To what extent are you willing, in 2024, to spend money to become someone important within a virtual world? Given what we’ve seen, it’s possible that your answer could even reach four figures. However, the new player with the highest level profile on Steam surpasses you by far: they spent over $500,000 to become number 1. Whether that’s worth it or not is up to each individual.
Stasik, which is the name of the new king of Steam, has surpassed St4ck, who was the king until now, with a level of 5960. Or in other words, almost a thousand levels more than his opponent. But that position comes with a suffering (in the wallet) equivalent to between 500,000 and 700,000 dollars… just to surpass level 5000. What he has spent from there, only his banker (and Gabe Newell) knows.
Currently, in Stasik’s profile, he accumulates Counter-Strike 2 skins that cost thousands of dollars each, collector’s items, and other rewards that gamers with a lot of money exchange to automatically inflate their value. Do you remember the NFTs? Well, this is basically the same, but with your favorite games.
Little is known about Stasik—only that he resides in the United Arab Emirates, uses Russian to communicate, probably has enough money to bury us all—and this is just a mere speculation. It’s because he has so much money that he even faces possible Steam bans as if it didn’t affect him. Let me explain. In his profile, Stasik accumulates all kinds of stickers to form insults and, in particular, he has a Counter-Strike weapon with a racial insult that costs over 9000 dollars. Will Valve be willing to take action and kick someone who is giving them a second Christmas? Probably not.
It seems increasingly clear that the biggest debate video games will have over the next decade (at least) will be over the use of artificial intelligence
It seems increasingly clear that the biggest debate that video games will have over the next decade (at least) will be about Artificial Intelligence. We are still determining where it fits, where it doesn’t, which jobs it will take away, whether it will be used to eliminate crunch, or if games made entirely by humans will be perceived as having greater value by gamers. For now, Electronic Arts wants to be part of the conversation and has already taken the lead over the rest of the industry.
While not the most important game in their catalog, EA Sports College Football 25, is still a real phenomenon in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people have bought the $100 version to gain early access to the game. But of course, no matter how much it is going to sell, EA still needs to recreate 11,000 different players, which is no small feat. If a little machine can do it, even better, right?
It was absolute necessary for this game to have these 11,000 players, for which they reached a prior agreement with the actual players—of $600 and a copy of the game. According to the CEO of EA, “without AI we could not have delivered this game at the level we have, even if we had given the team many, many years of development.”
In addition to creating the 11,000 heads (later retouched by the team), the game also has AI trained on real football data to create an “authentic” gameplay, which would not have been possible even three years ago. It is worth remembering that the CEO of Electronic Arts also said that NFTs were the future, so we will have to see to what extent his invention succeeds.
Let’s not forget that they have laid off hundreds of people without touching the director’s annual millions. Perhaps the goal is to use AI for absolutely everything. Selling millions of games is great, but keeping employees happy is secondary for these companies. Cheaper production costs with higher profits— that’s the key. The rest doesn’t matter.
He aquí seis controles de videojuegos terriblemente específicos que hemos usado una sola vez en nuestra vida, y a los que probablemente nunca más vayamos a sacar partido.
At some point, we have all been in this situation: there is a game that catches our attention and looks amazing, but to fully enjoy it, we need to purchase an additional controller that promises to have a lot of potential. The Dance Dance Revolution mat, the Wii Fit board, and so on. But once we have played, what do we do with the bulky thing that came with it?
Here are six extremely specific video game controllers that we have only used once in our lives—and that we will probably never take advantage of again. If you thought your Guitar Hero guitar was a waste of money, wait until you see what lies in the depths of video games…
While on home consoles, Guitar Hero became a game for four players, each with their own instrument. On Nintendo DS, it was time to let loose and start with the basics: a kind of accordion that simulated the four guitar chords and that appeared for Guitar Hero: On Tour and, as it needed the Game Boy Advance slot, it was completely incompatible with any later model of the console.
Actually, the team that created the game named it Ukulele Hero, although, as it stands, it maintained its level of difficulty in hits like All-Star, All the Small Things, Avalanche, The Farm, or Rock and Roll All Nite. In the following year, the game had a couple of sequels, Decades and Modern Hits, before falling into complete oblivion. Some of us remember our accordion. Strange nostalgia, I suppose.
