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(This article begins with a dramatisation which is for comic purposes. The main news article begins after the line)
A conference room inside Nintendo of America’s offices. Redmond, Washington. February 21st, 2019.
Reggie Fils-Aime: Friends, investors, esteemed colleagues. I think we can all agree when I say that over the last decade, Nintendo has grown from strength to strength. We have seen record breaking sales from the Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch systems; and our moves into mobile gaming and film are beginning to also pay dividends. True, it hasn’t all been plain sailing (takes a picture down from the wall of a blue “U”); but one thing has never been lost: We are a company of individuals always moving forward and innovating with fun, dynamic new ideas.
(The entire boardroom cheers)
Reggie: …Which brings me to the point of today. After more than 15 notable years at Nintendo of America, and nearly 13 as your President and COO, I believe the time is now right for me to pass on the reins. I therefore wish to inform you that I will soon be stepping down from the chair.
(The entire boardroom gasps)
Reggie: I called this meeting today in order to name my successor. Step forward… Bowser!
(All heads turn towards the doorway as the door to the conference room swings open, The floor shakes audibly with each step as the spiky-shelled King of the Koopas steps in to the room)
Bowser: That’s RIGHT! I’m taking control of this Airship, and you all will bow to me from now on! For my first act, I demand a meeting with your precious poster child who has so often foiled my plans. Bring me Mario this instant!
Reggie: Not you, Bowser…
Bowser: WHAT?!?
Image courtesy LinkedIn
(From behind the large, intimidating Koopa, another man steps forward. As Reggie shakes the man’s hand, the entire room applauds)
Reggie: I of course was referring to our current Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Doug Bowser. Effective April 15th, I am officially promoting him to my now-former role as President of Nintendo of America.
Doug Bowser: It has been my great fortune to work with and be mentored by Reggie for four years at Nintendo of America … And rest assured, we will continue to build on his work to evolve and expand our brand, furthering Nintendo’s global mission of creating smiles. There are millions more of those to come.
Bowser: BAH!!! This pipsqueak is not even worthy of the Bowser name! (He storms out, as the rest of the boardroom congratulate Doug)
Yes, it’s official. After more than 15 notable years at Nintendo of America, and nearly 13 as its President and COO, Reggie Fils-Aime will retire. His successor, Doug Bowser, is an industry veteran who joined NOA in May 2015 as the Vice President of Sales before being promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing the next year – and now, starting April 15th, he will now hold the esteemed title of President of Nintendo of America.
While the name may not be familiar to everyone, Bowser’s business acumen is certainly powerful. Doug Bowser is an industry veteran who joined NOA in May 2015 as the Vice President of Sales before being promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing the next year. During his time at NOA, Bowser led the sales and marketing efforts for Nintendo Switch, which became the fastest-selling video game system of this hardware generation through 21 months, according to The NPD Group. Even before his time at Nintendo, Bowser has held major roles at Electronic Arts – where he last worked as Vice President of Global Business Planning.
In announcing his retirement, Fils-Aime said:
“Nintendo owns a part of my heart forever … It’s a part that is filled with gratitude – for the incredibly talented people I’ve worked with, for the opportunity to represent such a wonderful brand, and most of all, to feel like a member of the world’s most positive and enduring gamer community. As I look forward to departing in both good health and good humor, this is not ‘game over’ for me, but instead ‘leveling up’ to more time with my wife, family and friends.”
Responding to the news, Shuntaro Furukawa, President of Nintendo Co., Ltd, had this to say:
“I really appreciate everything Reggie has done for Nintendo. Inside and outside our company, Reggie is known as an exceptional leader. We are grateful that he is leaving the business in good shape with strong momentum. While we will miss him and we wish him the very best in his retirement, we are also pleased to have such an able successor ready to step into that role. Doug Bowser and the rest of the team will ensure a seamless transition and continued momentum for Nintendo.”
So long as this Bowser doesn’t share the famous Bowser’s fiery reputation, Nintendo of America should remain in safe hands.
Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more – all while trying to survive.
Recently I picked up the first person survival game; Subnautica (released Jan 2018 on STEAM, Dec 2018 on consoles), it looked like a fun game from the drunk play-through I watched and as I hadn’t played a solo game in a while, thought I would give it a try. I should say that I have only just recently become a PC gamer and I have so much catching up to do that my computer is going to hurt by the end of the year with everything I have to cram in. Now I am a firm believer that a reviewer shouldn’t sway your opinion, because in the end we all have differences of opinion and that is good; or the world would be boring. So please, if you get a chance and you are into survival games, give it a go and make your own mind up, in my opinion this was a brilliant start to my PC gaming life!
