Christmas Wish-list

With a ton of great games already slated for 2017 – games like Horizon: New Dawn, Red Dead Redemption 2 and of course the Nintendo Switch – and with that being said this list is not about that.

What I want to get into today is to talk about the things I would love to see (at least announced) in the next year.

1)  Resident Evil 7 to be a solid game: I played the demo and I admit I’m impressed. The game looks great and it plays in such a different way than the last few that I played. I can only hope that this is a return to the glory that Capcom once was known for.

2) A new Darksiders game: This series has been something that I have loved for a long time. I bought Darksiders for Xbox 360, then again for PS3 and of course the collector’s edition of Darksiders 2 and both remasters on PS4…With Nordic games taking over the franchise – and then subsequently re-branding themselves as THQ Nordic – one can only hope that their re-masters are just a first step towards furthering the IP. I know everyone else who loves this series is waiting for the same thing – a four player co-op with the last two Horsemen.

3) A story expansion to Overwatch: Arguably the games only real failing is the lack of a some kind of campaign mode. The game is amazing and Blizzard is doing a great job at supporting it. And yes, we have gotten some insight from the character videos, but nothing on the level of really showing us what is going. Blizzard has shown the ability to create some PvE content – so if we can get Junkenstein’s Revenge and the Mei Snowball Fight – then we can get some classic battles from the early days of Overwatch. Let’s see the Omnic Crisis, etc. If Injustice can do it – surely the Game of the Year from Blizzard can accomplish something better.

4) A release date for Kingdom Hearts 3: Final Fantasy XV is finally out. And the team who had been working on that project are now free. So how about letting us know when to expect KH3 Square Enix? I know that 2.8 is due out very soon after the new year, so hopefully that means an announcement is likely to follow soon thereafter. But I’ve had this game pre-ordered since 2013 – so I’m eagerly anticipating this game coming out.

5) More Marvel: So we’re getting an Insomniac Spider-Man. That’s a huge step for the Marvel Universe. It’s the first (hopefully) of many towards having a series that’s equivalent to the Rocksteady Batman games. But now we need to expand it. Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Daredevil – there are a ton of great characters to choose from who would adapt themselves well to video games. And there are a ton of great developers who could make them: Insomniac is a great start. How about Sucker Punch, Bethesda or Gearbox? Sucker Punch already showed they have the chops with the amazing Infamous: Second Son. And, while we’re at it…

6) How about another Infamous game: Second Son was so amazing. And frankly – it has been one of the flagship titles of the PS4. They proved with Second Son that they could put in a completely new protagonist, take it out of the game world already created (to an extent) and placed it in the real world (again, to an extent) and still produced a successful game in every way. So, with that in mind – where are we at?

7) World of Warcraft for consoles: I know this one is a huge stretch. But a lot less than it ever would have been. Blizzard has taken IPs like Diablo 3 from the purely PC world and put them on consoles. And no one ever thought it would work, but it did. Some would even argue that it’s better on console.

Well that’s my list. Tell me yours in the comments or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. Till next week my faithful readers.

– The Ego

Back again

Wow, I really kind of fell off of this. To my loyal readers, a heartfelt apology.

And what, can you possibly guess, has brought me out of hiatus? This.

So, I was very anxiously awaiting my copy of Fallout 4 today. I woke up early, just like I did as a kid at Christmas, refusing to do anything on the off chance that the mail would end up coming while I was elsewhere. Of course, that wasn’t the case. But you know, as well as I do, that if I had of done anything else, they surely would have come in the mean time. I was actually curious to see who would get it to me first, Amazon or Bestbuy. I was glad to see my faith in Bestbuy was not tried. Pretty disappointed in Amazon. I’m sure you’re wondering why I ordered two. Well, when something like this comes along, you want to make sure someone is going to fulfill that order. Worry not, fair readers, I don’t intend to scalp the second copy. When it finally shows, it’s going to a co-worker at the price I paid.

But here it is:

Now, I purposely kept myself from watching videos, reading articles, etc before the release. One of my co-workers tried to show me an unboxing video, and I had to walk away from him. But then it arrived. The article I posted had caught my eye, but before I’d read it, I wanted to unbox my own.

Now, I’m not going to say that the article is 100% in the wrong. Yes, the Pip Boy is made of plastic. And yes, it looks like plastic. But my question to the author, and to the people who have complained the same: What were you expecting? Did you think it was going to be a working, metal, futuristic Pip Boy?

Hell, even Todd Howard called it like it is. At the E word, he said: “As far as stupid gimmicks go, this is the best fucking one I’ve ever seen,”.

In defense of the article, yes, it is expensive. Yes, it’s “junk”. But if you’re buying this collector’s edition for any reason other than you love Fallout, then frankly, you need to re-think how you spend your money. Find me any game today that puts out a collector’s edition, where the statue or collectible isn’t plastic. Even some of the better one’s I own, Darksiders 2, Skyrim – the statues, masks, etc – suprise! Are all plastic…

Even the Portal gun that I purchased, and that cost me more than the Pip Boy edition (and I didn’t get a game or steelbook with it). Is it plastic? Yes. Is it incredibly well made? Well, not really. Is it cool? You bet it is.

