I’m Ron Burgundy?

Honestly I am surprised that a game like Not for Broadcast hasn’t been released sooner. With how many simulator type games there are now and the fact that news media and organizations have been talked about daily for a long time now just seemed like a natural fit. The developer at Not Games has merged the two into what amounts to a satirical, fully acted, propaganda simulator.

MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC, VR
Price I’d Pay: $24.99

Not for Broadcast tasks players with working the news desk in an alternate Britain in the 1980’s. In the game the far-left government party just swept an election and it’s up to the player to decide how and what news makes the airways. To this end players will work a multicam setup mixing shots for interviews, bleeping naughty words and deciding to peddle a not so safe toy for children. While that might sound difficult it really is just pressing a bunch of buttons and dials. All of the news footage is filmed and presented in FMV and helps with the gritty feel of TV in the 80’s. The cast does a great job in their roles and the chemistry and side banter had me in stitches at times. The game empowers players to editorialize how they see fit with the news as well; when reporting about a celebrity there will be two choices of photos to use, one where the picture is in a flattering light and another where they may be throwing up outside a club.

These sorts of scenarios are at the heart of each news day in the game, with each episode lasting about 20 minutes each. While there is just the simple thing of timing camera cuts, and queuing commercials Not for Broadcast will throw some curveballs at players. These can come by way of naked protestors barging into the newsroom where players will have to ensure their ‘naughty bits’ aren’t shown to the public at large. Sometimes it can just be simple signal interference that will require players to guide a wave line in a simple minigame. What becomes almost immediately apparent is that Not for Broadcast was made for VR, pushing these buttons with a controller and a cursor isnt bad but I can see how it would be more interactive in its original state.

To its benefit Not for Broadcast manages to avoid using any real political drama as fodder for its game. Lord knows there is a TON to choose from here lately but the game charts its on course. There is an odd breakdown in the balance of writing though, while the game presents players options to change the narrative there are ever really two choices, good and not good. Both usually will have a joke or some sort of gag with it and it’s good for a laugh but if you were wanting a chance to push some sort of semblance of a serious political agenda this isn’t the game for you. But the writing and cast work for the most part here, most of the jokes land a special shoutout to the Gordon Ramsey doppelganger, I feel for those censors on his shows.

Not for Broadcast was a good time, while the later levels will test the reflexes of most due to the sheer number of things that are needed to juggle I never hated my time playing the game. The wit and humor here always managed to get a chuckle from me and the ability after each broadcast to replay your creation to see it uncut as the public did is a nice touch. Not for Broadcast feels quite timely as I said before with the amount of news that we see on any given day now, the developers managed to walk a line that won’t offend anyone but will instead get some laughs from them.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.