What were we yapping about a year ago [3/30/24]

Occasionally I will go on the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive to be reminded of what people were talking about a year ago during this past week. Sometimes it helps put into perspective that things that seem very important right now are actually not worth the time/energy. It also can be a reminder of things forgotten, and maybe that they were forgotten for good reasons.

March 24-30 2023:

• Diablo IV Reviews in Progress: It is hard to gauge the overall reaction to Diablo IV. It reviewed well, but so did Diablo III at launch, which was then retroactively considered “not good” until the expansion Reaper of Souls in 2014. Asmongold dominates the most viewed uploads about the game in the past month, but I don’t trust anyone with thumbnails like that (and who seems incapable of caring for themselves). Most of the YouTube crowd come across as disappointed in Diablo IV, and a mixture of skeptical or hopeful that the latest big change in 2024 will make the game “good.” Player counts are obscured, but with its addition to Microsoft’s Game Pass, I’m sure the terminally online represent a minority of players while the rest continue to click mindlessly through the campaign.
• “Unreal Engine 5 Looks Amazing… But Where Are The Games?” Using data from MobyGames (not a perfect number but better than what is available elsewhere) you can view the dropoff of games built using Unreal Engine when going from 4->5. 

My amateur assumption is that only the top crop of expensive games benefit from Unreal Engine 5 currently, as most mid-low budget titles are more than happy to continue using Unreal Engine 4 as their game is not going to be on the level of detail as The Finals or Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden.

• Resident Evil 4 Remake Reviews and 10 out of 10s: The back to back 10/10 reviews for Resident Evil 4: Remake and John Wick Chapter 4 raised my eyebrow Spock-style but the high scores individually didn't really become noteworthy until articles such as this: Every IGN 10 of 2023. Now, I understand this is spread across TV, movies, and games, as well as coming from different authors with viewpoints and is ultimately an opinion, but my reading of 10’s in criticism is something being offered up as the apex of the art form. From what I have watched/played of their list, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and The Fall of the House of Usher, I have to retort, this ain't it chief. Even my appreciation of Oppenheimer, another IGN 10, falls short of belonging amongst the top crop of films. During my tenure at DualShockers I only came close twice to handing out a 10/10 score: to Hyper Light Drifter which is still a deeply beloved game of mine, and Disco Elysium, which is the most deserving of any piece of media I covered during my time in games media to achieve that class of praise. Anyway, handing out so many 10’s devalues the prestige of it, and as long as scores exist we will all have opinions on how undeserving they were of receiving it. No matter the outlet.
• Jonathan Majors Arrested: I will recuse myself of having an opinion on whether or not he is guilty, and am mainly noting this for the effect it had on an already faltering Phase 4 of the MCU. I'm an admitted hater of Disney’s output and existence (save for what joy my daughter finds in its images and theme parks) but it was the opinion of most that post-End Game Disney had lost the magic. The arrest of the actor behind the next Thanos level villain has likely sealed the fate of us being forever in “post-peak” Marvel media.
• Both 10 Years Later, BioShock Infinite Remains One of the Boldest AAA Shooters Ever Made and The Assassination of Daisy Fitzroy (By The Coward BioShock Infinite) show that mainstream media outlets who were quick to praise Infinite at the time do allow other opinions to exist. Not that they would ever cross paths with the creators themselves. Previews for Judas, the next game from Ken Levine, came out this past week and with it renewed praise of Infinite. Games press pretty much never push back against any kind of claim during the preview cycle for a game, or even after release, which is why an interview like Rock Paper Shotguns with Peter Molyneux (as justly criticized as it was) are a rarity in the field. The industry grinds up and spits out those who don't conform, so I can only place so much frustration at the feet of the individuals, but it would still be nice to have a backbone existing out there.
• Don't Worry, Redfall Puts An Unmistakably Arkane Spin On The Looter Shooter: filed under “Things that aged terribly.”
• The 3DS And Wii U Games You Should Buy Before Their eShops Shut Down Why didn’t IGN have a top article about this? It shut down March 27.
• Kotaku becoming a “guides only” website has been the impending fate of all SEO based websites for ages. The trafficability and prominence of “guide” articles slowly dominating the front pages and coverage of new game releases on biggest websites have been telling this story for a long time. And let's not even get into the underpaid and/or flat out unpaid labor behind their creation at these same sites.

• E3 Has Been Canceled - IGN 

From the SuperCulture Discord

• The block chain was dying, thank God.
• This Steam reviewer was being very normal over changes made so the player could leer less at Ashley in the remake.
• There is a reason we have a Hot Take Kyle emote:

• The Last of Us Part 1 on Steam released and was… not great.