Anthem Thoughts (post-public demo)

I think Anthem has totally won me over. I had a blast this past weekend. Most of the technical issues that hampered my experience during the VIP demo were gone, and I was able to play and explore as much as I wanted.

I also got to play with my oldest son for a while, which is always a great experience. It's fun, sitting in the same room and yelling at each other while we enjoy a co-op experience, whether it be The Elder Scrolls Online or Anthem.

The flying rocks, though I'm glad that I got a sexy new mouse at PAX South that lets me adjust my DPI with a few clicks. I had to turn my DPI down for the flying and the underwater stuff. Anyway, the flying is a visceral experience, though I do kinda wish it was infinite, rather than something that had to cool down every so often.

When you combine the flying and shooting, though, it really does feel kind of like Iron Man.

The combat feels like a heavily refined and cranked-up version of Mass Effect combat, which is pure joy for me. The shooting in this feels so good. It can be tough, too. You and your squad mates have to really give some thought to who targets who, and how everyone spreads out. I also found myself using terrain as cover a lot. It's a great mix of strategy and shooting them in the goddam face.

The little bit of the story that we got for the demo was also really cool. I really enjoyed it. I won't describe any of it here, in case you're trying to avoid spoilers.

The environments in which you use your javelin are fantastic. BioWare has done an amazing job of making the outer world feel alive. Plants and animals are everywhere, and the world is beautiful. They've also done a great job of infusing the verticality inherent to the game in the worlds. It feels liberating to be able to use 360 degrees of movement not only in traversal, but in combat, as well.

Fort Tarsis ... that environment needs a lot of work. At least in the demo, it's mostly pantomiming puppets, which really smashes the immersion into the game. It's people gesticulating at each other with no audio. I really hope that this gets addressed. I want to hear chatter and conversations. I want more people to be interactive. I want BioWare to bring their known strengths to bear in this area, and at least in the demo, they haven't.

Even the overall look of Fort Tarsis is kind of 'blah.' I really don't know what happened, but that's the one part of the game that needs a lot of attention.

Overall, though, I had a blast. This is going to be a fun game. I can't wait for February 22nd.

-Blaine

Thoughts on Anthem (pre-public demo)

Anthem has been a tricky subject for me. Honestly, it's something that's been difficult to wrap my brain around since its initial showing. It looks like a solid game, but a few things haven't been sitting well with me about it.

You see, I'm a 20-year BioWare fan, and I can't shake the feeling that this game is being made for everyone but me, if that makes any sense. I love solo RPGs with lots of player choice in them that affects the world around the player. This is something that Anthem is not, at least from what I've played.

It’s not what I expect from BioWare, but I also don’t want to be that asshole that crucifies a studio for daring to try something new. I badly want a new single-player RPG from BioWare, but that’s just not going to happen for a while.

Disclaimer - yes, I'm aware that not every game is made for me. Trust me, I get that.

So far, I've played the Anthem alpha and last weekend's VIP demo. I didn't really enjoy the alpha, but I've had a good time in the demo so far.

I'm really trying to keep an open mind and see if Anthem is something that will expand my gaming boundaries, much in the same way BioWare did to me with SWTOR. I wasn't really into MMOs before SWTOR, and both Star Trek Online and SWTOR acted as gateway drugs for me in the MMO space. Now, MMOs are among my favorite genres.

So, maybe Anthem will do the same for me with whatever genre it ends up fitting into. 

I've been trying to approach it as a totally new kind of BioWare experience for me, and that helped me enjoy the VIP demo.

I really like the single-player Fort Tarsis bits. The writing is predictably solid, and it's gorgeous to look at. I wish it was a little bigger and a bit more interactive, though. 

Going out into the world from Tarsis proved to be a little tricky, due to a known technical issue with the demo. Basically, I had to launch the expedition from a screen, let it crawl up to 95% (where it would stay indefinitely), crash the game, kill the game process, and then quickly re-launch the game to get a prompt to rejoin the expedition. Sigh. This technical issue REALLY bogged down my play time with the game.

