AggroChat #347 – Horse Souls

Hey Friends! We are back again because Bel’s life has calmed down a little bit, or at least enough to be able to reasonably make our normal recording slot. Tonight we have a whole stack of things to talk about and not enough show to fit it into. So first up we talk about R-Type Final 2 which has been bouncing for a few shows and how it is very true to the PS2 original game. From there Grace talks about her recent experience finishing Subnautica and starting the Below Zero sequel. From there we talk a bit about E3 2021 so far and most specifically further information coming out about Elden Ring. This is another Dark Souls game that is not called Dark Souls. Bel also talks a bit about how weird it is that UbiSoft is working on an Avatar game… aka the big blue people and not the great sorta-anime series. Ash talks about his experience with Chicory and we talk a bit about what it is like to survive Snowpiercer the City Sim in Frostpunk.

Topics Discussed

  • R-Type Final 2
  • Subnautica and Below Zero
  • E3 2021
    • Wholesome Games Direct
    • UbiSoft Forward
    • Devolver Digital Forwarder
    • Gearbox Showcase
    • Elden Ring
    • Avatar Open World Game
  • Chicory A Colorful Tale
  • Frostpunk
Categories E3

UbiSoft, Devolver, Wholesome and Gearbox 2021

Hey Friends! It is still very much game show season and today we have a new batch of shows to talk about. I contemplated saving this for Monday, but since I am sitting here with a handful of things to talk about I decided to go ahead and post it because I am hoping Monday I will be able to talk about cool stuff from the Microsoft and Bethesda show. Thursday was pretty solid with the Summer Game Fest, or at the very least there were a lot of trailers to consume. Friday I was largely out of pocket and today the more normal shows started up giving me a few things to talk about. I have to admit I did not do a great job of keeping track of which show had which games, but largely these are the shows that I am going to talk about today and links to the videos of them.

I have to admit I am a little underwhelmed by what was shown today. There are a handful of things that I am mildly interested in but nothing really that got me excited. Well that is slightly untrue because there is one game that we got a trailer for that I am very much looking forward to, and hoping maybe during the Microsoft show we might get a release date. UbiSoft for me is very hit or miss and they seemed to lean very heavily into properties that I don’t really care about. I am kind of hit and miss with FarCry in general and this one in particular with its “Tropico” feel isn’t my jam. Wholesome Games Direct is an excellent show and I support it wholeheartedly… but also most of the games they show off are not really my jam and tend to be more of the walking simulator or harvest moon-like variety.

Of the hundreds of games that were shown there are some that I thought were interesting. Again this is not a best of list or anything because I am certain you would choose differently. It however is my blog so here is my list I wanted to talk about.

Death’s Door

I had not heard of this game before today, but it appears to be another in a fairly long line of recent “zelda nostalgia” games. This time you are playing as a crow with a sword and battling all sorts of intense looking bosses. It looks fast and smooth and similar to Tunic from my last post I am all in on these Zelda-likes… at least enough to give them a shot when they launch.

Release Date: July 20th, 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Olli Olli World

There is an ongoing revival of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater nostalgia game which I guess is a bit of a misnomer for this particular entry given that OlliOlli is in itself a storied pixel art skating game starting in 2014. The early entries were a sort of linear side scrolling “endless runner” type experience. This game appears to be taking that and transforming it into something a bit more open world. In many ways the gameplay reminds me a bit of the old Atari game 720. Most definitely interesting enough to give it a look as it gets closer to release.

Release Date: Winter 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Skatebird

For starters I feel like it is a tragedy that the game was not called Skatebirb, but that is just a me thing. Secondly Glass Bottom Games is pretty great and behind a couple of interesting games including the firefighter endless runner called Jones on Fire and Hot Tin Roof a 3D stylized noir detective adventure game. I remember watching an early video on Skatebird and it is basically a love story to Tony Hawk Pro Skater but with birbs. Because of the scale of the birbs you also have some interesting “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” style repurposing of giant benign objects for the purpose of building ramps and obstacles. Very into this game.

