Tag: Steam
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NPCs Massacre Game Shows Steam Still Isn’t Doing Enough
Steam recently did something notable, it actually blocked a horrendous game from appearing on their storefront. It’s notable because their policy up until this point was essentially “Fuck it, do what you want just pay our cut.”. The game is question was pretty awful. It was a rape and murder simulator. Unlike Night Trap, this…
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5 New Year’s Resolutions for the Video Games Industry in 2019
In case you’ve missed the news, 2019 has finally arrived. Since 2018 was a fairly turbulent year for gaming, 2019 provides a fresh start for the industry. Here’s hoping that somebody important takes notice. Bring About the Death of Lootboxes Lootboxes, Microtransactions and assorted shadiness permeated most AAA games in 2018 such as Assassin’s Creed:…
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Fallout 76 Is Getting Lootboxes, Because Of Course It Is
It seems that Bethesda can’t go more than a couple of days without embarrassing themselves. Since it’s November 14th release date, Fallout 76 has had a pretty rough time. Middling review scores, broken gameplay and a mighty controversy regarding a bag have damaged this once beloved franchises reputation almost beyond repair. At least it wouldn’t have…
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The Epic Games Store Is a Mixed Blessing for Indie Games
The indie gaming landscape becomes more crowded every year. Usually, these games are primarily sold through Steam. The platform becomes more bloated by the day. Itch.IO has made significant inroads in the last few years by offering developers a better deal than Steam, but the Epic Games Store is still a game changer. As the amount…
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The Book Ritual Forces You to Confront Loss and Attachment
The Book Ritual is a unique title in which you talk with and destroy a physical book. The simplistic game is characterised by its use of an ‘alternative controller’. in this case a book and bin or shredder. You are primarily interacting with a physical object. Destroying a book is just not something many people want…
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The Reaction To Life is Strange 2 Has Been Ridiculous
The first episode of Life is Strange 2 took a particularly honest view of racism and racial issues. The reaction to it has mainly been positive. However, the plot of the game has also brought some bizarre reactions. Especially compared with the successful of the very safe prequel. There has been the usual boycotts and complaints…
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Solving America’s Police Problem with Door Kickers: Action Squad
America’s police are having a hard time with their image at the moment. What with them breaking into other peoples homes and shooting them dead, or just beating people in Waffle Houses. It seems that the US police force can’t go too long without embarrassing itself. Because of this, we here at New Normative think…
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Valve’s New Stance on Gamedev Trolls : Censorship, or Step Forward?
In a new blog post released on Steam, Valve have vowed to cut down the numbers of ‘troll’ games. This most likely refers to games such as Active Shooter, AKA Standoff, a school shooter simulator and one of the most controversial and downright distasteful games to ever be released. Free speech dictates that these developers…
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Publishers Need to Do More to Fight Gaming Disorder
Gaming Disorder has recently been recognised as a medical condition, and in many countries can now be treated as such. The news has had varied reactions. Most outlets just used it as an excuse to film some kids who play Fortnite a lot. Recognition of digital services as exploiting human tendencies for addiction has been…
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Embracing Emotional Spaces in The First Tree
The First Tree brought me to tears. I find emotional reactions in games natural, as they often signify a desire for something greater than our immediate reality. This kind of escape is an important part of gaming for all of us. Sony’s old PlayStation 3 marketing slogan invites us to “Play Beyond” what we directly…
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Alien Food Frenzy Launches on Steam, Doesn’t Include Game File
It seems like you can’t go more than a month without Steam revealing more and more about its broken approval process for games. Now the botched release of Alien Food Frenzy drives the point home once more. As we know, all it takes to get a game published on steam is 100 dollars and an…
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Super Seducer Offers ‘Controversial’ Pick-up Advice
From the best-selling author of The Natural: How to Effortlessly Attract the Women You Want, comes a dating sim designed for idiots. Richard La Ruina’s FMV seduction simulator, Super Seducer is coming to Steam and PS4 on March 6th. Needless to say we’re not linking it. Naturally, a game that “teaches” men to win women…
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New Steam Game Gay World Promotes Homophobia, Criminalizes Victims
Steam has been on a long decline ever since the good intentioned Greenlight program. A program that failed due to having no form of moderation aside from a voting system to approve games. In their attempt to fix this issue they made Steam Direct, so that if you want to get published all you have…
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Biomutant Looks Effing Adorable
If all games were downloaded instead of manufactured, we’d save 2.4 billion gallons of crude oil – over four times Italy’s yearly consumption. Just one takeaway from an infographic published last year by Big Fish games. It’s always inspiring to see how far games have come, but as with any consumer good, more sales means…
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Don’t Make Love: Sex, Death, and Mantises
‘At once victors and vanquished’ is a fairly unusual juxtaposition for a game. Often, you fulfil the conditions of a win state, get dragged along through the firework display of congratulatory cutscenes, cup your willing hands before you to receive the gold-hewn power star of definitive success. Tragedy is a peripheral concern like air and…
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It’s Time For Gabe Newell to Fix Steam’s Abuse Problem
It’s incredibly easy to use Steam to abuse people. Curation groups with homophobic and racist slurs in their names; antisemitic foundations; or outright white supremacy are left well alone, as Motherboard reports (content warning for all of the above at the link). Valve responded to review bombing with the addition of a graph that is…