This is gonna be short, because I desperately want to get back to playing.
I spent a couple hours last night with Horizon Zero Dawn and absolutely loved it.
Watch live video from taranwalker on www.twitch.tv
That was fun. I was also REALLY tired.
Today, I've finally got some proper time with the release build of Torment: Tides of Numenera, which I'm firing up again in just a moment.
I adore both of these games so far, and highly encourage everyone to try them both. They are utterly different mechanically, but each present a fascinating look at a very distant future in which society as we know it has been dead for a long, long time. I'm sure that there are other fictional portrayals of a post-post-apocalyptic society that is set waaay after 'the incident,' but I've never seen one (if you have, I'd love to hear about it. I'm really enjoying this.)
Again, these games are so utterly different, yet have such compelling settings and lore, they are a perfect pairing. I'm gonna go play some more.
Are you playing either of them? If so, what do you think? I'll have more to say tomorrow. Adios, muchachos.
-Blaine
20170227
TORMENT/HORIZON DAY EVE!!!
Happy Monday!
It's almost here! Torment: Tides of Numenera, my personal most-anticipated game of 2017, and Horizon: Zero Dawn are both out tonight/tomorrow. Holy shit, they're finally real.
I know I've droned on endlessly about Torment, but goddamit, I'm serious, the Early Access build was that good. It really spoke to me, and is what I want from games. I'm tempted to rattle off all the design aspects that I like, but I'd rather just gush about how alive the world feels, how choices feel like they really matter, and how immersive an experience it is overall.
As for Horizon ... I'm so disappointed that this is locked to a console, but I'll play it remote, and hopefully, that offsets it a little. I just don't like the physical constraints of console gaming, especially since at least one member of my family is always on the TV. I may just move the PS4 off that TV, though. Hmm. That's a really interesting thought, actually. Understand that I game on a fatty gaming laptop wherever and whenever I want.
I would also much rather play this kind of game with a mouse and keyboard. I'll live, though.
This isn't a gaming news site, but fuck it ...
Anyway, there's some fun stuff going around the gaming world right now.
We already knew that Mass Effect Andromeda was gonna have lots of fucking, but DAMN, I guess it really will. Now, compare that with The Witcher 3's ESRB rating, and this is gonna be a FUCKING great time. Any time you're wondering what the barometer for 'video game fucking and tits' is, just fire up the latest 'The Witcher' release, and that's it.
GDC is happening this week. I almost went again this year, but opted not to, at the last moment. I don't regret that, but ... man, it's a good time, and I kinda wish I was there. I think it's going to be kinda quiet in terms of blockbuster announcements. There was a time in which GDC was becoming known, more and more, for announcements, but that's quieted down a bit. There's not even any real coverage presence from GameSpot and IGN this year, which is rather telling.
Still, maybe something interesting gets announced? This is the official 'live feed,' which it actually is not, but whatever.
IGN is doing a Save Point Live Stream that sounds pretty cool today. Basically, they're raising money for the Video Game History Foundation folks and playing lotsa canceled and unreleased shit. Give it a look. It looks totally cool.
Ack, I just read the comments in a gaming article. What the hell was I thinking? I'm now reminded why so-called 'gamers' are basically the worst humans in the history of the world. Why do we get so bent out of shape about what different people enjoy? If someone likes 'company x' and you don't ... it doesn't matter to you at all. Not even a little. Why pronounce judgment over all people that might at all enjoy a thing that you don't? Yes, I think it's weird to like some of the extremely Japanese gaming stuff, but I have friends that love that shit, and I really enjoy hearing them talk about it, even if I've tried it a few times, and not found something I want to spend time with.
Anyway, let's be excellent to each other.
Me Streaming and Making Videos (OH YEAH)
I continued my 'Road to Andromeda' Mass Effect series this past weekend. You can get caught up right here, or just below.
We're near the end, friends. I've been working on this since September of last year, and it's been a blast. I'd love to get some more eyeballs on it, and get some suggestions for my next series, whatever it may be. I've loved doing this, and love sharing my passion for Mass Effect. If you don't mind, give it a look and lemme know what you think. And bear in mind that it evolved over the course of the series.
My current plan is to finish the fight this weekend. I've done everything there is in the game, with the exception of the end of ME3. I'll be picking it back up Thursday night, and it would be fun to end the game with friends.
Tonight, I'll be streaming Horizon Zero Dawn starting at 2300 central time. I don't normally stream brand new games, but I thought this might be fun.
I will not be streaming Torment at all any time soon, because I don't like streaming when I really want to feel my way through the game AND it has a ton of text to read (which I enjoy, but makes for bad streaming.) Horizon, though, is fully voice acted and very cinematic, so that'll be fun.
And it'll be even more fun if ya'll come on out.
MAN, I am SO EXCITED for Torment and Horizon! YES! Get in my hard disk NOW!
How about you? You excited?
-Blaine
It's almost here! Torment: Tides of Numenera, my personal most-anticipated game of 2017, and Horizon: Zero Dawn are both out tonight/tomorrow. Holy shit, they're finally real.
I know I've droned on endlessly about Torment, but goddamit, I'm serious, the Early Access build was that good. It really spoke to me, and is what I want from games. I'm tempted to rattle off all the design aspects that I like, but I'd rather just gush about how alive the world feels, how choices feel like they really matter, and how immersive an experience it is overall.
As for Horizon ... I'm so disappointed that this is locked to a console, but I'll play it remote, and hopefully, that offsets it a little. I just don't like the physical constraints of console gaming, especially since at least one member of my family is always on the TV. I may just move the PS4 off that TV, though. Hmm. That's a really interesting thought, actually. Understand that I game on a fatty gaming laptop wherever and whenever I want.
I would also much rather play this kind of game with a mouse and keyboard. I'll live, though.
This isn't a gaming news site, but fuck it ...
Anyway, there's some fun stuff going around the gaming world right now.
We already knew that Mass Effect Andromeda was gonna have lots of fucking, but DAMN, I guess it really will. Now, compare that with The Witcher 3's ESRB rating, and this is gonna be a FUCKING great time. Any time you're wondering what the barometer for 'video game fucking and tits' is, just fire up the latest 'The Witcher' release, and that's it.
GDC is happening this week. I almost went again this year, but opted not to, at the last moment. I don't regret that, but ... man, it's a good time, and I kinda wish I was there. I think it's going to be kinda quiet in terms of blockbuster announcements. There was a time in which GDC was becoming known, more and more, for announcements, but that's quieted down a bit. There's not even any real coverage presence from GameSpot and IGN this year, which is rather telling.
Still, maybe something interesting gets announced? This is the official 'live feed,' which it actually is not, but whatever.
IGN is doing a Save Point Live Stream that sounds pretty cool today. Basically, they're raising money for the Video Game History Foundation folks and playing lotsa canceled and unreleased shit. Give it a look. It looks totally cool.
Ack, I just read the comments in a gaming article. What the hell was I thinking? I'm now reminded why so-called 'gamers' are basically the worst humans in the history of the world. Why do we get so bent out of shape about what different people enjoy? If someone likes 'company x' and you don't ... it doesn't matter to you at all. Not even a little. Why pronounce judgment over all people that might at all enjoy a thing that you don't? Yes, I think it's weird to like some of the extremely Japanese gaming stuff, but I have friends that love that shit, and I really enjoy hearing them talk about it, even if I've tried it a few times, and not found something I want to spend time with.
Anyway, let's be excellent to each other.
Me Streaming and Making Videos (OH YEAH)
I continued my 'Road to Andromeda' Mass Effect series this past weekend. You can get caught up right here, or just below.
We're near the end, friends. I've been working on this since September of last year, and it's been a blast. I'd love to get some more eyeballs on it, and get some suggestions for my next series, whatever it may be. I've loved doing this, and love sharing my passion for Mass Effect. If you don't mind, give it a look and lemme know what you think. And bear in mind that it evolved over the course of the series.
My current plan is to finish the fight this weekend. I've done everything there is in the game, with the exception of the end of ME3. I'll be picking it back up Thursday night, and it would be fun to end the game with friends.
Tonight, I'll be streaming Horizon Zero Dawn starting at 2300 central time. I don't normally stream brand new games, but I thought this might be fun.
I will not be streaming Torment at all any time soon, because I don't like streaming when I really want to feel my way through the game AND it has a ton of text to read (which I enjoy, but makes for bad streaming.) Horizon, though, is fully voice acted and very cinematic, so that'll be fun.
And it'll be even more fun if ya'll come on out.
MAN, I am SO EXCITED for Torment and Horizon! YES! Get in my hard disk NOW!
How about you? You excited?
-Blaine
20170223
Games Media Is a Mess
Back in the late 80s, the day that the latest Nintendo Power would show up was like a mini-Christmas every month (or every other month, when they went bi-monthly.) I had an idea of around when it was going to hit the mailbox. I'd pore through it, drool over the latest Ninja Gaiden or CastleVania screens, then chuckle when Legend of Zelda was still #1 in the monthly most popular games.
I drifted away from gaming in the 16-bit era, as I was focused on playing in a band and chicks, but when I came back, in the mid-90s, there were a lot more gaming mags.
At first, I scoffed at the magazines that were multi-platform, and not directly from the console manufacturer, but that attitude quickly changed, as I came to really enjoy the writing in magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, and GameFan. In fact, whenever I'd stop at the store with my girlfriend, I'd grab all the latest issues of each one, and devour it.
EGM, in particular, was a standout for me. The writing got better and better as the years went on, and they were my shepherd into the online coverage, via the beloved 1up.com.
What drove EGM, and then later, 1up.com, was the personalities. Yeah, you were reading it for the games, but after a while, each writer's distinct voice, as well as the personality of the mag and site, brought you back to THEM instead of IGN or whatever else there was at the time.
Meanwhile, G4TV became a thing, and I quickly came to adore X-Play, and appreciated the myriad other gaming-based programming (before they just showed COPS reruns 25hrs a day.) It was astounding, the humor that show got away with.
Somewhere around here, podcasts started to catch on, and 1UP Yours was born.
Inevitably, 1UP moved into the video space, and the 1UP Show became, in my mind, the best video game show ever.
1UP Yours and the 1UP Show were absolutely incredible early examples of games media's expansion from the printed word. Again, it was the personalities that made it. The editors and writers around the 1UP office just seemed like the coolest people you could possibly hang out with, and they really grew my interest in gaming.
I've talked before about my 'onboarding' to PC gaming, and the various factors that went into it, and among those factors was Jeff Green and Shawn Elliott, editors at 1UP and Computer Gaming World. Their podcast, CGW Radio (later GFW Radio), ushered me into a whole new way of looking at games, and their outlook on things was so different from the more rosy, cheerful console side. I came to love both tremendously, but Jeff and Shawn helped me want to become a PC gamer, and before long, I was loving Guild Wars and Company of Heroes.
As time went on, the talent left 1UP for dev and publishing, words became fewer, videos became shorter, and 1UP was shuttered eventually. Meanwhile, and since then, articles have become lists or clickbait, videos are now more about someone shrieking in falsetto than talking critically about a game, and the personalities too often move around.
I still love reading about games, and I feel like a couple of recent upstarts, Glixel and Waypoint, are killing it. They are exactly what I want. Beyond that, I still enjoy GameSpot. PCGamer is still probably the first site that I check every day. I also like RockPaperShotgun, GamesBeat, and a handful of others.
On the video side, Twitch and YouTube have totally upended games coverage. In some ways, for the better, but in others, not at all. 'YouTubers' are quickly becoming the preferred mouthpieces for publishers and developers, as 1) most of them (not all) seem more willing to just mouth the message, and 2) they're not actually journalists, and thus don't apply the pressure that comes with being trained as a journalist. Conversely, gamers are seeing more preview builds in more depth than ever, but what's missing, often, is the critical analysis and interesting developer interviews.
