#truth: no new dlc has been released

[fake-destiel-news]

Source

[cenorii]

Rumors

I'm back from vacation and I'm ready to talk about RE again.

Talk about the rumors that, like the wind, recently blew everywhere. Just my thoughts.

Rumors are sometimes quite an interesting thing, because when the finished product is released, you can check who was right and who was wrong. But rumors are just rumors. Even the most "reliable" source can know only distorted "truth". It's like gartic phone, even if a trusted person received truthful information, it may have been distorted or embellished many times. So I recommend not believing anyone, but only trusting what we have now - canon and many hints in recent games.

Of course, often new RE games are not a continuation of previous parts, but the storyline is necessarily connected to all parts. Not necessarily re9 has to start with re8's finale about Chris' clones and the Blue Umbrella scandal (let's call it the "BSAA mess" for short), but it's an important part of the story that will be touched upon sooner or later anyway. It could be DLC for re9, or it could be an entirely new part like rev3.

Knowing that, I'm even more interested to see what re9 will be about. After all, if the story is really going to be about something new, that something should be as interesting as all those details that have been scattered in recent games (Oldsker, "BSAA mess", and so on). Also, if re9 doesn't touch on the "BSAA mess", it would mean that this will be given more reverent attention in the future. Maybe in order to talk about the "BSAA mess" we need to be prepared, and re9 will be bringing other characters up to that story arc so that in re10 that "turning point" will finally happen.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves and also not get upset. Either outcome is a good one.

[lopposting]

DLC interview notes Compilation + speculation

[Please note, these are all rough translations]

Compilation of links I found of director choi discussing the DLC, from as way back as 2022.

It looks as though, as of 2022, the DLC would pertain to the world of Pinocchio, and we probably won't see Oz related stuff just yet as teased by the Dorothy appearance in the end cutscene. Given that the DLC is slated to be released soon-ish, we can assume that it's been planned far in advance and that the 2022 interview is relevant to the content of the DLC that will be released this year [Just my assumption].

Q. You reinterpreted the fairy tale ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ as a cruel fairy tale. Do you have any plans to release other fairy tales in DLC form in the future? [Choi Ji-won] Rather than thinking about another fairy tale, the DLC plans to unravel Lies of P's world as originally conceived. We are not immediately thinking about expanding the fairy tale with new material or new IP. Of course, if there is an attractive fairy tale, there's no hesitation in choosing it. Gametok (KOR) [2022 Oct 17]

The worldview envisioned for Pinocchio is vast. I want to show a lot of what has been prepared through DLC. Rather than a new fairy tale, I want to [elaborate on the world of Lies of P]. However, if there is an attractive fairy tale there's no hesitation. We are fully willing to consider it as a next project. gameabout (KOR) [2022 Oct 11] (Nearly the exact same answer)

gamey (KOR) [2022 Oct 17] (from the same event/panel probably. Maybe this is just the exact same answer processed through different media outlets? I'm not sure)

DLC has been in preparation for some time. Plus, talk on expanding on the story elements in the main game, and pretty much confirming it will expand on "truths" that were not covered in the main story:[LETS GOOO]

Q I’m curious if there are any plans to add DLC or PvP content. A General Director Choi Ji-won = DLC has been in preparation for some time. The 'Lies of P' worldview that was thought of at the beginning of development is much more extensive, and we plan to unravel that part through DLC. The main theme will be the journey to find the truth and explore the world that was not covered in the main story. PvP content is not being considered. dailygame (KOR)[2023 June 9]

(Again, it seems like there is more to the story than what was really present in the final game.)

[Note!!: This may not confirm PVP content is not being considered *for the DLC*? This is what I think is a pre-release interview and he may be referring to PVP not being in the main game. I'm not sure. Although, I don't see PVP being added given LOP's linear style.]

I notice he mentions story in many cases when talking about the DLC. This makes me think that the DLC will be primarily story-focused:

gamey [KOR]

pinpoint news [KOR][2022 oct 17]

[from the director letter video, while talking about the DLC.]

- DLC를 통해 콘텐츠를 추가하거나 스토리를 확장할 계획이 있는지? 최지원 PD: 지금도 DLC의 구상을 하고 있다. 제대로 된 이야기가 보장된 작품을 만들고 싶은 욕심이 있다. 이 세계관과 관련된 다양한 이야기를 더 확실하게 확장하고 싶기 때문이다.

- Are there any plans to add content or expand the story through DLC? PD Choi Ji-won: We are still thinking about DLC. The ambition is to create a work that guarantees a proper story. This is because [we] want to expand more clearly the various stories related to this [world/universe]. gameabout

"I'll put it this way: there are more stories I want to tell in Lies of P, so I hope [it] does well." gamesindustry (ENG)[2023 Sept 20]

As of August 27 2023, he mentions that DLC has already gone into production (sportsseoul)(KOR):

More notes: LOP's development time was supposedly remarkably tight. It seems like it had a development time of roughly three years? LOP had tight goals and a very tightly focused scope (no multiplayer) to achieve that timeframe [also just a good article below]:

"South Korea belongs to the PC package and console game barren land" - article

Again, please note these are rough translations

The full list of links I found of LOP team mentioning the DLC below (also just a ref for myself):

gametoc

gameabout

pinpoint

sportsseoul

inven

dailygame

gamey

[yournextflame]

SOTE

Do you have any thoughts about Shadow of the Erdtree and its story now nearly 4 weeks after release? It seems the story presented has been very divisive and I wonder what are your thoughts on the matter.

