Game Events

Sony State of Play – June 2022

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Good Morning Folks! We find ourselves entering the time of the year that used to be dominated by E3. Now instead we get a number of individual shows all orbiting this concept of the Geoff Keighley Summer Game Fest. Last week on the 2nd we got one of the first of these shows, but it has been a crazy sequence of days and I am just now getting around to talking about my thoughts. Ahead of this show Sony had released some warning information to make sure that folks were realizing that it would be largely focused on third-party games and things involving the new PSVR2 system. I still don’t have much interest in VR as a concept, so it threw out some interesting offerings like Resident Evil 8 in VR or a wholly unique Horizon Zero Dawn universe game set in VR. Even once you cast off the VR-only titles, it still left a lot of meat on the bones for the rest of the show.

Stray

I believe we first saw a sign of Stray at the PlayStation 5 reveal conference several years ago. From that point forward I have been hooked on the concept of this game, where you play a cat roaming around a cyberpunk landscape seemingly made up of humanized robots. It is very prescient that I am writing about this game as one of my own cats, Mollie, winds her way around my office to find a perch to sit on while I write. This is very much a “cat person” game and I hope it is every bit as enjoyable as it looks. The only problem is… this has consistently been revealed at Sony shows… but I am also finding out that it is going to release on Steam which immediately skews the scales towards a PC purchase for me.

Eternights

The first game of the show that I had not heard of before was a title called Eternights. This very anime game seemed to center around a protagonist that has had part of his hand replaced with a rainbow and then can turn that into weapons. The gameplay looked fun, but I guess the determining factor if I play this… will be just how obsequiously anime it really is. I like Anime just fine but I am not super engaged with it and as a result, am mostly into the very surface level and “poser” properties. I think I will need to see more of this to determine if it is a purchase. Again however this is a game also coming out on PC via Steam, which leans me in the direction of purchasing on that platform… so I guess strike 2 for PS5.

Street Fighter 6

Capcom seems to have resolved its problems with the clipart logo and is now presenting additional footage of Street Fighter 6. I am still not entirely certain what I think of “thickboi” Ryu, mostly because I have always thought of him as a fairly agile character. What I do really dig about this game is the paint splatter style as they do attacks. I am certain this is probably some sort of special meter, but I dig the way it looks. It has been decades since I have really been into a fighting game and my old man reflexes keep me from ever being competitive again… but I still enjoy the idea of them. Trying a night fighting game is essentially me wallowing in my nostalgia about the early days of the fighting game arcade scene. Again this is absolutely coming out on Steam so strike 3 for the PS5.

Callisto Protocol

This was the second game in the show that I had never seen, and at first, I thought we were just getting an early reveal of the Dead Space reboot. This appears to be a game from one of the folks behind the Dead Space franchise and the studio started by Robert Kirkman of Walking Dead fame. At a time that last part would have been a serious pedigree for me… but after having watched that franchise more or less die over the last several years it starts to shift in the other direction. The game is also described as a Survival game, which could be really cool or could be not so much depending on how that genre is implemented. I am interested in it for certain, and right now the game is targeting pretty much all platforms… so again that shifts me towards a PC purchase. That would be strike number four for the PS5, which isn’t great given this is a Sony show.

Final Fantasy XVI

Friends, I am so freaking into this game. This trailer spawned one of the comments on Twitter that concerned a number of my friends. What really did it for me… were these scenes shown in the above image, featuring what appears to be a Kaiju fight between two primals/eikons. So this game is being led by the same studio that works on Final Fantasy XIV and I am hoping that we are essentially getting to see another one of the reflections of the source as a result. The recent shift from Final Fantasy being turn-based to more action combat has been controversial, but I tend to land on the side where I actually enjoy the moment-to-moment gameplay better as a result. I am so ready for this game and expect to pretty much give it my full attention whenever it releases. This will once again be released on PC, which means I will be purchasing on that platform rather than the Playstation.