Back to the gaming sites, the personalities aren't as sharp, or aren't show. And quit covering fucking movies and comics, please. I think each site has some great personalities, but where is the modern 1UP Show? Why has no one tried to take that on again? It was such a great concept, and did a lot to actually drive the 1UP brand.
On the news side, the clickbait shit is out of control. It is so bad. THAT is killing games coverage more than anything else.
Now, I'm pretty diverse in how I absorb all this. I hit the above sites pretty much every day, I watch a handful of Twitch streamers (Starbuck2190 is my favorite; great Mass Effect streamer), I check my YouTube subscriptions when I get home, and I listen to some gaming podcasts throughout the week, in particular, Elder Scrolls Off the Record and OotiniCast.
But it's messy now. I guess I get what I need from all of it, but I don't LOVE any of it, like I used to. Were an outlet to get really smart, what they'd do is have non-clickbait written coverage, a daily stream, or even a couple, a weekly podcast, and then an end-of-the-week show that captures what has the office chattering. It's a lot, yeah, but that would become a force to be reckoned with. And when I say show, I don't mean a filmed podcast, I mean something produced, like the old 1UP Show.
Shit, even something like X-Play would be cool.
I think maybe we saw the ultimate rise and fall of games coverage, and news in general is becoming democratized, for better or worse.
Phew. This went on way longer than I'd intended. Sorry.
So, what say you? How do you like the state of games media?
Tonight and This Weekend
I'll be streaming again tonight, but may not start until close to 2100 central time. My wife is outta town, and I got kid things to take care of before I can settle in and stream more Mass Effect 3. The plan, tonight, is to play through Sanctuary. I'd love it if you came on out and shot the shit with me while I played!
I'll be streaming more Mass Effect each evening this weekend, probably starting around 2000 or 2100.
If you wanna get caught up on my The Road to Andromeda series, in which I play through all of Mass Effect 1-3 (including all DLC + some mods that make it pretty), check it out here or below.
And that's it, for now. I'll post something really brief tomorrow (Fridays are always hectic for me) that probably does little more than pimp my stream, but we'll see.
Anyway, hope to see ya tonight!
Also, five days til Torment/Horizon Day!
-Blaine
I drifted away from gaming in the 16-bit era, as I was focused on playing in a band and chicks, but when I came back, in the mid-90s, there were a lot more gaming mags.
At first, I scoffed at the magazines that were multi-platform, and not directly from the console manufacturer, but that attitude quickly changed, as I came to really enjoy the writing in magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, and GameFan. In fact, whenever I'd stop at the store with my girlfriend, I'd grab all the latest issues of each one, and devour it.
EGM, in particular, was a standout for me. The writing got better and better as the years went on, and they were my shepherd into the online coverage, via the beloved 1up.com.
What drove EGM, and then later, 1up.com, was the personalities. Yeah, you were reading it for the games, but after a while, each writer's distinct voice, as well as the personality of the mag and site, brought you back to THEM instead of IGN or whatever else there was at the time.
Meanwhile, G4TV became a thing, and I quickly came to adore X-Play, and appreciated the myriad other gaming-based programming (before they just showed COPS reruns 25hrs a day.) It was astounding, the humor that show got away with.
Somewhere around here, podcasts started to catch on, and 1UP Yours was born.
Inevitably, 1UP moved into the video space, and the 1UP Show became, in my mind, the best video game show ever.
1UP Yours and the 1UP Show were absolutely incredible early examples of games media's expansion from the printed word. Again, it was the personalities that made it. The editors and writers around the 1UP office just seemed like the coolest people you could possibly hang out with, and they really grew my interest in gaming.
I've talked before about my 'onboarding' to PC gaming, and the various factors that went into it, and among those factors was Jeff Green and Shawn Elliott, editors at 1UP and Computer Gaming World. Their podcast, CGW Radio (later GFW Radio), ushered me into a whole new way of looking at games, and their outlook on things was so different from the more rosy, cheerful console side. I came to love both tremendously, but Jeff and Shawn helped me want to become a PC gamer, and before long, I was loving Guild Wars and Company of Heroes.
As time went on, the talent left 1UP for dev and publishing, words became fewer, videos became shorter, and 1UP was shuttered eventually. Meanwhile, and since then, articles have become lists or clickbait, videos are now more about someone shrieking in falsetto than talking critically about a game, and the personalities too often move around.
I still love reading about games, and I feel like a couple of recent upstarts, Glixel and Waypoint, are killing it. They are exactly what I want. Beyond that, I still enjoy GameSpot. PCGamer is still probably the first site that I check every day. I also like RockPaperShotgun, GamesBeat, and a handful of others.
On the video side, Twitch and YouTube have totally upended games coverage. In some ways, for the better, but in others, not at all. 'YouTubers' are quickly becoming the preferred mouthpieces for publishers and developers, as 1) most of them (not all) seem more willing to just mouth the message, and 2) they're not actually journalists, and thus don't apply the pressure that comes with being trained as a journalist. Conversely, gamers are seeing more preview builds in more depth than ever, but what's missing, often, is the critical analysis and interesting developer interviews.
Back to the gaming sites, the personalities aren't as sharp, or aren't show. And quit covering fucking movies and comics, please. I think each site has some great personalities, but where is the modern 1UP Show? Why has no one tried to take that on again? It was such a great concept, and did a lot to actually drive the 1UP brand.
On the news side, the clickbait shit is out of control. It is so bad. THAT is killing games coverage more than anything else.
Now, I'm pretty diverse in how I absorb all this. I hit the above sites pretty much every day, I watch a handful of Twitch streamers (Starbuck2190 is my favorite; great Mass Effect streamer), I check my YouTube subscriptions when I get home, and I listen to some gaming podcasts throughout the week, in particular, Elder Scrolls Off the Record and OotiniCast.
But it's messy now. I guess I get what I need from all of it, but I don't LOVE any of it, like I used to. Were an outlet to get really smart, what they'd do is have non-clickbait written coverage, a daily stream, or even a couple, a weekly podcast, and then an end-of-the-week show that captures what has the office chattering. It's a lot, yeah, but that would become a force to be reckoned with. And when I say show, I don't mean a filmed podcast, I mean something produced, like the old 1UP Show.
Shit, even something like X-Play would be cool.
I think maybe we saw the ultimate rise and fall of games coverage, and news in general is becoming democratized, for better or worse.
Phew. This went on way longer than I'd intended. Sorry.
So, what say you? How do you like the state of games media?
Tonight and This Weekend
I'll be streaming again tonight, but may not start until close to 2100 central time. My wife is outta town, and I got kid things to take care of before I can settle in and stream more Mass Effect 3. The plan, tonight, is to play through Sanctuary. I'd love it if you came on out and shot the shit with me while I played!
I'll be streaming more Mass Effect each evening this weekend, probably starting around 2000 or 2100.
If you wanna get caught up on my The Road to Andromeda series, in which I play through all of Mass Effect 1-3 (including all DLC + some mods that make it pretty), check it out here or below.
And that's it, for now. I'll post something really brief tomorrow (Fridays are always hectic for me) that probably does little more than pimp my stream, but we'll see.
Anyway, hope to see ya tonight!
Also, five days til Torment/Horizon Day!
-Blaine
20170222
I wish they still made games like ...
I have a cycle that I repeat every so often, and I just noticed it. It seems that, every few years, I start to get nostalgic for a certain type of game, or even a certain game. Eventually, that gets busted up as I fall in love again, but I think I'm on the verge again.
Going into the PlayStation era, I was getting increasingly nostalgic for the OLD JRPGs like the original Final Fantasy, and I was pretty put off by the original Final Fantasy VII demo disc. Looking back, I chuckle, because I think I was hung up on some pretty insignificant shit. I think I get stuck on silly details. I'm embarrassed, but things like the enemies not being in a separate window, and the game was too flashy, and nonsense upon nonsense. I also hated the trend that things had been going with the characters being predefined instead of blank slates. Sigh ...
I'd been building up a bit of resentment for a while.
I ended up preordering the game and loving the hell out of it.
Jump to a few years later, when JRPGs were actually really starting to tank in the post-FFX world. Final Fantasy X had left me ... bewildered and despondent. It's not a bad game, but it's a bad Final Fantasy game. The things I liked about it were the battle system and oops, that's the end. The rest of it, for me was somewhere between bland and annoying.
Little did I realize, until years later, that all JRPGs heroes are supposed to sound barely pubescent and squeaky. That really soured the NES and SNES JRPGs for me, as I couldn't get that 'Tidus shriek' out of my head when I read the hero lines.
KotOR saved gaming for me. That game was such a breath of fresh air for me, and the perfect exit point. It really started my departure from console gaming and JRPGs. I was still a little bitter over the direction that things had gone from the amazing Final Fantasy IX to what Final Fantasy X was, but KotOR and western RPGs really saved gaming for me, and breathed new life into my passion for gaming.
However, the cycle started to repeat after that. Dragon Age: Origins was just as amazing for me, but I was disappointed that I couldn't stack actions in advance. Mass Effect wasn't Star Wars, and was a little too action for me. DA2, at least the PC version, still had the combat mostly intact, but I'll never forget the BioWare directive that 'every time you hit a button, something awesome happens' that had me retching my metaphorical guts out. ME2 was an action game with some RPG aspects. ME3 was actually a great game, up until the meaningless ending. DAI ... I loved it at the time, but it has degraded in quality for me with my second playthrough. It's just lotsa busy work, which wrecks the pacing and sense of immediacy.
Meanwhile, I've been loving games like Pillars of Eternity and The Witcher series, so I think I'm transitioning again, but man ... I'd love something like KotOR and Dragon Age: Origins again. There was just something about those games that suited me just right. This is the same damn feeling I used to have with FFVII (which now feels crazy limited.)
So, yeah, I'm definitely part of the problem. I'm one of those awful gaming enthusiasts that gets stuck on one game and is disappointed when another game isn't just a carbon copy (though I don't voice this in forums or harass developers.) Typically, I just push myself to adapt, and I think I've gotten better about it. I've spread out with games like Divinity: Original Sin, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc. Yeah, I know your cutesy 2D platforming indie media darling isn't listed there, nor is your JRPG that is totally indistinguishable from any other modern JRPG, but I am trying them, especially the JRPGs, since I'd love to get back into that space.
I think Pillars is a step toward that One Game to Rule Them All for the next few years for me. And I'm looking ahead at Torment ... drool ...
I'm torn, though. I think it's OK to love what you love, but I also think we should always be looking to expand our horizons. I think a balance between the two is probably best. Most people I know go too far one way or the other, and I probably skew too far toward 'love what I love,' but I do have evidence that I do eventually evolve.
So, how about you? Are you part of the problem? How do you see your gaming tastes evolving? How have they changed?
Six days 'til Torment/Horizon Day, ya'll.!
-Blaine
Going into the PlayStation era, I was getting increasingly nostalgic for the OLD JRPGs like the original Final Fantasy, and I was pretty put off by the original Final Fantasy VII demo disc. Looking back, I chuckle, because I think I was hung up on some pretty insignificant shit. I think I get stuck on silly details. I'm embarrassed, but things like the enemies not being in a separate window, and the game was too flashy, and nonsense upon nonsense. I also hated the trend that things had been going with the characters being predefined instead of blank slates. Sigh ...
I'd been building up a bit of resentment for a while.
I ended up preordering the game and loving the hell out of it.
Jump to a few years later, when JRPGs were actually really starting to tank in the post-FFX world. Final Fantasy X had left me ... bewildered and despondent. It's not a bad game, but it's a bad Final Fantasy game. The things I liked about it were the battle system and oops, that's the end. The rest of it, for me was somewhere between bland and annoying.
Little did I realize, until years later, that all JRPGs heroes are supposed to sound barely pubescent and squeaky. That really soured the NES and SNES JRPGs for me, as I couldn't get that 'Tidus shriek' out of my head when I read the hero lines.