Hey there! 🌿✨

Shadow of the Erdtree has certainly sparked a lot of discussion, hasn't it? Now that it's been nearly four weeks since its release, I still can't quite collect my thoughts and keep pouring essay after essay into my drafts.

The narrative direction has indeed been quite divisive. Some fans, like myself, are excited about the new layers of lore and the expansion of the worldbuilding, while others feel it strays too far from what they've come to expect, especially in regards to character writing. I can understand both perspectives.

To keep it short, I'm really enjoying the new lore centered around Metyr, The Greater Will, Fingers, and Ymir. This direction was hinted at since the base game, and one of my last theory posts on this blog pointed out all the parallels between how the Greater Will operates and how humans perceive and try to comprehend the cosmos.

The lore of outer gods, the rise and fall of civilizations, the whole "life and power sprouting from death" theme taken to a new level, and the way the game blends the differences between faith and intelligence, the crucible and the primeval current—this is all the stuff that particularly stood out to me.

When it comes to the characters, the DLC somewhat fixed a lot of issues with the sometimes flat portrayal of some demigods in the base game and picked up on narrative details that were often ignored. I'm glad that Mohg isn't a Disney villain anymore, Marika finally got a backstory that gave her much-needed depth without removing her agency, and Miquella is… well, as I've pointed out many times, he's certainly more complicated than the anime boy in a flower crown that the fandom wanted him to be, though now the fandom is flanderizing him in a different direction. Truth be told, a certain ending twist is my least favorite part of the DLC, but more on a technical level rather than thematic.

Overall, I think the DLC is far more enjoyable for people who viewed Elden Ring as a collection of Miyazaki and GRRM's thoughts on humanity, civilization development, religion, and other philosophical or even scientific topics, rather than a more classic character-driven story. For me, it was certainly good enough to reignite my interest in the series again.

[runevex]

Starfield is Genius, and That's Why It Doesn't Age Well

So it's been over a year since the release of Starfield, and the first official DLC is right around the corner. So, I wanted to take a minute to talk about the game's story, main flaw, and genius narrative.

Serious main plot spoilers are ahead, if you care.

About half way through the main story of the game, you are introduced to the Starborn. People who have found a way to transcend realities, leaving their universe behind forever. This is done primarily through two characters, The Emissary, and The Hunter.

At the end of the game's story you are given the opportunity to transcend your reality as well, leaving this universe behind in favour of a new one. This resets the game and starts your quests over; keeping your levels, perks, and gained knowledge. You get to skip the intro cutscene, begin with a decently powerful ship and spacesuit, and can fly straight to the lodge.

The retention of gained knowledge becomes important, as large chunks of the main story can be optionally skipped entirely simply by informing your colleagues what is going to happen. Because you do know what is going to happen, after all you have lived it before. Maybe dozens of times.

This also occasionally applies to faction quests and side quests, where you are given the option of answering as a Starborn, using your gained knowledge to essentially cheat.

The first time you go through the unity, leaving your universe behind and start New Game Plus, unless you are doing an evil playthrough you are going to use that knowledge to your advantage. Your first instinct is likely going to be to correct your mistakes, avoid catastrophe, leave this universe in an even better position than your last one. You are The Emissary in this situation, trying to maximize goodness across the multiverse.

But something interesting starts to happen the second time you enter the unity. There's an inescapable truth you will start to realize, and it's that you can always leave and start over again. All you have to do is collect all the artifacts, and you can leave this universe behind and start over.

You start to care just a little less. Maybe you get caught during a stealth mission, and instead of incapacitating them you just shoot them. After all, it's just one person in the grand scheme of things, and you can always just do better in the next universe. Maybe you know a shortcut to finish a quest, but it's a violent solution, and you take it anyway. After all you are on a mission, and you already shot someone anyway, you can just do better next time.

Slowly, little by little, you care less. You get more violent. You've seen it all before, and you'll see it all again. You become The Hunter. You become the uncaring Starborn that has a mission and just wants to get to the end no matter the cost.

Even if you do decide "This universe shall be my home now. I'll build a house, get married, take good care of it, and won't leave again", you will never escape your personal knowledge as the player that you can always leave again. Any decision you make, any mistakes you make, will always be slightly tainted by the fact that you can always collect the artifacts and simply leave again. You know that now, and you can't un-know it.

This little trick the game pulls, making you the player feel yourself slowly starting as The Emissary, to becoming The Hunter, is simply genius. You personally experience the perspective shift that created The Hunter in the first place, it's happening to you as the player. It is also terrible game design.

As soon as you fully accept that nothing matters and you can always leave, odds are good you are just going to stop playing. Even starting a fully new character, the cat is out of the bag now, you know the truth. The truth is nothing matters and there will never be conciquences to your actions.

