So, how does 2017 look for gaming so far?

So it's definitely a new year for gaming, and with it comes a new wave of releases, treasures, hidden gems, and yes even troubles and controversy which are already occurring. As Gravity Rush 2 reviews are coming out, it's clear we're already seeing a bit of it all. Personally, I think what I'm looking at is essentially 2016 part 2. What I mean by that, is not necessarily that it'll be the same type of year, just we're getting a lot of great promises that were left from such a year, or games that still held a lot of discussion will be revealed. Games like Gravity Rush 2 & Yooka-Laylee I saw in and out the headlines a lot, and they'll be coming up. People were hyped on Horizon, but we all kind of knew that would be put off to 2017. Then games like Overwatch will continue on, as they increase support, and *gasp* actually put in the effort to add a server browser like a reasonable online game should! I'm even keeping my fingers crossed for continuous Doom Snapmap and bot updates. So... I'm kind of expecting just that continuous feeling of 2016, with maybe just slightly less of an impact, and more of a quieter fun time. I mean nobody is actually going to be treating Gravity Rush 2 and Yooka-Laylee like Overwatch as we go on, but yet those are the kind of games that could easily keep a quiet few hundred gamers wearing the biggest smiles they'll have all year (myself included if YL turns out to be the next big dream come true for collect-a-thon 3D platforming).

On the darker side of things, we've got Crytek in deep trouble aside from some real weird news on the Turkish government giving them some serious cash, Scalebound is scrapped, and as of today I heard a real stupid decision of Sony to play musical chairs with their European devs, and Guerrilla Cambridge lost and got shut down (okay it was really a "review process", but you can't tell the difference in how stupid and random this move was). With their closing also comes the likely demise of PSVR. Sony is following up its tradition of shutting away support for their extra devices, and closing the one team that makes good use of them. This by far is the sadest news for me in starting off the year, as I was looking at that team with great optimism. Perhaps one day they'll make a new Midevil? Perhaps they'll work with Guerrilla to create amazing new things for Killzone? Perhaps they become a 2nd Killzone division, and continues the awesome Mercenary sub-series? Perhaps they'll make a new RIGS that doesn't require forced VR nonsense? Nope, they'll die before they do anything beyond getting stuck with the lowest selling possibilities of Vita to VR exclusives back-to-back. Thanks Sony.

Uh... ever closer to "NO!"

The biggest news may actually be coming tomorrow, with the Nintendo Switch event. Who knows what that holds, aside from the many rumors. I'm curious about it, but I'll personally wait. I think I've charged in enough with Nintendo, only to find myself thinking it hasn't gone to the best use, and realizing I can never find good values with their games as I mentioned in an article or so back. I say hold back, let the die-hards go first, and see what comes about with their tech and 3rd party support, and then if you're still somewhat interested in you may find nice bundles or better deals that entice you. I'm also not too sure about a system launching early in the year. I think it's great timing to just go "BAM! Here's the info, and it's coming out 3 months from now! How awesome is that!?", however I fear the real sales will go in on holidays, but yet the stigma that it didn't hit jackpot at launch will sit around, and then we'll be left in the Vita stage of no games or gamers because of... well, each other. Then on top of that, the holiday sales will be competing with the Scorpio, and to be totally honest... right now that sounds like a better idea to me than the Switch (of course, I'm not an xbox guy right now, so they're both new consoles to me).

Anyway, ending this on a positive note, there's a lot to be happy with and look forward to in the year. No one game that is going to make massive news right here and now, but we're looking at some real good possibilities. I'm hoping for a year in which the quiet awesome single player games succeed, and keep me coming back. Things like Horizon, Yooka-Laylee, and Gravity Rush 2. Oh and then there's the console ports of that W40K game, and Shadow Warrior 2. I'm already getting hyped, looking at GR2 and feeling down that it's actually going to be out on the 20th, as if it's just bad I can't have it right now. Sure people will complain and moan about quiet games, thinking "there's no games this year! I want to see the news instead of play them, boo-hoo!" type of nonsense, but I'm used to ignoring those idiots every summer. So here's to hoping for a wonderful 2017.

Scalebound: The latest in gaming conspiracies.

Psst! Did you hear...

When I heard Scalebound was cancelled, I was in disbelief. It popped up in my youtube feed by one of the channels I honestly don't pay so much attention to. I go running around looking on the net for further news, and... it's true. Now I stayed in ignorance of this project, because in current circumstances, this was never a game I was able to get. I look for names on PS4, Wii U, and whatever occult rituals bring out a PS Vita game. and then a couple low-spec-able indie PC titles. Xbox one, is a dream. Scalebound was in that dream though. I saw it as an enticing deal; Get the Xbone, get that awesome dragon game, that big build-a-game game, Retro Replay, and Sunset Overdrive, maybe Halo and Gears some day. Sounds like a real good fun time. Whoops, no more dragon game for you, because of course not! People that decide cool basic concepts every kid and fantasy nerd dreams of playing, is just too.... not-us. We've got to keep it human, or zombies, because we're too boring to take on dragons, werewolves, or raptors anymore. So... guess it just wasn't meant to be, and I'm stuck trying to convince people Lair wasn't shit.

However despite my great disbelief, I never thought it was anything too shocking beyond just "we did the math, it ain't looking good. Sorry guys!" Everybody else did find it too hard to accept though, and I feel alien in this space. A bunch of different disconnected ideas, ranging from "The xbox isn't good enough" to "They treated them awful! Bad blood, bad blood!". People like Angry Joe have reaction videos over their over-enthusiastic disbelief, watching gameplay and calling it a finished project just because some 8-12 minute tightly controlled piece was ready for show. Get a grip guys. We've seen devs come out against Microsoft before. It's happened, and it doesn't quite look like this. They have issues with their regulations, or simply straight up get told that their game doesn't meet business interests. It's cold, it's bad, and MS should be ashamed of having killed such things like a real B&K game from Rare, but still most great games still endure. In one of the worst recent case scenarios, they practically forced Blizzard to make Diablo 3 run higher-res than it could. That... that is your boogie-man people, they go "PATCH IT 1080P"! How do we get from that to dumping money on a project for years, just to cancel it because the... CEO took a vacation or whatever. That's kinda silly. We're just hearing things for the first time on cancellation, and the dev is already denying claims from these rumors about stressed health, and Microsoft's fairly honest and awesome Phil Spence (who was not in charge around the time of those past devs hating MS's practices) has issued an apology on this subject suggesting he loved the game too.

And who wouldn't love this!?

The only thing odd, is that MS is pulling down videos from their own youtube, something that... is actually exactly what I'd expect of certain people who are paranoid on making sure they don't go out of their way to advertise people on something they can't promise. Meanwhile, time and time again, what we get when people go batshit crazy is DMCA take-downs, and fights to silence and erase the product. This is just company management. Unnecessary, but still the very same behavior to come from people I've seen before. Small youtubers will strip out entire videos of things they regret, or experimented with, just because they don't want that to be any first impression video someone gets of them. They don't want it 'representing' their channel. Yet people think Scalebound is only being "erased" because of some eerie company secret, and evil deed? With Scalebound, you can show it, you can talk about it, Platinum can talk about it, Phil Spence is over tweeting about it, they just feel bad when they continue to let it be advertised. They aren't erasing anything about this game's existence! It's still on the net without a fight. Stop making up a reason to be extra upset! The game being cancelled is reason enough to be dissatisfied, what's with this sudden competition to raise the stakes higher? Move on with your life. Not everything is a Battlefront 3, or a Prey 2 situation, sometimes games just don't make it in a business sense, or there's so many problems with the game itself that they'd rather not discuss. ...but nope, gotta keep that anti-corporate logic going so hard, you got to make up your own villainous deeds.