The Others

As always with my reviews of the shows, I tend to focus on the things I was most interested in. That is not to say that there were not a number of other interesting games shown. For example, Resident Evil 4 is being added to the list of high production value Capcom remakes. This is really cool but also I have not played RE 1-3 remakes, but if I ever get around to doing this… I will be interested in this game as well. Also of interest is that Spiderman is getting a remastered edition and is being released on the PC platform, which interests me a bit but I already have those games on the PS5. Seasons: A Letter to the Future looked really neat, but also seemed deeply “Walking Sim” which is not exactly my jam. It very much looked like the sort of game that I would probably rather watch a “Let’s Play” for while doing something else than actually play it myself.

All in all, it was a pretty solid show. It lacked some of the big reveals that I have come to expect from a Sony E3 show, but was a relatively solid showing. The biggest problem that I saw from the product offering is that there really was nothing shown that would move units. The only thing truly limited to the Sony platform is anything PSVR2-related. Even “Seasons”, is coming out on PC… so for me personally this seemed like more of a big win for Steam as a platform than it was for Sony. Maybe this was intentional to try and relieve some pressure on the supply chain and lower demand for new PlayStation 5 units? I sincerely doubt this, but it could happen. I’m extremely interested in seeing how Microsoft answers this show on the 12th.

Categories E3

Patch 9.1.5 Thoughts

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Good morning friends. There is a topic that has been bouncing around in my skull for a few weeks now, and I have never really gotten around to speaking my mind about it. The thing is I am not even sure what I want to say. Patch 9.1.5 is sticking in my craw for a bunch of reasons, and I am not entirely certain what I want to say about it because I am afraid most of my thought processes are poisoned by built-up bile. There are so many changes going into the game that are needed. For example, maybe the love rocket icon should not have looked like a big cartoon penis for the first twelve years it was in the game. I am also all for the painting changes because quite frankly the artwork looked like shit, and the versions that are replacing it are rather nice.

However, 9.1.5 is shaping up to be this make-or-break moment for the game, with the devs seemingly dumping everything that players said they wanted into the game. Legion Timewalking is this giant fanservice event that brings back a bunch of things that folks had been pining for like the Mage Tower and an ability to collect a whole new set of alternate recolors. The problem is… this is an event… a limited time moment in the game where it is going to feel extremely good for players to come back and play but ultimately has an expiration date associated with it. This feels in so many ways like a lover in a toxic relationship asking you what they can do to keep you from leaving them. Players DID leave and the problem is… a single data point does not make a trend.

Then there is another part of me that is frustrated that if this could have been pulled together so quickly… why didn’t they do this years ago? The changes that are going into the game break so many of the things that I have long considered just the World of Warcraft design ethic. Previously it seemed like we could never get something just universally good for the players, without it also being horrible in some way. Like Transmog has gone through this cycle for years, with you being able to collect item appearances… but only for the armor class that can be equipped by the person looting the items. There is part of me that wants to believe that this is a shift in the direction of the game, but the cynic feels like this is an attempt to make players temporarily forget about the bad times.

Then there is the developer in me that realizes that a lot of this is unfair to the team working on the game. Even in my own job there is a long list of things that are relatively quick to wrap up, but never quite get done because there is a prioritized by management list of things that take precedence. This part of me thinks that what we are seeing is probably a combination of two things. Firstly the management is caught off balance and desperately grasping and universally good things that they can pump out quickly, and a lot of these things were probably side-projects of the devs and are now given leave to finally finish them up and get them out into the game. Everyone has a list of items that they know would be really good… but that they can never quite find the time to finish up, and I think folks are being allowed to finally work on these things.

Then there is the other part that is frustrating me right now. I see folks making their way back to Blizzard titles, when in the end… nothing has really changed yet. There have been some high visibility exits from the company, but none of the demands that the Blizzard employees have made have actually been met. To make things worse there is talk of fears over retaliatory firings, which may or may not be a thing but the rumors are there. I am just not personally ready to forgive and forget yet, and I am thankful that I had already made my break from being a “Blizzard Gamer” back in 2011 during Cataclysm. There are folks who were hurting when they were not playing the game, and there are good employees that potentially suffer as subscribership goes down… so I get that this is an extremely complicated issue. However I am just not personally ready to jump back and pretend that everything is okay.

