Category: Video Games

GAME OF THE YEAR 2019

Posted on by RaptorFire

I kinda want to start this post by asking, “Was that it?”

I’m not sure what it was about this year, but a lot of announced releases left me downright cold. Nothing seemed to excite me in the way that the Undertales and Mass Effects of old have. Not to say I didn’t have fun with a handful of titles, I’m just curious why a good number of promising stuff on my hard drive hasn’t been finished yet. It might be a sign of me getting older and having too many responsibilities to finish as many games as I used to. Or this. Or that. Or maybe the vocal minorities on the web are right. That games are…*snicker*… OVER. (Maniacal laughter over original joke.)

That aside, I’d love to do another top ten list, again in no particular order, because there’s still good in this world, blast it, and I’m going to do my part to shed some light on it! So let’s roll up our sleeves, cut the bull honkey, and conveniently ignore the fact that I haven’t posted on here in two years. Here goes.

Everything froze over when Nomura finally pulled sunshine out of his butt and released the legendarily delayed Kingdom Hearts 3. I got my first taste of Dante’s sword through Capcom’s return-to-form Devil May Cry 5. Sekiro reminded us that From Software still makes the best games on the planet regardless of setting. Katana Zero reminded us that despite From’s best efforts, playing as a samurai could still be a power fantasy. Kind Words reminded us that despite America’s best efforts, playing on the internet could still be a positive experience. Tetris 99 took an unlikely candidate for a battle royal and turned it into a genius move that seems obvious in retrospect. Nintendo stopped fidgeting with the mobile market long enough to finally make another Fire Emblem game, Three Houses. The Outer Worlds healed the holes Bethesda left in our hearts by showing their best efforts up in just about every way. Disco Elysium proved that writing and world building could single-handedly make an RPG great. And Star Wars received it’s second wind by way of Jedi: Fallen Order, before the angry mobs and inevitable useless political discourse try to ruin the release of Rise of Skywalker in a few weeks.

 

Soundtracks! I can’t get enough of them, so who had the best this year? Normally Fire Emblem would easily take the cake for me, since it’s composers blew me away with their last three releases (Awakening, Fates, Echoes). Unfortunately I feel that they had an odd shortage of tunes for me to enjoy, causing a lot of tracks to get repetitive easliy, so it’s gonna have to be a pass for me this time around. Katana Zero had a great many tracks by the talented LudoWick and Bill Kiley that I still can’t stop listening to. But in the end, I think I have to land firmly on the emotional beats of Kingdom Hearts 3 for my soundtrack of 2019. Yoko Shimomura simply outdid herself in developing the themes and motifs of this decade-old series in ways that the writers simply were unable to do. For fans like me, who followed this series through every up, down, and indecipherable plot twist, this soundtrack contained phenomenal references and narrative weight that most casual onlookers simply wouldn’t understand as well, something that makes me respect it all the more. It’s a true statement of “This is the End” that flows throughout the game’s runtime… from the title screen all the way to the end credits. Bra. Vo. Ma’am.

Visual spectacle in games is certainly plentiful nowadays, from Devil May Cry’s magnificent action set pieces, Fallen Order’s go-big-or-go-home scope and scale, to Disco Elysium’s rich, abstract vistas of the human mind. Given my own personal preferences, however, Katana Zero‘s psychedelic aesthetic made a huge impact on my memories of the title, and I’m just a sucker for solid pixel art, so my vote has to go with Third District’s finest. Try not to get too much blood on the walls.

Few games this year truly surprised me, but I’ll give this category a shot anyway. I love surprises. I suppose you could say that Tetris 99 impressed me by being a PERFECT example of a battle royale. Or that Fallen Order shocked me by not melting my PS4 on contact. Or how staggeringly gorgeous Disco Elysium’s prose proved to be as I battled an increasingly bruised detective ego. Kind Words was a contender here too. I was in awe of how gentle and caring its community could be towards the most horrific of human struggles, especially those of complete strangers. Popcannibal should be lauded for their magnificently executed social experiment on real people supporting each other with real problems. But given the fact that I am firmly not a fan of the more recent Fallout games (far too much take, not enough give), I was stunned by how much I actually enjoyed The Outer Worlds. Many RPGs tend to over-complicate their world building to the point where only hardcore fans of the property could ever give a hoot, so this game’s cultures and easily-digestible themes of corporate corruption were just what the doctor ordered. That and the shocking lack of glitches.

Um. Ah. Oh. Er. Now for the big one.

What makes a game of the year? Well, for me usually it comes down to the game I had the most fun with, like last year’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Or maybe it could be the game I think represents a true step in the right direction for the industry, a shining example of what I think games could and SHOULD be. I am mostly refencing 2017’s Pyre or 2015’s Undertale. This year’s pick was a little of both. So, to be honest, I love you, Fire Emblem, but…

I’m gonna have to give 2019’s Game of the Year award to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Sekiro is a continuation of genius on the part of Miyazaki’s team. After finally finishing Bloodbourne last year, I finally felt like I could really “get” what he was going for. Not perfectly. I still find myself bouncing off Dark Souls. But Sekiro presented an attractive setting and combat system I’ve only dreamed of. True honest to goodness sword fighting. Most encounters (and all boss fights) manage to truly capture the feeling of no-holds-barred, steel-on-steel swordplay in a way that feels organic, strategic, and flipping awesome to play. It still rocks your socks off with it’s punishing difficulty, but I can’t remember having this much FUN getting perfect parries off of some lunatic’s katana combo. From Software is really, REALLY good at making games. I leave you with that.

Thanks again for joining us. Until next time, we hope 2020 finds you in good health, good company, and great games.

RAPTOR’S GAME OF THE YEAR 2017

Posted on - by RaptorFire

Every year is an adventure, huh?

It’s easy to look back on the time you’ve had over the last 12 months and say “we had a really great year!” or “this was our worst year yet.” Perspectives are a penny a piece when it comes to the human race. We all have our own challenges, tragedies, gifts, triumphs, and tastes. Some people experienced their first year of marriage or saw their favorite movie. Others were forced to face the loss of a loved one or could never look past the failures of their own government. When it comes to the gaming scene, we had some of the biggest, boldest, far-reaching titles in a long, long time. We also saw the rise of the most disgusting, obnoxious business practices that proved just how little the monolithic software companies of the world have for their own paying customers who continue to put them in business. However, given that the purpose of this blog is to focus on the positive side of our little hobby, I’ve decided to overlook all of the latter transgressions for now. Though I urge all readers to exercise their best judgement when making a purchase. This medium is special to a lot of people, and I feel it’s important to be thankful of the good things we have on this earth while always looking for ways to improve, pushing back against practices that are both predatory and immoral.