Switch price: It's not the hardware you need to worry about

They find other places to make the money

I'm starting to come up with a quick way to summarize the Nintendo price experience, especially the more PC enthusiasts push their rhetoric of cheap gaming, great sales, and better performance to try and hide the thousand or so most put down on the good hardware. Their hardware is costly, but for the most part their software is cheap (but not always, the physical media has it's moments and advantages still). Meanwhile Nintendo is consistently the opposite. They mark their systems cheaper, often by $100 or so from their closest competition. Out of a generation that put their systems out at $400, Nintendo's latest rumor of the switch is coming out with the idea that Sony had set their systems at for temporary holiday sales: $250! That's nice. However, here's the huge difference: I can walk out with that new 400: system with two high-quality games at the additional cost of $40 of games I desire. To get the same likely quality out of Nintendo, even using their current Wii U system for fairness of avoiding new releases, I would be most likely paying up to $100, or even $120 eating through most of that savings. ...and the extra kick is then I'd probably have less value in those two games, because while I could have gotten Doom & Witcher 3 on the PS4 for those cheaper prices, I'd be paying Nintendo more for likely rail shooters or side-scroller type games. Maybe I'd get Splatoon or Hyrule warriors at best (omitting the savings I'd get from just buying a normal Warriors or Empires game). The sad thing is, while I can continue those savings on PS4 with patience, that same price likely continues across most of the Nintendo brand. The only time my patience has ever paid off, was with the games Zelda windwaker HD (made over a fucking decade ago originally, with the HD being the very start of this bullshit $50 remaster trend), and Bayonetta 2.

Basically, what I'm highlighting is Nintendo's software pricing issue. You need games to continue to play your game console on, and Nintendo has plenty of quality games, it's just they're expensive. Gaming can already be an expensive hobby as it is, but as should be with any market, the consumer can be patient or smart and get out cheaper. Not so well with Nintendo though. It's almost like a devious trick. Market kid friendly experiences, cheaper entry prices, and then once it's in your hands you have to push hard on your cash for the slightest new thing. It's really no-wonder as a kid I used to always get the latest Nintendo handhelds for christmas, only to then turn around and be denied so many of the interesting games. They all get held up and stuck on $40-$50 price ranges, while more quality experiences could drop to even as low as $5 (rare, but possible) on other platforms. I had maybe 10 DS games out of my many years of owning the console. Nearly every game that caught my eye was either out of reach, a present, or... well, that one Pokemon game I bought once I sold my half-broken Ipod for it (and yes the buyer was aware of its issues, I wasn't a jerk about it). Hardly a single game was actually affordable as a kid, and even now that I buy most of my games I sure as hell don't waste much effort looking in the Wii U section when the games on the PS4 fluctuate and offer more enticing experiences for less. I'm not dirt poor, but I sure want my money to last the best it can. I only jump on the high price for games that absolutely deserve it, and must be had, like Smash Bros or Mario Kart. Those games I could replay for ages, love a while, and deeply appreciate. Then wooly world... yeah, you're giving me a freakin' sidescroller for the same price Doom releases for. No thanks, I'll go kill demons in the best FPS ever that I've been entertained all year by with all it's depth and features, than a one-way 2D game. While Playstation has LBP3 that you could freakin' build Yoshi in for $20 and less on temporary sales, Nintendo stubbornly keeps it at ransom for over a year at around $50! (at least as of posting, that link is a live store page so it could be whatever soon). Thanks Nintendo, continuing to sell the same kind of gameplay for $50+ over the years, and refusing to ever let it's price drop until it's irrelevant.

Fun, but NOT $50 FUN!

Oh, and I know what many die-hard Nintendo fans want to say. It'll come up along the lines in several different forms. Let's go over the likely two counter-arguments that don't involve blatant fanboyism or intentional misunderstandings of my arguments...

1. Nintendo is the full experience, that doesn't ask you for much more! You pay it all up there, and get it right on the disc while others are still making you pay through pieces. Response: That stopped when they started using under-stocked statues to unlock on-disc DLC that so much as hid actual tools and levels from the very game it released with. However even pretending you've got a point, I do as well when bringing up the fact not all games elsewhere release in poor shape. Plenty of games are amazing right as they are, and get even more amazing over time with some free updates and content patches. I very rarely buy DLC, never buy microtransactions, and I tend to still have a lot of fun in most of the games I play without it.
2. Their quality and demand show this is right, and so they keep their games up high with the steady and long lasting demand. Response: Right, and we're pretending they're the only ones? No, the two games I named earlier (Witcher 3 & Doom) are selling high and still making bargain deals with their userbase just as an added spice to their sales. They are smart and understanding in that one person buying $60 in rare occasions deep after launch isn't the same great value as five people buying it for a brief $20 sale. The only other publisher this stingy is Activision, and even they take their best seller COD and cut the price off by $20 every release now sometime around launch. Oh, and $50 Starfox Zero would like a word with you about those awesome sales, and it's high reputation (sarcasm intended). Heck, they don't even have the hardware sales this round to last but so long! Nintendo just does this out of habbit and because they feel they can. The 2nd hand market sadly does little with this, even if there's definitely copies floating around. (contrary to popular belief that pretends nobody sells big N's games back.) This isn't an isolated incident based on some magic sauce of their games, it's just a rare sad effect of the market not working as normal, and Nintendo is one of those names that manages to get away with it.

Some quality games, way easier to acquire.

So what else do you want me to say? It's all right there. It's in my Wii U library, and all those that came before it, and contrasts horribly when compared to my PS4 library where I have more games than space and time to play them all. The only defensive move I can say, is that once a blue moon I will have to suck it up and say "I still want this game, and we all know Nintendo are too stingy to drop their price, so I'll bite it and buy it." However out of every single damn instance of that (New Super Mario World 3D + Star Fox Zero) they have lost way more sales from me. Hyrule Warriors, New Mario Bros Wii U, Splatoon, DKC Tropical freeze, and Pikimin 3. Oh and you might be reading some of those and thinking of the tacky red-framed "Nintendo selects" reprint that drops the price, but they waited for over a freakin' year to the point where I was just uninterested! ...people don't want to sit there and wait for you to decide to reprint your freakin' games 3 years post-launch, they want you to actually mark them down gradually so you can actually see a game you want on sale one lucky pay check day, be taken back surprise, and just buy it. Not when you have to be reminded the game exists, and then just continue ignoring it because you realize a ton of other cool stuff is coming up, and you've already lived without just fine!

Oh but wait, it extends beyond the Wii U of course! Bowser's inside story, Kirby's epic yarn, Twilight Princess (Which they're reselling again for $50, thanks Nintendo), Xenoblade Chronicles, etc. I could go on and on about how many Nintendo games I have completely avoided because they did not drop the price within a reasonable time. Not one of those games saw a penny for me, so I hope that two-time purchase was worth it! Heck I never knew Twilight Princess even had a Nintendo Selects re-release, it just took that long that I didn't care or even see it once it happened, and that was a game all the way back to gamecube... much like Windwaker, the first HD re-release alongside Last of Us to choose pricing itself as a new release. Yeah, thanks Nintendo! I... wonder how many times I've uttered that sarcastically in this article. By contrast, I bought Mario Maker without hesitation when it dropped to around $45 bundled with a Mario anniversary amiibo on amazon. That was a cool deal to me, and I struck that offer and still don't regret it (like I do StarFox Zero. Fun game, just not worth what I put in.)

So guys, before we go cheering in about the price, before we go gallivanting how amazing Nintendo is at under-cutting their competition, and before we go assuring ourselves its such a bargain, remember you're buying a game console... which needs games. Then remember who hoards those games up in a pile, clinging onto their $50-60 price tag regardless of what actual content and depth is on them (anything from a rail-shooter or sidescroller, to a complex multiplayer brawler, it's all the same apparently. And if it's not, just add a toy!), and holds them there flight or failure for potentially years. Remember who forced their launch games to stay at $60 until they started slowly running out of copies, wait a few extra months, and then restock them with an ugly red print with hopes you're still interested. Then remember all they're competing against, and how much you'd save just getting your light-hearted fun playing Owl Boy when it releases on sale from so much as just releasing on steam! I'm keeping my fingers crossed Nintendo change that with the Switch, but they haven't given me much hope in that regard. Nintendo is not a good deal, and not a good bargain, it's where you're paying for your console still by the very trickle of each individual game. Remember that before you cheer the Switch and it's rumors under $300 price point... but who are we kidding, it could easily still be that $300+ for the bundle that comes with the game. And that game will be $50-60 on it's own for the next year or three, because... well, have you been paying attention?

Thanks Nintendo!

