wow!! actual positive news from the games industry for once. didnt think the day would actually come but i guess being a toxic pessimist actually pays off once every few years?
i can only hope this means that otherside's already a hollowed out corpse of a studio or, at the very least, on the verge of fucking dying. there may actually be decent, talented people who lost their jobs over this bullshit, which sucks, but ultimately i think this is the best possible outcome. over the years ive become more and more convinced that
the beer guy from looking glass's closing party must have spiked their beer supply with bleach or some shit because they literally all have terminal boomeritis. there hasnt been a single looking glass alumnus thats done anything even remotely noteworthy since the mid 2000s or so - they all have fucking brain damage. yes, paul neurath is a conman and warren is a washed up senile piece of shit who hasnt worked on a legitimately great game since deus ex (and honestly, harvey smith, sheldon pacotti, and the rest of the entire fucking team should get more credit for deus ex because i sincerely doubt warren had anything to do with it being so fucking good) but he's not the only one that's lost his mind over the years. just look at
terri brosius's twitter,
all she fucking does is retweet the most basic anti-trump propaganda imaginable, this bitch unironically retweeted motherfucking
mike bloomberg's campaign account, she's as pro establishment as it gets. there's no fucking hope for these people, they're deranged washed up ex-mit boomers who have absolutely no idea how to develop a videogame in [current year] and underworld ascendant is physical proof of this, so much so that im surprised that more looking glass fanatics werent tearing it apart, it's comedically bad.
underworld ascendant also proves that if anyone is actually physically capable of continuing the legacy that looking glass left behind in may 2000, it sure as hell isnt looking glass themselves - the industry left them behind ages ago, and honestly, as much as i hate to say it, good fucking riddance. it's absolutely tragic but it's the painful fucking truth. i've seen a bunch of people point at arkane and call them The Next Looking Glass™, but not only are they owned by the corrupt, nightmarish, gluttonous elder demon that calls itself "zenimax media incorporated" in our tongue, but its been like 20 fucking years and they havent turned out a single game thats on par with any of the old looking glass classics. like, ok, dishonored is a decent game, viktor antonov's art is nice, but it isnt as revolutionary or atmospheric as thief 1 and 2 (or even deadly shadows), it's just kind of ok i guess? theyre not awful but at best, i still think of them as a looking class cover band - they're fine, they sort of understand what it was that made what they're covering good, but it just isn't the same. nothing else is, really. we can only sit and fucking hope that the fans (and maybe some ambitious indie devs) carry on looking glass's legacy in the decades to come.
looking glass has been dead for almost 20 goddamn years and otherside getting fucked over is just the icing on the cake - long live looking glass.