Release Date: August 12th, 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Black Skylands

I remember seeing this several years ago associated with a showing at PaxSouth. The idea looked pretty cool in that you build an airship and then explore the skies looking for resources and treasure… while occasionally having to deal with giant monsters that attack you. This is one of those games that I have kept my eyes out for and it finally has a release date. It looks fun, but I have no clue when I will actually get around to playing it. Unfortunately said release date is actually the beginning of early access… so take that as you will.

Release Date: July 9th, 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Steelrising

This is the one game from today that I am legitimately extremely excited for. So there is a game studio called Spiders that is one of the few companies making new games in the Bioware Action RPG style. They keep making a valiant effort to perfect the formula and thusfar each game has been flawed in a slightly different way, but still very enjoyable to play through. Greedfall is just about as close to perfection as they have gotten and my hope has been the next game… would really nail things. Steelrising is that next game and it appears to be set in an alternate version of the French Revolution where automatons are doing battle and seemingly killing off people. It appears that you are playing a good one of these automatons. I know this has been associated with Microsoft so I am hoping that maybe just maybe we get a proper release date tomorrow during their show.

Release Date: Unknown – Watch the Trailer

Firegirl

I thought this one looked really cool. It has the whole pixel art plus detailed lighting and backgrounds that worked so well for Octopath Traveler. This however appears to be a side scrolling platformer where you battle fires, avoid obstacles and rescue people. I think it looks really cool and it reminds me sorta of a 16 bit era fire fighting game that I don’t think ever made it to the United States. Again zero clue if or when I will ever get around to playing it, but I dug its look and gameplay.

Release Date: Fall 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Dolmen

The trailer doesn’t really give much to go on here, so I was forced to do some external research. This looks like it is a SciFi/Cosmic Horror style game that maybe draws inspiration from Deadspace. The challenge is it describes itself as “Action RPG” which means many things to many different people. It appears to be a third person action hack and slash style combat game. It does however appear to also have gunplay similar to Mass Effect. What little combat footage I could find seemed to feel a bit more Dark Soulsy when immediately makes me question if it is my jam. I guess time will tell on this one and I will absolutely want to watch some gameplay before picking it up. Definitely looks interesting.

Release Date: Sometime 2022 – Watch the Trailer

Chernobylite

My initial take away of this game is that it is in the Stalker/Metro genre of post nuclear war Soviet era Science Fiction. The trailer doesn’t give us a lot to go on, but I did watch some play through and the entire thing looks somewhat compelling. Third person shooter with some exploration and stealth notes, but that seemed to be largely due to extremely limited resources. Also appears to have some survival aspects in that you need to keep tabs on your radiation as you roam around. The game has some heavy horror notes as well, so I am not really sure what bucket to place it in. I find these games extremely interesting but the problem I have had with Metro series is that they are somewhat klunky to control. My hope is this feels smooth and reliable, and if that is the case I will probably give it a shot at some point.

Release Date: Steam Early Access currently with July 2021 console release – Watch the Trailer

Moonglow Bay

This game originally interested me last year also at the Wholesome Games Direct because it had a very similar art style to Touryst. The game itself appears to be a fishing based harvest moon style game. There also is hinted at some mystery surrounding why exactly this fishing village doesn’t have people who fish anymore. I like the concept of a game like this but I always end up finding myself getting bored after awhile. Definitely seems charming however and I really like this simplified voxel art style.

Release Date: 2021 – Watch the Trailer

There you have it. All of the games that I found interesting in the four shows that I watched today. My hope is tomorrow will be filled with games that are more my speed. For those interested we have Xbox and Bethesda showcase at 12 pm CDT, Square Enix at 2:15 pm CDT, PC Gaming Show at 4:30 pm and Future Games Show at 6 pm. With no Sony in the mix, my hope is that Microsoft/Bethesda gives me something to get excited for.