Ring Fit Adventure
A recent case: Nintendo Switch proposed, during the pandemic, to get us in shape, and they released a round and flexible hoop along with a kind of leg belt where you could fit the console controllers. The result was the best fitness video game in history, Ring Fit Adventure, which offered different levels, final bosses, and enemies to face through squats and sweat.
The problem is that, once the game’s lifecycle ended, and after a free DLC in the style of Beat Saber, it fell into complete oblivion. A few of us dream of a sequel to help us lose weight again by fighting terrible monsters, but it seems that Nintendo is not up for it.
Wii Zapper
We change consoles, but not companies: Nintendo is an expert at making us buy things we don’t need… And as an example, the Wii Zapper, which supposedly served to aim better in FPS games and was… a piece of plastic that was sold almost exclusively because it came with the game Link’s Crossbow Training, a spin-off of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
You could play Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Call Of Duty: World At War, Dead Space: Extraction, The House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return, and a dozen others on it, but hardly anyone ever used it outside of Link and his crossbow. It just wasn’t fun, unlike other Wii peripherals like the steering wheel. It’s best not to mess with unofficial ones like the bowling ball for Wii Sports. There’s no way back from that world.
Tony Hawk: Ride
Version 1.0.0
In 2009, the skate saga Tony Hawk was already coming to an end, but at Robomodo, the new studio in charge of their games, they still had something to say: What if we leave the controller behind and play from now on… with a board that has accelerometers and that won’t allow any other way of playing? Tony Hawk: Ride, for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii, was not successful among critics, and the public did not rush to get their board…
Among other things, because everyone was aware that they would never use it again and the Tony Hawk saga would continue, from that moment on, playing with the traditional controller. There was even a sequel, Tony Hawk: Shred, in which they had the audacity to sell a slightly different new board for $130. In one week, it sold 3000 units, and no one thought of mentioning the peripheral again.
SEGA Fishing Rod
There were a total of six fishing games for Dreamcast, of which in Europe we could only play one, Sega Bass Fishing, in 1999, the port of a famous arcade game that consisted, well, in fishing with a fishing rod from your couch. The rod had everything you could expect from such a peripheral: motion sensors, vibration, reels to bring the line to you, and the usual buttons on the controller.
If you were lucky enough to live in the United States or Japan, you’re in luck because several more fishing games arrived there, such as Sega Marine Fishing (the sequel to Sega Bass Fishing), Lake Masters Pro Dreamcast Plus! (which I invite you to see to believe) or Bass Rush Dream: EcoGear PowerWorm Championship\. In 2001, only two years after its release, Dreamcast fans could already save their fishing rod along with their dreams of becoming great fishermen.
Donkey Konga
We finish with Nintendo, of course, although here I feel a deep paradox: I know perfectly well that it was a common scam to charge extra for a peripheral, but I can’t help but love Donkey Konga and consider it one of my favorite rhythm games (even if it’s just a mere copy of Taiko no Tatsujin). Play the bongos, go through the songs, and enjoy with Donkey Kong and company. Two sequels were released before being forgotten.
Well, more or less: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was a platform game that could only be played with the bongos. There was going to be another game in the franchise, DK Bongo Blast, but it ended up being released for Wii without being able to use this controller. Please, justice for the bongos of Donkey Kong. It’s not too much to ask for.
Blessed are you if you don’t know Foodfight!. In 2012, at the dawn of Pixar and DreamWorks cinema, an unknown production company believed they could also make a 3D movie. And for its cast, they hired – get this – Charlie Sheen, Wayne Brady, Hilary Duff, Eva Longoria, Larry Miller, and Christopher Lloyd. Its production began in 2000, ended up being released in 2012, and was one of those horrors that will go down in cinema history.
Until you see it, you won’t know how bad it is, on the level of the Brazilian rip-offs of Cars. But, at the time, it was destined to be a hit. So much so, that for a while it was planned that a video game would appear in stores at the same time as its release in theaters. But Foodfight!, in the end, went straight to DVD and never made it to the big screen, so, as you can guess, the video game had been canceled long before. We know that it was going to appear for PS2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Wii, and Nintendo DS back in 2006 and its development lasted until 2008, when, finally, it was canceled without a trace.