That said.

I generally avoid a simple ranking of games from 10 to 1 when coming up with a list like this. My goal today will be to praise, in no particular order, the games I enjoyed playing the most this year that were released from January onward, while also giving out “awards” for specific categories that I feel deserve a nod of recognition. Only games I’d played will be on the list… so no Switch titles, unfortunately. I also like to name my Game of the Year just for fun, outlining the game I thought gave me the best time and encapsulates the finest that video games can offer. For reference, here were my last 7 GOTY:
2016- Overwatch
2015- Undertale
2014- Super Smash Bros.
2013- Bioshock Infinite
2012- Halo 4
2011- Portal 2
2010- Mass Effect 2

I haven’t been able to cover all the following games with a blog post… and I may get to that. But without further ado, here are my top picks for this terrific year:

Zelda fans finally received an all-new adventure with the excellent open-world of Breath of the Wild. The wacky but wonderful sequel we never asked for, Nier: Automata, gave gaming another strong story with all the fantastic meta-narrative elements that only a video game could accomplish. Persona 5 presented its take on the classic turn-based JRPG formula, then knocked it out of the part in the most stylish way seen in years. The fantastic world of Pyre proved to everyone that Supergiant games were no two-trick ponies, effortlessly blending character and gameplay in compelling contests of strength. The multiplayer landscape was once again taken in a surprising direction with Invisigun Heroes’ unique use of invisible player characters, creating an experience both fast-paced and strategic for all four players involved. The long-awaited Cuphead promised a whimsical cartoon world from the 1930’s and delivered on every level. Shovel Knight proved it still has what it takes to revitalize the classic side-scrolling designs of yesteryear with it’s amazing expansion, Specter of Torment. Sonic Mania saw Sega’s decades-old mascot frustratedly turning on its own makers and telling them off for missing the point of what the blue blur is all about… all by delivering the best Sonic game of all time 25 years post-inception. We discovered a shocking story within the game that showed off both the best time-travel mechanic of all time and the most ridiculous name of all time, The Sexy Brutale. And finally, while not reaching the same monumental heights as its predecessor, Wolfenstein II: The New Collossus still showed us just how much fun can be had with with just a hatchet… and a Nazi.

Great gaming soundtracks are incredibly important to me, so let’s kick the categories off with that, yeah? I’m a huge fan of many Japanese composers, so it’s no surprise that Nier: Automata’s sorrowful-yet-soaring soundscape really stuck in my brain long after the credits rolled. Its incredible use of vocals, strings and piano set such a unique mood that has been achieved in very few games since. Zelda’s always had great tunes (like, LEGENDARY great tunes), and this year was absolutely no exception. Though the music was spread particularly thin in Breath of the Wild, the songs that we DID get set the mood of this epic, open-air quest. Pyre showed off some amazing variety from the legendary Darren Korb, with memorable character themes, folk music, and minstrelsy peppered throughout the story. And let’s not forget Cuphead’s fantastic devotion to its source material, complete with record filtering, old-timey vocals, and the best big band sound on this side of the swing era. However, it’s the unbelievable variety and style of Persona 5 that wins this category. Never have I heard a better mix of j-pop meets jazz meets funk meets heavy metal. I haven’t stopped listening to this OST since April, and if you haven’t started yet, get on YouTube and fix that!

Graphics don’t make a game, but how a game looks in motion is an inescapable factor in its ability to compel a player forward. Over the years, art styles have grown more vibrant, charming and wonderful; the fact that there was even competition in this category this year is a testament to that. When I saw Persona 5, I thought the contest was over already. Persona takes advantage of its new HD engine and pours style into its every facet, from its menus to battle commands to monster designs and even the text bubbles(!?!?) Every action taken in the game pops out of the screen with reckless abandon, showering the player in red-soaked anime goodness, demanding they have the time of their life (before it steals your heart). Did I mention this is a PS3 release??? Then Pyre showed up about a few months later, straightened its tie, and proceeded to beat Persona’s aesthetic into the ground with its own hand drawn, glorious animations and environments. Characters come alive with amazing designs and colors, while the titular Pyres burst off the monitor with every victory goal. And YET… both still couldn’t keep up with the fabulous animation of Cuphead. There are 19 bosses in Cuphead. Each of them had to be drawn and re-drawn thousands upon thousands of times in order to get the silky-smooth 1930’s artstyle that simply needs to be seen in action to be believed. It’s a true testament to Studio MDHR’s commitment and passion for its vision, and the result is a game that will forever stand as a gold standard in independent game development. In the world of gaming aesthetics and artstyles, Cuphead is a triumph.

My final category goes to the game that surprised me the most this year. I love surprises. Games and movies that throw clever curve balls and continually subvert expectations are the kind that usually give me the most memorable experiences (Undertale and Madoka still haunt me to this day and I love it). This year had plenty of great experiences, but not quite as many surprises as usual. There are few exceptions that stuck out: Pyre was a particular treat, as the concept of a “fantasy sports RPG” didn’t appeal to me at first blush. But as the reviews came out and the true scope of the game became clearer, my interest grew enough to give it a try, and the result was an unforgettable story of my own making. In a similar way, Nier: Automata’s meta elements and its talent for changing its audience’s expectations at every corner were delightful to uncover, with its dozens of endings, secrets and thoughtful psychological musings peppered throughout. Sonic Mania, on the other hand, promised a return to form for one of my favorite childhood heroes, and the surprise inside wasn’t found in its adherence to that promise, but in simply how spectacularly I found the game’s execution of Sonic’s original vision. On top of all that, a strange little game named The Sexy Brutale came from seemingly out of nowhere, giving the player one of the best examples of a time-travel mechanic I’ve ever seen in a game. (I’d love to talk more about what makes it so great here, but you’ll find my more complete thoughts on Sexy Brutale in an upcoming spoiler-ific post.) In the end though, the most fantastic surprise I found was in my escapades within the twisted world of Persona 5. As my introduction to the celebrated series, I could not have picked a more excellent gateway. Persona 5 oozes style, personality and swagger from every pore, extending beyond its striking visual aesthetic and seeping into its formulaic but ingenious execution of classic JRPG dungeon-crawling. P5 eliminates so many of the issues I have with the JRPG formula, namely the stat grind. Battle commands have shifted from a scrolling menu into a single button press for each action (making P5 one of the few RPGs that remember how many buttons a Playstation controller has, thank you very much), and if that isn’t quick enough, Persona’s trademark “Rush Mode” clears out enemies that can hardly be bothered with in a jiffy. Outside of battle, the min-maxing remains compelling through the Confidant system, where players are required to build relationships with teammates and neighbors. The stronger your relationships, the stronger your Personas can be, cleverly weaving together your character’s personal growth as a young man and his growth as a warrior. The compelling nature of your social interactions, the emphasis of stealth to drive home the theme of “Phantom Thievery,” and the experience’s inimitable style throughout its 100+ hour run… the pleasant surprises this game offers are endless. I approached it intrigued. I left blown away. Like Fire Emblem Awakening before it, Persona 5 simultaneously made me stop wondering why I still owned a PS4 while revealing to me a whole new franchise to have a place in my heart. And there it will stay, waiting patiently for the countless P5 spinoffs to drip from Atlus’ depths before Persona 6 inevitably comes out on my 50th birthday, probably.

