August 2020 - Page 6 of 6 - Tales of the Aggronaut

Are We Getting Consoles This Year?

August 6, 2020 by Belghast

Today we have a press conference scheduled for the Sony Playstation 5, where in theory we are supposed to be getting the price it will be launching at as well as pre-orders opening. I say supposedly, because this is not the first time we have heard rumors through 4Chan sources stating that a price announce and pre-order are coming. Right now it feels like both Microsoft and Sony are playing an intricate bluff, with neither wanting to show their cards before the other. I feel like this is largely pointless given that to me Microsoft and Sony are pursuing two different strategies for this general.

It feels like Sony is very much setting up for the traditional console experience of wanting to push total units sold and with that total volume of software sold. Microsoft on the other hand seems to be rolling out a significantly more service based approach with its multiple tiers of product offerings in the form of the Xbox Series X, the rumored Lockhart, XCloud for those without devices and on all platforms the extremely strong offering that is Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft appears to care more about getting that monthly subscription from you and providing varied entry points to their ecosystem than they really do about “pushing iron”. It makes sense given that Microsoft has been shifting to service based solutions on the business side for years.

While we have played this game of cat and mouse on console reveals and the dates associated with them… I have to admit there have been a few seeds of doubt planted in my head. We know both consoles exist and are preparing to launch, but I do wonder if maybe the delaying tactics are not due to price competition but instead due to the fact that they are about to announce delays in shipping the hardware due to the ever present complications of Covid-19. No one wants to deliver that news to a public that has likely built up some seriously toxic expectations surrounding the ability to have a shiny new console sitting under their tree come Christmas morning.

With that I decided to do a bit of a thought experiment to determine how late we are on this announcement. I decided to mine available data through some careful google searching and figure out the key dates associated with the last two generations of consoles.

Xbox 360
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 8/18/2005
- Date Console Launched – 11/22/2005
PlayStation 3
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 10/10/2006
- Date Console Launched – 11/17/2006
PlayStation 4
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 6/11/2013
- Date Console Launched – 11/15/2013
Xbox One
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 6/10/2013
- Date Console Launched – 11/22/2013

So what can we take away from this. Firstly I think it is pretty clear when the launch window is going to be for new consoles. I would predict the viable dates for launch would be either 11/10/2020 or 11/17/2020 with myself personally leaning on that second date. Essentially an early November launch is critical because that first shipment of consoles is going to sell through in its entirety and retailers will be clamoring for a second shipment before Christmas. Given the reality of logistics that means early November is key so they can send shipment number two early in December.

With a target launch window, we go back to the problem that we currently have that pre-orders have yet to begin. We are very much not following the pattern experienced with the most recent generation. In that case both announced price of console and began pre-orders at E3 2013. We are looking to be setting up for something more akin to that of the 2005/2006 360 and PS3 launch. In both cases it was a Christmas plagued by console shortages that were not remedied until the second quarter of the following year.

If there are no delays and we don’t get an announcement pushing back the launch to first quarter of 2021, we are going to experience severe shortages of consoles for this holiday season. I feel like that is still a significant “if” because it seems like the clock is ticking on what would be a viable launch strategy. That said we are living in a different world than we were in 2013, with more and more things being handled digitally. Game Stop is not the juggernaut that it once was and Best Buy is seemingly struggling as well, so I have a feeling this is going to be the generation where the vast majority of console units are purchased online and drop shipped to the waiting hands of gamers.

That said this is also shaping up to be a console generation plagued by bots and scalpers. Right now we are dealing with constant shortages of the Nintendo Switch, a console that three years ago because each new shipment gets gobbled up by resellers. I expect that to largely be the norm going into this console generation, in that you will be fighting against an army of cleverly scripted bots that are trying to snag your console and sell back to you at a 50% mark up. So even if the consoles do in fact launch this year, it is highly unlikely that most of you reading this post are going to be playing with it for a few quarters.

Right now we roughly thirteen weeks away from a possible launch window for these consoles, and the clock is ticking. I personally have been prepped to put in my PlayStation 5 pre-order as soon as they open, because I figure I will have a day at most window of being able to secure one. I have a bunch of Discover cash back bonus sitting there waiting to hopefully blunt whatever the launch price ends up being. I hope the announcement today does in fact signal the opening of pre-orders, but there has been some significant messaging floating around from Sony trying to blunt the expectations, which leads me to personally believe that we are not going to get a price or an official launch window. Which leads me back to the original title of this post, are we in fact actually getting consoles this year?