The story, like any survival game, is pretty standard in that you are stranded alone to deal with the world around you. In this case you are on an ocean planet, light years from home with not one coffee place to help you deal with this. You were part of a team sent to setup a “phasegate” and to search for a missing ship that crashed on the planet. Because humans have to repeat courses of action before we figure out what is bad and what is good, your ship crash lands as well.
While scanning the planet, your ship “The Aurora” is hit by an unknown energy force from the surface and you escape in the only life pod that seems to have passed it’s maintenance checks as the others you find that haven’t done so well! I swear they could have spent less on interior decoration, (potted plants and posters advertising the ship to the crew of said ship,) and spent it on shields, better life pods or a less sarcastic AI. The wreckage of your once “advanced” ship lays on the horizon of this new world and you must save yourself through modern sci-fi technology, scavenging planetary resources, and retrieving tech that has spread far and wide across the ocean seabed. Can you do it?
In my case, yes I could and had a jolly good time too!
The gameplay style, apart from the first person free roaming aspect, is best described as a tech-tree you must grow and nourish with SO MUCH titanium and copper you wouldn’t believe; and who would have ever thought I would get fed up of finding gold and diamonds!? You also need blueprints found by scanning broken parts of equipment from the wreckage of the two crashed ships.
You start with basic tools for survival in the form of a Replica…I mean Fabricator which runs on the principle of “FEED ME SEYMOUR!” You cram large quantities of fish into it and get bottle water and food in return. Alloys and Scrapings of coral gives you a fire extinguisher, (for the moment when the ocean planet suddenly becomes a fire planet) and other bits and bobs to make your lonely stay a bit more bearable. As you progress through the tech tree you gain access to deeper regions of the planet and in turn, more resources to cram into the fabricator, which gives even better tools, to help you access even deeper regions.
There is also the crashed ships to explore, the lost habitats of the first ship to crash here and the presence of an intelligence that is not our own. I use the term ‘intelligence’ loosely because who parks up that close to an unknown planet where one ship has already vanished?! You can build submarines to explore deeper and further, discover habitats to survive in, and manufacture tools to do all kinds of funky stuff, as you explore the story as much or as little you want.
The story is read through data you find on PDA devices. These explain bit by bit what happened to the previous explorers to add to your immersion of the game if you so choose. In my case, I ignored the PDA and tried to figure out what happened through exploring the visual world and making my own mind up about stupid humans parking so close to planets with a history of vanished ships. Seriously with all that tech you couldn’t just send a probe? It didn’t ruin the game for me in any way and actually added to the experience. The story is light but being the only human alive, that is acceptable.
The game plays so well to the lone survival feel. There is no real tutorial and as you gain new equipment and vehicles you are never really shown how to pilot them. The immersion became so real for me that I imagined Ryley Robinson, (the protagonist you play) was part of the Domestic Crew (he mopped the corridors), as he seems to know little about anything he is building. As it turns out he is a Non-Essential Systems Maintenance Chief… so in actual fact the guy who gets to scrub out the engine while the real engineers are doing the real work!
I shouldn’t be too hard on him though, together we conquered Iantopia! From Giant Leviathan attacks to nearly drowning him when I found shiny stuff WAY to deep down for my air tanks, we spent hours of gameplay exploring and literally getting lost in such a huge world. It is a beautiful game that was well designed and blends a great mixture of breathtaking underwater beauty, scary oversized monsters nipping at your tiny self, and even comical little fish that smear across your submersible vehicles as you speed away from things trying to eat you.
I really felt for this planet and when I saw the damage the crashing ship had done to the area, I really believed I deserved all the giant predator fish chasing after me! Throw in the strange alien technology that looms out of the darkness as you float towards it, and you just can’t get enough of the visual. This becomes important when playing a solo game, as you take time to stop and look at these details.
The dark overtones are broken up by the various different AI personalities that live inside your own PDA unit and the machines you build. I got an overwhelming sense of pride when I got aboard my first Submarine and heard “Welcome aboard captain!” I had been promoted from Engine scrubber to captain and it only took me being marooned on a planet to get the position I always wanted! The main AI on your PDA reminds me much of Portal’s sense of humour. Whenever you discover a new place, device or vehicle, her voice chimes up to tell you something interesting about it, and the occasional witty banter added to my immersion.The unsettlingly human computer and the lack of other people made me wonder if Ryley was starting to lose it a bit and the computer was just him talking to himself in a robot voice.