KotOR saved gaming for me. That game was such a breath of fresh air for me, and the perfect exit point. It really started my departure from console gaming and JRPGs. I was still a little bitter over the direction that things had gone from the amazing Final Fantasy IX to what Final Fantasy X was, but KotOR and western RPGs really saved gaming for me, and breathed new life into my passion for gaming.
However, the cycle started to repeat after that. Dragon Age: Origins was just as amazing for me, but I was disappointed that I couldn't stack actions in advance. Mass Effect wasn't Star Wars, and was a little too action for me. DA2, at least the PC version, still had the combat mostly intact, but I'll never forget the BioWare directive that 'every time you hit a button, something awesome happens' that had me retching my metaphorical guts out. ME2 was an action game with some RPG aspects. ME3 was actually a great game, up until the meaningless ending. DAI ... I loved it at the time, but it has degraded in quality for me with my second playthrough. It's just lotsa busy work, which wrecks the pacing and sense of immediacy.
Meanwhile, I've been loving games like Pillars of Eternity and The Witcher series, so I think I'm transitioning again, but man ... I'd love something like KotOR and Dragon Age: Origins again. There was just something about those games that suited me just right. This is the same damn feeling I used to have with FFVII (which now feels crazy limited.)
So, yeah, I'm definitely part of the problem. I'm one of those awful gaming enthusiasts that gets stuck on one game and is disappointed when another game isn't just a carbon copy (though I don't voice this in forums or harass developers.) Typically, I just push myself to adapt, and I think I've gotten better about it. I've spread out with games like Divinity: Original Sin, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc. Yeah, I know your cutesy 2D platforming indie media darling isn't listed there, nor is your JRPG that is totally indistinguishable from any other modern JRPG, but I am trying them, especially the JRPGs, since I'd love to get back into that space.
I think Pillars is a step toward that One Game to Rule Them All for the next few years for me. And I'm looking ahead at Torment ... drool ...
I'm torn, though. I think it's OK to love what you love, but I also think we should always be looking to expand our horizons. I think a balance between the two is probably best. Most people I know go too far one way or the other, and I probably skew too far toward 'love what I love,' but I do have evidence that I do eventually evolve.
So, how about you? Are you part of the problem? How do you see your gaming tastes evolving? How have they changed?
Six days 'til Torment/Horizon Day, ya'll.!
-Blaine
20170221
MMOs and Time and Dollars and How Much Can I Really Enjoy Four of Them?
I love MMORPGs. I love the 'instant play' aspect, and I love getting to live inside their worlds. I love the community (usually.) Modern MMORPGs very much cater to the love of story that I have, plus they heavily feature math, which makes me swoon.
The problem is that there are too many that I like. I go through this every year or two, when I need to pare down, especially relative to the lack of free time that I have, and the fact that I mostly play gargantuan single-player RPGs.
So, here's what I have in rotation at the moment.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
This is my champion. Of any game I've ever played, I've put more hours into SWTOR than any other. I was in the beta, and fell in love HARD. I still play this pretty regularly. I adore this game. I've put over 1000 hours into it, and there's still a ton of content I've never played. This one stays, no matter what.
Yeah, I know, this game became fashionable to hate or loathe or whatever weird emotional assignment you tied to it, but it really is delightful, especially if you're a fan of the now-deleted Expanded Universe, specifically the KotOR stuff. This is a natural extension of it.
The free-to-play option is a good demo, but I'm a subscriber, and I feel just fine about that. The Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne mini-expansions were great. What this game needs is a proper expansion.
The Elder Scrolls Online
I had a bumpy ride with this one early on. Like SWTOR, I was in the beta for a long time, and it was decent, and then once the game launched, I decided to unsub for a time while they worked out some issues. At no point was it bad, but it had some problems that I wanted worked out before I came back. Eventually, I did, and really enjoyed it. I don't sub anymore, because it went buy-to-play, but I buy each of the DLC, and I've prepurchased the Morrowind expansion, which looks AMAAAZING.
What's interesting about this and SWTOR is that I approach each as a living single-player game. I'll group when I need to, and I belong to fairly active guilds, but I don't raid a lot. I do enjoy it when I do, but I'm fairly introverted, and MMOs are an OK way for me to brush up against being social.
I actually got my oldest son pulled in, and he's playing now. Once he's leveled, maybe we'll hit Cyrodiil together.
Guild Wars 2
This is another game in which I've been since the beta. I actually had some IRL friends playing with me for a while, but they've dropped out over the years, and I'm now the last man standing.
I finished the main campaign a while ago, and have been pushing through the Living World content, though I've hit a bugged dungeon, and have been waiting for it to be fixed so that I can continue. It is very frustrating, especially since I've enjoyed the game so much.
Guild Wars 2 is also the most fun 'just sit down and start playing' game that I play. It's just silky smooth.
The world is a hell of a lot of fun, too. Not only the lore, but the reactive elements, which, in my opinion, makes it the ultimate theme park MMO.
The lack of a subscription helps the enjoyment, too. I think the base game is F2P now, too.
Final Fantasy XIV
This is the tough one for me. I pay a sub for it, I used to really love Final Fantasy, I adore the combat and the mechanics of this game, as well as the structure of the world, but it has a few things that really bug me.
I play games that lack voice acting all the time, but FFXIV's flapping lips really bother me. I'd rather that there wasn't any camera work or anything, and that it just had textboxes over static images, or even handled it like the old SNES Final Fantasy games. The flapping lips just bother me.
This is a game that I really need to get more into. The above games were all 'my main game' for some period of time, which allowed me to really propel myself into the game. I've never done that with Final Fantasy XIV. I was even a launch day player, and got to enjoy the debacle of the original version of the game.
I've got Stormblood prepurchased, I've paid my sub through August, so I am going to try and really take the plunge.
Star Trek Online
I played the shit outta this when it first came out. I am absolutely nuts about Star Trek (and Star Wars), and this was my only connection to the franchise for a period of time. The Abrams fan fiction films were fun, brainless action movies, and we'll see if Discovery ever amounts to anything in spite of CBS. This is all I had for a while, and it was really enjoyable. The ship-to-ship combat is great, the ground combat has improved, but is still basically crap, but the game is a fun dip in the Star Trek universe.
I haven't been a subscriber in years, and I really barely play anymore, but I want to play more.
In Conclusion
So, that's five MMOs, plus my constant itch to fire up The Secret World again. I just checked, and holy shit, that's an expensive game to jump into right now and buy the full game.
It's too many, flat out, and I could use some help paring it down. I'd love your opinions. SWTOR and ESO are definitely sticking around.
On the flipside, I could also dial back the single player games that I play, to make more time for the MMOs. I dunno. Having too many quality games to play is a good problem to have, and a very, very first world problem. Still, it can be a fun discussion, and I'd appreciate any input ya'll have.
BTW, one week 'til Torment/Horizon Day!!!
Hit me!
-Blaine
The problem is that there are too many that I like. I go through this every year or two, when I need to pare down, especially relative to the lack of free time that I have, and the fact that I mostly play gargantuan single-player RPGs.
So, here's what I have in rotation at the moment.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
This is my champion. Of any game I've ever played, I've put more hours into SWTOR than any other. I was in the beta, and fell in love HARD. I still play this pretty regularly. I adore this game. I've put over 1000 hours into it, and there's still a ton of content I've never played. This one stays, no matter what.
Yeah, I know, this game became fashionable to hate or loathe or whatever weird emotional assignment you tied to it, but it really is delightful, especially if you're a fan of the now-deleted Expanded Universe, specifically the KotOR stuff. This is a natural extension of it.
The free-to-play option is a good demo, but I'm a subscriber, and I feel just fine about that. The Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne mini-expansions were great. What this game needs is a proper expansion.
The Elder Scrolls Online
I had a bumpy ride with this one early on. Like SWTOR, I was in the beta for a long time, and it was decent, and then once the game launched, I decided to unsub for a time while they worked out some issues. At no point was it bad, but it had some problems that I wanted worked out before I came back. Eventually, I did, and really enjoyed it. I don't sub anymore, because it went buy-to-play, but I buy each of the DLC, and I've prepurchased the Morrowind expansion, which looks AMAAAZING.
What's interesting about this and SWTOR is that I approach each as a living single-player game. I'll group when I need to, and I belong to fairly active guilds, but I don't raid a lot. I do enjoy it when I do, but I'm fairly introverted, and MMOs are an OK way for me to brush up against being social.
I actually got my oldest son pulled in, and he's playing now. Once he's leveled, maybe we'll hit Cyrodiil together.
Guild Wars 2
This is another game in which I've been since the beta. I actually had some IRL friends playing with me for a while, but they've dropped out over the years, and I'm now the last man standing.
I finished the main campaign a while ago, and have been pushing through the Living World content, though I've hit a bugged dungeon, and have been waiting for it to be fixed so that I can continue. It is very frustrating, especially since I've enjoyed the game so much.
Guild Wars 2 is also the most fun 'just sit down and start playing' game that I play. It's just silky smooth.
The world is a hell of a lot of fun, too. Not only the lore, but the reactive elements, which, in my opinion, makes it the ultimate theme park MMO.
The lack of a subscription helps the enjoyment, too. I think the base game is F2P now, too.
Final Fantasy XIV
This is the tough one for me. I pay a sub for it, I used to really love Final Fantasy, I adore the combat and the mechanics of this game, as well as the structure of the world, but it has a few things that really bug me.
I play games that lack voice acting all the time, but FFXIV's flapping lips really bother me. I'd rather that there wasn't any camera work or anything, and that it just had textboxes over static images, or even handled it like the old SNES Final Fantasy games. The flapping lips just bother me.
This is a game that I really need to get more into. The above games were all 'my main game' for some period of time, which allowed me to really propel myself into the game. I've never done that with Final Fantasy XIV. I was even a launch day player, and got to enjoy the debacle of the original version of the game.
I've got Stormblood prepurchased, I've paid my sub through August, so I am going to try and really take the plunge.
Star Trek Online
I played the shit outta this when it first came out. I am absolutely nuts about Star Trek (and Star Wars), and this was my only connection to the franchise for a period of time. The Abrams fan fiction films were fun, brainless action movies, and we'll see if Discovery ever amounts to anything in spite of CBS. This is all I had for a while, and it was really enjoyable. The ship-to-ship combat is great, the ground combat has improved, but is still basically crap, but the game is a fun dip in the Star Trek universe.
I haven't been a subscriber in years, and I really barely play anymore, but I want to play more.
In Conclusion
So, that's five MMOs, plus my constant itch to fire up The Secret World again. I just checked, and holy shit, that's an expensive game to jump into right now and buy the full game.
It's too many, flat out, and I could use some help paring it down. I'd love your opinions. SWTOR and ESO are definitely sticking around.
On the flipside, I could also dial back the single player games that I play, to make more time for the MMOs. I dunno. Having too many quality games to play is a good problem to have, and a very, very first world problem. Still, it can be a fun discussion, and I'd appreciate any input ya'll have.
BTW, one week 'til Torment/Horizon Day!!!
Hit me!
-Blaine
20170220
Monday Morrowind Memories
That's a clever title. I actually do have a lot to say about Morrowind. And Mass Effect. And Torment: Tides of Numenera. And Horizon: Zero Dawn. And more.
Torment/Horizon Day
First, we're only eight days out from Torment and Horizon. Holy shit. I think I'm going to start the night before with Horizon, as it unlocks at 2300, and I'm certain that Torment will have some issues updating the existing installs to the full game. It's an indie studio, it's Steam, and I want the game more than I do nearly anything else ever, so it's going to have problems. I'm going to just stave off my technical frustration and emotional meltdown, and just play Horizon the night before.
Then, when I wake up (I'm taking the day off work), I'll poke at Torment and see what's what.
Maybe I'll trade off every couple hours. We'll see. I'll probably just play the shit outta Torment.
On Morrowind
I have a weird-ass relationship with Morrowind. As you know, I've never finished an Elder Scrolls game. Hell aside from Morrowind and ESO, I've barely played them. As I've discussed before, they look perfect for me on paper, but I just have a hard time with the execution. I'm a lifelong RPG player, but have historically struggled when it comes to Elder Scrolls.