Once I got in, it was fun. The flying is great, though I looked like a drunk hippo while doing it. It's fun, but I have a long way to go toward mastering it. 

The combat felt really good. It definitely has a Mass Effect feel to the gunplay, so I felt right at home.

Pugging was OK. I normally hate pugging, but this seemed OK. This game definitely needs text chat, though. Regardless, the groups I was in were OK, and once I got a little more of a handle on flight and combat, I felt like a real contributor to the group.

Still, I've kept questioning if Anthem is something in which I can really invest myself long-term. I'm likely going to give it a shot, but story, characters, and choice mean a lot to me, and while I enjoyed what I played, I wonder how much staying power the game will have with me. We'll see.

I'm also hoping that the technical issue that I described is fixed. That was a huge bummer and kept me from playing more of the demo than I did, especially with hot sexiness like Resident Evil 2 remake at hand.

I'm hoping this weekend's demo lets me dig a little deeper and get a better sense of the game. I want to find what the game's loop is like and get a sense of how much story even matters in the game.

I'll report back next week about my thoughts with the public demo. I really hope I end up loving this game.

-Blaine

It's almost Celebration time!

I'm super-stoked. Star Wars Celebration 2017 starts tomorrow!

I've watched the past two iterations online, and it was absolutely wonderful, as a Star Wars fan. I got to hear from the BIG names (Mark, Carrie, Daisy, Billy D, etc), as well as the smaller bit players, who were just as interesting (random Imperial Admirals, guys in alien costumes, etc). And let's not forget about the trailers and behind-the-scenes footage. And the video games. And the fandom.

Some time, I'm going to go, but it will not be this year.

Luckily, they're streaming the show online, and we'll have a steady feed. Obviously, not everything will be shown, since there won't be multiple live feeds, but enough that I'm really excited.

What, specifically, has me so pumped?

First, I'm pretty isolated in my level of passion for things. I'm always the most 'into' something of anyone with whom I'm close. People that exceed my level of passion for things like Star Wars or Star Trek or Dragon Age or whatever tend to have debilitating mental or social problems, and it's difficult for anyone to be close to them. I won't enjoy things like Star Wars at the cost of losing my job, my family, what's left of my physical condition, etc. Even I have boundaries.

ANYWAY, everyone that's close to me skews more 'normie,' and I know that they don't like hearing about what I love, so I spend a lot of time alone in my love for Star Wars. It's OK. I'm used to it, and it's not something that's destroying my life or anything. It's all good.

But the Celebration stream is a chance for me to revel in my love for Star Wars, and share it with my wife and kids, and let them get a taste of what it means for me.

Star Wars and Star Trek are woven into my life, and have been since as far back as I can remember. They've been constant companions, and while we've grown apart at times, or had difficult moments, we've always come back together.

I'd love it if Star Trek had something like the Star Wars Celebration stream. God, that would be amazing.

It's great getting to share the passion for a few days every year (except next year, apparently.)

Second, the announcements. Whether it be a new Marvel comic series, or a new novel (please bring back Karen Traviss), a new Star Wars game (please make another PC RPG), a Rebels announcement, or *GASP* a new film, I'm all over it. I've loved seeing this universe simplify, and then expand. I cannot wait to see what this year holds.

Third, the reveals. What do I mean? C'mon, guys. The trailer and/or footage.

I will never forget watching the "Chewie, we're home." trailer and sobbing, along with millions of other geeks. I don't know that we'll ever have a moment like that again, unless they bring back Revan from deletion.

The whole thing is just magical. It's a chance to connect directly with something that is a persistent source of joy and wonder. It's something that bridges my child brain and adult brain.

It's going to be so hard watching Mark lead the Carrie Fisher memorial (I can't believe I'm even typing those words), but it's something that I think we all need. I've certainly not totally reconciled my feelings on her passing, and every time I see her, it's like a lightsaber through the gut, but I'm ready to hear Mark talk about it. I hope it heals.

