Welcome to a new upcoming month GL and GR readers, as such Sony is giving its PlayStation users some free games if you have their PSN+ service. So if you do and own one of the following consoles, then see what you’re getting this month for free:
As you may have noticed, updates have been pretty slow here on Gaming Reinvented.
But don’t panic, there is a reason for this.
Namely, I’m redesigning the entire website. Why? Well to be honest, there are two reasons.
Firstly, the existing site doesn’t really work for its purpose at the moment. It’s meant to be a service, yet currently feels more like a traditional blog. And that’s fine if you’re running a blog.
But I’m not running one. I’m running a service where people are meant to post their own content. It’s basically a social media type site for writers, in the guise of a news site.
And the current design means people don’t understand this. They don’t realise they can post their own articles or content, they keep asking me to post them as if guest blogs were still relevant and gaming sites require professional staff.
So that’s one reason I’m redesigning the site. To encourage people to use it in the way it’s meant to be used, not as yet another blog they have to send messages to about guest posts and staff writer positions.
Reason number 2 on the other hand… well that’s a bit philosophical. Basically, as I realised a few months or so ago, traditional content sites don’t really work anymore. Why is this? Because society has moved on. Instead of using traditional desktop computers, people use smartphones to access the internet through most of their day.
However, most existing sites don’t get this, and as a result, they’re stuck in the desktop era.
And that’s a huge issue. Put simply, the workflow required for old school news sites and platforms doesn’t work in this new world.
Think about it. How convenient is it to post an article on mobile?
On like, any CMS you can think of?
Not very. This means sites like Medium (and traditional CMS systems like WordPress and Drupal) lose out whenever audiences on their phones.
Yet it’s not just limited to them either. No, the same goes for news reporting too. Want to cover a Nintendo Direct? Yeah, good luck doing that on an iPad, since taking and uploading screenshots is hell and videos are even worse. Add glacial upload speeds, fiddly buttons in website interfaces and awkward plugins telling you how hard to read your work is, and things just become a complete nightmare.
But we want to fix this. We want a world where reporting the news is super simple, lightning fast and convenient for everyone. One where authors can write a beautiful story on the bus back from work without worrying that their 3G connection will fail while they’re doing so. Where users can read articles even while offline. Where modern, futuristic looking articles can be written and posted without the backing of a high-tech development team and thousands of dollars in media production skills.
Hence that’s why we’re redesigning Gaming Reinvented right now. Because in today’s smartphone era, the competition just isn’t good enough.
Full stop.
A better late than never post my fellow gaming lovers, but now that I have myself a new laptop that I can type on lets post some news. We are nearly half way into the month but if you haven’t heard, here is this month’s free PSN+ games:
Well, this is a piece of news we didn’t expect! Turns out that classic SNES RPG Secret of Mana is getting a remake, which will be released on the PS4, Vita and PC on February 15th 2018! Here’s a trailer showing the game in action:
As you can tell, it looks okay. Nothing spectacular mind, but a decent enough 3D rendition of the original game none the less. The art style works fine, and every aspect you enjoyed is ready and accounted for.
However, there are a few things I’m not a fan of here.
Firstly, why isn’t this game coming to the Nintendo Switch? Or heck, even the Xbox One for that matter?
Because it’s not a hugely ambitious game that can’t run on either platform. It’s a decent looking 3D remake of a SNES title that worked on far inferior hardware.
So there’s no apparent reason it’s not coming to all platforms. It’s not sales related. Cause the game would sell much better on the Switch or even Xbox One than on the Vita. Is it exclusivity deal related? Possibly, but then you’d think Sony would tell Square Enix not to make a PC port. At least, for the time being.
Console release wise, something doesn’t make much sense here.
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