So, yesterday, I fired up the game for a while, and decided to just park it in Vivec and see how long I could quest while never leaving Vivec. Several hours later, I'd never left Vivec.
And I was having a good time ... for the most part. While VERY slowly walking around, sometimes place to place, sometimes to the boat and then to the place, it occurred to me that what chafes me about Morrowind is the lack of convenience. In some ways, it is very, very sim, and in others, it is not. The fast-travel (silt strider, boat, mage teleport) is instant and fast. The walking is NOT. Navigation is difficult, as well. Most vendors only buy certain items, and do not have infinite cash with which they can buy your 6500-coin glass staff thingy. I really do appreciate these things, but fuck, it can really grate on me.
Yes, yes, I know, I'm what's wrong with the modern gaming enthusiast, everything needs to be easy, games are horrible now that they're playable and accessible, and oh my god, it's sooo disappointing that the dude in Dark Souls doesn't leap out of the TV and actually kill the player when he dies and blah blah blah. Yeah, motherfucker, I played through the original NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy, so kiss my ass, and let me enjoy the fact that I don't need reaction times like Neo in the Matrix anymore in order to enjoy a fun interactive story. And go get a fucking life.
Anyway, I've started to allow myself to cheat a little, and I may have already talked about this. I'm using a handful of console commands to do things like give myself torches, potions of levitation, etc. I gave myself a grandmaster lockpick so that I could join the Morag Tong while I was in Vivec.
I've thus far restrained my need to start teleporting myself around via console commands, but I'll be surprised if I make it the whole game without doing that. It's just that it takes so fucking long to move from one point to another. I guess the world was a slower place in 2002. Not sure.
Here's some video reviews of Horizon because you hate typed words now
The Road to Andromeda
I spent more time with my monster Mass Effect trilogy playthrough, which you can view here. Please do give it a look, and let me know what you think. I want to do more of these, and would love to have some feedback for my next game series playthrough.
So, there's all that, so far. I'm gonna go watch some of this, as well as some other lunch time fun. I'll be back tomorrow to freak out some more about how close Torment and Horizon are. Keep it real, friends.
-Blaine
Torment/Horizon Day
First, we're only eight days out from Torment and Horizon. Holy shit. I think I'm going to start the night before with Horizon, as it unlocks at 2300, and I'm certain that Torment will have some issues updating the existing installs to the full game. It's an indie studio, it's Steam, and I want the game more than I do nearly anything else ever, so it's going to have problems. I'm going to just stave off my technical frustration and emotional meltdown, and just play Horizon the night before.
Then, when I wake up (I'm taking the day off work), I'll poke at Torment and see what's what.
Maybe I'll trade off every couple hours. We'll see. I'll probably just play the shit outta Torment.
On Morrowind
I have a weird-ass relationship with Morrowind. As you know, I've never finished an Elder Scrolls game. Hell aside from Morrowind and ESO, I've barely played them. As I've discussed before, they look perfect for me on paper, but I just have a hard time with the execution. I'm a lifelong RPG player, but have historically struggled when it comes to Elder Scrolls.
So, yesterday, I fired up the game for a while, and decided to just park it in Vivec and see how long I could quest while never leaving Vivec. Several hours later, I'd never left Vivec.
And I was having a good time ... for the most part. While VERY slowly walking around, sometimes place to place, sometimes to the boat and then to the place, it occurred to me that what chafes me about Morrowind is the lack of convenience. In some ways, it is very, very sim, and in others, it is not. The fast-travel (silt strider, boat, mage teleport) is instant and fast. The walking is NOT. Navigation is difficult, as well. Most vendors only buy certain items, and do not have infinite cash with which they can buy your 6500-coin glass staff thingy. I really do appreciate these things, but fuck, it can really grate on me.
Yes, yes, I know, I'm what's wrong with the modern gaming enthusiast, everything needs to be easy, games are horrible now that they're playable and accessible, and oh my god, it's sooo disappointing that the dude in Dark Souls doesn't leap out of the TV and actually kill the player when he dies and blah blah blah. Yeah, motherfucker, I played through the original NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy, so kiss my ass, and let me enjoy the fact that I don't need reaction times like Neo in the Matrix anymore in order to enjoy a fun interactive story. And go get a fucking life.
Anyway, I've started to allow myself to cheat a little, and I may have already talked about this. I'm using a handful of console commands to do things like give myself torches, potions of levitation, etc. I gave myself a grandmaster lockpick so that I could join the Morag Tong while I was in Vivec.
I've thus far restrained my need to start teleporting myself around via console commands, but I'll be surprised if I make it the whole game without doing that. It's just that it takes so fucking long to move from one point to another. I guess the world was a slower place in 2002. Not sure.
Here's some video reviews of Horizon because you hate typed words now
The Road to Andromeda
I spent more time with my monster Mass Effect trilogy playthrough, which you can view here. Please do give it a look, and let me know what you think. I want to do more of these, and would love to have some feedback for my next game series playthrough.
So, there's all that, so far. I'm gonna go watch some of this, as well as some other lunch time fun. I'll be back tomorrow to freak out some more about how close Torment and Horizon are. Keep it real, friends.
-Blaine
20170216
streaming all over you
I've been a bad bloggist this week, I know. Honestly, I've just been forgetting.
In any case, let's both get the fuck over it and enjoy me streaming Mass Effect 3 and Omega in about 30min. What do you say?
Don't like links. Fine. Here it is below.
Watch live video from taranwalker on www.twitch.tv
Thanks!
-Blaine
In any case, let's both get the fuck over it and enjoy me streaming Mass Effect 3 and Omega in about 30min. What do you say?
Don't like links. Fine. Here it is below.
Watch live video from taranwalker on www.twitch.tv
Thanks!
-Blaine
20170215
Time ... it is what it is ...
So, here we are, just less than three weeks from Torment/Horizon day. Game-wise, I've been hitting the unfinished classics pretty hard (Baldur's Gate & Morrowind), as well as a lot of ESO. It's been OK, but man, I am BURNING for something new and shiny.
I realized, this morning, that it's been a year and nine months since the last game about which I was insanely excited released. That was The Witcher 3. There's been some solid games since then, but 2016 was my (and this only my opinion about games that I like) JV squad in terms of releases. I'm fond of Deus Ex, Dishonored, Doom, XCOM, and all those type games, and I've really enjoyed the latest releases for SWTOR, ESO, and Guild Wars 2, but those all feel like snacks. Those are my second tier for games, and it's all I had last year.
Part of what caused this was Dragon Age: Inquisition, Pillars of Eternity, and The Witcher 3 all releasing in a six-month span, from 2014 November to 2015 May. It was wonderful and brutal.
I didn't even notice this 'problem' until I really started to think about my recent 'gaming malaise.' I am licking my chops, ready for something new and awesome.
Fucking Torment: Tides of Numenera. Bring that shit on, man. I'm actually taking the day off for it. It looks wonderful. Everything I've seen about it, and everything I've played of the demo tickle my soul.
Yeah, I know. Me not loving the same games you do can be a problem for some, and the fact that I only really get invested in RPGs triggers weird reactions in random folks, but I don't care. I tried some of the indie darlings, thought they were OK, and moved on. I didn't hate them, I thought they had good aspects, and that was pretty much the extent of my judgement. I didn't hate them, I didn't declare that other people shouldn't go crazy for them, I just thought they were OK. Relax.
And all of that is missing the point, anyway. I played a lotta shit last year, and none of it really ignited me. I had a very good time with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, as well as Dishonored 2. I enjoyed some time with Doom and XCOM 2. I thought whatever 2D indie darling games they made me play were OK.
But man, no matter what I try, the only games that REALLY grab me are the ones that are huge investments with depth everywhere, from the systems to the lore to the story to the characters, to the world, etc. I love games that I can just throw myself at for months. I actually approach my job much the same way. I tend to chase after the 'huge project' work, rather than the little shit. I like deeply investing in things.
Again, as a side note, the fact that I've never finished an Elder Scrolls game still somewhat baffles me. Those games are ridiculously deep. There's just something about the actual mechanics and design choices that throw me occasionally. Most of this is aimed at Morrowind.
Also, in this drought, I did finally find my way into the Fallout Bethesda/Obsidian games. It took several tries over several years, but I finally pushed through Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, and adored them. Fallout 4 was very good, but didn't quite hit the mark that FNV did. I think part of it is that New Vegas was sooo good, and I played F4 like right after finishing it.
Anyway, I'm curious to see how this 2015/5/19-2017/2/28 stretch matches with other periods of time. It certainly feels like the longest I've ever gone. And like I said, it kinda snuck up on me. I knew last year was a 'B-team year' in terms of my favorite franchises and games, but the fact that you have to go back all the way to May in 2015 surprised me.
I'm not offering to do any actual research on the subject, but it really surprised me.
And then, after that, I've got Mass Effect: Andromeda three weeks later. And in those three weeks, I'm traveling for two of them. It's a good 'problem' to have, but goddam. I'll have Torment, Horizon, and MEA all queued up, and then I got Prey in May, and then the Morrowind expac in June, and then, I think, a long drought into winter. Good times.
What about you? You ever have a stretch like this? It's weird how my favorite games seem to cluster in terms of release. In theory, though, I should have a new BioWare game by 2018/3/31, and I have some Kickstarters that should be landing later this year and early next year (though I got money that says no way Obsidian hits 2018 Q1 with Pillars 2, and that's totally OK.)
Anyway, that's that. What about you? You ever have 'awesome game starvation?'
Also, get caught up on my 'The Road to Andromeda' Mass Effect series on YouTube here or below:
Thanks! I'll be resuming the playthrough tomorrow night!
-Blaine
I realized, this morning, that it's been a year and nine months since the last game about which I was insanely excited released. That was The Witcher 3. There's been some solid games since then, but 2016 was my (and this only my opinion about games that I like) JV squad in terms of releases. I'm fond of Deus Ex, Dishonored, Doom, XCOM, and all those type games, and I've really enjoyed the latest releases for SWTOR, ESO, and Guild Wars 2, but those all feel like snacks. Those are my second tier for games, and it's all I had last year.
Part of what caused this was Dragon Age: Inquisition, Pillars of Eternity, and The Witcher 3 all releasing in a six-month span, from 2014 November to 2015 May. It was wonderful and brutal.
I didn't even notice this 'problem' until I really started to think about my recent 'gaming malaise.' I am licking my chops, ready for something new and awesome.
Fucking Torment: Tides of Numenera. Bring that shit on, man. I'm actually taking the day off for it. It looks wonderful. Everything I've seen about it, and everything I've played of the demo tickle my soul.
Yeah, I know. Me not loving the same games you do can be a problem for some, and the fact that I only really get invested in RPGs triggers weird reactions in random folks, but I don't care. I tried some of the indie darlings, thought they were OK, and moved on. I didn't hate them, I thought they had good aspects, and that was pretty much the extent of my judgement. I didn't hate them, I didn't declare that other people shouldn't go crazy for them, I just thought they were OK. Relax.
And all of that is missing the point, anyway. I played a lotta shit last year, and none of it really ignited me. I had a very good time with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, as well as Dishonored 2. I enjoyed some time with Doom and XCOM 2. I thought whatever 2D indie darling games they made me play were OK.
But man, no matter what I try, the only games that REALLY grab me are the ones that are huge investments with depth everywhere, from the systems to the lore to the story to the characters, to the world, etc. I love games that I can just throw myself at for months. I actually approach my job much the same way. I tend to chase after the 'huge project' work, rather than the little shit. I like deeply investing in things.
Again, as a side note, the fact that I've never finished an Elder Scrolls game still somewhat baffles me. Those games are ridiculously deep. There's just something about the actual mechanics and design choices that throw me occasionally. Most of this is aimed at Morrowind.
