It’s an exclusive for Meta Quest 3. Yes, try to contain the squeals of joy.
When, back in August 2009, ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ hit the shelves of video game stores, many of us knew it was the beginning of a new franchise. The problem is that we didn’t expect it to deteriorate so quickly. It took only three more games (‘City’, ‘Origins’, and ‘Knight’) for the saga to completely fall apart with mistakes like ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ or the mobile game ‘Arkham Underground’. But we didn’t see this coming.
The next game in the franchise, in a spiral towards nonsense, is ‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’, which finally continues the franchise ten years after its last installment and of which we only know two things. One, the official description, which adds nothing new (“Evil is in the streets. Gotham City is in danger. And only you can stop it”). And two, that it is an exclusive for Meta Quest 3. Yes, try to contain the screams of joy.
This is not the first virtual reality game in the saga (that would be ‘Batman Arkham VR’, which didn’t even have combat and focused on puzzles), but that’s not a relief. This doesn’t mean that ‘Arkham Shadow’ is going to be bad, but it is a shame that so few people will be able to try it. After all, Meta Quest 3 costs over 500 euros, and I have my doubts that a Batman game is going to convince people that this is what they need in their life.
The 30-second teaser introduces us to Batman chasing a rat, which leads us to believe that the current villain will be Ratcatcher, a fifth-rate bad guy that makes us think that maybe the game is not intended as a new main installment, after all. That’s what we have.
Board games based on video games are not only in vogue but can also be surprisingly fun, exciting, and perfectly capture – even better – the spirit of the original.
You may have never played a video game and thought, “Hey, you know how I could improve this? With dice, cards, a board, and a complex system of mechanics that is terribly difficult to understand and that I have to deceive between one and three people for a long period of time until I can master it.”
However, video game-based board games are not only popular nowadays, but they can also be surprisingly fun, exciting, and capture the spirit of the original, even better. And so you don’t get lost in the wasteland of pixels and dice, we’re going to review the top 10 that you can find anywhere. Get ready to put aside the controller and sit at a table for a while.
‘Doom’ can even be played on a printer screen, and did you think it couldn’t be turned into a board game? In this game, up to four players will control the marines and one will control the demons. Different objectives, ways to play, missions, and victories await you. And yes, indeed: it is much more fun to play as the bad guys.
9-Street Fighter II
Is it a good board game? Absolutely not. Its mechanics are simple, luck-based, and extremely boring. But… Have you taken a look at it? They are the characters from Street Fighter II in a three-dimensional city looking for a fight and winning until they face the evil M. Bison. No, it’s not exactly ‘Dune Imperium’, but it’s a little gem to have in your home.
8-Fallout Shelter
In the midst of the peak of the television series, perhaps it is time to organize your nuclear shelter by eliminating threats, gaining happiness, and making improvements little by little. Originally, this was a mobile game, but, frankly, it is better played with cards, Pip Boy figurines, and tokens. And besides, the artwork is, as usual with this saga, an absolute delight.
7-World of Warcraft
There are dozens of games based on the Blizzard franchise, from the classic Monopoly to versions of ‘Smallworld’ or collectible card games. But if we had to choose one, it would be, literally, ‘World of Warcraft: the board game’, in which you will have to choose whether to fight for the Horde or the Alliance, carefully choose your character and earn power and honor points for your faction. But without paying monthly fees or buying mounts at absurd prices, which, whether you like it or not, is an advantage.
6-Fallout
We have already fixed the shelter, now it’s time to go out into the Wasteland and see what’s going on. The most curious thing about Fallout is that you won’t see the complete board at first, but it will open up before you as you complete missions, defeating mutant monsters and surviving in an environment where only Nuka-Cola can save you at any given moment.
5-Skyrim
You can get ‘Skyrim‘ on twenty different consoles: Why not try something different by bringing it to your table? The game will allow you to create a unique character that will evolve throughout two very long campaigns. A cooperative game full of wonderful miniatures, dragons, mines, tombs, weapons and, of course, death. And the best part? Like the video game, you can also enjoy it alone. Just be prepared to roll dice non-stop.