Twitter news isn't news

Not gaming, not news

So recently PlayStation Lifestyle had something... mildly amusing on the front page. Guillermo Del Toro, one of my favorite names in movies alongside Wes Anderson (and that's about it... I'm not too fanatic over TV), has once again put out a hashtag FuckKonami piece again. I just read it as "he said it again" because... well, that's how the heading is, but when I got there it turned out to be just him shoving it casually into a tweet of "Happy Holiday" (IE. Christmas for people who are too frightened to say Merry Christmas or Hanuka for others) greetings. ...and of course the bitter part of it gets headlines. Now on one hand, this was only a bit mildly irritating, but it's still expressive of the point I want to make here. Konami deserves this to make news, but... nobody else does.

Twitter news is a stupid new phenomenon, that as far as I can remember, has practically turned gaming press into tabloid news overnight. Notch said something mean on twitter? It's somehow news. He tried to explain it, but can't well in under 100 letters? Its an update to the non-news "news". Dice said they hated their competition's trailer? *Gasp* Must be on the front page of our news site! Twitter is like the satire of Tabloid, but it forgot the humor, with people rushing to report on what internet celebrities say in under 140 characters. All they basically do now is slap the link to a tweet in, some word fluff, and then boom it's a new page that generates hits. It's lazy, stupid, and not in the slightest news, and I'm kind of sick of it. Don't get me wrong, news on twitter can happen, and that's why every professional has a twitter. Every game company and youtuber I know runs one, and they relay quick bits, or gloats through them. Sometimes interesting stuff also goes through it, like the No Man's Sky hack debacle that happened recently where... I'm not sure people still know what went on, but it was interesting and could indicate trouble at the company. That's relevant and news. Someone leaking a game detail on twitter, or putting up new screenshots, its news. Someone says they're fired or quitting? Could be a big deal. However for every one of those, we instead get a few tabloid fluff pieces. Meanwhile somewhere out there an underdog or even popular indie team is actually relaying something of relevance that goes missed. Like, this.

Yeah, absolutely nobody I know of reported that a Linux demo was now available, something niche gamers might greatly value since Linux goes a little underdeveloped for, and yet one of the biggest upcoming indie releases just proved they're porting to it and have a demo up and ready through GOG. You'd know that if someone fed you through GOG or Playtonic news, but instead you get "Someone still hates Konami!" at the top of your page. Oh and nobody I know of has reported on Kitfox's brand new upcoming game! Yeah, a whole game out there by a proven indie team is just unreported for months, and so to is their expansion to Moon Hunters. The new game is called the Shrouded Isles, there, a blogger just did more journalism for that game than the journalist sites I visit often. So can we please stop this and focus more on real news? It exists you know. Hell, go check out the Youtube channel NoClip, started up by former GameSpot employee Danny o' Dwyer, he's doing more of actual game journalism through the use of Youtube and patreon than entire teams of staff, editors, and writers for gaming press sites. He actually goes in and interviews game developers, talks about their processes, and splits up hour or so worth of video content in neat presentation with game clips and awesome professional documentary type interviews. Its fantastic. Meanwhile... what we call game journalism is just spreading twitter news and info they're fed by publishers. They do this by taking things they could simply retweet on their own damn twitters, but pass it on the news site as news. No wonder written press sites are supposedly dying to stuff like video content and grass root creators. Well to that... I'll just leave this yawning fox to explain how I feel about twitter news...

What a crysis

Crytek is a weird, but cool company... when it comes to making games. Otherwise its quick to point out what goofs they are by just asking "What games did they make again?" and "Aren't they the guys who think graphics are most of the game?" The answer to both of those questions are quite sad. Somehow the same people who started Far Cry with this awesome B grade alien plot, were among the very first of this "play it your way" trend with semi-open level designs, and had you powering through aliens and soldiers in a super suit customized to your liking, are the same guys that only successfully made a moderately recognizable trilogy, and only talk like their sole purpose is selling a pretty engine that looks glossy (no seriously, I don't mean that as some emphasis on good graphics, I mean there's just a vibe with every crytek game that its just textured to look strangely like glossy plastic at some points. Am I just crazy or something?). They don't make any recognized games outside of Crysis (which has ended as far as I'm aware, and never was a major seller), especially with Ubisoft hijacking Far Cry and doing some amazing stuff with it, and then there's just blatant flops and wastes of time like Ryse or their experimental VR as if that's a good use of a failing company. Oh yeah, and the remainders of Free Radical were sold off, and they really are a failing company having now decided to close all extra studios, and have only just now paid salaries employees were owed for months. *sigh*

Okay, so the first problem is exactly what I just stated. They were never making strong progress out there. We're past about 3 years into the new generation of consoles, with enough time for all major publishers to pump out a dozen or so games. These guys aren't publishers (even if they had enough extra companies to call themselves one), but even Insomniac has three titles on consoles (with like 7 or so smaller games floating around on mobile or Oculus, and spider-man coming next year), and then Dice basically has had two releases in this year alone, even ID has come up with an actual hit release, Blizzard has been hitting out a bunch, and yet these guys... don't even have a single PS4 game I can play right now. Even comparing them to Guerrilla, nearby region competitor and similarly as obsessive over visuals, and they've had a 2+ million seller out at launch, long support window, and are on their way to making their first open world game, and they've also stopped to go send important figures to work alongside a long passed vita game. Crytek, what the hell have you been doing with all those companies, and all this time? I appreciate patience in game design, but even if you could afford to waste time, you can't afford to keep all those studios open and only make experimental flops. You could have made Ryse something great, but its a clunky and silly combat game that was made to look nice, the same is being said for the stumble into VR which was a risk you should have never taken. At the very least, you could have made profitable mobile games to keep a money flow, but nobody has ever heard of such a thing. I'm almost willing to encourage you to go hug up to a publisher and be bought into Ubisoft (Ubisoft seems like the best fit, and maybe you could even get back to Far Cry if you ever wanted to). Maybe they'd give you more of a focus and pace, and also supply you with easier funding. However I have two hypothetical solutions I'm much happier to ask of you first, assuming you're even able to try them with whatever is left...

1) Crysis Trilogy

Psst! Hey, graphic whores at Crytek! Yeah, what gives with your "derp, 60% of the game is graphics" and yet you miss the obvious train to update your console ports to modern systems while everyone else is doing it! Welp, I guess 60% of your game died years ago then, much like 60% of your company. You want to know what I would love to change about having no crytek games on my PS4? Having the full Crysis series on one disc I could pop in, and play through any of the three campaigns. That'd be awesome! I don't care if you ditch multiplayer, I don't care if you have to beg EA to do it, and I don't care if you go the sloppy ill-advised route of 30fps, just bump up the visuals and assign them all to a working PS4 disc that has everything campaign-wise from all 3 games on it. It'd be an easy cashgrab to people who missed out on the chance, and what small amount of megafans you have, as well as those who just buy it to review its technical stuff. It can't be that expensive to make, and you'd get people talking about it all again if just maybe for a little.

2) Timesplitters

Welp, the picture just did my job for me. Yes I'm offering yet another HD remaster sorta solution, and yes I'm also aware of Timesplitters rewind. Meanwhile Crysis is sitting on and doing nothing with a series that is somehow a mere cult-hit and yet is more discussed, loved, and remembered than all of Crytek's catalog combined... and we haven't had a single entry from that since 2005 which was just after Far Cry 1. So basically, Timesplitters's last release was nearly before Crytek even started, and its still more discussed, and what does Crytek do when they have their hands on the cult-loved game complete with a petition for its resurrection? NOTHING! They did nothing, even when presented someone who had started remaking one for them, they continued to do nothing. The very least they could do is designate a small volunteer team to help out with the fan project, and yet they had one of the most interesting names in FPS go to waste, and their skeleton crew of a team wound up being pushed to make a poor-man's COD clone side of their Crysis multiplayer, up until they were sold off to Deep Silver WITHOUT their own IP Crytek wasn't even using. So they still have it, and still sit on it. This is another reason people really don't care about your possibly demise Crytek. In addition to making little of relevance, you sit on and dance around a great nerd legacy of FPS brilliance and nostalgia, and you have the best opportunity to flaunt your engine with either a remake or a new game using it, or even just a freakin' PS2-PS4 emulation port, but you just leave it dead in a corner while burning money on cinematic Xbox exclusive romans, and first wave PS exclusive VR walking sims. What the hell is wrong with you guys!? Don't even begin to talk about whether or not the IP is risky, when you go and pull those stunts in its place.

