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It’s fantastic to read that teenagers such as Callum Muir are still discovering Edge – and for the same reason I got into it 25 years ago! Ironically, though, I’m here to defend the hype.
While I’d rather play Capcom Vs SNK 2 or Fantasy Strike, the fighting games I would currently recommend are Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, simply because that’s where the competition is at. Why are they so popular? Surely the story modes help, but I like to believe it has a lot to do with marketing. The truth is, it’s the casuals that determine which fighting games are the best experience. As for shooters, how’s Ultrakill doing? I can’t recommend Tribes because, last time I heard, servers rarely had enough players. The last competitive game I sunk my teeth into was Clash Royale, mostly because of all the real-life opponents I would bump into. Fun times!
Singleplayer games also have a social component. Last week, hoping for some help with the secret areas of Animal Well, I asked the three clerks at my (last) local videogame store how far they had gotten. None of them had even heard of it! Two of my three gamer buddies didn’t know about it, either. Odd, since if I were to believe my YouTube and Twitter feed, it’s the most talked-about game this year.
The truth is, our tastes have become atomised, not only because of algorithms, but also because game design has become really good. So good that we’re now drowning in excellent games. And they’re being made by small teams with little cash for marketing.
Nowadays, starting a conversation about my favourite games is as difficult as discussing music and books. Honestly, I’m feeling a bit lonely in this regard. Hence, I’ve been playing a lot of triple-A games recently. Most of them suck balls, but at least they offer experiences that can be easily shared.
Now that big-budget games are crumbling (and, to be clear, I think the layoffs are horrible), I’m gleefully starting to wonder what the hype machine will look like. Will we become even more atomised, everyone playing different indie titles? Or will the attention vacuum be filled by quality media, such as this magazine?
The thing is, hype isn’t necessarily bad. Without it, think of the collateral damage caused, as game stores and media disappear (I just read that IGN has taken over Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun). Hype helps steer us towards the same – and hopefully the best – works. And when I think about it, I wish there was a stronger hype machine. Just for better games.
While we can’t control which games end up in the cul
