With everyone fearful of the spread of coronavirus out of China, a lot of people are turning to video games for a mixture of cathartic stress relief and offbeat looks at virus control. On the one hand you have Plague Inc, in which you’re a plucky little virus trying to kill all mankind, on the other you have games like Two Point Hospital, where it’s all about curing people of silly illnesses.
Having released for PC back in 2018, Two Point Hospital’s Theme Hospital revival is spreading to PS4, Xbox One and Switch on 25th February, and the devs at Two Point Studios have revealed just how they’ve gone about adapting the game for a console controller. Check out the dev diary below.
The video features Lead Designer, Ben Huskins and Senior UI/UX Artist, Lauren Woodroffe from Two Point Studios, going through the first level of the game on PS4 and chatting about how the UI and controls have been overhauled for the systems.
The game was originally pencilled in for a ‘late 2019’ launch, but was admitted into the Game Delay ward in October, alongside the likes of Doom Eternal, The Good Life and XIII’s remake. Of course, a fresh spate of game delays have come this side of the new year as well, so it happens.
At the time, Two Point Studios said it was a simple case of wanting to ensure the game is as polished as possible.
So why the delay? Put simply: making a management simulation game on three consoles (and making it the best it possibly can be on all three), is a tricky programming puzzle. […]
We know you’ll be a bit disappointed by this news, but hopefully you understand why we’re doing it: quality is the most important thing and we want you to have the very best experience.
It’ll be worth the wait though, bundling in a bunch of the features from PC updates, like the Interior Designer, copy and pasting room layouts and character customisation, as well as the snowy Bigfoot and tropical Pebberley Island expansions.
The game’s also just rather delightful. In our Two Point Hospital review, Dom wrote, “There are few games that can boast the level of personality and humour that Two Point Hospital does while still giving you something serious to sink your time into. For anyone with fond memories of Theme Hospital, this is the silly hospital management sim you’ve been waiting for.”
Will it be any good for helping you prepare for a pandemic? Probably not. For that, as Plague Inc.’s developers have told people crashing their website with interest, you should really check with the WHO and CDC.
Source: press release