Which brings me to my Game of the Year. It’s shocking to me how much I really needed to ponder which experience meant the most to me, especially considering that this is a year that a new Zelda game came out. Alas, while Breath of the Wild’s scope and scale were impressive, serving as an example of the best open-world gaming has to offer, its various technical hiccups, lack of traditional dungeons and reliance on the ill-advised weapon durability system failed to enrapture me in the same way previous entries had. So the battle came down to Persona 5, The Sexy Brutale and Pyre. It was an incredibly close call, but…

My Game of the Year has to inevitably go to PYRE.

Pyre to me demonstrates both the raw talent behind Supergiant Games and how the challenge of blending gameplay and narrative (a feat that only video games can achieve, and one I believe every story-heavy title should strive for) can be pulled off with flying colors. Persona achieves this in many ways with its Confidant system, giving each face in your party a unique voice and background, but Pyre does something even more special. It successfully creates a cast of colorful characters whose fate is tied to your actions even more intimately and successfully than the legendary Mass Effect 2 did. Creating a sports RPG where failure is not marked by a Game Over screen, but by the knowledge that a dear friend must suffer in exile longer than necessary is simply brilliant. My favorite story from this year involved me giving up my own character’s freedom due to my own failure as a team leader. Few games can achieve such a simple yet dynamic approach to storytelling, and it’s this reason that ultimately, amidst so many other incredible titles, Pyre earns it’s place as my top game of 2017.

Thank you for reading! It’s my hope and prayer that your 2018 give you good health, great games, and wonderful memories.

Video Game Movies vs. the World

Posted on - by RaptorFire

There is a sickness among us…

And I won’t bother stretching the metaphor any longer. It’s the epidemic of video game movie adaptations. They stink.

The practice actually goes back a tiny bit further than this, but the first internationally released big budget film adaption on record is the infamous Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. The idea for a film based on the Mario character came from the mind of Roland Joffe, producer at Lightmotive, who had to wait a staggering ten days in order to meet Nintendo representatives just to pitch them the idea. Nintendo (a very different Nintendo from today) went ahead with the idea and signed over the rights, and four scripts, two directors, and the passing over of Michael Keaton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Tom freaking Hanks for lead roles, the movie began filming its epic take on the world of Shigeru Miyamoto’s pride and joy, re-imagined as a multi-dimensional trek to rescue a princess from and evil half-dinosaur Dennis Hopper.

As we all know, the film was a bomb of biblical proportions. Years later, it’s even more clear just how badly the project was falling apart at the seams from the word go. Reports of miscommunication between the husband and wife director team as well as the gross over-budgeting of both time and money during production are now legendary on the internet, and the entire experience left such a bad taste in the crew’s mouths that I wouldn’t have begrudged Bob Hoskins suffering PTSD from the entire ordeal till the end of his life, may he rest in peace. The movie made back roughly half of its $50 million budget, and has gone down in history as the gold standard “this is why you don’t make a movie adaptation of anything, ever” horror story. That was back in 1993.

Yet somehow, inexplicably, the practice hasn’t stopped since. Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter had their turns at bat next and become cult classics (for all the wrong reasons), followed by big screen adaptations of action giants like Doom and the strikingly long-running Resident Evil sequels, all while the horrifyingly bad conga line of Uwe Boll productions danced to their own ugly tune.

A Renaissance of sorts was attempted around the late 2000s when game companies suddenly decided to stop handing licenses out to the nearest schmuck with a camera, doubling down on their involvement with silver screen producers to ensure gamers got what they wanted at the local theater. An adaption of Prince of Persia was released as the first carrier of this particular banner, and while it and its successors were able to show a decent amount of production quality and actually make some decent money… game movies just haven’t quite hit the spot yet.

Why, though? It’s not like the pieces aren’t there! Games have long been recognized to carry epic, sweeping narratives that usually take place over multiple titles, something that I’m sure everyone knows as Hollywood’s favorite go-to cash cow. Characters have been pushed for years into being upgraded from high-leaping, lo-res sprites on a CRT monitor to fleshed-out, multi-dimensional personalities with motivations and quirks. Plus, even acclaimed filmmakers have recently begun dipping their fingers in the greasy video game pie every now and again, resulting in experimental projects such as L.A. Noire and surprise masterpieces like Josef Fares’ Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It’s clear the two mediums have been wanting to cross-pollinate for a long while now.

Yet the match just never seems made in heaven, and I think it boils down to one fundamental fact that a lot of people decide to ignore: different artistic mediums are different for good reason. Rarely, I think, will a movie critic look at The Creation of Adam and be able to put his finger on all the emotions Michelangelo was pouring onto the Sistine’s ceiling like an art critic likely would. And if that same art critic could fully understand the political strife Shostakovitch felt upon her first listening of the Fifth Symphony, I’d be very impressed. There are many shared traits between mediums, but outside of some notable exceptions, many times transferring one idea to a different artistic canvas can feel forced and clumsy.

And in my mind, there’s no medium more different from games. Unlike every other art piece under the sun, games don’t just ask for consumer involvement. They require it. A game just doesn’t qualify as a game unless the player actively does something to effect the world on the screen, whether it be killing a demon in DOOM, responding to a question in Mass Effect, or even just walking around a house in Dear Esther. A movie simply won’t be able to do this. Whether you’re leaving a flick running on Netflix while doing laundry in the other room or intently watching a film in a darkened theater from the edge of your seat, the outcome of a motion picture remains the same. In reality, a movie needs zero amount of effort in order to reach the end of its runtime. So a piece of art works best when playing to the strength of its medium, and where film only truly succeed through its storytelling, a game only truly earns its stripes through engaging gameplay.

But…

Whether we know it or not, certain movies have been benefiting from actual audience interaction for as long as the art form has existed. To give a great example of this, I point you to critically acclaimed British film director Edgar Wright.