You can make that argument against an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game because you can always start a new save, but it's not the same thing. The narrative of those games is that your decisions have consequences (even if they are bad at actually showing that). This is the world that the NPCs live in, that you live in, and you only get one. Starfield, however, explicitly tells you to your face that this is not the case, and nothing will ever matter. This all but guarantees that you will eventually lose interest in the game, likely permanently.

Starfield's narrative design is genius, and also terrible.

[lulu2992]

Hey ! First thanks for this blog, it's full of really great posts :) And second, I saw you gave advices to fanfics writers for John and Jacob but I didn't see anything about Joseph, I believe I'm not the only one to think The Father is the hardest to write ! Any tips, advices or anything else ? Thanks a lot and continue this wonderful work !

Hi! And thank you :D

I suppose you’ve played the game and already know Joseph’s story, but as I did in my previous posts, I’m going to give you (and anyone reading this who might not be familiar with the Far Cry 5 universe) a few links and resources:

The Book of Joseph: an official but rare book that seems mostly canonical. Its real-life author is unknown, but it’s written from the Father’s point of view and provides details about his life before Hope County. Contrary to popular belief, though, this is not Eden’s Gate’s sacred book; that’s The Word of Joseph and we can’t read it (except one page; see below).

Joseph’s sermons: the “first” one, “Soul Search”, the one about “the elite”, and “The Truth”. The latter is him reading the only page from The Word of Joseph we can find in the game. There’s also this one for Jacob’s Armory, and this, supposed to be broadcasted in the Heralds’ bunkers when the Collapse has arrived.

His only radio call.

The message he left for John at Seed Ranch.

His lines during the final fight against him.

His Arcade lines: Part 1 & Part 2.

His scars and tattoos.

I wrote a summary of what other characters say about him (masterpost here), but the cultists and Resistance/civilians’ comments can be listened to here and here. And chances are they’re not relevant anymore, but you can listen to his deleted lines here and read even more here.

The Far Cry 5 lore is all over the place if you want to take all the content they’ve ever released into account, but there’s also:

The song “Now He’s Our Father” (choir version here and reinterpretation here)

The two live-action trailers, The Sermon & The Baptism

The novel Far Cry: Absolution (not legally available for free)

The short film Inside Eden’s Gate (and, as a bonus, the long version of one of the scenes)

The comic Far Cry: Rite of Passage #3 (not legally available for free)

The game has an official sequel, Far Cry New Dawn... but it’s not really canon to me because of the retcons. And I have to talk about it because it exists, but there’s also the Far Cry 6 DLC, Collapse. It takes place in Joseph’s mind, and you would think that would make it the most reliable source of information regarding his psyche, but it was developed by a new team and there are many discrepancies between it and Far Cry 5, so I would personally advise against using it as a reference... Finally, this isn’t only true for Joseph, but take everything you see on the Far Cry Wiki with a grain of salt, especially unsourced information that makes you go, “oh, I didn’t know that”; that’s very suspicious :’)

In the Far Cry 5: Official Collector’s Edition Guide by Prima Games, the game’s Lead Writer, Drew Holmes, said the following about Joseph:

What we really focused on was creating an enemy that truly believed in his mission—that only he could protect humanity during the end of days. We wanted to create a villain who had pure intentions but who was so consumed by his own madness that he could not see his own evil. He views himself as Noah—but everyone else sees him as a madman. (...) Joseph Seed is a villain we haven’t seen before in Far Cry. Yes, he’s magnetic and crazy...but there’s also an honesty to him that makes him compelling. He believes he has purpose. He’s not crazy for crazy’s sake—he has a very clear message that he’s trying to impart on the Player—and hopefully makes you stop and think whether or not he’s actually right.

He talked about him in other interviews, such as this one.

Joseph was co-created and has always been played by the same actor (except once), Greg Bryk, whose opinion on the character is always worth reading/listening to. Here’s a selection of videos, some of them also featuring Drew Holmes and Dan Hay (Executive Producer/Creative Director/Writer):

Cult of Personality (UbiBlog)

Meet Greg Bryk Joseph Seed Actor

Interview - Greg Bryk and Drew Holmes (Gaming Trend)

Greg Bryk (Joseph "The Father" Seed in Far Cry 5) - Game On Expo 2018

FORGED ep10 - W/ Guest Greg Bryk

SacAnime Summer 2018 Greg Bryk Far Cry 5 Panel

Joseph Seed "The Father" aka Greg Bryk talks FAR CRY 5 & FAR CRY NEW DAWN

How Far Cry’s Iconic Villains Were Created (IGN Inside Stories)

Fans also asked him questions on Instagram and I compiled his answers here (and here). In the latest live stream, he said Far Cry 5 had been “an amazing chapter in [his] life” but that Joseph’s story was “finished”, implying he didn’t feel like playing him anymore...

Finally, it’s not really informative, just fun, but there’s this.

Now, my analysis and interpretation! Despite the fact Joseph is an antagonist in Far Cry 5, I wouldn’t really call him “evil” or describe him as a villain because he’s (weirdly) well-intentioned. His followers undeniably do awful things for him and his siblings, but even though he’s a cult leader, he’s neither hypocritical nor a liar, and his primary goal isn’t to take advantage of people. Joseph heard a Voice he believes is God’s and It entrusted him with a mission. Although who that Voice belongs to is up to interpretation, it’s clear to me It’s not a figment of his imagination; It’s real, and It’s powerful. Joseph has unwavering faith in It and will obey It, whatever It asks him to do, even the worst, because he’s extremely devoted and convinced he’s only doing what’s right. He genuinely believes the Collapse is coming and that he’s the prophet chosen to save as many “souls” as he can (at least 3,000) from it to march them to Eden’s Gate, which is why he started his Project.

