This morning, Sony announced that in 2028 they will discontinue the production of PlayStation games on physical media. This is presumably part of the lead-in to the release of the PlayStation 6, which is rumored to exist as both a low-power handheld and a high-power home console. This news comes on the heels of Rockstar Games announcing that Grand Theft Auto 6 will release in digital form only – if you buy a box, it will contain a download code and that’s it. Sony’s announcement was followed by reporting from Windows Central that the upcoming XBOX successor code-named “Project Helix” may also drop disc support.
A lot of folks have written in various venues about why digital-only games are bad or harmful for this or that reason – access, preservation, economics – there are a million arguments. This post will highlight a concern I have that is often overlooked in these discussions: the effects on education and the classroom.
Much has been said about the Game Developers Conference’s rebrand to “GDC Festival of Gaming.” Now that we’re on the other side of it, as somebody who was heavily involved in planning of events in and around this year’s conference, I wanted to write a recap of how things went, my thoughts, and what the future might hold.
If you plan to attend WorldCon 2025 in Seattle this year, the full event schedule is now available here. Some people may be interested in tracking me down. If some people are you, here is my schedule.
I’ve actually taken a quick run at this before when I saw it was included in the Vita version of MGS3. For reference, I bought that in 2017, so it’s been five years since then. I got frustrated pretty quickly and put it down, but now I’m back for revenge – Snake’s Revenge. I’m also using a guide so I don’t just wander around dying and losing all my progress repeatedly. Ain’t nobody got time for that, I have a franchise to tackle!
On Hallowe’en Eve, 2022, I made a perhaps foolish decision, announced publicly in a thread on Resetera, that I was going to finally try and finish not only my first Metal Gear franchise game, but all of the canonical ones, and write up my thoughts and experiences while playing each one.
Full Translation of 並 列世界 [“Parallel Worlds”] Interview With Kanno Hiroyuki Sega Saturn Magazine, Vol. 24, July 18-24 1997
Aiming for a system that doesn’t blindfold you
―I know that some of our readers have never played YU-NO before. First of all, please tell us about the key aspects in YU-NO.
Kenno: A.D.M.S (Adams), a new multi-system, will be the key element. It stands for “Auto Diverge Mapping System,” which directly translates to “automatic branch mapping function.” In conventional games with branching narratives, it is difficult to identify the branching points in the story. It can be fun to look for branches, but at the same time, there are times when you have to look at the same scene over and over again, and you have to go through a sometimes annoying trial and error process. A.D.M.S. was created to solve this problem.
Depending on the player’s actions and decisions, the story will branch out and be created in a variety of ways. A.D.M.S. is a visual map that displays the branching situation in a tree (see previous page), and a chime (sound effects) is sounded when a branching point approaches, allowing players to grasp the situation with their eyes and ears. Checking your position on the map, collecting various items and information, and navigating various branching worlds…… This is [A.D.M.S].
Justin Bortnick 