AUSRETROGAMER

The Pop-Culture E-Zine

You are here: Home / Archives for Guest Contributor

Guest Contributor

Nintendork Gets Nostalgic At Hersheypark

By

By: Nintendork

It’s one of those things you never thought about when growing up – that these huge and heavy arcade machines would one day disappear and the amusement centres housing them would become extinct.

I always thought that arcade machines would be here to stay and that they would remain popular as ever with everyone. How wrong was I? Luckily for me, Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania is the big exception. Hersheypark could have gotten rid of their old arcade cabinets long ago but they decided to keep them and maintain them in working order. I love having my physical console games from when I was little and in this instance it is great to see these big arcade games remaining exactly the same as when I was a child, making them that extra bit special. To know that I put quarters in their Double Dragon machine when I was 12 and am playing the exact same game right now and doing the same thing beating up baddies means the world to me.

Hersheypark is the perfect destination for a hit of gaming nostalgia. Enjoy the pics!

 

KG’s Favourite PC Sports Games

By

image source: staticflickr

By: KG – an experienced browser-based games developer with a big passion for writing. She is obsessed with driving games, yoga, and astrophysics.

We all love sports regardless of the fact that we actually play them in real life or we just enjoy them virtually on a computer! So, there’s absolutely no wonder why there are so many amazing PC sports games available nowadays.

But how do you choose one that managed to capture the excitement of a real-life sporting event without slacking off on quality when it comes to the player experience?

If you want to enjoy some good-old fashion sports games on your PC, take a look below. These are the games that shaped generations and created new names in the industry. These are the games worth playing when you want to feel like an athlete on your PC!

FIFA

The FIFA game series is one of the richest in the sports games niche as it releases a new version every year, starting with the 1990s. Right now, you can get the FIFA 2018 version for PC and you’ll also get a little surprise if you play any of the other series. This year, the game has a single player story mode, which is impressive for this game. You can also play online and enjoy hours of fun with the community (one of the strongest game communities in the world).

Overall, FIFA may be focused on football, but it’s a game with a lot of kick (Ed: pun not intended!) and adrenaline that will keep you glued to your PC for days!

Out Of The Park 2019

If football is not your thing, you can always try a nice baseball game, especially now that the OOTP19 is available! Just like with FIFA, there’s a lot of management involved and you have to create and lead your team to success. The action is enticing and there’s a lot to do to keep you busy and engaged.

NBA 2K11

image source: Amazon

Basketball is highly appreciated by the American public so you can understand why there are so many cool games available for download. However, the best of the best must be NBA 2K11 with Michael Jordan as the main character. So, if you ever dreamed of being Jordan himself, now is the time to see that dream becoming reality!

However, if you’re looking for something lighter, there are plenty of online basketball games you can try for free and that don’t require a gaming computer!

Rocket League

For those players who are just looking to have some fun time, Rocket League is the perfect game for a boring Sunday afternoon. After all, you’re playing football with cars – what could be more entertaining than this?

It may be a fantasy sport, but it is still one of the most popular games on Steam. The unique physics and the way the game is created will definitely keep you coming back for a dose of fun.

Fire Pro Wrestling World

image source: ytimg.com

While some may argue that wrestling is not a sport, it is definitely entertaining which is why we decided to include it anyway. Fire Pro Wrestling World is the closest you’ll ever get to Mortal Kombat in a game that features actual real wrestlers.

The cool thing here is that you own the rules and can actually create your own. Not to mention that there’s a lot of customisation involved from the ring to the way the wrestler looks and behaves.

In conclusion, there are plenty of sports games out there and you can choose between games that exist in real life and games that are nothing but a fantasy. After all, games do represent the virtual world so why wouldn’t you be allowed to fulfil your wilder dreams than just playing football?

Lessons A Huge AAA Success Like GTA 5 Can Teach Indie Developers

By

Grand Theft Auto 5, Rockstar Games’ colossal juggernaut of a title, was developed on a budget of $265 million. The end product was a detailed open-world game with cutting edge graphics and AI programming of unparalleled complexity (for the time).

All that is just about as distant as you can get from indie game development.

Rockstar has decades of industry experience, GTA is one of the most popular mainstream AAA franchises around and the company spent more than half of its hundreds-of-millions budget on marketing. It also just cracked over 95 million copies sold.

Anyone with an inkling of what indie development looks like will know that these things are worlds apart.

And yet, in the underlying fabric of the game itself – not the product – are lessons that small teams working remotely and one-man devs can learn from, if only conceptually. Development of a title like GTA 5 is a unique beast in terms of project management, and unlike anything most AAA developers have to deal with let alone indies, so we’ll be focusing on just the game itself.

It’s also a tough example because, due to its high budget, there was very little the developers couldn’t allow themselves. Even so, interviews and other sources have revealed that over the course of the game’s development a number of features and mechanics were cut either due to time or monetary constraints.

This brings us to our first lesson, and one that can be applied to gaming universally – scope. You need to know the scope of what you want to do, what you can get done, and sync the two together. Game development can be arduous work even when the crunch hasn’t set in, and indie developers are certainly hit harder than AAA in this regard.

In the case of indie devs, when they’re working from a much smaller budget or are developing for free, the stress of getting your title out into the open can be confounded with making that title the best it can be. Feature-creep must be avoided, cut what needs to be cut and stay focused on your scope.