4-Cyberpunk 2077: Night City Gangs
When ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ was released, it was a moment of absolute disappointment (and many bugs) for all those who were eagerly awaiting it. However, over time it has been fixed and playing it now is the experience you always wanted. The board game is another success in the franchise: you will have to organize your gang to gain power in the city, not only to defeat your opponents, but also to make changes in the game, for better or for worse. It is now available for sale in Spain, and you wouldn’t be wrong to give it a try.
3-Anno 1800
A board game so good that many people don’t even realize it’s based on a video game. In this case, players must compete to earn influence points by exploring worlds, making deals with foreign countries, and increasing their population, with tough decisions to make. True to the original, fun, and very European. So much so that it could easily have another name and still be successful.
2-Borderlands
You already know what you’re going to find in Borderlands: fun, humor, bad temper, and all kinds of explosions. In the case of this board game, you will have to face all kinds of enemies in a crazy campaign mode with simple gameplay that will take the video game’s principles to the end. If you’re a fan, you can’t miss it.
1-This war of mine
Of course the first one had to be ‘This war of mine’. If the video game is already as complicated as it is terrifying and desolate, the board game manages to double the experiences of it. You will have to see the B side of the war and try to survive by accumulating resources (if you can) in a game as difficult to win as it is satisfying to play. If it’s missing from your shelf, you’re doing something wrong.
What the heck happened to U.S. Games, the breakfast cereal-funded video game company that aimed to make hit titles for the Atari 2600 on the cheap?
It is no secret that, nowadays, the names of video games are chosen by a committee that spends years thinking about which one will attract the target audience and the base public (or which one will remind more of another popular one without breaking copyright). But in the 80s, imagination was the key in the industry: everything was unexplored and, like William Castle’s movies in the 50s, there were quite a few who came up with a trick more similar to a fair stand than a detail that really mattered in the gameplay. But none like the one we are going to tell you about today.
It may be hard to understand, but in 1982 the bloodiest battle of video games was fought… in the offices of two cereal companies. On one side, General Mills (owner of Cheerios or Lucky Charms, among others), who acquired Parker Brothers. On the other side, Quaker Oats (owner of Cap’n Crunch or Mr. T cereals), who acquired U.S. Games to try their luck. One day you sell the crunchiest cereals and the next pixels on a screen. That’s life.
The battle was quickly decided: in 1982, Parker released ‘Frogger’ or ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, so you can get an idea of which one was the winner. But telling success stories is very boring, so let’s see what the hell happened to U.S. Games, the breakfast cereal-funded video game company that wanted to make successful titles for the Atari 2600 on a shoestring budget.
The first one was ‘Space Jockey’. You have never heard of it, and there is a good reason for that: it sold a million units, but most of them at a discount that didn’t generate profits. That title was followed by another 13, such as ‘Eggomania’, ‘Word zapper’ and ‘Towering inferno’, which were tremendous failures. But before Quaker cut off their funding, someone in the studio had a wonderful idea: to release a game without a name and spend a fortune on an impossible contest. No one imagined what would happen next.
What name should we give it?
In 1982, ‘Name this game and win $10,000’ was released for sale. On the cover, a diver aimed his harpoon at an octopus while a shark and a treasure lurked on the sides. The original idea of the studio that made the game and offered it to U.S. Games was not to call it by this bizarre name, but to make a licensed adaptation of ‘Jaws’, which had appeared seven years earlier but was still popular. However, Parker Brothers (pay attention to the twist!), who had the rights, rejected it. And from one cereal to another.
The team of five people who just finished polishing it for U.S. Games originally called it ‘Tesoros de la profundidad’ first and ‘Los guardianes del tesoro’ later, with a later prototype called ‘Octopussy’. But, when they were about to launch it, the disastrous sales reports started to arrive: they needed something to counteract them, and they needed it now. Thus began a crazy contest in which they promised to reward the user who gave the game the most original name before April 30, 1983 with $10,000.
In fact, on the back cover, secondary prizes of $3500 and $1500 were promised, in addition to one hundred sets of US Games and a thousand that could choose one from the catalog of their choice. You can guess what happened by seeing that U.S. Games is not currently competing with Nintendo and Capcom, precisely. Indeed: the video game crash of 1983 ate up U.S. Games before the contest reached its end and remained unresolved forever. Well, more or less.