I said he was well-intentioned but, as the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, and I think Joseph embodies this proverb perfectly. The fact he’s convinced his actions are righteous is precisely what makes him dangerous and almost unstoppable. He won’t let anything or anyone prevent him from fulfilling his destiny and get in the way of his divine purpose, even if it means people have to die. To Joseph, this is “God’s will” and those non-believers will perish when the Collapse comes anyway... The people his Family saves might fight or not want to join them now, but he thinks that in the end, when they finally understand he was right, they will be grateful. As the Father, he feels he knows what’s best for his Children.

I believe the Voice showed him several versions of the future and that Joseph isn’t sure which one(s) will come to pass. He may know his siblings are likely to die and not see the New Eden, but he hopes they will live because he truly loves them. As for the Deputy, they’re the person destined to trigger the Collapse, so they’re special to him and he doesn’t want his followers to kill them. That said, he also hopes he can make them join his Family so everyone can be safe in “The Garden” the Voice promised.

I think Joseph hasn’t really moved on from the loss of his wife and is still, in some way, in love with her. That doesn’t mean he could never love someone else, but in the game, he’s not quite there yet. That may seem paradoxical, and he’s still convinced he did the right thing, but I also believe his daughter’s death was a tragedy to him because evidence suggests he loved her more than he loved himself. Joseph is a man of strong convictions… and contradictions.

He’s usually calm and collected but can still feel and express extreme emotions in some cases. When he speaks, it’s like he’s naturally solemn and charismatic, which is probably why so many people follow him. Again, the fact he doesn’t lie to them and sincerely believes in his message is probably the reason others started to believe in him in return.

Because of what he went through in his life, it appears Joseph is always desperately trying to build a family and surround himself with loved ones. Sadly, he also seems doomed to always lose them, one way or another… His commitment to the Voice is absolute, and serving God is what keeps him going. In the end, he’s certain everything he’s endured and sacrificed will be worth it. Unfortunately, while he always aims to do “what’s right”, the tragedy of Joseph is that he usually ends up inadvertently making things worse, for him or the people he loves. His faith is his reason for living, but it’s also, too often, the main reason for his suffering.

[remy2fang]

I remember there was a character lore “leak” that came out in June 2022 on Reddit and then it got deleted like a week later. There was a detailed description about A.K.I. and other characters. A few people commented on the post, dismissing it as fake and sounded like fanfiction. Nonetheless, I took a screenshot of the post to see if there were any truths to it when the time comes, though I didn’t screenshot all of it. A year later after the character reveals, reading the SF6 UDON comics, and playing Arcade Mode and World Tour…I’ll say that the “leak” had a lot of inaccuracies, but it also had its validity.

Here it is. If you don’t want any spoilers, don’t read:

Ken: He’s not divorced nor is he following the path of a warrior. But even when completing his arcade mode and World Tour, he’s still in hiding and didn’t come back to his family. In a way, he still didn’t get his happy ending…yet.

Zangief: Extremely inaccurate . But the Nayshall story has politics in it, with citizens having different opinions on the modernization of their country due to wealthy foreign influences. Also, Blanka is an environmentalist since he cares about the preservation of rainforests.

Cammy: She is indeed the new leader of Delta Red and she’s very close to Juni in the arcade mode, though more sisterly love than romantic. Ngl, the illustrations can be interpreted as a ship lol. Juri is not the main rival, and she gets shady jobs by various organizations…including “Neo” Shadaloo (hmm, I thought they were the good guys lol). She hates Shadaloo, but money is money lol

JP: In World Tour mode, he is the final boss, but I’m not sure if there will be any more boss battles once the dlc is released. As for the Ed connection, Neo Shadaloo was involved in modifying Bosch’s body. It’s said that the tournament organizers did this to make the event more exciting. JP was the tournament organizer at Nayshall. I wonder if JP hijacked Neo Shadaloo between the events of SFV and SF6. Also, JP is very fond of antique playing cards. Hmm, might be a Rose reference there.

There was more that I didn’t bother to screenshot because it had no F.A.N.G nor A.K.I., but I do remember what it was: An “unknown overpowered female character is the final boss.”

Over Powered Female Boss: At first I thought it might’ve been Kalima before the game came out, but that’s not the case. The “leak” got the gender wrong. The supposed overpowered female boss is actually Bosch when he’s boosted with Psycho Power. Ngl, Bosch definitely has an effeminate face compared to the other male SF6 characters except for Jamie. I’m not surprised that he was mistaken as a woman lol. The leak came out on Reddit somewhere on June 2022, and then got deleted a few days later. Bosch’s trailer reveal was on September 2022, a few months after the Reddit leak. Bosch was the 2nd to final boss of World Tour.

That being said, whatever it’s said about A.K.I. might have some truths to it…stay tuned though!

