​By Liam McKelvey

Ah Nintendo, never change your ways.
 
People love you and express it by creating their own fan games and how do you respond?
 
You shut them down and ignore all their work.
 
Nintendo is notorious for targeting fan projects based on their properties and striking them down with legal action, to the disappointment of many.
 
The latest project to fall victim to this was a game called Pokémon Prism.
 
Prism is a fan game, or ROM Hack, of the Gameboy Colour Pokémon games which was planned to include new towns, dungeons, moves and feature Pokémon from across four generations. But of course, they announced the game was near completion and Nintendo reacted by swiftly sending them a DMCA and the project was cancelled.
 
Nintendo did this to other projects earlier in the year; most notably they sent a cease and desist to the developers of Project AM2R, a HD remake of Metroid 2. Nintendo was also rumoured to be involved in the shutdown of Project M last year, which was a massively popular mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 
As you would expect fans were not pleased when they heard this news.
 
But there is a reason why Nintendo goes after fan projects so often and with little mercy.
 
Copyright law says that if a company does not protect their properties then they become available to use by anyone under fair use. However, are fans really right to use another company’s established work as a base for their own?
 
This area is pretty grey and the legality of the situation isn’t that clear cut. There isn’t much precedent set around ROM hacking. Currently ROM hacking existing games is perfectly legal, with the condition that they are distributed for free and no financial benefit is gained from doing so.
 
On the other hand, ROM hacks such as Pokémon Prism can be considered derivative works. If this happens to be the case and a court rules it so, then projects like Prism can be shut down.  But if a court rules that the fan game has a degree of originality to it, then the project can legally continue on.
 
So Nintendo is justified in their actions, it’s just that they are pretty harsh in the way they handle everything regarding their IP.
 
Nintendo never actually acknowledges the projects and doesn’t give any credit to the fans who more often than not, pour their heart and soul into these projects. It wouldn’t hurt Nintendo to offer some condolence or support to the creators of projects like Prism or AM2R; a little fan appreciation can go a long way these days.
 
This example simply represents the latest effort by Nintendo to shut down fan projects which possibly infringe on their properties.
 
Similar criticism has been levelled at Nintendo in the past for their harsh treatment of fans and general disregard of their community. People have argued that Nintendo are behind the times when concerned with community interaction and that they really need to rework their internet strategy.
 
It really shows how behind Nintendo are when they refuse to adopt to the internet age and refuse to give their fans credit, when Sony and Microsoft actively try to show some goodwill towards their audience.
 
Really, it would be best if Nintendo just take a step back and have a think about how to interact with their fan base on a more positive level. But realistically Nintendo is a business after all and businesses will do everything in their legal power to keep their IP’s protected, even if they end up looking like the evil corporation in doing so.
 
What do you think about Nintendo’s interaction with fans and their projects, do you think they are harsh or are they in the right?
 
Let us know what you think down below in the comments.
 
Thanks and remember to check back for more gaming news and opinions from Pretty Good Gaming.

Dishonored 2 is the latest in a long, long, long line of games to perform like ass on the PC.

Bethesda's new sneak-n-stab 'em up is really struggling to deliver a decent framerate on even the biggest, baddest PCs around.

Many will point to the fact that this is a Bethesda game and so shouldn't come as a surprise - even the Remastered version of Skyrim, which arrived some FIVE YEARS after the original, included bugs and glitches that were carried over from the lesser 2011 version.

But it's frankly a little embarrassing for Bethesda at this point, that the community expects their games to be bug-ridden lag-factories - to the point that it's now used as a defence for the company. 

"It's a Bethesda game, what do you expect?"

F*** that.

I expect it to work. I expect it to be fun. I expect to get what I paid for.

I've given you £40 - it's now your duty to supply me with a functioning product that works as expected.

The only action Bethesda have taken over Dishonored so far is to share a list of "hints a tips" to improve performance.

These tips include the standard lowering of resolution, turning off anti-aliasing, lowering graphics presets are lowered and ensuring all your drivers are up to date.

Only gamers with PCs which far exceed recommended specs should play on Ultra, we're told.

The problem is, most PC gamers will do all that anyway. They're the most savvy and aware audience there is in gaming, and troubleshooting problems is just part of what it is to be a PC gamer.

Honestly.

I tried to set up my new Steam Link yesterday to play PC games on my 50 inch living room TV.

Instead I spent three hours trying to update my Nvidia Drivers after they got screwed up by Windows 10 and when I eventually fixed the problem I was too tired to play and went to bed to watch Futurama.

That's what PC gaming IS.

Ok, that's sometimes what PC gaming.

The point is, we know what to do and what to try when games don't run right, and there comes a point where all we can do is wait for a patch - because the problem is on your end, Bethesda.

