Month: March 2024

Every once in a while you come across a game or maybe even a TV show or a book, but you enjoy everything about it. So much so you don’t really want it to end. Come to think of it, I think I’ve even done this with food.

But my point is, there are games I can sometimes play where I wish they could go on longer. The entire MYST series is this for me. I’m currently playing The Talos Principle 2 and enjoying every single second of it. I’m early into the game but it already gives me this wonderful feeling of exploration and puzzle solving and secrets and I’m just soaking it all in. But I also know it’s going to eventually end and so I do plan to drag this game out for however long I can. And I don’t mean take it slow, I just mean milking it on my first run for everything it has to offer. Side missions, side puzzles, every nook and cranny to be explored and poured over. No stone unturned and no door left closed.

It’s also interesting that, while I enjoyed the first game very much, I remember that I didn’t sort of feel this way about it as I do its sequel. Maybe it was the setting or something, I’m not sure. And, also, I’m as early as ever in this game. Not even half of halfway through it – there’s still time for me to hit a mechanic in the game that turns all of this gushing on its head.

But for now, I am in love with this game and I cherish every single moment while I am in it. I hope you find games like this from time to time as well. That whole feeling of “This is it! This is my jam…or whatever!”. I’m even rushing through this post so I can get back to playing the game, actually.

Another game and game series I so dearly love is Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,857 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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The amount of other games I have played since getting banned from Destiny 2 has easily eclipsed all the other games I played while I was NOT banned from Destiny 2.

I’d say that I’m better off for it, but it’s something I wouldn’t have noticed or cared about had I not lost access to play that game. D2 was a routine and while my routine was thrown off because of losing access to the game, I’ve been able to really enjoy so many more titles now and look at upcoming releases with an interest that I’ll actually play them.

Thinking about it, the loss is really only with finishing something that started over a decade ago – something I would have liked to have seen to the end, story wise. And the other is the loss of just playing with my group of friends. I miss my clanmates.

And I think that’s the focus of games like this. We had it a long time ago with City Of Heroes. And then again with Call Of Duty on the 360. I don’t want to call it a sense of community. That sounds too political or something. And, more so, it wasn’t a sense of anything. It was actually real friends enjoying playing a game together on a pretty regular basis. And it’s something I never would have had without my time in those games.

I guess if anything writing all of this has shown me, it’s that you’ve done it at least three times before…take comfort in the fact that you’ll probably do it again. And again. And again.

Something else we’ll do again and again is calling out the days since we’ve gotten a new Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,850 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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I really do miss arcades. I know they still exist in some form or another but, even now, they just can’t hold a candle to the arcade you can have at home. And I’m not even talking about building cabinets and such.

We talk about this on the show but I’ll say it again here – arcades, as a kid, were like walking into the future. You had your games at home, sure, but they were nothing like what was in that arcade. That’s where the most advanced tech was. The best graphics and games you’ll NEVER get to play at home. Only at the arcade.

That’s how it was for me, anyway. Then it all changed and morphed and sort of went backwards. I’ll give credit to the arcade/bar synergy thing that happened, but I don’t run around those places wide-eyed at all the cool games like I did way back when. Now I look for whatever will give me the most redeemable tickets…or pinball. And that’s only if I make it out to an arcade to begin with. Not everyone has those places within reach and mostly, if you do, it’s full of just redemption games. Actually, it’s been forever since I’ve been into any local arcades here so I don’t know what they stock them with now.

Given the way technology is going and how great we have it at home, we’ll likely never see arcades be, to me, what they once were. And I’m okay with that. I absolutely love what we have at home on our consoles and PCs and handhelds. I also love that we can bring over most of everything we had at arcades into our home with custom built cabinets housing hundreds of games and even pinball tables too.

Which reminds me, I need to really work on building those two things, actually.

You can probably easily spot the transition here. You know what else used to be great but is not a ghost town of nothing – the Splinter Cell franchise. Ubisoft, it’s been 3,843 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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The amount of people losing their jobs in this industry is staggering. I don’t have an exact number but it’s likely pushing into the five figure range. If you combine it with last year’s loss you’re easily over ten thousand jobs.

And I wasn’t sure if I would use this as a topic to talk about it, but just as much as I did on the show, I don’t have any kind of an answer for it. Smarter business decisions, sure, but I don’t know that it would have helped much. With each new game (mostly the upper triple A type games) that pulls in tons of awards and accolades, I wonder how much was spent to develop and then market that game. This hobby for us is expensive for them. Making a new console is the expectancy of a loss of revenue out of the gate. Making a new game for that console is also a MASSIVE money sink. And the marketing for both is just a deeper hole.

The cycle was that after a game would release you would then lose a good chunk of the dev staff as they were brought on almost like contractors to help with development. Once the game was released, so were they. But that’s not what has been happening lately. Game sales haven’t really slowed down but the cost to make them has completely gone up. And one solution to bridging that gap is an increase in the cost of the game to the consumer. But there’s likely a limit to that. I’d say the current $70 is probably close to that limit. But I will not be surprised when this massively developed game of some sort releases at a base price of $99.

Like I said earlier, I don’t have a solution for this. And there are probably darker days ahead for the people working in the gaming industry. There’s a domino effect here and they only just started falling over.

There’s no way for me to tie this subject matter into my usual Splinter Cell closing. There is a remake on the way and I hope that can produce enough revenue to bring about a brand new game. But, in keeping with tradition, Ubisoft, it’s been 3,836 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

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