[thetruejerrycan]

I'm pretty confident that this Game Awards announcement that Sega is hyping up is Virtua Fighter related. Everything surrounding Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is my only hint with some real basis. Straight from the horse's mouth, the game was meant to gauge interest in the VF property and the game met sales expectations plus got both Yakuza and Tekken-themed DLC to sweeten the pot. Usually when a game in a dormant franchise is being released to "gauge consumer interest", that's not a good sign. What typically ends up happening is that they hold the game for ransom, telling us that if we give them enough money we'll get to see more of it, with varying degrees of truth. This time, I think Sega meant it

"New era, new energy" is what really gets my imagination firing on all cylinders. That could mean anything, but not only have they been sending these letters to fighting game players in specific, let's just think about Virtua Fighter for a second. Love VF or hate it, it's hardly moved forward as a video game since its inception. While the gameplay has struck a balance between simplicity with only three buttons and complexity with just about everything else going on, VF fails to compare to its contemporaries otherwise. The modern issue is that VF5US came out in 2021 but not only does it not have a PC port, it doesn't have rollback either. The chronic problem with all of the Virtua Fighter games is that even though it was the first time we'd seen human game characters in full 3D, the characters to this day remain extremely one-dimensional, two if we're being generous. It really doesn't help that none of these characters' backstories are communicated in the games themselves. VF's arcade mode never even featured character endings. It's extremely difficult to find anything interesting beyond surface level about a majority of the characters outside of their one-liners and their fighting style. Virtua Fighter as a series has a lot of catching up to do and I think this could be Sega's chance to push it in a direction of modernity, which can exciting and scary for everyone involved, I'm sure

Now watch everything I've said here turn out to be wrong and we get Sonic the Fighters 2. I'd absolutely still be down, STF2 could end up going hard as fuck. Really, any of Sega's repertoire of fighters could make for a great comeback with the right minds behind it

[minisception]

The local Warhammer store is having a 'Vanguard' event for AoS on March 28th. Ie, bring one painted Vanguard/Spearhead box, play it against others, make a time of it. I have the models for all four undead faction Vanguards, but none of them are fully painted. Which one should I try to finish for the event?

First up is Ossiarch Bonereapers. These are the guys I've been painting most recently and I had intended them to be my big hobby project for the year before Old World stole my attention. I also like this color scheme the best out of my existing dudes - this is certainly the pile that I'd be most proud to show off IF I finished on time. The problem is, this color scheme is SLOW. I'm already significantly behind schedule on the mortek guard, and I expect the riders and harvester will take even longer. 3/28 is still a ways away, so I could still finish on time, and in the process get back on my overall schedule, but I might fail completely, and even if I don't the risk of hobby burnout is real.

If I don't go with the OBR then in theory Soulblight Gravelords is the most logical choice, as this group has the fewest models yet to finish. However, I'm not very happy with my old Soulblight scheme, a legacy of my 'Green and Green Alone' period. Painting models in a scheme I no longer fully invested in is positively begging for hobby burnout and/or failure by procrastination/ADHD. I could paint the remaining models in new color variation, but then I'd feel a need to start repainting bits of the 'finished' models to match, which entirely undoes the advantage that Soulblight have here. Also, while this group has the fewest unfinished models, those that aren't finished are particularly large and effortful, especially the blood knights, and especially especially their banner.

These Nighthaunt models are the most recent victims of my chronic Hobby ADHD, and I do still regret not getting at least this vanguard set finished before pivoting to the OBR. The store event could be a chance to fix that, and all of these models are at least started - heck from the far side of a table they all look at least half done. And while these models are also clearly from the Green and Green Alone phase, I actually still like how that color scheme looks on Nighthaunts, so I wouldn't feel demotivated finishing them or tempted to repaint anything. The big down side here is that 30 models need their upper cowls done, and that's the most time-intensive part of this color scheme, requiring a base coat, two washes, and 5 highligh passes. So while these look like need the least work to finish them off, the truth might be the opposite.

Finally Flesh-Eater Courts. Thanks to the recent army teaser box I actually have the contents of the upcoming FEC Spearhead/Vanguard box, even though it hasn't been released yet. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to assembling them, so they're still on their sprues. In theory this means FEC have the most work to do as I haven't even started working on them yet. However, that might be their saving grace, as I could choose a brand new scheme for them specifically to be extra fast an easy, maybe something incorporating oil washes as I just picked up some oil paints. With a simple enough scheme, one avoiding the excessive layered highlights and time consuming blends that I've committed to with my other undead factions, this pile of grey plastic might be quicker to finish than any of my half-painted factions.

....

The rest of the week and probably this weekend are still committed to getting a pair of 1,000 point Old World armies assembled so my room mate and I can play some games & start learning the rules, so I've got about that long to decide, if not less, as I really need to start putting the hobby time in if I want to get any of these four done in time. Especially as the Elden Ring DLC is expected later this month, and that's going to eat a fair bit of time itself.

[gear-project]

Annon-Guy: How do you feel about enhanced versions of games being exclusive to certain consoles?

You see, Gungrave G.O.R.E. got an Ultimate Enhanced Edition on the Switch with 100 Gameplay Balances and changes, new playable characters and lowered the gory content to get it's classic Teen rating back... AND IT'S SWITCH EXCLUSIVE! Which bites sense I Plantinumed the original game on PS4.

