Need for Speed Unbound just got a new update and a roadmap for more content coming this year. This is one of my favorite arcade racing games and I’m happy to see it continue to get love. It’s also free with PS plus right now so if you are a subscriber I suggest checking it out!
There is a dedicated multiplayer racing mode now that you can place yourself in so you don’t have to jump into free roam and hope people want to race. I see a lot of people dropping out after a crash but I’d encourage you to stay in. These races are wild and you never know who is going to slam into oncoming traffic right before the finish line. I love Gran Turismo but this isn’t Gran Turismo, This is NFS and these races are full of chaos. Embrace it and you’ll have more fun IMO.
I also want to recommend the Unicorn Overlord demo mentioned in today’s strip. I’ve played about 4 hours of it on the Switch and it’s excellent. I’ve always loved Vanillaware games for their art and this one is no exception. They just go so fucking hard! Like their other games, this one is both an homage to, and a perfect representation of the given genre. This time they have chosen classic turn based strategy games and the result is a game that feels modern and beautiful but also like something you might have played on the Genesis. Don’t skip it!
I’d like to offer my condolences to all the game industry folks who are being catapulted into space right now. It’s sad that the people being affected are usually not the ones responsible for the bad decision making. It seems like a CEO can propose a shitty course of direction, tell everyone to start rowing and then when the destination sucks they fire the fucking rowers! It’s a truly insane situation and I feel for anyone caught up in it.
I’d also like to encourage students like my son Gabe at Digipen who are busting their asses trying to learn how to become a game developer to not get discouraged. Things are changing and the barrier to entry so to speak is falling fast. It all reminds me of webcomics a bit honestly. Before the internet you needed to be a part of a syndicate in order to be a successful cartoonist. The syndicate worked to place your comic strip in newspapers and get you paid. Jerry and I started Penny Arcade from our apartment in Spokane and never even talked to a syndicate. I think what we are seeing now is that a small team of friends or even a single developer with the right tools and a good idea can make a game that rivals the biggest tipple A publishers in terms of sales and impact. To me, that is very exciting.
-Gabe Out
