Issue 20 January 11th 2020

How Sony's PlayStation 2 Took the World By Storm

(psst. The Load Save Facebook saw this article first. So if you want to see special articles before each weekly issue, go like that page. ok. enjoy the read)

This article has a little bit for everyone. It's got the nostalgia factor, the marketing behind the PS2, and the economic effect of the PS1 and PS2 and how that shaped Sony. It even has a super weird commercial for the PS2 directed by David Lynch. Let me know what you think about that one.

Image credit: Nikita Kostrykin

Welcome to the year of Load Save!

Load Save now has an official Twitter page! You can expect to see polls relating to each week's newsletter, links to breaking news, and other articles that didn't quite make the cut for the newsletter. Go ahead and drop a follow!.

Welcome to the first official Load Save of 2020! Before we dive into this week's issue, I want to say hello to all the new subscribers and readers! Welcome and I hope you enjoy the content. As we enter a new year, I've been thinking about the direction of this newsletter. Thus far, the aim has been a broad recap of gaming news from the past week. After careful consideration, I'm going to shift the focus of the newsletter to a mix of articles meant to start discussion, i.e. the Long Reads and think pieces, and articles about video game announcements, i.e. interesting new games coming out. I think this change of direction is evident in this week's issue and I hope you enjoy it. Don't worry, I'll still include the occasional "Just For Laughs" article to keep things light. Let me know if you want to see more of any specific type of article!

This week, we're talking about the game changing release of the PS2, some interesting insights into the development behind some of 2019's biggest games, and a look at an incredible Fallout speedrun. If you like Load Save, let me know! You can find Load Save on Facebook, Twitter, or by responding to this email!

As always, enjoy the read!

Development

Opinion: Batman's New Game Deserves a Better Tease Than This

Here's an example of marketing done wrong. If you don't follow the Load Save Twitter (which you should), then you didn't see the new tease of the next Batman game. It was from WB Montreal Games, who teased the game before in 2019, but didn't follow up with anything. This time around, it's a similar type of tease with a black and white image representing something. Will we get any more news this time around? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if this game won't officially be announced until E3. This is great opinion piece on why WB Montreal is screwing the pooch with this marketing.

What do you think? Will the next Batman game be announced soon?

Image credit: WB Games Montreal Twitter

Pokémon Sword And Shield is Getting an Expansion Pass

One of this week's biggest announcements was the Pokemon Direct. Many were disappointed that this wasn't a Nintendo Direct announcing what we can expect for the Switch in 2020, but this Direct did not disappoint. Along with this expansion pass, Pokemon: Sword/Shield will be getting an additional 200 Pokemon added to the world of Galar. This is huge, especially since the main complaint about this series entry was the lack of a full Pokedex. Even if you don't want to buy the expansion, which will cost $30.00 for both expansions, you can still carry over Pokemon from past games through Pokemon Home (The cloud storage base where you can deposit Pokemon from past games and put them in current and future games. Read more about it here).

I love the look and feel of the Dojo in the Isle of Armor expansion, which is the image that goes along with this article. I also love the idea of adding a DLC instead of releasing a completely new game that only adds a few things to the previous iteration. I fell off the Pokemon wagon for a while because I was so intimidated by the frequent release of Pokemon games. I didn't know which one to pick up or if they were related to each other or not. With this DLC, I know that when I play Sword/Shield, I'll be playing an original story that has an optional DLC. I can't wait to hop into Galar!

Let me know your thoughts about this!

Image credit: Pokemon

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Isn't The Best Game, But It Should Be Recognized For Its Worldbuilding

I know that Wolfenstein: Youngblood wasn't the best game when it came to gameplay. Heck, maybe even the story itself wasn't what we come to expect from the Wolfenstein games. But I think Machinegames should forever be praised for the incredible world they've created in their relaunch of the series. Every piece of pop culture included in the game is obviously affected by the presence of the Nazi's. This results in a world that you can believe exists (giant mechs aside), one where an awful dictatorship rules the whole world. I remember playing Wolfenstein: The New Order and finding a record of The Beatles, but they were known as "Díe Käfer," which roughly translates to "The Beetle." The music is different, but is still reminiscent of The Beatles (you can listen here). I'll always remember this world building, even if the gameplay of Wolfenstein games isn't my favorite. Cheers to Machinegames, I hope they continue to build amazing worlds for players to get lost in.