Now no game is without its flaws and though I didn’t see many glitches, some of the ones I did see were game breaking. I left the first mini-sub I had ever made and cherished, to explore a deeper cavern system it couldn’t reach. When I got back it was inside a nearby wall. This meant I would have to start the game all over again because I couldn’t make it to the surface without dying. Console commands saved my play through but also gave me access to tempting cheats, and I lost some of that immersive feeling. I later found out one of the creatures had tried to teleport me out of my PRAWN suit and into its clutches, but instead teleported me outside the environment.
Most glitches are simple and often don’t ruin the game and sometimes played into my idea that Ryley was going mad. On another occasion I was walking down the access tunnel from a nuclear power plants to a fish display cabinet and though I didn’t think their proximity would be an issue, I witnessed a very odd fish, a giant eyeball with fins, swimming towards me! It was at this time I decided to go back to Earth and seek some professional help.
Those glitches came few and far between and once I got passed my frustration of the incident of HMS Nippy Shrimp and the wall, I got back into the game and was once again captivated by the beauty of it all.
It is possible to become lost and confused, where nothing makes sense and you are sure you missed a small detail somewhere. If this happens, I recommend checking the wiki out because it was very helpful and didn’t spoil anything waiting ahead for me. I had to use the wiki several times, but I feel that that was more a reflection of my ability as a player.
The game is left so open that you can play it anyway you like; valiant hero desperately trying to get home, scared engineer doing what he can to survive on little training or my Ryley, who was an engine room janitor who got super lucky. Once the game was complete, and I had put the finishing touches to my underwater resort (yes, I built an underwater resort!), I decided to craft my rocket and get back to Earth. I planned to start advertising and make a killing on the adventurous holiday maker who would love the dangerous Iantopia! But what then?
The game offers different modes and I originally played it on “easy”. If you just fancy a nice ride a sort of ultra-easy mode exists which helps you to learn how everything works in a safe environment. With endless resources at your disposal, all the blueprints unlocked and being immortal you don’t need to worry about anything other than learning to play the game! On Easy mode you are trying to survive but all you need to worry about is your health and your air, plus you now have to find everything to get you up and back into space. Hard mode introduces the need to eat and drink and though you can die you still re-spawn somewhere safe, minus the materials you just collected. If you want to feel like every moment could be your last then hardcore mode is for you! You get one life and no warnings about your air supply and I am leaving that for when I feel like giving myself a heart attack! This gives every level of player a nice entry point into the game though.
In addition, though there doesn’t seem to be a date of arrival, Subnautica, Below Zero adds another chapter to the game, which will bring a whole new element of tracking your heat, along with the original gameplay mechanics that made this game so much fun! Set in the polar icecap on the same planet, you now have frozen land masses to contend with, not to mention creepy penguins!
Subnautica deserves a go if you like Survival games, as it did feel like me against the world because it was! If you like building mechanics that allow you to construct your own living areas then at some point you can forget the story and escaping, and build yourself your own underwater resort with aquarium, two nuclear reactors and a medical bay set up for injuries sustained from handling dangerous fish and radiation burns. If you just like open world exploring then it is really easy to get lost in all the different areas of Subnautica as each place has its own particular wonder from the various planet life and it’s glowing auras to the beasties that lurk among them.
Now excuse me, I have to finish setting up the VIP apartments at my resort as they keep getting eaten by leviathans.
SAIL THE STARS. BETRAY YOUR QUEEN. MURDER A SUN. Sunless Skies is a Gothic Horror roleplay game with a focus on exploration and exquisite storytelling for PC, Mac and Linux.
Sunless Skies has released, and it has had some major updates since the early access preview here.
One of the very first things noticeably different is the new tutorial and story added at the very start of the game, which also highlights the new story UI.
Speaking of the UI, the whole thing in general has had an overhaul. It is now easier to read and lends itself better to the dark aesthetic of Sunless Skies.
New weapon types have been added, with two versions of each to choose from. First off there are the Portsmouth House ‘Albertine Candle’ and the Portsmouth House ‘Her Renewed Majesty’s Jubilee’ rockets, and then the Wit & Vinegar ‘Sneeze-Lurker’, Wit & Vinegar ‘Zounderkite’ mines respectively. Added to this is the powerful new exotic weapons added throughout the game just waiting to be discovered by the player.
