#so for them it would be harder. because adapting to the style of gameplay is objectively hard

[genderqueer-miharu]

I really think we need to make it illegal for people to say "the game is too easy" in a videogame review/critique

[masterskywalkers]

While I feel that games like Pillars of Eternity can't really compared to Baldur's Gate 3 in terms of playstyle, I will say that Baldur's Gate 3 - like other games such as Dragon Age: Origins and Knights of the Old Republic - work well as a good introduction into the older, more strategic isometric genre.

Pillars of Eternity is a love letter to the isometric style of the 90's - 2000's, and one of the gaming inspirations it borrows from is the original Baldur's Gate games and Icewind Dale. These types of games borrowed a lot from tabletop games (Baldur's Gate is obviously a D&D game built in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons system - or second edition, for ease.).

Isometric gaming was something that was on the way out a few years ago, and Pillars of Eternity began life as a Kickstarter project. It gained interest and, while being of a rather niche interest in the wider gaming market, sparked enough of a buzz that it woke up others who took inspiration from the isometric style and brought more games back to that style. Pillars wasn't alone in restarting this resurgence, but it damn certainly helped it.

Baldur's Gate 3, to me, is more of a return to what RPG's used to be back in the late 00's. Its gameplay is far more reminiscent to Dragon Age: Origins than it is of its original two entries - so much so that when I first spoke of BG3 to friends, I actually compared it to DA:O in the styling of it.

You have to remember that when isometric games were big in the 90's and early 00's cutscenes weren't as big a thing as they are in games now - they were there, but the technology wasn't like it is today so the cutscenes would either be filmed or have to be much shorter / or silent (think original cutscenes in Final Fantasy from entries 6-9 that had no voice acting, or old titles like the Wing Commander series - hey, didn't Mark Hamill film for those?). CRPG games had to rely on the story - both visual and through actual reading on the player's part. Baldur's Gate 3 is quite amazing to me because it gets to take influence both from its original routes through the gameplay, but it also gets the luxury of having cutscenes and showing scenes where characters can talk and interact face to face. Because of this, Baldur's Gate 3 is actually a nice introduction for a new RPG gamer to find their footing in the genre. Harder difficulties lend a strategic process that can open doors to players wanting to explore the more challenging games that isometric gaming opens (especially when BG3 introduces those legendary actions in the later part of the game on harder difficulties). The RPG genre is always evolving and changing, and we'll continue to see how it adapts as the years go on and more ways to tell a story develop and grow. Isometric gaming is just another variation of how to tell a story, just as RPG's like BG3 and DA:O and 2 are another version of the genre. I would also argue that games like Dragon Age: Inquisition are slightly different from both of what came for, as they brought with them the open-world element. In a way, Inquisition is unique to its own franchise in the way BG3 is, as it borrows pieces from its past, but grows with what's new also (even if I still feel Origins / Awakening is the strongest entry in the entire series).

So, yes. I don't really like/agree with comparing these games in accordance to gameplay and style as they are all products that reflect the differences of how the genre itself grows. Pillars was always a love letter to games of the past, whereas BG3 is a story that pushes the boundaries of what we have available to use with today's resources. RPG's will keep changing, but we'll always see those special games that come out to celebrate a different era of the genre.

[poppyseed799]

HIII I MAKE CUSTOM ORIGINS DATAPACKS FOR THE MC ORIGINS MOD 😁 WHO WANTS TO HEAR ME DISCUSS A BIT OF ORIGIN DESIGN PHILOSOPHY AND TIPS FOR IF YOU WANT TO DESIGN AN ORIGIN???

For the rambling on how to design an origin, check this read more

First of all, Disclaimer:

No one’s opinion on what makes an origin good should be taken as fact. It’s all subjective. I’m a firm believer that you should make origins in whatever way YOU want, because there will ALWAYS be someone with the same or similar tastes as you. Even if a majority think your origin is poorly designed, there will be a handful of people who are glad it exists. I think it’s good to listen to criticism and others’ opinions to help you really flesh out your own ideals, but if you disagree with someone’s opinion, then don’t change your style just for them. So please just read through everything I have to say here and decide for yourself which ideas you want to use for your own designs.

Also, even if you don’t code origins yourself, if you’re a fan of typing up ideas for them, that’s what this is for lol. It will bring up a bit of coding stuff though.

Alright! First of all, a major pet peeve of mine! Impact level. Those green/yellow/red circles next to the origin’s name? Yeah. A lot of the time, I’ll see people choose whether the impact is low/medium/high based solely on how many powers it has. This is NOT what impact is for.

“Impact” is how much of an impact it’ll have on your typical minecraft survival let’s play. Basically, you’ll just have to think, “if I tried playing this like as if I was a human, how impossible would it be?”

Avian is low impact because it pretty much only prevents you from eating meat. That’s not a core part of human gameplay, so the impact is low. Enderian is medium impact because not being able to touch water will definitely change how you play the game, but not SUPER drastically, as touching water isn’t really that big for a typical minecraft playthrough. Blazeborn is high impact because it spawns in the Nether, which will absolutely change how you play. I’ve seen people do challenges where they start in the nether before lol.

So basically, even if your origin has the power to cast ten million spells, if its only downside is that it can’t eat vegetables, then it’s low impact since it doesn’t change your ability to play as a human would much. It’s just that you have the added bonus of magic.

I’m just tired of seeing really powerful origins with a lot of details in them always being high impact when you could still play somewhat normally with them. Low and Medium impact origins can be chock-full of complex powers too!

And yes, the impact is mostly focused on the downsides of origins, since I feel like the indicator is meant to help people know how much they’ll have to adapt. People who don’t want a hard time will go for low impact origins, people who like a challenge will go for high impact. Mixing up “high impact” with “lots of powers” will make that harder for people.

Now with impact out of the way, here’s some more design tips! Many of these ones I learned from others in the discord server, although they may be slightly changed to fit with my beliefs more. As I said it’s good to listen to others ideas to add to your own philosophy!

It’s helpful if your origin has a core gimmick. I personally don’t believe you NEED one, but it IS REALLY helpful for designing your origin, and will also draw more attention to it.

For example, say you want an origin that, um… shoots fireballs. You can make buffs and debuffs that encourage the use of said fireballs, so that it doesn’t feel like a random ability that you don’t really need!

People are really obsessed with balance, and tend to slap on debuffs and buffs to make things even, but if they aren’t related, then it feels really odd and hard to say if it’s balanced. For example, if you make your origin able to fly, and try to balance that by making it unable to eat meat. Like… okay? That doesn’t really affect the flying at all. Instead you could limit the flying (without making it useless), or make it so you’re worse on the ground. Or if you really want to balance it with not eating meat, make it so the flying costs food so the debuff of limiting your food options feels more relevant!

That being said, not everything has to be relevant to each other. There’s something that people like to call… flavor traits? Where it has nothing to do with the main gimmick, but fits what the origin is based on. An example being Avians laying eggs. It makes origins more fun, and I highly recommend adding them, but an important tip is to make sure they aren’t TOO impactful. Making a perfectly balanced origin and then making it take damage in water just for the lolz would give it an unnecessary major disadvantage. Instead you could just like give it weakness in water or something.

Designers don’t typically say this but it’s my belief that it’s okay if your origin doesn’t have a gimmick and is just a bunch of flavor traits, because not everyone is using origins for the gameplay, some are using them purely for roleplay purposes. I’d still recommend having a gimmick to make it more fun, but ultimately it’s up to you. (I also recommend making your flavor traits work well together if you’re not going to have a gimmick)

On the flipside, as I said I HIGHLY recommend adding flavor traits, as I’ve seen some origins that have a really cool core gimmick that they clearly worked hard on, but then they just decided that was enough and didn’t add anything else. It made the theme of the origin feel fake. Please add little things that add to the theme 🥺 but also try not to make your origin too crowded (well, I personally don’t mind crowded origins, so if you don’t either then go ahead! But if you do or you’re trying to appeal to others who do, then plz don’t force yourself to add traits if it’s already too much).

Something that’s more for coding, but also if you want to go into extreme detail when daydreaming about your own origins you won’t code yourself…

Avoid using potion effects for things when you can. Sometimes it’s good! But there are downsides to it, such as it overriding actual potions, cluttering your screen, and also making some people think you’re lazy but I say ignore the haters.

It’s not always bad; if you think a potion effect is the right way to go, then go ahead. But like, if you want an origin to be faster in a certain biome, instead of applying speed effect to them while they’re in it, you could make a conditioned attribute to their movement speed. It’s easy to notice without being a distracting icon, can be amplified with speed potions rather than negating them, and highly customizable so you can make it as fast or slow as you want!

The customizability is great as well, cuz if you wanted your origin to be faster and stronger at night, but you feel like applying speed and strength is too much, you could just make 2 conditioned attributes (one for movement and one for damage) and make it so it’s SLIGHTLY faster and stronger so it’s not too crazy! Once again this gives you the bonus of not overriding actual potion effects so if you drink strength you’ll be even STRONGER! It feels more authentic and real.

Practically ANY potion effect can be recreated with origin powers, even stuff like mining fatigue and regeneration (which yes would be more customizable). Hell, even luck. So I encourage you to try to take advantage of this, but also use actual potion effects whenever it feels more appropriate.

And now for another simple pet peeve which doesn’t really have anything to do with actually DESIGNING an origin, but rather EXPLAINING your origin.

Pros vs Cons vs Neutral traits. It should always be comparing it to what a HUMAN can do. It can climb walls? Humans can’t do that, that’s a pro! It can’t eat meat? Humans can eat meat, that’s a con! It’s translucent? That doesn’t affect the gameplay at all, it’s neutral! It can breathe in water but not breathe air? That’s something that is both a good thing that humans can’t do and a bad thing that humans can do, it’s neutral!

That’s how it works. So, tell me why people are making “it can only eat meat and golden apples” NEUTRAL. Like, humans can eat more than that!!! It’s a con!!! Even worse, when they say “it can only eat meat” con “it can eat golden apples” pro WHAT DO YOU MEAN??? EATING GOLDEN APPLES ISN’T A PRO HUMANS CAN ALREADY DO THAT!!! They’re just comparing it to other carnivore origins when you SHOULD be comparing it to HUMAN. Just. Whether it’s for impact or for pros/cons, ALWAYS compare to human.

I think I’m out of less opinionated stuff, so here’s some personal preferences that you DON’T have to listen to AT ALL because it’s just my opinion.

I don’t like origins that aren’t a species. Not like made up ones, those are fine. I mean stuff like “warrior”. My guy that’s a human. Even stuff like “wizard” like unless it’s a wizard that got physically infused with magic I don’t see why this is an origin instead of a class or something!

To be clear, I do totally get it. People want to make magic/combat systems but don’t know how to make mods, only origins. By all means, I should ALSO like making origins like these, but I don’t. Idk why. It just rubs me the wrong way. Like. That’s just a human. Install a magic mod.

Unnecessary size changes also kind of annoy me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them for flavor traits, don’t get me wrong! But sometimes they’re like WHOLE BLOCK height differences with NO accommodations. Like they didn’t think a whole block change to the height would make the game any different. News flash, IT DOES. Just be sure to keep in mind how annoying playing the origin might be when changing height. Anyways, the more opinionated part of this one is that I feel like it’s really unnecessary sometimes when it’s like.. pig origin. Pigs are small so you’re small. Like erm what? Most mobs are smaller than humans, but most mob origins aren’t shorter, so why is THIS one? But that’s just me. Sometimes it feels fitting, other times it doesn’t.

A lot of people say not to overstep Merling by giving your aquatic origin all of its powers, and I agree… except I also disagree at the same time. Like, making aquatic origins that aren’t just Merling copies? Extremely fun and test your creativity. But also I think we should be allowed to treat Merling as Underwater Human if we want. Like if a server has a bunch of underwater origins then Merling can just be like the human for ppl who wanna be aquatic. Guardian from I think mob origins is one of my favorite origins cuz it plays differently from Merling despite having all the Merling traits, but isn’t STRONGER. It’s just Merling with a theme and it plays into the theme really well in a way Merling doesn’t.

