I don’t think my phone saved my game progress properly on this level, but it had already unlocked a second character, so on my replay I went into it with a brief lesson about using two characters.
Two entered, one returned.
I’m not sure if I was actually supposed to have one or my team killed or not, but it seemed a little scripted versus the bad guys, particularly when I came out of the level with a few tips and tricks about how to earn all the loot from the level despite the death. As a level itself, it felt unnecessarily tough, with the second player character making little-to-no impact on the bad guys. It’s quite possible that this character – a fire elemental from what I can tell – is simply the weaker against the enemies of level three, or it could be that I hadn’t levelled him up properly – but in either case, the net result is the same.
I can’t remember if the first mission had ’rounds’ to beat or not, but in either event, this level certainly did – with two rounds of two opponents (kobolds) to defeat.
The attacks here already feel stronger than they did in the tutorial level, however the mission also concludes with some guidance about to equip special gear, so I suspect that between leveling up, gear and a healthy increase of opponent difficulty, the game will end up being fairly balanced – if not on first go, then eventually!
I love turn-based strategy. Whether it is the epic, century-spanning saga of Civilization, or a more intimate affair like For the King, turn-based offers a far greater emphasis on strategy and skill, rather than a reward for whoever can click a button or pull a trigger the best.
So, I wanted to start a new adventue that I could chronicle, keeping track of my progress.
Age of Magic describes itself as a:
fantasy game about lots of epic heroes, fighting on the remnants of an ancient magical world.
And do you know what? That’s exactly what it is!
This first level sees you go up against an innocuous little creature as you learn the basics of attacking. I am certain that there will be more to learn as the game goes on, but for now I’m happy to know which button(s) to keep pressing to take some health off the bad guys.
The level ends with a bit of a quick tutorial about how to level up your character (or hero), so I look forward to seeing how that plays out in coming games.
A lot of people spend their lunch breaks doing different things. Some enjoy the company of a good book, others stare at the small glow of their phones while they read Buzzfeed or some click-bait-of-choice. Me? I like to play video games. I find with the combination of kids, more work responsibility, increasing civic involvement and the ravages of age, my free time is increasingly shortened.
Over the past year-and-a-bit, documenting my gaming life at Achievement a Day has offered perhaps no better example of how I juggle life and gaming. But the audience for that blog is niche, a sub-culture of gamers that enjoy achievement hunting. While being a ‘gamer’ has attracted a broader level of acceptance, particularly in younger demographics, there is still a lot of agitation, even within the gamer community, about identifying as a gamer. Yesterday’s Kotaku article about the culture at Riot Games, for example, focuses extensively on the culture of only employing ‘core gamers’ – something the article tries to contend that (Riot believes) women are incapable of.
Riot sounds like someone decided to literally bring Hell to Earth. Imagine a real human being demanding details about your favourite piece of MMO jewellery so you can prove you're a core gamer. I can't even fucking say core gamer without having a seizure.
So, if gamers can’t even play nicely among themselves, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that a middle-aged white executive from the Accounts team of South African origin (who speaks like he longs for a return to Apartheid) might have difficulty accepting that gaming is a perfectly acceptable hobby to partake in during some down-time in the middle-of-the-day.
The game itself was Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money, which I used for yesterday’s Achievement a Day, and so its comical appearance probably makes it no worse than watching something like Family Guy or Rick and Morty on my lunchbreak. But when Mr. South African stood from his desk and caught a glimpse of his screen, it wasn’t his disapproving look that bothered me the most, but rather the immediate onset of guilt for playing a video game.
Let me be clear: I was playing a video game on my own computer, during my own lunch-break out of the line-of-sight of most people. While Trailer Park Boys could be arguably quite an offensive game to the average person, it’s only in reading the cartoon-bubble text where you will get the offense. At least, that’s certainly the case yesterday.
No, the guilt came purely and solely from the act of playing a video game – not the content itself, and I think that is worth discussing.
I am certain that there is some psychology behind gaming as a hobby in which it hasn’t received mainstream acceptance yet and so it becomes a closet activity which can only be enjoyed behind closed doors, in the confines of your own home.