Wright is perhaps best know in the nerd community as the mastermind behind Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a niche title from Universal Pictures that many gamers, myself included, consider the best video game movie of all time. And it actually happens to be a graphic novel adaptation. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s on iTunes. Go rent it and see me after class.

Despite the old-school video game aesthetic that drips from its every orifice, Scott Pilgrim earns its place as a great “game movie” from Wright’s jaw-dropping visual storytelling and style. Much of Scott’s humor, character development, and plot can be found tucked away in the tiny visual details that you may not notice till the second or fifth time watching, and only if you’re paying unbelievably close attention. Like the millions of creative ways a scene transitions from one place to another. Or Wright’s iconic use of hilarious sound effects that are timed just right to drive the mood home. I just got done watching the movie again five minutes ago and only now noticed that after Scott offers to take his girlfriend’s coat in the opening scene, he immediately and thoughtlessly throws said coat onto the doorstep. He just. Drops it. That’s incredible.

Wright may have mastered techniques like this through his comedy gold in the “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy, or in seamlessly blending picture and soundtrack his most recent movie, the fantastic Baby Driver, but this sort of audience involvement can be found in most modern classics as well. Piecing together a slowly unraveling plot by Christopher Nolan. Working out story implications of a cinematic shot by David Fincher. Keeping up with the lightning-fast, rhythmic dialogue of Aaron Sorkin. Heck, the argument could be made that Orson Welles could do any of the above better than those guys.

My point is, movies are good from being great movies. Games are good because a development team put together a compelling game. There’s little reason for either to reach the exact same audience as the other when certain shoes are already filled, and no amount of forcing concepts into a work will make things better. There is a wide world of entertainment-loving consumers out there, each with their own quirks and kinks and tastes. Everyone has a preference, and with the creativity on display from every corner of the world, new niches are being filled every day to entertain and please audiences. Still, no medium ever survives without getting their eyes up and seeing what other creative talents are doing every once in a while, so it’s always nice for filmmakers to involve audiences in ways that extend beyond “hey, I know that guy!” To me, that’s a true sign of a good, interactive film.

Video games and movies may never move in together and start shopping for wallpaper… but I think it’s safe to say they can still be friends.

“And That is Why I Succeed”

Posted on - by RaptorFire

Minor Spoilers ahead for Pyre

In life we fail. We fall. Mistakes are made, and no amount of regret or remorse can take away the actions we take, regardless of intentions. As a very wise cartoon man once said: “Whatever happens, happens.” Failure is a hard truth we all must swallow at some point.

Indie game studio Supergiant Games might know a thing or two about hard truths. In 2014, their second game Transistor was released to critical acclaim and tremendous sales success, earning over one million sales by the end of the following year. With this title and its 2010 Game of the Year contender Bastion under the studio’s belt, it’s safe to claim that Supergiant is practically the scale by which all indie games are measured. The hard truth was people were watching carefully, awaiting Supergiant’s next big indie blockbuster. If I were in their shoes, I’d be more than a little nervous.

So the studio, not content to make the same game twice, went back to the drawing board and brainstormed ideas. One of the more interesting ideas was centered around the hard truth of failure.

The concept of a “failure state” in gaming is an ancient one. In Pong, one side had to lose. In Pac-Man, a Game Over would force arcade-goers to feed machines more of those sweet, sweet quarters. The infamous Souls series won its reputation by getting players very familiar with death. (Very.)

Only recently has there been a growing trend in removing failure states from games… or at least rewriting the rules on them. The adventure game Heavy Rain featured not game over screen, only a story that continued to unfold whether the playable characters survived the journey… or didn’t. Most puzzle games only truly “fail” when a player decides to give up on a brain-teaser in frustration. Controversial “walking simulators” like Dear Esther or Firewatch are basically impossible to lose, only asking the player to experience the story by traveling from point A to point B. For years, developers have been experimenting and warping the rules of conventional gaming, with mixed results.

Which brings us to Supergiant’s newest title, Pyre. Pyre’s concept evolved from the studio’s idea to rewrite the conventions of failure in games. Would it be possible to create a game where defeat can happen at any time, and players are forced to face the consequences of their actions rather than be given infinite chances, as is the norm? Well, it should be. Reality is full of unchangeable failures, yet life goes on. With that in mind, the team devised a title crafted around this unique concept to modern video games, a non-violent competition between factions in which failure resulted not in character death, but in lessons to be learned for the next bout. Sound familiar? Think about it. Millions of Americans watch it on TV every week.

Pyre is, for all intents and purposes, a fantasy sports RPG. You play as an un-named exile, banished from his or her homeland for the unforgivable sin of literacy. You are rescued by a crew of fellow exiles who, upon learning of your unique skill, begin putting you to work deciphering a mysterious book detailing a path to freedom from eternal exile. Soon, this path is revealed to be attainable only through “The Rites,” thrusting you into an epic quest to travel the land, gather companions, and win enough Rites to earn your freedom.

The Rites themselves make up the bulk of gameplay. Players select a team of three party members to participate in a competition that can only be described as a cross between blitzball, basketball and lacrosse. The rules are simple: grab the orb at the center of the arena and use teamwork to dunk it into the opponent’s goal (their titular Pyre) enough times to snuff it out. Achieve this before your opponent does the same to your Pyre, and you win. But as with all great sports, the simple rules can make way for some truly impressive tactical depth. Each and every exile you pick up on your journey has his or her own specializations , abilities and upgrades for you to tinker with, as well as a slot for equipment you can buy along the way. I won’t describe any of the options available to you for fear of spoiling surprises, but the customization of your three-member team goes far beyond big/slow/strong characters versus small/fast/fragile combatants.

And said combatants are what make up the meat of the experience. Like a great Bioware game, Pyre is full of memorable, distinct allies and adversaries that are full of both personality and ambitions, which delightfully your character will keep record of in his or her journal as your observations increase. This information-gathering is somewhat optional… but choosing to forego building a bond with your companions will also rob the player of the high stakes at hand when carrying out The Rites. As mentioned above, each encounter you have is a non-lethal ball game, but while life and limb of each character are not in jeopardy, their freedom most certainly is. Victory in each Rite will bring your companions closer to “enlightenment,” which in turn will eventually give you, the player, an opportunity to free one of your friends from the desolation of exile. This will allow your ally to achieve the dream you so desperately want to give them… but will cause your team to lose both a beloved friend and valuable combatant for the remainder of them game (and giving the player the ultimate choice on who stays and who escapes just rubs more salt in the wound). On the other hand, losing in a Rite will increase your opponent’s chance of escaping the wasteland, never to be encountered again. No matter how well or how poorly you perform in the game, a friend or an enemy will return home, and the story’s ultimate conclusion will be twisted to reflect your decisions one way or another.