I think people’s expectations have gotten too high. I know I’ve said it before and I’ve likely posted as much. The entitlement is getting to be a bit much. Far be it for me to say that x is worth x amount of money. I think that’s a value judgement that each person has to make for themselves. But the truth is, this is what you should come to expect when you buy a set like this. It’s never going to be the high-quality work of art that you want it to be. The Portal gun is a great example. If you want something that is built with a little more heavy-duty plastic, moving parts that function, and circuitry that serves a real purpose – expect to pay real money for it. And, again, this is just a bit of fan service. Something that you can throw up on a shelf, and take down once in a while to show off. Trust me, the Portal gun doesn’t come off of its stand very often.

I wish that opinion pieces would take a bit more time and thought. Rather than just writing a complaint off of the cuff. Sort of like this one.

I promise there’ll be more.

– The Ego

Tough choices

So, I’m sitting here, trying to decide what to do. I’m beset in one of those truly rare occurrences where I’ve been caught off-guard by a new release that I knew nothing about. That game, in this case, is Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance. Now, I know some of you are probably thinking: Well it’s a pretty easy decisions, buy or don’t buy. Right?

Well, if things were ever that easy, I don’t think blogs, vlogs and review sites would even exist. Let me breakdown my problem for you. Maybe, and I hope this is the case, it’ll give me a bit of clarity, and maybe, just maybe, a reason for some of you to comment and weigh in. That would be most excellent. As an aside, I don’t really have anyone else to give me any advice. I generally only have the angel and devil on my shoulders. The angel, being my wife and my wallet telling me that I already have enough games to play. The devil being my co-workers and the other part of my conscience telling me I need to buy anything remotely interesting because I’m missing out on great experiences.

So here’s the deal:

1. There are times where games, not major AAA releases obviously, just don’t last in stores. In this case – my store only received four copies of Disgaea 5. Now, it may stay online for some time, and it may not. So I put a copy aside for myself while I took some time to look into the matter. If the game disappears, I’m going to have to hunt for it. And, frankly, that’s tedious at the best of times.
2. Money/time – Yes the age old battle. I think that’s sufficient.
3. Lack of review sites. Now, I know this isn’t a game that is going to be at the forefront of every gaming site. But it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t deserve a decent enough review. Now, I’m not going to tear down other people’s art or what have you, but the choices to see an in-depth review about a relatively unknown game are pretty lackluster. IGN, who devoted a whopping 2 minutes, but is barely able to justify why the game ranked an 8.7 or another review I saw on youtube, which is almost 10 minutes, but is choppily read without any kind of inflection – boring me so badly that I couldn’t finish it even though it probably held the answer to my dispute. Generally, I go to gametrailers.org for my reviews. They combine video evidence and a well formed script to actually (and articulately) explain the boons and failures of games. But they too often pass on reviewing smaller title releases. I guess I get it – can’t review everything (though, I’m sure they have the staff to). I know there are a lot of written reviews, and given that I, you know, write a blog, should probably impact me just as well. But when it comes to a digital media – I really do want to see something. Sites like Metacritic make it so easy too. Collecting all of the reviews together, and offering user reviews. But even sites like that, with a relatively unknown game, are lacking.
4. What else is out this month? That ended up being the next question I had to ask myself. What else have I pre-ordered for October? Fortunately, this is the smaller issue. Looks like I only have Assassin’s Creed out, so at least that’s not going to be the deciding factor. Course, I wouldn’t mind grabbing the Darksiders re-master. But it’s not enough of  a reason to put off a new title. November though…We all know how big that’s going to be.

As I close this out, I think I know what I’m going to do. It’s always easier to just say yes, and worry about the problem later. Eventually I’ll make it through my backlog. At least that’s what I tell myself to sleep at night. Post. Weigh in. I want you to.

–  The Ego

A little unorthadox

This isn’t my usual type of posting. Normally, if you’ve been following from the start, or took the time to go back and read some of my earlier posts (if so, you totally rock) you’ll know that my posts are usually pretty topical – or are about some sort of gripe I have with the industry. Or, in the rare occasions, something I’ve noticed that a company is doing right.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been picking up a bunch of different games. This week past, I saw a game I wanted, come up on clearance, so I figured I’d go for it. It was the collector’s edition as well. Hell, go big or go home right? The contents seemed pretty cool – being a fan of the series. Oh, it was Elder Scrolls Online. Probably useful info going forward.

So I ordered it online, expecting it to show up on Friday. Figured by the time I got around to opening it, it’d be the weekend, and I’d have some good fodder. However, the postal gods were considerate – and got it to me on my day off. I get to the post office, and there is a massive (seriously, no hyperbole, massive) box with my name on it. Immediately, I figured it was one of those times where the company I bought it from was overly cautious and shipped it in a ton of packaging. I mean, look at this:

It looks pretty standard. Right? Well, it’s not.

