Meet the Admin. Team

It's CHRIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAS! Or rather, it was Christmas last month, of course. What's the best reaction you've had to a gift you've given someone else?

I bought my Dad a TV for his 60th a couple of years back and he was thrilled - it wasn't anything particularly sentimental, but being able to afford a big purchase like that for my dad felt great and he really appreciated it too.

Shovel Knight finally came to the end of its development cycle following a string of high quality and substantial content updates from Yacht Club Games. What game comes to mind when you think about its developer team providing ongoing support and content over the years?

Monster Hunter is usually spot on with ongoing free updates. All the bonus quests and new monsters feels like games as a service done right.

Alien Isolation, the perfect festive game, was ported to Switch (and well) this month. The titular aliens are famous for their reproductive process, but when we make extra-terrestrial contact, how would those aliens really make more aliens?

Clones. And then begin, the clone wars will.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hit cinemas last month and like The Force Awakens, it's posing questions about whether Star Wars relies too much on nostalgia. Is there a media franchise you think needs to let the past die and if so, why?

Not a media franchise as such, but WWE is particularly guilty of this. They've been getting better, but the overreliance on old names like The Undertaker and Goldberg really sucks when they've got such a wealth of talent at their disposal.

It's the end of the year, and the decade! How was gaming in 2019 for you, and how did it compare to the decade's best?

It was a middling year, all told. Nothing really blew me away outside of Sekiro, but it's nowhere near the decade's worst years for games. Middle of the road!

It's the last Meet the Admin. Team too! The official story is lack of interest, but why's it really coming to a close?

If we reveal any more information about ourselves, Google will successfully manufacture Jay and Balla bots to take our places.

It's CHRIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAS! Or rather, it was Christmas last month, of course. What's the best reaction you've had to a gift you've given someone else?
There are the short-term reactions, like my sister enveloping me in a big ol' hug; and there are the slower burners, like The Lady ploughing hours into the Switch I've given her as we discuss the designs of new Pokémon.  I couldn't possibly choose.

Shovel Knight finally came to the end of its development cycle following a string of high quality and substantial content updates from Yacht Club Games. What game comes to mind when you think about its developer team providing ongoing support and content over the years?
It's got to be Smash hasn't it?  Even beyond the raft of paid DLC there's a cavalcade of balance tweaks to be put out.  Poor overworked Sakurai...

Alien Isolation, the perfect festive game, was ported to Switch (and well) this month.  The titular aliens are famous for their reproductive process, but when we make extra-terrestrial contact, how would those aliens really make more aliens?
Like amoebae but introducing mutations with every split.  No mess, fuss, or passion.  That's why they're more successful than us, that's why they found us before we found them, and that's why they'll take over the planet and why we should be grateful.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hit cinemas last month and like The Force Awakens, it's posing questions about whether Star Wars relies too much on nostalgia. Is there a media franchise you think needs to let the past die and if so, why?
Pokémon should stop wallowing in its main ten or so monsters, its plot structure, and its release frequency.  It needs to take a deep breath and make a fresh start without either over-channelling nostalgia for RBY or trying to gimmick everything up.  That's a bastard of a balance to strike, and it's irrelevant because Game Freak won't.

It's the end of the year, and the decade!  How was gaming in 2019 for you, and how did it compare to the decade's best?
It was good!  Or, well, the latter half of the year was.  It poured high-quality indies and retail games into my lap like a cuddly cat with diarrhoea.  That, er, poops games.  It's nowhere near the decade's best, mind: there were no truly exceptional games.  2014 had a couple, even with the dryness of the Wii U, and 2017 has already been discussed in detail.  Still, a good year for Nintendo gamers.

It's the last Meet the Admin. Team too!  The official story is lack of interest, but why's it really coming to a close?
Jay's sold the rights to a film company.  The cinematic release will be called Jay and Silent Balla Strike Back.

It's CHRIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAS! Or rather, it was Christmas last month, of course. What's the best reaction you've had to a gift you've given someone else?

I was always really good at getting gifts for kids. My brother and sister, my cousins, they regularly cite my gifts as their favourites.
Also, my last couple Christmases in High School I got into the habit of buying presents for my large-ish group of friends, which included arather a few ladies at that point, and it went down very well and I goot invited to some parties and I think it kinda kick-started the social life which made me who I am today and got me my first couple of girlfriends.

Shovel Knight finally came to the end of its development cycle following a string of high quality and substantial content updates from Yacht Club Games. What game comes to mind when you think about its developer team providing ongoing support and content over the years?

Splatoon, for sure. In both games, Nintendo kept adding maps, modes, weapons, songs, features, clothes for ages. And then we got a full new expansion as well? Top shit.

Alien Isolation, the perfect festive game, was ported to Switch (and well) this month.  The titular aliens are famous for their reproductive process, but when we make extra-terrestrial contact, how would those aliens really make more aliens?

They bone. They for sure bone. Partner-based reproduction allows for a much more diverse gene pool and is retty essential to developing complex life, and interpersonal, face-to-face, long-term breeding mechanics is a huge part of why we are complex social beings.

But maybe, after a terrible war on their own planet, all the men are gone. And they've travelled the galaxy looking for a planet with carbon-based life similar enough to themselves. And then they search that planet for the most virile, most savagely sexual male specimen. . .  and the sexy alien ladies land their saucer in Bridgewater and they're all lie . . . "Oh Pengers . . . we have forgotten what it means . . . please teach us this Earth thing called love".

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hit cinemas last month and like The Force Awakens, it's posing questions about whether Star Wars relies too much on nostalgia. Is there a media franchise you think needs to let the past die and if so, why?

Fucking all this nerd shit. Bunch of straight white men defending a fucked status quo. Avengers? Bin 'em. Bond? Fuck off. Ghost busters? Boomers.

It's the end of the year, and the decade!  How was gaming in 2019 for you, and how did it compare to the decade's best?
It followed 2018, which was a pretty tough act to follow. On the one hand, I was working full time for all of 2019, while 2018 had those 5 months where I was just travelling and that. On the other hand, in 2018 I only had a few short weeks with Shen before we were in separate continents, whereas I got to spend almost half of 2019 with her. 2017 had the best games, and it was on an upward trajectory as soon as I made the decision to leave the UK, let alone actually did it. Somewhere in those three is the best. Maybe it was 2019 . . .

It's the last Meet the Admin. Team too!  The official story is lack of interest, but why's it really coming to a close?

Accusations. You know, those kind.