Summer Game Fest 2021

Yesterday was the kick off of the Summer Game Fest, another Geoff Keighley production. Essentially this is “The Game Awards” without the pretense of having to occasionally give out an award. Similarly you are going to hear the “World Premiere” sounder a ridiculous number of times before it is over. Apparently Geoff saw the Zach Synder Cut and was jealous of its length, because the official stream broadcast clocks in at around four hours. You can of course instead watch your favorite YouTube talking head talking over the show, or you could just do what I do… and simply track down the original broadcast and watch that so you can make your own decisions… and jokes.

I did not watch the entire thing, but instead chose to skip around a bit because to be fair… I don’t care about the random conversations in between the game trailers. That said it was sort of humorous to watch Jeff Goldblum awkwardly troll Geoff Keighley in a display that did not seem scripted or planned in any way. Even skipping around like I did, there was an awful lot to unpack and I did my best to catch all of the game trailers. I originally had a totally different post for this morning but instead realized that it is in fact game show season once again… and I will apparently be watching a lot of these over the weekend. It seems that E3 is back on the menu which is not something I expected. I legitimately thought E3 as a concept would not survive the last year given that for the most part it is really easy to do a pre-recorded segment that you can control the release of and most game companies are already doing this.

On to the games I cared about…

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

So essentially the breakout hit of Borderlands… aka Ashly Burch with her Tiny Tina character is helming a brand new game that is effectively the best DLC for Borderlands 2 turned into an entire game? I am down for this. Borderlands and I have a sort of hit or miss past with the games and I never really got into Borderlands 3 in spite of my best efforts, but I am interested in a fantasy looter shooter in the style of Borderlands. That is essentially how Ashly Burch described it and I am certain I will be giving this a spin.

Release Date: Early 2022 – Watch the Trailer

Metal Slug Tactics

This is a game that I most definitely did not expect to see in a genre that I think no one was expecting. Metal Slug is a favorite of mine and I think for the most part I love it because of the art style. It seems like all of that pixelated goodness is porting over to a rogue-like tactics game experience and while that isn’t normally my jam I am going to try it. The trailer was beautifully made, but also spent more time on animated bits than actual gameplay so it will be interesting to see any gameplay videos that come out about how things are actually going to flow.

Release Date: TBA 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Lost Ark

I have been waiting for this damned game since 2014 when I first saw its trailer for the South Korean release. It finally released in 2018… and I have to admit I contemplated trying to buy an account given that you have to have the national id thing to create an account to play on the Korean servers. I thought surely eventually this would come out in the West and last year it was announced that Amazon would be bringing it here. Finally we have a release window and I am super pumped about it. I love hack and slash Diablo style games and I am hoping this is worth all of the wait time. I am trying not to hype it up any more than I already have because I really want this to be a great game.

Release Date: Fall 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Axiom Verge 2

Axiom Verge was a really cool love song to Metroid and I own it on a bunch of platforms. So when the second game was announced it was almost certain that I would give it a spin. What I find intriguing is how different this one seems like it is going to be. In the first game you mostly used ranged attacks and in this one it seems like your character is largely melee based. The trick however is that apparently your character can also hack the mechs you are fighting to change the pace of combat. Additionally in the trailer they talked about how apparently you don’t have to fight any bosses in the game to progress through it. If you just want to run straight through the battle and keep on moving… that is apparently a valid playstyle. Should be interesting to see this as it launches.

Release Date: Q3 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Tunic

I’ve been tracking this game since E3 2018 and am still very interested in it. Essentially it is cute fox Zelda and that is pretty much all the hook I need. I’ve even played one of the earlier demos of the game and it was great… I just want it to actually release. I think this is a single developer project so I am way more forgiving on what has felt like the long development cycle. Ultimately this seems like a Switch game to me but I will likely buy it on multiple platforms to support the developer.

Release Date: Sometime 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Tales of Arise

So I am going to have to admit… I have seen a lot of trailers for Tales games over the years and I am not sure if I have ever actually called one of them out until now. Basically Tales was a series that I knew to be as beloved and complicated as Final Fantasy… but I had never actually engaged with it in any form. That is until now when I have been playing through Tales of Vesperia and have found it super charming and enjoyable and now suddenly care. I have no clue when I will actually get around to playing it but I am very interested in Tales of Arise as a result of this new experience.

