Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we are trying to get back into the swing of regularly recording shows. It was a bit of an odd week because no one saw Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard King before it was announced. We talk about this a bit, and Game Pass… then Bel shares a whole bunch of games that he has been playing from Game Pass. We also talk a bit about a game called OneShot that Kodra has been spending some time playing.
Good morning folks. I thought I would continue this morning with some of my discussion about titles that I have been playing over on Microsoft Game Pass. I think one of the great things about that service is that it serves to breathe new life into titles that maybe got lost in the mix. For example I remember Super Luckys Tale coming out, but I also don’t remember much press positive or negative about it. Out of curiosity the other night I decided to give it a spin, because with the Game Pass it is super easy to dip my toes into new experiences. Much to my surprise this is a really freaking fun game, and I think it deserves a lot more attention than it has gotten.
You play as Lucky, a fox that got sucked into another realm by an evil wizard and you ultimately need to collect all of the pages of a magical book in order to return home to your family. Structurally the game works a lot like Mario 64 with its stars mechanic, but instead of stars you are collecting pages of the magic book. Once you have enough pages you can use the book to unlock the door to the boss of a given zone which will then allow you to progress to the next zone. In any given level there are multiple objectives which also might remind you of that Mario 64 formula.
Mechanically you have a tail whip similar to the Raccoon suit from Mario 3, and the ability to burrow in the ground to move faster and avoid certain combat situations. Popping up under something knocks the target up into the air. The game has a pretty broad mix of 2D style side scrolling levels and more open world 3D levels. I think for me what makes the game work is how freaking well animated everything is and who good it feels to run around as this cute fox. The levels are not exactly challenging, but the fun and pacing makes it a really enjoyable lighthearted game experience. This would be the ideal platformer for a kid just getting used to the controller because it is extremely forgiving with plenty of lives to be found.
Similar to the Koopa Kids, each world that you encounter is controlled by a member of the “Kitty Litter”. So far I have fought a Ninja, a Mad Scientist, and the realm that I just started is seemingly controlled by a Kitty version of Napoleon and his giant oafish companion. The end of zone fights feel more like a Sonic the hedgehog encounter than that of Mario, where you are trying to interact with the zone in order to defeat the enemy more than stomping on their head three times. In one case I had to fling enemies back at the boss by burrowing under them and popping up, and in another case I had to interact with a number of switches to make something happen. Easy to figure out puzzles in general but still enjoyable.
Scattered through the levels are also a number of hidden secret areas. This zone for example had a number of these puzzles where you had to move pieces in such a way as to land the fox statue on the green plus sign. None of them were terribly complex but still fun to solve. Essentially this is not a frustration side-scroller, so if you crave that sort of interaction then maybe look elsewhere. Over the last few years there are a number of games that have come out that are really wallowing in that “nintendo hard” games model. This is more something you play casually for awhile for enjoyment rather than something that you fight with to feel pride in surviving the battle. Seeing as I play games for the escape that they give me, rather than as an achievement… I am perfectly fine with this style of experience.
If you already have Game Pass then I highly suggest you give this game a spin, especially if you have younger gamers in your midst. For those who don’t have game pass and are still curious, this was released widely and is I believe available on pretty much every platform. I’m three zones in and have been playing this as my wind down game each night. Having a lot of fun doing so.
Good morning friends. This morning I am going to talk about the thing that I had originally planned on talking about yesterday… before the Blizzard news broke. I am about four years late to the party, but God of War is a pretty damned phenomenal game. On Monday I wrapped up my play through of the game and I have to say the characters have all grown on me. I went from feeling sorry for “Boy”, to wanting to throttle “Boy”, to feeling genuine love and affection for “Boy”. The game takes you on a ride and for anyone who has missed out on the memes surrounding this game, it focuses on a very grizzled and world weary Kratos and his son Atreus that becomes collectively referred to as “Boy”. Moments in to the game Faye dies, the mother of Atreus and we embark upon a mission to take her ashes to the highest peak in the realms.