Now, the former boss of Cat Daddy Games, the publisher that was going to release it, has uploaded all the available material to the Internet Archive, and that’s how we discovered that it was going to have 26 screens between platforms and flight screens. It was so ambitious that they were even going to have the original actors voice their characters again (Hilary Duff even recorded her part!), but reality ended up hitting them hard. The movie sank in the sea of Internet memes and no one wanted to play a game based on that flop. I wish there was an alternate universe, though, where we could have known it. Oh well.
Todos ellos se han juntado, una vez más, en Games Done Quick, uno de los mejores eventos del año que durará hasta este sábado y que ya ha dado momentos míticos.
We are all fascinated by speedrunners, those who are capable of completing ‘Super Mario Bros’ in the same time it takes you to make a coffee, and those who have killed Ganondorf in the time it takes you to learn how to hold a sword. Now, they’ve all come together, once again, at Games Done Quick, one of the best events of the year that’ll continue until this Saturday. And it’s already provided some legendary moments.
Games Done Quick is a speedrunners event that’s been running for 14 years and donates all its profits (we’re talking about millions of dollars) to NGOs like Doctors Without Borders. Throughout these event days, thanks to Twitch we’ll be able to watch speedruns of all kinds of games, from ‘Yoshi’s Island’ to ‘Mirror’s Edge’, from ‘Hollow Knight’ to ‘Stuart Little 2’ (!), and of course, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess’.
Hours and hours of virtually uninterrupted speedruns with some of the best players in the world, players who are ready to annihilate ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ in one hour and ‘Super Metroid’ in 45 minutes. A delight. Honestly, even if you don’t have time to watch it all (and who does, especially during times of sports events galore?), take at least ten minutes to contemplate the games you know thoroughly, filtered through the gameplay of someone who knows every little detail of them.
It’s not just worth it: You can observe people who have dedicated every last minute of their free time to finding the dead pixels in ‘Kirby’s Adventure’ and to utterly mastering an indie remake of 2006’s ‘Sonic’. There are almost 8 billion people in the world, and only a few hundred have that special touch–the ability to play at full speed. It may seem silly, but devote five minutes to it and you’ll see not only that there is much more, but you might just get addicted to watching it. Not a bad way to start your summer, huh?
The history of adult video games (if we can call them that) is extensive, but they have not had great successes beyond – perhaps – the Leisure Suit Larry franchise or the infamous Custer’s Revenge. However, there is a legendary banned video game that has been missing for twenty years. You may have never heard of The Guy Game, but you should know that it has suddenly reappeared.
The Guy Game was released on August 31, 2004 for PS2 and Xbox, and later for PC. The game itself consisted of answering questions and winning mini-games. If you succeeded, you could see young women in bikinis (or even without them if you earned enough points in something called Flash-o-meter). The idea seems to be the work of a novice in video games looking to make easy money, but the truth is that it was directed by Jeff Spangenberg, founder of Retro Studios and developer of Metroid Prime.
The Guy Game had nothing to do with Samus Aran: it was the first title released with their new company, Topheavy Studios. In the end, it would be the only one. And it’s not just that it encountered a sales flop and very negative reviews, but it also ended up facing the law, sued by one of the women who appeared in the videos without clothes.
It turns out that the girl was underage when those sequences were filmed, and she did not give her consent to appear anywhere, so they ended up removing it from all sites. The game sold 60,000 units and was never heard of again until the other day when it reappeared at a retro gaming convention in its Xbox version for $250.
And you might think “Well, but can you buy it online, right?” It is worth noting that even eBay prohibits its sale on its website due to the scandal, so if there is someone who is a big fan of banned games, they will have to start preparing their wallet. Although, frankly, I don’t think it’s worth it.
You may not have heard of State of Decay 2 by name. The game, released in 2018 for Xbox One, presents a world where you must create a community to fight against hordes of zombies. It can’t be said that it was an incredible success, but in 2021 it reached 10 million players. And among them was Bruce Allen Buncombe’s son.
We don’t know the name of the son, who goes by the name EmbarrassedBudget on Reddit, but we do know his story: his father passed away three years ago, and he wanted to pay tribute to him. He didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do, but he sent a message to Undead Labs, the studio, without expecting anything in return. They couldn’t do much, but to honor his life, they named one of the hundreds of digital survivors after him.