Also, in this drought, I did finally find my way into the Fallout Bethesda/Obsidian games. It took several tries over several years, but I finally pushed through Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, and adored them. Fallout 4 was very good, but didn't quite hit the mark that FNV did. I think part of it is that New Vegas was sooo good, and I played F4 like right after finishing it.
Anyway, I'm curious to see how this 2015/5/19-2017/2/28 stretch matches with other periods of time. It certainly feels like the longest I've ever gone. And like I said, it kinda snuck up on me. I knew last year was a 'B-team year' in terms of my favorite franchises and games, but the fact that you have to go back all the way to May in 2015 surprised me.
I'm not offering to do any actual research on the subject, but it really surprised me.
And then, after that, I've got Mass Effect: Andromeda three weeks later. And in those three weeks, I'm traveling for two of them. It's a good 'problem' to have, but goddam. I'll have Torment, Horizon, and MEA all queued up, and then I got Prey in May, and then the Morrowind expac in June, and then, I think, a long drought into winter. Good times.
What about you? You ever have a stretch like this? It's weird how my favorite games seem to cluster in terms of release. In theory, though, I should have a new BioWare game by 2018/3/31, and I have some Kickstarters that should be landing later this year and early next year (though I got money that says no way Obsidian hits 2018 Q1 with Pillars 2, and that's totally OK.)
Anyway, that's that. What about you? You ever have 'awesome game starvation?'
Also, get caught up on my 'The Road to Andromeda' Mass Effect series on YouTube here or below:
Thanks! I'll be resuming the playthrough tomorrow night!
-Blaine
20170210
BioWare, I love thee, but we gotta talk
In my world, BioWare saved video games.
As I've talked about previously, the entire gaming thing was sagging for me badly in the early 2000s, as most Japanese developers were scurrying away from making games that were intellectual exercises, in favor of dumb, flashy, more action-oriented affairs (excepting the brilliant FFXII).
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic came to my rescue, and after I fell in love with that, I dove into their back catalog, and from there, discovered the cRPG genre.
BioWare was a breath of fresh air in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were bold in their approach, and brought a real sense of humanity to their games. By putting story and characters first, they made their games more engrossing than anyone else's, and really provided a visceral experience.
Choice. Story and choice. BioWare absolutely nailed this holy grail of gaming, and refined it more and more. From Baldur's Gate to KotOR, this concept came to shape the way that their games felt, and they developed a strong brand identity, at least among those that had discovered BioWare.
I think Baldur's Gate made a huge impact among the cRPG crowd, but KotOR on Xbox really brought BioWare to the masses. Jade Empire was also a really solid game (one that I would love to see sequelized), but Mass Effect is what, I think, made them a global brand.
Meanwhile, Dragon Age: Origins became my favorite game ever. I should write a post explaining my affection for this game, but it really is my favorite gaming franchise (despite having a lot of gripes about Inquisition).
Star Wars: The Old Republic is also a favorite of mine, but let's set that aside for a moment.
BioWare is now a part of EA, and has been for quite a while. I was concerned when EA bought them, but things to seemed to go pretty well at first.
As a side note, while I know it's been fashionable for a long time to call EA 'the evil empire,' and at times, they do things to actually earn that title, they got nothing on Activision. Seriously. Not even close.
Anyway, fast forward to now. The Mass Effect trilogy became more and more an action series. The first game was pretty clunky, the second game was waaay too streamlined, and the third game hit the sweet spot. ME3 is one of the most mechanically sound games I've ever played.
Dragon Age, meanwhile, has had a bumpier ride. As I said, the first game is one of my all-time favorites. The second game ... had some very real issues, but also suffered from the fact that most so-called 'gamers' are lemmings and love to hate-gangbang anything that appears weakened. Dragon Age II reused the same environment over and over, in a bold attempt to tell a smaller and more intimate story, which I really appreciated, but I also got a little tired of Kirkwall. I understood the complaints from the lemmings, but the means by which they expressed these complains was unhelpful, hurtful, and I think it honestly affected the Dragon Age team in a way that actually diminished their ability to make good decisions about the series going forward.
The BioWare community was a great one, for a long time, but became among the worst I've ever seen somewhere around the ME2/DAII era. These people made personal attacks based on outlandish conspiracy theories, and the forums became a circlejerk of the worst fanboys one can imagine.
The interviews leading up to the release of Dragon Age II troubled me. I kept hearing things like 'when you press a button, something awesome happens.' The demos were all using a controller. The menus were console-centric and thus diminished in ease of use.
Ultimately, the PC version of the game was fine. Yeah, like I said, the constant reusage of assets and environments got a bit tiresome, but I liked the game, and not nearly as much as I did DAO.
The interviews leading up to the release of Dragon Age Inquisition were even more troubling. It was the first time that I heard BioWare talk about trying to do things that other studios were doing, namely Bethesda.
I like Bethesda, and I think that their use of open worlds is great, and I think that the types of games that they make suit an open world very well.
BioWare, on the other hand, doesn't really do that. They tell more linear stories with choice-driven sections and interchangeable parts that can be played in any order. And I love it.
DAI, ultimately, had some great aspects, but I think it may be the worst game BioWare has ever made.
My first time through, it was cool. I loved the reactivity of the save import, the various environments were really neat-looking, and I thought the overall structure was cool. And the story was awesome.
I did, however, feel that the story lost a LOT of steam with the endless slog through the big environments.
Honestly, nearly everything I love about Dragon Age was diminished in Inquisition.
- the story was great, but lost a sense of urgency and I'd even forget major plot details because it was so long between major plot points.
- the world felt less alive; this is hard to quantify, but I rarely got the sense of really being in a place with living people
- combat was awful; yeah, the pause and play was still there, but it felt button-mashy and boring; I loved the combat in the first game so much; in DAI, even the dragon fights got dull; what I really want is the KotOR battle system, where you could queue up actions and make awesome shit happen; I also want the AI programming from DAO and DA2 back
- it just didn't feel like Dragon Age; I understand the value in being inspired by another artist, but dawg, don't lose yourself in the process; I come back to BioWare over and over, and will continue to do so for at least a few more games, because of what BioWare brings to a game.
I love BioWare so much, and have had so many good memories with them, but I'm worried.
Today, there was a piece in PCGamer in which they acknowledged an issue with the side quests in DAI, which I think was a good thing to say, and then they pointed out that the side quests in MEA are going to be more The Witcher 3, and I kinda threw my hands up again.
I love The Witcher 3. It's one of my all-time favorites. But I worry when I see things like this, because I didn't used to see things like it, which is BioWare pointing at other studios for inspiration, instead of looking within.
Yeah, I'm probably overreacting. I'm sure they cribbed ideas from other studios back in the glory days, but it seemed like they also played it less safe. They were more OK experimenting in their releases. Yeah, being a big earner for EA probably restricts their ability to gamble a lot more, since they're putting more dollars into their games now than ever.
And I get that, with FOUR teams going now (Edmonton x 2, Montreal, Austin), they're potentially flooding the market with 'BioWare games,' and are worried about diluting their brand.
It would be very refreshing to see them take a step back, though, and make a cheaper and more risky game.
Maybe that's what the new IP is? I don't know. I keep hearing that it's not an RPG, and is instead an action game. That disappoints me, but I still have faith in BioWare to surprise me, and in a good way.
What say you? What do you think? Have you been down this road with a studio before? What's your opinion of the direction BioWare has gone?
Also, I'll be streaming tonight at 2000 central, and will continue my Road to Andromeda series!
-Blaine
As I've talked about previously, the entire gaming thing was sagging for me badly in the early 2000s, as most Japanese developers were scurrying away from making games that were intellectual exercises, in favor of dumb, flashy, more action-oriented affairs (excepting the brilliant FFXII).
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic came to my rescue, and after I fell in love with that, I dove into their back catalog, and from there, discovered the cRPG genre.
BioWare was a breath of fresh air in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were bold in their approach, and brought a real sense of humanity to their games. By putting story and characters first, they made their games more engrossing than anyone else's, and really provided a visceral experience.
Choice. Story and choice. BioWare absolutely nailed this holy grail of gaming, and refined it more and more. From Baldur's Gate to KotOR, this concept came to shape the way that their games felt, and they developed a strong brand identity, at least among those that had discovered BioWare.
I think Baldur's Gate made a huge impact among the cRPG crowd, but KotOR on Xbox really brought BioWare to the masses. Jade Empire was also a really solid game (one that I would love to see sequelized), but Mass Effect is what, I think, made them a global brand.
Meanwhile, Dragon Age: Origins became my favorite game ever. I should write a post explaining my affection for this game, but it really is my favorite gaming franchise (despite having a lot of gripes about Inquisition).
Star Wars: The Old Republic is also a favorite of mine, but let's set that aside for a moment.
BioWare is now a part of EA, and has been for quite a while. I was concerned when EA bought them, but things to seemed to go pretty well at first.
As a side note, while I know it's been fashionable for a long time to call EA 'the evil empire,' and at times, they do things to actually earn that title, they got nothing on Activision. Seriously. Not even close.
Anyway, fast forward to now. The Mass Effect trilogy became more and more an action series. The first game was pretty clunky, the second game was waaay too streamlined, and the third game hit the sweet spot. ME3 is one of the most mechanically sound games I've ever played.
Dragon Age, meanwhile, has had a bumpier ride. As I said, the first game is one of my all-time favorites. The second game ... had some very real issues, but also suffered from the fact that most so-called 'gamers' are lemmings and love to hate-gangbang anything that appears weakened. Dragon Age II reused the same environment over and over, in a bold attempt to tell a smaller and more intimate story, which I really appreciated, but I also got a little tired of Kirkwall. I understood the complaints from the lemmings, but the means by which they expressed these complains was unhelpful, hurtful, and I think it honestly affected the Dragon Age team in a way that actually diminished their ability to make good decisions about the series going forward.
The BioWare community was a great one, for a long time, but became among the worst I've ever seen somewhere around the ME2/DAII era. These people made personal attacks based on outlandish conspiracy theories, and the forums became a circlejerk of the worst fanboys one can imagine.
The interviews leading up to the release of Dragon Age II troubled me. I kept hearing things like 'when you press a button, something awesome happens.' The demos were all using a controller. The menus were console-centric and thus diminished in ease of use.
Ultimately, the PC version of the game was fine. Yeah, like I said, the constant reusage of assets and environments got a bit tiresome, but I liked the game, and not nearly as much as I did DAO.
The interviews leading up to the release of Dragon Age Inquisition were even more troubling. It was the first time that I heard BioWare talk about trying to do things that other studios were doing, namely Bethesda.
I like Bethesda, and I think that their use of open worlds is great, and I think that the types of games that they make suit an open world very well.
BioWare, on the other hand, doesn't really do that. They tell more linear stories with choice-driven sections and interchangeable parts that can be played in any order. And I love it.
DAI, ultimately, had some great aspects, but I think it may be the worst game BioWare has ever made.
My first time through, it was cool. I loved the reactivity of the save import, the various environments were really neat-looking, and I thought the overall structure was cool. And the story was awesome.
I did, however, feel that the story lost a LOT of steam with the endless slog through the big environments.
Honestly, nearly everything I love about Dragon Age was diminished in Inquisition.
- the story was great, but lost a sense of urgency and I'd even forget major plot details because it was so long between major plot points.
- the world felt less alive; this is hard to quantify, but I rarely got the sense of really being in a place with living people
- combat was awful; yeah, the pause and play was still there, but it felt button-mashy and boring; I loved the combat in the first game so much; in DAI, even the dragon fights got dull; what I really want is the KotOR battle system, where you could queue up actions and make awesome shit happen; I also want the AI programming from DAO and DA2 back
- it just didn't feel like Dragon Age; I understand the value in being inspired by another artist, but dawg, don't lose yourself in the process; I come back to BioWare over and over, and will continue to do so for at least a few more games, because of what BioWare brings to a game.
I love BioWare so much, and have had so many good memories with them, but I'm worried.