Octopuses and galleons
Later on, the game did have a proper title, but not in the United States. In Europe, it was called ‘Octopus’ and it even had another alternative title: ‘El oro del galeón’ (The Gold of the Galleon). That’s how Amiga intended to name it when they wanted to include it in their Power Play Arcade #2 cartridge, but it ultimately didn’t happen. However, there are many who believe that was the name that actually won the contest. I guess we will never know.
There is one more twist: Digital Press, the well-known video game website (and formerly a magazine), held another contest in 1994, which was won by the name ‘Going Under’. Russ Perry Jr, the winner, intended it to be both a reference to the game and to what it meant for U.S. Games.
What happened next, you already know: the video game crisis led to a new stage of prosperity that we are still in… And in which no one would dare to release a ‘Call of Duty’ with a suicidal contest. Have we come out on top? Frankly, I doubt it.
Remakes abound today more than ever, and there are good reasons for them, reasons we dissect in this article… offering solutions.
The video game industry has always been particularly creative. There has never been a problem with creating new IPs, trying different things, going against the norm. Even when imitation has occurred, there has always been a search for something distinctive. It is an intrinsic part of video games. Everyone knows that no one wants to play the same game, just with a slightly different aesthetic. That is why, even today, so many games from another era continue to surprise us.
It is important to note the “another era” because it happens less and less. Originality still exists in the indie field, but it is not as abundant. Because if there is one thing that the video game industry is full of, for one reason or another, it is remakes and remasters of already published games.
This is not something new. Even in the Super Nintendo generation, we already experienced numerous remakes, just from one generation to the next. But the difference is that now they seem to be more common. More constant. When we watch a Direct from any of the three major companies, it’s like more than half of the time is dedicated to games we already know. To remakes. What is the reason for this? And above all, why does it seem to happen more now than before?
It seems so because it happens. The amount of remakes and remasters that have been coming to the market for the past couple of years is absolutely ridiculous. And you only need to look at the ones announced for 2024 to see that this is only increasing.
Of games released to date, only between January 19 and March 14, 10 high-profile remasters or remakes have been released. From now until June, another six have already been announced. In all of 2024, between the games already released and those with a release date this year, there are already more than 30 remasters and remakes listed for release. A worrying figure, especially considering that many of these games could pass with a port or re-release.
What is the reason for this? The fact that games are becoming more expensive to produce. Their development takes longer, involves more people, and requires more investment. Something that makes most studios prefer not to take any kind of risks. If they can save time and money by redoing something they already know works, they will choose to do that instead of taking a chance on a new project.
Especially because the audience is also a factor. Getting people to spend money on a completely new game is difficult. You have to let them know it exists, learn its name, how to play it, and why they should be interested. This is not the case with a well-known license. And it happens even less when we talk about a game they already know.
With a game that already has a reputation, that is known how to play, what it is about, and even that we like, it is much easier to know that it will sell. Perhaps Final Fantasy 7 Remake or The Last Of Us 2 Remastered are not new games, but they are games that most people know they want to play. If they see them, they know they are interested in them, and they have no problem remembering their existence. All the problems associated with creating a new game evaporate; it is much easier to ensure that the disproportionate current cost of video games will not be a brutal loss for the studio.
Ironically, the best-performing games this year are not remakes or remasters. The big hits of 2024, at the time of writing this article, are Palworld, Content Warning, Helldivers II. Games that have in common their replayability and are more enjoyable when played with friends, but also something else: they are cheaper than the average.
Where most AAA, the most promoted games, are priced between 60 and 80 euros, the big hits of the year are priced between 7 and 40 euros. Prices where people feel more comfortable taking risks, buying something simply because it catches their attention and there is a possibility that it is good.
Something that demonstrates where the key is to break this vicious circle of making everything bigger. More expensive. Reduce the size of the games. Invest less time and less money in games with a smaller perspective and a more reasonable cost. If the industry were to turn towards this, it is very likely that it would not need to make remakes and remasters of everything. Never assume any risk. But as long as that happens, we will have to keep playing the same games over and over again.
The problem with naming your video game with a title that promises lofty, unattainable goals is that, most likely, you won’t be able to meet the expectations.
