and they found all manner of fresh angles to discuss the game from — compared to the real Mars, its board game version, and even a Super Nintendo port!

DOOM Retrospective by David Shimomura: Shimomura dives into not just the history of DOOM the series, but the many, many ripples it had on the industry as a whole.

Misremembering DOOM by Ben Sailer: Sailer recounts his experiences as a kid discovering and eagerly consuming DOOM…not the PC version everyone knows and loves, but its flawed port to the SNES.

Fragged!: Translating DOOM to the Tabletop via a Somewhat Unlikely Route by Orrin Grey: Did you know that DOOM has a board game? Me neither! But this game turns out to be a rather fascinating link between two significantly larger properties you probably have heard of. The first, obviously, being DOOM itself, but the second is far more interestingly Descent, one of the biggest board games of the past few decades. Having expressed my own observations of the original DOOMs as capable dungeon crawlers in their own right, it’s a strangely fitting connection.

Blue Keys on a Red Planet by Ollie Hardy: Hardy finds himself in, I imagine, a rather singular place: having just completed a PhD on an upcoming (but delayed) Mars rover that’s only disillusioned him on his alma mater and turned to DOOM of all games to rediscover his love of the red planet. What follows are both numerous personal musings about the history of our exploration of Mars juxtaposed against the many representations of the planet that DOOM has conjured over the same decades.

Polygon vs. Diablo Immortal

Polygon’s had a lot to say about Diablo Immortal. In a one-two punch, their writers discussed why the game’s monetization system was holding it back, then detailed the environment that allowed this game to not just exist, but thrive.

It’s Not Just Because It’s Exploitative That Diablo Immortal Doesn’t Work by Oli Welsh

Diablo Immortal’s Microtransactions Weren’t Designed in a Vacuum by Kazuma Hashimoto

Games for Good

If I had a nickel for every time I found an article about specific video games being used to fund thematically matching charities this month, I’d have two. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. And for such wildly different causes.

Real-World Animal Shelters Are Streaming Stray to Save Cats’ Lives by Cass Marshall: In a plan that immediately makes sense once you hear it, Crits for Cats has been using cat roleplaying game Stray to appeal to cat lovers and raise money to help real cats find homes.

Fighting a Brutal Regime With the Help of a Video Game by Richard C. Paddock: If you haven’t followed it, Myanmar is experiencing intense political turmoil (to put it lightly) under a military coup seemingly intent on burning their own country down. Into this incredibly fraught political situation, the mobile game War of Heroes has given many victims in Myanmar an outlet by letting them fight digital versions of the regime’s military, with all proceeds going directly towards funding relief and revolutionary efforts in the country. That’s all understandably a lot heavier to engage with than the average reading list entry, but for those interested in learning a little about the situation in Myanmar or War of Heroes itself, Paddock details the story behind this singularly purposeful game.

Everything Else

Souls Inheritors: Bloodborne vs. Sekiro vs. Elden Ring by Noah Caldwell-Gervais: After covering the Dark Souls trilogy proper, NCG brings his FromSoft epic home, positing the rest of the “Souls” catalog as divergent experiments all stemming from the same starting point.

Every Zelda Is The Darkest Zelda by Jacob Geller: Geller dove into the dark backstories and worldbuilding present in almost every different Zelda game, even the bright and cheerful ones, and talks about how it’s not dark or edgy storylines that make a game memorable, but what the story does with that darkness.

Why Is a Game Publisher Trying to Buy Every Video Game Ever Made? By Patrick Klepek: Embracer Group, one of several publishers that have been hoovering up independent developers left and right, has recently thrown its hat into the games preservation ring. Klepek interviews the company, as well as other activists already working in the field, learning both about the passion behind the publisher’s initiative as well as the potential downsides of letting a for-profit company lead the charge on games preservation.

How to Write Transitions || Final Fantasy Tactics Advance by 8-bit Music Theory: 8-bit used Final Fantasy Tactics Advance’s ost to dive into the more complicated world of orchestral music, zeroing in on how these songs transition from one musical phrase to the next.

A Silent Film Horror Game!? By Errant Signal: ES dissected Letters to a Friend: Farewell, the latest from indie developer Christoph Frey. Like many of Frey’s games, Letters to a Friend is a horror game with a purposely low-fi aesthetic. In this case, it’s a grainy silent film, drawing both visually and thematically from Nosferatu. That’s a pretty unique form to make a game in!

The Story Change That Broke The Forgotten City by Kurt Indovina: As part of an ongoing series over at GameSpot, Indovina talked with the developer behind The Forgotten City about the game’s transition from a Skyrim mod to standalone property and the many, many ripple effects that decision created, ending with a game that was hardly recognizable from where it started.

Bloodborne PSX: Recreating Bloodborne as a PlayStation One Game by Noclip: Noclip interviewed Lilith Walther, the head developer behind Bloodborne PSX, about her absolutely wild fan demake of Bloodborne that took the game back three whole console generations, not just changing the game visually, but reimagining how the game would actually play on a PS1.

How “Bad” Balance Can Be A Good Thing by Adam Millard: Millard discussed how imperfect balance can, contrary to popular belief, actually improve how fun a game is.

The History of CEO Gaming (feat. Kenny Omega) - Get In The Ring by Hold Back to Block: CEO, one of the largest fighting game tournaments in the US, recently made its grand return since covid shut down all such large gatherings, and with its arrival, HBtB did a giant documentary on the show’s history from its earliest days to its post-covid relaunch.

The Best games of 2022 (So Far)* by hotcyder: With Elden Ring looming large for months already over the inevitable GOTY conversation, hotcyder decided to get ahead of the game and share his favorite games from 2022 that aren’t the one literally everyone’s talking about.

In Celebration of Olympus, the Pinnacle of Battle Royale Maps by Natalie Clayton: Clayton delivered an ode to their favorite Apex Legends map, praising the map’s personality and tight construction when compared to the more sprawling and less evocative maps that dominate the battle royale genre.

Archery in Games Is Bad: Here’s How to Make It Better by Imogen Mellor: Mellor talks about how the art of archery is often represented in games and how to portray it more realistically.

PowerWash Simulator Is Getting Me Through Covid by John Walker: Walker’s come down with Covid bad. Lying on the couch completely zonked out with barely a thought bad. This turns out to be the exact state to best enjoy new random indie hit PowerWash Simulator.

Action-RPG Elm Knight May Be 30 Years Old, but It Still Feels Like It’s From the Future by Kerry Brunskill: Brunskill gushes over Elm Knight, a 30-year-old mecha shooter with impeccable pixel art and gameplay that still holds up today. It’s a great quick look at a cool game that’s been almost entirely forgotten by time!

Link’s Idle is WEIRD by PlayFrame: Dan of New Frame Plus put up a sort of quasi-live class on Breath of the Wild’s animations on his second let’s play channel. The main topic is Link’s idle animation, most specifically the colossal amount of time you have to spend waiting for it to happen.