So, getting that anger out of the way, there's four or so great options to take with this beloved series that will net you easy money from at least a cult crowd...

-PS4 emulation. Charge $10-20 on PSN for each game.

-Full HD remake, or a heavy remaster in the form of something more like Legend of Kay. Either way, make multiplayer an online relevant thing for whichever game it works best, but obviously keep the bot support available and don't be an idiot about it.

-Get your team involved with the makings of Timesplitters Rewind, and ask for part of the profits.

-Make Timesplitters 4. This should probably be the last resort, as its more costly than updating something, and there ain't a whole lot of casual or new FPS players who will get what this is without somehow re-releasing the past games to them first. Oh yeah, and you waited until you had nobody of the original team, kind of a goof there huh guys? Maybe if this was a priority sooner, it could stand better on its own. Still, it ain't an option I'd ignore completely, so here it is.

Dang, still remember when this looked like it was happening!

wow, this all came off a bit angrier than expected. I came into this with the idea of "Hey guys, here's two very easy projects to consider for some simple flow of cash!" to "Oh, now I kind of see why these guys are always being yelled at". Look, I really do like some of Crytek's games. I don't hate the guys. I also think they unfairly get beat up and thrown under as a "ew, they just have nice graphics" team. People overlook all the quality and effort that went into Crysis, or have the quality of modern day Far Cry eclipse the awesome original. I don't see it that way, I hear of Crysis and Far Cry 1, and I think of some awesome sci-fi games. I think of fun gameplay, diverse open fields that are worked in a linear fun campaign. I think of how awesome and strong in length Crysis 2 was, or that awesome scene where you're driving in this mass field of neon blue and gray hills at the finale of Crysis 3, or just how damn fun it was to get into a trial and error and then triumphant rhythm with Far Cry's gunplay and intense AI. I really enjoy some of their FPS games, and I have a strange sense of pity with this team. However the writing has been on the walls, and these guys have sat and done nothing but frustrating things on the corporate outlook. They're this weird company that really isn't quite sure what they are, what their place is, or how they should be using their money. They're a frustrating and poorly managed team to look at, and it'll be sad if they go away, but at the same time its clear why they would. I hope they manage to change that in time, if they still have time to fix things left.

Developers continue to make their own problems through matchmaking...

A game within a game: The Waiting Game!

In an ongoing effort to completely miss any clue of wrongdoings, the game designers of today continues to find ways to goof up their online gaming experiences while somehow trying to convince you they're a bigger deal than ever before. Doom recently had to readjust their playlists (again), to give players what they were asking for, and complaining so much about. Now I haven't been playing any Doom MP lately, mostly because I literally couldn't from the crappy matchmaking which was unable to find anybody for my broad range of modes, so I'm not able to entirely wrap my head around all the constant playlist changes. I know at one time most modes were independant with a couple general playlists, then it got reduced towards objective vs more kill based modes (yay, 2 choices!), and... I think what they just recently did was throw Team Deathmatch in with the objective modes for some bullshit logic of "well that's team oriented, so same thing!" People were rightfully mad, and now they switched some stuff back.

In similar news, a For Honor alpha tester broke NDA to speak of the game's P2P issues, and while that is bad, he specifically talked about the issue of finding matches. Meanwhile I still hear it all the time from other teams, like TitanFall 2's team earlier pre-release talking about fixing a better matchmaking system so that you can get into games faster, and not to worry of bad playlists, etc. Back before Battlefront, they tried to spin their backwards step as a good thing for "skill" ranking and skill play. ...and then Overwatch gets away with pretending they're giving out candy whenever they come up with a playlist that *gasp* tweaks the rules a tiny bit by player count or basic rules you could really just alter up in a private bot match. Admittedly that's not a direct problem, but its kind of funny we're at that point now where online is somehow supposed to be a big deal, and yet we're grateful for "features" or "updates" that give us simple stuff we could do ourselves back in the 90's.

what a mess!

Okay guys, hold onto your butts, because I'm going to purpose a really crazy idea here. It might even be so radical, it could even be illegal in certain states. Its a real wildcard! You ready? What if... the people who bought the games, who played the online, and filled the servers and game rooms, and went to go discuss stuff with the forums, could actually decide for themselves what they want to play? If you still haven't passed out, I'd like to continue this idea: What if they could select their own maps, choose what size of a room they want to play in be it 2vs2, or a full match, and then they could even look and see various tiny modifiers like a couple unpopular weapons banned, or the gravity or health are slightly tweaked? What if every time they logged on, and went into the multiplayer to find some matches, they had a rectangular box that flooded with searches and findings on all these community driven choices, and options, with filters to help them find the right one or cancel out any full lobbies, and when they find the one that best suits their preference they just clicked on it and loaded right into that match? I know, freakin' Illuminati shit right there!

...AND IT DOESN'T STOP THERE! The cool thing about it, is that the majority of the time you let the community have that kind of control, you get some insanely weird and unique results. You could have an FPS turn into a tennis-ball game, or find that people actually like moon gravity with one shot kill weapons, or at the very least give themselves the "arcade mode" update so devs can focus on more important things. I also have these strange images from crazy fringe groups on what this arcane idea would look like. I mean can you imagine, this being found on one of today's games, or this thing that dares to have a GAME MODE selection. Then there's this conspiratory piece that suggests people would somehow enjoy playing in a 14 player server and a 40+ within the same game. Stupid idea, right? But these guys really thought of everything when fabricating this idea, including tracking the ping and region of some of these, which is weird because... I mean we just have to have the devs do that for us under tiny option pre-sets hidden away in the menus.... right? I mean we can't possibly have the community part of a game actually be in-part controlled by the community. That would just be awful, like if we had a choice between more than two loafs of bread on the store shelves to choose from; It'd be total apocalyptic anarchy!

What have I done!?

Alright, alright, I'd like to say the joke and sarcasm is over, but let me remind you this was actually a loved update at the supposed height of our advanced online gaming. That's probably the real funny part. Look, I wasn't even in on the gaming scene early, and I already know and see the great effects of actually giving a shit with the server setups. My first online game was Team Fortress 2, and one of the best things about it was discovering how it all worked. I remember finding custom maps, talking to the creator of one even, of seeing weird rules and new mixes come into play, and if nothing else I mostly just liked looking at all of my choices and going "I feel like playing on this map & mode today". Just the little things were even done better in this system. If you're worried and crying about the possibility that someone else might "boost" their progression faster so they can play with generic weapon #43 at level 60, then fine (well you'd be a nosy obsessive nutcase with a fragile ego who forgot what the point of a game was, but let's pretend it's fine that you get worked up over how "fair" the other persons stats are rather, than the fun abilities of a game and a long lasting creative community), but you'd still benefit from this system when you don't have to wait a full minute to find a CTF match and then find its taking you to your least favorite level. Even if you stripped a server browser down to its bare minimum, you can still find matches that take you to your favorite levels and modes, find the player count range you're comfortable with, and just join it. No playlist bullshit, no waiting and waiting just to be either disconnected or slapped into the middle of a losing game, and no worries over whether or not the game is "dead" when it drops just the littlest bit and you get a wait time that's 10 seconds longer. You just go in, find your game, and play.

However we sadly live in a world where only Dice seems to care about this stuff anymore, and even they don't always feel so good about doing the right thing (again, Battlefront). However for every sad excuse someone might come up with for why things are better this way, whether its because you think people are too stupid to make their own choices, or because they think this is somehow for "skills and serious play"* (because nothing says competitive like sitting on the couch waiting for your XP to get up for just participating in the match), there's a ton of problems matchmaking has opened up and it would just be fixed to go back to the way it was before. The playlists, the DLC splits, the very stability and ability to get into a match, overpowered weapons that never get fixed, the fact that certain modes go dead, etc. Those all get either fixed, or greatly improved, when you can look at a full list and just make your own choices and actually give the community room to be... well, the community. Nearly every single time a dev has to make a statement, or claim, or plea that you believe them this time they've got it working, I'm left baffled they still haven't figured out what a Server browser is, and how it would solve it all. Aside from this blog post, I don't even think I can be bothered with the energy to say it all again, I've instead just tweaked a simple old phrase because it suits the situation so well: If I had a dime for every time a server list would have solved some online game's problems... You know, maybe I can hope someday somebody gets it, and we can go back to a time where someone made a tennis ball mode on TF2 through the pyro class and physics. However honestly, TF2's very existence really might have come from the same mentality as server lists, and so to did things like DOTA. Even bots themselves, all came from a mod, which came from devs just deciding that the community areas of the game should be run by the community. Despite how easily devs have let themselves forget, I'm one of those players who won't, and I'll keep bringing it up every time a developer does something stupid... by making the decision to go with forced matchmaking instead of the wonderful stuff that gave us pyro-tennis.