This is far from a convenient choose-your-own-adventure gimmick, however. Your crew will go up against a variety of different teams of three, each with their own team name, history, emblem, color, captain, quirk, and jamming theme song. Enemy captains are given personalities and motivations just as compelling your companions’, and each adversary will likely hold some form of grudge against your team… or a teammate. The game records your win/loss ratio with each team, and like any good sports game, each encounter provides an opportunity for some compelling rivalries to emerge.

I’m going to give a slightly heavier spoiler warning here to give you one of my more interesting moments during one of these rivalries (so feel free to skip this paragraph if you want as little story spoilers as possible). Roughly midway through the game, my team was sitting pretty. We were undefeated, and ready to send another deserving ally back home. Our rival for the deciding match was a group of ex-terrorists, one of which was an estranged sibling of a different teammate bent on returning home to continue wrecking havoc on the homeland who’d exiled her. Despite my opponent’s relative on our team feeling torn about her sibling’s chance at freedom, we battled them as fiercely as ever… only to suffer our first loss at this critical juncture. Our enemy was released. My friend was forced to continue her unjust sentence because of my failure. The devastating effect of one simple loss was shockingly palpable… and eventually forced me to give up my own chance at freedom. Pyre is filled with situations such as this, each with its own triumphs, tragedies, and everything inbetween.

Pyre’s aesthetic is a beauty to behold, easily the best-looking game to be released this year (and when you’re going up against a game like Persona 5, that’s a very bold statement indeed). Every art asset is gorgeously detailed in vivid watercolor sketches and playful animations. Characters bounce about the battlefield with their own sleek personality. And those environments? Any fan of the popping, bright art styles found in Pyre could easily frame any of those wide, sweeping landscapes on their wall. Plus, I don’t know of another title that better captures the essence of cartoon, colored fire.

The game is bursting with lore at every turn, giving players an obscene number of opportunities to study the histories of this creative, Middle Eastern-flavored culture. This may not appease every gamer (expect to do some reading… a lot of reading), but even to the casual visitor to Pyre’s world, understanding the unfolding events can be as simple as hovering the cursor over a highlighted word of interest (I seriously wish more lore-heavy RPGs would do this sort of thing). On the other side of the spectrum, the hardcore historians in the audience are provided a vibrantly detailed in-game book that is gradually filled with pages upon pages of backstory as the player advances through the game.

Failure is not the end in the world of Pyre, but the effects of loss are no less devastating. By the end of your lengthy journey through the Downside, each of the vibrant characters you meet will be different in some way, and this is reflected in both the epilogue and end-game minstrel song that sings over the credits (once again composed by the fabulous Darren Korb). Like the many, many games that have tried this before, Pyre turns into a tale that is truly yours in the end, one that I shan’t forget anytime soon.

For an experience that can harbor so much bitter failure, I believe there can be no greater triumphant success for Supergiant.

 

References used:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/271161/How_Supergiant_Games_aggressively_prototyped_its_way_into_Pyre.php

The Open Road

Posted on - by RaptorFire

Minor spoilers ahead for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

When I think about what makes the Zelda series so popular, what becomes undeniable is its reputation as the gold standard for adventure gaming. I find it hard to believe that there are many boys and girls who haven’t at some point in their younger days dreamed of a life of daring and discovery. Great dragons to slay. A damsel to rescue. Knights in shining armor. It’s a life, at first glance, of unbridled freedom and wonder.

Whatever Nintendo’s faults as a business may be, I believe it’s safe to say that they’ve always known how to make video games. The Zelda titles have been scratching the adventurous itch for gamers for nearly three decades now, with a consistency in quality that most franchises its size would commit cold-blooded murder for. As a die-hard Zelda fan ever since the 64 came out, I am one of the many gamers to have seen first-hand what all the fuss is about, and it’s always a special occasion when Nintendo’s Zelda team reveals a brand new addition to its legacy. I speak no hyperbole when I say every new mainline Zelda release date sees me dropping everything that isn’t work or family on my way out the door to the nearest retailer. So I always expect great things when a new Zelda hits the streets. Earlier this year, we got a particularly interesting one.

Let’s wind the clocks back a bit first: I liked Skyward Sword. I didn’t really get the divisive attitude many of my friends had towards it, but hindsight is 20/20 and I think I can see their point. I still like it. A lot. In my mind, Nintendo managed to achieve its goal of translating motion control into mainstream gaming, something it had been tinkering with since Metroid Prime 3. The controversially linear nature of the game also provided a tightness of focus on its new combat system, fully utilizing the controller’s one-to-one tracking for every weapon and gadget. As much as Zelda boasts of its prowess as an epic adventure, I’ve also seen it as a puzzle game, with all kinds of brain teasers sprinkled throughout each game’s dungeons. Skyward Sword had the bright idea to take this concept and apply it to its combat system as well, with every different enemy pushing you to adopt a new approach and encouraging the player to refrain from waggling the controller carelessly. It was this commitment to design that I respected and enjoyed so much about the game when it came out.

But as most of you know, not everyone shared this point of view. Nintendo may have even been one of those people. Longtime Zelda producer & manager Eiji Aonuma had long been imagining a truly “open-air” Zelda, a title that would truly return the series to its roots as what series creator Shigeru Miyamoto once described as a “miniature garden” for players to explore and discover. But like many projects, imagination can be kept on a leash by time and resources, and the technology just hadn’t quite caught up to the idea yet. Now though, with open world games coming out a dime a dozen each year and the launch of Nintendo’s first high definition console, the Zelda team decided to give the concept a proper go.

So what’d they come up with?

What first struck me about Breath of the Wild was the abrupt lack of any sort of hand-holding system included in the older 3D Zelda games, usually in the form of the almost universally panned “partner” characters present. Here, though, there’s a noticeable absence of any sort of extraneous help, only a quick cutscene, a brief tutorial, a few words from the princess, then the game says “go.”

Which brings me to what strikes me as the title’s greatest strength, and what I believe makes Breath of the Wild a true achievement in gaming. The game absolutely nails the difficult idea of “if you can see it you can touch it” games, a long-pursued concept for every open world game that had come before it. While we’ve had no shortage of wide-open, lively worlds in the past (Skyrim says hi), Breath of the Wild makes a valiant attempt to break any mechanic or concept holding back the player from truly exploring the world at their own pace. Getting sidetracked into finding a skull-shaped cave with goodies in it or spotting something worthwhile after climbing a mountain peak is nothing new to games, but still pretty neat in this one.