I got bored of typing auugghhh talk to me about origins I have a lot of fun making these 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[frauhupfner]

hello! i would like to know how you simulate war in your game, i am currently making my adaptation of the decades challange for sims 2 that matches my gameplay style and i have no idea on how to make it! (I was going to put the sims in the sim bin for 20 sim days but i think this a little too boring)

Hello. :) Before the first world war started I also was thinking of just sending the male Sims to the Sim bin but I also wanted to show what the men are going through so I made a subhood where I had just one lot- the war place. For the second world war I made three more war places. All adults and teens from this family moved to the war place and spent their days there. I also used a mod that makes sickness more deadly (I sadly can't remember where I found it.). At the first world war only Alfred had a job since he was at the medical career and doctors were needed at the war. Everyone else gave up their jobs. The teens went to school just normal and I imagined that they are looking for enemies somewhere. ;) To kill a Sim I used mods and functional guns (by JaViera here). Sometimes I used pose boxes on both wars. To let something burn I used this round fire thing from Nightlife (I still don't know what it's called, even in german ^^). To make it look a little like the world around them is burning I used these effects. The second world war was a little harder to play for me since I'm playing a german family and we all know what part Germany had in that war. :/ So I also made a concentration camp where I made some war pictures about deporting children and women, and a lot with burning houses and some Sims. One of those pictures also found it's way to Simsecret (as a nice secret) and someone there made some mean comments just because I'm german. :/ If you want to know anything else just feel free to jump into my ask box. :)

[ichika27]

The World Ends with You

(Yeah, it’s the same screenshot I used for my post about ep. 1. I couldn’t get a new one so...)

Ah, first week without the TWEWY anime to look forward to. I’m actually kinda sad cause I’d miss waiting for the episode every Saturday night (Ani-One posts theirs on that day here). I have some stuff I wanna say about the anime so I thought I’d make one of these plus this is a good way to end the twewy anime blog post series I make every week. I’ll try not to spoil until the very bottom of this post which will have a spoiler warning.

Also, this will be very long and rambly as most of my fandom posts are haha.

Story:

A boy named Neku wakes up in the middle of Shibuya with no memory and finds himself as a player in the Reaper’s Game. For a week he must partner up with a girl named Shiki and both of them must complete missions, battle creatures called noise, and survive as failure meant erasure.

Characters:

Neku Sakuraba - our main protagonist who somehow lost his memories and is now playing the Reaper’s Game. He’s a loner who isn’t too keen on getting close to anyone let alone working alongside anybody - unfortunately for him, it’s a requirement if he wants to survive. As a player he has an assortment of abilities to fight off noise and other enemies (in the game this meant he can use a lot of different pins).

Shiki Misaki - the nice and friendly Shiki becomes Neku’s partner in the Reaper’s Game. Unlike Neku she has knowledge of the game and fills Neku in on things he doesn’t understand. Her ability is to control her stuffed toy called Nyantan/Mr. Mew which she uses in combat.

Beat - the tough skateboarding player, he’s somewhat more like the typical hot-blooded shounen protagonist when compared to Neku. He’s protective of those he care about especially his game partner, Rhyme. He uses his skateboard in battle.

Rhyme - Beat’s game partner who is a lot kinder and calmer than him. Rhyme tends to be the one to reason with Beat when needed and the two are always seen together.

Yoshiya Kiryu - a mysterious boy who seem to know more than he lets on and acts at times acts suspicious. He prefers to be called by the nickname Joshua.

Sanae Hanekoma - a cafe owner who helps out Neku and the others and would give them advice. His advice prove to be very helpful and Neku takes them to heart. Seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Reaper’s Game but doesn’t seem to be a reaper himself.

--

Thoughts:

(I tried my best to not be spoilery in the character descriptions so some names weren’t written in full)

The World Ends with You (or in the original Japanese “Subarashiki Kono Sekai”/It’s a Wonderful World) is an anime based on the video game of the same name. It had to compress an entire game’s worth of story within it’s 12 episode run which meant they cut out a lot of things and combined some scenes to quickly run through them. It’s theme song is the anime version of the game’s original OP “Twister” although this wasn’t what was originally planned but an incident involving the band who sang the original theme forced them to make changes. The original voice actors from the game also reprised their roles for the anime. The series is created to be watched before the release of the long-awaited sequel game.

The art style is made to be similar to it’s game version (with a bit of change to adapt it as an anime like when it comes to body proportions). They also retained the effect of the characters from the UG (players/reapers) being brightly colored while those from the RG having darker/muted colors. While the noise are obviously cg, I personally liked this since they’re said to be from a different plane anyways so it’s a nice contrast to those from the UG and RG. They had to update the setting though as years had passed since the original game’s creation and they had to model anime version of Shibuya to what it’s real life counterpart now looks. The characters are also given smartphones instead of the flip phones they had in the game (anime-only watchers who are gonna play the game would have to get used to them still using flip phones though lol).

Okay so story-wise... it’s rushed. Of course it is. They shortened it so that what’s left would mostly be important plot points from the main story but they cut out many scenes that consist of character interactions and several little things that could’ve fleshed out the characters more. The gameplay is also made simpler with some mechanics taken away and the mini games weren’t adapted (RIP to Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer, especially the latter as you’re severely missed). The game boast an assortment of characters and some NPCs have their own stories but due to the anime’s limited run time, they had to either be cut out (and are just given cameos) or given smaller roles (and their stories weren’t adapted). They did, however, give a few bits and pieces of information that weren’t in the game such as some details about certain characters and one supporting character was given a bit more screentime that they did in the game version.

Despite the rushed nature of the series (which may or may not affect how one views the story itself), the anime made sure to adapt several important scenes and the dramatic stuff is made worse... like, they really had to make some deaths harder to take. The battle scenes were nice as well although my biggest complaint about them is that the boss fights were over too quickly. There were scenes that were changed for the anime version and there are those that I liked and those I didn’t but there are many which I think was as good as the game’s version.

Do I recommend the anime? The game is better, the characters and story are more fleshed out and the way the character/relationship development happens is better paced so of course, me, biased already would tell you to play the game instead if you haven’t yet. Do I recommend those who played the game to watch the anime? Yes! Yes I do. I think the anime is better watched when you’ve played the game and know the stuff that they cut out cause it’ll make better sense that way. Plus I found it enjoyable seeing the scenes from the game animated and the characters are speaking whole dialogues and moving. It’s great!

Even if the anime wasn’t perfect, like I mentioned before, they did their best to condense the entire main story in a 12 episode series and it tried to be as faithful as it could to the original story so despite the deviations when it comes to how things got to the way they did, if you summarize important plot points, they would be the same (with some details changed). Overall, it was very enjoyable and it wasn’t as bad as I feared when I heard how many episodes the anime was going to have.

--

Some spoiler thoughts:

It would’ve been better if the anime had more episode count than just 12. Cramming a 3 week story of game into just 12 made the thing very rushed with Week 1 only getting three episodes, Week 2 getting four, and final Week getting five. They had to get to the good stuff so they cut off a lot of scenes where the characters are interacting with each other which means they suddenly get character developments and relationship developments too quickly. It might not be that obvious to anime-only watchers but to me, it felt kinda sudden and it feels like it doesn’t work out well story-wise since Neku had to learn how to trust other people and make friends and with how he started vs. how he came out of it contrasting each other.

By the way, they made the characters look good in the anime. Especially Joshua. Have you seen Joshua? He’s so pretty in the anime. I want a picture of him I could stare at anytime I want to (I do not own a phone, sadly).

I like how they gave Eri more scenes though and that they changed her outfit for the anime so she won’t look exactly like UG!Shiki. All of her scenes though made me feel like I wish the anime gave closure to Shiki’s own story by showing us her and Eri making up. Another scene I liked in the anime is Neku’s fanboying of CAT when he finds out the truth. It was adorable.

Some info was taken away from the anime. Beat and Rhyme leaving home had scene dialogue and unlike Beat just narrating it in-game but they didn’t mention specifically why he was angry and his trouble at home. Joshua wasn’t present when Sota and Nao gave Neku a pep-talk either which is a shame cause I think that helped Josh as well. 

I mentioned before how the anime made things go too fast. They cut off chunks of not-main-plot story that let the characters interact with each other more which means each game day is shortened as well. I think it made sense that Neku wakes up at the scramble in the end and not stressed out because he didn’t go through as much as his game counterpart did. That said, game Neku learned a lot from more than just the main cast in the game compared to the anime so I like his character development in the game better.

They took away Tin Pin Slammer. I am sad and disappointed. I was hoping so bad for Another Day to be adapted even if it’s an OVA. That and the ramen incident are part of Josh’s week which meant some side of him wasn’t shown (I mean, anime fans don’t know he wasn’t there on week 3 since he’s busy playing a kid’s game elsewhere and how he could talk about food like he is from a cooking anime). Speaking of Josh, they made him very suspicious from the get-go in the anime. I understand as there’s a limited run-time and they can’t really afford to be subtle about it but it meant some of the fun interactions with Neku is gone and so are some scenes where they actually got along. At least they had ice cream together, I guess?

(I have more to say when it comes to Joshua cause he’s my fave character but this is long and my thoughts on it would make this way longer. I might make another post.)

In the end, it wasn’t perfect but the anime was fun and enjoyable enough that I found myself looking forward to it every week. Seeing scenes I recognize from the game in animated form (with voice acting!) felt exciting and awesome. I’ll miss this show and I still wish it was longer.

If you’ve read this far well, thank you. And also I’m confused why but still hopefully that was a good time-killer. I have so many other things I wanted to comment on but that’s for another time. Maybe.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #482

Top Ten Sega Games

So I read somewhere on the internet that in June it’s the thirtieth birthday of Sonic the Hedgehog (making him only a couple of months younger than my brother, which is weird). This is due to his debut game, the appropriately-titled Sonic the Hedgehog, being first released on June 23rd. As such – and because I do love a good Tenuous Link – I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s list to Sega (also there was that Sonic livestream and announcement of new games, so I remain shockingly relevant).

I’ve got a funny relationship with Sega, largely because I’ve got a funny relationship with last century’s consoles in general. As I’ve said before, I never had a console growing up, and never really felt the need for one; I came from a computing background, playing on other people’s Spectrums and Commodores before getting my own Amiga and, later, a PC. And I stuck with it, and that was fine. But it does mean that, generally speaking, I have next to zero nostalgia for any game that came out on a Nintendo or Sega console (or Sony, for that matter). I could chew your ear off about Dizzy, or point-and-click adventure games, or Team 17, or Sensible Software, or RTS games, or FPS games, or whatever; but all these weird-looking Japanese platform games, or strange, unfamiliar RPGs? No idea. In fact, I remember learning what “Metroidvania” meant about five years ago, and literally saying out loud, “oh, so it’s like Flashback, then,” because I’d never played a (2D) Metroid or Castlevania game. Turns out they meant games that were, using the old Amiga Action terminology, “Arcade Adventures”. Now it makes sense.

Despite all this, I did actually play a fair few Sega games, as my cousins had a Mega Drive. So I’d get to have a bash at a fair few of them after school or whatever. This meant that, for a while, I was actually more of a Sega fan than a Nintendo one, a situation that’s broadly flipped since Sega stopped making hardware and Nintendo continued its gaming dominance. What all of this means, when strung together, is that I have a good deal of affection for some of the classics of Sega’s 16-bit heyday, but I don’t have the breadth or depth of knowledge you’d see from someone who, well, actually owned a console before the original Xbox. Yeah, sure, there are lots of games I liked back then; and probably quite a few that I still have warm nostalgic feelings for, even if they’re maybe not actually very good (Altered Beast, for instance, which I’m reliably informed was – to coin a very early-nineties phrase – “pants”, despite my being fond of it at the time). Therefore this list is probably going to be quite eccentric when compared to other “Best of Sega” lists. Especially because in the last couple of decades Sega has become a publisher for a number of development studios all around the world, giving support and distribution to the makers of diverse (and historically non-console) franchises as Total War and Football Manager. These might not be the fast-moving blue sky games one associates with Sega, but as far as I’m concerned they’re a vital part of the company’s history as it moved away from its hardware failures (and the increasingly lacklustre Sonic franchise) and into new waters. And just as important, of course, are their arcade releases, back in the days when people actually went to arcades (you know, I have multi-format games magazines at my parents’ house that are so old they actually review arcade games. Yes, I know!).

So, happy birthday, Sonic, you big blue bugger, you. Sorry your company pooed itself on the home console front. Sorry a lot of your games over the past twenty years have been a bit disappointing. But in a funny way you helped define the nineties, something that I personally don’t feel Mario quite did. And your film is better than his, too.

Crazy Taxi (Arcade, 1999): a simple concept – drive customers to their destination in the time limit – combined with a beautiful, sunny, blue skied rendition of San Francisco, giving you a gorgeous cityscape (back when driving round an open city was a new thrill), filled with hills to bounce over and traffic to dodge. A real looker twenty years ago, but its stylised, simple graphics haven’t really dated, feeling fittingly retro rather than old-fashioned or clunky. One of those games that’s fiendishly difficult to master, but its central hook is so compelling you keep coming back for more.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive, 1992): games have rarely felt faster, and even if the original Sonic’s opening stages are more iconic, overall I prefer the sequel. Sonic himself was one of those very-nineties characters who focused on a gentle, child-friendly form of “attitude”, and it bursts off the screen, his frown and impatient foot-tapping really selling it. the gameplay is sublime, the graphics still really pop, and the more complex stages contrast nicely with the pastoral opening. Plus it gave us Tails, the game industry’s own Jar Jar Binks, who I’ll always love because my cousin made me play as him all the time.