But, yeah, I'm excited to see any and all cast and crew, I'm excited to learn and see more about The Last Jedi, I crave more details on the Han Solo flick, and I wanna see anything else that's in the pipeline, especially if maybe, possibly BioWare has something fun to announce? Maybe?

So, keep an eye on the Star Wars YouTube channel, keep an eye on the Celebration site, and let me know what you're excited about!

May the Force be with you!

-Blaine

KotOR III? KotOR HD? KotOR Online? WHAT IS IT?!?!

UPDATE 4/11 1338: Fuck my life. It's probably all a misunderstanding.

Original:
How funny that I've been running a weekly Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic stream/video series, and it looks like BioWare Austin might have something interesting to say about the series this weekend at Star Wars Celebration. This isn't a guarantee. They might make us wait all the way until E3, though that would really bum me out.



I've gone on and on about how much the Knights of the Old Republic games mean to me, and how they fundamentally changed gaming for me, so if this results in a new game ... holy shit, I will be in tears. Even if it's a reimagining of the original, so long as it's NEW, I'll be over the moon. If it's just a remake or a high-res version ... well, shit, watch the above video that I made. I can do that. I will not be excited about the same game, but prettier.

My understanding, though, is that this is, in fact, something new. Maybe a new version of KotOR that brings the game in line with what Disney wants for canon? That would be interesting. I can't imagine what they'd want to change, but whatever. I'm down.

Alongside this, for the last several months, we've been seeing KotOR creep into the canon anyway. From planets to ships to species, all unique to the Old Republic-era EU, they've been getting mentions or appearances in Rogue One, Rebels, and novels.

I think this might be real.

If it is, I actually heard about it last year, shortly before E3. I mistakenly assumed that it was going to show up at EA's presentation. When it didn't, I was VERY confused, as I had a pretty good source on it. We'll see, though. I hope it shows up this weekend. It's going to be so hard to restrain my enthusiasm, but this 'leak' is so well-timed. It might be a coincidence, but perhaps it's tehe Force ...

I've gotta temper my expectations, though. I need to be ready for nothing I care about to be announced at the gaming panel. Hey, at least I'll get to see stuff about The Last Jedi ...

... fuck, I just can't handle this. FUCK.

Anyway, it's movie lunch day, so I gotta split.

How about you? Do you want a new Knights of the Old Republic? Would you be OK with a remake? What do you want Disney to do with the Old Republic? Should they just make it all canon?

Also, if you wanna talk more about this live on my show, I'm streaming a KotOR playthrough on Thursdays and Fridays at 8PM central on my Twitch channel.

Lemme know! And may be the Force with you!

-Blaine

Destiny 2 Thoughts

I've been devoured by work most of the week, which is why I didn't publish anything M-W.

Since I feel very secure in knowing how publishers can market games to me, and how developers can gear design toward me, here's why Destiny was a slight disappointment for me, despite having a lot of positive aspects.

First of all, the lore and story was nearly incoherent. I had a vague idea of 'do thing or bad space beings do bad things,' but the story was too thin. The characters were even thinner. The game, for me, was nearly absent motivation.

That was doubly frustrating because the game's world seemed like a cool, fun place, but I couldn't really tell.

Word on the street is that Bungie gutted the narrative, but I don't think that's ever been confirmed. I could be wrong. By the time I heard it, I didn't really care why the narrative in the game was so bad, because I'd stopped playing.

Beyond that, I love it when publishers release storytelling material that's outside the game, like novels and comics. BioWare does it a lot, and it really enhances the experience for me. The Witcher, which was a series of novels before it was a game trilogy, fits this, too as Sapkowski's novels really enhanced my experience in the games.

But Destiny received none of this, and I never understood why. Activision is pretty much the embodiment of greed and monetizing the shit out of their properties, so I expected they'd pounce at the chance to make more off Destiny, but ... oh well.

Second, and this gripe isn't limited to Destiny at all, but the game really highlighted for me the need for the walls between PSN and Xbox Live (and Steam, for Destiny 2, where I'll be playing if I buy it) to come down. Players on both modern consoles and PC need to be able to freely play games together. It's utterly stupid that it hasn't happened yet, and there is no technical or technological reasons it can't happen.