Cardboard Forts and Fine Dinnerware

August 5, 2020 by Belghast

Last night was a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to gaming. I am very listless after having finished Death Stranding last night, and knowing that next Tuesday I will likely be starting Horizon Zero Dawn again on the PC. I also used the weird lull to call my Mom and engaged in some truly bizarre conversations. First up she asked if I wanted the box for their new dryer… because apparently there is some commercial on network television where a little girl makes a castle out of a box. Not watching network television, I really didn’t have a frame of reference and passed… though as a kid I would have made a truly nonsense base out of that box.

Next up they forgot about our Anniversary, which isn’t a big deal given that my brain mostly still thinks it is March. They however thought it was our 20th, when that happened 2 years ago… but again not a big deal. Where things started to get weird is the conversation wound its way around to buying fine dinnerware and purchasing salad plates at $33 a plate for someone that was getting married. I’ve never understood the whole registering for a set of dinnerware thing, because that just seems like an exceptional waste of money. We made it for like 18 years on a set of plates that we got at a Family Dollar for $5 for 4 place settings… and then recently upgraded to some from IKEA. We are not fancy.

It was around this time that she started asking me if I wanted “my” dinnerware. First off I had no clue I had some, but apparently around the time we got married she had purchased a set for us without ANY input. Apparently they have a black band around then and orange flowers, which is nothing that we would have ever purchased for ourselves. Thing is… we have been married 22 years and I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever heard of this. I told her to please give them to someone that will use them, because it is highly unlikely we will ever have anyone over to “entertain”.

As far as gaming goes, I tried out Fall Guys and it was cute. I can’t exactly see myself playing a lot of it, but it was a good spin on the “battle royale” genre. It is essentially something like Takeshi’s Castle turned into a multiplayer video game. It was fun to play for a few rounds. Essentially you race to the objective and when a certain number of people make it across the finish line the others are eliminated. You can stick around and watch the next rounds or you can just escape out and queue for another match. You seem to earn rewards either way, so you are likely best just bailing and trying again.

Other than Fall Guys I spent some time last night playing World of Warcraft. I’ve been leveling as an Elemental Shaman, and quite honestly it was what was keeping me sane during the earlier phone call. I’ve never really played as elemental, but I am finding it extremely enjoyable. I am starting to doubt however that I will actually manage to level the rest of my horde characters prior to shadowlands. I had a good run, but I am starting to lose steam and keeping up a brisk leveling pace. Shaman is now up to 51 and the Rogue and Priest are around 20.

Lastly the Retro Freak has made me contemplate some truly silly things like trying to bid on this lot of 200 famicom cartridges. Japan doesn’t have Ebay, and instead it is this alternate reality where Yahoo Auctions is what became popular. The problem with this however is that you cannot bid on anything on Yahoo Auctions in Japan without a Japanese address. When I first started watching this auction it was going for around $50 and has now jumped up to just shy of $80. The challenge there is the only way I could make this work is by dealing with a proxy bidding company, that purchases the item on my behalf, gets it mailed to them, and then turns around and ships it to the United States.

So that $80 would get around $20 added onto it for the proxy service, another $10 or so for Japanese shipping, and then a large chunk for EMS shipping from Japan to the United States which would likely add about $50 more onto the price tag. So even if I could secure it for $80 the final bill of sale would be around $160-200 depending on the amount of weight 200 famicom cartridges would actually weigh. I’ve largely talked myself out of it… but one can daydream about getting a large batch of completely nonsense games from Japan to play with. The truth is I could just load a bunch of roms on the Retro Freak, but there is something neat about owning the way cooler looking Japanese carts as compared to the ugly monstrosity that was the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Death Stranding Final Impressions

August 4, 2020 by Belghast

I am not sure how exactly one talks about this game without delving deeply into spoiler territory. That said I am going to try my best not to as I talk about my experiences finishing the game. The term “finishing” is about disingenuous as you move into a 15th chapter that to the best of my knowledge cannot be completed after you have received your proper “narrative ending” to the experience. I will talk about that more, but on its core Death Stranding is a game about connections. Right now we find ourselves living through a period of time where human touch and a connection to others is more than a little strained. The time following the event known as the “Death Stranding” is much the same.

