Leaves are falling all around, time I was on my way
It may seem a little odd to open the first page of an issue by talking about its final one, but we hope you’ll forgive us the indulgence just this once. This issue we introduce a new back-page feature, The Long Game, a space for us to check in on titles that have continued to grow and shift long after launch. Games have changed. A release date is often merely a starting line, and we cannot simply draw a line under something after we review it. Modern games are journeys that change with every new DLC pack and balance patch. They have destinations that are nebulous and fuzzy, and depend on a player’s tastes. What does it mean to ‘complete’ a Minecraft, a Call Of Duty, or a League Of Legends?
There were points in the making of this issue when we found ourselves hankering after simpler times: playing 100 hours of Destiny 2 to produce a four-page review is surely one of the least efficient time-to-page ratios in
Edge history. But as you’ll find out on p102, Bungie’s confounding space opera got us thinking once again about the journeys and destinations that shape the way we play, cover and think about games.
And, indeed, the way developers make them, too. In this month’s An Audience With, Robin Hunicke tells us of her ethical and moral concerns about making games in augmented and virtual reality; that violence, for example, could have a lasting real-world effect on someone who sees it through so immersive a lens. Just because something can be made, does not mean that it should. The end does not always justify the means, nor the destination the journey that preceded it.
These are complex, tumultuous times for games, in other words, and for the people that play and make them, too. And in challenging times, we need constants. Well, here he is: 278 issues ago, Mario made his first appearance on the cover of Edge. For the second time this year, he’s back on it – and what a journey he’s been on this time. You’ll find our worldexclusive review of Super Mario Odyssey on p98.