*Additional fun story about this being a competitive issue. Back in Killzone 2, for some odd reason suicide bombing with rockets became a real thing. Players would rush up with the base RPG gun, and blow themselves up at point blank range with someone, either trying to take out a group cheaply, or just to grief other players. You can't exactly balance this well, and I'm not sure how you would, it was just a strange player phenomenon. Meanwhile the RPG as a general weapon was usually unpopular among more reasonable players. So it was a big and well-received trend to ban the gun through the server lists, or even the class that used it, and many people ran to those servers for that as a good thing. I imagine the only other thing we could do would be just yell and pout on the forums to "fix the RPG" without any constructive way on how to do so, and it never did get a real "fix" that stopped anyone from doing that. So... yeah, community will even fix your competitive play in the right instances. If you're only worry is still "but he got the achievement unfairly" then really go think about where you went wrong in life when THAT is your major concern with giving players more to do in a game. I'm even looking at you Devs, and the fact you think a precious achievement, or your stupid skinner boxes, are somehow more important than a constructive and resourceful community that caters to everyone's needs.

My top 5 games of 2016

This year has been a great year, and as a result maybe I'm a little jumpy on making this list (started outlining things and writing the honorable mentions out on november the 15th). I want to warn people that if The Last Gaurdian or TitanFall 2 slips into my grasp way after, or near the end of this list, and it turns out to be too amazing to keep off... well I guess I'll have to write another article about that, and amend this one. However for now I'm really eager to discuss some of the awesome titles that came out this year, and I'm feeling pretty sure about how I've selected most of these... especially the top 3. So first like always, let's start with the fantastic games that, for some reason or another, failed to make the top usual 5.

Honorable mentions...

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is a series that means surprisingly a lot to me for something that I could never exactly play right. I've already discussed that before, but now what about this game? Well, it's a pretty awesome sequel to the 2013 game. I really think the newer guys behind Tomb Raider are trying their hardest to do something interesting with the action adventure 3rd person shooter field. Last time they incorporated metroidvania aspects perfectly into a 3rd person Uncharted-ish environment, and had such a map that people like Angry Joe confused this for an open world game. Now they pushed that further with side missions, dotted the game with elements of crafting, and a variety of loot including tiered hunting animals. This is some sort of frankenstein monster of linear action adventure, metroidvania, open world collect-o-thon, and then there's the extra stuff that incorporates everything from walking sim style story telling to score attack arcade play and zombie slayer nonsense. It's all fun in some way or another, and it's all a part of this really great adventure. As long as they don't join the full open world trend and become yet another generic Ubisoft-lite game, I look forward to seeing what happens next in Tomb Raider's new series. I had a blast going through this adventure. However, between the year of it's actual release, and a slight vibe of "well it was just an adventure", I'm not sure it did anything to really put it on the list. TR will be sitting this one out as an honorable mention, in part due to MS's bullshit contract deal, and in part due to just the competition and impressive stuff of this year. Oh and also, there's yet more lies in the marketing (just like the first game) where they pretend this is a globe trotting adventure. Thankfully for the better, 90% of this game is focused in some icey mountains. If a tutorial level in syria counts for "globe trotting" then someone needs to get their head together.

StarFox Zero

This might just be the best example of a sub-set of games that make it on an honorable mentions list. It's an awesome game, make no mistake about it... especially you idiots that blame it's failure on the controls. The controls are fine, and more so the TV/gamepad system is especially fine. That's not just my opinion going and telling you I lived through it, I'm going to tell you what everyone else is neglecting: You can change the entire view instantly with no consequence at the touch of a button! Yeah, so all that moaning you hear of people who can't coordinate between two screens in front of them are neglecting the fact you could play this game basically off the same screen by just the exact same method you'd change the camera view in a racing game. Anyway, the game still isn't the best thing ever though. It's a fantastic arcadey shooter, and has some amazing moments like the final fight with Star Wolf's team, but it just doesn't do enough to make me care in the long run. It's great fun, has some cool stuff, and it's fantastic we got another star fox game, but it's just not worthy of breaking through and doing anything spectacular in my book other than giving me some really awesome ship fights and scenes. ...oh and making me pissed at the internet for being full of whiny incompetent people who can't figure out how to push buttons and play a damn video game. In the end, it's just... well a good shooty game. Screw the haters, go play it, but let's not pretend it's anything close to GOTY.

Garden Warfare 2

Probably more than the others, this game should definitely be on this list. It took a game I already though was great enough to sloppily apply to a previous GOTY list, and improved it in ways nobody should have saw coming. It was a full blown sequel that instantly puts the past entry to shame. Bots, a hub world full of missions, co-op integration, free updates, and of course the obvious sequel stuff like new characters, abilities, maps, and mode functions like the ability to play survival as zombies. The game was far more accessible, fun, interesting, and had an absurd amount of content to fool around in all seamlessly designed together as one big world. However it's a bit of sad irony that I have to say it's still the accessibility that killed it for making this list. While it's more fun and well designed than the game that wins #5, the difference is I can actually jump in and play and have fun in #5 easier, whereas this game I can't. They still tacked on the stupid as hell forced online DRM that leaves me paranoid I won't be able to just sit down and play the game (and once ruined an amazing survival sessions I was playing OUTSIDE OF MULTIPLAYER BY MYSELF), and then you also need to cram every single update onto your harddrive before you play taking a game up a good notch in size even if you just want a quick round with some bots. Between the paranoid online requirements, and other awesome games using up the memory it would take to put this on, I just haven't touched this game since the season I bought it. I've even once considered returning it for a better trade value, but here I remain convinced I'll one day return to it and still love this game. However for now, that time hasn't come back around to remind me that this game is worthy of GOTY. Instead I'd rather reward games I truly kept enjoying throughout the year, or left a lasting impact. GW2 collects dust despite all of its best efforts, because some idiot decided it was still a good idea to limit the player with DRM. Well a sincere fuck you to the people behind that plan, and all those that leap on the sorry excuse that it's somehow necessary for data.

And now for the main list, starting with...

5) Enter the Gungeon

In retrospect, this is usually where I feel I goof up on marking my list out. I quickly search for a game that meets my odd standards of having to first release this year, AND any game that also provided some weird eye-opening fun I came back to at some point in time, but yet I quit playing in all general fairness. Stuff like Risk of Rain, or Garden Warfare 1, and honestly I have to wonder if that's really the best (Bioshock Infinite > RoR). Maybe in retrospect this will be another one of those games, and I should just break my rules and slap Tomb Raider on here instead. But right now all I can think is... well, Gungeon was really still just plain amazing for what it is. What it is isn't some massive true redefining game that'll have me remembering 2016 for years to come, but that's more for #1 anyway and this is still a fantastic game

Gungeon is a rogue-like that actually managed to keep me hooked even beyond Ratchet & Clank and Stories (an indie I was super hyped about). That alone is pretty amazing. It wasn't a long-lasting feat, after about two weeks I left the game alone for a while, and mostly just come back for single innings. Still unlike Garden Warfare 2, I actually do still come back, and could easily see myself just casually booting up the game and enjoying a run with some podcast on the background. The colorful characters, the excellent pacing and combat momentum, the crazy and yet somehow consistent lore and puns, and then the fact that you actually have a say and skill level to triumph over the rampant tone of chance all made this an amazing rogue-lite/like/whatever. This game just oozes an energy of fun and charm, and just did a lot of things right that made me surprisingly confident in it's ability to always entertain. That's not something that can be said for the majority of its genre, and I hope people learn lessons from it like the teleporters allowing fast travel across room floors.

