no, you don’t understand
Gematsu is focused on Japanese games and the readerbase follows in kind
Eurogamer is decent and has digital foundry neatly attached but tbh the right game news-focused discord can curate things very well since stories break all over the place. I don’t think there’s much of a wrong choice if you just want headlines but the larger ones tend to have a lot of cruft like IGN
I want to be excited for Astro Bot but the Interactive Gravegard genre’s a bit oversaturated for my tastes.
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Sites (and in some cases podcasts) I check are pcgamer, timeextension, aftermath, remapradio, kotaku (may they all find an exit,) romhacking.net, the reddit leak and rumor slush hole. Other than that, a constellation of other sources just for keeping up awareness of who’s publishing what and why, or what’s making a dent on itch, or etc. It’s a mess. A handful of people can get funding to talk about triple A games almost exclusively, and retro games also seem to get some love because aging millennials and xers with tech/crypto money will, for the moment, dump money into them (or at least Embracer does via Limited Run, which I assume would have been dissolved already if their books weren’t “okay.” )
So notably there’s not a lot of space in there for anyone to actually get compensated for covering the smaller games which are trying new or different things, which is a problem since a lot of triple A has been captured by venal dullards who’ve sworn off the new and different in favor of hyperreal ArtStation QTE chains, blandly cartoony live service muck, etc.
Forums, discords, streaming, and short form video are all places where this kind of information gathering and dissemination have migrated, but that’s writing in sand that goes out with the tide. Talking about new or different games to a larger audience and selling new or different games to a larger audience are intertwined goals, and the fortunes of journalists, critics and devs should rise in tandem. Right now that’s all broken down, and the Web Sites I want to read mostly don’t exist because everyone’s a broke-ass peasant searching for patronage or an unrelated dayjob and can’t risk the time to build both infrastructure and an audience. I can envision a better future but the state of things as they stand is not inspiring.
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the original GIA is more or less how I ended up at IC back in the day. also I very nearly ended up doing their letters section on a couple occasions, what a disaster that likely would’ve been
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I don’t know y’all I thought the PS5 free Astrobot game was truly dire as all Use All The Features games are.
The train is currently advertising the new one and it feels like buying life insurance can be Fun (R).
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Oh, so that’s where all of Sony’s marketing money went instead of Concord.
I thought the PS5 free Atro Bot was just okay, but the PSVR1 was fantastic. Hoping the new game is more that than the free one.
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I do find Astrobot himself to be just the blandest character, like a mascot from a short-lived 2009 ad campaign for a vitamin supplement. The whole Astrobot aesthetic is so incredibly sterile. All the references to Sony’s back catalog totally grate – most of these characters suck, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other, and even the ones I care about are deployed in such a cynical way I get no enjoyment out of it.
I should be a full on Astrobot hater, but for some reason I really enjoyed both of the Astrobot games so far and I’m jazzed for the new one. I guess it’s just the solid AA 3D platforming in an age where you don’t get a lot of that, along with sheer 110% exuberance at all times. Pretty good level design helps too.
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I had Jeff Gerstmann’s video on the game on in the background and Astro Bot looks like it’s going next level with these references. He calls it bittersweet and I can see why. This game is going to be most remarkable for how often it makes you say “why doesn’t Sony make games like this anymore?”
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Sony needed their own funco pop
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Even now I feel like Nintendo are one of the only companies who understand that having this variety of distinctly different aesthetic and mechanical experiences creates a sense of identity and range that endears people to the Brand. Why are you making your core identity a very realistic Spider-Man, and “zombies,” and the robot thing with white girl dreads, all of whom come from games that look like Ubisoft, while you sweep the iconic little guys from like team ico games and ape escape and doko demo into the trash? They’re about to milk Bloodborne, yet they axed the studio who brought From in to make it? What is PlayStation other than “realistic looking open worlds or linear cinematic games that eventually come to Steam,” like every other triple A publisher.
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Glad you clarified AA because I think stuff like Torree, Lunicus, A Hat In Time, hell Mario Odyssey are all so aesthetically beyond Astrobot. Let alone just playing actual 3D Platformers from 1996-2004.
I mean I am threatening to buy a repugnant Throwback Platformer that was released for Full Price and then no one bought it because let me tell you it is horrid to look at. But I have a sickness for this kind of game and will play any of them. And yet Astrobot does nothing for me.
Don’t mean to be yelling at you OSB or anyone directly, just had to get out my thoughts.
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Hey, no worries. I agree, the game has a terrible aesthetic. It looks like a Brazilian convenience store poster advertising regional wax soda bottle candy, crossed with a squeeze ball you received at an enterprise business software conference.
I liked the PSVR Astrobot because it was a novel and well-realized implementation of a 3D platformer in VR, and it did a lot of cool stuff with the hardware. I liked the PS5 Astrobot demo thing that came with the console because it was short and sweet fast food, very well formulated but ultimately lacking in nutrition, like a good Taco Bell snack. Hopefully the new one won’t be like a 5-course Taco Bell meal.
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Astrobot is a Cloud Integration meme posted on Linkin with the comment So True!
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Astro Bot has always struck me as what if a 3D Mario game actually had cohesive and appealing aesthetics. Like the 3D Mario games and pretty much all mascot platformers, its story is still the most banal Saturday morning cartoon imaginable. But again, at least no one says anything and I think that’s what makes it tolerable for me.
Also, the music and some of the set pieces are great, especially in VR. The mushroom cave, getting swallowed by a whale, riding a roller coaster in a volcano, that big storm, etc.
I don’t mind the protagonist being bland. If you’re not going to hire a good writer, and of course they’re not for something like this, then the closer to a blank slate the better.
I’m hoping the new game is good but as I mentioned above I can’t help wishing they’d have been brave and cut out all the Sony nonsense.
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I’m sorry but Astro Bot has gotta be just the most insipid video game mascot of all time which is impressive considering that Sackboy exists.
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i want to play the new Astro Bot but am thinking about protesting it because how they fuck did they not make it their flagship VR2 game. what is the matter with them?
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oh hey english translations
(still baffling that nintendo is one of the laziest publishers on this front)
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they wish to make money on the game
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