EPISODE 7: COMMON OPEN WORLD PITFALLS - PHENOM, OR FAD?
Lately, open-world games have been a contentious subject. In the last several years, we've seen an explosion of them, and while lots of them are incredible experiences, just as many are mediocre slogs that have prompted many critics to lament at the oversaturation of the popular gaming subgenre. Well...are they right? Carrying on in the tradition of our last episode about the pros and cons of the digital gaming space, we're gonna aim to answer this question, but not directly. Instead, this episode is a broad consideration of the open-world genre, and a celebration of some of the great strides some games, like Breath of the Wild, have made in it...but also an examination of common weaknesses the genre encounters. As I see it, there are four big hurdles to the critical and popular success of an open-world game, and they've got a lot to say about the relationship between art criticism, popular consumption of art, and creativity/originality. Next episode, we're gonna take our conversation here and really try and place gaming in the larger art space, so stay tuned if you like that sorta stuff.
EPISODE 6: THE MODERN GAMING ERA - A DIGITAL DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
Battlefield 2042, Call of Duty Vanguard, Cyberpunk 2077, nearly EVERY Bethesda-developed game...it seems like releasing massive games accompanied by equally massive bugs is an increasingly common thing. But how--and why--did it get to this point? And what can we do about it? The simple fact is, the gaming world has changed MASSIVELY over the last twenty years, during which time, the internet has been fully integrated into our gaming experience—for better, and for worse.
We’ll take a look at some of the positive aspects of this change, like more easily accessible multiplayer and increased visibility for indie developers, but the bulk of this video aims to look at how this seemingly good change has also resulted in the rise of broken, dysfunctional, or otherwise incomplete games, by virtue of the existence of patches and DLC.
If you’ve been on the channel or website before, you might read this as a little bit of a departure. This is less a piece on a singular game (or collection of games), and more a reflection on the gaming space in general. Keep in mind, this video is neither a criticism of the games mentioned, nor an indictment of people who play them or find them fun. Rather, I use these games as the framework for a larger discussion about where the real culpability lies in the unpleasant changes in the game industry: not with consumers, but with greedy, ill-intentioned corporations and shady business practices. You're probably so familiar with their names that I don't need to name them, but I will anyway...in the video. Lol.
EPISODE 5: HOW MONSTER HUNTER TRI REVOLUTIONIZED A CHEAP, BROKEN FRANCHISE
Its reputation in Japan was always excellent, but why wasn't Monster Hunter more popular in the West from the get-go? And how did Monster Hunter Tri revolutionize the series? After nearly a year's time (and you were waiting with bated breath, I'm sure), it's time to continue the journey down the long, strange, complex, and bumpy history of Monster Hunter, and this time around, we're looking at some of the reasons that the franchise's success in the West was initially inhibited. We'll talk about the things about the early games of the First and Second Generation that weren't so great (and were thankfully eventually left behind), and more importantly, the major overhauls and refinements that the Third Generation ushered in to fix those things, beginning with Monster Hunter Tri. Gen 3 is, to me, the most underrated of them all, being situated squarely between the classic, relatively unrefined games of series' past, and the polished, more popular and acclaimed games that came to define the series' present, beginning with Monster Hunter 4 and continuing with Generations, World, and now, Rise. No game in the series was more revolutionary or important to creating the standard of quality for what the games currently are than Tri (and its expansion, 3 Ultimate), and it established a new standard for all the games preceding World. Without Tri, the franchise might not even be a thing in the US today! And it's time to give it the proper due.
EPISODE 4: MONSTER HUNTER: A RETROSPECTIVE HISTORY
Happy New Year! In the spirit of looking back fondly on memories that we took for granted during the holidays, for the next few episodes we're gonna take a look back at what is probably now my favorite come-up story of all time, at least in video games. From the obscure games I grew up with to the industry juggernauts that the series comprises now, we'll trace the inspiring, and often convoluted, path that Monster Hunter took in its journey from hidden gem of Capcom to damn near its flagship franchise. This first episode is largely the obligatory context episode. In this one, we'll talk about the early history of the franchise, as well as the broad structure of the games on the whole. "Pretty sweet," you might say after we wrap it all up, but...could there have been a reason that Monster Hunter didn't blow up until recently? (There's several but, you know.) We'll give it a more in-depth examination in the next few episodes.