Ever since the GTA series became the biggest game franchise in the world with GTA 3, many have tried to one-up it. No game has succeeded, but many of its challengers have remarkable development stories, so let's remember the fallen.

Driv3r

The first two Driver games are staples of the original PlayStation and legendary car-chase titles. Driv3r, the game meant to beat GTA 3 with its experience in the 3D realm, achieved legendary status, but only for the worst reasons.

Driv3r's development became so troubled that it was delayed to the point of competing not with GTA 3 or GTA Vice City, but with GTA San Andreas, a game lightyears ahead of everything else. And it gets worse.

Driv3r is responsible for "Driv3rgate," a huge scandal that hit when people suspected publisher Atari was cozying up to big gaming outlets of its time in exchange for ridiculously high scores that overlooked all of the game's technical issues. Never heard about Driv3rgate? Well, that might be because Atari then allegedly spent big bucks on a campaign to delete all negative press about Driv3r and replace it with positive reactions from fake accounts. Seems bad, but you gotta give them credit for pulling off this level of crap before AI was a thing.

So, if we're to end on a positive note, as far as criminal simulators go, Driv3r actually outdoes GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, because its development reportedly featured actual unlawful activity! Here's hoping that joke doesn't age poorly very, very fast.

JAK 2

Jak 2 isn't the game most would think of as a GTA competitor, but they'd be wrong.

The original Jak and Daxter was a cool platformer, one that combined the action of the Crash Bandicoot series that Naughty Dog was known for, with much more open play areas. The natural evolution of that alone should've gotten Naughty Dog enough praise and sales to keep the series alive, but then something changed everything.

GTA 3's release deeply shook the entire gaming landscape, and Naughty Dog admitted the Jak and Daxter sequel was heavily inspired by it, and that’s why you now have guns, cars, and a huge megacity-like play world. Even the name was changed to a three-letter name followed by a number. Jak 2 is a good game, but it's too far away from the original, and definitely still not the game that would appeal to the more mature GTA-loving audience.

Mafia

If we overlook Mafia 3's considerable technical issues because a dangerous-looking dude told us to, we can say the Mafia series is pretty great overall. It did, however, make a big mistake in its clinging to realism. The original Mafia takes place over the 1930s, some of the greatest years of organized crime, I've been told, and also a time that feels completely separate from the '90s and '80s of most GTA games up until then. Sadly, however, the developers seemingly didn't conduct much research into the cars of that time, a big part of making a GTA competitor. The good news is that cars were, indeed, already a thing back in the '30s, but they were slow as hell and thus not fun for either chasing other bad guys or getting away from the police.

Interestingly, there's one mission in the original Mafia where the cars can actually achieve decent speeds—the racing minigame, naturally—but that's actually gone down in history as one of the worst missions in this kind of game, since the cars are nearly uncontrollable. Mafia is a good game, but beating GTA 3 would have taken so much more than just that.

True Crime: Streets of LA

To anyone growing up in the '90s and Y2K times, everything about True Crime: Streets of LA read like "GTA but BETTER." It had you join the "good" guys, starred a wild number of Hollywood A-listers, and even added cool martial arts and Matrix- inspired shooting shenanigans. How are we not suffering acutely while waiting for True Crime 6 right now? Well, turns out there's such a thing as a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

Though the idea of putting a greater focus on combat was the right one, the game suffered from a bunch of technical hiccups, like bad camera and clipping that left the gameplay feeling too unpolished to measure up to GTA 3 or Vice City. Weirdly, True Crime's weaker technical side would only get worse with its sequel, True Crime: New York City, and the martial arts GTA-like would only resurface a decade later with Sleeping Dogs.

The Getaway

The Getaway is one of the most expensive games ever made, and it shows. The developers at Team Soho literally cloned a large part of London and put it in a game with some of the best visuals of its time. The Getaway was as real as a game could get up until that point—and that proved a problem. See the sky in the image above? It's grey just like the London sky tends to be, but that just isn't as fun as sunny Vice City, sorry, Londoners.