Medieval II: Total War (PC, 2006): I’ll be honest with you, this game is really the number one, I just feel weird listing “Best Sega Games” and then putting a fifteen-year-old PC strategy game at the top of the pile. But what can I say? I like turn-based PC strategy games, especially ones that let you go deep on genealogy and inter-familial relationships in medieval Europe. everyone knows the real-time 3D battles are cool – they made a whole TV show about them – but for me it’s the slow conquering of Europe that’s the highlight. Marrying off princesses, assassinating rivals, even going on ethically-dubious religious crusades… I just love it. I’ve not played many of the subsequent games in the franchise, but to be honest I like this setting so much I really just want them to make a third Medieval game.

Sega Rally Championship (Arcade, 1994): what, four games in and we’re back to racing? Well, Sega make good racing games I guess. And Sega Rally is just a really good racing game. Another one of those that was a graphical marvel on its release, it has a loose and freewheeling sense of fun and accessibility. Plus it was one of those games that revelled in its open blue skies, from an era when racing games in the arcades loved to dazzle you with spectacle – like when a helicopter swoops low over the tracks. I had a demo of this on PC, too, and I used to race that one course over and over again.

After Burner (Arcade, 1987): there are a lot of arcade games in this list, but when they’re as cool as After Burner, what can you do? This was a technological masterpiece back in the day: a huge cockpit that enveloped you as you sat in the pilot’s seat, joystick in hand. The whole rig moved as you flew the plane, and the graphics (gorgeous for their time) wowed you with their speed and the way the horizon shifted. I was, of course, utterly crap at it, and I seem to remember it was more expensive than most games, so my dad hated me going on it. But it was the kind of thrilling experience that seems harder to replicate nowadays.

Virtua Cop (Arcade, 1994): I used to love lightgun games in the nineties. This despite being utterly, ridiculously crap at them. I can’t aim; ask anyone. But they felt really cool and futuristic, and also you could wave a big gun around like you were RoboCop or something. Virtua Cop added to the fun with its cool 3D graphics. Whilst I’d argue Time Crisis was better, with a little paddle that let you take cover, Cop again leveraged those bright Sega colours to give us a beautiful primary-coloured depiction of excessive ultra-violence and mass death.

Two Point Hospital (PC, 2018): back once again to the point-and-clickers, with another PC game only nominally Sega. But I can’t ignore it. Taking what was best about Theme Hospital and updating it for the 21st Century, TPH is a darkly funny but enjoyably deep management sim, with cute chunky graphics and an easy-to-use interface (Daughter #1 is very fond of it). The console adaptations are good, too. I’d love to see where Two Point go next. Maybe to a theme park…?

Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox, 2002): I never had a Dreamcast. But I remember seeing the original Jet Set Radio – maybe on TV, maybe running on a demo pod in Toys ‘R’ Us or something – and being blown away. It was the first time I’d ever seen cel shading, and it was a revelation; just a beautiful technique that I didn’t think was possible, that made the game look like a living cartoon. Finally being able to play the sequel on my new Xbox was terrific, because the gameplay was excellent too: a fast-paced game of chaining together jumps and glides, in a city that was popping with colour and bursting with energy. Felt like playing a game made entirely of Skittles and Red Bull.

The Typing of the Dead (PC, 2000): The House of the Dead games were descendants of Virtua Cop’s lightgun blasting, but with zombies. Yeah, cool; I liked playing them at the arcades down at Teesside Park, in the Hollywood Bowl or the Showcase cinema. But playing this PC adaptation of the quirky typing-based spin-off was something else. A game where you defeat zombies by correctly typing “cow” or “bottle” or whatever as quickly as possible? A game that was simultaneously an educational typing instructor and also a zombie murder simulator? The fact that the characters are wearing Ghostbusters-style backpacks made of Dreamcast consoles and keyboards is just a seriously crazy detail, and the way the typing was integrated into the gameplay – harder enemies had longer words, for instance – was very well done. A bonkers mini-masterpiece.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (Switch, 2019): the very fact that erstwhile cultural enemies Mario and Sonic would ever share a game at all is the stuff of addled mid-nineties fever dreams; like Downey’s Tony Stark sharing the screen with Bale’s Batman (or Affleck’s Batman, who the hell cares at this point). The main thing is, it’s still crazy to think about it, even if it’s just entirely ordinary for my kids, sitting their unaware of the Great Console Wars of the 1990s. Anyway, divorced of all that pan-universal gladhanding, the games are good fun, adapting the various Olympic sports with charm, making them easy-to-understand party games, often with motion control for the benefit of the youngs and the olds. I don’t remember playing earlier games extensively, but the soft-RPG trappings of the latest iteration are enjoyable, especially the retro-themed events and graphics. Earns a spot in my Top Ten for its historic nature, but it’s also thoroughly enjoyable in its own right.

Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if all those crazy internet rumours were actually true, and Microsoft did announce it was buying Sega this E3? This really would feel like a very timely and in some ways prescient list.

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: Final Fantasy VII Remake

I love it. Done. Just Kidding. Final Fantasy VII is one my top 10 favorite games of all time. My first play through was over 99 hours, and I didn’t feel like I was “done”. I just beat the game to beat it. I’ve restarted the opening Midgar section a hundred times. I love it.

I don’t know why, but when the PS2 came out, I heard rumors of FFVII sequels...but then FFX got a sequel. I didn’t really care for that one...Why did it get a sequel? Then PSP had Crisis Core and Advent Children. While Crisis Core was an action packed revisit to FFVII’s world, it wasn’t exactly a remake. And while I enjoyed watching Advent Children a 100 times...it wasn’t exactly a film-adaptation, or even an EPIC-Quality sequel to the game. When the PS3 Demo teased a remake, I became desperate. I needed this REMAKE. When the PS4 Remake  was announced, I couldn’t believe it was real!!!! But then it turns out, it was only going to be the first section and that there would be “changes”. While I’m ok with the game ditching the turn-based combat, I didn’t want a game so revamped that it was unrecognizable. And the fact this was only the first section, I was worried that a. they were filling the game with fluff, and/or b. they wouldn’t bother making the rest... Doesn’t matter now. It’s in my hands now, and I can’t wait to play! FFVII’s opening is possibly my most favorite opening of any video game. How the stars of space turn to life-stream embers, and Aerith steps out of an alley to reveal a bustling city. The Camera pulls back to reveal Midgar, our new home, a huge ominous tower surrounded by planet-killing reactors. Then as the camera pushes in, there’s quick cuts of a train--building the tension and pace of this slow, elegant reveal. And boom: the bombing mission begins! In contrast, the remake starts with a vast desert landscape in daytime. For a moment, I thought it was meant to mirror the desert Red XIII visits at the end of VII...maybe it is. But then we see Midgar, reimagined to new glory! It was strange, but not offensive. Until we cut from day to the familiar image of Aerith looking at Mako energy. She’s prompted to leave the alley by someone...or something. And we pull back to see Midgar, as in the original. And while I’m glad we’ve remade this perfect scene, it is sabotaged by the new day-time opening. The city has been introduced twice. Revealed twice. And one is clearly more impactful than the other (the original). Ah well. Now we’re in the familiar train station. I think they’ve added some sections to give more combat opportunities for the player. It works. The combat is fun enough. I’m glad that I can “strike” as much as I want without delay, unlike Crisis Core. Maybe it’s because I played CC for hours that I’m so satisfied with this action-combat? Limiting the item and magic use to a timer was a bit awkward. I would often forget to use them. I’m still quite confused about when to use special moves like Braver. Shinra soldiers are no sweat. The graphics are great and the lighting perfectly captures the original’s style. It was fun to play a modern game with 90s aesthetics. Because the camera is now over the shoulder and not overhead, like the classic, I almost missed how many times they took the original game’s environments and reworked them for the remake. I was impressed when I discovered it and absolutely thrilled. They’ve also done a good job reworking the enemies into the game. The dialog/story is a little hit or miss. But that’s just kind of where Japanese games live, for me. In the 90s and early 2000s, most games didn’t have good writing, even if they had good stories and ideas. So Japan’s non-western style didn’t stand out that much, and they were usually cutting-edge for cinematic games and storytelling. Now that Western Games have improved so much, it’s harder for me to tolerate Japan’s eccentric style. The original game was very succinct and clear: Barret was an angry, militant rebel who saw Shinra Corp as a threat to the world. He explains clearly how the reactors are sucking up the planet’s energy. The stakes were clear. Cloud’s cool indifference was an interesting foil. Usually you’re the hero, now you’re just a jerk. While the remake did a good job showing that Cloud was specifically brought to do the fighting, proving his worth to the team, when we get to Barret’s speech about the reactor--it’s somewhat unprompted and...unspecific? It’s so over the top, I hardly realized this was “the speech”. If you’ve never played FF7 before, I’d imagine the point would be lost on you. If you have played, then you get the joke that Barret isn’t exactly an environmentalist--despite his impassioned posturing. I think this is a misstep.

But they did give side characters more of a voice in this mission, especially Jessie. They basically sacrificed Barret’s presence to give the others more talking opportunity. This works because we’re gonna get to know Barret over many, many more hours. But it also gives Barret a more solemn presence that works for his character.

Getting to the iconic scorpion bot fight, I was impressed by the challenge. The original game is still trying to let you win at this point. The only way to lose is to attack when the tail is up, unleashing a devastating laser attack. But this game really pushed me. Maybe it was meant to challenge the player and force them to experiment with different attacks and strategies. I had to heal a lot!! Also, it seemed like my dodge was worthless. Occasionally the boss would launch a barrage of missiles and when I tried to roll-dodge, I always rolled right into a missile. By the end, I just didn’t bother dodging or blocking, cause they don’t seem to do anything...maybe I suck.

Then it was time to escape. This was fun, but they introduced a new “shock trooper” or something. These guys are fast, strong, and a pain in the ass. I couldn’t dodge, I couldn’t block, and I couldn’t land a hit. I hate these guys. It seemed odd to put such a challenging enemy into the game at THIS timed moment. But maybe they assumed I’d be better at combat by now?? The biggest issue with FFVII is that you start the game as terrorists and that’s never really addressed. Sure, you’re stopping an evil corporation, but you’re doing it at the expense of innocent lives. The remake makes a smart decision here and establishes the bomb as small and insignificant. But then President Shinra orders the reactor to be destroyed--causing a huge explosion that causes a great disruption to the civilians. I assume this is an effort to paint your team as terrorists and enemies of the people. I think it’s a good twist that corrects the original’s problematic points.

After escaping the reactor, the team is faced with the aftermath of the explosion. They’re confused by the amount of destruction, but also try to rationalize the importance of their goal. While I think they were mostly trying to stretch playtime, there’s an interesting sequence of having to face the fruits of your labor: burning buildings, crashed cars, injured people receiving emergency care, displaced citizens, and complete chaos. Even though I know, as the player, that Shinra is the true cause--it’s a good beat to have the player/characters facing the consequences of rebellion.

This leads into a new take on Aerith’s introduction. This is where Japanese “styles” don’t meld with me. Aerith is fighting off invisible spirits--and it looks ridiculous. Most people would give this flower girl a wide berth, and likely not purchase her products. But Cloud is just like, “Hey, what’s up?” after blowing up a reactor... Anyway, Cloud also sees these ghosts: hooded creatures. This is new--but I wonder if it’s related to Sephiroth clones/alternatives?

Aerith runs off, and we’re treated to a vision of Sephiroth. This seems to be addressing another issue with FFVII--what is this all about? In the original, Shinra is the main enemy within the early 2-5 hours, and Sephiroth is lightly referenced. It’s not till Shinra is found murdered that we really see Sephiroth as a potential threat--let alone the “final boss”. It’s a weakness in the storytelling, for sure. But having the vision of Sephiroth appear and bring Cloud back to the fateful day seems like a real attempt to focus the narrative.

And then I had to do a lot of fighting. It was fun, and didn’t quite feel like “stretching”, but it was funny to reflect that this 30+ minute sequence was about 5 minutes of gameplay within the original. So--I’m around chapter 2 of an 18 chapter game. These chapters cover about the 5 hours of the original’s plot, but I’ve already put in 1:43 hours.

Final Fantasy VII spends so much of the early game in Midgar, it really starts to feel like home--as much as it’s meant to represent the dangers of capitalism and fossil fuels--it really becomes a part of you, like the Mansion and Police Station in Resident Evil 1 and 2. I’ve always wanted to see more of it--so I’m hopeful that this game has taken the time to really build Midgar.