4) Rachet & Clank (remake)

Is good, good enough? Yeah, I sure think it is. R&C was the most hyped thing for this year at one point, but some other much better things happened this year as things went on, and Ratchet & Clank itself... well, it didn't break any record, and had some hit and miss aspects about this year's running. However it was still fantastic as just a really fun general game. The characters were very humorous, the locations and remade aspects went well, it's a huge step over the original that it imitates, there were a few subtle cool changes that I'd love to see continue in the series, and... well, it's more Ratchet and Clank, one of the best franchises out there. It was a good dose of cartoon action + 3D platforming, and I was bent on 100% the majority of aspects within it, so I think it did it's job of creating a fantastic and memorable experience. The story telling kinda sucks at an all time low for the series, but aside from that blunder, I can confidently say this is one of the best games of this year and I'm so happy for it's success.

3) Dark Souls 3

If you include last year's unfinished list (with Bloodborne on it), the souls franchise has made it consistently on my GOTY list ever since I started playing them. However even with that being said, there might be something extra special about Dark Souls 3. For starters, it's the first game in the franchise I actually beat. Even though I knew this would be listed, it was only just now as I was thinking about what to say that memories start flooding back about what an adventure it all was. Dark Souls 3 more than the rest was a true adventure. It had just that perfect level design and confusion to leave me wandering and wondering, being confused on where to go next, being turned around in awkward spots, having me decide "screw it, now I'm charging in and it's time to just see what happens" and actually turn up successful at some of those moments. It's got moments where I gritted my death and slew a boss on my first try out of sheer tenacity and in-sync reading of his character and being into my own relations, and yet was stomped on by the tutorial boss over until I crushed him... going double swords in and shieldless and literally rolling with the punches. I pushed through the swamps in the early game, taking all of its punishment and beating the odds, only to realize I was lost and had missed my turn and was in some higher level area. As I went back and took the right path, and a grueling hard journey into the cathedral, it turned out to be a dead-end with the story telling me "Our goal is past the swamp now!" and I just collapsed in hysterical laughter. I was lost in a dungeon for hours, slowly calculating and puzzling out it's many labyrinthian directions (with this fittingly eerie song stuck in my head), halls, cracked passages, and where the most feared enemies were and how to skirt around them, until I met sweet relief by figuring out where I was supposed to really go to progress. I stopped at various parts to just gaze at the sky, and wonder about the lore, the place I was in, or just enjoy it all for what it was right in front of me. All of these things collectively come together as the true hassle, fun, irony, and determination come together to point at the master workings of a game that can replicate an experience worth taking. A true mark of time well spent, an experience achieved, and yet I probably sound like a nerd because we're really still talking about a video game.... but it speaks truly more to the medium itself and what it can do.

Now add that all on top of the common praises you should know about the souls franchise by now. If you don't, it's about damn time you go grab a game and experience it, and I won't mind recommending this as that game. This is the sort of Journey-like experience I can't redo, but I don't need to redo it so much as just embrace the amazing mechanics, and common praises Dark Soul still gets and deserves, because even without that amazing list of events and adventuring, I could still put this game on this list and say it's incredibly well built, fun, and everyone should play it.

2) Dishonored 2

So this should be expected, despite being kind of quiet on it after playing. Dishonored 2 is a fantastic follow-up to one of the best games to release across the last few year... or dare I say, even one of the best among the decade. It's practically everything I could ask out of stealth gaming. The tools, spyring, theiving, mystery, and then added elements of steampunk and mysticism, it's all there. Now Dishonored 2 follows up the events with two characters to choose from, new powers, new levels, improvements to combat and abilities, and things are only getting better through patches. Dishonored 2 has been a lot of fun, and will continue to provide a lot of fun for a good while longer as it begs for replays. I especially love how this game has given you more direct combat options for non-lethal runs. 

If I were to complain about the game in any particular ways, it's that it lacks a slight bit of the heart and charm that certain parts of the original did. Its not that 2 did anything wrong, but just there are certain things from 1 it didn't bother to compete with. There's no place quiet like the elegant party level, no massive hub world full of interesting/eccentric characters (you get a tiny boat hub with essentially two grumpy people, and depending on your actions a quiet guest that comes and goes), the world feels more careless in how it responds to the player's actions, and the targets feel a slight bit more binary in how you deal with them. Again there's no real wrong or complaint for the game itself, it's just that in comparison it's lacking a certain undescribable essence of the first. But yet with commitment to patch in a freakin' new game plus mode, and to have made the entire game playable with two different now fully voiced characters, there's clearly still effort and care. I guess its just a matter of... well, you can't just cram everything into a new story.

...and in case you haven't noticed, there's a funny coincidence going on where Dark Souls 3 got spot #3, and Dishonored 2, but I'm not exactly going to fulfill this entirely with spot #1. It may not have a number to its name, but it's not an original, but rather the 4th entry in its name...

Game of the year: Doom

I still remember the early announcement of Doom. It sounded like a glorious return to form with classic FPS mechanics, fast paced action, and brutal doom type glory kills. I was excited, but I was excited for a classic FPS. I just wanted another really damn good shooter that realized itself as a shooter and was fun for that reason. The actual video reveal was a little weird, and I didn't quite understand everything, but was still excited. My excitement held through the new trailers, the glory kills looked excellent, and I was amped up to play a fun shooter with a timesplitters style map maker implemented. ....and that excitement for just another great shooter, was blasted to mars itself, because Doom exceeded my expectations by a long ways. It was not just a great shooter, it is probably the best shooter. The real kick is, I didn't even need to beat the game before I was having that sort of revelation. I was playing the Argent tower level (about level 4). It was at the stage where I beat that first mancubus fight after a few failed tries, after a great battle, and then climbing up some beams and finding that there was a great tower to climb. As the energy pulsed, the battle fresh in mind, I pulled out a plasma rifle for reassurance, and climbed up with Samuel Hayden's awesome cheesy dialogue talking about hell energy and other technobabble, and I felt almost dizzy with all the excitement and a slight deja vu feeling... the feeling that so many fun bits are here, but in a new unexperienced and better form. All I could really say for certain though, was this game was amazing, and I was so looking forward to the rest of what lied ahead. ...and it was awesome! With the right kind of FPS being my favorite sort of genre, where else do you expect me to put the best game of its kind in YEARS! Of course its #1 on the damn list, it might also be #1 on games of the last decade. 

However I suppose I have to explain this further. Doom has an incredible multi-layered soundtrack that works with the flow of the gameplay to burst intense distorted metal in heightened combat sequences. Doom has health and ammo tied towards its very movement and enemy systems, encouraging your types of kills, ammo, and rewards to benefit based on how hard you slaughter demons and plays into the core loop of an FPS in a way no other FPS has actually done. Doom has also gracefully refined said combat system to work between a Serious Sam style wave shooter, and that of a classic linear scope level with complicated and well thought map and inventory design. Doom has secrets, hidden extended lore, fun easter eggs, and and upgrades. Doom has 60FPS on every platform, amazing visual ques that extend beyond whether or not you think the game looks nice, but it also does look fantastic with hellish and industrial details rendered wonderfully in an art style that can only be called DOOM. Doom has a map maker on all platforms that allows you to create everything from awesome campaign levels, to a freakin' harvest moon clone where you build a farm so you can buy upgrades to kill demons. Doom has a fun frantic multiplayer that balances between then MP of now, and that of the UT era when multiplayer was actually fun and taxed your map memory and movement skills in addition to gunplay and reflex. Doom has a cheesy saturday morning cartoon style story about hell energy, demon bios from an alien planet we describe as hell, and self-aware humor that taunts the notion of even telling a story. Doom also has free updates that have given you an even faster-paced arcade mode you score points off of, and has finally given us bots. The only thing Doom doesn't do is cure any problems, and solve poverty, which is a problem because that means impoverished individuals aren't out there playing this game and that needs to change because everyone should have Doom! Unless you've had your eyes and ears ripped off by demons you weren't killing, you should have known by now that Doom is a game worth having, so go grab some caffein, grab a copy of Doom, and enjoy one of the best games to come out in years... never the less this very year. Doom is my Game of the Year, and one of its only problems, is that it doesn't properly title itself to stand out from the lesser Dooms of the past.