And now, after three years, his son has finally found him: Bruce Allen Buncombe, a survivor who before the zombie apocalypse had a medical practice, led a peaceful life, and is now “old and tired.” And yes, you guessed it: the real Bruce also had a medical practice, was peaceful, and considered himself “old and tired.” Ay.
“This will be my community forever,” said EmbarrassedBudget, adding “That’s my father, immortal. We may grow older and forget about this game (I highly doubt it), but no matter what happens, he will always be a part of it.” After all, video games can be much more than adventures, role-playing games, or puzzles: they can be testimonies of who we are, of who we want to be, of who we will be, leaving a mark in a digital world forever. Well done, State of Decay 2. Very well done.
The 10 ‘Star Wars’ games that have tarnished the past four decades. And, let’s be honest, there are more to come. Lower your lightsaber halfway: this is unbearable.
You might think that if you have a lightsaber and R2-D2 in the background, no video game can be bad. That even a corridor shooter like the adaptation of ‘The Phantom Menace’ can be good. That, what the hell, there’s nothing in this franchise that you don’t like. And yet, here we are, talking about the 10 ‘Star Wars’ games that have stained the last four decades. And, it must be said, the ones to come. Lower your lightsaber halfway: this is galactically unwatchable.
It appeared in the second month of Xbox’s life, and it is supposed to be a prequel to ‘The Phantom Menace’, although it is not canon anymore. It doesn’t need to be: it’s just another little adventure in the saga, but in this case, impossible to control. You see, in 2001, the developers still didn’t know what to do with the second stick on the controller, so they used it to unleash the powers of Obi-Wan Kenobi. For some reason, it worked as well as an unplugged toaster.
9-‘Star Wars: Yoda Stories’
For some reason, in 1997 LucasArts gave their approval to a computer and Game Boy Color game (yes, at that level) that could be finished in an hour, could be played on the desktop, and didn’t even have central objectives: the player (Luke Skywalker) had, over and over again, to do different random missions, and then it was over. It was already graphically bad for the time, but playing it now is simply impossible.
8-‘Star Wars Chess’
Nothing says “Galactic adventures!” like moving R2-D2 pawns and C-3PO bishops. The game was an adaptation of ‘Battle Chess’ and exactly what you would expect, but much slower in its animations. Yes, it’s just chess. You move your Chewbacca-knight, protect your Obi Wan-king, and fight against the imperial army in front of you. It was 1993, you couldn’t ask for much more.
7-‘Star Wars: Jar Jar’s Journey Adventure Book’
A video game about Jar Jar Binks, the most hated creature in the history of the franchise? Of course. Nothing is wasted here. This title is educational, so it’s exactly as bad as you’re thinking. Apparently, children around the world want to turn on their computer to learn with an annoying gungan. Yes, definitely, there were too many games based on ‘The Phantom Menace’.
6-‘Star Wars: Jedi Arena’
It’s difficult to play the Atari without someone complaining because it’s legendary and they had very few resources. And it’s true. But this game, in which Luke Skywalker has to learn to be a Jedi against a combat droid (just like in that scene from ‘A New Hope’!) becomes repetitive and impossible to play within two minutes. In fact, you know it’s based on ‘Star Wars’ only because I’m telling you, because it could easily be a cooking or electrical problem-solving game.
5-‘Star Wars’ (1987)
O ¿por qué era una idea común permitir que Japón creara sus propias versiones de los clásicos del cine estadounidense para el Famicom? En este caso, un Luke Skywalker de pelo oscuro tenía que pasar por varios niveles de desplazamiento hasta encontrarse con Darth Vader, quien se transformaría en diferentes cosas. Por ejemplo, un pterodáctilo o un escorpión. ¿En realidad era otro videojuego y simplemente le pusieron el título de ‘Star Wars’? Bueno, probablemente.
4-‘Star Wars: Grievous Getaway’
Do you remember the first mobile video games? I hope not. But if you do, you may have an unfounded nostalgia for this title based on a small scene from ‘Episode III’ where General Grievous escapes from Obi-Wan. Imagine that, but turned into a game controlled by the keys of your Nokia with pixelated graphics, ten frames per second, and the feeling of wasting your life.
3-‘Star Wars Monopoly’
No, I haven’t made a mistake, I’m not talking about board games: it’s the gamer version of the most boring board game in the world, Monopoly. What could go wrong? Everything. It doesn’t make sense, nothing matters, you can buy your plot in Yavin, go to free parking and build hotels. I don’t know. I guess there will be an audience for this.