The problem with naming your video game with a title that promises unattainable goals is that, most likely, you won’t live up to expectations. That’s what happened to ‘Star Trek Infinite’, which was released in October 2023… and now they have announced that it’s game over and the Nostromo will be parked forever. So, it turns out it wasn’t so infinite after all.
If it weren’t for ‘Star Trek‘, it is most likely that this Argentine game by Nimble Giant would have passed with even more shame and less glory on the shelves of specialized stores. In the statement, they have tried to distract attention as best they could (“Together we have explored distant worlds, faced formidable adversaries and created a community united by a shared love for the Star Trek universe”), but what underlies it is, well, a profound sadness.
Although the game is what it is and there will be no more updates, you can still buy it for about 30 euros (40 if you want the deluxe version). Who knows, it is possible that the modding community will be able to liven up this walking corpse that many have already labeled as one of the biggest disappointments in recent years. And in a gaming landscape where we have had things like ‘Gollum’, it’s frankly saying a lot.
What’s going on? And especially in this environment… Who the hell would want to work making games?
It is becoming a weekly tradition as dangerous as it is sad: checking how many workers have been fired this time from the video game industry. In just three months of 2024, companies like Sega, Unity or Electronic Arts have laid off thousands of people while, on the other hand, they keep telling us how well everything is going in an industry that never stops growing and making profits. What is happening? And, above all, in this environment… Who the hell would want to work making games?
Of course, there is a rational explanation for this massive movement of companies: during the pandemic, they hired a lot of people to help entertain the public who were alone at home and needed some amusement. And now that we have all returned to normal, it’s time to reduce the workforce. But, of course, there is another explanation that not everyone wants to hear: investors make more money.
In the world of 2024, the decisions of any cultural industry (film, television, comics, whatever you want) do not come from the hands of creators but from committees formed by people who know a lot about making money but very little about culture or, for that matter, treating people with humanity. And video games are no exception: in the constant struggle to have more money than the opponent, like Uncle Scrooge swimming in his pool of coins, they are making the decision to neglect the workers.
This line of work is based on a supposed hypothesis: there will always be people who want to work in the world of video games, out of love or motivation, even if they know that the Sword of Damocles will be forever hanging over their heads. But the truth is that “volatile markets” (the eternal excuse of the producers), for whatever reason, do not attract new talents, who, when it comes to losing money, it is normal for them to look for their place in the indie.
Who knows, maybe the shareholders are right and in the future we will have higher quality games made by teams that don’t care about this constant cycle of layoffs. Even those who claim that this is completely normal and that it’s just layoffs after a “big game” may not be wrong. But for now, there will be many who read the news, see the current state of the industry, and prefer to do something safer and create games in their free time. And that certainly doesn’t benefit anyone… except their creativity.
30 years have passed, video games have evolved, and Limited Run Games has thought that perhaps it’s time to give it another try with the industry’s less famous plumbers.
There was a time, very short, in the mid-90s, where they tried to sell us that the video games we had played so far were fine, but the future was in video adventures where you could make a few decisions, in the style of ‘Choose your own adventure’. Even in Spain, several were made, like ‘Los justicieros’ or that famous ‘Marbella Vice’ directed by Álex de la Iglesia. In the United States, on the other hand, the 3DO console saw the birth of one of the worst titles in the history of video games: the indescribable ‘Plumbers don’t wear ties’.
Popularized by the Angry Video Game Nerd years later, ‘Plumbers don’t wear ties’ was a video game that simulated a romantic comedy with non-professional actors, a laughable script, and impossible gameplay. Nothing made sense, from start to finish, the critics hit it with all they could and the audience fell out of love with video games (more than with video games) before they could develop any potential. Well. 30 years have passed, video games have evolved and Limited Run Games has thought that maybe it’s time to try again with the least famous plumbers in the industry.
The game is now available, both physically and digitally, for Switch, PS4, PS5, and Windows, and it comes with abundant extras: interviews (trying to understand how this was possible), photo galleries from the filming, documentaries, and even a new game to unlock even more extras. And in addition, the video has been restored to 4K, allowing you to choose between this version and the traditional one. Each person with their own fetishes!
