Games I am Skipping and Banner Saga
So I am trying to write another quick blog, just finished doing some homework and still in kind of a typing mood. In my last post I quickly went over my next planned game I am going to try and play and keep my blog up with, Mass Effect:Andromeda, I also mentioned the games that I am skipping in order to make sure I have time to play Mass Effect and so that I am not spending money on games that I won't get to play much or may not like much, also just I don't have that kind of money to buy every game I would like.
Like I mentioned, many of the games coming out this spring are not playing on a console I own, they are either Nintendo (Zelda) or Playstation (Horizon, Nioh, Nier Automata, Persona 5), I feel like I am missing something else...oh yeah, Torment: Tides of Numenera, I think that it is PC, and I don't have a rig that can run any of those games.
First of all, I really do want a Nintendo Switch, I really like the turn they have taken where they are trying to take over what the PS Vita ended up doing by finding a niche market in all those indie games and weird Japanese games. I am really excited about a few games on the Switch, even ones that have already been out, haven't had the chance to play Setsuna or Stardew Valley, I could play both but I think it will be a better experience on Switch, there are also many more indies and weird games that I am really excited to play. We just don't have the money(just had to buy a new dryer) and I am not a huge Nintendo fan so I wanted to wait (Glad I did) and see what sort of issues the Switch is having. Obviously, if anyone has been paying attention it has been having tons of issues including screen scratches by dock, joy con losing connection, dead pixels, other issues and just a general attitude of not proving (until just this week) that companies are actually developing anything for the switch. They still have many things to fix and work on like getting the online system functioning somewhere close to xbox live or psn, fixing how you add friends, fixing how you save games, running any third party apps (netflix, twitch, etc), and then just coming up with fixes for the aforementioned issues, because the advice of playing your switch not near any other wireless devices or just telling you that sometimes dead pixels just happen to LCD screens is nowhere near good enough, Nintendo. So, I will not be buying one until they really make strides to fix all of these extremely obvious and avoidable flaws in a console that otherwise has lots of potential....oh yeah not to mention all the extra money I will need to spend, another set of joy cons, a pro controller, a charger grip for the joy cons, maybe the little wheel, maybe a dock, it is really absurd.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands is the other major purchase that I wrestled with and ultimately decided to skip. It is a totally okay shooter. The issue is that it is okay, not great, and the gameplay loop has no variety so almost each mission you come across is dealt with pretty much the same way you would take over a bandit camp in any other Ubisoft open world game. Think Far Cry, but in a team of 4, and the combat is not a smooth and leveling and equipment systems do not provide any real noticeable change, and lastly the storyline is just tired, you beat a lower guy to get info to the next higher boss and so on and so forth. The AI teammates you have are obnoxious, their jokes are annoying and their banter is just bad. I looked multiple times for a way to just turn all the noise off including my teammates and the radio. The gameplay loop is just way too obvious too early for me to put any real time into this game. The only strong this about this game is the hijinks that you and your friends can get into as a group. You have one friend trying to mark targets, one friend is sniping, you are running in close to try and silently take out people with a pistol without getting seen, and the last friend runs in guns blazing and the next thing you know everyone is throwing grenades and running from helicopters. So that can actually be a bunch of fun...I just don't have friends that play these games get online during the same time as me very often. I only have maybe 10 online friends that I play with, half only really play battlefield, the others play a bunch of games but it is very rare for more than just one or two of us to be on all playing the same game. This game really only shines if you have a full 4 people trying to work together and cause havoc and what not, so I just decided those times would be too few and far between to justify a purchase of this game.
Mass Effect doesn't come out for a couple weeks though, so I did have to find something to play so I went to my backlog of indie type games and remember getting Banner Saga and 2 free from Twitch. These games are crazy, it is like Final Fantasy Tactics fighting and map movement with Oregon Trail like decisions and issues that come up to your team as you camp and as your caravan tries to cover ground, it is all also set in a Norse type of game with half giants all over the place. I don't quite understand the whole story yet, but I really like the fighting, it is very simple where your character can move a number of spaces and then has an attack that does this much damage vs. the enemies armor/life...it is all very easy to understand. There are many small ways that you can make the combat more complicated though as you try to decide when to use willpower to use a special move, move further, or to simply power up a normal attack. Also, based on the defense of the enemy you may have a smaller percent chance to hit the enemy so then it comes into play whether you want to attack their armor or try and hit their health. It also just seems like the fighting has even deeper tropes and strategies that I just don't understand yet. The other really neat thing is how this game throws so much random decisions at you and based on how you answer you may gain renown (like currency), supplies, soldiers, get into fights, gain characters, or those decisions might having you losing all of those outcomes I just listed. I have never played a game where I really thought this much on all the possible outcomes based on my responses. And there are many times where an outcome happens and there was no way to predict what will happen. So anyway I have been playing through Banner Saga very slow and plodding in a way where I want to be sure of my actions, and I am having a great time in how the game gets you to read and play in that way.
I also started a game with Dragon Age: Origins, which is one of my favorite 360 games. I am really excited that they made it backwards compatible. I just wanted to start a game that I wouldn't feel too bad setting down and leaving for a bit once Mass Effect comes out.
