This bulletin covers the past two weeks of gaming news, so we’ve got plenty of stuff to share with you! In this week’s bulletin, we discuss Old World, Ubisoft, Far Cry 6, three medieval games, Dream admitting to cheating, inkle’s Overboard!, Hades and women in wargaming!
Old World Launch Date
We start off with some great news from Mohawk Games. The amazing Old World, one of our favorite games which has been in EA for over a year, has a launch date! On July 1, the game will be fully launched. Ever since it’s release into EA last year, Old World has been a great game, and it has been getting even better. The game will surely gain even more fans, especially with a soundtrack from Christopher Tin (yes, also the composer for numerous big-hit Civilization soundtracks).
Ubisoft back at it again
It wasn’t a very pleasant two weeks for the people over at Ubisoft. Eventhough we got more information on Far Cry 6, it seems that Ubisoft have again shot themselves in the foot. Alongside the release of more info, Ubisoft also claimed that they weren’t trying to make a ‘political statement’ (where have we heard that before). FC6 will feature a island which is heavily inspired by Cuba. Doc Random pointed out how flawed the portrayal will be a while back, and Ubisoft have also updated their ‘no politics’ statement, now stating that games are inherently political, but that Far Cry 6 isn’t a comment on Cuba specifically (The Gamer). Yeah right.
Anyway, misery continued for Ubisoft, as the recent accusations of (high-level) misconduct at the company still leave their marks. Even though Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot has promised ‘profound’ changes, which they say have already partly been put in place, many fans still want to see more change, creating the #HoldUbisoftAccountable (PC Gamer). There are voices aimed directly at Guillemot, who say he is himself responsible for the old culture and toxic atmosphere at the company, and call for his resignation. Even though Ubisoft say changes have been made, it is indeed doubtable if with the company can really change with the same man at the helm. Read more on PC Gamer.
Castles: so hot right now
As someone who is interested in Medieval History, the more Medieval games we have, the better! So here are three upcoming games which focus around castles. First of all: Going Medieval. It is a medieval colony simulator, and has just launched in EA! Set in a world where 95% of the population has perished, your task are to rebuild and defend your settlement! It looks pretty dope, and I’ve already played it a bit and it’s pretty cool! However it’s not really for the unexperienced with city-builders (or that kind of management games) as the tutorial is very limited. That said, it’s a pretty cool game (and concept) and you’ll probably see more of it from us! And not only from us, the game is tearing up the Steam charts, as many gamers are getting the game (Kotaku). Read a more extensive review on PC Gamer.
The second game is Siege Survival: Gloria Victis. A pretty dark game where you’re tasked with surviving a siege (duh). PC Gamer describes it as This War of Mine, but then in a Medieval City. It’s a pretty rough and dark game, but for the survival enthousiasts out there it might be worth checking out. The game has been out for over two weeks and the reviews are pretty good. Read more about the game in this review by PC Gamer’s Christopher Livingston.
The last medieval game is a bit more lighthearted and for all the fans of games such as House Flipper. Called Castle Flipper, it lets you clean up a castle. There is not much too it (and the reviews are also not amazing), but it’s a fun and relaxing game. It lets you clean castles and build a settlement. Read more in (again) Christopher Livingston’s review for PC Gamer.
Dream admits to cheating
So this is not really anything historical, but as it is Minecraft (and I’m pretty interested in speedrunning) it’s in this bulletin: Minecraft YouTube Dream has (finally) admitted to cheating his speedruns. A bit earlier this year, the biggest Minecraft YouTuber posted some impressive (but not World Record) runs on speedrunning.com. But as with many games, these records are moderated by a dedicated team of game-experts. And they saw that something was wrong (mainly that Dream had unrealistic droprates of a certain item). In their report they concluded that Dream had altered the game files in a way, and therefore invalidated his records. It started off a pretty ugly argument (mainly from fans), with Dream even hiring an astrophysicist to statiscially prove Dream didn’t cheat. However, last week Dream finally admitted he did cheat and he apologized for all the fuss. read more on Kotaku.
inkle goes Overboard!
So this came a bit out of the blue, but inkle (the studio behind amazing games such as Heaven’s Vault and 80 Days) have launced a new game! Called Overboard!, it’s a highly replayable detective with a twist: you’re not the detective but the one whodunnit! The game is available through Steam, GOG, the Nintendo Switch and iOS! Knowing inkle, it’s an amazing game (which we most probably will also stream pretty soon)!
Hades wins more awards and a Zagreus Figurine incoming!
If you haven’t noticed, we’re big fans of the amazing game Hades. We’ve streamed the game quite a bit the past couple of weeks, and most of us have now bought the game and are trying (and failing) escaping the Underworld. Ymir himself is quite the achieved player, with a record sub-12 minute run (something I can only dream of). But for all the fans of Prince Z. out there, a real figurine of the man is coming! Developers Supergiant Games have teamed up with Good Smile and are creating a Zagreus figurine for all to put on their desk as an emotional support deity during their escape attempts. Read more on Eurogamer.
The good news for Supergiant doesn’t end there, as the company has also won the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Game Writing! Of course, Hades has been lauded many times for the amazing game writing, and this is another award to go into Greg Kasavin’s trophy cabinet!
Why are there so few women in wargaming?
Wargaming is one of those industries where the males heavily outnumber the females in the statistics. Even though there are multiple groups of very dedicated female players, the +50-white-male-group (yes, the boomers) is still the biggest. And why? Mainly because of sexism and an outdated misogynistic attitude. WIRED’s Luke Winkle interviewed Becky Ensteness and Katrina Ostrander, who are both avid wargamers and both work in the business (Ensteness has a company which ships minatures worldwide and Ostrander works as creative director for tabletop publisher Fantasy Flight Games). It’s a good feature on a community which is still pretty misogynistic, but with ways to change that. Ensteness and Ostrander discuss the opportunities for the historical wargaming world to change, mainly by enticing young people to start playing historical wargames, which will in the end create a better space of play for everyone. Read the entire piece (recommended if you’re into wargaming and such) on WIRED.
Omar ‘oomzer’ Bugter is a Cultural Historian from Utrecht. Since interning at VALUE, he’s stuck around, mainly working on the Interactive Pasts website and the weekly streams. He wrote a thesis on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI and mods, so knows this game very well. He likes many other games, including F1 2020, Hearts of Iron, Mount & Blade and Crusader Kings III., and is VALUE’s in house city builder connaisseur. Tweet to him at @oomzer if you want to know anything about Civ or city builders.