New content has been added to the Blue Kingdom and High Wilderness, including some new officers the Clay Conductor and two Blue Kingdom officers; the Forged Companion and the Felined Eccentric.
The wealth ambition received some adjustments and your captain can now retire in Eleutheria, while Narrative Director Chris Gardiner worked on the final ambition The Stars are Dying for launch.
Part of the new content added was smuggling! It was one of the stretch goals on the Sunless Skies kickstarter and offers more opportunities for nefarious deeds in the high wilderness. Smuggling will unlock midgame for those captains looking to make some extra cash and don’t mind a dangerous pirate lifestyle. Just look for the Gloomy Middleman in London to start the storylet quest to unlock smuggling. Alternatively If your captain has Villainy 3+ or Veils 40+, the Gloomy Middleman will approach you directly. Once unlocked, Contraband items will appear in one shop per region across the Reach, Albion and Eleutheria. You will need to pay attention to Prospects to make a profit. Smuggling also adds hidden compartments for your locomotives equipment to hide contraband from customs.
Darsch Pugs here with the second of my Atlas journal entries. These will be done in character as I feel it is more fitting since I am playing on a role play server. I will however break character in the journal when needed to explain things or game mechanics.
I write in my journal today with a heavy heart. There has been a split among the crew, everyone but the admiral and I have left us high and dry and created their own company. I thought we were doing just fine together and only had a few minor setbacks. Apparently though they thought differently. A few days have passed and the admiral has moved us to a new island, we have joined the atlas alliance, and we have a new first mate. I’m still but a lowly seaman for now. Many would be indignant over this but I’m okay with it, I’m not a leader, I function better left to my own devices with little responsibility.
I have mastered the armor smith’s art, have made much headway in the skills required to be a treasure hunter, and I have more knowledge of the crew of the damned. The knowledge I have gained has allowed me to land ever more damaging strikes on these poor souls that form the majority of the undead and cursed horde that is the damned. They seem to pop out of the ground at every treasure chest discovered. If you harm them but don’t finish them off quick enough they will submerge themselves in the ground to burst forth moments later whole. My knowledge of treasure maps have made me an expert at finding buried treasure, something the first mate has seen first hand.
The first mate and I went forth on a treasure hunt, maps in hand and supplies loaded on the small ship we decided to use for speed we set forth just the two of us. We found the island the treasure maps were for just a short sail from our home island. The first chest was easy to find, we anchored our vessel a mere breadth away from it, a small rock bar infested with giant snakes.
Once we cleared out the snakes I approached the mound of dirt that was clearly where the chest was buried, that’s when a group of 5 of the crew of the damned burst forth, I was quick with my pistol and lay waste to two of them, the first mate was even quicker with his bow and made short work of the rest with my assistance. This would continue on with the other three chests we discovered. In the end we found over 700 gold coin and many journeyman blueprints for plate armor and other items, all in all I would estimate a grand haul valuing roughly 1,500 to 2,000 gold. Not bad for my first treasure hunt, and this has lifted my spirits. I am rather fond of the adventures I have whilst hunting for treasure and can think of no better life than this.
We have begun work on a galleon. This will be a massive vessel and a massive under taking. The sheer amount of resources required is worth a king’s ransom. It will take time and effort but in the end will will have the largest seafaring vessel known to man.
We hope you enjoyed Day 2 of Darsch’s player diary of ATLAS, if you want to chat about the game, please join us in Discord and remember Darsch will be joining Katoe streaming Atlas on Tuesday and/or Thursday night’s, 9pm GMT on the station twitch!
Here’s Katoe’s stream from last week [it went better than last stream, however, the game didn’t hold up, so we changed stream plans! ~Lonesamurai]
Game of the Year 2018 – Awarded to the best of our Game of the Month winners of 2018.
Legrand Legacy – SemiSoft Studios
Our first Game of the Month title in the new scene and a worthy community choice for our first proper Game of the Year award aswell, massive congrats to Uwil and the team at SemiSoft Studios!
For a reminder of our Game of the Month choices in 2018, here you go –
01-2018 Legrand Legacy – Semisoft Studios
02-2018 Fe – Zoink Games
03-2018 Surviving Mars – Haemimont Games
04-2018 Battletech – Harebrained Schemes
05-2018 State of Decay 2 – UndeadLabs
06-2018 Jurassic World Evolution – Frontier Developments
08-2018 World of Warcraft Battle For Azeroth – Blizzard Entertainment
09-2018 Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Square Enix
10-2018 Red Dead Redemption 2 – Rockstar
11-2018 Fallout 76 – Bethesda Studios
12-2018 Just Cause 4 – Square Enix
Team Choice 2018 – Awarded by the station team.
Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
The station team thought long and hard over the new year break what they loved the most in 2018 and Marvel’s Spider-Man was the stand out winner from the team. Insomniac Gaes bought us a blinder of an open world adventure for the web slinger that all the other great games this year just couldn’t quite top!
And for those interested, here’s the full list of the teams choices –
Crimsonshade – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – BANDAI NAMCO Studios Inc.
Ca1t – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Isnotavampire – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Phasechan – Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Toys for Bob
TGB-Sirhc&Ar0n – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Darsch – Monster Hunter World – Capcom
Katoe – Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
Best Sony Playstation 4 Exclusive Game – Our choice for the best PS4 title in 2018
Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games
As mentioned in the Team Choice section, Insomniac played a blinder with the new iteration of Marvel’s Spider-Man, bringing qualities we loves from way back in Spider-Man 2 to make a perfect free roaming open world.
Best Nintendo Switch Exclusive Game – Our choice for the best Switch title in 2018
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – BANDAI NAMCO Studios Inc.
The latest Smash Bros. dominated the Switch owning members of the community and team in 2018, with challenges flying over in discord (we should have done a tournament), with a fantastic roster of fighters and clean, precise controls, it was one of the best fighting games of not only 2018, but also all time!
Best Microsoft XBox One Exclusive Game – Our choice for the best XB1 title in 2018
Forza Horizon 4 – Playground Games
Bringing us a good chunk of the north of England and the Scottish border, Forza Horizon 4 turned into the best racing game of 2018, but more on that later. It was also the first in the Forza series also on XBox Play Anywhere that ran brilliantly on mediocre PC specs aswell, after the horrible showing by Forza 7 in 2017!
Best Action Game – For the best game in the action genre focused on combat.
Monster Hunter World – Capcom
The first Monster Hunter to make it to PC, albeit a few months after the console versions, didn’t arrive with fanfare’s, but it should have. A great action game, even if a little shallow compared to other RPG’s, but still amazingly fun if you like chopping up huge monsters and using the parts to make new armour and weapons!
Best Independent Game – For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system.
Celeste – Matt Makes Games
An indie title we shockingly missed when it came out in January of 2018 on STEAM and other platforms, and then a free title on XBox Live (you can grab it now if you haven’t already) Matt Makes Games made a classic platformer that left us in awe of what Indies can do.
Best Multiplayer Game – For outstanding online multiplayer gameplay and design, including co-op and massively multiplayer experiences, irrespective of game genre.
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth – Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard may have had some issues at the end of 2018 and into the new year, but WoW had a great launch to it’s 6th expansion, Battle for Azeroth. Learning from Legions up’s and down’s, it was a solid expansion, but felt a little lacking in places until patch 8.1 dropped.
Best Ongoing Game – Awarded to a game for outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time.
World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth – Blizzard Entertainment
As mentioned above, WoW’s 6th expansion dropped continuing WoW’s dominance at the top of the MMO tree for another year!
Best Racing Game – For the best racing experience in 2018.
Forza Horizon 4 – Playground Games
As mentioned above, Forza Horizon 4 was a massive step up for the series, especially being cross platform, but as a really good racing game.
Best Role Playing Game – For the best game designed with rich player character customization and progression, including massively multiplayer experiences.
Monster Hunter: World – Capcom
Again, as mentioned above, Monster Hunter has been successful for years on Nintendo systems, but finally branching out to the other consoles and even PC made it one of the best RPG’s of 2018!
Best Strategy Game – Best game focused on real time or turn-based strategy gameplay, irrespective of platform.
Battletech – Harebrained Schemes
One of our Game of the Month winners in 2018, Harebrained Schemes bought us a turn based Mechwarrior title that not only reminded us of the good old days of XCom, but has us excited for Mechwarrior 5 in 2019. The Flashpoint DLC near the end of the year added a well needed Iron Man mode for those that wanted more of a challenge too!
Stinker of the Year! – The most disappointing game of 2018, not the worst, just disappointing
Fallout 76 – Bethesda Studios
We were unsure when Bethesda first announced Fallout 76 last year, but we wanted to give it benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, although not bad, it wasn’t great either. With a bad, buggy start for most people and issues like duping and cheating carrying on into the new year and beyond, although it was good and even fun to play sometimes, it left a sour note on the franchise.