This simple quest drives the entire game, but as we attempt to complete it… there are certain obstacles that keep getting in our way that we must deal with first. The flow of the game feels extremely natural as we are besieged immediately upon setting forth on the quest, and hunted the entire way by forces that we do not quite understand. We also find friends along the way that help us on our journey, and the entire narrative structure feels very much like one of the epic poems of antiquity from which we base the mythology that makes up this series. There is no straight path through this game but instead one that weaves and loops back on itself constantly as we slowly discover what still remains in our path keeping us from our final destination.
I’ve been jokingly referring to this game as “Bad Dad Simulator” on twitter, because so much of the game is actually really revolving around the relationship between Kratos and Atreus. We get the impression that Kratos really did not know what to do with “Boy”, and had mostly shunned him. We learn that Atreus was a sickly child and Kratos spent most of his time off hunting or doing other busywork to provide for the family. Atreus does not fit the mold of what a man should be in Kratos eyes, and throughout the journey he keeps trying to batter him down into the pattern that he is most familiar with, that of a Spartan warrior. Through this journey however I truly feel like the pair come to a point of acceptance with each other. Atreus has skills and gifts that never would have fit within that role, and Kratos is not the cruel immovable object that the son thought he was. The two understand each other and I think really come to love each other… as opposed to the resentment that is very obvious at the beginning of the game.
One of the things that somewhat shocked me about the game however was how short it ended up being. All told at this point I have put in 22 hours of gameplay according to steam. I’ve completed the main story, all of the major highlighted side quests, and a few of the hidden objectives. There is still an awful lot of scouring that I could do to tick off the last few checkmarks and hunt down the last few things to kill or collect. That said I think I have picked most of the meat off of these bones and am left with the competitionist busywork that every game has these days. The reason why I am shocked is pretty early on in the game you are presented with this screen, the Realm Travel system that includes 8 realms plus Midgard. For those who are not familiar with Norse mythos you have:
Alfheim
Helheim
Muspelheim
Niflheim
Jotunheim
Svartalfheim
Vanaheim
Asgard
Midgard
So upon seeing this screen I thought wow… I have only really been to Midgard so far and it seems huge, I cannot wait to see these other realms! The truth is… any realm that is not Midgard is tiny by comparison. Alfheim is involved in a single quest early in the game, Helheim is involved in two quest chains and cannot really be explored, Niflheim and Muspelheim are realms that each feature a specific mini-game that you can grind for zone currency that lets you craft specific things, and then Jotunheim is used for a single quest near the end of the game. The leaves Vanaheim, Asgard, and Svartalheim completely inaccessible and the vast majority of the game taking place in Midgard… that actually seems entirely focused around the lake of the nine and areas immediately adjacent to it. While I greatly enjoyed the journey, it does immediately hit you how small of a game this actually is in comparison to other “open world” offerings.
All of that said, it is an extremely enjoyable experience and mechanically the Leviathan axe now joins the pantheon of truly epic video game weapons. That seems like a really hard ask these days, to create a weapon for a game that feels unique and memorable enough to really break into the list of the greatest, but Leviathan absolutely earns its place. Similar to Mjolnir, you can throw the axe and summon it back to your hand no matter how far away it actually is. It also has the elemental effect of freezing certain objects, which allows you to use it in order to complete certain puzzles. When you finally get back your Blades of Chaos from the previous games, these also have their own puzzle uses which makes the weapons not only mechanically enjoyable in combat but also strategically interesting for traversal.
Ultimately this game is going to appeal to two sets of players. Firstly if you love a very interesting and well crafted story, then you need to play this game and experience it for yourself. Secondly if you are a player that really enjoys open world brawlers with RPG elements that allow you to fine tune that combat, then this is also going to be a game for you. Additionally if you really enjoyed the original God of War games and can handle the shift to the third person perspective, then you are probably going to enjoy this game as well. I personally am glad that I waited for mouse and keyboard because it felt extremely easy to dive into this title with a control scheme that felt familiar. Like I said at the beginning, I am four years late to this party but I am glad that I finally completed God of War and look forward to Ragnarok.
