Issue 17

A Look Back At The Anger Towards The Epic Store

One of the first articles I wrote about in Load Save that had me up in arms was about Ooblets on The Epic Games Store controversy. There was a lot behind that controversy and a lot that I didn't talk about in my original thoughts on the subject; however, I still stand behind my core sentiment: there is no reason for one person to make death threats, and anti-semitic, sexist, and overall terrible attacks against a game developer for choosing to go exclusive to stay financially stable. If you're confused on what I'm talking about, read this article. It details the story of gamers becoming upset over the launch of the Epic Games Store. It's funny, gamers this week have been incredibly upset because of MLB The Show going cross-platform in the future. It's funny how things turn out, huh?

Let me know what you think about this. Was there a perpetrator to blame for the start off this, or was it just a perfect storm of mistakes by everyone involved?

Image credit: The Epic Games Store Twitter

2019 Was A Bad Year For Video Game PR

There was a lot of bad that happened this year, but there was some good as well. Because Load Save has only been around for a few months, this article does a great job of covering stories that I would have linked if I was making Load Save back then. Don't forget to read the last part that focuses on the good that 2019 brought. While it doesn't go as in-depth as the bad, hopefully it will bring up some memories for you for the good this year. Even if it was a personal good, like a game resonating with you, that's a good for the industry.

If anything sticks out to you, good or bad, let me know! It was a rocky 2019 in some aspects, but I'm looking forward a good 2020!

Image credit: mohamed Hassan

The Biggest Week Of News

This week had so. much. news. There's so much to talk about it, I wish we could all get together and discuss it all. We had a PlayStation State of Play and The Game Awards this week. Add this to the regular amount of news we get in a week and you get a whole lot. The biggest news is the announcement of Xbox Series X, and we have all the info you need to know about it! Other than that, we look back at the year of The Epic Games debauckle, a year of terrible PR, and the most underrated games of the decade.

I've also been doing some looking back over the past issues of Load Save trying to make this newsletter better than ever going into 2020! What I've found is that the articles that get the most clicks are the following: New game reviews, long(er) think pieces about popular games, and retrospectives (like looking back at the Dreamcast on its 20th anniversary). So, I'll try to put more of these into the future issues of Load Save! If there's any other article types that you want to see, you can respond to this email, message Load Save on Facebook, or find me on Twitter!

Thanks for stopping by. As always, enjoy the read!

Development

Everything We Know About the Xbox Series X

Despite my feelings about the name of the next Xbox, I still get giddy when reading Phil Spencer and the team from Xbox describing their machine. You can tell that they're excited about it, it's contagious. Unfortunately, it looks like my prediction of Xbox focusing on services over having the best hardware in the industry was completely wrong. I don't doubt that Game Pass will be a big part of Series X, but it looks like Xbox is bolstering its core value: being a gaming console. With this info, will Xbox be the technically better machine than the PlayStation? Will PlayStation differentiate the PS5 by including streaming as a native option inside the system? We will see! If you're a spec kinda person, you can read more about some specs we know about regarding the Series X here

Image credit: Xbox Twitter

2K Announces Newly-Formed Studio That's Working On The Next BioShock

Looks like the rumour for a new BioShock game was right! I'm now taking bets on when we'll see an announcement trailer or anything similar to that (even a "trailer" like Starfield or Elder Scrolls VI would count). I would guess 2020 E3 at the earliest, but who knows when we'll see actual gameplay. It turns out that this game has been under development for the past few years, but has undergone some issues. You can read more about that here. Nevertheless, The game will be under development "over the next several years," so maybe we can look for a 2023 release date? This is all speculation at this point, but I am excited to see a small step forward in the development of a BioShock title. I'm hoping that it won't go down the path of "games as a service", but we'll just have to wait and see.

Image credit: 2K Games Twitter

Deals!

Deals For Switch Games And More!