Depends on the circumstances.

Back in the Day Soul Calibur II was especially popular as a Nintendo Gamecube title because of Link being a playable character, but because it was Nintendo exclusive, Bamco couldn't use Link for anything outside of Nintendo platforms.

And Nintendo is also pretty stubborn about not porting things to PC, Steam, Epic Games, Arcades, and so on...

Even to this very day you'll find fans who make Link as a Custom character in Soul Calibur 6 (to say nothing of the DLC "mods" that let you turn items in to a Hylian Shield and the Master Sword).

Other games have had "exclusive" DLC practices on various consoles and that doesn't always translate well to later ports of games years upon years after they were released for now-outdated hardware.

Funny thing, however... especially with PC versions of games, modders and fan communities will often muster up content to "enhance" a game long after the Developers are *officially* finished with it.

So, for example, if you didn't buy the "exclusive deluxe edition" of Code Vein for example... some modders put together a mod that still lets you enjoy the DLC content that was featured in the Deluxe edition.

This also happened with the PSP version of Dissidia Duodecim: Final Fantasy... a lot of exclusive "limited time offer" DLC skins were downloadable at various "rare events" but almost nobody had access to that content because of how rare it was... goes to show that such practices would eventually lose favor with consumers. It was much later that some kind souls in the FF community donated the skins for FREE as a save file add-on you could play via PSP emulation or via a modded PlayStation Portable.

And, given that years upon years after a game is released... if it's not ported to a modern platform, it is instead thrown by the wayside... or ends up a mod project or emulation project by community fans.

Even some official "ports" of older games don't always make the translation well, which leaves it up to FANS to fix the mistakes from time to time.

And of course, this includes things like adding Rollback Netcode to fighting games, or even porting sound files from the original Arcade version of a game in to the PC version to "enhance it" (which is basically what happened to Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, and even BlazBlue Central Fiction).

In other words, if you want the "best" of something, usually the PC version is the smartest choice, due to fan-made options like I listed, or simply the prospect that a game can later be emulated on PC through various means.

Of course, not everyone likes using PC as a platform, because of technical things, getting outdated hardware, or they just don't want to mess around with the difficulty of learning how to run a PC as a game platform (even though much of what was hard about it has been mostly streamlined thanks to platforms like Steam).

Sometimes it's just an issue of compatibility, where you want your joystick or controller to work on a game console that suits you for playing.

In terms of DLC practice, unless it's something you absolutely can't live without or drastically alters the state of the game in ways that make the standalone game inferior... honestly such exclusivity is bad practice in general and best ignored until something better comes along, or a bundle edition exists.

Either that, or simply determine for yourself if such content is worth buying a whole console over.

Truth be told, I had "extreme reasons" for buying many of my games over the years.

Reason for buying a Sega Genesis: Sonic Spinball / Sonic 3 and Knuckles Reason for buying a PlayStation: (None, was secretly gifted, but I never regretted owning one after I bought the first Guilty Gear)

Reason for buying a Gameboy: Tetris. No doubt in my mind.

Reason for buying a Gamecube: Legend of Zelda Collection with Zelda 64 Master Quest. I also ended up getting Soul Calibur II as said earlier.

Reason for buying a PS2: Guilty Gear X Plus (I had to mod my PS2 in order to play the import of this by the way.)

Reason for buying a PS3: BlazBlue Calamity Trigger. I'm proud to say that after all these years.

Reason for buying a PS4: Gundam Breaker 3... the trailer alone convinced me. Owning Soul Calibur 6 on this platform is also nice.

Reasons for buying a PC: Technical reasons, and the fact I want to become a game developer myself one day... also the modding communities are more than convincing! I've done my OWN modding projects myself (which you can find on my blog).

[alexissara]

In-Depth Fire Emblem Engage Review

Fire Emblem Engage is the 17th or 13th or 14th or 18th or 20th game in the Fire Emblem series. The franchise has been a favorite of mine since the very first English release. Since then I have played every Fire Emblem Game and loved a good chunk of them. I played on Hard/Classic and cleared the first two waves of DLC before writing this review. The first beat will be a quick review TDLR style with everything under the read more being a bigger break down of what I liked, didn't like, and where I think it holds up with the series.

Fire Emblem Engage is a really fun game, it's got a fun cast of goofy characters with a few touching moments mostly touching on fairly common human experiences that most people would get sad about. The map design has improved from the last several entries in the series with much more fun maps even if objectives remain basically kill the boss on every single map. The game's lessened focus on deeper characters and on romance both feel like serious step backs from the direction they were moving and the localization is at times terrible making extremally odd choices to try and remove romantic context. The voice cast is preformed very well and the game is a visual treat to look at being the best looking game in the series with animations that rival the GBAs amazing work.

The games story is lacking in depth and in politics, it doesn't have an ambition to really get into the weeds of the things going on, even things that exist in the plot are more a driving excuse rather then something explored in deep conversations. Some characters are really one gimmick with one character talking about tea in basically every support. While gimmicky Fire Emblem characters are nothing new this game has such a weird mix of characters who have their supports mostly be one thing and characters who have a bit more going on. This game has some of the most meh characters in the series and some of my favorite.