If even fucking Squenix can make it happen with Final Fantasy XIV, then any developer/publisher can do it. Seriously.

If given the choice, I will always take the PC version, for a long list of reasons, but most of friends don't like playing on PC, which makes games like this nearly a non-starter for me. It'd be great if they could continue living like savage cavemen while I continue my life in the present day, but we could still play games together.

Third, I just have a really hard time playing and getting into console games. I have no desire to start a flame war here, but it comes to down to control over the experience, being able to play anywhere (whether anywhere in my house or anywhere in the world while traveling, or even at work while at lunch) any time, the mouse/keyboard combo, the upgraded visuals, never having to sweat backwards compatibility, and on and on. I play some console games, and I own both modern consoles, but they're more for A/V entertainment and for my kids to play games.

So, it's amazing to see the hype for Destiny 2. It became a favorite punching bag for the lemming locusts out there. Anything that be criticized, no matter how small, was dragged out and shat upon, en masse, by the negativity-obsessed so-called 'gamers.' It became fashionable to bitch about it.

Still, I know a lotta people that a) genuinely liked it, and b) genuinely tried really hard to like it. Bungie are good people, so I was glad to see fans actually like the game.

I liked a lot about Destiny. I thought, for a controller-only game, it controlled very, very well. I liked that Bungie attempted to do something different. I liked what I thought maybe the setting was (though I couldn't really tell.)

I'm glad people are giving them another chance, and I suspect that more people liked the first game than were willing to admit it, in order to look cool. I dunno.

Anyway, here's the new trailer for Destiny 2.



I'll be streaming more KotOR tonight. I need a cool name for the series. Suggestions are welcome.

I'll be on 8PM central time, and probably go for 90-120min. We'll see. I'm pretty tired and frustrated. It's been a week.

Anyway, if you want, you can get caught up on my KotOR series here or below:



And that's it. I hope to see you tonight, and let me know what you think of Destiny's past, and where you think it's going.

-Blaine

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

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

Prepping for E3 in ... February?!

I'm a junkie for E3. I fucking love it. Every year, I take the week off, set up like 5-6 screens, have a schedule off which I work to know what to watch when, and just totally immerse myself in the spectacle.

I actually went to a couple back in the early 2000s, and it was exhausting, but pretty cool. Frankly, I'm too old for that shit, and I have a better time a) not working at the event, and b) enjoying other people doing all the work and presenting to me my favorite games.

I have two events around which I plan my entire year: St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training in Jupiter, FL (March) and E3 (June). I'm a planner, and I plan the living shit out of things, especially these two.

I actually enjoy the planning part of E3 more, though. I'm more in control, and I don't have to pacify anyone or take anyone else's needs or feelings into consideration. It's MY week, just for ME. And it's great (Spring Training is also amazing, but in a whole different way. It's the most relaxing thing I do every year.)

Before we dive into it, check out this video that Anthony Parisi posted about his trip to the first-ever E3 in 1995. It's pretty amazing stuff.



So, E3 used to just be a couple days of a floor show, and maybe a press conference or two, but it's now ballooned into a spectacle that spans about a week.

The actual show, for a few years now, has been three days in June, on a Tues-Thurs. For a while, several companies, like Microsoft and Sony, have held their pressers the day before, on Monday. Now, companies have been pushing into the day before that, Sunday, and EA holds an event the weekend before.

You'll also see some trickles the week before now, where studios and/or publishers will host online events around one game, to ensure that it doesn't get totally buried in the madness of the following week. I remember examples from last year included Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Destiny: Whatever That Expansion Was.

EA
So, EA already put their stake in the ground for this year. Again, they're not going to have a booth, but they will have their own event in the weekend before the show (like last year), and their games will be at other publishers' booths (namely platform holders, like Microsoft and Sony). No word on when their presser will be, but they led off last year, and went mid-day Sunday. And it was a fucking disaster. They just didn't show any compelling footage. It was a few seconds of Mass Effect Andromeda, a spoiled teaser for Titanfall 2 single player, several minutes of people looking very serious in front of monitors while presumably 'developing' while some voice assured us that they were hard at work on Star Wars, and what seemed like 45 minutes of dudes talking about soccer. It was awful, and such a bad way to start my E3.