That (^) is how big it is. The box is the size of a grown-man’s torso. Bethesda – That is how you do it!

I made a post not too long ago how I mostly pass on the collector’s editions now. The items are often not worth it, or the price is too high for what little physical mementos that are included. This, however, is the polar opposite. When my wife got home and saw it, she was under the impression that I had purchased a second PS4. Suffice to say, she was less than impressed. Being that A) I don’t need a second PS4 and B) She bought me my PS4 – I can’t say as I blamed her. However, when I explained to her, and opened the box to show her, she couldn’t get over the fact that all of this was to house a single game.

The box art is very nice. Nothing really special. It’s the same as what you’d get on the case of the standard box. That being said, it’s a nice box nonetheless. When you get it open, though, the case inside that’s protecting the various items inside, is very deep. It has a velvet-esque texture. Within you find it holding in the statue of Molag Bal, the game inside of a steel-case and the art book.

Now, so far as collector’s boxes goes, it’s pretty standard fair.

I will admit, the statue of Molag Bal was pretty awesome. Very high on the quality and the detail. Coming from the makers (I can only assume) of the Anduin statue – you’re getting something along the same lines. The size is good. Not something where you have to look at it and say “where the hell am I going to put this?” (though, to be fair, I asked that anyway…My house is basically full from top to bottom with this sort of stuff as is). But it’s also not so small that you question whether it was worth the extra cash.

The art book is where the set really shines. It’s hardbound, and laid out like the piece of art it is meant to be. Normally, I don’t get overly excited about this. As a matter of fact, I just found the one that goes to my Darksiders 2 CE, and well, it’s pretty lame. It’s a 3×5 book.

The only real lackluster item in the set was the steel-case. Could have used better art instead of just being maroon.

All in all, not bad.

– The Ego

Wrapping up a generation

It’s been coming up a lot, probably because it’s that time. We need to say goodbye to the PS3/360 generation.

The last of the games are slowly coming out, marching slowly to the funeral dirge. That being said, before we weep those last tears and forget about them, I think I’m going to give a quick “best of” so you loyal readers can take another look back before it’s all over, and move on free from regret.

1) Bioshock 1, Infinite: I’ll be honest – you can skip Bioshock 2. It improved on the mechanics from the first, but lacks the depth the original story had. If you missed out on the first or Infinite, and have a PS3, fret not. Bioshock comes as a free download with Infinite. I recommend going through B1, completing it, moving on to Infinite and do yourself the favour, buy the DLC. You won’t regret listening to me. If Ken Levine (writer on both, but not 2) asked me to – I would have his love child.

2) Red Dead Redemption: Rockstar doesn’t publish a lot – but they know quality. L.A Noire being the exception that proves the rule. They re-imagined and set a new standard in the GTA series with GTA IV and they did something even more special with RDR. Mechanics – oh boy. What a game. Story wise, I was truly sad to see it end. Saying goodbye to John Marston was tough for me. I had zero exposure to the previous titles, and had no clue what to expect. But this was a winner is every category. Even doing something as cliche as zombies – worked. Can’t say that for every other attempt.

3) Fallout 3/New Vegas: With Fallout 4 on the horizon, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be playing either of these games instead of reading my incessant prattling on. While I hold my blog in high regards, we’re talking Fallout here people! Todd Howard is the other person who’s esteem is so highly rated in my books, he can do no wrong. I really hope I don’t have to expound the virtues of either of these titles. I mean, they’re revolutionary in scope and magnitude.

4) Batman series: Skip Origins. You’ll thank me later. With Arkham Knight having recently come out – play Asylum and City. The quality is there.

5) Alice: Madness Returns: Highly, highly underrated title. The sequel to American McGee’s Alice, twisted beyond words, but very engaging. The story is fantastic in every sense, the gameplay is of a high caliber, but lacking in the precise style I’d become accustomed to. Still, definitely worth a play through just to see the twisted world in Alice’s head.

6) Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions: So far, Marvel’s only contender for the Arkham throne. I completely skipped the sequel, and I’ve never lost a wink of sleep. But if you want to see Spidey at his best, with fun and varied play styles – buy it.

7) Skyrim: Because Skyrim.

8) Transformers: War for Cyberton: One of the few, playable Transformers games. The sequel took away the choice of which Autobot or Decepticon you got to play as, so that was a bummer, but the series managed to stand on it’s own two feet. Doubt we’ll see another of its ilk.

9) Darksider 1+2: With THQ folding, the future of this series in under question, but you won’t regret checking out the post-apocalyptic titles as you attempt to figure out how the end of times was brought about before its time. Great combat and overall enjoyable playstyle. I mean, it’s basically Zelda and God of War.

Honourable mention: South Park Stick of Truth and Splatterhouse. Seeing South Park characters acting out a D&D session with the humour only Matt/Trey could produce was really something. Splatterhouse – you can beat enemies to death with your own severed limbs. You can imagine my delight.

Part of me really wants to include the God of War series. But there are just too many of them. Three was the best, so wiki the lead-in and finish the game.

– The Ego