It’s a crude analogy, but homosexuality has been like that for a long time – first it was out-and-out unacceptable, then it became something that could be tolerated by two consenting adults out of the public eye, through to today where it’s (typically) not given a second thought. (Well, perhaps that last point still remains a lofty goal – but it’s getting there.) In either event, gaming as an activity is still in the ‘toleration’ phase of development. Nobody outwardly berates you for being a gamer – you might get the odd sneer or sideways glance – but, at worst you’re considered to be a bit eccentric, or at worst, a socially-awkward nerd.
Neither of those labels particularly bother me – at times I feel I have a foot in both camps, but collectively, the act of playing a video game and being a ‘gamer’ should have no better or worse connotation than being a ‘reader’, and reading a book on my lunch-break.
Is there a solution? No. It’s a cultural trend that will have to die out like the dinosaurs – again, much like societal views on homosexuality or any other progressive stance. I don’t think there’ll ever be, or need to be, a ‘gamer pride’ celebration, but it will be a shift that takes time. It will take the conservative, close-minded relics to die out, or have their views so increasingly marginalized by the powerful voices of a progressive youth. There’s signs of hope – the growth of PAX, and this year’s introduction of the Melbourne Esports Open are both stepping stones towards a more mainstream acceptance of gaming and gamers.
A lot of people have varying childhood memories about holidays away with the family, or notable milestones or achievements that they had when they were young that have resonated with them throughout their adult life.
Do you know what my memories consist of? Hours-on-hours playing Alex Kidd, Sonic the Hedgehog, Wonderboy, and many, many others. Even when other consoles came and went, and the rise of PC gaming started to take hold, I still returned to my MS2 and my GameGear. Long car trips consisted of me, my GameGear, an adapter that allowed me to power the GameGear from the cigarette lighter, and a handful of games to keep me entertained. Kids these days are criticized for spending too much ‘screen time’ in front of their iPads or phones … well, kids, let me tell you about a guy who has spent his life consuming video game content and is still – on balance – a normal, well-rounded human being.
(Even if it’s not true, I’m not a serial killer, so I feel like I’m still more normal than not.)
With that context set, I hope you will empathize with me a little in this next part of the story. To cut some background information short, my grandparents have recently moved into full-time aged care, and my mother is spending a lot of time cleaning out their home in anticipation of putting it on the market later this year. As part of that preparation, and antique dealer was scheduled to come through the property and essentially ‘cherry pick’ anything he wanted. My mother, the enterprising woman that she is, decided to migrate some of her own ‘unwanted’ stuff from her place into my grandparents’ to see if the dealer would want any of that as well.
What nobody knew, was that this ‘unwanted stuff’ also consisted of a large, plastic tub of my shrine to a Sega-fueled formative upbringing.
Unsurprisingly, the dealer didn’t take much from my grandparents. A few agricultural souvenirs and the odd tool, but what he did take – was that plastic tub.
“Well, it’s not worth as much as the original Master System,” he said to Mum. “But I’ll give you fifty bucks for it.”
Now, my mother – as enterprising as she is – wouldn’t know the true value of a piece of retro gaming. As I look on eBay now, prices vary, but one in good condition – sans games or even the GameGear, fetches in the vicinity of $100.
Look, this very much is a ‘spilt milk’ situation. The Sega is gone. Que Sera Sera. Carpe Diem, or pick a Latin saying that best fits – the net result is that I have a few less Sega systems and games than I had yesterday. Should I have taken them from my childhood bedroom and locked them away in my own home? Probably – but I also didn’t expect them to be so brutally snatched and sold off into slavery.
It seems then that my only course now is to pen this farewell to an old friend. I hope you find a home with a gamer that gets as much joy and nostalgia with you as I have had, and that will take care of you much better than I did, and have. May your life outside of the dusty closet in an airtight plastic tub be liberating and may your controller enjoy the touch of human flesh once more as you fire-up the in-built entertainment of Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
In the meantime, I’ll be here Google’ing ‘divorce from parents’.
We obviously want to be taken seriously as a competitive fighter — that’s why we’re kicking things off here at Evo … We definitely want to have a big presence in the esports scene and hopefully if all goes well, we’ll be back at Evo next year as an official game.
Team Ninja Creative Director Tom Lee on Dead or Alive 6‘s ambition to grow in the competitive fighting esport scene.