Too many indie developers give up their daily lives to create their first game, release it, then patch it profusely only to end up with health issues, broken relationships and a financially unsuccessful game because they lost sight of what could be feasibly achieved.

Big productions like GTA 5 have specific committees to keep an eye out for this, reining in the project if too many features are planned, pushing the limits of deadlines and budgets.

On the other hand, indie developers have more control over their work and need to be their own supervisors. If GTA 5 had stretched itself too thin because adding additional feature X and Y would be “cool”, it wouldn’t be the critically acclaimed success it is today.

Another thing GTA 5 gets right is the ratio of content to scale. AAA titles these days pride themselves on how expansive their maps are and how much sheer content there is – you’d think that more is universally better. Thing is, even though the settings of Los Santos and Blaine County are large, together, they’re hardly the largest open world in gaming.

Instead, Rockstar knew to limit the physical size of the map to the amount of content they’d produce. Thus, GTA 5 has a large amount of unique content distributed evenly and organically throughout the action-space. Things aren’t too cramped nor are they too far between.

Relating gameplay content with map size is very specific to open-world sandboxes, but the principle can be applied to any game. The pacing, amount and length of content needs to be in balance.

There is no golden ratio and that “balance” varies depending on the project. Maybe a sombre exploration game is well balanced when quiet moments are predominant, where an action-packed FPS is well balanced when you keep the adrenaline pumping.

Generally, as an indie developer, realistic goals are essential, and no-one should be gunning for a spectacle the scope and size of GTA 5 right off the bat. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from the game and how it implements basic game design principles, because these principles are universal and GTA 5 implements them masterfully.

image source: Rockstar Games

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Logan Smith
Logan has been obsessed with Rockstar Games ever since the Grand Theft Auto series went 3D with GTA III. He spends his time wandering Los Santos while eagerly waiting for Red Dead Redemption 2 to finally land.

 

 

 

Sim Racing Games You Need To Play

By

By: KG – an experienced browser-based games developer with a big passion for writing. She is obsessed with driving games, yoga, and astrophysics.

You can get your automotive kicks in a variety of immersive, realistic car driving games at the moment. And as technology has improved, racing simulators have become all the more convincing.

With so much choice available, which games are worthy of your time and money? Here are just a few of the top racing games you need to play.

Assetto Corsa

If you don’t want to settle for anything less than a completely compelling driving experience, Assetto Corsa is the game for you. Designed with realism in mind, it accommodates the modding community, so if you play on PC you can access a variety of home brew adaptations to tweak it further.

Also available on PS4 and Xbox One, this title is definitely aimed at a hardcore audience, with minutely modelled vehicles from major manufacturers including Porsche and Ferrari. It may be a few years old now, but the visuals are still highly polished and the attention to detail is second to none.

The main downside is the fact that it doesn’t have a fleshed-out career mode like some of its competitors, so the amount of enjoyment you get out of it will depend on how much you like trying to beat your best time on challenging tracks.

image source: gtplanet.net

Project Cars 2

Released last year, this simulator sequel gives a broader look at the world of racing, from the tarmac of popular circuits to the dirt tracks of gruelling rally courses. And with more than 182 vehicles on its books, it will attract petrol heads who like the look of sports cars as much as the joy of driving them.

Investing in a sim from a successful franchise like this is sensible for several reasons, not least because expansion packs are released regularly to add new content. The quality of the graphics and the compatibility with a number of peripherals, including VR headsets, gives Project Cars 2 the edge over some of its smaller rivals.

Critics initially complained that the game suffered from some AI bugs which shattered the realism with odd behaviours on the track. But most of these have been patched out since its arrival and it will continue to improve over time as further additions are made.

image source: verifiedtasks.com

Forza Motorsport 7

For a game series to last as long as Forza Motorsport, it has to be doing something right. And as Microsoft’s rival to Gran Turismo, it has managed to carve a sizeable niche in the driving game market since the first version arrived back in 2005.

Forza 7 has more than 700 vehicles in its roster, from supercars to trucks. It also blends a selection of real world tracks with a few fictional creations that are just as much fun to tackle.

Enthusiastically praised for its pixel-perfect visuals on both PC and Xbox One, this game is a surprisingly accessible simulator. It offers enough realism to appease serious racers, while helping newcomers to get into the swing of things. Straightforward training features and a career mode gradually increase the difficulty to avoid players feeling overwhelming.

image source: thekoalition.com

Gran Turismo Sport 

It’s only fair to give Sony’s flagship racing sim franchise a shout out after fawning over Forza. The current generation of Gran Turismo is just as deep and diverse as the competition, providing both arcade-style racing for players who want fast thrills and more realistic modes for those who crave a more involved experience.

Online play is available to let you test your mettle against others. And there is a solid eSports scene building up around Gran Turismo Sport. If you get into this game, you will probably enjoy watching popular streamers compete as well.

Some critics turned up their noses at the relatively small number of vehicles, tracks and locations included in this game. But as with any modern title, more are being added by the developers, so this is hardly a deal breaker.

Dirt Rally

If off-road racing is your thing, Dirt Rally is the simulator you need to add to your collection. It has single and multiplayer modes, as well as a selection of officially-sanctioned cars and courses from the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

After its release, Dirt Rally quickly achieved critical and commercial success, with some publications dubbing it one of the best games of the year.

It definitely delivers when it comes to realism, which can make it a bit punishing for newcomers who are expecting to be able to chuck the cars around like in Sega Rally. But with a bit of practice it becomes incredibly rewarding.