Tony Polanco from The Koalition writes:
"The past week has seen many big events and announcements happen back to back in the gaming industry. The Game Awards and PlayStation Experience featured many big reveals which, quite frankly, set many gamers to go completely insane. Just a perusal of the comments section of any of our big stories this week is evidence enough that gamers were ready to battle. But why? From reveals, exclusivity deals, and the ages long console war, we break down all of the things that caused gamers to lose their minds just before year’s end."
In this day and age, it’s rare we experience a warm fuzzy feeling when we boot up X (formerly known as Twitter, of course).
But the past few days have been lovely: our feed is full of people talking about DriveClub again.
The discussion started when someone posted a clip of the game and its infamous rain effects. The caption reads: “Still can’t believe this is a 12 year old game.”
This was one I was hoping would have some kind of boost from the PS5. The devs locked that sucker so tight...
I play the PSVR one even though it doesn't look as good, because that one is 60fps.
I interviewed them twice back in my gaming journalist days... Once at E3 2006 and again on a podcast about a year later. Really nice folks.
The guy we interviewed both times' name was Simon, I can't remember his last name, it was 20 years ago, but he was a really nice guy, and was very passionate about his job. It broke my heart when I saw Sony shuttered Evolution. I do hope they bring some of those folks back, but I remember another studio ended up hiring most of them back in those days, and they've been releasing new games since under that studio... Codemasters, maybe? I forgot which....
But the amount of talent that Sony has shut down over the years, it's disturbing. Psygnosis, Evolution, Zipper... just those three studios produced some of the most innovative games that PlayStation has ever seen... and those games need to be brought back.
If they were to release that game on the PlayStation 5, there would be absolutely no need for a remaster or a remake. The whole appeal of the original game was that it consistently exceeded people's expectations.
Higher rendering res and textures, higher framerate, maybe toss in some global illumination/ray tracing, but other than that, they could keep every polygon the same and it would still look absolutely incredible as a current gen title.
Sony should reassemble the team and make Driveclub 2. Driveclub was so ahead of its time it’s crazy.
This is what I hate about gamers sometimes
There is a segment of gaming communities that always want an old game to come back. But when the game(s) were in their prime, nobody supported them or not enough people supported them. Driveclub, Killzone, Resistance, etc all fit that profile.
I want Driveclub, Killzone, Resistence, and etc all back too. But I say that as someone that bought into, played, and own those games.
Too many people like to talk but not put up the money to support when it's needed. I even lump two of my own personal friends into that. I remember how one of them constantly said "I always wanted to play the Resistance games", yet never made an effort to buy any of them. No way that's an isolated event.
There are certainly games that fit that description, but I'm not sure these are a good fit:
- Driveclub infamously launched in a truly terrible state. It had a central focus on online & social features, and those were broken for about 6+ months before people could reliably play it as intended. It was so bad that the PS Plus Edition was delayed, along with its companion app. It also released less than a year after the PS4 launch, so it had to deal with a smaller total of launch PS4 owners to sell to, and Driveclub's rough launch certainly did it no favors.
- Resistance got 3 main console entries, and one handheld title for the PSP and PS Vita. Killzone got 5 main console entries across 3 generations, and one handheld title for PSP and PS Vita. This was also the era of millions of shooters, especially of the First Person variety, & genre fatigue was getting heavier by the year. So I feel these did pretty good at 5 and 7 titles respectively, pointing to enough people showing up for at least a while.
I'm not saying people don't exist who fit that criteria for these games, but I also don't think they were the primary issue. I think after a solid break from the IPs, as well as a lessening of shooter oversaturation, these titles could find healthy audiences if they came out with new entries at this point.
Killzone on the PS4 had the graphics, but the gameplay was tragic, I only rated Killzone 3, although the first game on the PS2 was decent. The Getaway was another game Sony canned, the sequel was so bad. Plenty of games need a sequel, the likes of Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Project Gotham, Wave Race and F-Zero have been retired. The racing genre these days, I'm sick of Turismo and Forza due to the same tracks and any other clones.
I think the original Motorstorm was the game that convinced me to buy a ps3. Way ahead of its time.