The same focus on realism over fun is seen in many other parts of the game, like the minimalistic or null HUD, a very realistic and immersive choice that absolutely works with games meant for hardcore players like Escape From Tarkov, but that tend not to work on games aimed at mass market appeal. The Getaway was still a technical marvel, but not a marvelously fun game.

The post Many games have tried to take away GTA’s crown, so here are the failures worthy of looking back on and reminiscing what could have been appeared first on Destructoid.

Happy Year of the Horse, everyone! Horses are a great addition to games because they make traveling across large maps more fun, but each tends to have very specific problems, which make them even more fun. So, here's the definitive ranking of all the best horses in games.

Last place: the horse from Oblivion

No matter how many awful horses they'll come up with for games in the future, this will always be the worst of them all. In truth, I have nothing about the szallionitself. I'm glad Oblivion gave players a faster option than their legs to explore the world, and a less stupid one than the game's instant fast travel method.

My problem with the horse is that it unknowingly became the vessel for one of the worst things to ever hit the world of gaming: microtransactions. Yes, this was the first time a game featured a cosmetic that players would have to pay for, and for a single-player only experience, no less. Players and games media criticized the decision in unison, which was then mostly seen as something dumb, and not necessarily world-ending. Bethesda did not relent, so that was the first domino falling to create the cursed gaming landscape of today.

To the glue factory with it.

5. Roach from The Witcher 3

The Witcher 3 features one of the most alive worlds I've ever seen in a game. Even the bog-filled area of Velen spills life through its beautiful golden light and wind-blown greenery. Dashing through these places at high speed on the back of Roach greatly amplifies the already high immersion. Overall, the game puts Roach to great use, by also turning him into a fully-fledged racehorse in the minigames and a loyal companion in combat.

On a less serious but equally important note, however, Roach truly does feel like he underwent actual witcher training. He can run on two legs—front or rear—do flips, teleport to the top of houses, and never because that's what he was ordered to do. Roach is one of the most glitched-out horses in gaming, and somehow, none of that hurts his ranking, because every surprise he inevitably has in store for players throughout Geralt's adventures only makes Roach more fun.

Roach also carries extra stuff for you, which is really cool, especially when you learn of it before you're already halfway through the second DLC.

4. All horses from Red Dead Redemption 2

If you're looking for realistic horses, look no further. Rockstar went to great lengths to make the horses look and behave as realistically as possible for Red Dead Redemption 2, down to little details they really needn't have bothered with.

They're also less prone to putting their heads right in front of your crosshair just as you're about to shoot, causing them to die immediately, than the horses from the original Red Dead Redemption, so that's another plus.

3. Torrent from Elden Ring

The most immediately striking thing about Torrent from Elden Ring is that he doesn't really look like a traditional horse, but he's so good at his duties that his horsedom is never in question. If anything, Torrent is less of a horse and more of a Horse+. This is the first video game steed to unlock the double jump ability, which alone makes him the most useful companion you can have.

As soon as I learned from the previews that Torrent would have that ability, a terrible fear hit me that it could be buggy and result in even more deaths than normal in a Souls game, but he actually plays like a dream. I still died way more times than I should have for using his double leap ability to clear impossible distances, mind you, but that's totally on me.

2. Agro from Shadow Of The Colossus

I don't even need to say it, but Agro is just majestic. I'd forgive it even if it were prone to absolutely ridiculous glitches, but it isn't. Agro is a necessary extension of the main character in Shadow of the Colossus, and he never falters. Not once did he cause me to die, even when I was making very questionable decisions (only for testing purposes, naturally). On top of making map traversal extremely fun and even soothing, Agro plays an essential role in some of the game's boss battles, somehow never causing the game to stumble or lag for it.

Agro might not feature a look as realistic as that of the horses from Red Dead Redemption 2, but that also means he never makes me look at his balls. Agro is the best.