Today, there was a piece in PCGamer in which they acknowledged an issue with the side quests in DAI, which I think was a good thing to say, and then they pointed out that the side quests in MEA are going to be more The Witcher 3, and I kinda threw my hands up again.
I love The Witcher 3. It's one of my all-time favorites. But I worry when I see things like this, because I didn't used to see things like it, which is BioWare pointing at other studios for inspiration, instead of looking within.
Yeah, I'm probably overreacting. I'm sure they cribbed ideas from other studios back in the glory days, but it seemed like they also played it less safe. They were more OK experimenting in their releases. Yeah, being a big earner for EA probably restricts their ability to gamble a lot more, since they're putting more dollars into their games now than ever.
And I get that, with FOUR teams going now (Edmonton x 2, Montreal, Austin), they're potentially flooding the market with 'BioWare games,' and are worried about diluting their brand.
It would be very refreshing to see them take a step back, though, and make a cheaper and more risky game.
Maybe that's what the new IP is? I don't know. I keep hearing that it's not an RPG, and is instead an action game. That disappoints me, but I still have faith in BioWare to surprise me, and in a good way.
What say you? What do you think? Have you been down this road with a studio before? What's your opinion of the direction BioWare has gone?
Also, I'll be streaming tonight at 2000 central, and will continue my Road to Andromeda series!
-Blaine
20170209
GameRV
I've got a fairly well-developed roadmap for becoming a trailer home owner. Not the shitty 'Trailer Park Boys' kinda thing, but something a little smaller that you can pull behind an SUV or truck and live in while on vacation. I've been looking at some that have a master suite for my wife and me, and bunk beds at the other end for the boys, a full bathroom, kitchen, and main area for hanging out, as well as an outdoor kitchen and awning. Pretty dope. I went and looked at some last weekend, with 'early 2019' in mind. We'll be replacing her vehicle at the end of this year, with the intention of getting the towing vehicle as a replacement, and then doing some renting of a trailer a few times to make sure we really want it.
One of the designs that I have on this, and this is going to sound ridiculous, but is to get a traveling gaming setup going, where I actually game outside and on the road.
My existing standard setup is my MSI DOMINATOR!!! (sorry, that name is just so ridiculous) with a mouse, so I already travel pretty light.
Some of these have a TV built into the side of the vehicle, presumably for tailgating. I could output to that, get a wireless keyboard and mouse, and maybe do it like that? I dunno.
Sunlight can be tricky. I remember trying to play Alien Isolation in Key West a couple winters ago, and it just wasn't happening. I'd love to have a laptop that lightened or darkened the screen dynamically, like a lot of phone do now. Sigh ...
Yeah, I plan to do plenty of outdoor stuff while we're traveling with this thing, but I also want to enjoy my vacation in a diverse number of ways, including enjoying some good weather while playing games.
I'm also considering parking this thing in my backyard when we're not traveling, and possibly using it as a 'man cave.' Could be cool.
One of the real concerns, though, is space. My MSI DOMINATOR!!! is not small. It's probably 18 or so inches across, plus you gotta have space for the mouse, and that is not trivial surface space in one of these trailers. The space is there, but not while other people might need it.
I also have a lot to learn about these things, which is why I want to rent one soon, and see what we think.
I'd love to read any ideas or suggestions you all have.
Anyway, here's the one I'm thinking about:
So, we'll see where this goes. My general plan is to rent once or twice this year, then, after we buy the new vehicle at the end of this year, to rent again, and drive to and from Spring Training with it, and live in it for a couple weeks. Like I said, we'll see how it goes. I'm excited.
Before I go, check this out. This is the game about which I'm the most excited right now.
Also, I'm revising my streaming schedule. No more Tues and Thurs 1630 streams. It's just not workable right now. I am still on for Thurs 2000 streams, so I'll see you all tonight. Check me out!
-Blaine
One of the designs that I have on this, and this is going to sound ridiculous, but is to get a traveling gaming setup going, where I actually game outside and on the road.
My existing standard setup is my MSI DOMINATOR!!! (sorry, that name is just so ridiculous) with a mouse, so I already travel pretty light.
Some of these have a TV built into the side of the vehicle, presumably for tailgating. I could output to that, get a wireless keyboard and mouse, and maybe do it like that? I dunno.
Sunlight can be tricky. I remember trying to play Alien Isolation in Key West a couple winters ago, and it just wasn't happening. I'd love to have a laptop that lightened or darkened the screen dynamically, like a lot of phone do now. Sigh ...
Yeah, I plan to do plenty of outdoor stuff while we're traveling with this thing, but I also want to enjoy my vacation in a diverse number of ways, including enjoying some good weather while playing games.
I'm also considering parking this thing in my backyard when we're not traveling, and possibly using it as a 'man cave.' Could be cool.
One of the real concerns, though, is space. My MSI DOMINATOR!!! is not small. It's probably 18 or so inches across, plus you gotta have space for the mouse, and that is not trivial surface space in one of these trailers. The space is there, but not while other people might need it.
I also have a lot to learn about these things, which is why I want to rent one soon, and see what we think.
I'd love to read any ideas or suggestions you all have.
Anyway, here's the one I'm thinking about:
So, we'll see where this goes. My general plan is to rent once or twice this year, then, after we buy the new vehicle at the end of this year, to rent again, and drive to and from Spring Training with it, and live in it for a couple weeks. Like I said, we'll see how it goes. I'm excited.
Before I go, check this out. This is the game about which I'm the most excited right now.
Also, I'm revising my streaming schedule. No more Tues and Thurs 1630 streams. It's just not workable right now. I am still on for Thurs 2000 streams, so I'll see you all tonight. Check me out!
-Blaine
20170208
Stuck in a Rut or Having a Great Time - I can't tell
On Morrowind
I think I'm still enjoying Morrowind. I'm not sure. I love the world, the writing, the lore, the gradually building overall story, but ... that fucking interface and the endless slog from point to point.
Have modern games ruined me? Is that what's going on? Most of what I bitch about it is stuff that attempts to simulate real world, like the endless slog from point to point. Let's go to Sadrith Mora. Ah, gotta head to Tel Branora. Got the thing. Now back to Sadrith Mora. Now let's go to Vos. Ah, this tower is really confusing. Let's spend two hours trying to find our way around it. Fuck it, I'll just look online.
(all screenshots are by me and I'm using the Morrowind Overhaul mod)
The problem with all of the above is that the player character moves at a somewhat realistic pace, unless you're willing to burn down all your stamina. You don't realize how slow we walk in real life until you play this game, and realize that your snail pace is actually really fast in real life.
Really, my biggest gripe with the game is the tepid pace brought on by the slow player character and distance between fast-travel points and objectives. It just takes too goddam long to get anywhere and do anything. Much of the design is spectacular, but I'm torn on how I should feel about how fucking long everything takes to do.
As I said, I can't decide if I have a legitimate gripe, or if modern design has tainted my ability to enjoy slow games.
I'm still loving it, I think, but goddam ... this is why so many people sunk so many hours into this game. Not because there's so much to do (though there is), but because they were walking slowly to silt striders, boats, and mage teleports over and over ... and over ...
... oh, and I have a confession. I finally broke down, and have been using console commands to fix some parts of the game, namely my inventory. I've been loading up on torches and levitation potions. Nothing else. But I've pledged myself to House Telvanni, which I didn't realize would mean I'd need a fucking truckload of levitation potions. None of the high-up dudes know what stairs or a ground floor is. It's annoying.
I love it, though. I'm roleplaying the hell out of this character, trying to manipulate circumstances so that I lead a Dunmer revolution. I'm getting concerned, though, as I'm trying to prove my loyalty to conflicting groups. We'll see where my bid to take over both the Ashlanders and the Temple leads me.
On ESO
Meanwhile, I'm wrapping up the main campaign in ESO, and that's a lot of fun. It's interesting playing through these two games simultaneously, and enjoying their vast differences, but also common ancestry.
My perfect Elder Scrolls game, though, would be ESO's vastness + live players, combined with Morrowind's landscape and lore (which I'm getting in June) with Dishonored's movement. I REALLY hope the next Elder Scrolls game brings in Arkane to handle the player character movement. It could happen, since they're both under the Bethesda umbrella.
So, what say you about Morrowind? Looking back, how well do you think it plays for modern audiences? Do you have an older game that you love that you think might be hard to replay today?
Lemme know in the comments!
-Blaine
I think I'm still enjoying Morrowind. I'm not sure. I love the world, the writing, the lore, the gradually building overall story, but ... that fucking interface and the endless slog from point to point.
Have modern games ruined me? Is that what's going on? Most of what I bitch about it is stuff that attempts to simulate real world, like the endless slog from point to point. Let's go to Sadrith Mora. Ah, gotta head to Tel Branora. Got the thing. Now back to Sadrith Mora. Now let's go to Vos. Ah, this tower is really confusing. Let's spend two hours trying to find our way around it. Fuck it, I'll just look online.
(all screenshots are by me and I'm using the Morrowind Overhaul mod)
The problem with all of the above is that the player character moves at a somewhat realistic pace, unless you're willing to burn down all your stamina. You don't realize how slow we walk in real life until you play this game, and realize that your snail pace is actually really fast in real life.
Really, my biggest gripe with the game is the tepid pace brought on by the slow player character and distance between fast-travel points and objectives. It just takes too goddam long to get anywhere and do anything. Much of the design is spectacular, but I'm torn on how I should feel about how fucking long everything takes to do.
As I said, I can't decide if I have a legitimate gripe, or if modern design has tainted my ability to enjoy slow games.
I'm still loving it, I think, but goddam ... this is why so many people sunk so many hours into this game. Not because there's so much to do (though there is), but because they were walking slowly to silt striders, boats, and mage teleports over and over ... and over ...
... oh, and I have a confession. I finally broke down, and have been using console commands to fix some parts of the game, namely my inventory. I've been loading up on torches and levitation potions. Nothing else. But I've pledged myself to House Telvanni, which I didn't realize would mean I'd need a fucking truckload of levitation potions. None of the high-up dudes know what stairs or a ground floor is. It's annoying.
I love it, though. I'm roleplaying the hell out of this character, trying to manipulate circumstances so that I lead a Dunmer revolution. I'm getting concerned, though, as I'm trying to prove my loyalty to conflicting groups. We'll see where my bid to take over both the Ashlanders and the Temple leads me.
On ESO
Meanwhile, I'm wrapping up the main campaign in ESO, and that's a lot of fun. It's interesting playing through these two games simultaneously, and enjoying their vast differences, but also common ancestry.
ESO is a great game that wasn't great at launch, but has molded itself into something very much worth buying and playing. I have a lot of fun every time I fire it up, and the story and exploration are a blast. And the combat, once you learn it, might be the best of any MMO.
My perfect Elder Scrolls game, though, would be ESO's vastness + live players, combined with Morrowind's landscape and lore (which I'm getting in June) with Dishonored's movement. I REALLY hope the next Elder Scrolls game brings in Arkane to handle the player character movement. It could happen, since they're both under the Bethesda umbrella.
So, what say you about Morrowind? Looking back, how well do you think it plays for modern audiences? Do you have an older game that you love that you think might be hard to replay today?
Lemme know in the comments!
-Blaine
20170207
The First Half of 2017
I gotta say, sifting through the first half of 2017 game releases is kinda staggering. We're seeing a ton of awesome and innovative stuff real quick this year.
Before I get to that, let me use 2007 as a point of reference. That was a year that I feel completely changed gaming. I'd argue that it was the most innovative year in gaming ever, and not in a totally oblique kind of way. There were several games that had subtle design decisions that, I'd argue, completely altered the trajectory of modern games.
Before I get to that, let me use 2007 as a point of reference. That was a year that I feel completely changed gaming. I'd argue that it was the most innovative year in gaming ever, and not in a totally oblique kind of way. There were several games that had subtle design decisions that, I'd argue, completely altered the trajectory of modern games.