Surprised Sony didn't release a collectio, but all they seem to do these days is release God of War and Uncharted collections. It kills me that I no longer have a PS3, so a collection would be awesome.
Richard Bailey Jr. of The Koalition writes: The Game Awards 2025 officially wrapped last night and left us with plenty of exciting reveals and things to think about. While I’m glad to see Clair Obscur’s: Expedition 33 take home 9 awards, I was equally impressed by several new reveals for games launching in 2026. With this in mind, I wanted to highlight a few of those games today and explain why they might be worth keeping an eye on.
Resident Evil Requiem and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined are my 2 most anticipated. Wish Dragon Quest XII was coming out next year for the series' 40th anniversary but that doesn't seem to be happening.
My top 6:
Saros
The Free Shepherd
Coven of the Chicken Foot
RE: Requiem
No Law
Out of Words
Mine are:
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
RE Requiem
Tomb Raider 2026
Tomb Raider 2027
Saros
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined
Too many games with little time to play haha.
The Game Awards is a show that advertises itself as celebrating the best and the brightest in the gaming industry, but that claim rings a bit hollow when a relevant part of the gaming industry appears to be excluded.
Niche markets rarely get included in big game awards stuff. And, yes, they are niche markets comparatively. I mean, you run a simulation site, so I get your opinion. But that's just not how the industry works nor does it mean that any simulation games are better than the games that were there.
Niche markets compared to what exactly? Euro Truck Simulator 2 has more active players than the overwhelming majority of the nominees. And I mean *all* the nominees, not only the categories that apply.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024 has millions of players as well.
The "niche" is perception, but it has no foundation in reality.
Incidentally, no part of this article speaks of "better" or worse. The point is that The Game Awards should honor the gaming industry as a whole (niches included) instead of excluding whole genres and penalizing others.
None of those games are 2025 releases. People are playing a 2012 game more than other newer simulation games. I can't imagine why those games are still niche or not in the a game awards for mainstream gamers.
And, like all mainstream competitions, TGAs are popularity contests for the popular games. Niche games that are held back by people playing older games just aren't going to make that popularity contest.
Edit: And I'm not sitting here saying people aren't playing Simulation games, but in the mainstream they absolutely are niche games. CSGo is also niche, and that gets more players than most games every year. The fact is that more players are playing more games overall than these games. Those games maintain a base, but we're talking about playing new games.
No Man's Sky isn't a 2025 release. Final Fantasy XIV isn't a 2025 release, etcetera, etcetera.
Besides the silliness of crushing strategy and simulation games in the same award, since they have absolutely nothing to do with each other, the article is about the award categories that are not limited to this year, neither of which was won by a 2025 game.
***No Man's Sky isn't a 2025 release. Final Fantasy XIV isn't a 2025 release, etcetera, etcetera. ***
Bad faith argument. Those are for the 'ongoing games' category, which specifically aren't limited to current year release games but any games receiving ongoing support/content. You chose the one award that isn't based on being released in 2025 to try and make an argument. And I am talking about the entirety of the genre as it is seen by the mainstream, including why it stays niche because it doesn't see popular releases of new games on a regular basis. Sure, there's no content for those games, but it's for the same players that aren't growing or demanding new games to get in front of new people. This can be said of NMS as well, but it's more in the eye of the mainstream than simulation games, even if less people are playing it.
***the article is about the award categories that are not limited to this year***
From the article: "As the headline says, The Game Awards have a simulation problem, and the tip of the iceberg is the absolutely absurd “Best Sim/Strategy Game” category."
Followed by 10 paragraphs talking about this alone. Please don't act like you didn't make this a huge portion of your article, let alone the first portion of it.
Do you know what the "tip of the iceberg" means?
The part about the current category is *exactly* one third of the article, while the part about the ongoing categories is exactly two thirds (and it's not "one award," it's two).
So no. It's not a "huge portion," and even if it was, that does not remove any validity from the argument that simulation and strategy games should not be bunched in the same category.
Not only are neither simulation games nor strategy games really "niche" but they're very prolific genres, and they have very little to do with each other.
Simulation games don't include just simulaTORS. They include a wide variety of games from Flight Simulator to The Sims. Is The Sims "niche" as well? 😂
Simulation games are absolutely less niche in general than games that have their own category, like fighting games.