[endlessdoom]

Earth

10 Maps-set

By Roger Ritenour

ZDoom version.

1998 original release.

MAP01: The Ruins

Ah, the classic Earth, a map-set that would revolutionize with its sophisticated and realistic environments. The first map is a testament to the kind of ambition the author brought to this creation. A medium sized map with a large extension of enemies and a somewhat unexpected difficulty, for an introductory map. With a design that tries to replicate a more natural and realistic look in terms of natural environments, The Ruins also takes us to what seems to be the reminiscences of an ancient civilization with a Greco-Roman style. One of the few maps of its kind, even to this day, only that gives it a certain charm that is difficult to replicate. If it weren't for its somewhat unfair difficulty (which you would expect from a classic) this would be a great map in every sense, but in spite of that, I can easily see why it is so iconic.

MAP02: The Tomb

A sensation of exploration and adventure floods this WAD that almost seems to imitate an Indiana Jones adventure. The Tomb is a medium to large map set in the interior of a catacomb in a pyramid. With a somewhat abstract design, full of mazes, traps and demons, this map manages to capture perfectly well the essence of exploration and adventure within the confines of Doom's world. Unfortunately, a somewhat incomprehensible layout and switch-hunt make it a bit boring after a few moments, becoming a tedious task where the action comes second.

MAP03: Mines of Moria

You don't expect an exact replica of the Mines of Moria, but I can understand the charm and atmosphere that the author was seeking to recreate. It is a rather labyrinthine map, dark and with very little ammunition. A bit dangerous if we do not know how to handle the encounters against heavy enemies. The layout of the map has a progress so lost, but due to its nature of crossed roads, two things can happen: Either we find the necessary keys for the exit by accident (they are only two keys) or we spend a long time walking around.

MAP04: The Chasm

A huge ravine and a mountain/rocky map await us. A classic style of trying to recreate natural landscapes with the Doom engine during the 90s. What we can expect is an extremely simplistic and even somewhat boring landscape to observe, but the charm is always in its pure essence. With a less complicated design than the previous one, this is a map of less exploration and a little more tight combat.

MAP05: Strategic Defense Command

The introduction through the crack with the elevator makes this map a visually attractive adventure, taking into account the date. A somewhat complicated map due to the use of a multitude of enemies in tight rooms, but with a layout that combines good ambience with an adventure style, this is an entertaining map, although perhaps more difficult than it should be.

MAP06: Observation Station

Now we travel through a key capture while facing huge hordes of enemies. Once again, like the previous map, this one makes use of large groups of enemies in rooms with almost no maneuverability, especially an area after getting the red key, where we face a heavy horde of enemies with an Archivile, which is more than protected behind the horde of enemies. After that we even have a Cyberdemon at the end, which is not a major problem, but feels like a nuisance at this point.

MAP07: The Emerald Tower

A very short level that focuses on slaughtering a large group of Pinkies and then a small squad of Mancubus. Nothing special in itself, so it feels a bit of a lackluster in a way compared to the rest. At least it works as a good resting point. Kinda.

MAP08: Ammo Pit

A strange madness. This level seems to match the labyrinthine style of Mines of Moria and The Tomb, while adding the difficulty of previous maps to it. A bit insane in terms of item placement and monster placement and a somewhat simplistic level design. It's a slightly boring map compared to the others, perhaps its most remarkable point is the strange ''Ammo Pit'' near the beginning of the map, which I couldn't find a way to circumnavigate or complete, or even use. The map is solid when it comes to the 1999 visuals, of course, it is simply that particular area that I do not understand what its purpose is other than to kill us.

MAP09: Islands

Two floating islands connected through portals take us on a somewhat hot but more open and less dark adventure. While the visual theme itself is quite appealing, the execution is somewhat bland. The totally flat land and the trees that stop our movement make the combat a little more boring but at the same time more relaxing, since at least we don't have to worry so much about being dragged to the pits of hell. The connection of the keys is a little lost but simple enough not to take too much time. In itself, it's a slightly fast map (or long if we don't find the blue key) with a more special style but a bit poorly executed, but what can we expect? It would be a little unfair to say such a thing in the full sense of the word.

MAP10: The Hill

We got to the last map, and oh hell, Roger definitely let go of all his anger on this map. A bit complicated as far as his gameplay is concerned, at least now we have a little more ammunition but the amount of enemies and the positioning they have make this map a gameplay nightmare. I hope you like dodging Revenants missiles because that's what we will do 50% of the map. After that we have to go to different towers to get the keys while surviving different traps with hitscanners up to the eyeballs. A complicated map no doubt, but at least it offers a more entertaining combat thanks to the use of open field.

End.

Overall:

» Earth (1998) Roger Ritenour

I think we all have a special period that we appreciate and love among all the others. Maybe it is because of a magical charm that we feel is impossible to replicate in other eras, or maybe it is because there is a select group that we enjoyed during that time; in one way or another we all have our favorite mapping eras, but when a clear point arrives in which we can all agree it is that the 90s were a wonderfully enigmatic time. The birth of many artists who left their mark on Doom history plates, as well as of mapping styles and philosophies that would change history forever, giving way to the evolution (or mutation) of different WADs that would revolutionize the world. It's 1998, and one of those WADs has just been born. Earth, a WAD from 1998, It is an exemplary work that left a clear mark on the world of Doom, probably marking itself as a milestone in certain aspects. Considered by many as one of the best WADs in history (after all, it's on the list of the 100 WADs of all time), Earth is an exemplary case of what the 90s were like; a stage of evolution where certain raw models were born to give birth to something interesting over time. First things first; the visuals. Earth stands out for this in total and absolute grace. This is the best factor and there is no doubt about it. Taking into account that we are in a stage where the visual effects, the texture work and the geometry of the game had not been fully exploited yet and most of the editors at that time did not offer enough capabilities to create them, as well as the source-ports were not fully capable of surpassing the vanilla limits. Earth stood out for taking that to the other side and bringing with it a unique, distinctive look that can be appreciated to this day. Imagine a beach, the sound of the waves crashing against the wet rocks in the background. The clear, dreamlike sky that emanates a galactic atmosphere. Imagine an adventure through caves lost in civilizations of millennia ago, where nothing stays but the remains of ancient relics forgotten by time. This is Earth, a collection of 10 maps made with the goal of delivering realistic adventures that will leave behind the traditional Doom style and go deeper into a natural look that evokes environmental sensations. Some maps will lead you beachy, floating island, while others go into the depths of rocky mines that intertwine between tech-bases and hellish grounds. This is the peak of 1998 visuals, the absolute best there was. Despite looking raw as fuck, I still think dearly that it manages to succeed in delivering that feeling of exploration and adventure. But not all that glitters is gold, and this is where we encounter the rocks of the road. Earth, despite being revolutionary in its visuals, fails to adapt to gameplay. We all agree that the 90s were not... uh, precisely the best time for gameplay, but many WADs had already managed to find a precise balance between both factors. On the other hand, Earth seems to sacrifice its gameplay for visuals. It feels like a rookie, almost as if Roger has run out of time to make balanced and interesting encounters. Most demon encounters focus on bullet-sponges, unexpected traps, and sadistic positioning. This makes Earth an experience that is best enjoyed in low difficulties like HMP or lower, but UV? It may be a little harder than it needs to be. Earth is a classic in every way and one that even if it lags a bit behind in gameplay, even for its time, I think it is necessary to play it in its entirety in order to learn the appreciation of the evolution of WADs. It was one of the first to set the pace regarding visuals and therefore has its reputation as a totally solidified classic. It may not be the best representation of Earth in the world, but there is no home like home, and our home is Doom. A Doomed Earth.

[xxsasukelover69xx]

concept: mdzs as a video game

so like i was thinking and i’ve also been playing a lot of league of legends recently. it popped into my mind that mdzs would almost be perfect for a video game: there’s the characters, the concepts, the original moves performed by the characters, etc. for example, jiang cheng’s zidian, which could be used as a mid-range attack dealing ‘magic damage’ (i’m not too sure what ‘magic damage’ would translate into for mdzs; cultivational damage, maybe?). and we’ve also got the variety of things wei wuxian can do, such as summoning his JoJo stand wen ning to fight for him. now, here’s how i’m thinking the game would work:

the characters

so, there’s a wide variety of characters in mdzs, and the stronger ones tend to have more ‘original’ moves. i think, like with league of legends or overwatch, you could select which character you want to play in a round (like wei wuxian or lan wangji) and there would also be skins for them (such as ‘young wei wuxian’ or ‘chinese new year wei wuxian’) alongside their default appearance, which would be how they appear normally in the anime/manhua/live action.

i think it would be a good idea to have all of the characters be available for people to play, but also have them fill a specific role. like with league and overwatch, there’d be your supports, tanks, and dps. however, unlike with overwatch, i think a jungler-type role would also be a good fit. for those who do not know what a jungler is, it’s a league of legends role where you go around killing non-player enemies to buff up you & your team. a good character for this would be jin ling, referencing how at the beginning of the novel he put up a ton of traps for spirits to get caught in (he could also catch members of the enemy team as well, keeping them trapped there for a certain amount of time).

in-game

of course, we also have to think about how this would work in-game; do we want this to be a first-person shooter style game, or do we want this to be more of a league-type game? personally, i think a league-type game would be better, because it’s easier to access compared to a first-person shooter across most computers, where you can see everything that’s happening from a bird’s eye view.

however, we could also take a more story-based approach (think horizon zero dawn, skyrim, borderlands) where you go around as 1 character for the entire story, unless it requires you to switch once or twice for plot purposes. of course, a game like this would cost money, and we all love spending money, but i personally think this would be an interesting approach to the game.

we all know how every single-player game has it so that you unlock stronger abilities and buffs on a ‘skill tree’ as you level up. i think this would be a good idea because we can’t all just start out strong. sure, there would be characters that are stronger than the others, but that would be due to the role they fill (support, tank, etc.). it’d be pretty epic gamer if you got to select which skill tree you wanted to build upon too for each character.

obviously there'd be the spirits which you can go out and fight for quests and level grinding purposes. the further you get into the story, the harder the enemies get to kill, and there has to be bosses, that’s just a no-brainer. it would ALSO be pretty epic gamer if you got to fight against some of your fellow cultivators for some quests, like getting to fight xue yang or something as a main quest in the storyline. you could also do night hunt challenges that would be optional whenever you reached a mountain or something. during the night-hunt, you’d have to kill as many spirits as possible before time runs out and make sure that the opposing team doesn't get more than your team.

with this borderlands style of gameplay, you’d get to switch how you’re viewing the character and stuff. that’s more of a minor detail, though.

the storyline

i’m gonna avoid spoilers here, because i know not everyone has completed every adaptation of mdzs. because it’s in a video game style, we can’t exactly...just go with the normal storyline all the time, because you’re playing separate characters from wei wuxian or lan wangji. we’d have to deviate from the original storyline to something that would fit all of the characters in and treat them all as a main character. i’m not really sure what we should have as the main storyline of this game, though. any suggestions?

of course this is only a concept. i’m not actually going to make a mdzs game, but it’d be fun! lmk what you think

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - A Hero’s Tail

And finally we get... I guess it’s not really a return to form but it is a return to greatness.

A Hero’s Tail uses the Spyro characters and basic mechanics and makes it a modern (for the time) platformer. This does eliminate one of the franchise’s core features (finite gems), but ultimately, it did a good job and did the franchise justice.

And it also officially introduces Ember, who Spyro fanficcers liked to ship with Spyro, especially as a rival ship versus Cynder of later titles. Yes, that was a part of the fanbase I frequented. I am not sorry.

Gameplay

Spyro’s controls are brought to the modern (again, for the time) age, with a much more responsive camera and really that’s the only major difference. Spyro feels like Spyro. He flames, he charges, and he glides.

...Well, aside from the fact that they swapped the Flame and Charge buttons, and now you have to hold X to glide rather than just press it. I first played this game as a demo and legitimately thought the change was a mistake, but nope. Not entirely sure why it was made, but it was. Perhaps it aligns with other PS2 platformers better?

Mini rant, courtesy of how 3-year-old me remembered the controls: Circle is flame because it’s red and the mouth makes an O. Square is Charge because the sides are pointy. X is jump because the X is blue like air and you are in the air while jumping. Triangle is zoom in because the bottom represents a really wide view and the top represents a really narrow view. Why would you change this?

But anyway, it works for the game. Aside from not matching previous games, it’s easy to adapt to and the controls are very responsive. They’re not quite as tight as in the originals, but they’re very close.

Additional Playable Characters

We’ve got a few this time. There’s Hunter, Sparx, Sgt. Byrd and the new character Blink. Totally new. What are you talking about with the “but he appeared in a GBA game”?