- BioShock
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Crysis
- Gears of War
- Portal
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
- STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
- The Witcher
From the storytelling in BioShock to the stop n' pop in Gears, to the amazing mechanics in Portal, to the open world exploration and storytelling in STALKER, I think each one of those introduced a new concept in gaming that then permeated throughout gaming.
Also, Quake Wars is still the only multiplayer game that I've ever really gone crazy for.
The gaming scene in 2007 merits its own post some time this year, as it really was pretty incredible if you'd been a gaming enthusiast for a long time. Lotsa sweeping changes, and lotsa seeds planted.
Anyway, about this year ...
... or more specifically, the first half of this year.
I know I've seen crowded post-Christmas release calendars before, and I've seen games drop in March before, but I don't think I've ever seen such density in terms of quality releases in the first six months of the year. I also see the potential for a lot of innovation and new ideas. Also, a fair number of these are either new IP or total reinventions of existing IP.
First, the only one of these that I am NOT getting, Nioh. This game looks fantastic, and way too hard. I don't like hard games. I'm a busy guy, and if it's challenging, it needs to be in terms of strategy, and not twitch. If I can't beat a boss strategically on my first attempt, then no. In these kinda games you have to die a few times to learn the patterns, and then you can kill it. Yes, I recognize this as a strategy, but not the kind I like. Not for me. Nope.
Still, the reviews, if they were able to finish the game, are glowing, and there's already rumblings about 'game of the year.' Some folks love these kinda games, and I respect this genre absolutely (even if I personally have no use for it.)
Horizon: Zero Dawn
This really caught my attention at E3 a couple years ago. Every time Guerilla Games would show a new game at E3, in the past, I'd marvel at how alive and amazing the world looked, and then I'd roll my eyes as soon as it descended into yet another shoot-shoot-shoot experience. I saw so much wasted potential there.
Then, at E3 2015, they showed off a world that captured my imagination, and immediately started setting incredibly unrealistic expectations. Techno-savages battling robo-dinosaurs in a post-apocalyptic world that was way after the apocalypse! Yes! It all looked great, minus being trapped as a console-exclusive. That's enormously disappointing, but I bought a PS4 for Uncharted 4, so now I'll have a second game to play on it.
I've since dialed my expectations waaay back, but this game still looks great. I'd honestly be more hyped for it, were it not releasing against my personal (expected) game of the year.
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Holy shit, I am over the moon for this one. I've had to work very hard to not play more of the Early Access version, because I wanna be as fresh as possible on this game, but GODDAM, it is so good. I love everything about it, from the lore, the character building, the reactive world, the combat, all of it. It is a perfect blend, so far, of deep mechanics and rich storytelling.
This is marketed as a spiritual successor to PlaneScape: Torment, but that doesn't mean a lot for me, since I never played it. The few hours of Torment: Tides of Numenera that I've played, though, make that matter little, because I am so in love with it.
This hits three weeks from today, but I'm hoping that maybe it's available to backers the weekend before. That desire is not based on any real information that I've gotten, and will probably not happen.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
I love the Mass Effect series deeply, and felt that it came to a natural conclusion with ME3. I was skeptical when I heard about this game, because its existence (not coming from the ME trilogy team, not part of the trilogy) seemed like a possible EA-forced cash-in, but everything that I've seen over the last couple of months disputes that notion.
One of the things that is potentially off-putting to me is that seems even more action-focused than the previous games, which is not really something in which I have a lot of interest, but I'm more than happy to give it a chance. BioWare is a studio that has repeatedly gotten me to enjoy things that I didn't think I would, including the first Mass Effect, which had me (and others) screaming, 'WHY ISN'T IT KOTOR3?! JUST MAKE KOTOR3!' After playing it, I was relieved that they'd made it instead of KotOR 3 (which I still want.) I love new ideas, and BioWare is very good at implementing them.
I'm actually extending my Spring Training vacation by one day, so that I can squeeze in a full day with this game.
Prey
This looks hot. Some of my favorite people are working on it, including Shawn Elliot and Chris Avellone. Everything we've seen of the gameplay looks innovative as hell, and the creep factor is off the charts. I get vibes of everything from BioShock to Half-Life. I am so all over this.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood
Also ...
... a buddy pointed out that Resident Evil 7 and Yakuza 0 have both already released and made very good impressions on many folks (I have a small number of issues with RE7, but I'm way early in the game.) I really wanna play Yakuza 0, but I already have too many games that are console-only (Uncharted 4, HZD, Gears 4), so I'll wait on that one.
We also MIGHT see stuff like Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 3 in the first half, though I'm skeptical. I'm very excited for both of those, as well, and the Original Sin 2 Early Access version is incredible.
I can't wait to see what the latter part of the year holds. We've got an incredible lineup for the first half, and like I said, I've not seen it this dense with cool games ... maybe ever?
How about you? What's got you stoked for the first half of 2017?
-Blaine
This really caught my attention at E3 a couple years ago. Every time Guerilla Games would show a new game at E3, in the past, I'd marvel at how alive and amazing the world looked, and then I'd roll my eyes as soon as it descended into yet another shoot-shoot-shoot experience. I saw so much wasted potential there.
Then, at E3 2015, they showed off a world that captured my imagination, and immediately started setting incredibly unrealistic expectations. Techno-savages battling robo-dinosaurs in a post-apocalyptic world that was way after the apocalypse! Yes! It all looked great, minus being trapped as a console-exclusive. That's enormously disappointing, but I bought a PS4 for Uncharted 4, so now I'll have a second game to play on it.
I've since dialed my expectations waaay back, but this game still looks great. I'd honestly be more hyped for it, were it not releasing against my personal (expected) game of the year.
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Holy shit, I am over the moon for this one. I've had to work very hard to not play more of the Early Access version, because I wanna be as fresh as possible on this game, but GODDAM, it is so good. I love everything about it, from the lore, the character building, the reactive world, the combat, all of it. It is a perfect blend, so far, of deep mechanics and rich storytelling.
This is marketed as a spiritual successor to PlaneScape: Torment, but that doesn't mean a lot for me, since I never played it. The few hours of Torment: Tides of Numenera that I've played, though, make that matter little, because I am so in love with it.
This hits three weeks from today, but I'm hoping that maybe it's available to backers the weekend before. That desire is not based on any real information that I've gotten, and will probably not happen.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
I love the Mass Effect series deeply, and felt that it came to a natural conclusion with ME3. I was skeptical when I heard about this game, because its existence (not coming from the ME trilogy team, not part of the trilogy) seemed like a possible EA-forced cash-in, but everything that I've seen over the last couple of months disputes that notion.
One of the things that is potentially off-putting to me is that seems even more action-focused than the previous games, which is not really something in which I have a lot of interest, but I'm more than happy to give it a chance. BioWare is a studio that has repeatedly gotten me to enjoy things that I didn't think I would, including the first Mass Effect, which had me (and others) screaming, 'WHY ISN'T IT KOTOR3?! JUST MAKE KOTOR3!' After playing it, I was relieved that they'd made it instead of KotOR 3 (which I still want.) I love new ideas, and BioWare is very good at implementing them.
I'm actually extending my Spring Training vacation by one day, so that I can squeeze in a full day with this game.
Prey
This looks hot. Some of my favorite people are working on it, including Shawn Elliot and Chris Avellone. Everything we've seen of the gameplay looks innovative as hell, and the creep factor is off the charts. I get vibes of everything from BioShock to Half-Life. I am so all over this.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood
Also ...
... a buddy pointed out that Resident Evil 7 and Yakuza 0 have both already released and made very good impressions on many folks (I have a small number of issues with RE7, but I'm way early in the game.) I really wanna play Yakuza 0, but I already have too many games that are console-only (Uncharted 4, HZD, Gears 4), so I'll wait on that one.
We also MIGHT see stuff like Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 3 in the first half, though I'm skeptical. I'm very excited for both of those, as well, and the Original Sin 2 Early Access version is incredible.
I can't wait to see what the latter part of the year holds. We've got an incredible lineup for the first half, and like I said, I've not seen it this dense with cool games ... maybe ever?
How about you? What's got you stoked for the first half of 2017?
-Blaine
20170203
yeah, so about Friday posts ...
Friday posts are just gonna be kinda late. While Friday is usually pretty chill for me, it is also pretty busy, because the dev team at work has a big idea-sharing meeting all morning, and then we all go for a long lunch, and then I wrap up my work for the week, and then I watch a bunch of dev streams, and then I exercise, and then I go to dinner, and then I stream. You see what I'm sayin'? I think maybe I'll toss up a few really small posts each Friday. We'll see.
Obsidian posted some awesome shit last night and today:
As I've said before, I'm super-stoked about Pillars 2. I was absolutely nuts about the first one, and delivered so much of what I want out of a game.
Yesterday, I streamed some of the latest build of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and my god, it's a great experience. I'm purposely not playing it much, like Torment: Tides of Numenera, so that I can be as surprised and fresh as possible when it finally releases. It's hard, man. Both early access builds are GREAT, and I want those games so badly, but ... gonna hold off, especially since I have so much great stuff to play.
I'm pretty nuts about Elder Scrolls at the moment, so we're just continue with that for now. I'm loving Morrowind, and really looking forward to just throwing myself into it some more. I'm also having a blast in ESO, in which I finally hit level 50, and I may try to finish the core campaign this weekend. We'll see.
I'm also going to continue my Road to Andromeda series this weekend. As you may already know, I've been replaying the original Mass Effect trilogy since September, and we're cruising through Mass Effect 3 now. It's so much fun to share my passion for this series with you all, and I hope you tune into my Twitch channel at 2000 (central time) tonight. I love talking Mass Effect with anyone, and the streams are so much more fun when there's lotsa chatter.
Anywho, I'm off to dinner, so I'll see you cats tonight!
-Blaine
Obsidian posted some awesome shit last night and today:
As I've said before, I'm super-stoked about Pillars 2. I was absolutely nuts about the first one, and delivered so much of what I want out of a game.
Yesterday, I streamed some of the latest build of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and my god, it's a great experience. I'm purposely not playing it much, like Torment: Tides of Numenera, so that I can be as surprised and fresh as possible when it finally releases. It's hard, man. Both early access builds are GREAT, and I want those games so badly, but ... gonna hold off, especially since I have so much great stuff to play.
I'm pretty nuts about Elder Scrolls at the moment, so we're just continue with that for now. I'm loving Morrowind, and really looking forward to just throwing myself into it some more. I'm also having a blast in ESO, in which I finally hit level 50, and I may try to finish the core campaign this weekend. We'll see.
I'm also going to continue my Road to Andromeda series this weekend. As you may already know, I've been replaying the original Mass Effect trilogy since September, and we're cruising through Mass Effect 3 now. It's so much fun to share my passion for this series with you all, and I hope you tune into my Twitch channel at 2000 (central time) tonight. I love talking Mass Effect with anyone, and the streams are so much more fun when there's lotsa chatter.
Anywho, I'm off to dinner, so I'll see you cats tonight!
-Blaine
20170202
Me vs JRPGs vs cRPGs (or however capitalization works now)
Confession time. Actually, I've confessed this before, but it still needs to be reviewed and analyzed, so whatever.
I started gaming in the 80s, and very quickly took to RPGs. There's always been something about living a great novel that has always appealed to me. I love my real life, but I also love the escapism and investing myself in another world that comes with a great RPG. I love the lore, the compelling narrative, the rich characters, the deep systems, all of it. It's really about all I play. I'm at a point now in which, if I venture into another genre, it feels shallow and almost pointless. There have been a few remarkable exceptions, but nearly every non-RPG game feels like something in which I cannot find something to invest myself. 2D platformers feel like me just pressing buttons while getting aggravated. Even a lot of the old classics feel like little more than nostalgic diversions that ring utterly hollow.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN I JUDGE YOU FOR LIKING WHAT YOU LIKE, SO TAKE A GODDAM BREATH.
However, that atrocity is not what I am here to confess.