I am frustrated that gamers have extremely short memories. Patch 9.1.5 seems poised to be the gaming equivalent of Calgon, and is fixing to take away all of the memories of bad times… at least temporarily. I guess on one hand I am happy that the folks who are capable of making good with Blizzard and returning are going to have some excellent new toys to play with, but frustrated that I can’t look the other way this time. I miss the hell out of Diablo 3, but I am not ready to come back yet.

AggroChat #359 – PlayStation Play 2021

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Featuring:  Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Tonight we start the show off with Kodra talking bout Celeste and making it past the Farewell segment of the game.  We talk about the conclusion of the Epic versus Apple lawsuit and how it is pretty bad for both companies, but especially bad for Epic.  From there we talk about our impressions of the games shown off at what would have been the Sony E3 show if that happened.  This leads into a discussion of Tam recently trying out Avengers and how it is still not a good game after all this time.  We talk for a bit about Pathfinder Secrets of Magic book and martial spellcasters in general.  Finally, we have a bit of a discussion between Thalen and Kodra about Super Mario Maker with children.

Topics Discussed

  • Celeste
    • Farewell to Farewell
  • Epic versus Apple Conclusion
    • Bad for both
    • Ruling against Epic
  • Sony Playstation Play Showcase 2021
  • Avengers is Still Bad
  • Secrets of Magic
  • Super Mario Maker with Kids

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Playstation Play Showcase 2021

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Good Morning Friends! Yesterday we got the PlayStation Play Showcase for 2021… which far as I can tell is what they would have shown if they had actually participated in E3 this year. As is the case with any Sony presentation, there was a lot of obsequious nonsense, largely in the form of a truly bizarre high art chess metaphor thing at the beginning of the show. I am certain this is going to be what we see from this point on for PlayStation ads on television instead of you know… actual gameplay segments. If you care to experience the entire conference there is a link below. I am pretty hyped about some of what I saw yesterday, and this morning I am going to talk about the elements that excited me.

Project Eve

I have no idea what is going on with this game but I am interested. Apart from being a vehicle for delivering slow-motion butt shots, it appears to be this mashup of Bayonetta, Nier, Devil May Cry, and Korean Horror films… and the only bit that worries me is I could see this leaning into the Soulsborne genre. I knew and still largely know next to nothing about this game but I am intrigued. I think this game represents what is best about the whole convention circuit nonsense, is that it shows you a vision of a future that might come to be. We know nothing about the release date, and apparently, this was originally announced as a game for Xbox and PC so who knows what might have changed in the process to have this being shown at a PlayStation conference.

Forspoken

We’ve seen this game before, but the last time we saw it… it mostly looked like a movement tech demo. Now we actually get to see the world surrounding the character and some of the story elements. I have to say I am not big on spellcasters but this definitely looks like an interesting game. If this goes the way that I think this is going to go… this might just become another big AAA franchise with Frey being as popular as Aloy. This appears to be a PlayStation console exclusive, but is also releasing on the PC. My mindset might be changing about which I prefer, especially given how damned easy it is to play PS5 remotely from bed via my phone.

This trailer has a lot of fucking explaining to do. We are introduced to this adorable fuzzball, given its name… Homer… and then the trailer makes it seem this poor smol baby gets abandoned. You can’t do this shit to us. I demand answers… is the cat okay? Who is going to take care of the cat now that Frey is gone? Does time pass differently in whatever world she is pulled into? Home needs to be okay, and they better explain it to us.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

Okay, it was already a given that I was going to give Wonderlands a spin when it is released, but I am always happy to watch another trailer. This time around they set it to the very apt Gimme Chocolate by Babymetal. I am not entirely certain there is a more apt song than this for anything Tiny Tina related. I mean she is a lot… an awful lot… and best served in small doses. That is my only hesitancy with this game, because if it is all Tiny Tina being Tiny Tina… that could get old really fast.

This game knows its players. There were lots of glamour shots of exploding piles of loot. So… legitimately it is like they made a trailer just for me. I love shooting monsters, I love it raining loot, and I love Babymetal. I am super sold.