Overall the game is a really good experience but doesn't reach the heights of the series best games in terms of narrative or character. It does however have some of the best gameplay in the series. While a lot of the gameplay innovations come from a gimmick I don't want to see repeated, I do want these mechanics to carry on into future titles. There is flaws in the mechanics but for the most part the engage mechanic is fucking amazing and so is basically everything they did. Like two colored hair this game can often contradict itself with things that are great and things that are mid. Overall it's a great title and probably one of my favorite video games.

The stories not very good at all, it's consistent in it's badness, in that it's lack of depth or engagement of it's world remains at the same level so it isn't super noticeable. The personal journey for Alear and Vayle is compelling but it's not a game about 2 people breaking away from their abusive dad, it's a war game that gives you soooo much of the plot on the back end.

It is not in depth as something like Three Houses/Hopes or Path Of Radiance/Radiant Dawn. Hell, it isn't even really more in depth then something like New Mystery Of The Fire Emblem. However, judging it on it's own terms it still fails it's own potential narratively. They decide that the 4 heirs to the thrown can't die but they aren't used by the plot outside of their intro arcs other then to say a few lines. Then there we see clear favoritism.

The plot twist of Alear being a fell dragon is super predicable, the four hounds being constant villains on maps lowers their feeling of threat given you've kicked their ass so many times before you seal the deal, Sombron's motivations aren't revealed until the very last chapter. it's just not very good. The story probably would have been better if they let Zephia be the main villain using Sombron as a puppet, in truth long dead and unable to return. Zephia is the driving force of narrative conflict for the vast majority of the game as it stands. Instead she is in the long line of evil Fire Emblem women who just wanted the main baddy man to love them.

By the end I did like All the Four Hounds, I did like Lumera, I did want more of the other queens, I want more but that more isn't there even as fun bonus content. Unlike Awakening, we don't have fun free post game content that lets you learn a bit more about the baddies and dead characters. Instead, we probably simply will not get more content of them given it seems the wave 4 DLC story is set in an alternative universe. That isn't so bad if not for the fact I didn't care to know more about a ton of the roster of this game. Most the characters are fairly lack luster. There is some of the best characters in the series like Yunaka, Timerra and Merrin who I really like. Yet, it also has a lot of the most broing ones

The lack of paired endings also really lessens the games overall impact, there is no shipping element which reduces a lot of the fun of Fire Emblem but it also really locks every character into 1 predestined fate. Including several endings that are like "They marry some random NPC". If the game didn't want character chosen romance they could have chosen to have canon relationships between characters, sexualities explored in depth, characters with romantic histories, desires, and how those might come in conflict with their roles. Despite deromancing everything the game still needs to leave everything ready for the player character, for us to be able to marry anyone we want. Now no longer homophobic but also the game censors and dulls a lot of the romances from the Japanese end which only makes it weirder.

The lack of shipping mechanics truly is a regression of the series and a regression of the plot. I am totally pro people having canon sexualities and having limited relationships but I am also pro being able to pair up anyone with anyone. However, this game only took steps backwards outside of the wish filaments fantasy of being able to give that pact ring to anyone. Which for people playing in English is still a let down with the lack of I Love Yous and other clear signs of romance, in fact several characters using terms that actively throw away the idea of romance in that.

This too could have been done better, if the intention was for a bunch of platonic relationships, which I think is a bad choice, it's still lacking. The supports instead very often lead to the A rank having the people declare they are friends. Even people who knew each other for a long time before this are declaring friendship at A rank. As if like, they weren't already friends. It often makes these supports feel like C rank supports in other games. C rank is when a bound of friendship that is important should be forming not A rank. A rank doesn't need to be romantic but it should mean this person is irreplaceable like a best friend. Instead some A ranks are like "I guess I don't hate you totally" and that is just, not compelling as a reward for going through so much together.

Then we have the Somniel which without voice acting feels a lot more lifeless despite the ability to see characters in a bunch of settings and in different outfits. It's extremally lack luster and everything in the somniel could have been better.

The minigames are mostly annoying or pointless, the Fishing game at it's highest rank feels impossible, the wyvern game is my favoirte, it's fun but it has 3 stages it's nothing, petting somni feels weird, and the training mini game is a rhythm game with no rhythm. if they had cut any of these features to further develop the other features it would be a massive improvement.

Then there is cooking, which lacks the vast array of voice acted special lines between characters and feels far less personal and far less desirable if not for the low amount of support gained it would be a feature that mostly just exists to maybe give minor stat buffs but could also tank your stats.

The core features you want to access the Area and The Ring Chamber are behind loading screens and have no menu access making them take an extremally long time to go between and making them fairly annoying to access especially for someone trying to optimize their characters. The ring chamber is mostly full of pointless features, there is only a handful of decent bound rings, polishing is nothing, buff the weapons of emblem rings requires you to grind a very slow bonus mode or online. The Arena is mostly hurt by not just little you do things instantly they need to load you into a mock battle that then can be skipped only after both characters have done a voice line and then if your raising emblem ring levels the support has to load then you can hit skip then return. It's very inefficient.

