Episode 704: Pointless Awards

This week, we discuss the Videogame Awards and Destiny 2‘s final DLC The Final Shape being delayed, as well as the following news items:

  • Mario Kart X out in 2025 claims leaker
  • Pony-inspired fighting game Them’s Fightin’ Herds abandons its unfinished story mode
  • Nier: Automata sequel is coming – but not just yet
  • Former Xbox employee reveals game EA made them cancel

Let us know what you think.

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Episode 591: The PS5 Is HotEpisode 591: The PS5 Is Hot

This week’s episode has only two official news items, but there’s a lot to discuss that didn’t quite make the list, including Sony’s controversial plan to update the fan speed on the fly by taking data from consoles already purchased, to the beautiful Ori Collector’s Edition bundle. This week’s Gaming Flashback: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The news includes:

  • Phasmophobia updates will make ghosts smarter and less predictable
  • 2K under fire for adding unskippable in-game ads to the full-price NBA 2K21 a month after release

Let us know what you think.

Diablo 3 Content Creation PhaseDiablo 3 Content Creation Phase

Now that Blizzard feels their engine is solid, it’s time to move on to creating content for the full game. Jay Wilson, Diablo 3‘s lead designer, says the game engine is in an advance stage of completion and much of the art team has moved onto Act 2. Don’t read into that, he said game engine.

Blizzard is obviously not hurting for money, given the success of World of Warcraft and they’ve always taken their time with projects to make them solid products. Blizzard’s name is on the line and they’re brand consists of three major franchises: Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. When you produce so few games you’re expected to do them perfectly.

How do they do it? As Wilson says, “If we haven’t rebuilt something five times it really doesn’t deserve to be shipped. That’s pretty much our policy.” (eurogamer) While a game engine is the foundation for a great game experience, the content is king. Blizzard is deep in the mire of content production so, although the engine might be solid, the final product is probably still far from complete.

End result, expect a high quality product once again from Blizzard.