1. Glitterhoof from Crusader Kings 2

So yeah, I know I just said that Agro is the best horse, but he's the best horse at being a horse. Glitterhoof is the best horse at being a person, and can even be the best world leader.

Because of a hilarious Easter Egg, a leader in Crusader Kings 2 with the lunatic trait may nominate his horse as an official member of his council. Play your cards right, and you will have your horse having horse babies who'll populate his dynasty and hopefully conquer the entire world.

Glitterhoof's history as the horse that went from belonging to a mad Viking to restoring the Roman Empire is the best-documented instance of this Easter Egg coming to glorious fruition, and hopefully, now that you've read this, it won't be the last.

The post The absolute best horses in games, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t win any awards for best plot twist, likely because they don’t exist. So we’ll have to talk about it because it deserves it, yes, but also because of how it reminds me of a game I’d expect to have nothing in common with it. Deep spoilers follow for both games.

Dreaming of fish

I’m talking about Link’s Awakening from 1993, the first Zelda game to come out for the Game Boy. It takes place in Koholint Island, one of the few locations outside of Hyrule seen in the entire series, and with good reason. It's a really neat place, filled with likeable inhabitants, but over the course of the game, appearances of characters such as Yoshi, Kirby, and even some from Sim City hint at how this place is the strangest place ever visited in the series.

Still, no matter, as Link just needs to go back home anyway. To do so, he has to wake a mystical creature named the Wind Fish. Before doing so, however, Link discovers that the reason for all the wackiness is not a regular pre-Smash Bros. attempt at a multiverse, but rather that he’s not experiencing his waking reality. The dream of this fish fabricated the entire island, and incidentally absorbed Link as he crashed into it.

Most of Expedition 33 also doesn't take place in its world's base reality. Though its real world also features fantastical elements, such as people of various artistic backgrounds possessing magical powers, it's much closer to our 19th-century Paris than to the overly magical world we see surrounding the city of Lumiere. Learning that likely came as a shock during your playthrough. Even tougher, probably, was learning after you'd have to choose between staying in that reality at the expense of your own family and of your own health, or escaping, but in a manner that would kill every living being in that small world.

Similarly, Link’s Awakening requires Link to wake the Wind Fish from his slumber to be set free, even though that will also abruptly end that small pocket of reality, immediately ending all life on it. Worse yet, that game never gives players the choice to spare anyone.

Choices matter (and hurt)

Under normal circumstances, players would be able to excuse their actions, arguing that it was possibly all just a dream and that nobody was really harmed, since they never really existed in the first place. But the Zelda game's secret ending shows that one of the "fish's creations" actually managed to somehow break through and be materialized into this world after the destruction of their own. So, even though the secret ending is there to leave players on a more hopeful note, it actually confirms that a load of people and fun creatures actually died because Link would only get good at sailing in Wind Waker.

https://youtu.be/oiA-1zj7ZOU?t=1017

I don't know whether Expedition 33 was inspired by Link's Awakening, but it doesn't really matter. What earns E33’s plot a place among the greats is not really the surprise value or the originality. Most who are gushing about E33 were already familiar with The Matrix, The Truman Show, or even Dream-Zanarkand in Final Fantasy X. What truly makes the big reveal at the end of E33’s second act is the emotional weight it puts on our backs and has us carrying until the end.

That’s not the case with Link’s Awakening, which spends absolutely no time disentangling the complexities put forth by the game’s own plot. Link’s Awakening carelessly plays the whole dream scenario as just a cool idea, one that gets way too dark for a Zelda title upon even surface-level inquiry. Whatever the case may be, it’s always cool to see another thing that E33 did better than the big guys.

The original version of Link’s Awakening only ever came out for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and the Virtual Console, but you can now also play the Switch version. Alternatively, you can also play this game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, or PC.

The post This obscure Zelda title asked Expedition 33’s big existential question first, in a much darker way appeared first on Destructoid.

