Worth Reading: 05/09/2014

Thanks for all the enthusiastic comments about my Kinect video from last week! It's given me a great deal of pause about what I might be able to produce for the site in the future, but it's early days yet on that.

Not every story makes sense for video. This video was particularly applicable because of the way Kinect works. It really came together pretty naturally.Just writing an article and having a slidehshow of photos probably wouldn't be very effective. Still, I'm now considering new ways to bring you stories on Giant Bomb, and an edited video piece is a new prospect. That's exciting!

A few people have been asking for an equivalent video for the PlayStation 4's voice control. I don't own PS4's camera, but that's something I could change, if enough people are looking for it. Lemme know. I have another story in mind for my next video piece, which would actually be a feature told through edited video, but I'm not sure if it it'll work.

Hey, You Should Play This

• Stazis
• Lounge Lord
• Descent

And You Should Read These, Too

• Where Final Fantasy Went Wrong, and How Square Enix is Putting It Right by Jeremy Parish

If you, like me, have generally lost faith in Square Enix's ability to produce an appealing Final Fantasy game, consider reading this thorough, exhaustive, and alarmingly honest profile of the franchise. It appears the minds behind Final Fantasy are more than aware of its shortcomings, even if it's not clear what the future direction of the series is. But hearing its decision makers humbly explaining how they're trying to turn the ship around gives me, for the first time in a while, enormous confidence in the future of Final Fantasy.

"He began our conversation by thanking me warmly for USgamer's review of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Granted, our review of Lightning Returns came in toward the high end of the Metacritic aggregate, but it wasn't the highest critical rating by far. Not only that, but our text was decidedly blunt in its criticism of the game's weaknesses. I referred to the story as "dumb" and the visuals as "a hot mess," while Pete dinged it for its "clunkiness" – not really words you'd expect to inspire gratitude. As Kitase spoke, though, I began to realize that our frankness was precisely what he appreciated about the review.

What was meant to be an interview was quickly turned on its ear as Kitase reversed the usual interview format. Could I expound more on my Lightning Returns criticisms, he asked? What makes for a good Japanese-to-English localization? What do Americans look for in RPGs? How had Final Fantasy XV's trailer been received? And so on, for more than an hour."

• The Making of The Thing by Graeme Mason

It's weird to say that I haven't played The Thing. (That's not entirely true. I've played maybe 20 minutes on PS2.) But I recently discovered there's a working PC version of the game, and this feature on the game's development might have pushed me over the edge. It's clear The Thing was made from a place of love, and there's something to be said about allowing a studio to adapt a property long after its initial relevance. It allowed the developers to focus on a good game that captured what people loved about the film, rather than simply creating an interactive version of the movie. That seems to be where many licensed properties go wrong.

"Nevertheless, most of the features planned by the design team made it into the final game. At the centre was a ground-breaking fear, trust and infection model that was vital if The Thing was to maintain a thematic connection with the movie. Fear was represented by the squad mates' reaction to the conditions around them; lead a nervous soldier into multiple stressful situations or expose him to one blood-spattered wall too many and an unpleasant end was in store for either the unfortunate soldier, the player, or both. 'The fear system worked but it was a bit simplistic,' remembers Curtis. 'Keeping your team sane was a matter of avoiding corpses, blood stains and darkness; but it did produce some great reactions from the squad mates. Some of them were quite rare like the electrocution suicide.' Getting your team to trust you was merely a matter of protecting them and/or keeping them well stocked with ammunition; unfortunately the system for infection didn't work quite as well, limited by technology and the template of the game itself."

If You Click It, It Will Play

These Crowdfunding Projects Look Pretty Cool

• Loading Human looks to craft a narrative built around being a VR game.
• The Way might be the resurrection of Another World that we all deserve.
• The Source was part of that recent wave of PS4 indies recently announced.

Tweets That Make You Go "Hmmmmmm"

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• Mikkel Faurholm argues Trials Frontier doesn't push its monetization strategy hard enough.
• Nich Maragos explores his deep love of Nethack.
• Mike Rose writes about the origins of this week's multiplayer package, Sportsfriends.
• Chris Schilling spoke with the developers of Super Mario 3D World to learn how it was made.
• Thomas Grip examines the problems Alien: Isolation will have to maintain terror.
• Mark Serrels profiles the development of Blizzard's wildly successful card game, Hearthstone.
• Outcast HD didn't come close to its goal, and its developers explain why that happened.
• Stephen Beirne analyzes the themes of Demon's Souls and its role in the narrative.
• David Peisner hung out with Markus Persson to learn about being a one hit wonder.
• Samantha Allen has harsh words for Nintendo's stance on Tomodachi Life.
• Peter Suderman speaks with Valve's in-house economist about his role at the studio.
• Nick Wingfield writes about how high-end technology is revitalizing board games.
• John Davison questions whether Call of Duty can really be called that anymore.