My early RPGs were things like Ultima and ... Ultima, maybe? And some really primitive shit on Atari of which I can't remember the name.
All that got blown out of the water, though, by the first Final Fantasy. I remember reading about it in a Nintendo Power strategy guide. NP briefly went to a weird format in which every other issue was a strat guide for a game. I wanna say the others were Ninja Gaiden II (one of the great non-RPGs of all time) and some other shit. SMB3, maybe?
Anyway, I read the guide in advance of the game, fell in love with all the numbers and huge land masses, saved up my allowance, and then walked down to the local Wal-Mart and bought it. And fell madly in love. That was potentially the single-most life-changing gaming experience I've ever had. It really altered not only what kind of games I knew I loved, but solidified that I wanted to be a creative person for the rest of my life.
And I pretty much stuck with JRPGs through the 90s (Final Fantasy was released in the US in 1990.)
I did have a time in which I didn't play much. I took a break from gaming to have sex with girls, smoke weed, and get drunk, before I realized I could combine all that with my love of gaming.
Side note - of any man I know, I have the highest ratio of taste in great games to hot chicks I bedded in the 90s. I know that Final Fantasy VI was the best console game of the 90s AND I slept with a model in the 90s. Just sayin'.
As the turn of the century hit, JRPGs tanked. Or I outgrew them. Or both. Or I dunno. It all kinda peaked for me with Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross. They're both amazing games, and signal, for me, the end of an era. I've played great JRPGs since then, most notably Final Fantasy XII and Lost Odyssey, but the PS2/Xbox era was where I made a pretty drastic transition.
I can point at two games that caused this major disruption for me. First, Final Fantasy X, despite the great battle system, was a bad game, at least for what I need from a game. The characters, the story, the tone, and the world were all off-putting. The lack of a world map grated on me, but I accepted that Squenix was trying to on-board new fans, and I guess that was a thing or whatever. I actually really enjoyed FFX-2 a LOT more. Gone was the melodrama and incessant whining, replaced with a hilarious and lighthearted tone, which was vastly appreciated.
So, FFX was the first incident. The second was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I remember reading about it, probably in EGM, and thinking 'oh, it's not turn-based, so I don't give a fuck.' Then, I was over at a buddy's place in St. Louis, pulling bong hits, while he explained to me this amazing 'KoOR' game that his other buddy had, and how there were all these different choices that you could make, and it sounded pretty cool. So, a few nights later, I hooked up with this hot Puerto Rican gal in Chicago, and as we were stumbling down a street, I saw we were going past an EB Games, and decided 'fuck it,' and ducked in with her. I snagged an Xbox and a used copy of KotOR. We went back to my place, and proceeded to get loaded while I set up my Xbox and KotOR. I ended up stopping because I could tell I was gonna miss out on my first Latina if I didn't refocus. We went upstairs, had our fun, and then, afterward, when she was asleep, I snuck back down to start playing.
In my defense, I did have breakfast made for her, since I'd been up all night trying to find Bastila.
And KotOR really tipped the scales. From there, I got into Jade Empire, KotOR II, The Elder Scrolls, and then I shifted over to PC gaming during the PS360 era, and discovered the wonderful Piranha Bytes games, The Witcher, and more. I still buy every Final Fantasy that comes out. I played through X, X-2, XII, XIII, but haven't finished one since. I'm pretty lukewarm on FFXV. Honestly, most of it is that it's only on console (I play almost exclusively on a pretty spiffy laptop that I can take anywhere), and the characters are BLAH.
Looking back, though, it's funny, because I missed out on some of the best PC gaming ever. I wasn't on PC at the time that Baldur's Gate, Torment, Arcanum, NWN, and others were hitting.
And that's more or less my confession. I can't decide if I'm a fraud or not. I'm a nearly-40 PC gamer that has never played through a BioWare game that came out before KotOR. I'm sure some snide neckbeard is sneering at me as he reads this, but just remember. I had a better 90s than you did. I guarantee it.
Looking back over the years, I think my greatest RPG gaming experiences, and this is really another post for another time, are probably Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, KotOR, Dragon Age: Origins, The Witcher, SWTOR, Pillars of Eternity, and probably something amazing that I'm not thinking of at the moment.
What about you? Have you swung both ways, in terms of JRPGs and cRPGs? What do you prefer? What are your favorites?
Videos
Here's some cool shit about video games from today.
Also, I am streaming today at 1630 and 2000 (central time) over on my Twitch channel. Not sure what we're gonna at 1630, maybe some Divinity: Original Sin 2, and then 2000 will be the resumption of The Road to Andromeda: Mass Effect 3. See ya tonight!
-Blaine
I started gaming in the 80s, and very quickly took to RPGs. There's always been something about living a great novel that has always appealed to me. I love my real life, but I also love the escapism and investing myself in another world that comes with a great RPG. I love the lore, the compelling narrative, the rich characters, the deep systems, all of it. It's really about all I play. I'm at a point now in which, if I venture into another genre, it feels shallow and almost pointless. There have been a few remarkable exceptions, but nearly every non-RPG game feels like something in which I cannot find something to invest myself. 2D platformers feel like me just pressing buttons while getting aggravated. Even a lot of the old classics feel like little more than nostalgic diversions that ring utterly hollow.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN I JUDGE YOU FOR LIKING WHAT YOU LIKE, SO TAKE A GODDAM BREATH.
However, that atrocity is not what I am here to confess.
My early RPGs were things like Ultima and ... Ultima, maybe? And some really primitive shit on Atari of which I can't remember the name.
All that got blown out of the water, though, by the first Final Fantasy. I remember reading about it in a Nintendo Power strategy guide. NP briefly went to a weird format in which every other issue was a strat guide for a game. I wanna say the others were Ninja Gaiden II (one of the great non-RPGs of all time) and some other shit. SMB3, maybe?
Anyway, I read the guide in advance of the game, fell in love with all the numbers and huge land masses, saved up my allowance, and then walked down to the local Wal-Mart and bought it. And fell madly in love. That was potentially the single-most life-changing gaming experience I've ever had. It really altered not only what kind of games I knew I loved, but solidified that I wanted to be a creative person for the rest of my life.
And I pretty much stuck with JRPGs through the 90s (Final Fantasy was released in the US in 1990.)
I did have a time in which I didn't play much. I took a break from gaming to have sex with girls, smoke weed, and get drunk, before I realized I could combine all that with my love of gaming.
Side note - of any man I know, I have the highest ratio of taste in great games to hot chicks I bedded in the 90s. I know that Final Fantasy VI was the best console game of the 90s AND I slept with a model in the 90s. Just sayin'.
As the turn of the century hit, JRPGs tanked. Or I outgrew them. Or both. Or I dunno. It all kinda peaked for me with Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross. They're both amazing games, and signal, for me, the end of an era. I've played great JRPGs since then, most notably Final Fantasy XII and Lost Odyssey, but the PS2/Xbox era was where I made a pretty drastic transition.
I can point at two games that caused this major disruption for me. First, Final Fantasy X, despite the great battle system, was a bad game, at least for what I need from a game. The characters, the story, the tone, and the world were all off-putting. The lack of a world map grated on me, but I accepted that Squenix was trying to on-board new fans, and I guess that was a thing or whatever. I actually really enjoyed FFX-2 a LOT more. Gone was the melodrama and incessant whining, replaced with a hilarious and lighthearted tone, which was vastly appreciated.
So, FFX was the first incident. The second was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I remember reading about it, probably in EGM, and thinking 'oh, it's not turn-based, so I don't give a fuck.' Then, I was over at a buddy's place in St. Louis, pulling bong hits, while he explained to me this amazing 'KoOR' game that his other buddy had, and how there were all these different choices that you could make, and it sounded pretty cool. So, a few nights later, I hooked up with this hot Puerto Rican gal in Chicago, and as we were stumbling down a street, I saw we were going past an EB Games, and decided 'fuck it,' and ducked in with her. I snagged an Xbox and a used copy of KotOR. We went back to my place, and proceeded to get loaded while I set up my Xbox and KotOR. I ended up stopping because I could tell I was gonna miss out on my first Latina if I didn't refocus. We went upstairs, had our fun, and then, afterward, when she was asleep, I snuck back down to start playing.
In my defense, I did have breakfast made for her, since I'd been up all night trying to find Bastila.
And KotOR really tipped the scales. From there, I got into Jade Empire, KotOR II, The Elder Scrolls, and then I shifted over to PC gaming during the PS360 era, and discovered the wonderful Piranha Bytes games, The Witcher, and more. I still buy every Final Fantasy that comes out. I played through X, X-2, XII, XIII, but haven't finished one since. I'm pretty lukewarm on FFXV. Honestly, most of it is that it's only on console (I play almost exclusively on a pretty spiffy laptop that I can take anywhere), and the characters are BLAH.
Looking back, though, it's funny, because I missed out on some of the best PC gaming ever. I wasn't on PC at the time that Baldur's Gate, Torment, Arcanum, NWN, and others were hitting.
And that's more or less my confession. I can't decide if I'm a fraud or not. I'm a nearly-40 PC gamer that has never played through a BioWare game that came out before KotOR. I'm sure some snide neckbeard is sneering at me as he reads this, but just remember. I had a better 90s than you did. I guarantee it.
Looking back over the years, I think my greatest RPG gaming experiences, and this is really another post for another time, are probably Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, KotOR, Dragon Age: Origins, The Witcher, SWTOR, Pillars of Eternity, and probably something amazing that I'm not thinking of at the moment.
What about you? Have you swung both ways, in terms of JRPGs and cRPGs? What do you prefer? What are your favorites?
Videos
Here's some cool shit about video games from today.
Also, I am streaming today at 1630 and 2000 (central time) over on my Twitch channel. Not sure what we're gonna at 1630, maybe some Divinity: Original Sin 2, and then 2000 will be the resumption of The Road to Andromeda: Mass Effect 3. See ya tonight!
-Blaine
20170201
Yo! The Expanse is back tonight!
Hey all! I just wanted to quickly pimp my favorite show, which is returning for season 2 tonight!
The Expanse! Check out the original trailer from before season one:
It's a fantastic science fiction show that's unlike anything else out there. It's based on a great book series, which I equally highly recommend!
The short version - humanity has expanded to Mars and the Asteroid Belt, which have formed three distinct societies, and they're all pissed at each other, when an external threat makes itself known. And it goes from there.
If you wanna get caught up real quick, you can watch it on Amazon Prime.
What's so remarkable about this show and book series, is that both go down so smooth. The story is absolutely riveting, the characters are rich, the world and its lore are highly detailed and very interesting, as well as utterly believable. I love this show. I love the books.
Now check out the season 2 trailer:
Try this series out. Even if you're a terrible person, and don't love science fiction, the story has significant relevance to our modern world, and the characters are so vivd, you'll want more and more. It's absolutely great, and really takes the viewer/reader on a grand adventure.
If you already watch, I'd love to talk to other folks that enjoy it. Lemme know!
If you don't, and you take the plunge, lemme know!
-Blaine
The Expanse! Check out the original trailer from before season one:
It's a fantastic science fiction show that's unlike anything else out there. It's based on a great book series, which I equally highly recommend!
The short version - humanity has expanded to Mars and the Asteroid Belt, which have formed three distinct societies, and they're all pissed at each other, when an external threat makes itself known. And it goes from there.
If you wanna get caught up real quick, you can watch it on Amazon Prime.
What's so remarkable about this show and book series, is that both go down so smooth. The story is absolutely riveting, the characters are rich, the world and its lore are highly detailed and very interesting, as well as utterly believable. I love this show. I love the books.
Now check out the season 2 trailer:
Try this series out. Even if you're a terrible person, and don't love science fiction, the story has significant relevance to our modern world, and the characters are so vivd, you'll want more and more. It's absolutely great, and really takes the viewer/reader on a grand adventure.
If you already watch, I'd love to talk to other folks that enjoy it. Lemme know!
If you don't, and you take the plunge, lemme know!
-Blaine
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