EA needs to learn from last year. Presumably, they'll be showing Battlefront 2, BioWare's new IP, something else cool, and then about 80 minutes of fucking FIFA and more than two minutes on the Sims, which is two minutes too much, and five minutes on their American sports games.

Everyone Else
The other big guys (Bethesda, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo [and occasionally Squenix]) usually trickle out their presser times and rough plans in the two months leading up.

PC Gamer, the last couple years, has put on a not-presser, as well. I hope they do it again. It's been a little rough, but has been great for gamers like me to see the really niche PC shit that I care about.

Outlets like IGN, GameSpot, Twitch, and others will start releasing their coverage schedules anywhere from a couple weeks out, to a couple days out.

My Planning
I start a OneNote late in the year before. I would start it right away, but I'm usually so sad that E3 is over that I just need to get away.

Games
I start with the games that I think might be there, and I make a second list of games that aren't out, won't be out before E3, but I think won't be at E3 (super indie stuff or stuff that's WAAAY down the line). Publishers, of late, have been loathe to even hint at games that aren't close to release at E3. What we've had recently is stuff that's going to be out by Christmas that year, with a few exceptions.

This is also a good way to deduce where in the dev cycle a game is. I knew Mass Effect Andromeda was not going to release last year based on how little presence it had, despite reassurances from EA. I don't believe for a moment that BioWare and EA had any confidence that it was going to make 2016, based on the lack of stage presence and the lack of E3 demos.

I continue to every so often tweak my lists of the 'will be there and wanna see it' and 'probably won't be there but let's make sure.' As we get closer to the show, if I don't see the game on any coverage schedules, I'll shoot a note to someone at the developer or publisher and ask. They'll usually tell ya straight up if the game is NOT going to be there, unless it's a major MAJOR HUUUGE release and is planning on being a surprise at a presser.

Pressers
As each publisher announces their presser date/time (they're usually the same every year), I make note of those and start blocking out a schedule. I factor in pre and post shows from both the publisher, and the outlets (Easy Allies was the best for this last year). Last year was a little irritating because Ubi and the PC Gaming Show overlapped a little. I hope they avoid that this year.

YouTube Gaming had some excellent programming on Presser Day last year. I hope they do the same this year.

Floor Show
In late May and early June, the press outlets will start releasing their coverage schedules, and it's usually not all at once. You'll need to keep checking back, all the way up to the first day of the floor show.

The floor show coverage is now at a point of total saturation. There's more coverage of more games than any of us can consume (or would want to), so I sift through their schedules, look at what's interesting, then pick that.

I used to watch every demo of each game in which I was interested, but what I usually found was that it was the same demo every time (more and more, what's brought to the stage by the developer is a recording of someone playing, and not a live demo), and the outlets tend to ask the same-ish questions. What I go for at that point is I'll watch whoever has it first, and usually one more time at another outlet, just to verify that I'm not seeing anything new. This can also be a good time to hop over to another game that you don't know anything about, and just give it a look.

In the past, I've watched GameSpot (usually my first choice and multiple stages), IGN (the earliest coverage), and Twitch (who, annoyingly, isn't on the same 20min blocks as the other two, but is instead on 15min blocks, which fucks up my Excel spreadsheets).

End of Day
Giant Bomb and Easy Allies both have had solid end-of-day coverage. Giant Bomb is fun because of the guests that flow in and out, and Easy Allies is fun because I just love their cast of characters and personalities.

What I usually do is put on a game and one of the two end-of-day streams, and just chill the fuck out. It's a great way to relax and process everything, especially after the Monday pressers and Tuesday floor show. Sony usually gets too much talk, but they're also the current flavor among the peasants, and almost every console game worth owning is also on PC, so it's all good.