Every major tool in the game is obtainable within the first hour of play, a major departure from the Zelda tradition of opening the world gradually through the drip-feeding of items. On the one hand, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of this map (which has been said to be modeled after the Japanese city of Kyoto in terms of its vastness). On the other, the player has few instructions to follow other than “beat the main bad guy, now pick a direction.” In a world demanding more player choice, this is a very good thing. Every situation requires the player to make a decision. Every choice contributes to the player’s growth, tying everything in beautifully to the age-old Zelda theme of getting stronger to beat the aforementioned main bad guy. It’s this execution and understanding of decades of game design that makes Breath of the Wild such a success.

As mentioned above, Zelda has boasted a wide variety of puzzles requiring exploration and critical thinking, but Breath of the Wild tackles this series staple in a bit of a different way. Gone are the traditional Zelda dungeons (STILL NOT SURE I’M OKAY WITH THIS), and in its place are numerous smaller “shrines,” each holding a unique puzzle and uninspired aesthetics (think TRON with weaker music). Each give the player a good look at the wonderful work Nintendo’s level designers can do when it comes to creating brain teasers, and completing each shrine adds a little bit more to your overall strength in-game.

The puzzle-solving isn’t limited to these shrines, however. Nearly every encounter in the game shares a level of problem solving, a concept that seems to take a page from Skyward Sword’s smaller, more focused surface areas. In Breath of the Wild, it’s difficult to go more than a few yards without running into a buried treasure, a secret cavity, or (most likely) an enemy camp filled with some hilarious baddies. In-game enemies may suffer from a bad case of palette swapping, but their interactions with you as the player has been overhauled from previous titles, and serve as some fantastic visual comedy (try knocking the weapon out of their hand and see what happens). The possible approaches to combat have been beefed up as well. You can do what I did through most of my playthrough and shoot a few bad guys from afar before recklessly rushing in with your sword raised. Or take a stealthier approach and stab everyone in their sleep at night before taking all their food. Or dropping a metal box on their head with magnesis. Or lighting the grass on fire, creating an updraft to glide on before diving headfirst on their captain. Or. Or. Or. In this vein, Zelda can get endlessly creative… for the most part. More on that later.

The land is dotted with things to do and people to meet, packed with content and quests ranging from entertaining assaults on an enemy base to throwaway fetch quests to some truly bizarre tasks… maybe not bizarre for Zelda, but still. You have to draw some kind of line when a game asks you to cross-dress as a woman, break into a desert-dweller’s home and eavesdrop on a bar-goer in order to learn a password into an adult-only shop (not that kind, you creep.) So.

There are problems. A game with the number of framerate drops and sudden freezes that Breath of the Wild suffers from should not be a prefect 10, no matter who you are. And while the game strips away a ton of the weakest aspects of open-world gaming, it sours the dish by throwing in a few bad ingredients of its own. The game’s stamina bar, which dictates nearly every action you take, is just far too anemic at the start of the experience to be terribly useful. What was once a clever bit of problem solving spice added in Skyward Sword now becomes a frustrating shackle for the player without first upgrading the stamina bar (at the expense of upgrading health… by the way.) The number of times I’ve been unable to climb up a cliffside because of my character’s poor endurance is just a tad irritating. Oh, and when it was raining, climbing was impossible anyway since the surface lost all traction too, so there’s that.

Arguably worst of all is the game’s new weapon durability system. You’ve probably heard about it by now… every weapon and shield in the game is now limited to a number of uses before breaking. I can understand Nintendo’s desire to include a wider variety of weapons into this game (which does make the experience better), but the overall longevity of some of these weapons is simply unacceptable. I had more than one encounter where I was forced to burn three weapons in order to kill one dude. THREE.

On the one hand, this does force players to use weapons and tactics out of their comfort zone and get used to improving their skills with an item they wouldn’t normally use. But therein lies the kicker: force players. It doesn’t seem quite right to promise a world of absolute freedom in almost every way, only to yank the player’s enjoyment away just because their favorite weapon broke after five hits (a couple weapons actually last that briefly, yes). The entire combat experience for me ended up ranging from grudging acceptance of the new system and planning around it, to frustrating dullness as I would wail on an enemy and break one weapon… after another… after another.

And yet, despite all that…

The result of the game’s achievements can be felt within every circle of the gaming community. Breath of the Wild has received critical acclaim across the board, tremendous financial success worldwide, and responses from fans that have ranged from over the moon with gratitude to… well, let’s call them “passionate.”

Despite my initial apprehension of the many series’ conventions broken at first, I feel like this title is really where Zelda as a series was always headed. Zelda had always been influenced by Miyamoto’s memories of his childhood exploring caves and hiking through the woods. I think it’s safe to say that the team once under his supervision has truly achieved both a gold standard for open-world gaming and his vision of introducing players to the joys and wonders one experiences on the open road.

With Breath of the Wild, we discover that it’s a road well worth taking.

References:
https://w w w .youtube. com/watch?v=vLMGrmf4xaY
https://web.archive.org/web/20110831131810/http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/hist_zelda/index.html

E3 2017: Thoughts on Microsoft

Posted on - by Ian Ferguson

The first of the Big Three are here with their presser. This one is an interesting one as they have a new console to showcase.

XBOX ONE X

Project Scorpio has an official name: Xbox One X… WHAT!? That a terrible name. This is about as confusing as the Wii U’s name. The system is still boasting its 6 TeraFLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second) and 12GB of GDDR5 RAM. The system is to have a minimum of a 1TB hard drive for storage and the system is smaller than the currently available Xbox One S (see how confusing this can be). It will be the first console to come with a type of liquid cooling in the form of a vapor chamber, very similar to the Surface Pro that Microsoft also sells. It’s priced at 499.99USD and will be available on November 7th this year. Overall this system is going to be a hard sell with the confusion it will cause with average consumer who don’t know the difference between the S and the X models. Another concern is whether or not older games will run at higher frame rates instead of just high resolutions. I’m certain that this system will have the ability to run games at 4K, but highly doubt many developers will do that as more and more games become resource intensive. I believe that using Supersampling anti-aliasing for games running on 1080p displays is a giant waste of system resources as the game is still rendering the game at a higher resolution just shrunk down. You could easily give us the option to run games at high frame rates while sacrificing resolution, but you won’t give us that will you.

FORZA MOTORSPORT 7

I, like a lot of people, have forgotten where exactly we are with the Forza games. There are two sets of them and there seems to be one release every year now. I no doubt believe these are good games, but maybe slowing down on these releases would be more beneficial, but you know, Microsoft is hurting for exclusives these days. The game is to feature the latest Porsche 911, and this is such a big deal that they had it on stage before the big national car show which I don’t even know what the name of it is. There was eSports. 😡 Two actual racers demoed the game which is alright. The words immersive and dynamic were used in some capacity along with epic and grand. It’s a racing sim.

