This year was great in general for videogames. Beyond the predictable success of games like Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, there were a ton of hits that came out of nowhere, including not just big publisher titles, but indie games as well. Narrative in gaming also started taking a greater stage with games such as Spec Ops: The Line and our very own game of the year, The Walking Dead, making waves with player agency in story and presenting well-developed plots and characters to boot.
The year wasn't entirely sparkles, double rainbows, and purple fairies though. Along with the good came a hoard of bad for the industry. There were a mass number of studio closures, for starters. Here's a recap of some of the many development studios that didn't make it through the year. Out of respect for the subject matter, this list is not presented in any particular order.
Alex & Mike talk Biomutant, a game from Experiment 101/THQ Nordiq you likely have not heard of. While the AAA side of the industry tends to homogenization and imitative, cinematic presentation, “AA” games remain creative and innovative in 2021. Drawing on inspirations as varied as Dark Souls, third person shooters & kung fu cinema, Biomutant is Ratchet & Clank on acid, developed by a team of 20 people.
In a recent interview, the producer of Radical Entertainment’s cult-classic Simpsons game, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, spoke on the possibility of a remake or remaster.
I would love to see it, but EA owns the rights to Simpsons games, and they have done nothing with it for years now, so I can't see it happening. They own the license still for one reason, to keep making money from that crappy mobile game (probably the only reason why they got hold of the licence in the first place)
In all honesty, I would rather not have a remake at all with EA in charge. I would much rather see it in the hands of any other company before that happened.
If they did remaster the game it would be censored by idiotic sjws. The Indian man we loved from the show Apu Nahasapeemapetilon would be ripped out of the game so fast.
Don't forget making a lot of female characters playable and independent and act masculine and makes Bart and Homer sissies.
I had ran Hit and Run on PC last month on emulator, it did really aged well, cell shaded really can live two generations. Just like Dark Cloud 2. A proper remastered version would be awesome then a sequel.
The game has aged so well and is a great time. Boggles my mind how EA haven't seen the potential in reviving the series
Playing as a kid in a video-game can offer up a different perspective and narrative. Here is Twinfinite's list of the 7 best video-games where you play as a kid.
im actually gonna miss radical i actually liked the prototype series though i prefered the first to the second.
Zipper and 38 Studios will be remembered; Socom was a damn good third person shooter and KoA was one of the funnest games I played in 2012.
2 of my favourite studio's are on the list, I played the hell out of WipEout HD (online Eliminator is so awesome) and I still play MAG a few nights a week. Never a sequel, too bad.
Still I hope for a new WipEout game for PS4.
Quite a few under-performing Sony studios shut down this year.