I'll have more to say about this as the next four months tick by, but watching that 1995 video got me flashing back.

Also: E3 this year is 6/13-15, but that's just the floor show. Prepend a couple days to that, and that's more or less the whole experience.

What about you? What's your E3 procedure? What are you hyped about?

Lemme know in the comments!

UPDATE
I almost forgot. Here's some cool streams I'm watching today. GameSpot: The Lobby (1300 central) and The PC Gamer Show (1500 central).

Watch live video from GameSpot on www.twitch.tv
Watch live video from PCGamer on www.twitch.tv

-Blaine

Some Cool Things On My Radar

I just wanna pass along a few cool things this morning.

First, Squenix announced some partnership with Marvel about which there are no details, and thus I am not hyped at all, but some people I respect are, so there's that. It has to do with the Avengers.

Big News: @SquareEnix and @Marvel announce a multi-game partnership leading with The Avengers project. #Reassemble pic.twitter.com/DS87Iuzk7G

— Square Enix (@SquareEnix) January 26, 2017

Second, there's an awesome Kickstarter going that I've backed. Apocalypse Now. A first-person survival horror RPG. No shit. It's Francis Ford Coppola + a bunch of devs from CDPR, Obsidian, and other awesome studios. Seriously, give it a look. It's worth your time.

Third, BioWare is dropping another Mass Effect trailer today. I'll post it later. Keep an eye on their Twitter or the Mass Effect YouTube channel.

Last, the thing about which I am the most hyped, is the pending reveal of Pillars of Eternity 2 at noon (central) today. It'll be on their main site.

Anyway, I'll post some stuff later today once details and awesomeness solidifies.

Word.

-Blaine

my dirty secret

I take a lot of shit for gaming primarily on PC. Yeah, I'll tease some of my friends about gaming primarily on a console, but I usually reserve it for when they complain about something silly.

Occasionally, though, they get really pissed. No matter how much I reinforce that my preferences are not condemnations, friends (and not friends) will still perceive my stances as a slight. If I say, 'my kids liked the WiiU,' I'm not saying you are a child if you like it. I don't really enjoy anything on the console (aside from Mario Maker, which I'd fucking love to see on PC), but that doesn't mean other people don't. It's all good, man.

And genres. Holy shit. I love RPGs. I don't have a huge amount of gaming time, so I like to settle into a main RPG and a handful of MMOs, and just kinda ride that for weeks or months. I find value in occasionally deviating out of my comfort zone, but again, it seems to bug people, or they take it personally that my tastes skew toward deep roleplaying games.

Frankly, I find great value in diversity. I think having multiple genres is a great thing, because gaming shouldn't be all one way. The best thing about it is that it can be anything to anyone. Whether you wanna flick your finger across your phone for some period of time, or hone your reflexes in a super-deep fighting game, or live out your sports dream in a sports game, or bury yourself in story and math in an RPG, it's all there. AND the best is when genres colllide, and new ideas are born.

Honestly, it's started to get so bad that I've been pulling back from the gaming world in general. Years ago, I started to disassociate myself with the term 'gamer,' because a) I didn't like what the community was becoming (or maybe I was growing out of it), and b) I don't like belonging to things anyway. I don't like labeling myself at all, because I feel like it constrains identity and ideas.

I like what I like. I've been playing RPGs since the day Final Fantasy first came out on the NES, and I've been at it since. I outgrew most of the other genres. I'm glad you like 2D platformers and FIFA and the latest PSN sale and Mario and Rocket League and on and on. For real, follow your bliss, but try and let me do the same. A world full of happier people is a good thing. We all face enough trials without tearing each other down over something as silly as gaming genres and plastic fucking boxes.

Moving on ...

I actually didn't come here to whine about people being mean to me. I actually came because I have a problem that's been brewing for years.

Back in the 90s, and early 2000s, I was poor. I was working shit jobs, and then finally went to college, but didn't start really earning until the last five years or so, at which point, I did the natural thing, and started migrating to PC.