I only learned about Horses, a unique-looking horror title featuring naked men wearing horse masks, when it made the news for getting a Steam ban. It's just been banned from the Epic Store, too, which had me finding out whether the real reason was spooky or just plain dumb.

https://bsky.app/profile/santaragione.com/post/3m6zgqun5us2f

So, the reasoning behind the bans on both storefronts was mature content... of the non-specified type. Maybe because it features things too scary or sexy to even write about? Epic didn't go beyond stating that Horses violates their policies for "Inappropriate" and "Hateful or Abusive Content." Well, Horses shows butt-naked, forcefully anthropomorphized horses, among other possibly sexy or just straight-up terrifying elements, but it's not a pornographic game, nor does it feature any sort of pro-hate stance. It's just puzzling that such a game would get banned like this, but it gets even sillier.

It's especially strange for Steam, a storefront with way too many sex games. At first, the ban seems more reasonable when coming from Epic. This is the company mostly known for Fortnite, a game whose cute aesthetics almost make you forget it's about 100 kids shooting each other until death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYewjNYxV-8

Still, Horses earned an IARC certificate of PEGI 18 and ESRB M, nothing above that, and both Epic and Steam are still overruling it. So, Epic considers Horses "mature content", and that the company explains that it just doesn't sell that kind of stuff, unless, well, let's just use their official statement because there's no way I could make it funnier if I wanted:

"Products with AO ratings cannot be distributed on the Epic Games Store (the only exception is for products in cases where an AO rating was applied solely due to the usage of blockchain or NFT technology)."

Santa Ragione, the indie developer studio behind Horses, is aware of how ridiculous this all sounds, so they have a regularly updated explainer of the entire debacle that you can read.

The team only learned of the ban roughly 24 hours before the game's launch. I'm yet to play Horses, but, if most accounts from respected video game outlets that have tried it are to be believed, it's a damn good game, and far from something that should be forbidden. Santa Ragione has since appealed Epic's verdict, but the appeal has been denied.

You can now get Horses on GOG and Itch.io.

The post Why did this mysterious horror game get banned from Steam and now the Epic Games Store? appeared first on Destructoid.

Valve tried making Steam Machines a thing once, long ago, but they flopped so hard that we barely even remember them. Still, Valve has changed, and the new Steam Machine looks like an entirely different machine, so let's look at why they might actually pull it off this time around.

Better and friendlier Steam Controller

The first time I saw a PS1 controller was in a TV ad, and it just looked too different from any controller of its time to have me sold on it. It was only when I tried it out at a store's display that I realized it was the most ergonomic controller at that point.

The original Steam controller was actually pretty good, but its radically unique design just threw so many off before they even got to try it. That was made worse by how people could only buy it online, missing out on the chance to test it themselves before passing a harsh judgment. The new Steam controller keeps the features of the original, while looking a lot more like a regular controller would. The Steam Machine isn't meant to work solely with the new Steam Controller, but that's a great way to conquer the more casual-oriented family demographic. The device used to interact with the new system must look ergonomic and accessible even before potential users experience it.

ARM Support is a great strategic advantage

As caught by Digital Foundry, the new Steam Machine might have a powerful trick up its sleeve. Long story short, the new Steam Machine features ARM support, which will allow it to fight on all fronts. The main reason why the original Steam Machine failed was that it ran on Linux, and just didn’t entice enough developers to create native Linux ports of their games, which resulted in a killer lack of output. The new Steam Machine will run on Steam OS 3, which comes from Linux as well, yes, but it'll be compatible not only with PC games, but also mobile ones.

One Steam Machine to rule them all

Everything about the original Machine was too confusing, to the point that there wasn’t even just "one" Steam Machine, but a bunch of different machines from different manufacturers with the Steam Machine brand slapped on them. On top of adding extra layers of confusion, this exacerbated existing problems. The original Steam Machine was meant to compete with PCs, but it had a limited or null range for upgrades, depending on its manufacturer. It was, somehow, both a more limited and more confusing product than a PC.

