Issue 2 of Load Save

US Tariffs on Video Game Console Imports From China Have Been Delayed Until December

PSA: Make sure to buy your consoles before December 15th! Who knows how this debate between the U.S. and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will play out, but it is nice to have a tiny tariff exemption until December 15th. If things go well, the exemption will continue past the 15th or a different set of tariffs will be applied to the gaming industry. Of course, this wish is selfish. It is completely based on the fact that I want to have my consoles and games for as cheap as I can get them. There could be someone out there that has a much better understanding of tariffs and how the U.S. government is planning to use the money from these increased tariffs, but I have yet to meet such a person. If you are that person, please reach out and let me know why I'm dumb. Thanks!

Detroit: Become Human Developer Will Not Be Exclusive To Any Particular Platform

Quantic Dreams squashing the exclusivity deals is another nail in the coffin of first-party exclusive titles. Although Playstation had a killer 2018 for exclusive games, the general mood of developers seems to show that new releases will be built for multiple platforms. We still have a long way to go before every title is expected to come to PC (looking at you, Red Dead Redemption,) but the next generation of consoles is bound to be built on shared triple-A games. I'm excited for this future because it'll push Playstation and Xbox to innovate their next consoles on something other than exclusives. Does this mean the PS5 will be the best graphically while the next Xbox will be the "gaming as a service" console? I can't wait to find out.

Image credit: Quantic Dream

Valve Ignores Hired Hackers Who Find Major Bug In Steam's Security

Using people's skills for good is a pretty cool business plan, especially when those skills could be used for terrible things. But it's not that cool when the business ignores what the skilled person says. As someone who has had their Steam account hacked into multiple times, I am glad and slightly irritated to see this article. Seeing that Valve is trying to tighten security is reassuring, but it's irritating to read how they responded to this security threat. Valve's scope was far too narrow in this situation. This brings up the question: what is The Epic Games Store security like? Is it superior to Steam's? It could be better due to the smaller amount of users on TEGS, but it could be a good reason to switch over. I'm not advocating for "one store to rule them all," but if I was a new PC gamer trying to decide which store to use as my primary source for digital marketplace, I would be leaning toward TEGS after reading this article. I would love to hear more opinions on this, so feel free to email/tweet me with your thoughts.

Image credit: Steam

The Releases Begin

Welcome to Load Save! This week marks the beginning of the Fall releases, which means we have a few reviews in this edition. Other than those, we have a great balance of stories ranging from tariffs on consoles to the strange world of Wizard of Oz based video games. Similar to last week, there are a few articles that raise interesting questions about the future of gaming that I bring up in my comments. I would love to discuss these points if you're interested, just respond to this email or reach out to me on Twitter @SethMcMorris.

Enjoy the read!

Development

Ubisoft Plans To "Come Back Big" With The Next Splinter Cell Title

This is the first we've heard of any Splinter Cell news since the the disappointment of that E3 announcement. This could be the weak ray of sunshine shining through the cloudy sky that Splinter Cell fans need, especially with the recent announcement of a new deal between Facebook and Ubisoft in relation to VR games. The obvious Ubisoft VR game is Assassin's Creed, but it would be a fun and unique experience to play as Sam Fisher in VR. This would also match the "new experience" that Ubisoft's CEO has talked about. The promise of a big comeback means that a Splinter Cell VR game would need to be big, think Blood & Truth and not Batman VR. I can easily see a fleshed out Splinter Cell VR game and a gimmicky, on-rails Assassin's Creed VR title that lets you feel like you're jumping from rooftop to rooftop. With this lineup, Ubisoft could be the next big VR developer.

Image credit: Splinter Cell

THQ Nordic Surprises Everyone By Rebooting Comanche

THQ Nordic is the doing the craziest things in video games today. Every announcement they make is a shock. Based on the other announcements and acquisitions that THQ Nordic has been behind this year, the video game industry is about to have a hard reset to the 90s and it looks like they're the only one who knows it. I can't wait to see what they're going to do next, and I hope that it all pays off.

Image credit: THQ Nordic

PlayStation Rep. Says MediEvil Remake Feels Like Dark Souls

I played MediEvil a number of years ago when it was free on PlayStation Plus. I enjoyed the feel of the game and the story, but it was surprisingly challenging to me. I thought this game was a old-school hack n' slash with a goofy and loveable protagonist. Oh, how I was wrong. Gillen McAllister even writes, "Secondly, the game is tough. This is no brainless hack and slash romp: single enemies can do considerable damage, while mobs can quickly send the unwary back to the grave." Thanks Gillen, I could've used that helpful hint a few years ago. I never got too far in the original MediEvil, but this remastering looks beautiful. It also seems like a great way for PlayStation Plus to take a hint from Game Pass and put a new release on the free games of the month roster. Fingers crossed that Plus will finally be worth the $60/year price tag.