Before that, though, I was purely a console gamer. I missed out on all the amazing cRPGs of the era, and in fact, didn't get really converted until Dragon Age: Origins. That was my first balls-out PC RPG, and yeah, I know it was multi-plat. I'd played KotOR and Jade Empire on Xbox prior to that, so I wasn't a total BioWare noob, but I never played Baldur's Gate, or any of the Black Isle games, or any of the Piranha Bytes games, or any of the Troika games, and on and on. I've occasionally gone back and played footsie with one of them, but I always abandon them to play the new shiny.

Or in the case of Icewind Dale, it's just too fucking hard. Or I don't understand what I'm doing.

To that end, though, I've been toying with the idea of slashing this year's purchase list, and starting to play through the following:

Divine Divinity
Fallout
Gothic
Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale or Neverwinter Nights

Of course, I'm now focusing on Wasteland 2 and replaying DXHR. We'll see what happens. I've got Final Fantasy XV in the next couple months, DXMD next month, and Dishonored 2 in November. I'm guessing Deus Ex and Dishonored will both be pretty short, so maybe this fall and winter, I can finally rip through the classics.

And, naturally, I've loaded them with mods to modernize their look and feel.

Where do you think I should start? Any favorites, or other recommendations?

Alright, back to work. Thanks for reading.

Oh, and I'm going to append this post with some of my latest streaming fun.

-Blaine

time moves faster

It occurred to me that summer is winding down. Wow, that was fast.

My birthday, which was last week, always signals to me that it's time to hurry up and enjoy what's left of the scalding heat and beautiful sunshine.

To that end, my wife, oldest son, and I are going to Vegas next week for the Star Trek 50th Anniversary Convention. More on that later.

I enjoyed a nice, quiet bachelor weekend with my oldest boy this past weekend, while my wife and youngest went to visit her sister and parents, since it had been a few hours since we last did that. :P

Many great trailers were beaming out of Comic-Con, but we actually mostly just gamed, ate, and went and saw the latest generic summer action film that was branded with 'Star Trek.' It was actually an enjoyable film, and I appreciated that it at least attempted to connect with the last sliver of canon that this trilogy didn't delete. Really, I appreciated that, and I wish they'd kill this splinter of the series, restore the canon, apologize, and get back to making real television/internet Star Trek.

Which they sorta are. The generic summer action film series is continuing, but a teaser was shown for Star Trek: Discovery at Comic-Con and I hope, so deeply, that they do a big reveal at the convention next week.

Take a look:

What's interesting is that some of the press materials and official language I've seen surrounding this new series hammer home two key points:

1. this has nothing to do with the current Paramount films nonsense

2. the name 'Discovery' ties into everything they're trying to do with this show

Both of these points send my heart soaring. Star Trek isn't about blowing shit up and LOLing at a science fiction film featuring an overrated Beastie Boys track. It's about bringing the best of humanity out by being part of a larger galactic community and expanding our knowledge and seeing what's out there. The spirit of adventure, coupled with empathy and the need to better oneself, is what drives this franchise, and it's why I love it so dearly. I love Star Wars and Star Trek equally, and they balance me.

Anyway, I get way too worked up about this shit. It's been too long since we've had real Star Trek, even though I understand why the franchise needed to go away for a while.

Along these lines, I was thinking the other day about how 2005 was such a dramatic year of changes for me. It's kinda shocking to look back upon, actually.

In 2005, I got married, the final new Star Trek aired, the final Star Wars film came out, my first child was born, and the Busch Stadium in which I'd basically grown up was knocked down. All in the span of like 10-11 months. It was a year of endings and beginnings.

Except it wasn't. It was a year of beginnings. Star Wars was passed into more caring hands. A new, frankly better, Busch Stadium (and though I don't allow myself to feel nostalgia, I feel nostalgic about that old park) was built. Star Trek went away for a while, and the generic summer action series that was technically branded as Star Trek probably helped revitalize interest in the franchise (actually, I think the resurgence of Star Wars had more to do with that, but that's a different argument), and now it looks like the real Star Trek is coming back, And I hope it ignores the generic summer action films that were technically branded as Star Trek.