The 30 per cent store tax is a high cost in a world where game developers’ 70 per cent must cover all the cost of developing, operating, and supporting their games …
… there’s a rationale for this on console where there’s enormous investment in hardware, often sold below cost, and marketing campaigns in broad partnership with publishers. But on open platforms, 30 per cent is disproportionate to the cost of the services these stores perform, such as payment processing, download bandwidth, and customer service.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on why Fortnite won’t be featuring on the Google Play Store.
Right, Sony. The behemoth that is console gaming. Expectations for PlayStation are at an all-time high this year, which is a terrible place to be if you’re presenting at E3. I think there is a far better result from studios, publishers and platforms that work their communication around lowering expectations – resulting in either met expectations or pleasant surprise.
I think after Andrew MK, having Gustavo Santaolalla play a spot of banjo to lead us into The Last of Us 2 is much more my vibe. I never platinum’d TLOU1, but one of my proudest trophies is completing NG+ on Hardcore difficulty.
If you ever needed to show a bit of gameplay to get you excited about a game – then Naughty Dog absolutely delivered. Oh my God. For the entirety of this footage, I completely forgot about my overwhelming hatred of Sony and their inability to let me change my username. Hell, I’ll play this game on someone else’s account – it’s just downright gorgeous.
The intermission style panel discussion with Sid Shuman and Ryan Clements interviewing Shawn Layden was a strange change of beat, but I have to admit – it was nice seeing them in-the-flesh, rather than just a disembodied voice in my ear or car stereo once a week via the podcast.
This Sony presser is SO weird. I admire they are trying something different but all they're really doing is playing trailers, and the panel chat/dead air in-between is quite useless.
Importantly, Layden announced the introduction of a New Game Plus for God of War, which I didn’t realise I even wanted until he mentioned it – but now that he has, I am completely on-board.
I could take-or-leave any of the Call of Duty news, but I’ll absolutely take a bit of Black Ops for free with my PlayStation Plus.
And I’m still a PSVR virgin, so I’m just going to gloss over any news in that space.
One of the surprising titles from the conference was Ghosts of Tsushima, which looks like something that might struggle on my OG PS4, or it’s certainly going to cause it to sound like a jet engine taking off. I don’t think I’ve heard or read anything about this so I’m not sure if it was an announcement, or more meat-on-the-bones, but either way, I liked the look of it. Like? Maybe strongly like is a better phrase. You know … like ‘like-like’ but not ‘love-like’.
Destiny 2 Forsaken is still appealing to me, but I think that it’s been dissected enough over the past few weeks, particularly from the core Destiny sites, so I’m not going to be able to add much more – particularly when it was little more than a short teaser. I suggest you would learn much more through reading Bungie.net than holding out for info at the E3 press conference. Needless to say – they better not kill-off Cayde-6 though. Don’t you touch my Nathan Fillion, Bungie!
Control looked incredible. I even texted a friend to comment that Xbox had nothing that came close to this visually during their press conference, but it’s quite possible that I’ve just bought into the hype of the presser – if anything I think Quantum Break probably fits that criteria – but gameplay alone certainly held up as a work of art. It’s only after-the-fact that I realised that Remedy is the developer, which is exactly why it had the QB feel!
So I gotta ask was Quantum Break just a beta for Control?#E3#E32018
Resident Evil 2 … looks gorgeous … I don’t think I’ve ever actually played RE2 … If I cast my mind back, I’m not actually sure I’ve finished RE1 properly … but there is certainly enough aesthetic here to get me interested.
Trover Saves the Universe. What? Much like Seth McFarlane has turned every one of his creations into essentially ‘the same thing’, this felt very Rick and Morty – just with new characters. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not, I’ve only just really started getting into Rick and Morty (which I love), but I feel like you could grab yourself a cheap voice actor for a bit of variety and – if the material is good enough – it will hold up.
I can’t understand the deep-rooted love for Kingdom Hearts III but it was clearly enough to get coverage at both Xbox and Sony’s stage … so I guess this is now going to end up on my to-do list. What did appeal to me was Sony packaging them all together as part of the final package (though I assume that 1.5 and 2.5 are remasters).
Nioh 2 adds itself to the list-of-games-that-I-haven’t-played-the-first-one-of. The internet seems excited though, so it seems like I’ll be locked in a gaming room for the rest of the year to try and finish this off.