METRO: EXODUS

A bit of surprise with this one. There isn’t much in terms of details for the latest game in the Metro series, but it sure does look nice. Even if it was very scripted.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: ORIGINS

It was nice to see Ubisoft take a year to get their act together with this series after the disaster that was Unity. The latest game in the franchise is set to take place in Egypt at the creation of the creed. You play as a sort of “sheriff” that goes around killing certain targets like any of the other games. This game features an eagle friend that lets you survey the landscape and spot enemies and landmarks before entering a potentially dangerous area. There is also a leveling up system which may or may not turn people away from the game, and a loot system that featured Legendary equipment which could mean: Microtransactions. The demo also featured frame drops. Let’s just let that sink in.

PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS

If you already have it on Steam, no reason to bother.

DEEP ROCK GALACTIC

From the studio behind Goat Simulator is a game like Minecraft but in space and with just the mining and killing.

STATE OF DECAY 2

Based on what they showed us, you can already play this game. It’s called State of Decay.

THE DARWIN PROJECT

You already have Battlegrounds. Why do you need another battle royal game with eSports.

MINECRAFT

Of course this was going to show up. The biggest update to this was cross-platform play for every version of the game. There is also a Hires Graphics Pack coming soon. Because the last thing I needed was better graphics for Minecraft.

DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ

Best looking game of the show. By Arc System Works with the same guys behind Guilty Gear Xrd. 3v3 battles. Did I mention the game looks beautiful.

BLACK DESERT ONLINE

Another blasted port.

THE LAST NIGHT

A pixel art cyberpunk game that is likely an adventure game. Looks great.

Oh and Zoe Quinn ? (she’s not involve, but wants to invoke a “witch hunt” on the lead dev).

THE ARTFUL ESCAPE

A nerdy looking dude with a guitar going on an adventure. Sounds like me. “Coming when it’s damn ready.”

CODE VEIN

Weeb Souls the Anime.

SEA OF THIEVES

A co-op pirate game that looks like a lot of fun. You get board other player ships the old fasion way or by blasting yourself out of a cannon. You can look for treasure in sunken ships or in caves. There are also Legendary treasures…microtransactions…………….

TACOMA

Walking Simulator 2: The Reckoning

SUPER LUCKY’S TALE

Cause no one bought an Oculus Rift to play a 3RD PERSON PLATFORMER.

CUPHEAD

Finally, September 29th. Microsoft Exclusive. DAMMIT!!!!! It’s going to be on the Windows Store.
CORRECTION: It will be on Steam.

CRACKDOWN 3

Terry Crews and explosions. That is all.

Addendum Joke: Old Spice the Video Game

ASHEN

Not to be confused with YouTuber and star of Ashens and the Quest for the Gamechild, Stuart Ashen aka Ashens.

LIFE IS STRANGE: BEFORE THE STORM

Hello Fellow Kids: The Prequel starring the worst character from the last one.

MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF WAR

One of the best Lord of Rings games in recent memories has a sequel that looks to improve on the Nemesis system with more involved stories like not actually killing an orc only to have them come back to seek revenge. You can actually recruit orcs to help take over strongholds as you wage war through Mordor. This might lead to large-scale battles, but not much was said about it during the presentation. If you liked the last game, keep a close eye on this one.

ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS

Should be renamed to Ori and the Infinite Sadness. I haven’t even played the first game and this made me sad. Also, Gareth Coker provided live music for the trailer.

ORIGINAL XBOX BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY

They said they want to better preserve their game library by adding this feature to all Xbox Ones. This shouldn’t be a problem as both the Xbox One and Original Xbox have x86 processors and run on modified versions of Windows. It will be launching later this year.

ANTHEM

Well, we now know where all the budget for the facial animation went. This is Bioware’s latest game that seems awfully a lot like Destiny. Which in turn could be a good or bad thing. You get to put on an Exosuit and fly around different parts of a planet with your friends. Looks interesting but after Mass Effect 3, Andromeda and even Destiny, it going to take a lot of convincing.

OTHER TOMFOOLERY

  • Audience sounded like it was filled with the same people from the Xbox One’s reveal in 2013.
  • One guy accidentally referred to the system as the Xbone.
  • Phil Spencer pretending like he’s embarrassed with the cheering going on.
  • Scalebound is still cancelled.
  • Less talking and more games. Wow, that’s a first.
  • Xbox One X does not come with Kinect 3.0.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, it was a pretty good showing of games. It was mostly no nonsense. Good Job.

E3 2017: Thoughts on EA Play

Posted on by Ian Ferguson

To kick of my coverage of the event’s press conferences and the launch of this site, we have EA’s Play Event. An hour-long presentation of pain because they love to waste your time by talking a lot, showing nothing, and showing sports games. Why won’t the sports games just stop showing up at these things?

MADDEN 18

The conference started with a drumline which immediately told everyone that we were going to start strong with Madden. Dear god, can we good one year without any sports games that we already know you’re going to release every frickin’ year. The only thing that they could actually show off as being new was the inclusion of a story mode. I don’t know how much this was played in FIFA 17 when it included one, but they did admit this was the most innovative thing they’ve added in a decade. That’s quite sad. Already have a Madden game? Just keep playing that and save you $60, like everyone else has said. Every. Single. Year. You’re the reason EA doesn’t even try to do better.

BATTLEFIELD 1: IN THE NAME OF THE TSAR

It was likely that there would be some add-on content for their latest Battlefield game. This one didn’t show many details to whether it was for single and multiplayer, but it does include new stuff such as night map. Are you seriously take a page from Gears 4 with their Impact Dark map? So original, a copy and paste job. Boo. It might be good for those of you that have enjoyed the game. So play on.

ESPORTS

eSports is a joke. One guy in the audience seemed to agree.

FIFA 18

…did you just say West Ham?
Also, Men in Blazers. That’s not an observation, that’s an actual SPORTS SHOW duo that showed up to a VIDEO GAMING EVENT.

NEED FOR SPEED: PAYBACK

Cutscenes in the middle of racing. Great…

A WAY OUT

From the creators of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons comes a prison break co-op game that actually looks interesting. The game seems very reminiscent of movies like Shawshank Redemption, Oh Brother Where Art Though, and the TV show Prison Break. The game actually is presented in split-screen both in local and online play with the division of the screen changing depend on what is happening. If you want to get excited about a game, this is so far the only one they’ve shown that’s worth getting excited for. Also, they say EA is giving them full creative freedom, but that’s a steaming load.

