A 2018 Gaming Recap

Before I get to my top 5 games of the year, let's go through some interesting things that happened in the world of Gaming in 2018. As well as my enjoyable, and not-so-enjoyable games of 2018.

The good

Fortnite becomes a global phenomenon

Many of you are sick of hearing about Fortnite, but when a game becomes so big, Jimmy Fallon and the Astros are doing "Fortnite Dances", that is a good thing. The more gaming is accepted, the less Fox News can call it a blight on society. It's instances like this that have made gaming the mainstream activity it is today. No longer are adult gamers relegated to the "mom's basement" stereotype. It'll be interesting to see what the Fortnite generation of kids grow up to make. We're just now seeing how the Minecraft generation is getting along, and Fortnite is the natural evolution.

No microtransactions in several very successful titles

God of War and Spiderman went on to sell millions of copies, make millions of dollars, and had zero microtransactions whatsoever. I wonder if there is some alternate universe where these titles did have lots of microtransactions, and I wonder if it made more or less money.

The Nintendo Switch sets massive records and continues to be a huge success

After the failure of the Wii U, Nintendo seems to have corrected course.

The game awards

A lot of people like to shit on The Game Awards, but after watching I can't really say that it's a bad show. Sure, there are more advertisements and "world premieres" than actual awards, but isn't that what the Oscars is too. If this is what we have to do to have the "Oscars" of Video Games, I'm completely OK with it. The selection process is straightforward and not convoluted, and it's not a popularity contest. I would love a studio to be able to be introduced as "Game-award-winning studio" like we have "Acadamy-award-winner/nominee".

The first video game developers union in the UK

We have the first attempt to unionize game developers in the UK. It's completely optional, and at this point, basically a subscription for legal representation when working conditions deteriorate. It's a good start and it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

The Sad

John"Totalbiscuit" Bain dies of cancer at age 33

This year, the gaming world lost one of its biggest advocates. I personally never met TB in person, but I still felt like I knew him, and I know many feel the same way. As passionate as he was British, John left a lasting impact that forever changed the way we look at games.

The Ugly

Fallout 76

What a mess this game was. Launched in a buggy nigh-unplayable state, Fallout 76 has had one bad story after another. They even screwed up the collector's editions and sent people cheaper items than they were promised. Jeff Gerstmann even said he would not review the game because he didn't want to slog through a boring, dull game enough to review it.

EA decides to break Belgium's laws

As some of you know, Belgium recently decreed that loot boxes are gambling, and thus, subject to gambling laws, meaning that they must be removed from video game products. Companies like Activision-Blizzard and 2K did so begrudgingly, but EA decided they just couldn't remove the loot boxes from their games. They claim they don't actually break the law and are now being investigated by the Belgium authorities.

PUBG sues Fortnite

In the most petty "you stole our idea" suit ever, the developers of Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, ever unhappy that Fortnite became a greater success than their game, decided to sue Epic Games for "copying" PUBG with Fortnite. If you don't know about this, it would have been like if Nintendo sued Sega back in the 90s because Sonic was a platformer and Mario came first.

Filip Miucin's Dead Cells review

IGN fired one of its critics for plagiarizing a smaller Youtube-channel's review of Dead Cells.

Billy Mitchell is labeled a cheater, world records of Donkey Kong and PacMan revoked

The King of Kong, Billy Mitchell, Accused and Confirmed to be using an emulator instead of the real machine, has had his records revoked. If an emulator is used, there are subtle differences, and it can't be confirmed he wasn't using a virtual programmed player. So until he achieves his high score using an actual arcade cabinet, he's off of the board.