Not even touching Death Stranding. I wonder if I have to hand in my Sony fan card (which was already on its last legs – where was my username change, Sony?) if I admit to not really liking the vibe I get from Kojima’s latest foray?
And then, the title we’ve probably all been waiting for – Spider-Man. It’s so utterly, utterly disappointing that this isn’t coming to Xbox or PC, but business is business, and I think Sony have made a very sensible decision grabbing this one as an exclusive. If I ask my son who he likes more – Spider-Man or Batman – he comes back with a decisive Spider-Man, which nearly gets him disowned from the family every time, but I satisfy my rage by telling myself that Spider-Man is actually my favourite Marvel character and Batman my DC. It hasn’t helped the last few years in realising that the rights to Spider-Man were owned by Fox, but once again, I have become incredibly good at disassociation as I get older, so I will endure.
Let me just say, the gameplay for Spider-Man is A+. A PLUS. The city is beautiful, the combat is second-to-none and the library of characters looks to fill a comic-book lover’s wishlist. If I can find myself a limited edition Spider-Man PS4 Pro console, then there’s a not-insignificant chance that I’ll be throwing my money at whatever retailer is going to take it.
The post-conference chatter with Shuman and Clements essentially included a little more gameplay from Spidey, as well as the announcement of a new PSVR game from From Software.
If you listened to the internet, you would think that the Sony conference was terrible. Sure, the approach to focussing on 5-6 big games and the inclusion of a panel was a bit ‘different’, but it was a good example of quality over quantity (compared with Xbox’s focus on showing 50 games). And when it comes to quality, Sony certainly delivered. I won’t say that the quality on-show was necessarily better or worse than Microsoft’s – I think there’s been strong positives to take away from most shows this weekend. But, and I apologise for the wax lyrical, but maybe at some point the discussion can turn from ‘who won?’ E3 to just being about the general love of gaming and the communities which form around it. For all my pessimism in life, I don’t really play PUBG, but I do enjoy its success. Kojima isn’t really my bag, but I love that others love him.
In the wise words of Rodney King: Can’t We All Just Get Along?
That's a wrap for the main #PlayStationE3 show (with more news to come!)
Congratulations to everyone at E3 2018, and I sincerely mean that. For every shooter, puzzler, platformer, strategy, collectable card game, platform, and engine that fills our gaming libraries with great content each-and-every day, thank you.
It’s a great time to be a gamer …
… even if we’re stuck with our twelve year old PlayStation usernames.
For starters, I’m going to leave everything associated with Just Dance 2019 aside, because I think that it’s still a ridiculous title to lead E3 with. The only time I get a hint of enjoyment out of Just Dance is when costumed superheroes or dinosaurs try their best to hit the moves on the dance floor at things like PAX. My loungeroom, and my beautiful big coffee table which sits in the middle of it, are not dancing friendly. Heck, ever since Xbox Fitness died, I haven’t had a need to gesticulate in front of my TV for a long time.
No, instead, let’s get into the meaty stuff.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 is another of the titles that make me feel guilty for never finishing their predecessors. I am fairly certain I got the original as part of a Games with Gold Backward Compatibility title, or on PC (I can’t remember), but in either event, I haven’t had the inclination or the drive to get this over the line, and so the emotional attachment to the game just isn’t quite landing for me. Visually, it looks quite good, so I’m interested to play it – but this will probably be a 2020 game for me at the earliest, considering everything else I have in my backlog to get through!
I spoke a little bit about The Division 2 yesterday following Xbox’s conference – and I quite enjoyed the first game, but can completely understand its limited appeal. There is a big focus on games-as-a-service these days as everyone tries to be the next Destiny, but I don’t think the inclusion of ‘raids’ and free DLC is going to be enough to get anyone over the line. For me, I still have a swath of achievements I haven’t unlocked from the first game, so I’m not holding out any great burning desire to get back into The Division 2. Sure, it looks great – and the gameplay looks sensational, but it’s more of what made the first game good. I want to play it … but I just don’t know whether the investment is worth it. A story run might be the best I can hope for when it comes to the latest instalment.