While Hunter was technically playable before, this is the first time you can platform with him. His moveset’s pretty similar to Spyro’s, aside from one of his main attacks being very ranged. Aside from his arrows, he’s basically Spyro, but not as maneuverable. Yeah, he can scale walls and Spyro doesn’t in this game, but that ability originally belonged to Spyro, so it doesn’t feel unique.

What is unique is that one section that you’re forced to play as him as part of the story. That was neat. And frustrating because he does not platform as well as Spyro does, since his movements are floaty and you can’t correct them with gliding like you can Spyro’s, and this area has a lot of small platforms.

Sparx has a completely different gameplay style this time: rail-shooter. It’s honestly not that bad, especially in comparison to Season of Ice’s Speedways. I just prefer the other Sparx gameplay.

Sgt. Byrd, speaking of Speedways, takes over for Spyro during them. And his levels are definitely not designed in the same way the old Speedways were designed. It used to be that there was a clear linear path to take from one object to the next, but that is not the case here. I like these Speedways better than Season of Ice’s, but I don’t like them much.

As far as actual controls go, Sgt. Byrd does just fine. Sometimes his turning is a little difficult, but it works for how wide open the areas are.

Blink controls very similarly to Hunter, with the main difference being how the level is designed. Blink’s levels are all underground, having a specific set of enemies and such, and they’re all considered minigames with the goal of destroying Dark Gems. He suffers from the same floatiness as Hunter, and there’s certainly a lot of platforms. Somehow, though, his levels never got me stuck like Hunter’s did in that one section.

Sometimes I feel that Eurocom wanted to make a Blink game, not a Spyro game. While Blink’s levels are minigames, they’re really fleshed out and well-designed. They have plenty of variety, if not in appearance.

Collectables

Gems are not just currency to be used at Moneybags’ shop. They’re found everywhere, and can be collected from enemies multiple times. At the beginning you’ll be hurting for them, but by the end of the game you’ll have much more than you know what to do with. At least, that’s my experience.

Dragon Eggs return, with a twist. They’re pretty much optional, and much less valuable than the other main collectable. This time, dragon eggs come in different patterns and if you collect a set, you unlock a thing. A lot of those things are just the ability to play minigames from the main menu.

The things that I care about are the concept art gallery (as that’s always cool) and the Ember and Flame skins. Mostly Ember since I like playing as female characters. It’s just a skin, though, and it changes back to Spyro in cutscenes plus uses his sound effects. Still: first time skins are in the game, unless you count the color cheats!

Finally we get Light Gems. They’re used to power up gadgets and open doors. They’re required for progress in certain places, but not always. They’re always rewarded on the second round of minigames, which means everybody talks about how worthless Dragon Eggs are in comparison. We don’t want these unborn children, give us the shiny thing!

Oh, and Dark Gems. They aren’t collected, but destroyed. You need to smash all of them to continue.  They’re just scattered around the levels. You’ll come across them.

Powerups

Supercharge returns! Sort of! It’s one of the powerups that the Professor unlocks for you when you collect enough Light Gems. It really doesn’t feel the same, and it’s used for a few doors, some of which you can’t just charge to from the pad.

There’s also invincibility which works like it did in Lost Fleet, allowing you to travel through acid. Just with a stricter time limit and now it makes Spyro metal rather than red.

Finally I’ll mention the orb-thingys that let you use a ranged version of your breath abilities. I literally have never used them, but they’re there. I can’t say one way or the other how useful they are, but they definitely are not necessary.

Other Modes

The other minigames, as all minigames repeat, are turrets and ball gadgets.

Turrets aren’t hard, but they are stressful. You need to protect the thing while other things try to steal/eat/whatever it. Or you need to protect yourself and hit a huge number of enemies. I don’t like this minigame. Especially the baby turtle one.

Ball Gadgets are much more fun to watch than they are to play. The controls work, but it takes a bit to stop. There’s also a couple of on-rails ones that are really trial-and-error. Even knowing what to do, you’re going to fast to react so you need to memorize every action.

Breath Abilities

This game continues the trend of having them! And acts like it’s the first time at the same time. Enter the Dragonfly is apparently not canon.

Fire acts like it always has. They didn’t do the particle effect thing like Enter the Dragonfly did so it moves forward with you as it should.

Electricity starts out as a weaker Fire and then ends up being much more useful. It takes longer to defeat enemies, but there are certain enemies that are immune to Fire but not Electricity. After a point, it’s not worth it to switch back, since Fire just isn’t universally useful like Electricity is.

Water is just used for puzzles. Nothing else. This is also the only time Water is an element in the series.

Ice freezes certain things (like steam vents so you can use them to pole spin), and enemies of course. There are certain enemies in the final area that are only weak to Ice. (Maybe Water too, but I haven’t tried) Otherwise it freezes enemies so you can charge them like in other games.

Bosses

Finally, we get some new ones!

Gnasty Gnorc returns as the first boss. He’s actually far stronger than he was in Spyro 1, ironically enough. The fight itself is a pretty fun platformer boss fight, but his personality... it’s so childish. It’s like they didn’t know who he really was before.

Ineptune is a new character. The fight itself is, again, great for this style of game. Her character is kind of forgettable, though.

And then we get Red, who we fight twice. The first time is actually harder if only for the fact that you’re in an icy arena and thus the controls are more slippery. He’s not a very complex villain, but his fights are pretty fun, but very similar to the other two.

Special mention to the mammoth, who wins via being in a cutscene. You never see him again, having no chance to best him. He is truly Spyro’s greatest foe.

Levels

Continuing from Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels are much more seamless. They’re still very distinct, but in a lot of cases (moreso early-on than later) they feel like the same level as you begin in.

And again like Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels don’t have concrete ends. You can check your map and see how many Dark Gems are left, but it doesn’t really feel like you’ve finished even after you smash them all.

There’s no main conflict to defeat or anything, it’s just exploring and smashing Dark Gems, and occasionally finding a Dragon Elder to give you new skills. You get a checklist, but it’s not the same.

The theming is fine, if generic. Older Spyro games tended to have an irony to them, but not this one. Everything is played straight. Which, of course, makes it so this game doesn’t stand out very much.

Story

I don’t even know if I fully understand it. So Red’s an evil dragon who mined some Dark Gems to spread evil throughout the lands. And the Elders are very hesitant to tell you more.

Eventually it comes out that Red used to be an Elder, but he betrayed them. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t just tell Spyro that. Do the Elders just have a reputation that they don’t want to sully or something?

We get no motivation on Red’s part, and normally I’d be fine with that, but with all the secrets I expect a bit more. Also: who’s Ineptune in all this?

There’s parts where I feel I missed a game. Ember knows Spyro, and Spyro appears to know Ember. I feel like I should know who Ineptune is just because of how little introduction she gets.

I read that there was going to be a TV show that got cancelled but the games didn’t, but it was literally one forum post and it may have just been someone making things up. It would certainly explain things, though.

Unique in the Series?

Yes and no. It definitely has a unique feel as far as the series goes, but it’s very generic at the same time.

A lot of what it introduces is used again in later games, even though that part of the series is very different.

But yeah, Water Breath, Pole Spinning, and Wall Kicking are unique to this game in the series. They aren’t unique in general (See: Mario. Yes, even Water Breath. See: Sunshine), but for the series, definitely.

It’s at that weird awkward part in which it’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.

Conclusion

Best post-Insomniac Classic Spyro, if only by default. It’s generic for its time, bringing Spyro fully into said time. It works, it’s fun, and I wish there were more to this part of the series that weren’t... well, Orange.

[timeagainreviews]

Doctor Who and Video Games

We live in the era of the franchise. Everything it seems is getting the franchise treatment. After the success of the MCU, everyone wants that sweet sweet money. We’ve got the failed Universal Monsters reboot, the Harry Potter extended universe, and endless Star Wars movies. However, some franchises, it would seem, struggle to grow further than their core narrative. Star Wars never strays very far from the battle with the Empire. Which is one thing you can’t really say about Doctor Who. Doctor Who has done fantasy, sci-fi, period drama, schlocky horror, whimsy, and utter rubbish. I’ve always admired Doctor Who’s flexibility as a property. It lends itself beautifully to a wide range of mediums, such as audios and comic books. But what about video games? Are there any good Doctor Who video games? Could there be?

Over the past week, in preparation for this article, I've completely immersed myself in the world of Doctor Who video games. I feel uniquely qualified to have an opinion on the subject. But before we continue, I give a word of caution. I'm talking directly to you, now. Never in your life, should you ever play "Doctor Who: Return to Earth," for the Nintendo Wii. It's not worth the £1.80 that I spent on eBay. You don't ever deserve to do that to yourself. I don't care what you've done, nobody deserves that. If like myself, you have played this game, you have my deepest sympathies, especially if you paid for it new.

It doesn't interest me to make a list of the worst Doctor Who video games, as many people have done this already. It's nothing new to say that Doctor Who has a video game problem. When I wrote that Doctor Who should be run by Disney, I don't actually mean it should happen. I was merely illustrating that Disney knows how to take care of its properties. I would venture that Doctor Who has always had a bit of a management problem. Merchandise from Doctor Who has always reminded me of Krusty the Clown merchandise. So much of it is some bullshit they slapped a Dalek on said: "10 quid please!" Barring the occasional home run or third-party licensing, a lot of the merchandise is pretty uninspired. Which is bananas, because the world of Doctor Who has so much colour and potential.

Video games based off of movies and television are almost always as bad as movies and television based off of video games. They're rarely breaking the mould in their new medium. Most of the time, tie-ins such as these are quick soulless cash grabs. You can see this a lot in the Matt Smith era. There are at least seven games featuring his Doctor, and then a sudden decline. Matt Smith was the Doctor during one of the show's biggest points in popularity. Never before had the show been embraced on such an international level. Of course, the Beeb wanted to push as many video games out as possible.

The problem is, they didn't throw a lot of money at it, and not one project seemed to get the focus it deserved. I won't pretend to know the motivation behind the BBC's forays into video games, but it seems to be a trend with them to overdo something, and then be scared of it in the future. They changed the 5.5" figurine set to a 3.75" scale and nobody wanted them. Because of this, we haven't seen nearly as many 5.5" figures since. They once put out a figure of Lady Casandra's frame after she exploded into gore. We used to get figures like Pig Lazlo and the Gran from "The Idiot's Lantern." Now we'll be lucky if we get everyone's favourite- Graham O'Brien. They also did it with the Doctor Who Experience. They make this brilliant Doctor Who museum with the OK'est walkthrough story, and then put it right in the middle of Cardiff. They wondered why it never made any money. I've been twice, and I gotta say- they should have put it in London. It would still be open.

This isn't to say all of Matt Smith's video games are bad. In fact, the Eleventh Doctor adventure games referred to simply as "The Doctor Who Adventure Games," are some of my favourite in the entire lot. And as much as I would like to blame the BBC for their lack of caring, the fact is Doctor Who is not easy to translate into video games. Even if they do care, they still need the right team on the job. Oddly, it's one of the Doctor's greatest charms that makes Doctor Who hard to translate into a video game, and that's the Doctor's stance on violence. If the Doctor could pick up a laser pistol and just frag some Daleks, we'd probably have an entire series on our hands. Unfortunately, most developers go one of two ways. They either ignore the pacifism or we get countless mind-numbing puzzles.

Puzzles are by far the worst element of any Doctor Who game. In the browser-based "Worlds in Time," there were a plethora of Bejewelled type mini-games and pipe matching puzzles. The puzzles got increasingly harder even if the player wasn't also getting increasingly better. Even the platformer "The Eternity Clock," was mired in constantly stopping to do puzzles. They pop up in the Adventure Games, but other than the infuriating "don't touch the sides," puzzles, they don't detract much from the gameplay. There were moments where I felt a bit like a companion because I was decoding a Dalek computer for the Doctor, which is really the money spot for a Doctor Who video game. Any time a Doctor Who game can make you feel like you're in Doctor Who is time well spent.

When asking my friends what kind of Doctor Who video game they would like to see, many of them mentioned they would like a survival horror type game. We sort of get this in many of the Smith era games. In "Return to Earth," the mechanic is sloppy and infuriating at best. In "The Eternity Clock," and the Adventure Games, it's a little more manageable. It's a nice way to add a challenge to a non-violent gameplay style. It would be interesting to see what a game team from something like "Thief," or "Resident Evil," might do with the sneaking aspect.

Another way the games have completely side-stepped the non-violence and puzzles is by having the Doctor act as a secondary character. The player is put in the position of the companion or perhaps a UNIT soldier as in the case of "Destiny of the Doctors." If you've not played DotD, I wouldn't blame you. I was hitting my head against the wall just trying to figure out what to do. The only real reason to play that game is for one last chance to see the fabulous Anthony Ainley reprise the role of the Master. He's in totally smarmy ham mode, even if it's a bunch of gibberish they shot in a day. You can find the entirety of the footage on YouTube and it's surreal.