Release Date: September 10, 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Elden Ring

This is the trailer that pretty much everyone online seemed to be hoping for… but also at the same time preparing for it not to actually show. Elden Ring is this weird collaboration by red wedding aficionado George R. R. Martin and the fine folks that bring us games that make you want to punch your screen… FromSoftware. I mean I have to admit I held out a slim amount of hope that this would be a very Skyrim like game experience… all the while knowing it was probably going to be another non-Souls Series Souls game like Bloodborne. Based on the trailer footage, it seems like this is very much a Souls game and while I generally am not a huge fan of that genre… I have to admit there is something compelling about it. I am probably going to be a sucker and give it a try since I did make some measure of traction into the Demon’s Souls remake.

Release Date: January 21, 2022 – Watch the Trailer

Of note… there were way the hell more games talked about than I just featured. If you ONLY care about the trailer reveals and want to completely skip the rest of the show… the YouTube channel GameTrailers has ripped and re-uploaded all of the trailers into a playlist form. There are 104 videos in the list so it will still take awhile to chew through it. Probably the strangest announcement is you can play as a Bean in Fall Guys that looks like 2B from Nier minus the mighty butt action. We have once again entered a wealth of new game information and expect my next several posts to probably reflect that.

Categories E3

Returning to the Start

Morning Friends! There is something that you realize really quick when you attempt to go straight from a Mass Effect 3 playthrough into another Mass Effect save… the first game is such a downgrade as compared to the rest of the series. There are a lot of things that they had not quite figured out. Don’t get me wrong… the Legendary edition is so much better than anything that came before it. The controls are mostly standardized with the rest of the series and the models… while significantly lower fidelity still look pretty solid. What is most noticeable however is the dialog and how stiff the delivery is. Additionally there are just other things like the whole loot/encryption/omni-gel thing that doesn’t make a ton of sense… or the wide sweeping scope of the Citadel that serves to trap you there immediately following what is an otherwise action packed first mission.

I would be willing to bet that there are a large number of people who never actually make it off the Citadel. I had the benefit of the layout of everything being fairly fresh in my memory and I still found it a little painful. The best thing to come out of the trip to the Citadel is that you get your first three good crewmates in the form of Tali, Wrex and Garrus… which also means that I never again have to use Kaidan or Ashley. During the last playthrough I absolutely made the wrong choice between the two of them… and I will not be making that mistake this time around. I’ve never romanced Ashley… and I am trying to decide if I can hold my nose and go through with the space racist or not. The game suffers from not exactly having the best options that are not Liara… who disturbingly keeps telling you how young she is in Asari years.

The other thing that you notice is just how shitty the captain’s quarters are on this frigate. Like from the SR2 onwards you get this nice private deck that is exclusive to the commander with lots of cosmetic options and neat things like fish tanks, a stereo and even a display of your medals. In the first game on the SR1 you get a general purpose room that happens to have a bed at the back and you are certain is more conference room than quarters. In the later games this room gets used by Miranda and much later Liara so the layout doesn’t really change much because they all have an office and adjoining bedroom but there is some sort of separation between the two. I guess it really drills home how much of a “military frigate” the first design really was, and how much it became a general purpose exploration vehicle in later games.

I am starting to question if I am going to make it through a second playthrough myself to be honest. Something that completely snuck up on me is the fact that Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis released yesterday. I logged in for a bit last night and was completely confused as to why all of my characters were showing up from baseline PSO2. When they talked about cosmetics carrying over, I did not realize that it actually just meant that your characters from the first game were going to be in the second game. You can change the appearance but I was happy enough with my original CAST design to just keep moving forward with it. I did a bit of the tutorial before logging for the night. I did quickly realize however that the load times mean I really need to free up some space one one of my SSDs for the install.