For me, though, it’s time to move on. It’s time for me to push myself and see where I land. Life is a constant state of motion and it feels good to sit down, but you need to always get back up and keep moving. I need to keep moving.

I am not sure where, exactly, I’ll end up. Perhaps another site will come calling, perhaps I’ll freelance around the internet, or maybe something else will come along. Life isn’t a sure thing, but I’m going to try and steer it in my direction.

I leave behind a great group of talented people. Friends who have shaped not just my writing and prose, but who I am. It really does feel like us against a much bigger world of video game coverage, and I love it that way. It made the punches we landed hit harder, and the ones we missed not hurt as bad. It made every hint of success taste better, and even more so when you could celebrate warmly with friends. I know that VGCC will continue to move forward, conquering new horizons. Like many of you, now, I’ll be on the sidelines rooting them all on.

What started as a friend’s recommendation, and a hastily written sample piece about Yu-Gi-Oh games, has turned into a solid foundation. Now it’s time for me to build upward.

So enough mixing metaphors. Lemme grab the reins of this here mustang and get onward before the sun hangs too low in the sky. I leave behind a great group, a great site, and wonderful memories.

You can follow my exploits via twitter.

The post So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen appeared first on Gamesline.

Bethesda did say this game will be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC which leads me to believe it’s a full game and not a Fallout Shelter like entry into the series. Vault 76 does hold slight significance in Fallout lore. Its location has never been in any game, leaving me to believe that you’ll be exiting into a more “developed” Fallout universe. Maybe the game is much more focused about living in the vault instead of an extensive story line outside of it. Or maybe it’s a teaser and this is just another Fallout game. Who knows?

Some rumors are bouncing around that Fallout 76 will be an online survival game. Not too shocking to believe when you look at the success of games like Rust. A persistent, loot based world that you can explore and conquer with friends could be pretty dope. Let’s just hope Bethesda has seen the loot box blood in the water and steers clear. Probably look for more about Fallout 76 in a few weeks at E3.

The post Fallout 76 is the New Fallout Game Coming From Bethesda appeared first on Gamesline.

This isn’t a surprising announcement. Lawbreakers was interesting but never found the correct footing to really establish itself and become sustainable. Radical Heights seemed like a decent followup but Boss Key didn’t take their time. Instead of innovating on a red hot genre they slapped together an alpha, albeit with some neat concepts, and put it out hoping the public would eat it up. Even with a Fortnite server hiccup to help, Radical Heights never gained even a respectable player base.

Cliff says he’ll take some time away to reflect on Boss Key’s demise. No real word on when Redical Heights‘ servers will do down, but without a company to fund them I can’t imagine it’ll be long. I’m sure Cliff will land on his feet and find his way in the future, hopefully all of Boss Key’s employees can do the same.

The post Cliff Bleszinski’s Boss Key Productions is Shutting Down appeared first on Gamesline.

A bunch of placeholder game pages went up on Wal-Mart Canada’s online store. These are most likely very educated guesses, some more informed than others, since retailers aren’t told every secret and have to assume just like we do. However these titles aren’t that fantastical and seem just legitimate enough that a decent chunk must be true.

According to this leak we can possibly look forward to a new Splinter Cell, Just Cause 4, Borderlands 3, Rage 2, Gears of War 5, Forza Horizons 5, Dragon Quest 2, LEGO DC Villains, and another Assassin’s Creed. There are plenty of known titles mixed among these including Smash Bros, Metroid, Destiny DLC, and Beyond Good and Evil 2.

I’d take these leaks with a bigger grain of salt than most. I’d love to believe them all but Forza Horizon 5 is would require them to skip four altogether, and there’s no way Beyond Good and Evil 2 is ready when they just streamed some basic alpha footage just last week. No matter the case, it’s hard to read down this list of games and not get at least a tiny bit excited. These are a lot of games, all coming out within a year or so, and at least some of these will be damn good.

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Let’s be clear for a moment for those who may be out of the loop. David Cage has been accused of creating a turbulent environment at Quantic Dream that promoted racism and sexual misconduct, and allowing other employees to do the same. Cage denied these accusations and is now suing the French publications that cooperated to research and publish them. This isn’t the first time Cage has hopped into hot water either. Cage’s previous game, Beyond: Two Souls, featured actor Ellen Page in a starring role, and by utilizing a debug console, players were able to see a fully nude model of her character. Page didn’t approve of this depiction, and even had a clause against any sort of nudity in her contract, but the developers went ahead and modeled her nude anyways. Page considered suing, but the entire controversy eventually blew over, and Cage even used his professional relationship as a defense against some of the recent accusations.