Don't miss out on some DEALS! Almost every game on this list is fantastic, so if you missed a game on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, this might be the time for you to grab it! As the Holiday break approaches, you need some games to fill your hours of relaxation! Forget your backlog, buy a nicely discounted game on the Switch and enjoy yourself! These deals only last until the 18th, so be quick!

If you like streaming or you're just looking for a good microphone, here's the Razer Seiren X for almost half off! You can read what PC Gamer has to say about it here.

If you don't have a Switch, fear not! You can grab some great deals on PS4 and Xbox One games that are on sale in celebration of The Game Awards. You can see a great list of them here. (Hurrt, they're only available until Dec. 16!

Image credit: The Game Awards Twitter

Community

The Most Underrated Games Of The Decade

Kotaku has taken the time to rank their "Most Underrated Games of the Decade," which turned out to be an interesting read for me. Half of the titles I remember seeing released and lost track of them, and the the other half are titles I've never even heard of, like Binary Domain and The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories. I do completely agree that Sleeping Dogs was an incredibly over-looked game. This was before I fell in love with Asian culture, so that shows how good this game is. The story is intriguing, the characters interesting, and the world is fun to be a part of. You can probably find this game for less than $15, so do yourself a favor and pick it up. There's a lot of games here that sound like they're right up my alley, like Virginia. Take a page from my book: bookmark this article and revisit it when you're looking for a game to play. It couldn't hurt!

What's some of your most underrated games of the decade?

Image credit: Sleeping Dogs Twitter

Zelda Fan Spends 24 Hours In VR Ocarina Of Time

Imagine being so connected to a video game that you willingly would spend 24 hours in that world. For me, the only game I could image doing that for would be Kingdom Hearts 1 or 2, but I could just go to Disney World. This is a short read, but it has a nice 24-minute video that goes through the highlights of the 24-hour adventure through Hyrule. If VR makes your head feel weird, this video will definitely set you off. VR in a Nintendo 64 game is not intended, and it shows.

Roundups

All The Big Announcements At The 2019 Game Awards

For me, the 2019 Game Awards was a reminder that it's not E3. Maybe it's because I had my head a little too deep in the rumor mill over the past few weeks, but I expected a lot more from the night. What I really, really wanted was a new Batman game announcement. It's not TGA's fault that I'm disappointed though, it's WB Montreal's. They originally teased a new Batman game in September through a tweet, and we've heard nothing since then. To me, that's a terrible marketing decision for WB Montreal. Other than the disappoint, we got a lot of cool video game trailers! Oh, and the new Xbox was announced, which is confusingly called "Xbox Series X". You can read everything you need to know about the new Xbox a few articles down.

If you didn't watch TGA live, you saved a lot of time. I didn't remember it having as many commercials as it did. For the most part, these weren't new announcements, they were commercials for games that are already out just trying to convince you to buy a PS4, Xbone, or Switch. Lucky for you, you can read this roundup and let me know what your favorite announcement of the night was!

Image credit: The Game Awards Twitter

PlayStation's Last State of Play of 2019 Roundup

To end out the year, PlayStation brought some tasty new info about some games you probably never heard of coming to PlayStation in the coming months. Some of the biggest announcements for me were: Kingdom Hearts 3: ReMind DLC (even though most of the world saw it before I did because of a leak), the Resident Evil: Resistance game being apart of Resident Evil: 3 Remake, and the mind-bending Superliminal coming to PS4. Oh, and if you want to be like the Switch people, you'll be able to play Untitled Goose Game on your PS4 in a week or so. Check out the link to see the rest of everything announced!

What are you most excited about? Did anything get left out?

Image credit: PlayStation

Before You Go

Only One More Week of Load Save

Thanks for stopping by! Just a heads up, next week will be my last traditional Load Save of 2019. I'll be taking a break from this the week of the 22nd and the following week will be a collection of all of my favorite articles from this year's Load Save, unless there's a huge story that I have to include. Part of me thinks that next week will be slow in news since the year is almost out, but I've been wrong before! We can only wait and see. Remember to hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or by responding to this email with anything you'd like to say. I'll see you next time!