After taking only a small bite of 2013, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One had the past 12 months to check as many boxes as possible on the console to-do list. Find the foothold, push the bundles, hype the exclusives, sell the peripherals, make (and hopefully keep) the promises - Microsoft and Sony have been busy bees indeed. We've heard from other players as well. Nintendo may already be think-tanking their next system, but they certainly aren't giving up on Wii U - which is good, since 2015 looks to be the year of U and current owners can already (read: finally) support their system with a solid library. Of course, countless developers have also contributed to the roar of the industry. Far Cry is back and more wild than ever, Grand Theft Auto 5 has put nearly every remaster before it to shame, a sadistic new "Souls" game is on the horizon, and Nintendo platforms are again home to good-old-fashioned bro. smashin'. There's arguably never been a better time to be a gamer. Seems to be a pretty dangerous time to make games, though. The viral strand of anti-consumerism and general stupidity which occasionally strikes companies has flared up big time in the games industry. You may know it as the Green Plague. It doesn't help that EA and Ubisoft weren't vaccinated for the stuff, but there are still plenty of healthy studios running around. Clearly this condition can be prevented, but we'll need more than Germ-X and Lysol if we want 2015 to keep things kosher. So let's talk about a cure - and try and patch up some other crap while we're at it.
A freelance games writer, you say? Typically battling his current RPG addiction and ceaseless perfectionism? A fan of horror but too big a sissy to play for more than a couple of hours? Spends far too much time on JRPGs and gets way too angry with card games?
Well that doesn't sound anything like me.