Image credit: Playstation

Reviews

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey review

I'm not surprised to see Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey score pretty low on most reviews. I knew from the first trailer that this game was going to flop because it relied too heavily on the bait of playing as a predecessor of humankind. The base idea is pretty cool, but I couldn't come up with a way to make it fun. It seems that the games devs couldn't either. This article, however, is incredibly fun to read. It's probably a better experience than the game. If you were excited for this game, I'm sorry that it didn't live up to your hype, but you really should have known better.

Image credit: Panache Digital Games Twitter

Astral Chain Review

Before I get into how I feel about Astral Chain, I just want to say that I love the way Polygon does feature articles with the giant screen-sized graphic at the top of the page. They're always beautiful screenshots that make me incredibly excited to read the article. It's so good. Okay, I'm done oozing over that. Astral Chain has been one of the biggest surprises for me in 2019. I've gone from "eh, looks like a weird cell-shaded action game that I'll never play," to "I need to play this game ASAP." I've heard multiple reviews and first impressions for this game, and the each one of them has praised Astral Chain for knowing what it is and being so good at it. By this, I mean that reviewers say the game isn't afraid to be an over-the-top action game because it's proud to be an action game. This coupled with other unexpected gameplay elements has made for possibly one of the best Switch titles of the year. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Image credit: Nintendo

Control Review

Almost every video game news outlet has a review of Control published, but I chose this one because of one sentence in the opening paragraph that describes the game in four words: "Hell is an office." This opening perfectly describes how Control stands out from the competition. At its core, Control is a third-person shooter/puzzle game that has a thriller vibe to it. While that sounds fun, it doesn't fully interest me because I know have at least five different games that have this same description that I could buy for half the price. However, the setting and the outlook of this game is what sets it apart. I have yet to see a game of this caliber set in something as bleak as an office building and still receive praise from multiple reviews. If you don't want to read the whole review, at least read the opening and closing paragraphs, because it's some good writing. Thanks Eurogamer, you've piqued my interest.

Community

Roblox Community Is Estimated To Earn $100m This Year

This week in "games that you didn't know make bank": Roblox is a full-time job for some players. I had no idea Roblox was more than just a meme-game., but apparently it's big enough to earn a total of $100 million for it's community this year. When I was doing research for this article, I visited the Roblox blog and was astounded by the amount of licensed deals and events that are happening inside the game. Any time I see news of people making a living off of a video game ecosystem, it makes me happy. This is because it's one more piece of evidence that the video game industry is incredibly robust. There is much more than meets the eye in this hobby, so much so that people are relying on video games and gamers to pay rent! Congratulations to the Roblox community for this milestone!

Image credit: Roblox Twitter

Apex Legends Devs Fight With Fans On Reddit Over Microtransactions

In case you weren't keeping up with the drama going down in the Apex: Legends community, this article is nice little round-up of everything going on. The article mentions it, but it's really sad to see a headline like this only a few weeks after the Ooblets story. It might boil down to "who threw the first stone," but in the end, both sides of the argument were at fault. Is it ridiculous that a developer called a player an ass-hat? Yes it is, but it does not warrant the response that came from the player base. This should be a good reminder that the entire video game community needs to step up our act.

Image credit: EA

A Wholesome Letter From a 2002 Xbox Fan Is Rediscovered By Retired Xbox Developer

Here's the wholesome article for this edition. If you're anything like me, you're a sucker for stories that involve people reconnecting after years of a missed connection. This is one of those stories. It's a quick read, but you should read through the thread of the story on Twitter. One of Blackley's, (the recipient of the letter) tweets was that the fact that the little kid from seventeen years ago is still a fan of Xbox and Halo makes him feel like his whole career was worth something. How awesome is it to see your work can affect someone across seventeen years! I love video games because they've been such a positive impact for so many. So many people cherish video game memories and many of them are still making memories today. Thank you to people like Blackley who share these stories.

Image credit: Seamus Blackley's Twitter

Long Read

The Wonderful Weirdness Of Oz

I've always enjoyed reading about older games, how people could come up with the crazy ideas for them, and how they compare to today's games. This article follows the lineage of The Wizard of Oz video games, starting in 1985 and ending with games that could have been. This is the perfect listicle to read a bit of whenever you get a few minutes, then spend the rest of the day thinking about how so many people have tried to make a good Oz game. The least you should do is read the bit about RIZ-ZOAWD and wonder how a game could look this good on the DS. For the sake of the writer of this article, I hope that someone can make a good Oz game, he's obviously been through a lot of bad ones.

Before You Go

Let Me Know Your Thoughts!

Thanks for checking out the newsletter! As always, feel free to email me or reach out to me on Twitter @SethMcMorris with any thoughts you have on this edition! As Fall approaches, you can expect more reviews of upcoming titles. If you hate seeing the reviews, let me know and I'll cut back on them! If there's any other category of video games that you would be interested in reading about, shoot me an email or tweet and I'll include more articles about them in the next newsletter. I'll see you in the next edition!