“You want to talk about homophobia? I work with Ellen Page, who fights for LGBT rights. You want to talk about racism? I work with Jesse Williams, who fights for civil rights in the USA… Judge me by my work.”

Cage’s actions and the accusations against him paint a bleak picture, one you can choose to believe or not. Certainly Cage doesn’t create his games alone. Even if the mood at Quantic Dream is a toxic one, there must be some hard working and worthwhile developers creating a game they believe in. Cage’s games might be awkward and stiff at times, but they still are forms of art and the effort that goes into them is still clear. So then can you support Cage, and Quantic, and those developers, by buying Detroit and still feel good about it? It’s up to you.

Morality and ethics are a gray area. It often falls to the individual to decide what is acceptable and not. And because we are all fallible contradictory humans, we will almost certainly violate whatever moral lines we create. Buying Detroit could signal Sony, Quantic, and Cage that his actions and accusations don’t matter much so as long as he makes good games. Avoiding Detroit could cause the developers to suffer due to the actions of a disgusting designer instead of succeeding on their own merits and work. There is no universal answer.

The problems don’t stop with Cage either. The accusations include Quantic Dream as a whole. One employee in particular was reported to have been photoshopping his fellow employees onto pornography and posting them around the office. When asked about this employee, Cage admitted to knowing about it but couldn’t stop because the photos were created on a personal computer, not a work one. It’s sad to see a man who considers himself so creatively powerful apparently rendered helpless by work/personal time limitations.

Again though, Cage’s problems just don’t seem to end, only pile on. The practices of Quantic Dream aside, Cage’s games are often problematic or at least troubling. Every game includes overtly sexual material. Sure, these titles often strive to represent typical or mundane tasks, however lengthy sequences like Ellen Page’s aforementioned shower scene, seem to be added for voyeurism rather than storytelling or character building. His games also often include allusions to larger issues at hand. For instance, the upcoming Detroit tells a story about how androids are differently treated. The starkness of Detroit’s aims become clear in the recently released demo.

In the demo you can play out a scene often seen in Detroit’s trailers. You’re an android hostage negotiator tasked with attempting to gather information and saving a little girl who has been taken by a rogue android. It examines androids having feelings, how humans treat androids, and the android’s roles in the divided society they operate in. It may be that the finished game discovers a way to examine these topics in a mature and valid way. Previous Cage games suggest otherwise. Often time these issues are merely presented, rarely carry any weight to them, and are often shown in overly dramatic settings.

Quantic Dream and David Cage create their own unique kind of games. No other major studio is developing games with a focus on the mundane movements of everyday life and attempting to attach complicated stories to them. Few games examine the themes and subject matter that these games often wade right into. However there is just too much baggage now saddled alongside Cage and his company. Too many issues and concerns to turn away from. I can understand why someone would enjoy a Quantic Dream game but for me enough is enough.

David Cage will probably keep making games. They get enough attention and positive reviews that he will keep pushing on. We have to draw a line though. We have to say that at some point Cage has created too much of a disgusting bubble around himself and, despite their merits, it affects what he makes. Detroit should honestly be reviewed based on its quality alone, however that’s where I draw the line. Detroit is still a David Cage game, the two cannot be separated, and there is no way I can support David Cage.

The post I’m Very Uncomfortable With David Cage appeared first on Gamesline.

Recently the Mitchell suspicions came to a head when it was noticed a tape of his submitted in 2010 loaded oddly. In the arcade version of Donkey Kong the stages load in a set, predictable pattern, but in MAME the stage loads in differently. Mitchell’s submissions looked exactly like the MAME version of the game, not the original, something Twin Galaxies expressly forbids, so far as to not even host a MAME leaderboard.

After wiping those suspicious scores, Twin Galaxies, after being hammered for months over credibility, has finally done what was right and banned Mitchell completely. If you’re going to take games seriously, you cannot make shortcuts for friends. Clearly Mitchell went about setting the records through handshakes and friendships rather than actual achievement. Sure, it is just pixels on a screen, but integrity and honor still matters in competition. Now Billy can go home, get a haircut, and focus on what he does best, slinging hot sauce.

The post Billy Mitchell Banned, Scores Removed From Twin Galaxies appeared first on Gamesline.