We still don't know the range of upgradeability of the new Steam Machine, but it'll feature a unified hardware and, also very importantly, design. It might seem stupid, but this is what makes people see the machine as a strong product, and not as one of many confusing and less alluring alternatives to a PC. Have you noticed its cube shape and how everyone has been calling it the "Gabe Cube"? That sounds a lot like Valve might've cooked themselves behind the scenes to take off in a seemingly organic way, and, either way, it sure has. That's a sign that something is happening.

Consoles are too comfortable right now

The console market currently sucks, with the output of games at an all-time low and prices at an all-time high. Back then, even the cheapest Steam Machine would cost you $499, rendering it incapable of competing with the PS4. Today, even at the higher price point that Valve is hinting at for the Steam Machine, a lot of people might just shell out a few more dollars to get a more powerful system with access to a much larger library—one that even includes many of the best PlayStation games out there.

Why the Steam Machine can really pull it off

In case you're still not aware of it, I must break it to you that we're currently in the era of "Enshittification", a term coined by Sci-Fi author Cory Doctorow that describes the process by which online platforms become less effective and sometimes straight-up sillier for no apparent reason. Sadly, that also rings true regarding tech products, despite all manner of technological advances. Valve, however, seems serious about delivering something new that also performs old functions better.

Also, Valve is simply in a much better position to promote its own hardware right now. The Steam Deck is a massive success, a miraculous non-Nintendo piece of mobile hardware that's not only selling like hot cakes but has even inspired a wide array of competitors, effectively creating a new line of hardware in the mobile-PC hybrid arena.

Despite its current ubiquity, Steam wasn't always the juggernaut it currently is. The idea of a launcher might sound pretty useful, so long as it's not competing with a bunch of others, but not everyone was immediately keen on an extra step required to play a game. Valve, however, ended up improving Steam until it became essential to every PC gamer. Steam Machines might just follow suit, regardless of how silly that sounds right now.

The post Valve’s Steam Machine specs show they learned from their failure a decade ago appeared first on Destructoid.

I only learned about Horses, a unique-looking horror title featuring naked men wearing horse masks, when it made the news for getting a Steam ban. It's just been banned from the Epic Store, too, which had me finding out whether the real reason was spooky or just plain dumb.

https://bsky.app/profile/santaragione.com/post/3m6zgqun5us2f

So, the reasoning behind the bans on both storefronts was mature content... of the non-specified type. Maybe because it features things too scary or sexy to even write about? Epic didn't go beyond stating that Horses violates their policies for "Inappropriate" and "Hateful or Abusive Content." Well, Horses shows butt-naked, forcefully anthropomorphized horses, among other possibly sexy or just straight-up terrifying elements, but it's not a pornographic game, nor does it feature any sort of pro-hate stance. It's just puzzling that such a game would get banned like this, but it gets even sillier.

It's especially strange for Steam, a storefront with way too many sex games. At first, the ban seems more reasonable when coming from Epic. This is the company mostly known for Fortnite, a game whose cute aesthetics almost make you forget it's about 100 kids shooting each other until death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYewjNYxV-8

Still, Horses earned an IARC certificate of PEGI 18 and ESRB M, nothing above that, and both Epic and Steam are still overruling it. So, Epic considers Horses "mature content", and that the company explains that it just doesn't sell that kind of stuff, unless, well, let's just use their official statement because there's no way I could make it funnier if I wanted:

"Products with AO ratings cannot be distributed on the Epic Games Store (the only exception is for products in cases where an AO rating was applied solely due to the usage of blockchain or NFT technology)."

Santa Ragione, the indie developer studio behind Horses, is aware of how ridiculous this all sounds, so they have a regularly updated explainer of the entire debacle that you can read.

The team only learned of the ban roughly 24 hours before the game's launch. I'm yet to play Horses, but, if most accounts from respected video game outlets that have tried it are to be believed, it's a damn good game, and far from something that should be forbidden. Santa Ragione has since appealed Epic's verdict, but the appeal has been denied.

You can now get Horses on GOG and Itch.io.