PSA: Skyrim SE's older TV issue

UPDATE:

Welp, Final Fantasy 15 now has the same issue, putting to rest the idea this was somehow attached to upscaling textures in a re-release. Now brand new games are coming out, brain dead and oblivious to the notion that they can in fact add screen adjustment functionality. Stuff like the MP meter is cut out, and Square had to say they need to patch this soon. I say to both Skyrim and FF15...

USE THIS! PROGRAM YOUR DAMN GAMES RIGHT!

Original:

So as I recently wrote about, I've been playing Skyrim. I usually don't go into details on my set-up and life, but basically that session of Skyrim was on the working bigger screen end of things. Now switch between that, and my other house where I have a smaller (I want to say it's 29'', maybe 21'') Vizio TV that I got mid 2010. Both are HD 1080p televisions, though I recognize only my bigger TV represents the full effect well. However when I got home and set up my PS4 to the smaller TV, happily booted up Skyrim, I realized the menu was loading with pieces going off screen. No worries, I might have to just reset the PS4 for the screen size option to read! Nope. Tried fooling with a couple more options, but it was always the same. Skyrim didn't fit the TV, and ignores the supposedly universal PS4 screen settings.

So naturally, I looked the problem up, and found the solution wasn't so easy for everyone. A lot of people on the corners of the net are having this problem. Some people fixed it by toggling some settings, like fit screen, or turning off overscan, but either way Skyrim SE was one of the first games with this issue and not everyone is getting an easy fix. One guy went into some kind of deep engineer settings for the game to get it to work, others can't find any of the previously mentioned settings, no engineer code or secret, and no way to get Skyrim working right. I fit into that camp, and can't see my statuses entirely, my item menu is on the edge of the screen when opened, I'm only not annoyed about lockpicking because I can see that the first digit indicates I've got over 50.... just that 5 was clear though.

I don't really know what to say. It's easy to usually fuss and say that Bethesda is dumb for not letting the game run with common PS4 settings, but I honestly can't say for sure when that does and doesn't work. Some people reported something similar with Bioshock collection. Maybe whatever tech they do these remasters or older engines in can't work with other resolutions than what it was programmed as. I get the feeling that wouldn't be the full truth, and they may have just goofed this up or taken some shortcut, but that's a theory as to why this might be the way it is. Either way, 4 weeks ago they at least acknowledged this problem, so maybe there's some small hope. 4 weeks ago though, so... eh. Either way for whatever its worth, I feel this was important to warn others. Don't go wasting money on a copy that's broken if you have an older (even 5-6 years) TV, until this gets fixed. Bethesda, please fix this.

Warrior down!

Now playing (double): Skyrim + Aragami

Although I've been playing Skyrim Special Edition lately, I just got Aragami in the mail (signature version, because physical copies are awesome but the "digital" art and music is just stupid in the standard physical release. So... this is technically my first EU printed game. Cool, I think?). Thankfully it didn't take the odd estimation of "december 13-sometime in january" length. I'm sure I'll have some first impressions before I finish this article, so might as well make this a double feature while I enjoy the Aragami soundtrack.

Skyrim: PS4 edition

Might as well call it what it is. Each version of this game is kind of different, and sadly the PS4 suffers from the worst, but more due to Sony's bullshit this time rather than Bethesda. That being said, when I see a significant price drop around this time of season (skyrim weirdly suits christmas time) with a free hat thrown in, I had a hard time resisting. I've got the PC version on my low-end intel laptop, I've got the sloppy and original PS3 release, and now I've got something that mixes the best of both worlds. Mild mods from the PC and running on more solid performance, while at the convinience of my controller and TV... oh and it's the best I'll graphically get to see the game up until whenever I can get a gaming PC. Meanwhile the hat is fantastic, thanks for asking.

So in my crude justification for spending money on a game I didn't really need, I still wound up having a lot of fun. Not only that, but... I've barely bothered with mods. Some moments aside, I'm kind of appreciating what I love about Skyrim again rather than what I've bashed it for here in the past. I love this game for everything that isn't a slap in the face from its RPG mechanics. Adventuring, exploring caves for treasure, developing your sneaking skills, dealing with socio-political cultures during a civil war, and just enjoying the night sky.. it's all pretty awesome. I can still find some old reviews back in its release where people were so impressed by finding a book that tells you of a cool legend, then how you could go to the actual cave and find the treasure it was based on. How cool is that!? Well the game really has a lot of faults, especially back on release with the PS3 version, but for all its faults... it really is a truly amazing adventure game.

So for the time being, I've set aside any remarks, frustrations, or pain that came from the RPG parts. If that attitude stays or goes is a mystery, but for now I'm having a blast. I've made another Khajiit character, who's very opportunistic, sneaky, and bow + mace happy. However as time is going on I'm finding myself using magic a bit more, and I'm also trying to more actively approach crafting, shopping, etc. At some point I'm going to deviate from mods, but right now I'm just having fun deviating from my actual mission to meet the greybeards. The marketing is slightly off if you want to come in and feel like some super hero power-viking that always beats up dragons. Instead the game is at its best not when you're looting through pockets to number manage a dumb inventory restriction so you CAN go fight that dragon later, but rather it's best when you're actually out there just lost and... smiling. It's really about the journey rather than the destination in Skyrim... because that destination has some cheap mini-bosses, outbalanced stats, and a clumsy inventory. But the adventure face of skyrim is more like this little trip, or moments that look sort of like:

Aragami

This game came out of nowhere, and at first... meh. Dishonored 2 was going to be great, so why? But even though that came true, Dishonored left me wanting a tad bit more, and as I was drinking a Cherry Blossom lager one day I remembered this game and the CE copy in the store. Eventually this lead to me grabbing the game's full physical form. My skepticism was however a little present on the basis that this was a full "true" stealth game (instead of stealth action). That's code for contrived game that fails the player if you even blink off cue, and rips all the fun out of better stealth games that don't necessarily FORCE stealth. However this game has proven to be an interesting middle ground between what pure stealth fans probably like in forced challenge, but mixed with the open design and choices of players from awesome games like MGS, Thief, and Dishonored. The most obvious diversion it takes from pure stealth, is that your not sent back to a 10 minute checkpoint because the guard smelled you. You can actually directly assault a guard, it's just extremely unlikely you'll win and it's very counter-productive.

However in breaking away from genre labels and traditions, we might find the real truth is both better and worse. Aragami is a great game from a stylistic stand point, with beautiful scenery and art style, a great choice of theme with a shadow ninja in a fantasy Japan setting, taking interesting spins on surrounding influences by blending Dishonored style powers with Thief style light based hiding, and music that is so good. However it does have its share of faults around the edges, including one I'm real worried about: checkpoints. I've lost at least 15 minutes of planning, waiting, mapping things out, and picking off guards, working up a perfect kill counter for level 3, only to have it all undone because the stupid game goofed on where I was teleporting to (aimed at a river bank, it teleported me clipping into the floor, then threw me into the water where I "died"... and for the record the game never even hinted at water being a real obstacle either). I was in a good mood so I wasn't actually mad, but it was a busy night and between making progress in Skyrim or trying to fight with this 15-20 minute segment all over again, I took Skyrim so that I wouldn't be frustrated. Checkpoints in games are usually fine, but if you dare to put them in a stealth game you better not be an idiot who puts them between 20+ guards, multiple rivers and halls, and then send a player back (like the area I died in). These games are all about waiting, planning, and trial + error, and you're on a fast track to pissing people off when you rip away all that stalking and timing especially when one of the encouraged credentials of every level is stealthy mass murder. AND stealthy pacifism (meaning you have to either perfect the guard pattern to kill them all, or to avoid them all). Oh, and the other issue with the game is simple optimization issues... yes, even after the patches which supposedly fixed that.