1/3 is a big portion of an article. C'mon now. Let alone the first part of it.
And I've said my piece on why. You are arguing against mainstream, I'm telling you mainstream isn't listening and The Game Awards is not going to be about equality but the mainstream. Just look at the game trailers shown during it.
I have nothing else to say or defend, so I'll leave it at that.
You say I'm "arguing against the mainstream" like the mainstream shouldn't be argued against.
I beg to differ. It's called "the Game Awards" and not "The Mainstream Awards." I may be old, but I'm not old enough to think that things should not be said just because the other side isn't listening.
Peace.
***You say I'm "arguing against the mainstream" like the mainstream shouldn't be argued against. ***
I didn't say that. I'm saying why it's not happening. You can argue, no one said you couldn't. But, let's be honest, the arguments you make aren't changing the mainstream at all.
Simple question: why didn't a single simulation game have a trailer at TGAs if they want the mainstream to see them?
If the industry of simulation games, which is far spanning, isn't putting in the effort to be seen, arguing is just that and not progress.
Also, I think you're taking my words as if I'm attacking you or your support of simulators in some way. I'm just saying what is what. This is the world we live in. This is how mainstream works. Indies still build the future of gaming in almost every way, which includes a ton of simulators. I mean, we have survival games with intense building mechanics because of simulators. But that doesn't change that mainstream is mainstream and the only way to get into it, IMHO, is to put yourself out there at events like TGA. No Man's Sky has that name recognition because of their association with Sony, and thereby the drama that has unfolded since there and yadda yadda yadda. I'm not seeing the same with the new games out there. And it's harder. But I'm not seeing it.
First of all, Ace Combat 8 was revealed at the TGA, it's a simulator-lite, but still a simulator.
Of course, that's besides the point, unless you're telling me it's ok for The Game Awards to nominate only games that pay them to put trailers on.
That'd also be besides the point, mind you, because the nominations are decided by journalists and influencers in the jury, and if gaming journalists are ignorant about a non-insignificant chunk of the industry, that's on them, not on the developers. Finding out about games is their *job.* Not that most of them do it well, unfortunately, but that's exactly part of my point. The ignorance of the genre displayed by mainstream gaming media is inexcusable.
If simulators are so niche and invisible, how is it that big mainstream IPs work with them? Microsoft Flight Simulator just had an insanely good Stranger Things crossover, and a Jurassic World one just a month or so ago. They also had Dune and Top Gun: Maverick.
I don't know many *mainstream* games out there that line up that kind of high-level collabs.
Ultimately, the problem is simple, and not very nice to say. 99% of mainstream gaming journalism nowadays is SEO-driven trash (and I know this for a fact). It isn't surprising that those who work on it (and get to vote for nominations and awards) don't know what's beyond two inches from their noses.
They don't write about the games they're passionate about. They write what their SEO dude behind the scenes tells them to write, so their industry expertise, if it ever existed, has long been forgotten.
Most of these Oscar winning films are incredibly niche at least these last few years, with only a few hundred thousand to a couple million viewers if they're lucky.
Hmm. I could see a best sim or ongoing sim category. They already have esports and streamer awards, which I couldn’t care less about. Tit for tat!
Best simulation game definitely needs its own category. Grouping it with strategy is a disservice to the developers of both genres.
That's part of it, yes. If you advertise yourself as representing the gaming industry, ignoring and penalizing big chunks of it certainly weakens that claim.
I'm not sure what part of that is unclear.
I'm honestly sure how that's hard to understand.
By mashing together two major genres, their developers have half the chances of being nominated.
Which is ridiculous if one thinks that fighting games, which only have a handful of releases a year, have their own award, so basically *everyone* gets a nomination, including compilations of old rereleased games lol.
Stop acting like such a pretentious condescending weirdo dude
People disagree with you, you realise you're not factually right? That people can understand and also disagree?
Not giving something does not equal penalising
Not giving something that you give to others in excess is the very definition of penalizing.
A lot of the backlash from some of the things happening in the game industry is somewhat unjustified, not all of it however.
Its always nice to get different perspectives on things.
I may not agree with you say but I do respect it