This year, that's especially true as the video games business faces several disruptive forces and new platforms thrown into the mix. Virtual reality, smartphones and streaming services are all vying for gamers' dollars and transforming the industry.
Amid this background, 2019 saw some unbridled creativity with a number of original titles standing out from the crowd. Meanwhile, the best sequels improved on already great formulas. It wasn't the best year for video games, but it was one with good offerings.
And here's another article:
Tracing the Interconnectedness of Art and Video Games
Some outstanding examples of these can be found in Open World: Video Games & Contemporary Art at the Akron Art Museum. Curated by Theresa Bembnister, the show features two dozen international artists who use video games as source material, and includes interactive art experiences, physical and virtual objects, and the opportunity to play while teasing out the art within video games.
To the left of the entrance is a maximalist interactive video game projection, Long March: Restart by Feng Mengbo.
Simon Parkin's best video games of 2019 | Games | The Guardian
Then again, perhaps 'twas ever so. As James wrote in the introduction of Glued to the Box , a collection of his television reviews published in the Observer between 1979 and 1982: "Television is simultaneously blamed, often by the same people, for worsening the world and for being powerless to change it." Plus ça change.
100 Best Games of the Decade | Den of Geek
Time will tell how gaming will change in the next 10 years, but before we get there, it's time to take one last look back at all of the games that brought us joy and/or introduced new ideas to the medium. We've looked at the last decade and chosen an eclectic list of titles that defined this decade and will perhaps inspire the next.
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Here's the pitch: you're an insurance investigator who must examine a recently returned ship known as the Obra Dinn to figure out what happened to the vanished souls that once inhabited it (and how much the whole thing is going to cost your company). The twist is that you also have access to a mystical stopwatch that allows you to turn back time and view the crew's final moments.
Many things are taking place:
Best and Worst in Video Games 2019 - Gaming 2019 Recap
When we’re not doing our actual jobs (Dom is the video editor and Cam is the lead motion graphics designer), we like to do what gamers do best: argue. It’s the holiday season and while the rest of the office is enjoying classic champagne cocktails and reflecting on a year full of useless CBD products and existential woe, we are fighting about the year 2019 in gaming. It’s a year that Dom thinks has been a disappointment—especially compared to 2018.
In 2018, the blockbuster games were absolutely amazing, while 2019 was filled with more subtle surprise hits.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint is the worst video game of 2019 - The Washington Post
Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint flew under a lot of people's radars this past fall, and for good reason. In a year filled with public disasters, Breakpoint distinguished itself as the worst game of the year.
Breakpoint is an alarmingly apt name: The game was filled with game mechanics that players despise, from predatory microtransactions, a yawn-inducing open-world design, always-online requirements and loot grinds. The result was predictable.
Far Cry 3, published by Ubisoft in 2012, was almost listed as one of The Washington Post's most influential games of the decade . It was responsible for what some critics call the "Ubification" of open-world games: an overreliance on discovery points to open up more of the world, with meaningless, rote interactions sprinkled throughout. Ubisoft's first Assassin's Creed franchise laid the foundation, but Far Cry 3 perfected it.
The one video game my kids played all year long | Ars Technica
I was cooking this weekend when my eight-year-old son looked up from the couch, where he was listening to the Stardew Valley game soundtrack on Apple Music.
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As a parent, I have acquired the finely honed ability to tune out my beloved offspring, and I put it to use now. This was a good decision, because the Stardew Valley soundtrack has a whopping 70 different tracks. Minutes passed before he finally made it to track 70: "Load Game."
The Video Game Vending Machines That Defined a Decade - VICE
Through the rest of December and into early January, we're going into hibernation. But every day, we'll have a new podcast for you to listen to, and sometimes, an article to read. You can keep track of everything we're talking about to look back on the past year (and decade) right here.
I think we can all agree that a video game, when reduced to its most basic definition, is simply a collection of bits and bytes that exist primarily to depict vending machines in a variety of engaging gameplay contexts.
Happening on Twitter
A decade of the King 👑 Here are some of the best moments from the last 10 years of @KingJames. https://t.co/sV2Jz1yAAv ESPNNBA (from ESPN) Tue Dec 31 18:48:27 +0000 2019
Netflix is the best performing stock of this decade. Here's what these investments in the stock 10 years ago are w… https://t.co/x6oihTLO3h JonErlichman (from IG: @jonerlichman) Mon Dec 30 22:05:51 +0000 2019
"Each gadget tells the story of a new way of thinking, a slow-moving paradigm shift set to change the way we approa… https://t.co/JSVaPMX0mT TIME Tue Dec 31 09:34:41 +0000 2019
Here's to a decade of moving forward 🎉 🥂 and 10 more of the best. HAPPY 2020! #BankMySummer https://t.co/ZgPxsUyDnI StandardBankZA (from South Africa) Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 +0000 2020