Image credit: Wolfenstein Twitter

How The Outer Worlds' Flaw System Separates It From Traditional RPGs

While I own Outer Worlds, I still haven't played it. However, it is on my shortlist of games to play, and this article makes me want to start it as soon as possible. When I first started to play RPGs, the trait and character building was the best part to me. But today, it's a barrier that keeps me from getting into an RPG. The time it takes to select all of your traits can really kill the excitement to play the game. I often run into the issue of "well I don't know which way I'm going to play this game so I'm not sure which perk/trait to pick!" Outer Worlds fixes this with their flaw system. The article goes in-depth on how it works, but it essentially replicates the way that humans work: you become a different person based on your experiences. From the get-go, this sounds like a much improved RPG system to me. I can't wait to jump into Outer Worlds, and I'll give my thoughts on this system and the game once I get into it!

Image credit: The Outer Worlds Twitter

Deals!

Huge Nintendo Sale For the New Year

This is one of the biggest sales I've seen across the Nintendo eShop. Although the first-party Nintendo games, your Mario and Zelda games, are only getting ~30% off, the real steals are in the third party sales. You can grab Capcom classics like Resident Evil 1 and 4 (along with other titles in the series) and Devil May Cry 1 and 2 for $20 or less. There's also some great sales on Devolver Digital who create some incredible indie titles like Ape Out, GRIS, and The Messenger. This sale ends on January 16, so get these great deals before they're gone!

Let me know what you pick up!

Image credit: Nintendo

Community

Fallout Speedrunner Beats All Of the Fallout Games In 3 Hours

A few issues ago, I linked an article about TomatoAnus, a Fallout speedrunner who seemed like a great guy. First of all, his name is TomatoAnus, which is a fantastic name. Secondly, he made a Sex% speedrun of Fallout, where you have sex with everyone possible. Again, sounds like a great guy. TomatoAnus made his way into the news because he was forced by GamesDoneQuick to change his name to something more family friendly to do the Fallout Anthology run at AGDQ. On Monday night, TomatoAngus (clever name change) made his appearance on the AGDQ2020 stream and completely broke and beat the entire Fallout Anthology in a mere 2 hours and 15 minutes. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch the end of his run, but this article does a great job of recapping the some of the fun stuff from the stream. You can also check out the VOD of the speedrun to see the whole thing!

Image credit: Games Done Quick Twitter

Long Read

The Past and Present of Crunch In The Gaming Industry

Crunch is something that has been thrust to the frontlines of discussion in the industry. With social media, employees have the ability to speak out about the actions of their employers. While doing this effectively ends the employment off whoever is brave enough to share their story, some have done it to protect others from being hurt by an industry that has far too many companies that do not treat their employees with respect. This results in crunch, and Rockstar Games have been one of the leading developers known for their terrible crunch. The first time I heard about it was during development of Red Dead Redemption 2 when employees were asked to work weekends in the final weeks of development. It was even common for these employees to sleep at the office to spend more time working and less time commuting. It seems that this crunch was present for the first Red Dead Redemption and it was so bad that the spouses of Rockstar employees signed an open-letter speaking out against the crunch culture, which is the subject of this article. Today, it looks like Rockstar is making tiny steps towards eliminating crunch, but the only "evidence" we see of this is Rockstar's Jennifer Kolbe, the Director of Publishing, saying that crunch is not sustainable. Maybe 2020 is the year we see employee accounts of the decrease of crunch within the company.

Today, crunch has reached the headlines once again. The Communications Workers of America (CWA), one of the largest unions in the U.S., has teamed up with Game Workers Unite to unionize workers in the gaming industry as well as the tech industry. Not many employees at big gaming/tech companies have voted to form a union, but if crunch culture gets worse, we could see that change. You can read more about this here.

After reaching out to multiple different communities on different social platforms, I've received a lot of responses on the response to crunch. A large number of people say that the reaction to crunch in the gaming industry is over the top and that crunch is common in almost any industry that has deadlines. I would love to hear your thoughts about this as well.

Image credit: Jefferson Santos

Before You Go

Looking Forward To A Great Year

Thanks for stopping by! If this was your first time reading, I hope you enjoyed the newsletter. If you have any feedback, let me know! I love to hear from the readers on what they like and don't like.

This was a pretty great week for gaming news, and it was only the first full week of 2020. As I've said before, 2020 is the year of Load Save, so stay tuned for a great year of Load Save content. I can't wait for what this year has in store!

Thanks for reading, I'll see you next time!