🎮This just in: Big corporations only care about $$$

Activision: No Woman, No Try | 10 Years Ago This Month

This is a good look at another big company that isn't taking representation in its games seriously.

Will it change? Will game companies ever take the leap and make representation a central pillar in their titles? I think the only way that happens across the board is when the sales push it. Right now, the highest selling games are still lead by straight white males. Ultimately, it's up to the consumer to bring about this kind of change.

Image credit: Activision

Epic Games asks court to stop Apple pulling its developer tools next week

Apple continues to play hardball with Epic. In all honesty, Epic isn't a "victim" here. They signed up for a full on battle against the iPhone overlords, but the real victims here are developers who use Unreal Engine and the App Store as a storefront.

Apple must know how many people that this decision would affect. People who are unaffiliated with Epic, other than using their product. To put this situation in one that a broader audience can relate to, imagine in Apple and Microsoft got in a scuffle and Apple threatened to remove all Microsoft made programs from Apple. That would mean no more Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, and while I wouldn't miss those products, there's a big chunk of workers and students that need those programs for their assignments.

Apple continues to piss people off with decisions like this. Plus, there statement at the end of this article is complete BS. They claim they don't want to work with Epic because they don't want to "put [Epic's] business interests ahead of the guidelines that protect our customers," but that's exactly what they've done with Amazon. It's ridiculous!

In another act of "really?", Epic is now hosting a #FreeFortnite Cup, a tournament inspired by this recent battle. Epic continues to weaponize its player base and it's hard to tell when or if they will stop. Thing might get ugly.

It keeps getting crazier

Image credit: Epic Games

In 2018, women came forward about misconduct at Rocksteady - and were ignored

This is such a terrible situation. Not only were the initial internal complaints ignored, but the current issues are being swept under the rug by Rocksteady.

It would be one thing if Rocksteady owned up to their mistake, even admitting that they haven't taken the steps needed for the past few years, but instead they've decided to debunk the legitimacy of the complaints of females inside their company. You can read more people recounting their experiences at Rocksteady on Kim MacAskill's Twitter page

This is an incredibly bad look for Rocksteady, who's about to reveal their Suicide Squad video game after 4 years of no news (there last title was Batman: Arkham VR). I'm glad Kim MacAskill, the one who penned the original letter, doesn't call for a boycott against this new title because she wants the devs who worked hard on this game to get recognition. However, we can't forget about this huge error.

Now, Rocksteady has said that they've hired an external firm to interview women who were or are part of the company. It remains to be seen if this causes any actual change in the company. This move was almost required by Rocksteady as to not say anything more would have been PR suicide. I really hope that Rocksteady takes this seriously and implements guards against this type of action.

Image credit: Rocksteady

Oculus VR headsets will soon require a Facebook account, and that sucks

This really sucks. Facebook can't seem to keep its grimy hands out of places that people don't want them. I know everyone's opinions differ, but I've yet to meet anybody who says "yaknow what this gaming accessory/console needs? A Facebook integration!" Now, Oculus users will have to decide whether they want to continue using one of the best VR sets & create a Facebook account (which is an increasingly dangerous thing) or if they'll switch to a competitor.

This is bound to drive sales and stocks down, but I'm sure it will save FB money on the developer side of things. This is the ultimate anti-consumer Facebook move.

Image credit: Oculus

Just For Laughs

Streamer Dances Sephiroth To Death In Kingdom Hearts

Look, it's a Kingdom Hearts dancing video, how could I not link it?

Image credit: Kingdom Hearts

The GOTY has been decided

Dude. Ghost of Tsushima is getting multiplayer.

Say it with me

G O T Y

Everything else is small potatoes to this. But, if you want to see what else happened this week, why not keep on scrolling?

As always, thanks for checking out another issue of Load Save!

Stay safe and enjoy the read!

Development

Fall Guys was pitched to ten publishers before Devolver picked it up

Sheesh, I love reading about Fall Guys.

The game is so adorable and the dev team behind it seem just as cute. It's crazy to think about the stress that went into developing this. Mediatonic knew there game was fun, but would people pick it up? They didn't know. I can't imagine their excitement when it blew up during its Beta. Thanks to streamers, this game was at the top of a lot of people's lists when it dropped. Mix that with pretty much no games releasing during this time of the year, and it was a hit.

Mediatonic is also announcing what we can expect from Season 2 of Fall Guys next Thursday at Gamescom. Hard to believe that the game has only been out for two weeks and they're already talking about Season 2! Can't wait to see what's in store.

Image credit: Mediatonic

What Everyone Gets Wrong About SoulsLike Design

The proliferation of SoulsLike games is something that I'm not 100% a fan of. I love the fact that more games are adopting the incredible combat systems introduced by Demon Souls and Dark Souls (like Jedi: Fallen Order and Ghost of Tsushima), but I'm afraid too many games are going with the "this game is super hard" approach and failing to get the SoulsLike design right. This article focuses on that.

I've never beaten a Souls game. I love the main gameplay loop for about 5-6 hours, then I get ticked and move to another game. I've been itching to pick Bloodborne up again, so that will be my next venture once I finish out Ghost.

Image credit: FromSoftware

How do you make hitting something fun? | GamesIndustry.biz

While reading this article, I couldn't stop thinking about the combat in God of War (2018). I've played a lot of great combat games, but nothing feels like Kratos and his axe. The combat never got boring and I was constantly amazed at how I pulled off a certain combo.

The most recent combat game I've been playing is Ghost of Tsushima, and the combat is equally entertaining, yet an entire different feel. It's incredible that these developers can execute wielding an axe and a katana in such a unique way that you can recognize it immediately.

Dev is cool, man.

Image credit: Santa Monica Studios

The silly, chaotic, random design behind Fall Guys’ success

Two Fall Guys articles in one week? Yeah, it's that good.

Sometimes the most simplistic things are the most interesting to analyze. This is the case for the smash-hit "Battle" Royale Fall Guys

I've said it here before, but this game is an absolute blast. I really got to see the amazing addictiveness and simplicity of this game this week when I set a friend up to play it. I ran him through the controls in about 30-seconds and he made it three rounds in on his first try. He doesn't consider himself a gamer and I didn't teach him all that much, the game was just that easy to pick up.

I'm really looking forward to the new games that are added to Fall Guys!

Image credit: Mediatonic

p.s. I got my first win this week so I'm still pretty hyped about that

Before You Go

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