The problem with having the Doctor be violent is that it doesn't feel true to the character. Sure, Three did some Venusian aikido, Four broke that dude's neck in "Seeds of Doom," and even Twelve socked a racist in the face, but these are isolated incidents. The spirit of the Doctor is lost in 1992's "Dalek Attack," when the Doctor is forced to go full on bullet hell on a Dalek hover cart. It's funny then that one of my favourite Doctor Who games incorporates a violent Doctor. In the Doctor Who level of "Lego Dimensions," the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to make villains fall apart in a very safe Lego style violence. I can excuse this mostly because the game is not primarily a Doctor Who game at heart.

Funnily enough, the Lego game does something I've always wanted in a Doctor Who video game. I've always wanted to have a Doctor Who game where you could regenerate into different Doctors, and also go into their respective TARDISes. Sure, some of the games on the Commodore 64 allowed you to regenerate, but it was pretty naff in its execution. I tell no lies when I say I spent a lot of time regenerating and reentering the TARDIS to explore the Lego versions of their respective console rooms. Really, the biggest problem with the Lego Doctor Who game is that it wasn't it's own game. Lego Dimensions was its own failure. If TT Games would come out with an entire Doctor Who game, I would buy it yesterday.

The overarching problem with every Doctor Who game is the same problem Torchwood had- if it wasn't attached to Doctor Who, we wouldn't be interested. While I did have a lot of fun with the Adventure Games and Lego Dimensions, not one Doctor Who game has every element right. One has a good story, but poor mechanics, another has great mechanics but doesn't feel right. It's a bit of a tight rope to find the perfect balance, but I don't feel it's impossible

One of the reasons I would love to see a proper Lego Doctor Who game is that they have a history of good adaptations. They're not exactly beloved games, but I myself play a lot of them. One of the most impressive things I've seen them do was in Lego Batman 3, where they made each of the planets in the Green Lantern mythos a visitable world. Could you imagine the same treatment for Doctor Who? Visiting Telos and Skaro, and then popping off to medieval earth or Gallifrey? You could get different missions depending on which Doctor you were, or what time you arrive in. And the collectable characters! So many companions, and Doctors, and baddies, and costume variations to unlock! Doesn't that sound nice? You can buddy Jamie and Amy with Seven and Twelve and have an all Scottish TARDIS! A Zygon could ride K9!

The fact is, we probably won't see a very expansive Doctor Who game. I would be very enthusiastic for an open world Doctor Who game, but even as I type it, it sounds difficult to pull off. I may be able to say what doesn't work about the games, but saying what would work is admittedly, not as simple, but this doesn't mean I can't think of at least one good game. Piecing together some of the things I mentioned earlier, I think the best genre for Doctor Who is point-and-click adventures. I know I keep singing the praises of the Doctor Who Adventure Games, but it's because I think they were actually onto something. It's sad then that they scrapped any further developments to work on the inferior "Eternity Clock."

Could you imagine a point and click Doctor Who in the same vein as "Day of the Tentacle," or "Thimbleweed Park"? You walk around as the Doctor, pick up bits, talk to funny characters and solve complex problems. If you throw in a bit of horror survival, you've basically got the Adventure Games, which is my point- Do more with what they've already done. Grow the concepts. Improve the mechanics. A Doctor Who game should be jammed packed with Easter eggs, unlockables, and mystery. The point is, do more. Even their phone apps are abysmal. You know how much I would play a “Pokémon Go,” style Doctor Who game? You go around trapping baddies in cages you set off with your sonic screwdriver or something. I. Would. Catch. Them. All.

We still have “The Edge of Time,” coming to PC and consoles in October, and I'm pensively excited. While the graphics seem really top notch, in no way does it feel like anything more than a fun little VR experience. The game is going to remain exclusive to that small subsection of gamers that own a VR headset. Before it has even been released, it's closed itself off to yet another section of its very wide audience. Let's just hope that it doesn't scare the BBC away from making a proper Doctor Who game in the near future. And in the meantime, I'm going to have to borrow my friends' VR set, because of course, I'm going to play it. It's Doctor Who.

Well friends, thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun “researching,” this article. Playing Doctor Who games all week? Oh no, twist my arm! Sadly, a lot of these games are no longer available from their original sources. I was able to find a lot of them on the Internet Archive. If you want to give them a go, I would definitely suggest it. A couple of them are even capable of being emulated on your browser from the Internet Archive. The game I had the hardest time locating was “The Gunpowder Plot,” but I was eventually able to find it after some digging. I didn’t play any of the text-based games because I’m not very good with spatial awareness, and so text-based games are usually a nightmare for me. Sadly, Worlds in Time is lost forever, but I remember my character fondly. I also discovered I’m pretty good at Top Trumps: Doctor Who. Go figure.

[sketchiedetails]

I started off my emulator kick with God Hand, a game I’ve always wanted to play but finally got around to getting after watching Pat and Woolie blitz through Easy Mode (which I totally did too because Normal isn’t even the deep end of the pool it’s where shore drops off). This is just a general writeup of how I feel about the gameplay, and I’ll probably make a followup post about some of the little things I appreciated in the art direction (despite this being known as the game with “ugly ass levels”)

(Don’t act like you don’t like the- )

I think God Hand is one of those titles now that is in cult classic status, like Blade Runner or the Big Lebowski as a video game, in terms of being critically panned on release but with a die hard following and it’s not surprising if you happen to watch any gameplay.

What I like about God Hand is something tiny-design pointed out in a post that the combat is actually a very simple system that just happens to be juxtaposed with the most punishing difficulty in a video game I’ve seen yet.

The way the combat works is that 3 of the face buttons are assigned as attack buttons while the Circle button is a general Action button used to interact with the environment and with NPC’s. Two of the attack buttons have modifiers based on pushing the button at the same time as facing away from your target, while Square works as a combo button of sorts where you mash it several times to chain attacks that you can customize so you can tailor make your fighting style.

This is a really innovative system, because not only can you customize your attacks but you can make Gene work for you whereas other games would have you work your muscle memory around a character. If you like, you can map a Guard Breaker attack to a simple face button rather than to a Normal command or part of your combo string so that it’s ready for use whenever enemies block and have a Launcher attack mapped to a Normal command so that you won’t easily press it and trigger the animation, which isn’t too much of a problem for most attacks in God Hand since almost every attack cancels into dodging.

One of the things that isn’t so readily apparent in the game is that there are actually hidden attacks mapped to Triangle that are based on the enemy’s relative position to Gene. If an enemy is down, rather than mashing Circle to initiate a Stomp barrage, you can hold down Triangle to charge up a leg drop attack which can juggle an enemy into the sky and if you launch an enemy high enough if you press Triangle you can do a jumping roundhouse which launches them across the level. Also, running attacks vary depending on which attack button you press, with Triangle being a flying kick, Square being a leaping tackle, and X a slide tackle that can trip up weaker enemies.

God Hand’s combat system is like a paradox in that it’s actually a very simple in terms of input commands compared to contemporary action games which are mostly about memorizing specific combos that will guarantee the most damage with little time exposing yourself to enemy attacks - Bayonetta and OG God of War spring to mind - but has potential for deep combos and it’s actually a boon to the player that inputting commands is so simple because most of the time you’re either dodging attacks or attacking yourself and it removes that extra step other games have with testing your execution and memorization of command inputs.

The inherent “mashiness” of the combat really makes the game feel like a modern beat ‘em up, which is apparently what Clover were aiming for when they made the game.

One of the harder hurdles for new players to clear with God Hand is that Gene moves on RE4-style tank controls. This game is Shinji Mikami’s follow up after Resident Evil 4, and it shows. The tight camera perspective initially feels counterintuitive to a game that’s all about crowd control in large open arenas, but it’s actually pretty easy to adapt and you learn to make good use of the radar for offscreen attacks. Most of the context sensitive finishing attacks in God Hand make the ridiculous shit Leon could pull off look almost tame in comparison.

The adaptive difficulty is also something Mikami brought over from RE4. The game changes its pace based on your performance and even unlocks attacks for certain enemies that you’ll never see on Easy Mode. One of the fat thugs just Sumo Headbutted over towards me in the first level when I hit Level Three.

I really enjoyed God Hand. I was always a fan by proxy, but I’m glad I got to experience it myself. It’s dumb, it’s crass, it’s hard as hell, and the plot is so threadbare that it’s barely worth mentioning. It reminds me a lot of Vanquish, which I guess is appropriate since most of Clover’s employees went on to found PlatinumGames and Mikami himself directed Vanquish. It’s also fitting in that I think it’s replaced Vanquish as my go-to game when I’m bored and don’t wanna try anything new out.

Please play God Hand

[sims4-challenge-bank]

My adaption to the sims4 asylum challenge from 2019

Asylum Challenge

Introduction

Hi there, I’m Shaebae, I got this set of rules from Englishsimmer who got it from her friend Nick and this is The Sims 4 Asylum Challenge! This challenge was originally created by Scout for The Sims 2, then revamped for The Sims 3 by BlakeS5678. So want to apologize if these rules seem scattered or not to make sense. These are modified by myself and I tried to re read a couple times to make sure everything made sense but I’m only human.

If anyone has any modification suggestions email me @ shaebaesimmer@gmail.com or message me on Instagram @shaebaesimmerman

For those who do not know the Asylum Challenge, here is the backstory:

"You have been committed to a run down mental health facility against your will. In order to prove that you are fit to rejoin society and earn your freedom, you must achieve the goals your psychiatrist has set for you – your aspiration. The catch? You need to achieve your goals as quickly as possible, while keeping 7 other patients, who you don't know and are out of your control, alive and as happy as possible. Add to that budget cutbacks leading to a lack of decent furniture and limited supplies, and your task gets harder."

For this challenge there will be an easy mode, medium mode and hard mode, just to spice things up a bit.

Setting Up

***Create your Patients***

Create your main sim in CAS. They must be a young adult. You can choose whatever you want for looks, clothing, voice and walk styles. They must have the erratic trait and the other two traits can be anything except for custom traits. You may choose story mode but you have to make sure they have the erratic trait otherwise you have to cancel the story. They may be any species you wish (except dog or cat)

You can also choose any aspiration except for the following:

-Successful Lineage

-Big Happy Family

-Super Parent

-vampier family

-Fabulously Wealthy

-Mansion Baron

-Any location aspiration

-the pets aspiration (only 8 members to a household so pets won’t fit)

-no famous aspiration (ie master actor/actress, world famous celebrity

-no love aspirations

-no party animal aspiration

After finishing your main sim, create seven other sims. They all must be young adults and they must all have the erratic trait. The other two traits and their aspirations can be whatever you want. (I recommend having a few evil, mean and romantic sims, just to make things interesting). None of the eight sims are allowed to be related. If you want to make things really interesting you can set it so no one has the same trait (except erratic because they all have to be crazy, a really good combo is erratic, paranoid, and evil/mean)

***Building your Asylum***

Next step is to build the asylum on a residential lot. Recommended lots are

- forgotten hollow

- oasis springs..

-strangerville

- Glimmerbrooke

But you aren’t limited to just those places

The size of the lot does not matter. You can build the asylum yourself, download an asylum from the Gallery using the hashtag #AsylumChallenge or modify an existing house in the worlds listed above.

Money cheats are allowed when building or placing your asylum. Depending on your mode of difficulty depends on what objects are allowed in your asylum, but all objects must be the cheapest at the beginning excluding child items and architecture (Cheap counters, cheap beds, cheap couches etc.). You cannot have objects in the asylum which affects sim’s emotions (unless the object was obtained through a career reward) or which prevents fires.

When you have finished building the asylum you cannot modify further except for buying books, unless sims get stuck in a certain area or your asylum saves up enough money for a new skill building item or when you can purchase an upgraded item. Pools are allowed but they are classified as a skill building item (unless one of your sims is a mermaid, you must lock gates for everyone but the mermaid(s) for it to not count as a skill building item unless otherwise stated in your difficulty’s rules)

When you have finished creating your asylum, your family funds must be at the required amount for your difficulty. To change the family funds you must first type into the cheat box “testingcheats true” (without quotations), then type into the cheat box “money (amount required). For example, for easy mode you would put "testingcheats true" followed by "money 1000" followed by "testingcheats false".

Upgrading Objects

When the asylum saves up a bit of money you can start replacing the cheap furniture and appliances with high quality furniture and appliances. You can only replace items, you cannot buy extra items. For example you can replace the fridge but you can’t have two fridges. You cannot upgrade objects in hard mode.

Using the handiness skill to upgrade objects is allowed in all difficulty modes.