2-‘Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi’
It is one of the worst games in history, how could it not be in a ‘Star Wars’ ranking in particular? It is a clone of Tekken where the characters from the saga face each other. Bad graphics, problems with gameplay, unbalanced characters… Well, a gem. To avoid, specifically.
1-‘Star Wars Kinect’
And the most wicked game of the George Lucas saga. In a few years, we will have to explain to the new generations what the hell Kinect was and why someone thought it was a great idea to adapt it to ‘Star Wars’. Not all modes were bad, and there were some interesting mini-games, but history has left it with one: the galactic dance. Have you ever dreamed of seeing the Skywalkers dancing ‘YMCA’ or ‘Hollaback girl’ or, at least, “Starwarsified” versions? Wish granted.
Despite everything, there were people who trusted in this disaster. To their sadness, they ended up in debt. Literally.
Do you remember ‘Redfall’? The answer is probably “What are you talking about?”. And that’s because Bethesda’s game was not exactly popular when it was released a year ago. Quite the opposite: it was so full of bugs and so unfunny that Phil Spencer himself had to apologize saying “I’m disappointed. I’m angry with myself”. And, despite everything, there were people who trusted in this disaster. To their sadness, they have come out in debt. Literally.
‘Redfall’, on release, promised that everyone who bought the deluxe edition would have, among other things, two new heroes through post-launch DLC. Many people trusted and, instead of trying the game on Game Pass, they spent a fortune. One year later, they still haven’t received anything at all.
There are two possibilities: either they are dedicated to fixing issues (which is true, the game is better now than at its launch, although that’s not saying much), or they haven’t even started working on the DLC, which would be concerning twelve months after the promise. The last update we had was in November, where Arkane, their studio, assured that they were still working on the characters and would announce news in 2024.
And here we are. Half a year has passed and there is no news, which has not sat well with those who spent $100. Many were expecting a surprise on May 2nd to celebrate the anniversary, but instead there has been a deafening silence. ‘Redfall’ seems to have died, and those who bet on it have lost all their chips. You’ll see how they trust Bethesda next time. Oh, yes.
Those who haven’t touched a bit of grass in years scream too much. And, of course, they could even ruin the good intentions of a small indie publisher who wanted to ask for their audience’s opinion.
I don’t think anyone will be shocked if I say that the world of video games and gamers is full of people you wouldn’t want to have dinner with if you can avoid it. Good people win, yes, but those who haven’t touched a bit of grass in years shout too much. And, of course, they have been able to even ruin the good intentions of a small indie publisher who wanted to ask for their audience’s opinion.
Introducing Crytivo, a small video game studio that is creating ‘Farm Folks’, which, as the name suggests, is a farmer simulator. So far, so good. The problem is that in a couple of days they gained 29,000 followers on Twitter, and that usually only happens for two reasons: either you’re the best, or you’ve messed up big time.
In this case, it was the latter, of course. More specifically, Crytivo tweeted (and deleted shortly after) asking for opinions on a topic that is, to say the least, controversial: “Alright, folks, it’s time for our next serious talk about game development! We’re tweaking the character physics in ‘Farm Folks’. Let’s open up a can of worms: Which version has the perfect breast physics?“. In the image, a video showed the breast movement at 30, 50, and 90%. You can imagine the rest, but I can already tell you that they answered themselves with a “Do you want to see how it looks at 150%?”.
It may seem like an innocuous tweet, but the truth is that it started a cultural war, like basically everything right now: the responses were predominantly negative and in the Discord of the game they directly asked why they were posting misogynistic things. The game director tried to pour water on the fire: “Our goal is not to oversexualize our characters, it’s the opposite. We want to achieve realistic physics (…) It feels natural to have movement in the character’s breasts that is not obscene”.
The post was deleted, the director stated that the team had crossed a line and that’s when the other side of the Internet came to say that it should not have been deleted and that they still had a chance of success if they re-uploaded the post about breasts. Álex Koshlekov, the director in question, has ended up saying what is obvious: he had no interest in creating controversy and the apology still stands. “We don’t want to attract disgusting people, we don’t want them. We will have some limits, but I want the player to choose how their character looks”. Fights over character customization. 2024 is coming strong.