There's no sign of a patch yet but we have to assume one is on the way.

And anyway, it will likely take several updates before Dishonored is in a fit state, by which time, four other big new games will have come and gone.

Video games need to be ready on release, and they need to be ready on every platform.

It's simply not good enough to crap them out on release day then stitch them up later.

And with Bethesda now promising not to give out early review copies to media outlets and YouTubers for review before release, you can bet your ass you'll see a lot more of this happening.

They feel safe that their games can be a bit unfinished - because with no more early reviews, there's no longer any advance warning of this to us as consumers.

We should expect to see more games arriving unfinished and damn-near unplayable on some platforms in future - because with enough pre-orders and day-one sales in hand, it won't make a lick of difference to the publishers.

That's until we all finally see sense and stop pre-ordering and buying on day one altogether.
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We might do a video on this next week depending on how this develops and how angry we feel about it monday morning. But in the meantime - dammit, Bethesda. We like your games. We love your games. Why'd you have to make it so hard!

November brings with it a lot of things. 

Bonfire Night here in the UK, the start of the Christmas frenzy and the end of Halloween, to name a few. 

It also invariably means a new CoD.

Only, this year's a bit different - because we're actually getting two of them. Even if one of them isn't actually available to buy on its own (eBay flogging aside).

Yes, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare arrives on November 4, right alongside a remaster of Call of Duty Modern Warfare - the game that turned the CoD series into a super franchise with annual releases.

One hurls players into the future to try and find excitement in a series that has long run out of new ideas, while the other goes back to its roots to try and reignite the old ideas that made it a world-conquering success in the first place.

Activision have thrown a lot of money at this year's iteration, Infinite Warfare, with an impressive cast and all the bombast and spectacle you'd expect from a CoD game.

Despite the game's trailer being one of the most disliked videos in YouTube history, you shouldn't expect Infinite Warfare to be anything other than another monumental success for Activision - at least in sales terms.

But that's not all that's hitting the shelves, physical or digital, this month.

We've got the sequel to 2014's maligned open world hacking game Watch Dogs coming our way, as well as stealth action adventure Dishonored 2 and more.

There's also the small matter of the PS4 Pro which arrives on November 10 - a mid-generation console that could change the landscape of console gaming as we know it.

Yeah - it's kind of a big month, all in all.

So as you start to draw up your Christmas wishlists, do check out our list of the biggest and best games to look out for this month.

We'll have another list for you in December of course, and stick with the channel for lots more news, reviews and coverage throughout the month.

What a week.
It's been a huge week for fans of video games, westerns, and basically anything that is good.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was first teased then announced in spectacular fashion by Rockstar Games, triggering a frenzy of excitement and speculation on the internet.

What is the game like? Where is it set? Who's in it?

So many questions have been asked online and we've been among the many trying to come up with educated guesses as answers.

Below are some of our videos from a hectic week of Red Dead Redemption coverage.
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Please do leave a like and comment if you enjoy the videos - it really helps us out.
Thanks!

​Mike

The time has finally arrived to unveil our brand spanking new website - Pretty Good Gaming!

The site will complement our Pretty Good Gaming Channel over on YouTube, serving as an archive and a hub for all our activities and videos.

Expect to see some written content and features here too, like reviews, opinion pieces and blog posts, as well as info on all our latest giveaways.

Pretty Good Gaming is the next stage in the story of Gareth Evans Gaming.

With Mike on board and a new ambition to build and drive the channel forward, we decided to develop a name and a brand that was fun and distinct, while keeping in mind our relaxed and considered approach to gaming.

Our aim is to entertain and inform you guys to the best of our ability, giving you balanced takes on all sorts of gaming news and issues, plenty of funny moments to enjoy and a ton of entertaining content to sink your teeth into.

From now on we're going to be bringing you more fresh and bang up to date content to coincide with the biggest releases in gaming, with early gameplay videos, first impressions and reviews of massive titles like Mafia III and Battlefield 1. 

The cornerstone of our channel's content will be the Pretty Good Saturday show, which will include a mix of news, chat and funny bits, as well as weekly highlights from the channel and your comments.

We'll also be giving away loads of games to you, our viewers, as a thank you for commenting on and watching our content.

Having already given away some awesome games like The Witcher III, The Last of Us and Surgeon Simulator, our aim is very much to continue that tradition.

We've done our best to design a clean and enjoyable website for you guys to explore, and to help you keep track of our content and stay on top of the videos you enjoy.

We can't thank you enough for the support you've given us so far.

We really hope you'll stay with us as we grow and develop this channel and our new website.

Thanks for being awesome guys, we hope you enjoy the site.

Bye for now!

Gaz and Mike.