The United States of America is no more, and all that is left of this country is a number of scattered Fallout style bunkers, with a few inhabitants in them. You play Sam Porter Bridges, and your job is to deliver much needed packages to these far flung settlements, and as the story progresses act as a way of connecting them all together and joining this remote network. Joining the network allows for instantaneous sharing of data along with access to what are effectively way higher tech 3D printers allowing these distant settlements to start making much needed items. Each time you bring another settlement online, it also has the side effect of sharing more fragments of information with the network as a whole and discovering new types of items that you can fabricate for your own use.

As great as these fabrication machines are… they can’t deal with anything organic and as a result your role as the “Great Deliverer” continues to be exceptionally important. You play a minor role in the lives of these settlers that you interact with, and once they join the network they stay in fairly regular contact with you in the form of emails. Sometimes they tell you that there is something that the need recovered and delivered and other time they send you a formal work order through the network of terminals that you interact with at each location. I said the game was about connections and as you travel through the world you feel more and more engaged with the inhabitants surrounding you.

The game wouldn’t were if it were just about a bunch of distant connections. Instead the game introduces you to a cast of strangely named characters that you develop a more significant bond with. This cast becomes your team as you attempt to solve the mysteries of the Death Stranding and halt what you ultimately realize is the sixth extinction of the world. Your mission pivots from connecting the world to ultimately saving it. You begin the game as a character that has no use for anyone but himself, and is effectively running from all the bad things that have happened in his life. You end the game with a realization that we need others in order to make it in this world and that humanity is in fact worth saving.

So much of this game is lonely vistas as you carefully trudge across the hostile terrain, and during this time your only companion is the games soundtrack that kicks in at significant moments. I remember thinking when I started the game that it was a weird game soundtrack because it more or less defied all of the normal beats that I expect from game music. However after having finished the game, I appreciate the auditory experience all the more. It largely reaches a crescendo in the final acts and as the credits played… I found myself weeping just from the release of emotions that the music brought on. There is a theme that gets played that I would probably cry right now were I to hear it.

Playing this game was a deeply emotional experience for me, and I am not certain it would be for everyone. Right now this game feels all the more poignant because of the time we find ourselves living in. Humanity is constantly divided by what feels like a very finite line between two opposing sides, and at the same time we are effectively forced to shelter indoors from an existential and unseen force that we can’t easily evade. While we were not at the time of this games release… we are effectively living the Death Stranding. Our Stranding is not one where the world of the dead starts to bleed into the world of the living, but instead of an invisible enemy that seeks to rob us of everything we knew as normal.

The game gets a little heavy handed with its narrative, and the last “chapters” of the game are effectively long extended cutscenes. However I would not change a single beat of how this game unfolds. Everything that I experienced was needed at the moment I experienced it. I’ve never played another Kojima game, and I know he is an incredibly divisive figure. That said Death Stranding is a masterpiece of narrative design, and one of the first games I have played that abolished the line between video game and interactive movie. I am not sure the story works without the gameplay elements and the gameplay elements don’t work without the lengthy cutscenes. The whole package felt amazing to experience, but it was also a deeply personal one.

I cannot guarantee that the unique blend of isolation and connections would mean the same thing to you as it did to me. You might bounce hard after the first time you are asked to painstakingly transport a difficult load across a minefield of things that will likely make you fall over and damage all of your cargo. You might find the fact that you end up carrying extra boots because you wear them out tedious as hell. I enjoyed the mechanics of solitude and the narrative journey brought on by interactions, and that paring for me worked. In the end I have no clue if my experience with the game was unique to me or if it will be translatable to others. Whatever the case this is currently at the top spot for games I have played this year and is likely going to be one of my candidates for the AggroChat games of the year show list.

Fire Soldiers and Elf Beards

August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 by Belghast

Death Stranding - Creepy Dudes Standing in Fire — Death Stranding – Creepy Dudes Standing in Fire

When in doubt folks, lead with the coolest screenshot that you have. This is one of those weekends when I spent a truly phenomenal amount of time playing a specific game… that I absolutely cannot talk about because reasons. I believe I clocked in around twenty hours playing the thing that I can’t talk about over the course of primarily Friday and Saturday. I look forward to seeing more of the thing that I can’t talk about seeing. Instead this morning you are going to get one of those general rundown type posts talking about where I am in various games.

