With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.

Valve says it will let everything on Steam

Valve released a statement on the 6th of June to inform us customers what games would be allowed on Steam moving forward along with giving us some insight into their decision.  Valve states that ” Unfortunately, our struggling has resulted in a bunch of confusion among our customers, developer partners, and even our own employees.” in regards their continued issues what to allow on their platform. Further more ” The challenge is that this problem is not simply about whether or not the Steam Store should contain games with adult or violent content. Instead, it’s about whether the Store contains games within an entire range of controversial topics – politics, sexuality, racism, gender, violence, identity, and so on. In addition, there are controversial topics that are particular to games – like what even constitutes a “game”, or what level of quality is appropriate before something can be released.” indicating they are aware of ongoing issues with the games that are provided on their service. Hopefully they made the right decision in allowing anything that is not illegal or trolling to be on the Steam store.

Source: https://mygaming.co.za

I recall a time when if you made it on Steam your game had to go through a lot quality assurance before it made it on Steam and I’d honestly like if some of that quality assurance returned to the platform. I’m not against the different types of games but I would very much like to know that they are quality, functioning products. I’d also really like to see the return policy extended to 7 days. If you’re going to let everything in your store, you need to have a way of protecting customers from the garbage that will eventually end up there. There are so many potential issues that can arise from this move by Valve and I only hope that it does not backfire in their face and they get the tools for users to search find what they want hide what they don’t want as soon as possible.

Ozzy’s E3 wrap up

            We got a number of games coming out of E3 this year but I’ll just be focusing on the ones that caught my eye the most.

1. Cyberpunk 2070
   

We finally got SOMETHING from CD Project Red having to do with the much anticipated game we all want to be just as good as the Witcher series.  While we still don’t have a release date, seeing an “in-game” trailer showed off what a lot will look like was great to see finally.  I would’ve liked more of…well to be honest, ANYTHING.  I don’t need a release date but even a little game play would be nice.  I’m not mad, at least now we know they’re actually making something and I’m still looking forward to it.  Not a lover of fantasy but I ABSOLUTELY LOVED The Witcher 3, I’m looking forward to how they’ll do sci-fi and tech of the future.

2. Battlefield 5

Unlike Cyberpunk, we actually got some game play from the upcoming Battlefield game.  While I’m still not “OMGWTFBBQ I CAN’T WAIT” about this game, after actually seeing the game and finding out more about game play has given me some interest in it.  I’m not in love with the fact they’re making a Battle Royale mode but hey, I didn’t play a lot of modes in the older Battlefields, I guess this will just be another.  Grand Operations seems like a really good game mode that would honestly hold my attention for a time simply because it seems like it could replace Rush and Operations (BF1) as a whole.  But we’ll see what happens.  Taking away the BF1 “sweetspot” and melee mechanics already makes me happy because they were absolutely stupid and/or broken.  Now that they have, somewhat, gone back to needing skills to play, HOPEFULLY that translates to good teams and teammates.  We’ll see.

3. Fallout 76

I was hoping for something different or unique with a Fallout twist only to get a “7 Days to Die” with a Fallout look.  Why do we get nukes?  Why can we nuke each other?  Why is this a survival game?  Why couldn’t it have just been a co-op Fallout?  I knew this was coming, I was really hoping I would like it, and while we didn’t see much (any) gameplay, I’m still not looking forward to it simply from all the information they gave us.  Ugh.

4. Anthem

I see Destiny on the Frostbite engine.  That is all I have to say about it.

5. Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The game I’m most looking forward to.  The continuing story of Lara Croft and now she “screws up” bringing about the apocalypse.  We’ve seen her turn into the Tomb Raider, come to grips with her being who she is and her actions but now she actual does wrong and has to rectify that.  With some game play showing improvements over the past games is a welcome addition especially the stealth, bigger (fancier?) tombs, underwater exploration, better traversal and the return of the “evil” group Trinity.  Will Jonah be more apart of the story?  I liked him.