The post Why did this mysterious horror game get banned from Steam and now the Epic Games Store? appeared first on Destructoid.

The Internet is reeling from how Valve was totally going to announce Half-Life 3 on November 19, then on the 20th, then anytime now, but it hasn’t, and chances are it won't for who knows how long. And you know what? Good.

If you're out of the loop, worry not. Valve did in no capacity even hint at an HL3 reveal, but the rumors of an impending HL3 reveal are at an all-time high, and the Internet is, now more than ever, flooded with nonsense. At best, this is just tiresome. At worst, this hurts everyone.

In the attention economy we currently live in, it's absolutely ludicrous to hope that everyone will know better than to spy on a company in the silliest ways possible to retrieve whatever sort of evidence that they're working on something. Still, how can fans defend looking so ill-advisedly into a company that has been so significantly harmed by similar behavior in the past?

Steam's policies towards what is ostensibly gambling are very damaging to the entire community, and I'm totally fine with people looking into that. Trying to spoil the existence of games, however, just greatly dampens the fun for everyone. Such behavior poisons the hype with the inevitable crash that comes every time we realize we'd fallen prey to false hope. Either that or, well, we become the gaming equivalent of QAnon believers who'll keep seeing definite clues everywhere in the hopes of avoiding coming to terms with a harsher truth.

Game reveals can be just the best thing

I'll never forget opening Gamespot to find out Valve had done a mega gameplay presentation of Half-Life 2 at E3 2003.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ddJ1OKV63Q&t=1s

It remains my favorite presentation in gaming history. We could even hear the live "aaaw"s and "oooh"s of those in attendance. Valve released a high-res version of the demo for the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2, if you want to witness its full glory.

That unmistakable awe forever imprinted on that video was made possible because, even though Half-Life 2 was expected, nobody knew exactly what shape it would take, and its reality was way beyond anyone's dreams. Sadly, this fantastic presentation would get overshadowed as Half-Life 2's source code would end up leaked, causing the game's development and promotional efforts to retreat temporarily and rethink the strategy for a year.

A more recent case was that of GTA 6, which also suffered a huge code leakage that got so many people to witness the game in a severely unfinished state, prompting many to claim the game would suck. That was a bizarre claim, but something you can understand from consumers who aren't well-versed in what the process of game development looks like.

GTA 6 certainly won't suck, but the gross leak certainly had killed part of the surprise by the time its fantastic first trailer hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNI727-D6SM

One of the best parts of gaming might be over forever, and few have noticed

The press conferences from E3 2015 are known as some of the best in the event's history. That's because they revealed, among many others, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue 3. FFVII's case was similar to that of Half-Life 3, a game whose reveal had been heavily speculated about every year prior to 2007. People still cared for it because it was Final Fantasy VII, but by 2015, the greatest catalyst for joy in everyone's minds was knowing that they hadn't just been bamboozled once again. Shenmue 3, however, a game that many wanted, but that only a few really believed would be making a comeback, elicited this reaction:

https://youtu.be/IsS0fWIo9FY

Shenmue 3 ended up falling short of expectations, so that reveal was the best we ever got out of it; a moment when you could believe Shenmue 3 was the game to outdo everything that had come before.

E3's death fragmentation into many smaller events might prevent a reveal from ever reaching the same heights. Still, even worse is learning about the continuation of your favorite franchise via low-res—and sometimes straight-up fake—screenshots and dubious quotes from nameless devs. It sucks even harder when people who should know better also feed the problem on purpose. On the 21st, Geoff Keighley posted this on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1991907624951136477?s=20

While a layman might just see the random image of a game-y generator, that's clearly a nod to an iconic contraption from the original Half-Life, right when fans are at their weakest. So, one last time, we must ask: Does that mean Half-Life 3 will be confirmed at this year's Game Awards? No, because that’s actually a still from f*cking Fortnite.

Bloodborne 2, however, who knows?

The post Half-Life 3’s rumors point to a much bigger problem in gaming appeared first on Destructoid.