I don’t even own a Nintedo Switch, so the new Mario + RabbidsDonkey Kong DLC doesn’t float my boat … one day I’ll get a Switch (because I’m a sucker for Pokemon) but because of my long-standing love of achievements, the absence of a reward system, as well as known issues with the career setting on the Nintendo Network means that I’m holding out.
That, plus I grew up as a SEGA kid.
I like the look of Skull & Bones but I remain a little bitter that it doesn’t just pull all the piratey goodness out of AC4 and dump it into a new game on its own. The focus on naval combat is what gives me the most pause, because what I enjoyed most about AC4 was running around the island settings … complimenting the naval combat. If anything, what really gets me excited about Skull & Bones is the prospect of a really good collectors’ edition. Ship-in-a-Bottle Anyone? Ubi Collectables certainly know how to make me happy – and if they can’t do it with a great pirate setting, how can they do it?
I could do without the whole ‘working together’ aspect of piracy … I don’t like it as a general rule for most games, and 2018 had a fair amount of focus on online co-op gaming. Has nobody told these studios that playing online with people is a terrible idea?
Next up was Starlink, which is going to fill the gap that Skylanders and Disney Infinity have left in my collectable obsession. The inclusion of Star Fox in the Switch version is fairly inconsequential, seen as the series is coming to all platforms, but if you put that to one side (remember there was a Donkey Kong special crossover in Skylanders for the Wii U), then you can begin to feel the anticipation for the game. Time will tell if kids are on-board as this thirty-something adult is, but I’ll enjoy it while I can.
I only played the main campaigns in For Honor, nearly a year ago when it had a free weekend. It’s not really my kind of game – well, online certainly isn’t anyway – so the news about an expansion doesn’t really float my boat. I think it’s good for those people who are obviously still passionate about it … I’ll be honest, I’m surprised it continues to have such traction in the gaming community – but I can appreciate that people thrive on variety, and For Honor certainly brings variety to the gaming landscape beyond the shooters and sports that fill the esport landscape.
Last, but certainly not least, was the close of the conference with some Assassins Creed Odyssey. I was a huge, huge fan of the series taking a bit of a break, and I think it helped AC Origins come back bigger, better and badder than ever. I have some concerns that the reintroduction to a yearly title might start to stretch the friendship, but for now I have to just take comfort in the fact that this entry actually looks pretty good! The focus on gender-selection at the start is a nice touch – I can’t imagine it’s entirely being begged for by the community, but I think any step towards equal representation is a good one.
Plus, if Mass Effect is anything to go by – female protagonists are actually more thematically believable.
Do you know what was missing from all of this? Splinter Cell. Walmart Canada really made me angry with this one – all I have been excited about out of this E3 was Splinter Cell, given almost everyone else had their titles on-show today, I was simultaneously disappointed and surprised not to see Ubisoft pull out a ‘one last thing.’
Will I get over it? Of course I will. If anything, I’ve been treated to a stunning variety of games that are going to fill up my library (and their prequels which I’ve never played), and they all signal a great future for game quality on the horizon.
Huh. I mean … we’re all used to E3 having most of the surprises spoiled for us in the weeks leading up to it, but Square Enix were actually a touch underwhelming in their announcements today. I mean … they weren’t bad announcements, were they? It was just … well, expected.
Just Cause 4 is going to be all about the weather. OK. That’s good. But really, the Just Cause series has been all about having fun. Pretty much everything about JC3 (by the end of the DLC) was pretty much perfect in my mind. Rocket packs, tanks, and the standard epic destruction that the series is known for is more than enough for me – you could call the whole thing Just Cause Three-and-a-Half and I’d be happy.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is just an automatic win for me. I don’t really need to see the expanded stealth options or story … I just know that I’ve been happy with the remakes so far (the only thing nearest to God of War, in my view) and I’ll be happy to just throw my money at the screen.
Everything else seemed .. well … ‘so-so’. The Quiet Man looks like it’s about a deaf brawler, I still haven’t played any Monster Hunter: World to get excited about a crossover and both Dragon Quest 11 and Octopath Traveller hold zero interest for me.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing necessarily – but d’frent strokes and all that. And these strokes certainly didn’t appeal to this folk.
Here’s hoping Ubi and Sony can make up for lost ground today. Anything less than the ability to change PSN usernames and the PlayStation Vita 2, and I’ll probably Hulk-out.
This is a Game Blog 