Retrospectiva săptămânii 29 decembrie 2019 - 4 ianuarie 2020

Început de an, Witcher e mai popular ca niciodată, Fortnite câștigă aproape toți banii, jocurile au bug-uri ca acum 20 de ani, filmul Uncharted pierde încă un regizor și ar trebui să terminăm și cu retrospectivele. Gata, a început Anul Jocului, țineți-vă pălăriile!

Linkuri rapide:

• Știri
• Articole (critică, dev, design)
• Anunţuri şi lansări de jocuri
• Made în România
• Prăvălii de jocuri

Știri

• Jocul Witcher 3 a atins la sfârșitul anului 2019, un record de popularitate, având mai mulți jucători simultani pe Steam decât a avut chiar și la lansare, motivul fiind, fără îndoială, succesul serialului proaspăt lansat de Netflix în decembrie. ^{(Destructoid, Eurogamer, PC Gamer)}
• Filmul Uncharted pierde și al șaselea regizor, după ce Travis Knight a renunțat la proiect din cauza orarului. ^{(Polygon, Destructoid, Escapist, VideoGamesChronicle, GamesIndustry.biz)}
• Industria de jocuri a generat în 2019 venituri de 120 miliarde dolari… ^{(GamesIndustry.biz, VentureBeat)}
• … iar Fortnite a fost jocul cu cele mai mari încasări: 1,8 miliarde de dolari. ^{(VideoGamesChronicle, GameDaily.biz, Eurogamer, The Verge)}
• Un bug ciudat, asemănător cu Y2K, a afectat jocul WWE 2K20: jucătorii nu au mai putut porni jocul imediat după Anul Nou, iar soluția temporară pe care au găsit-o a fost să schimbe data calculatorului sau consolei. ^{(Kotaku, Eurogamer, VideoGamesChronicle, GamesIndustry.biz, PC Invasion)}

Articole (critică, dev, design)

• Extra Ball: How Visual Pinball Wizards Bring Back the Classics ^(EGM)
• Surviving GameStop: How Passion, Community, and Novelty Keep Indie Game Stores Alive ^(EGM)
• 'Limited Appeal' or Lack of 'Polish' Shouldn't Stop You from Playing Games ^(Escapist)
• The indie side of cyberpunk ^{(PC Gamer)}
• Games are Not Magic ^{(Medium/Videodame)}
• The “Zorfon” Mystery: Answers from a Golden-Age Video Game Developer ^(Medium)
• In 2019, Games Explored the Meaning of Travel ^(Fanbyte)
• Filosofia Politică a Jocurilor - Cine o să construiască Drumurile? ^{(Mindcraft Stories)}

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Actualitate

• The Witcher 3’s resurgence proves that games have changed ^{(VentureBeat)}

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Not-a-review

• 'Sayonara Wild Hearts' and the Masks We Wear to Protect Ourselves ^(Vice)
• Ape Out helped me survive the holidays ^(Polygon)
• Disco Elysium Is a Kind of Self-Loathing I Can Understand ^(Paste)
• Life is Strange 2: Validating the Pain of Being Human ^(Uppercut)
• Opened World: Who Watches the Workers? ^{(Haywire Magazine)}
• Death Stranding: Why it's the most important video game of this generation ^{(Spiel Times)}

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Industrie

• Vince Zampella & DICE Los Angeles Can Help EA's Disappointing Output ^(Escapist)
• The Game Awards 2019 Weren't Great and That's Okay ^{(Spiel Times)}

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Istorie, retrospectivă

• The history of cyberpunk on PC ^{(PC Gamer)}
• RollerCoaster Tycoon: the best-optimised game of all time? ^(PCGamesN)
• Buzz Aldrin’s Race into Space (and Space-Program Games in General) ^{(The Digital Antiquarian)}
• “Oh my god, what have I got myself into?” The inside story of the golden age of video game magazines ^{(GamesRadar+)}

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Retrospectiva anului

Jocuri

• 2019: The Year Familiarity and Originality Both Triumphed ^{(Hardcore Gamer)}
• The Untitled 2019 Alternative PC Gamer Awards ^{(PC Gamer)}
• Polygon’s best stories and videos of 2019 ^(Polygon)

Focus

• Game of the Year 2019: Disco Elysium ^{(PC Gamer)}
• The one video game my kids played all year long ^{(Ars Technica)}

Industrie

• GamesBeat Rewind: 2019’s biggest PR disasters ^{(VentureBeat)}

2020

• Our most anticipated PC games of 2020 ^{(PC Gamer)}
• 2020 Preview: This year’s biggest new game releases ^{(VideoGamesChronicle)}
• USG's 20 Most Anticipated Games of 2020 ^(USgamer)
• Vampires, gangsters and Keanu Reeves: our games picks for 2020 ^{(The Guardian)}

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Retrospectiva deceniului

• Narrative Design Evolved Interactive Storytelling in the 2010s ^(Escapist)
• The Greatest Game Trailers Of The Decade ^(Kotaku)
• How indie devs saved couch multiplayer in the 2010s ^{(PC Gamer)}
• From Minecraft to Auto Chess: The 29 games that define the 2010s ^{(VentureBeat)}
• The 100 Best Video Games of the 2010s ^{(Slant Magazine)}
• From ray tracing to AI: best gaming technology advances in the last decade ^(TechRadar)

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Dev, making of, mecanici

• How Unity Of Command 2 balances game design with military history ^(RPS)
• How the Photo Mode Became a Homogenized Feature of Commodified Games ^(Vice)
• Blending the rules of combat in The Legend of Bum-bo ^(Gamasutra)
• How much of a genius-level move was using binary space partitioning in Doom? ^{(Ars Technica)}

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Design, world-building, artă

• The real-world history that breathes life into The Witcher ^(Polygon)
• Tracing the Interconnectedness of Art and Video Games ^{(Hyperallergic )}
• Syd Mead Has Died ^(Kotaku)

Made în România

• Jocurile românești lansate în 2019. ^{(Romanian Game Developers)}

Anunțuri şi lansări de jocuri

Anunţate

• The House In The Hollow ^(DSOGaming)
• Aperture Camera, un joc bazat pe o mecanică dezvoltată de Valve pentru prequelul anulat al lui Portal ^(DSOGaming)
• Gray Zone, un RTS de la vecinii slovaci ^{(PC Gamer)}

Acum cu dată de lansare

• Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls: 15 ianuarie ^{(PC Invasion)}
• The Pedestrian: 29 ianuarie ^{(PC Gamer)}

Lansate

• 1 ianuarie: miniLAW: Ministry of Law ^(Steam)

Prăvălii de jocuri

Știri

• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is Steam’s Game of the Year 2019 ^{(PC Gamer)}
• Over 8,000 games were released on Steam in 2019, according to SteamSpy ^{(PCGamesInsider.biz)}

Update catalog

• Grand Theft Auto V Is On Game Pass Now ^(Kotaku)
• Twitch Prime has five more free games for you ^{(Destructoid)}
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection headlines January PlayStation Plus line-up ^(Eurogamer)
• Stadia Pro adds free Rise of the Tomb Raider and Thumper ^{(VideoGamesChronicle)}

Jocuri gratis și free weekends

• GRID 2019 is free to play this weekend on Steam ^(DSOGaming)
• Dig Dug meets Bomberman in free roguelike Holy Smokes ^{(PC Gamer)}
• Darksiders games are now free on Epic Games Store ^{(VideoGamesChronicle)}

Reduceri și promoții

• January 2020's Humble Choice includes Shadow of War, Street Fighter V, and Bad North ^{(PC Invasion)}

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