SEED

I stopped paying attention here. Sorry. This isn’t a game just something else. I don’t care.

ANTHEM

New Bioware IP. Not showing anything until Microsoft presentation. Then what is the point of having your own press conference.

STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT 2

The game we asked for 2 years ago. The game is exactly the same as the last one. They showed only the multiplayer instead of any of the campaign, the one thing people wanted to see. It was the most uninteresting presentation of a Star Wars game I have ever seen. The game is going to have all post-launch content be free, but I got this feeling that they might put microtransactions in to make up for the lack of DLC sales. Unless they do the same thing they did with Titanfall 2.

STAR WARS: GALAXY OF HEROES

They showed a trailer without sound. Also, no one that plays Galaxy of Heroes or mobile games in general is going to be watching your press conference.

OTHER TOMFOOLERY

  • Jesse Wellens. Not a Gaming Youtuber. Also, not a good public speaker.
  • Madden on Project Scorpio, but not in motion with frame drops.
  • iJustine. Not a Gaming YouTuber.
  • EA is still supporting the terrible HEforSHE charity. Seriously?
  • NBA Live 18 invaded Battlefront 2.
  • View of a Galaxy of Heroes booth with no one there.
  • The stream on Twitch kept dying.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Once again EA starts E3 strong by lowering all expectations.

 

Gears 4’s June Update Shows How Much Contempt Microsoft Has Towards Its Customers

Posted on - by Ian Ferguson

Back in October 2016, the beginning of a new Trilogy of Gears games started with a time skip of 25 year and starring the son of Marcus, JD Fenix. The Story Campaign was pretty good, but still needed some more to help flesh it out more as a complete story instead of a stepping stone. It was far more of an appetizer than a full meal. The Versus Multiplayer on the other hand had been mostly… underwhelming. With issues with gun balancing and tuning and a vacant PC playerbase, it isn’t something to even bother with. The Horde mode on the other hand has been really fun… with your friends (and just your friends). The added features of proper classes and being able to place fortification anywhere on the map makes for some good fun. The problem with it was playing with random people who just do waves 1 through 20 to complete as many bounties as possible. That means if you’re looking to do all 50 on Insane, you’re screwed. The issues people had was a lack of a 1 to 20 variation, a map voting system, or punishment for quitting in Horde. For the most part, Horde was fun to play even with the kinks it had.

The keyword here is ‘was’. The recent June 2017 update for the game made the obvious changes to Versus and gun tuning (which no one seems to be satisfied with after nearly 8 months of updates, can’t blame them). The biggest part of this update was additions to Horde in the form of Skills for the existing classes. If you want my opinions on them here it is: most of them are not very useful as the original skills are generaly better. I can’t find a reason why you would need use most of these skill. Cloak? A well placed grenade, Boomshot, or Dropshot will still kill you regardless of if you have this equipped and you have to be in cover just for it to activate and a decoy does a very good job of drawing away fire anyway. Berserk? No Heavy is going to willingly take damage to the point of near death just to get extra damage. The risk/reward ratio just isn’t profitable enough. Other skills like Dodge are great for Scouts because they can run out with a less likely chance of getting downed or killed with the extra defense. The Engineer’s Flow skill is a nice addition to give players a better chance of surviving a round of repairs. Believe me, trying to repair everything in 30 seconds is impossible. This just makes it that less frustrating.

The main reason for writing this article is the changes they made to turrets and Hammer of Dawn Strikes. They though it was a great idea to severely up the price of turrets by 33 to 100 percent (increasing by each level) and decreased its damage output, effectively making the one thing that actually gets you through all 50 waves, completely useless. The Hammer of Dawn Strike now costs more power to use which some people might believe it will prevent people from exploiting its destructibility potential. Maybe if the skills for each class were more powerful or you made the classes have passive skills that didn’t require a slot this would make more sense. Why would you change a non-versus gametype in such a capacity that playing a 1 through 50 will take nearly 4 hours instead of a little over 2? I know. Microtransactions!

The biggest reason for these changes is not because they want you to “diversify your approach” to Horde. Instead, they nerfed the turret and increased the cost to slow down your progress. This in turn will make your credits per hour rate get hampered immensely. They want to break your will until you start spending your real money for a chance to get more skill cards to upgrade. Not only that, they introduced a special Horde Booster pack that comes with 10 cards instead of 5 and costs $2.99. Okay. I’ll just save up some cred… oh, wait. I can’t use credits to get these. You can only get them with real money. That’s a scumbag move there Microsoft and the Coalition. Is the reason you added more skills to Horde is because you wanted to give players more options and a 6th level, or was it the fact that players were maxing out their classes leaving them no reason to buy more Horde Packs? It looks more like the later.

I said I was done with this game after I saw just how dickish Microsoft and the Coalition were for making these changes because of how greedy they were, but a glimmer of light showed up on the Gears of War Subreddit. A way to show that if these devs and publishers are going to play dirty, we should play just as dirty. If this isn’t reverted back by the beginning of July, they can take their 100+ Gigabyte game and shove it.

Xbox Live on Windows 10 Sucks!

Posted on - by Ian Ferguson

After several months since the release of Gears of War 4 on Xbox One and PC, the Xbox Live App for PC is still an unmitigated mess. Even after using the various troubleshooting pages on their official websites, the Xbox App continues to have its functionality crippled after every update for the app or the operating system itself. It seems as if both the app and OS are developed by two teams that lack a particular skill set that is needed: communication.

Every time there is a major update with Gears of War 4, the Xbox App has an issue of the Teredo adapter not working or the server connection being block by an imaginary program or outward force. It’s almost as if Microsoft doesn’t know how things like TCP/IP or server connectivity works. Steam is able to do this with no problem. No ports to open or external software needed to play. It just works. All you need is your PC, a network connection, and the internet. With Xbox Live this is not the cause. The are so many factors like software adapters, firewall policies, and antivirus software that will completely ruin your experience because you can’t talk with your​ Xbox counterparts.

I know some of these issues can pop up on Steam, but they’re so few and far between it isn’t really a giant widespread issue. If Microsoft would ditch their current setup for something like Steam or even Battle.net, things would be better. No more having to enable and disable things I never knew even existed in this OS or edit and restart Group Policies. I’m tired of fixing a problem Microsoft should have fixed over a year ago with at least the Anniversary Update. Sod off, Microsoft.

Addendum: While writing this, I updated my main PC to the Creators Update. It seems they might have fixed it or people who hadn’t updated to the latest version of Windows 10 were being blocked from server connectivity on Xbox Live (Wow, seriously). This doesn’t absolve them of this problem as it’s likely to rear its ugly head again after the next round of updates.