Knights of the Old Republic Remake

I love Knights of the Old Republic, Revan is my favorite character in Star Wars history, and this game takes place in my favorite setting. It is not a huge ask to get me to replay all of that and experience it with a shiny coat of paint. I loved going back and re-exploring Mass Effect and I am absolutely certain I will enjoy going back and exploring Knights of the Old Republic all over again with fresh eyes. Early this year I finally got around to playing Knights of the Old Republic II, and I am really hoping this means we might see that get the remake treatment… because god it is a mess with some positive aspects that really needs some tweaks and improvements.

Wolverine

I have loved Wolverine since I was a little kid. I followed the comics religiously for years and was of just about the right age when he got his own solo comic for the first time. There are a lot of people who discount this anti-hero as a gruff single-note character, but he has some depth Bub. I am looking forward to seeing him treated with the same quality that Insomniac brought to Spiderman. Given how many crossovers there have been between Spidey and Wolvie… I could even see these franchises colliding at some point down the line. We don’t have a lot to go on, and that was a cinematic trailer and not something in game… so I expect we will probably have to wait several years for this one to see the light of day. Still that said I am excited to know it is on the way.

Spiderman 2

I am not certain, but I am pretty sure we are just about to get a game featuring both Spidermen… Miles and Peter… along with Eddie Brock’s Venom… and motherfuckin Kraven the Hunter. Kraven has always been my favorite Spiderman villain and I am so freaking on board to see him in a video game that does so much service to the comics. Like I am not certain… and I don’t think it has been verified… but there is no way that is NOT Kraven doing the voice over in this trailer. It is such a great time to be alive for comic book fans, and these stories are more accessible than they have ever been for those who never got into reading brightly colored newsprint.

Ghostwire Tokyo

I am not super into the fantasy of being a spellcaster, but I really do enjoy weird Japanese horror elements. So when it comes to Ghostwire Tokyo I am intrigued but not entirely sold. I love the strange neon world that it seems to be set in, and I love the monster designs… but it will all depend on how it feels to play. I am hoping a demo gets released at some point, because if it is spellcasting as an equivalent of first-person shooter like it was in the Heretic/Hexen games then I am probably on board. If it is more fiddly than press button get spell I am not sure. If I do pick this game up it is likely going to be when it is deeply discounted.

God of War 2: Ragnarok

The star of the show for me had to be Dad of War. I really enjoyed the first game and it reminds me that I really need to get back and finish it. It seems like Kratos gets back his chains from the original series, but also continues getting to use the super fun axe. I am so on board with Ryan Hurst as Thor, because I am going to be honest… him playing Beta in Walking Dead was one of the few things that made the Whisper War watchable. I love the treatment the team has done with Norse Mythology and it seems like we are just going to keep getting more of that good good stuff. It does make me wonder what is going to happen once we have wrapped up the Norse cycle of this game. I would love to see them explore Persian and Babylonian mythos next.

Wrapping Up

There are a bunch of games that I didn’t really single out. Blood Hunt for example looks really cool, but I don’t really like battle royale games even if you skin them with the Masquerade. Alan Wake getting an upgrade is nice for those who loved that game, but I hated the gameplay of shining that flashlight on things. Grand Theft Auto V gets yet another release and I am sure it will sell well, but I could give a shit because I still have yet to play it. There is something about the rockstar style of doing open-world games that do not jive with my sensibilities. Guardians of the Galaxy looks interesting, but Square failed me so massively with Avengers that I do not trust it. Gran Turismo 7 looks lovely, but I also don’t want to have sex with cars… and I am pretty sure it is specifically targeting that demographic as always.

I am going to be completely honest… it was a great show, but still does not give you much of a reason to buy a PlayStation 5 yet. All of this stuff is coming out in 2022 or later, which means there is still not going to be a lot of truly PlayStation 5 exclusive titles for a long while. I mean I loved Ratchet and Clank and am looking forward to Horizon Forbidden West but it is definitely seeming like this console generation is taking a bit more time to ramp up.

Categories E3