Still, Aragam is off to a fun start. One of the best parts of the game is that despite the checkpoint issue, the best moments can sometimes be just winging it and testing just how far you can push your movements around guards in split-second decisions. I've had such a good feeling from doing stuff like watching a guard walk a corner, teleporting to that corner he JUST stood by, and then as think you can get him... he walks just out of range and sits around a bunch of lights you can't be by. So... the second his feet touch the shadows, you phase a reinforcing pool of darkness and pop right up to take his head. Stuff like that is incredibly satisfying, and tense, and a part of why I love this game's pure stealth cycle... it's challenging sure, but it's got a lot of options, level designs, and you can actually fight your enemy in quite a few ways. One of those ways apparently includes sprouting a shadow dragon out of the ground, but I haven't gotten that far myself yet. So between the whole shadow ninja with Kitsune statues and cherry blossoms all over the place in this beautiful game, to the wide array of trying to dance around the shadows in secrecy, this game is a great new twist on stealth from an indie team I still know nothing about. Gotta give credit to these guys though and hope they continue to do awesome stuff.

From out of a time capsule, how will Team Ico do?

I'm shockingly excited for The Last Guardian's release, coming early next month... but not for the reasons you're probably thinking. I'm almost excited out of curiosity, or like a living experiment coming into play. The question hangs in the air, nagging my mind: Will people still love Team Ico's style? Personal feelings on the game itself are more... eh. It's a game I kinda want to try and hope to enjoy, but I just know this sort of game isn't my style. Then I think about it and wonder, is it anybody's style anymore? Obviously some will appreciate and love this game, but enough to be a success story like it was in the past?

Team Ico builds their games a little strange. They were almost a type of indie game, before the indie games of today. They worked within AAA constraints of the 2000's to make minimalistic, puzzling, enchanting, and carefully crafted games. These are the kind of game to appreciate for the patient ones, for the quiet types, and for those willing to put up with the down times and struggles for the good little moments within a grand adventure. It's the sort of person that will actually take the time to notice and appreciate the fact that all of Trico's feathers are carefully rendered, or who first wondered what that blackish blood gushing from the first colossus was about. That type of person was easier found and sold to back then for a profitable game, but now when we're all consciously aware of the tedious escort missions, we're holding radar guns to the framerate, we're constantly distracted with social media, and your best and worst sellers are online games laced with constant progression systems that spoon feed your constant achievements, and sale expectations are around 6-10 million at times, it's not hard to see how the landscape has changed. I don't think everyone is holding that sort of expectation to TLG, but I just know there's going to be some critic outlets that call it outdated, boring, or tedious. People eat this stuff up in indie circles for $15, but what about the bigger game that's asking $60? And that's all setting aside any doubts that it's dev hell status has some implications.

That being said, I'm not a doomsayer here. I think there's still going to be people out there to love this game, and a surprising amount of hope is in the air for it in the circles it's mentioned. As a matter of fact, fan's hope are probably what saved it. I can't speak too well for them since I'm not a big Shadows of the Colossus fan, but I feel like I get the general idea... and there's still quite a good number of people who insist it's their favorite game to have ever been made. That's no light acclaim, and in a world full of minimalist indie games compelling all sorts of people, SotC still stands out as something special, with occasional murmurings that Ico was also amazing. Yes, Ico, the other giant escort mission game that Team Ico made and named themselves after. So clearly there's more going on than just surface level stuff. You can't sit there and pitch someone the idea of Ico on "Well, there's this girl you have to pull around and traverse a castle with." Instead it's probably more suiting to give them an image like this, or this, and promise them it's an enchanted and yet haunting adventure that awaits them. Some will be more skeptical and questioning... probably like me, trying to find the mechanical interests. Others will just be guided towards that promise of adventure, and maybe they'll find something incredible.

Heck, just talking about all of this and looking up screenshots to put here, has kind of reminded me why I wish I was more suited towards loving this kind of game. I love the sense of detail and imagination crafted into these adventures, I just hate linear puzzle solving. I don't think gamers have necessarily moved beyond the type of games Ico puts out, but I just think they're hard to come by and we're not exactly bringing up a generation that's likely to get involved with it. I'm also speaking from the idea of critics, and their lashing out. I feel like some people aren't going to be addressing their expectations right. I'm very interested, curious, and somewhat excited to see what really happens. But of course, in the end, it barely matters in the general gaming landscape. What counts, no matter how small or niche, is the group of gamers that really are ready and have their expectations set right. The type of people who do stop to admire Trico's feathers, or the details in the environment, or the mysteries of the cryptic story telling, and all the care that went into the AI of the characters or the subtle animations at work. These are the sort of people ready for a gripping adventure, the kind that only Team Ico can make. I hope it delivers that well, and somewhere out there becomes a new "best game ever" to somebody.

Nidhogg 2's incredible art style...

Nidhogg 2 is the sequel to a neat indie title that was all about one-on-one fencing type combat. It was simple, but lovable (according to those who've played it), and was especially good for couch multiplayer. The game seemed to be a great success, and now we're looking at a sequel coming out. Yay! However there's one unmistakable and strange decision that has some people a little concerned... let's see if you can spot the difference:

A little odd, huh? Well it's crazier in-motion. People are really off-put on the new look, and suggest it's like trying to imagine a nude homer rip-off, or the same for two sesame street characters, and then there's a comment even describing this as perhaps a Chinese bootleg copy of the original game. I can't exactly call any of that wrong either, because the trailer took me by surprise and had me thinking "WTF am I looking at!?" all the same. If this was done on april 1st, I think everyone would think it's a prank animation cooked up to look like the a laughable sequel. Meanwhile the original Nidhogg was just simple pixelmen, and it still looks tame and normal enough by now, complete with a slightly strange and neat artsy bleeding effect. However that's also what makes me go against the grain here, and just admire how incredible this all is. Incredible is truly the perfect word too, because it doesn't necessarily mean a compliment, but rather questions the odds. ...but it is also a compliment from me, because I also said that I admire it for doing just that.

I can point to Nidhogg and say "that's a game where pixel people fence each other" and we're done. I can compare it to atari graphics, or tell you it's another retro aesthetic indie game, and you generally know what camp to fall into with a game like this. The most interesting thing is that bleeding color that sort of paints the world. That's it. Now with this upcoming game, my explanation is more like... "bat-shit crazy weird naked cartoon doll things throwing axes at each other and bleeding their own skin color". There's no simple comparison in a world full of pre-defined styles, genres, and games. Sure a lot of it is mixing, but we always find a way to drag comparisons in. No, here, it's just Nidhogg 2 and that's all I can leave with on my mind, unless I try to leap to outside medias like earlier where I mentioned Homer Simpson.... and even that is vague. If you walk up and tell someone you've got nude homer clones beating each other with axes, swords, and bows, while avoiding death by giant worm, you'd be so confused and yet interested in what weird game the indie world has unleashed, or what it has to do with the Nidhogg name if you're somewhat familiar. Perhaps it's technically a failure of marketing when they're no simple pitch, but heck this is a sequel, so I don't think that matters so much. The worst thing to worry about is nagging purists, who would rather have Nidhogg stay as a "timeless" generic retro pixel game #874 on the digital store page. ...or you could be fucking incredible and have people's jaw drop in confusion as they see the game for the first time!

Look, it's weird, and yes it's ugly. I get that. It's absurd, it's silly, it's confusing, and it was revealed with no warning or clue; Yet I kind of admire that, and that's why I'm even here talking about it. I feel like the people disliking it, are the same type that would have fussed about Windwaker, or the ones calling the new Doom out as a generic Halo type game, but both games wound up being amazing and proving the vocal outcry wrong. People don't tend to have a very open mind about these things, and don't pay much attention to the finer details or disciplines. That's part of what always worries me about how vocal and dependent on the internet we are. What if they're really going to cave-in and change everything? I'd like to hope not, or they meet us half-way and find a way to actually implement a toggle graphics function or pixel character skins. Meanwhile though, I personally think this is a great step. They struck a more original style rarely seen, and I appreciate being actually confused and intrigued for once at a game all over again without it interfering with me knowing the mechanics. I can still tell this is a fast-paced one on one combat game like the first, but this time I have nothing to visually compare it to. No "oh it's just cell-shading, or it's retro, or it's going for semi-realism", no it's... it's just fucking Nidhogg 2. That's all it is. That's all it needs to be, and that's awesome. For better or worse, it's also technically incredible, and it has me talking about a game I would have otherwise just dismissed as a sequel to an indie game I might play someday. Well, now it's burned on my mind... so good job guys.