Along with the resurgence of rogue like games in the recent generation, another genre that has exploded in popularity is that of the simulation. I don’t mean like Microsoft Flight Simulator, but instead games that simulate large amounts of complex data to churn out completely random and ridiculous elements to make players develop their own stories in your games. They do this by providing the game engine with a huge number of possible scenarios that all collide with one another to create insane scenarios for players to muddle their way through.
Rimworld has taken the Dwarf Fortress formula and applied it to space. You direct a group of settlers on alien planets and guide them through various catastrophes , largely caused by you and your decisions. They can be anything; food shortages, deer invasions, in fighting between the colonists. The amount of options these simulations offer is staggering.

Dinosaurs. After the wild success of Jurassic Park all those years ago you would have thought that dinosaurs would explode into the videogame world with alarming pace. However, outside of a few titles the presence of dinosaurs has been sorely absent, to the point where my dear friend, the number one Jurassic Park fan in the world, began to lose faith. The past couple of years, however, have seen a number of dinosaurs slowly lumber their way into a number of early access title on Steam.
The most popular of those has been ARK: Survival Evolved. While many of the other games tried to place dinosaurs as predators, something to be feared in a world where you are alone, ARK has understood the appeal of existing in a world alongside dinosaurs. They are predators, but can be tamed and ridden, and the existence of other players means the world has a much more dynamic feel.

Far Cry is, now, a series regarded for its open world funhouse. Beautiful playgrounds where players can charge around the map collecting things, ticking off checkpoints, liberating people and generally causing mayhem within a specifically designed rulebook; one that doesn’t allow for much frustration at all. That wasn’t always the way though; while Far Cry 1 was a decent first person shooter that led on to Crysis, Far Cry 2 was the studio’s first “open world” game, and what an effort it was.

The game had the open world of the later Far Cry games but it also had an intense thrill of danger, something the subsequent games would lack. Malaria was a constant threat in the harsh African wilderness, while guns were unreliable and hostile locals were plenty. The game’s systems were unique and interesting and clashed in ways that produced amazing emergent results. The game still hasn’t been matched in the series since.

Outside of the Grand Theft Auto series and the Doom series there has always been one series that attracted an enormous amount of media controversy for its over the top, violent portrayal of one on one fighting. That series is Mortal Kombat. The game takes its influences from games like Street Fighter; one on one intense fighting. While Street Fighter is a little more Japanese in its style, Mortal Kombat is, for better or worse, a heavily Western game. Street Fighter sees people KO’d after their health bar reaches zero, Mortal Kombat, however, allows players to perform special moves called fatalities. Thus the criticism was born.

Each character has their own fatality; a move specifically designed to encompass their characteristics. Each more gruesome and over the top than the last. The latest entry, Mortal Kombat X, is no exception. Given that we now have top of the range graphics on our systems the game, and the kills to go with it, are even more gory than ever before. The criticism can certainly be understood; especially given that children have access to these games, and parents are poorly educated, youngsters are getting their hands on the game.

Games can take a long time to make. From conception, to a playable something and all the way through to the finished product can take years, sometimes even longer. Gamers end up watching a product through this process, from start all the way to the often grizzly finish, and wishing that they could get involved somehow. Steam Early Access has given them a window into this process. What it does is allow games to be sold earlier in their lives, often for a lower price, and gets people into the process earlier.

It has allowed some games to develop brilliantly; gamers ideas are implimented, and feedback is gathered by the developers and the game changes over time. Early Access has, however, been exploited by people looking to make money quickly for their projects. They charge full price for a game that is extremely early in development, charging what they might do for the finished article.