Gameplay

- You must only be selected on your main sim, you are not allowed to click on the other sims at all to check their needs. If they die, they die. You can check to see what they are up to but cannot control them to help them. The only time you’re aloud to control them is when you are getting ready to lock the front gate or bedroom gate/doors.

- If you want to, at 12am, you can click on the other sims to check their inventory if they have books, food etc. When doing this your game must be paused.

- Cheats/mods/hacks which boost sim’s needs or skills are not allowed. High free will must be turned on, so the other sims in the asylum will do things by themselves.

- You can not use your inventory to reserve items for yourself. For example, you can't put a book or guitar in your inventory just so no one else can put it in theirs.

- The age settings can either be on normal or long, it’s your choice.

- No rearranging of furniture to reserve or use something for yourself. For example, you can not move the TV into a bedroom and turn it on just to get an uncontrollable sim out of bed so you can sleep in the bed. Nor can you remove a door so others can't gain access to the bathroom so you can use it when you come home from work.

- If a sim dies you must keep the grave on the lot, you must keep the grave on the lot. If their ghost gets too annoying (e.g. they keep breaking objects) you can banish their ghost.

- Putting toilets and showers/baths in separate rooms is OK in all difficulties, as dying from embarrassment tends to occur too much.

- Making your sim “work hard” in their career is ok, you cannot make the other patients “work hard” in their careers.

- You may not wake up other sims to get a bed. If you missed out on sleeping in a bed oh well. Go nap on a couch.

- when leaving you must take everyone with you. If someone would rather not come you must summon them to current lot

- During normal day to day activities you must have your time speed at 1x or 2x. You may only speed up time to 3x if you are fishing or sleeping

- You may have romantic relationships but no trying for baby or getting engaged, you may have a boyfriend.

- -locking sims in a pool is not aloud

- Isolating a patient is permitted for 3 sim hours

-

Game Pack/Expansion Pack Changes

**Outdoor Retreat & jungle adventure**

-Outdoor Enthusiast aspiration is allowed.

-You can only travel to Granite Falls when you need to complete certain goals in the Outdoor Enthusiast aspiration.

-When travelling to Granite Falls you must bring all of your fellow patients with you and choose the campground as your destination.

**Spa Day**

-When completing an aspiration, you can reward your Sim with a trip to the spa.

**Dine Out**

-Your Sim cannot own a restaurant.

-Your household cannot visit a restaurant.

-you may visit a bar IF you have vampires so they can get a plasma drink or drink from someone who doesn’t live in the asylum with you

**Vampires**

-Vampire patients are allowed.

-Vampire aspirations are allowed.

-your vampire is not aloud to feed on other asylum patients, one of the few times you can control vampires sims that aren’t your main sim, to prevent them from drinking the plasma from fellow patients. Also so when you go somewhere you can make them (easy mode: compel for deep drink; medium mode: compel for small drink; hard mode: main sims- ask permission/non main sim- compel for small drink)

-if main sim is a vampire you may get vampire perks and weaknesses

-you are allowed 1-3 plasma fruit tree when building your asylum depending on difficulty level (easy: 3; medium: 2; hard: 1)

**Parenthood**

-Super Parent aspiration is not allowed.

-children are not aloud because they get taken away when neglected

**Get To Work**

- Alien patients are allowed.

- Active careers are not allowed as they require leaving the lot.

- Your Sim cannot own a retail business

- If a member of the Asylum is abducted by aliens and comes back pregnant, when they give birth you have to send the baby back to Sixam.

**Get Together**

-You can create an Asylum club for the patients, you cannot add outside Sims to the club.

-Club perks are allowed for all levels of difficulties.

**City Living**

-Apartments cannot be asylums

**Island living**

- Pools don’t count as skill building if you have a mermaid as a patient as her duration is one of their needs. Must be locked to everyone except the mermaid(s) if not a skill building item. Can be “open to public” for 3 hours of the community time depending on your difficulty level (listed below)

- Pool Must be locked during bedtime hours as it counts as a place to sleep.

- Floaties count as a seat.

- May Travel to beach but asylum can’t be placed in sulani (goes with location aspiration) everyone must go to the beach together

**Get Famous**

Main sim May not have any famous aspirations (previously specified)

**seasons**

Must have one extreme weather set in your game options (ie rain and thunderstorms but just snow or snow & blizzards but just rain)

**cats & dogs**

Can build asylum in brindled bay (or whatever it’s called)

Can have stray animal house traits if desired

May not own an animal as the base of the challenge is to have 8 sims which is a full household

**Strangerville**

May not live here (goes with location aspiration rule)

Can visit but must bring/summon everyone

Difficulty Modes and Rules

There are 3 different modes of difficulty for this challenge.

Easy Mode:

- Starting funds: $1,500

- Complete two aspirations, then you are free!

- Can have the TV and the computer at the same time.

- Two sinks, two toilets and two showers/bathtubs. You may have a duo

- No more than 6-7 ‘bed spots’. Your choice. For example you can have 6 single beds, or 3 double beds, 1 double and 4 single beds etc.

- There can only be total seating for 7. That includes couches, lounges and chairs. If you have a dining table with 5 chairs then you may not use a couch that seats 3. Computer chairs don’t count.

- You may only have a total of 6 Skill Building items in the house, so choose wisely at the start. Computers, stoves, bookcases, mirrors, pools (if you have a mermaid patient) and TVs don't count as skill items. It is highly recommended to have skill items which make money, for example the easel and wood working table.

- Everyone in the asylum is allowed a job, but the non-controllable sims must be in the Criminal Career or an unpaid or part time job that pays under 20$ or less. You are not allowed to level them up in their career. If they lose their job, they have lost it forever. Your main sim can have whatever job they like. (It is recommended that their job is related to their aspiration. For example a sim with the Master Chef aspiration should be in the Culinary Career) you may not have work that you have to travel to, you may have work from home jobs

- Having a maid and ordering pizza is allowed.

- Can leave the lot to go fishing and collecting at anytime. Can only travel to other people’s houses and community lots during the hours of 7am-5pm. (When travelling to another lot you must bring everyone from the asylum along with you)

- If a sim dies, as long as you have one less bed as you do household members, you’re good, seats don’t need to be deleted.

- Beds must be locked from 8am to 8pm, one of the few times you can control other sims and interrupt their sleep is after 8am when the gate needs to be locked

- Pool must be locked from 8pm-8am as it’s a way to sleep

Medium Mode:

- Starting funds: $700

- Complete three aspirations, then you are free!

- You cannot have a TV and a computer at the same time. It is recommended that if your sim has the Computer Whiz aspiration for example, that you should have a computer.

- One sink, one toilet, one shower/bathtub. May be a duo if you wish

- No more than 4-5 ‘bed spots’. Your choice. For example, you can have 5 single beds, or 2 doubles and 1 single bed etc.

- There can only be total seating for 6. That includes couches, lounges and chairs. If you have a dining table with 4 chairs then you may not use a couch that seats 3. Computer chairs don’t count

- You may only have a total of 5 Skill Building items in the house, so choose wisely at the start. Computers, stoves, bookcases, mirrors, and TVs don't count as skill items. It is highly recommended to have skill items which make money, for example the easel. Punching bags are a grey area, you decide if they count because they can also be a type of therapy

- Only 2 non-controllable sims are allowed jobs, both must be in the criminal career. Your main sim can have whatever job they like. (It is recommended that their job is related to their aspiration. For example a sim with the Master Chef aspiration should be in the Culinary Career)

- you may not purchase satisfaction rewards

- No maids and no pizza.

- Can leave the lot to go fishing and collecting between the hours of 9am-3pm. Can only travel to other people’s houses and community lots during the hours of 10:00am-3:00pm. (When travelling to another lot you must bring everyone from the asylum along with you)

- If a sim dies, 1 seat must be deleted until there is 1 seat remaining.

-Beds must be locked from 7am to 8pm, one of the few times you can control other sims and interrupt their sleep is after 8am when the gate needs to be locked

- Pool must be locked from 8pm-7am

Hard Mode:

- Starting funds: $250

- Complete four aspirations, then you are free!

You cannot have a TV and a computer at the same time. It is recommended that if your sim has the Computer Whiz aspiration for example, that you should have a computer

- One sink, one toilet, one shower/bathtub. Not duo

- No more than 3-4 ‘bed spots’. Your choice. For example, you can have 4 single beds, or 2 double beds, 1 double bed and 2 singles

- There can only be total seating for 4. That includes couches, lounges and chairs. If you have a dining table with 2 chairs then you may not use a couch that seats 3. Computer chairs and chess chairs don’t count, unless you want them to.

- You may only have a total of 4 Skill Building items in the house, so choose wisely at the start. Computers, stoves, pools (if you have a mermaid patient), bookcases, mirrors, and TVs don't count as skill items. It is highly recommended to have skill items which make money, for example the easel, etc...

- Non-controllable sims are not allowed jobs. You main sim can only have a job if their aspiration requires it. For example the Master Chef aspiration requires your sim to be in the Culinary Career.

-You cannot purchase satisfaction rewards

- No maids and no pizza.

- Can leave the lot to go fishing and collecting between the hours or 12:00am-5:00am. Travelling to other lots is banned, unless your sim’s aspiration requires them to. In that, you can travel to other lots between 12:00pm-5:00pm. (When travelling to another lot you must bring everyone from the asylum along with you)

- If a sim dies, 1 bed and 1 seat must be deleted until there is only 1 bed and 1 seat remaining.

- Beds must be locked from 6am to 9pm, one of the few times you can control other sims and interrupt their sleep is after 8am when the gate needs to be locked

- Pool must be locked from 9pm-8am

Aspirations

In the difficulties it states that a number of aspirations must be completed. This refers to aspirations such as the Computer Wiz aspiration. It does NOT refer to groups of aspirations such as the all of the aspirations in the Creativity category.

Scoring (Optional)

+50: per aspiration completed.

+1: per skill point any of the 8 Sims have at the end. Only living Sims count.

+1: per 1000 Satisfaction points every Sim has.

+5: per every human turned vampire by your main sim

-20: per Sim that died.

-20: per fire which has occurred.

-20: per day when the power and water is shut off. (E.g. Power and Water shut off for 2 days =-40 points)

-5 points every time you forget to lock a gate/door

-20 points if a vampire patient uncontrollably drinks

-30 points if a vampire patient uncontrollably drinks from fellow patient

[thursday8econlive]

Economics behind the rise of a new videogame genre

Zeqi Yu

#32046194

A ”battle royale” game is a genre of games that blends the survival, exploration, and scavenging elements of a survival game with last-man-standing style combat gameplay. In this gamemode, many players deploy into the same virtual world, where they will collect asset and use them to keep themselves alive & eliminate opponents inside a shrinking “safezone”, with the last survivor becoming the winner. This genre of videogames exploded in popularity in recent years, flooding the market with dozens of games, big and small, that brought in millions of dollars into the gaming industry.

However, if we go back just a few years, the genre “battle royale” consisted of little more than two very-popular player-created “mods” for existing videogames - Minecraft’s Hunger Games mod and Arma’s DayZ mod. The market did not look anything like it does today because creating the first independently-successful battle royale game seemed like an expensive and risky move back in the day. Although the mods were popular, no studio has yet built a game entirely around the battle royale gamemode, which had obvious anticipated drawbacks such as creating frustrating amounts of downtime for players (you are out of your previous game and must join a new one everytime you die) and high usage of resources to create & operate (the game must simulate a massive world containing many players to be fun, which can be expensive and technically challenging). The barrier of entry was high, and so was the risk.

However, some players in the gaming market noticed the potential of the genre and decided to make a move. Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation, hired the creator of Arma’s DayZ mod - PlayerUnknown - as a consultant to create H1Z1: King of the Kill. H1Z1 was nothing too special as a shooting game, other than the fact that it was built and optimized entirely around a single gamemode - battle royale. It was also backed by the mighty Sony in its marketing and operating costs. The game was a success and exposed gamers to the battle royale genre, which gamers enjoyed. The demand curve has already began shifting to the right, but it would not be until PlayerUnknown broke off to join a Korean studio in the making of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, that the genre would truly take off.  

PUBG sold over $100 million worth of copies within the first few months of release, despite being marketed as an “early-access” product that wasn’t even considered complete. It was clearly visible  at this point that the demand curve for the battle royale genre was shifting very rapidly to the right - PUBG was being played more on every gaming platform and trending harder on streaming platforms than most other games, it was an early-access product still suffering from enourmous technical issues, but consumers were still willing to play it over higher-budget, more-polished substituted for what it is. There was a clear shortage in the market for BR games, and developers across the gaming industry were ready to fill the gap.