In a lengthy post up on Kotaku, Jason reached out to sources from development studios, including first-party Playstation devs, none of whom knew anything about a PS5. The development kit rumor, a persistent rumor that devs now have early versions of the PS5 to develop on, was also quickly shot down. Dev kits are often just an estimation of final hardware, not an actual finished product.

“When I showed those details to one person familiar with Sony’s plans, they laughed. For the PlayStation 5 to be out this fall, they said, it would already be in manufacturing. (And if that was the case, it’d come as a big surprise to a lot of people who are making games for this fall and beyond.)”

Jason does mention that plenty of developers are hearing, or assuming, that 2020 seems the likely year for a PS5. And yes, this will be a standalone product, not another hardware iteration like the PS4 Pro. Then again a lot can change in two years. When the time comes do not fret, we’ll all hear plenty about the PS5 way in advance of its release.

Jason’s article is a clear example of rumor and speculation not living up to reality. Speculation is not fact. In a world with constant communication we need to sometimes stop filling in the blanks when companies are silent. Or maybe we all need to be more content with the hardware and software we have, before we pour our hearts and souls into the future.

The post Report: The PlayStation 5 Won’t Come Anytime Soon appeared first on Gamesline.

“Radical Heights is a five month passion project for the studio as we’re creating and publishing the game entirely by ourselves. We’re huge fans of Battle Royale games along with the bright, inviting irreverence of the 80’s aesthetic. Because of that, we want to put our own spin on the genre and create a futuristic 80’s world that takes place in 2023 during an over-the-top game show where contestants battle it out for fame and prizes.”

At least Radical Heights has its own spin on the battle royale genre. The game will feature the same shooting and looting mechanics that PUBG and Fortnite have, but you’ll earn and get to keep cash from game to game. I have to assume that cash is used to buy in-game items and most likely loot boxes. At least there’s a way to play and earn items without purchasing extra keys.

Boss Key is pretty open about the game being early in development (only five months) and how early access is an opportunity to mold the game to community desire. It is a bit odd to push this free-to-play game and leave Lawbreakers behind only days after saying you couldn’t do both. Why focus on this new product and not attempt to revive the old one? I wouldn’t be too happy if I was a Lawbreakers player right about now.

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The languishing death of the Steam Machine has been a long time coming. Even after launch, the Steam Machine was struggling. The concept of pre-built gaming PCs that would hook up to your TV and allow you to play the same PC games non-bitcoin miners play sounds perfect. However, the Steam Machine struggled even before its release, thanks mainly to delays, and Valve’s post launch support was lackluster at best. The Steam controller, which would allow mouse-like controls on your couch, saw delay after delay and Valve wasn’t updating their SteamOS as regularly as developers would have liked. But the fatal bullet may have been another piece of hardware out of Valve, the Steam Link. Letting you just stream your already beefy PC to your TV over your wireless internet was a pretty cheap workaround than purchasing a $450+ Steam Machine. What was supposed to be a part of a Valve family of devices was the killer piece of tech that ruined everything else.

You can still buy Steam Machines if you so choose on the Steam store. They range in price from $450 to over one thousand dollars from a variety of manufacturers. It’s not clear if these PCs are on an endangered list and will be fully delisted soon, or if Valve will let them sit and rot until they finally move the last of their stock. Either way it’s a strange chapter in Valve’s long history of experimentation and attempted innovation. Steam Machines weren’t a bad idea, but like a lot of Valve’s recent outings, they were poorly planned for. Too often it feels like one part of Valve doesn’t know the either is doing.

The post Valve Hides Away Steam Machines on Their Store appeared first on Gamesline.

Starting tomorrow, March 29th, a PS VR headset will now cost $299. That’s down from $349 for the headset only. For the bundle, which includes a headset, camera, demo disc, and Doom VR, it’ll also only cost $299, down from $399. So unless you’re only craving pure headset action, that starter bundle is the way to go. You can also grab the Skyrim VR bundle for $349 which’ll include the game, headset, camera, and Move controllers for precise controls.

That’s a lot of VR opportunity for not so crazy a price. Having only recently tried PS VR myself, I’m still not entirely sold on it. Even with a slate of titles at the ready to play, VR is still floundering since it arrived in full force in 2016. Games seem to get less hype and the money train is now stopping in Bitcoin town and Blockchain-ville. There’s still ample opportunity for VR to thrive but the promises of yesterday still haven’t been fulfilled. Maybe one day soon we’ll all be living in our virtual reality hell-world in our living room, but for now it’s just a slightly less expensive novelty.

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