But I digress.

Let's wrap this up.

Real quick - I randomly started playing Wasteland 2 again the other day. I don't know why I stopped. Actually, I do. I have a terrible habit of not really investing fully in games when I play them. I let my mind wander, I try to multitask, and really, all I end up doing is not getting the full experience. I played more Wasteland 2 with my attention totally dialed in, and it's a fucking great game. It's really my kinda game. Lotsa story, lotsa strategy, lotsa math, and a fucking fantastic world. You need not have played the first game. I gotta say that inXile is easily on the level of Obsidian and BioWare (which makes a lotta sense once you start looking at developer family trees.)

I'll talk more gaming soon. And I got more to say about Comic-Con.

-Blaine

Aaand we're back!

I got back last night from my weekend in exile. Good times were had.

They live in northern Illinois, about 90 miles outta Chicago. Close enough that driving into Chicago for a day isn't too bad, but far enough out that everything smiles like pig farm everywhere.

I got lucky with the in-laws I got. I don't have the horror stories that a lotta people have. That being said, while I like them just fine, I'm not one for rural living, or the lack of creature comforts. I've spent every moment of my adult life living in either the city or the suburbs, so the rural thing is, even after fifteen years of visiting them, still a drag.

Regardless ...

... we drove up Friday, got to eat dinner at my favorite restaurant, The Corner Grill, I got to meet my (hopefully) future brother-in-law, who's cool as shit, and then I wound down the evening with some Witcher 3: Blood and Wine.

Oh, and the my in-laws don't have AC or clean water (well water is not clean, sorry), but they do have broadband + wifi now, which was a HUGE game-changer. I also grabbed some brief time with Chrono Trigger on iOS, because I forgot my fucking Vita.

Saturday was party time. We went and saw some friends and their new baby, and then my in-laws hosted a big-ass blowout. My oldest son drove my youngest son around on a tractor, which was hilarious. Lotsa people smoked in front of me, and I didn't smoke, which was cool. I wound down that evening with a new character in Dragon Age Inquisition. A female Qunari rogue that grew up in Thedas, and resents the other species because of it. The imported saves feature strongly anti-Mage choices. Should be interesting.

Sunday, we drove into Chicago and saw The Book of Mormon, which was AMAZING. Go see it. Now. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Also, it helps that my family was among the founders of the Church of LDS, but my faction split off about the middle of last century. Grandpa fell in love with a Catholic girl. A man's gotta do what he's gotta do to win the woman, ya know?

Anyway, the musical is fantastic. Everything about it. The performances, the music, the humor, the social commentary, the choreography, and on and on. SO GOOD.

And then dinner at D'Agostino's, one of my favorites from when I did my undergrad in Chicago. We met up with some old friends, and good times were had by all.

I love visiting Chicago. I cannot say enough about how incredible my undergrad years were there, living downtown, meeting my wife, partying my ass off, using public transit, getting into the local scene, and ... it was a remarkable time in my life. I'm also glad I left when I did. I'm from St. Louis, and it was time to come home and start a family.

But, I really need to spend like a week in Chicago some time. It would be cool to head over to the Columbia campus while school is actually in session, soak some of that in, check out some of my old haunts. I'd have no intent of reliving the past, but I always find it fascinating to see the ravages of time in person.

And Chicago is just a fun place to visit. I'd never live there again, as it wore on me after a while. It's an incredibly negative town with an almost oppressive atmosphere, and Cubs fans are bandwagon-jumping jackasses, even if their team is the beloved darling of ESPN and Fox Sports.

And, for a dumpy little league park, Wrigley is a fun place to hang out and see how the Cubs are going to complete fuck it up yet again.

And then, yesterday, we came back. And today I had a REALLY intense day at work. And now I'm writing at you. And now I'm ready to sneak in a little gaming.

Remind me, I wanna talk about alternate playthroughs of BioWare games some time this week. Word.

*HUGGLES!*

-Blaine