World of Warcraft Shadowlands - Blood Elf Character Creator — World of Warcraft Shadowlands – Blood Elf Character Creator

I got into Shadowlands Beta out of the magnanimous nature of a friend of mine, so huge props to them for helping me out there. I’ve been piddling around over the last week and I am having a lot of fun. The most important thing to talk about however is the changes to the character creator. I can have a beard as a Blood Elf, which is phenomenal since that was not a thing you could really do well. The best you could do previously was a weak assed chinstrip. The undead models look amazing as well and are pretty much everything I have ever wanted in a rotting corpse. The big thing is it seems like they have expanded the options and decoupled them so whereas things used to be locked to specific sets of choices, but for example Tauren horn and hair and face are no longer combined in weird forced sets.

World of Warcraft Shadowlands - Intro Quest — World of Warcraft Shadowlands – Intro Quest

As far as the Story itself… I am getting DEEP Wrath of the Lich King vibes here and it is more than just the fact that the Ebon Blade are factoring significantly in everything we are doing right now. I am also greatly enjoying that there has been no faction based bullshit yet, and it is all a big team pulling together to save Azeroth sort of feel. The intro quest reminds me of the storming of the Dark Portal in Warlords, if that even were less on-rails. It has a “we did a thing and we were absolutely not prepared for the ramifications” type feeling to it. As far as the zone content, it reminds me of the best parts of Legion and Burning Crusade in that we are exploring a world that works NOTHING like the one we came from and it is a “stranger in a strange land” sort of feel.

Warhammer Online: Return of Reckoning Server

In more of my usual nonsense, I for some reason decided to reinstall Return of Reckoning which is a thing. I’ve not really done much but I did create a Dwarven Iron Breaker which was my class of choice back when this thing was a live game. I have to say that the quest advisement is not super amazing. Sure this was the first game to do the whole highlight an area of the map, which was cool… but I still cannot for the life of me find a damned book that is supposed to be on a nearby bench. I got in for a bit, played through a few quests and then got frustrated. Hopefully when I am in a different mindset I can pop back in and play some more.

In other random news I have settled on what I feel is the perfect controller for my Retro Freak. I greatly prefer the layout of the 6 button genesis and saturn controllers, especially when it comes to fighting games. I never got used to hitting the shoulder buttons in place of attack keys and spent a lot of my time on SNES playing with the Capcom Soldier Pad. Ultimately I was looking for something that would facilitate my preferred layout but also offer a bunch of buttons for mapping things to. Enter the line of officially licensed Sega Saturn controllers from Retro-Bit. The only negative is the home button appears to be unique to the Switch and is not mappable, but it gives me A, B, C, X, Y, Z, Start, Select, Left bumper and Right bumper to map inputs to which neatly fits all of the systems that are playable on the Retro Freak. I have to use it wired, but I went ahead and got the Bluetooth model for future options.

Death Stranding - The Final Run — Death Stranding – The Final Run

Lastly I have been trying to wrap up Death Stranding, and spent most of the day yesterday working my towards the eventual conclusion of the game. My grand plan had been to be finished with it by the time Horizon Zero Dawn lands next week, and I think that is well within reach… at the very least finishing the story. There are a bunch of miscellaneous side quests that I could be doing, but I have to say the mountain region really killed my joy for running random fetch quests. Hideo Kojima really loves sending you completely out of your way… because there have been three times so far when I have been asked to more or less traverse the entirety of what was then my game map. Yesterday I was asked yet again to traverse from the furthest possible point on the west coast of the map, all the way to the east coast of the map while dealing with extremely ramped up versions of everything I had encountered before.

Death Stranding - Corpse in a Cart — Death Stranding – Corpse in a Cart

At this point… I am ready to be done. I have greatly enjoyed this game and the storyline has wound its way through some deeply interesting lore and world building bits, but I am ready to say goodbye to Sam Porter Bridges. It is a phenomenal game, and pending you have the time to really spend exploring it then I would highly suggest giving it a go. There is a lot that you have to get used to early in the game, but it really is a masterpiece as far as games go. What has been surprising is how much of the stuff I considered to be complete nonsense on day one, has been fully explained and has paid off in a significant way. Extremely impressive.