Social media has given a voice to people who perhaps shouldn’t have it, and the result has been individuals like Ramone Russell reaching a breaking point.
Imagine that you are a developer of high-end video games, known as AAA. Surely you think that life is beautiful: you work in what you love, you make a good number of people happy, and you also have job security (well, nowadays you never know) for years. Well, think again. Social networks have given a voice to people who perhaps should not have it, and the result has been that people like Ramone Russell end up exploding.
Russell, who works for Sony in the hugely popular baseball game ‘MLB The Show’, couldn’t take it anymore and spoke at length about what he has to endure in the newsletter Game File. “Everything is difficult. And if we haven’t done something, it’s because we haven’t found the right way to do it“. And something as simple as that results in the anger of the fans.
Logically, when you start programming video games, you think, like in the first paragraph, in a naive way. Everything is going to go well, you are going to make many people happy. And yet… “We want to give fans everything, but we can’t. We have a release date. We have a limited amount of resources. So if we don’t make it, it’s never due to lack of effort”.
And in the end, Russell ends up begging fans to behave better. Seeing the responses that are usually given on Twitter to mundane problems in the industry, sadly, it seems more and more like a utopia. “We are human beings just like anyone else. And sometimes we do things right and sometimes wrong. But when we do it wrong, it’s never because we haven’t tried hard enough”. And now, how about we behave like human beings instead of psychopaths? It’s not that difficult, really.
And if we’re talking about that topic, we obviously have to mention ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’, the game that has revolutionized an entire generation with its lubricious ease… which will now become even more real.
We are on the verge of Valentine’s Day, and we all know what that means: reservations at La Tagliatella, boxes of chocolates everywhere, couples holding hands under a cozy blanket and Netflix… And, of course, love in video games. And if we talk about that topic, logically, we have to talk about ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’, the game that has revolutionized an entire generation with its lustful ease… which will now become even more real.
The sixth patch for the game will include something that people have been asking for a long time: improved animations for kisses. Love is in the air and in Faerûn too, apparently. They also include new Legendary Actions in Honor Mode, new animations while waiting at the camp, and bug fixes, but let’s get to what really matters: making it feel like our characters don’t spend the night alone.
The game continues to enjoy very good health, with 135,000 simultaneous players even now, half a year after its release, and probably at Larian they are talking about a possible DLC, but for now all we know is that it is not so. We will have to settle for focusing on Valentine’s Day, going to the medieval Gino’s, naming our character “Sam” and making him go very slow. Things that only happen in Spain.
The world record time for completing ‘Diablo II’ is -attention- 38 minutes and 27 seconds. I, who spent an entire summer playing trying to get through screen by screen, can only tip my hat to the mastery of 327, a player from Russia who is a true master of the game.
The world record for completing ‘Diablo II’ is -attention- 38 minutes and 27 seconds. As someone who spent an entire summer playing, trying to advance from level to level, I can only take my hat off to the mastery of 327, a player from Russia who is a true master of the game. But I’m sure not even he has experienced what Kano has, a player who, in the middle of a speedrun, came across the rarest (and therefore most expensive) item in the game. Attention.
‘Diablo II’ was released 24 years ago (it’s older than many of you reading this, wow) and became an immediate success for Blizzard. So much so, that they wouldn’t dare to release its third part until 2012. One of the most defining aspects of the game is its equipment system, which was divided, among others, into normal, magical, rare, and unique. And “unique” is, almost literally, unique, as Kano discovered while playing the other day on Twitch.
Kano was attempting a world record focused on murder when suddenly, a Zod Rune appeared at his feet. “A Zod Rune! It’s the first one I’ve found, by the way”, he said to his fans in the chat. Then, he found a vendor and sold it for 35000 pieces of gold, which is the in-game currency that you can later spend on buying more items.
It’s not something strange per se, there are websites specifically dedicated to buying and selling items in ‘Diablo II’, but what is surprising is that it happened in the middle of a speedrun with an item that appears once every 2,987,183 times. Is it worth 35,000 pieces of gold that cannot be exchanged for real money (or maybe it is, but it’s not worth it enough)? You decide. Kano, by the way, couldn’t beat the world record, but at least he got something even better: the admiration of an entire chat. In a 21st century like the one we have, is there anything more important?