Good Morning Friends. One of the negative effects of posting as early as I do each morning and only writing a single post each day… is that occasionally I miss some big story and end up digesting it a day later. In some aspects this is a good thing, because often times as the day goes on more details are released. This was absolutely the case for the news that broke yesterday moments after hitting the publish button that Microsoft would be acquiring Activision/Blizzard/King in an almost $70 billion dollar deal. There is so much to unpack in this once you get over the initial shock of hearing it. Quite frankly I was shocked when I heard that Microsoft had acquired Zenimax in September of 2020, but this really is a whole new level of surprise.
After the cards fell to the table yesterday, I have to say my current reaction still matches my initial reaction. I have a lot of hope about this merger. On one hand the last thing we need are more mega corporations controlling the media that we consume. On the other hand however, so far Microsoft has been a really good steward of the properties that they have acquired. I look at those initial studios that were consumed beginning in 2018, and I see a bunch of thriving studios with seemingly happy employees. I’ve been following Undead Labs for quite some time and they continue to tinker away on State of Decay 2, releasing free content updates while working on the third game and generally seem to be having a good time of it. Double Fine studios just released Psychonauts 2, and by most accounts it is the best release in that series and one of the better games to come out of that studio period.
However you cannot talk about Activision and Blizzard without talking about the horrible state of the company over the last few years. Essentially there are two problems that I have a very hard time separating. The first obviously is the cavalcade of abuse and toxic behavior that has been sheltered within that company and its subsidiaries that goes all the way to the top. I’ve written about this several times, but effectively 2021 was the year when I just didn’t play Blizzard games because I didn’t feel right about supporting that company in any way. That however is a double edged sword, because if you don’t play the games and buy the products the great employees who are struggling to make the company a better place suffer.
While I am not actively playing any Blizzard games, I still have a lot of friends that work there and as a result I try to amplify messages that I see floating around my timeline and even add my own in from time to time. I cannot see how Microsoft acquiring ActiBlizz is not a net positive for the employees. It was heartwarming seeing random people who work for different branches of Microsoft or studios that they have acquired welcoming the Blizz employees into the family. These were not coming from slick marketing accounts, but instead some random outspoken dev at this company or that company offering resources. My favorite one of these threads was from the Lead of the Accessibility program inviting them the newcomers to join in the conversation about gaming and disability.
I don’t think there is any way that Microsoft will not clean house at Activision Blizzard, and while the initial statements indicated that Bobby Kotick would be remaining on as the CEO, as the day went on it came out that this would be only until the merger was complete. The thing about this merger is that Microsoft is now responsible for the mess that Activision Blizzard made. There is no way that they go into that without having a game-plan on how to improve the situation, and quite honestly in the original announcement there is a paragraph that is very telling. Most specifically that last sentence in the image above is corporate speak for putting everyone on notice that things would be changing. I hope that the end result is a better environment for my friends still at Blizzard, and with it more creative freedoms to take games in directions other than trying to wring value out of a dwindling player base.
The other issue that Blizzard has is that the games themselves are trending in the wrong direction. It has been awhile since I have seen brilliance come out of that studio. There is part of me that desperately wants to believe that in part this lack greatness has been brought on by the awful working conditions and corporate meddling pushing the games towards more “mobile mechanics”. I can’t say that with any certainty, but I can hope. My hope is that Microsoft acquisition will create some breathing room and allow the studio to invest more in quality assurance and support staff and improve the general feel of the environments. I want to care about these games again, and I want to see them turn around and be as fun as they used to be.
