History and Games This Week
Welcome to the week in history and games, a short collection of links to stories and news that we hope you find interesting.
So the big news this week, around here certainly, is that History Respawned is starting its new series Civs 101 soon!
Hear all about it on our latest podcast. Bob introduces the new project, and he and John also find time to chat about the possibilities of the new Call of Duty and the promise of yet more World War I video games. Have a listen here, and where all good podcasts are distributed.
It really does seem like the remasters, remakes, spiritual sequels and the like are coming by in greater numbers than ever. Mostly this reminds us that we did not have the time to play every single game ever made even before we had kids - now we get to miss out twice over! Evil Genius 2, which does double duty as an out and out sequel and an homage to a classic (checks notes; Evil Genius came out in 2004; feels very old), came out last week and looks pretty good! We also have Spacebase Startopia, described by PC Gamer as an "unofficial remake", right down to the jokes in the original. Then of course we have Doom 3, the game that will never die. Striking it down will only make it stronger. This time it's back on PS VR.
Apple did something big this week. In an attempt to revitalize their Apple Arcade offerings they added more than 30 games to the Netflix-ish service. There is more than a little meta-historicizing going on, with major mobile hits being widely described across the Internet as "classics". Classics like Fruit Ninja. For example. Interestingly, Apple have added an entire section of games they themselves call "Timeless Classics" that includes games like Solitaire and Mahjong. Perhaps most specifically to our interests around here, the collection added a new interpretation of American classroom coming-of-age experience Oregon Trail. The trick is to fake an illness to play while everyone else is out running around in the sunshine. Before you get your supplies in order to head out west, go and have a listen to Bob talking Oregon Trail with one of the original game's creators, Don Rawitsch.
Speaking of updated, if you don't already own Disco Elysium I would encourage you to give it a look! Part auteuristic re-imagining of the adventure game genre, part exploration of a magical realist confrontation between fascism, socialism and lots of other things, this game digs into the dynamics behind the human activities we eventually dub historical events with enthusiasm and panache. It's good. And developers Za/um have just updated it.
Last and certainly not least, the History Department at Feather River College is doing some very cool things. They just received permission from GMT Games, purveyors of war games and other fine fun tabletop activities, to produce a non-commercial web-based version of the game "CHURCHILL: Big Three Struggle for Peace". The game already looks like it is going to be pretty interesting, we can't wait to see how the project develops.