Lastly, I think this weekend I want to blog again, hopefully I will have played some more Banner Saga, But I really want to talk about the Xbox Scorpio, I have had some really interesting ideas and guess as to what this console can be. Not just what it can be, but the way that it can succeed, I saw the PS 4 Pro as completely unnecessary and the Scorpio doesn't seem to be needed either, so I have been speculating ways that they could/should develop and market it if they really want to strike back against Playstation who has in every way dominated this console generation, any xbox fanboy type people who honestly think that xbox one has better exclusives is too biased or jealous to really look at the two consoles and games with lenses that look at each console fairly. But more on that stuff this weekend, xbox Scorpio, banner saga, and this generation console war. bye bye
Like I mentioned, many of the games coming out this spring are not playing on a console I own, they are either Nintendo (Zelda) or Playstation (Horizon, Nioh, Nier Automata, Persona 5), I feel like I am missing something else...oh yeah, Torment: Tides of Numenera, I think that it is PC, and I don't have a rig that can run any of those games.
First of all, I really do want a Nintendo Switch, I really like the turn they have taken where they are trying to take over what the PS Vita ended up doing by finding a niche market in all those indie games and weird Japanese games. I am really excited about a few games on the Switch, even ones that have already been out, haven't had the chance to play Setsuna or Stardew Valley, I could play both but I think it will be a better experience on Switch, there are also many more indies and weird games that I am really excited to play. We just don't have the money(just had to buy a new dryer) and I am not a huge Nintendo fan so I wanted to wait (Glad I did) and see what sort of issues the Switch is having. Obviously, if anyone has been paying attention it has been having tons of issues including screen scratches by dock, joy con losing connection, dead pixels, other issues and just a general attitude of not proving (until just this week) that companies are actually developing anything for the switch. They still have many things to fix and work on like getting the online system functioning somewhere close to xbox live or psn, fixing how you add friends, fixing how you save games, running any third party apps (netflix, twitch, etc), and then just coming up with fixes for the aforementioned issues, because the advice of playing your switch not near any other wireless devices or just telling you that sometimes dead pixels just happen to LCD screens is nowhere near good enough, Nintendo. So, I will not be buying one until they really make strides to fix all of these extremely obvious and avoidable flaws in a console that otherwise has lots of potential....oh yeah not to mention all the extra money I will need to spend, another set of joy cons, a pro controller, a charger grip for the joy cons, maybe the little wheel, maybe a dock, it is really absurd.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands is the other major purchase that I wrestled with and ultimately decided to skip. It is a totally okay shooter. The issue is that it is okay, not great, and the gameplay loop has no variety so almost each mission you come across is dealt with pretty much the same way you would take over a bandit camp in any other Ubisoft open world game. Think Far Cry, but in a team of 4, and the combat is not a smooth and leveling and equipment systems do not provide any real noticeable change, and lastly the storyline is just tired, you beat a lower guy to get info to the next higher boss and so on and so forth. The AI teammates you have are obnoxious, their jokes are annoying and their banter is just bad. I looked multiple times for a way to just turn all the noise off including my teammates and the radio. The gameplay loop is just way too obvious too early for me to put any real time into this game. The only strong this about this game is the hijinks that you and your friends can get into as a group. You have one friend trying to mark targets, one friend is sniping, you are running in close to try and silently take out people with a pistol without getting seen, and the last friend runs in guns blazing and the next thing you know everyone is throwing grenades and running from helicopters. So that can actually be a bunch of fun...I just don't have friends that play these games get online during the same time as me very often. I only have maybe 10 online friends that I play with, half only really play battlefield, the others play a bunch of games but it is very rare for more than just one or two of us to be on all playing the same game. This game really only shines if you have a full 4 people trying to work together and cause havoc and what not, so I just decided those times would be too few and far between to justify a purchase of this game.
Mass Effect doesn't come out for a couple weeks though, so I did have to find something to play so I went to my backlog of indie type games and remember getting Banner Saga and 2 free from Twitch. These games are crazy, it is like Final Fantasy Tactics fighting and map movement with Oregon Trail like decisions and issues that come up to your team as you camp and as your caravan tries to cover ground, it is all also set in a Norse type of game with half giants all over the place. I don't quite understand the whole story yet, but I really like the fighting, it is very simple where your character can move a number of spaces and then has an attack that does this much damage vs. the enemies armor/life...it is all very easy to understand. There are many small ways that you can make the combat more complicated though as you try to decide when to use willpower to use a special move, move further, or to simply power up a normal attack. Also, based on the defense of the enemy you may have a smaller percent chance to hit the enemy so then it comes into play whether you want to attack their armor or try and hit their health. It also just seems like the fighting has even deeper tropes and strategies that I just don't understand yet. The other really neat thing is how this game throws so much random decisions at you and based on how you answer you may gain renown (like currency), supplies, soldiers, get into fights, gain characters, or those decisions might having you losing all of those outcomes I just listed. I have never played a game where I really thought this much on all the possible outcomes based on my responses. And there are many times where an outcome happens and there was no way to predict what will happen. So anyway I have been playing through Banner Saga very slow and plodding in a way where I want to be sure of my actions, and I am having a great time in how the game gets you to read and play in that way.
I also started a game with Dragon Age: Origins, which is one of my favorite 360 games. I am really excited that they made it backwards compatible. I just wanted to start a game that I wouldn't feel too bad setting down and leaving for a bit once Mass Effect comes out.
Lastly, I think this weekend I want to blog again, hopefully I will have played some more Banner Saga, But I really want to talk about the Xbox Scorpio, I have had some really interesting ideas and guess as to what this console can be. Not just what it can be, but the way that it can succeed, I saw the PS 4 Pro as completely unnecessary and the Scorpio doesn't seem to be needed either, so I have been speculating ways that they could/should develop and market it if they really want to strike back against Playstation who has in every way dominated this console generation, any xbox fanboy type people who honestly think that xbox one has better exclusives is too biased or jealous to really look at the two consoles and games with lenses that look at each console fairly. But more on that stuff this weekend, xbox Scorpio, banner saga, and this generation console war. bye bye
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