Following PUBG breaking dozens of sales records and taking the internet by storm was an enormous wave of BR adaptions for existing games as well as newly-created BR games. Because the market clearly opened up opportunities for positive economic profits, other studios were willing to push aside their ongoing projects to get into this expanding market. The market for BR games was a monopolistically-competitive market. BR games are similar in that they are nearly all shooting-based combat games played under a BR gamemode, but they are very highly-differentiated in aspects like gameplay mechanics and artistic theme, but still functioned as substitutes for each other. The firms in this market behaved exactly as firms in a monopolistically-competitive market would. Not long after PUBG’s initial success, studios flooded the internet with advertisements of their new BR titles. Half the ads that came before the Youtube videos I clicked on during that time were of BR games, some even took their ads to cable television, and online content creators were being sponsored by different studios to play their new BR games to their audiences.

Among these new BR games, the one that would transcend PUBG’s success and become the next big thing was Fortnite. Compared to most of the BR games that adopted PUBG’s dull, realistic setting and art theme, Fortnite had a cartoonish, fantasy theme full of vibrant colors and lively animations that increased its appeal to casual gamers and children. Its gameplay mechanics, though not lacking in depth, were much more straightforward than PUBG, with a unique building mechanic that allowed players to drastically alter the environement and extend the length of gunfights, increasing the replayability of the same virtual world and making combat more exciting. The studio behind Fortnite was EpicGames, which has been a leader for decades in the market for ”game engines“ - a package of of frameworks and development tools used to develop videogames. Their Unreal Engine has been the foundation of many popular titles, including PUBG. EpicGames thus had sufficient amounts of technical expertise to ensure that Fortnite operated smoothly under different platforms and conditions. They even managed to create cross-platform gameplay between desktop, console, and mobile platforms - a groundbreaking first for a videogame of Fortnite’s level of complexity. Last but not least, Fortnite adopted a dynamic model for their game - releasing fresh new content for players to explore every two weeks, while removing unpopular content to prevent saturation.

Fortnite raised the standards for BR games, and arguably videogames in general, across the industry. As a videogame it was and still remains extremely-unique, highly-polished, and constantly-evolving - any one of these targets being quite difficult to hit for most developers. EpicGames alone, as one firm, shifted the supply curve for BR games, and videogames in general, far towards the right, catching up with the elevated demand and bringing the market closer to a long-term equilibirum. Because Fortnite is arguably much harder to beat than PUBG as the leading BR game, and the hype around the BR genre as a rising genre has mostly died down, it has become more difficult to make an economic profit in the BR market. As a result, the influx of new BR games onto the market has also decreased.

Zeqi Yu

#32046194

[daydream-gaming]

Evaluation

Ellika’s Watcher is a personality driven game, or so I wanted it to be, I say wanted it to be because It really isn’t that much of a personality driven game but rather more of a pixel hack and slash. Starting my project, I tried to stay to time management, however I while progressing my project I found out that I was not good at this skill. Therefore, in my finally product I have changed a few things, from making a impossible to complete research schedule to making my production way too short and giving myself way too long to make pre-production. My final product is still the same has it was going to be but with less content. I acknowledge these flaws and I am glad I made them, it allowed me to grow as a developer and made me learn major lessons. Things also went well in my project such as my research and getting feedback from my own target audience helping me out on my decisions.

The original idea of Ellika’s Watcher was kept and much research went into games that I wanted it to be like, a game that is most referenced is Titan Souls, I wanted it to be open environment, for retro style gamers to explore. Keeping it kid friendly but also appealing to the wider audience. The idea originally came from the first two mini games I created the theme of them was good, then I looked into the Final Fantasy games where the games are the same but with different characters with games slowly starting to change it up. Me just finishing my last game “Ellika Flyers” made me come up with an idea of making a sequel to the game, but changing up the actual game and making new characters just using the same world. This is done by keeping the “Ellika” part but adding a new word to it that would have to do with the game. I later planned and made the narrative for the game by using Scott Rogers guide. It was important to get the narrative before I get the second part of the name because it would have to do with the main part of the game. So, when I decided that the main character Chester was a former Watchmen and an Eye monster killed his town and family it made sense to call it Ellika’s Watcher referring to both the creature as that is what it is known by, and the main character’s former guard position. This is smart and makes it a play on the word.

In my pre-production and planning stages I planned on 3 levels, a starting room, a cave room and a cave boss room. This would be major change in my game, I did not have enough time to be able to debug the game where you couldn’t go into the last room due to a bug, I had to scrap the 3rd room and make it into the second room, this means the player only has 2 rooms to explore.  This makes the content of the game lack in some ways and doesn’t give the player a full experience. The player also doesn’t have the ending I originally wanted, a ending where when you pick up a certain item you get to see some dialogue pop up and after that you return to the menu however now it just returns to the menu without the dialogue.

Somethings that did however go well was when I added mechanics like saving the game in and adding new enemies and making a boss. They all worked super good, the progression of the game also felt good. You never feel like you are at an unfair disadvantage, you also don’t feel like you are too overpowered. The game progresses you by giving you XP by leveling up, this will give you damage, Hp and stamina. This helps you in the game especially if you decide to kill all the enemies you will feel the benefits with the game. The style of the game and the target audience I was going for was also a neat leash I could easily find and use. As many of these old lost types of retro gamers exist and only have recently been found again by games such as Titan Souls, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, etc. Games that make the concept of a game harder than it should be creating a sense of achievement for every little thing thy do. Another reason why games such as Titan Souls got so much recognition by these gamers was because of the of its style and I really tried to capitalise on that genre of 2D top down games with a challenge.

Time management was a problem as stating it earlier, this is good though, I knew it would be a problem as I took way too much on my hand and couldn’t keep up. At times, I asked myself to do up to 3 different blogs at a week which I wasn’t even thinking about all of the research and planning that goes into each one of my blog posts. I also underestimated the time I would take creating my game. It ended up with a lot of bugs and unfinished making it not a pleasant experience. You can tell that I definitely spent a lot more time on Room 1 than I did on Room 2. This is due to making my sprites and then coding the entire room and making the mechanics and Gameplay. This took me around 3 weeks to do, so when the last week of production came up, bearing in mind I still was doing research, had a social life and other life events going on I was not able to finish the game to my satisfactory level. This was all not considered when I made my Gant chart and I have learned that I should for the next project I do. I thought I would be able to do work all the time which turned out I couldn’t.

The gripping tale of Chester White a man that has varies of talents making his way into the cavernous caves of the Watchers cave to get revenge for his family after the watcher unmercifully killed them all in an all scale battle. The monster attacked on a night where Chester was out of the village and he had to watch from a distance as his village got burnt to cinders. The whole story has a bigger meaning behind it such as don’t do drugs or abuse subscription drugs and don’t take your loved ones for granted as you don’t know when your last moment is with them.

The Narrative theory I followed is a simple yet in-depth model, it makes you pity the main character and sympathize with him, this will help you relate with the character and but also make you angry at Chester because he lays and pitys himself drugged up on anti-depressants and alcohol. Abusing them. I made this so you go on a roller coaster ride, it is a similar narrative for to what the 2000 Gladiator movie used. However you never feel angry towards him. You also know. Gladiator was a huge inspiration during the writing of the narrative. I used the narrative Scott Rogers provided in his book Level up! I found this the easiest one to use but also made me think the most giving a challenge at the end where you have to make Chester have a bad streak 7 times in a row and justify why he does. I did it because we all feel like we have had everything go wrong in one day right? well this shows that but a bad luck strand over the past 15 years. Making the character relatable in someway to everyone. 

Overall having to adapt to the time wasn’t really my thing for this project and I will definitely try to follow my plan next time a lot better and make it a lot more humanly possible. This will stop me from having to sacrifice Gameplay, research time and make the overall final product a lot better. I am glad I was able to try this style, next time I will try to assure myself that I will follow the deadlines a lot more by doing more research into those weeks of planning and I will also try to make sure I have time for myself and not make 3-4 blog posts a week that are bad quality compared to 1 good quality post. The style of the game stayed the same at the end, with some minor tweaks in room 2 as there wasn’t enough time making it look incomplete or like an early version of the game. I really liked out the narrative finally worked out, I got the story down how I wanted to make you root for the “underdog” which is Chester after the story shows how much bad luck he has had in the past. This adds to his personality and shows why he has such an abuse for drugs. 

I have been heavily influenced by Titan Souls and Gladiator I liked the the atmosphere they create in emotional scenes but also make the an action pact experience. The Game and movie really made me think about design choices. Gameplay, and Storyline these are most important parts of the whole project because it influenced the final game for better or for worse. 

[cosmos-demiplane]

Part 2 – That post I promised about Energy Weapons, also exotics and play styles.

Following on from my first lengthy post I just want to talk a bit about Energy weapons and how they will affect PvE and PvP.

It seems that Energy weapons are going to be kinetic weapons but with an elemental damage modifier on them.

In PvE I can imagine, for balancing reasons and to maintain flow with special weapons from the first game, that ammo for these second primary weapons will not be as abundant as your Kinetic weapon; hopefully this should mean that your Kinetic will (almost) never run out of ammo. They will obviously do more damage to enemies than Kinetic weapons but I don’t know if this will be in the form of just a base damage increase or ONLY bonus damage for matching the element type of the weapon to the type of the enemy shield. It makes sense to think that if the ammo is going to be more limited they should have a base damage increase.

When Bungie initially released Destiny One, Elemental damage would only come into play when attacking an enemy which had the same elemental shield as the elemental damage you were inflicting. (There were Strike (dungeon) modifiers which increased the damage of a certain element making it easier to damage enemies but also easier to die). This did not change with the expansions and would be criticised as being too simplistic and flat in the normal game modes and too much of an artificial challenge in the activities which used the modifier. Elemental damage had no effect on PvP gameplay.

The fact that elemental primaries are now secondary weapons makes it seem like damage types may be more important. I am hoping that elemental damage will affect different races in different ways, even if it just comes down to dealing a bit of bonus damage. An example of this would be Solar (fire) weapons dealing bonus damage against the Hive (Magic space zombies).

If this is not the case then I don’t understand why we have this ‘Energy Weapon’ slot in our inventory. I guess a side effect of having them would be more up time on our abilities (grenades and melee) as we would not be using them to take out shields. Other than that I don’t get it :/

As for how they will affect PvP, I have mentioned in a smaller post that if you are attacking an enemy who is using their Super and you use an energy weapon of the corresponding element type, you will deal bonus damage. When you use a Super in Destiny One you gain increased resistances to attacks so I imagine in Destiny 2 that performing this combo will have the effect of ignoring this resistance bonus.

EXOTICS - I’ll only talk about 3 notable ones

The “best” weapons in Destiny, Exotics are weapons that every Guardian wants. New Exotics were shown off at the reveal including a rocket launcher, currently known as the Dubious Volley, which fires a salvo of swarm missiles from holes on a spherical rocket head like a Suriname Toad giving birth… don’t google that. Another shown off was an Auto Rifle with a mag size of 90 (that’s a lot) which looked and behaved like a hand held mini-gun! Last gun I’ll mention here was the gun of my dreams (I hope to own it ASAP), it’s an insanely cool looking Hand Cannon which blows up enemies when you get a kill. There were many others like a Submachinegun and a Grenade Launcher but you can look them up yourselves.

Weapon Perks

What we saw of the weapon perks can only be described as a positive move from Bungie. The main perk of the weapon is now a descriptor of how that weapon is going to play and is closely tied to the weapon foundry which produced that weapon. For example Suros guns have the ‘Adaptive’ perk which reads “Well rounded, reliable, and sturdy”. Hakke weapons have the ‘Aggressive’ perk which reads “High damage, high recoil”. A third one, possibly not tied to a foundry, is ‘Precision’ which reads “recoil pattern is more vertical”

This is a big deal because in Destiny One if you asked someone the difference between Hakke, Suros and Omolon weapons they wouldn’t be able to tell you. Now that information is right there front and centre and I am so happy about this you have no idea!

A quick rundown of the current three main foundries for the un-initiated: Hakke are harder hitting guns with more recoil, Suros are adaptable and so usually come with sights that can do things like highlight major enemies in a crowd, and Omolon weapons are for min maxers who, for example, might like to make their gun super stable at the cost of lowering range or mag size. Destiny 2 is seeing the addition of a fourth main foundry in the form of Veist which seems to offer weapons with multiple weapon modes? We will have to wait and see if this is accurate.

Lastly there is a mysterious new ‘Weapon mod’ slot on every weapon and nobody knows exactly how it’s going to change how the weapons function, at the end of the day it can only add another layer of game play which is generally a good thing.

In summary I’m still not 100% sure what the point of having an Energy Weapon slot is, the new Exotics look sweet and powerful, and weapon perks seem to have been improved in at least one way. So, mostly good things.