This acquisition more than anything I believe is about the intellectual property that these studios hold. Microsoft lost the last generation for a bunch of reasons, but in part because they focused on chasing the non-gamer audience and moved away from exclusives. While I fully expect anything that is currently out and available for the Sony PlayStation will continue to be supported, this merger does put in jeopardy anything new. Starfield for example from Bethesda has already been announced to be coming to Xbox and PC exclusively, and I would not be shocked if the next big Blizzard project after this is complete will release in a similar manner. I am a PC gamer primarily so this console war never really impacted me directly, and additionally recently I have joined team Xbox and picked up a Series X to compliment my PS5. I am in this lucky position to not need to care about exclusivity boundaries, but I know there are folks this will actively harm and that is frustrating.
One top of the bulk acquisition of IP, I think this is also about adding value to Xbox Game Pass. It is already a phenomenal deal, but the fact that big games are releasing to the service on day one means that a lot of folks will be lured into the Xbox ecosystem and its “Netflix for Games” business model. Quite frankly right now Microsoft has the best business strategy going forward in that it meets the gamers where they are currently. If you want high quality 4k gaming then you have the Series X, and if your budget is still in 1080p realms there is the Series S. If you are a PC Gamer then the Game Pass still brings to the table all of the big Microsoft titles and a good number of third parties each month for you to download and play. If all you have is a mobile phone then you have XCloud which does a phenomenal job of streaming back these games in that form factor. I’ve played quite a bit of XCloud laying in bed knowing that my save games are going to be available later on both my XSX console and my gaming PC Upstairs.
What makes Game Pass so damned good for the players though is the availability of titles and the freedom of exploration. For example last night I downloaded and spent most of the night playing New Super Lucky’s Tale, which is a game that had been on my radar but never really made it to purchase territory. It is a delightful game and I would highly recommend it, and quite frankly I am probably going to write an entire post about it. However without Game Pass it is highly likely that I never would have played it. There are so many titles already in my short time with my XSX that I have sampled and found that I really enjoyed. I also played Archvale last night which is a delightful throw back that imagines a blend of Legend of Zelda and a Twin-stick Shooter. I’ve already talked at length about The Gunk, which again I never would have played were it not available on Game Pass.
I saw comments from folks off and on throughout the day about what this is going to mean for the blending of properties. Many folks commented about Master Chief showing up in Heroes of the Storm, but I just happened to choose my friend Shirin to screenshot. The thing is… I am so freaking on board with this nonsense. I want to see all of the characters from all of these now Microsoft owned properties blending together in interesting ways. I love game crossovers and I would love to see even characters like Banzo and Kazooie showing up in Heroes of the Storm or Blizzard themed Minecraft packs. There is so much room for stepping out of the lines and creating truly bizarre and interesting connections between the games.
As far as predictions for the future go. I think one of two things is going to happen with World of Warcraft, either we close this game and create a new more console friendly sequel or the original gets retooled to be controller friendly. Microsoft has shown that they are pretty committed to the multi-platform nature of their ecosystem and as a result I am not sure how many “PC Only” titles will continue to exist. I also think that we are going to see a dusting off of properties that were considered “not profitable” by Activision like Starcraft and see modern development that is similarly platform agnostic. I would love to see my beloved Diablo 3 reach a point where there is parity between the console and PC releases and the two can play together freely. That however is probably a pipe dream, but I fully expect that to be the case with Diablo 4.
Honestly more than anything I have this glimmer of hope that maybe this is going to improve the situation at Blizzard. I would love to be able to play Diablo 3 again with my friends in our ritual of starting new characters each season. I miss that camaraderie and there really has not been a game that we have found that captures the feeling in quite the same way. I would love to see World of Warcraft in a state where I am happy to play it again as well. I think maybe that is a bridge too far because honestly I am not on board with the direction the story has gone there, but it would still be nice to see that as an option. I know friend who work for Microsoft and they are happy, and I have seen that the early acquisitions have seemingly thrived under their yoke. I am not sure what the end result of this is going to be and it is almost certain that Kotick will have a golden parachute… but I do have faith that he will be gone and it will be a good thing.