Then there is character customization, what should be one of the best features of the game is utterly pointless. There is no mechanical benefit which is not needed but there is also no real cosmetic benefit. The Sominel RNGs characters so you may not see your favorite in the cute outfits you pick for them and no outfit can be worn into battle a feature that massively reduces the fun of dress up, they don't even show up in supports. It is just a hole to waste precious smithing resources into. Dress up is one of my favorite things in games but eventually I just stopped caring at all because it was just done so poorly.

The Emblem Rings are a great addition to the game but also feel lacking in their features. Gender locked avatar characters is one annoyance but due to how few lines they get in their pact supports you don't get a great sense of character. instead they mostly are just a mechanical tool and narrative McGuffins. Sometimes their supports are great mini jokes or whatever and good like Soren's but it fails to give the level of attachment the characters in the game feel to the emblems which makes many scenes in the game far less impactful.

The way they work mechanically is great, they feel amazing, powerful, useful, and fun. They really make the moment to moment gameplay a lot better and they bring some really fun flashy shit to the table that is just an utter blast to see. They for sure make most the characters feel legendary with the exception of like Leif who sucks.

The map design is fairly solid, while the game forgoes any form of diverse map objective, every stage being defeat the boss it uses mechanics on each stage to make it feel more like the objectives they are emulating and make each chase to defeat the boss more exciting. It's not as fun as the wildly diverse objectives of pre-awakening games but it is the best map design since New Mystery.

Skirmishes are functionally useless for grinding leveling up old pals and SP gain is slow making it really easy to fuck up builds and just have to live with it. Then it is just so easy to become over leveled on accident anyway but the game feels fun when your stomping it so it's not that big of a deal but it feels like a little flawed in several ways. Sp books should have been obtainable through normally non online gameplay.

Overall, I really like the game, I think the game is utterly full of flaws but like there is a lot of steps forward here i want to see followed. I am not going into full detail about every system but in general the gameplay is just so good that it carries it through most the flaws. However, if these flaws aren't addressed in future games the gameplay can't do the heavy lifting. I leave the game feeling disappointed but having fun. My hope is the DLC waves ignite some kind of massive fire in me of "wow this is a master piece" but I doubt the ability of some multiverse story to do that. I just hope whatever it is we see added to the game will add more to it in an exciting way.

I think this is a game that will be highly highly loved at it's time and slowly but surely fade from relevance as a game people remember faintly like "Oh ya, I did like that game didn't I" unlike a lot of the other huge memorable bangers which invoke a strong feeling of hate or love from people. Let's hope IS takes lessons from this game for future titles and makes something that can easily be the best game in the series for now, it's above average for a Fire Emblem Game.

7/10 Good but not great, not amazing, not perfect. It will probably be one of my favorite switch games of all time cuz I am a long term fan and there is enough fan service but the lack of post game, NG+, romance, etc simply means I don't feel driven to play it again and again like I felt with Awakening, Three Houses, PoR, RD, etc.

If you enjoyed this review please follow this account or go support me on Patreon or give me some ko-fi all of which you can do by going to the Carrd in my bio.

[puppyluver256]

And with Edgar being posted, here's ref and bios for all of Team Persistence! :D Idk if I'll add more members to this team after the Hidden Treasures DLC released like I did for Team Aigis when SwShEX happened, more than likely not given they seem to be direct story continuations, but we'll see.

Rosemary - Meowscarada - Mild

A new student to Uva Academy, Rosemary had been trying to get into the prestigious school for a few years now and only just managed to pass the entrance exam. Truth be told, it’s not really something she specifically wanted, mostly just wanting to please her mother and her high expectations. However, as they’ve been gaining more experience outside of their mother’s supervision, they’ve been coming into their own person. Especially when it comes to her gender identity—she’s recently realized that their gender is much more fluid than she’d been led to believe it could be, and he’s taking every advantage of this new self-discovery!

Rosemary’s journey of self-discovery includes taking on several new hobbies, just to try new things and keep their mind occupied. Her recent interest in illusion and trickery has been quite the diversion and wonderfully useful as well, and he still enjoys playing around with their yo-yo from when she was a Floragato. The tricksy magician vibe really feels natural to her at present, of course. The one thing they can’t stand, however, is outright failure at something. Stumbling blocks are okay as long as he can eventually surmount it, but failing just crushes her.

Napolitana - Dachsbun - Naive

A new student to Uva Academy, Napolitana comes off as a bit of a ditz sometimes but she’s actually quite book-smart and knows how to use stat changes to her team’s advantage. However, she lacks the ability to pick up on certain social cues, making it hard for her to pick up on sarcasm or realize when someone is playing a joke at her expense. Thankfully it’s not too big a deal most of the time, and another team member will usually clue her in if there’s something like that she just doesn’t manage to catch herself.

While it does seem a bit on the nose, Napolitana is nonetheless extremely passionate about baking. Breads, pastries, cakes, you name it and she loves to make it, especially when she can make enough to share with loved ones. Her love of baked goods even makes it into her wardrobe, as it’s not uncommon to see her wearing some small accessory that resembles some variety of bread or sweet. Her favorite is her pretzel pin, partly because of some additional sentimental attachment as it was a gift from her late grandmother.

Brighid - Ceruledge - Calm

A woman with a fiery passion for the blade, despite her fairly cool personality. Brighid’s almost constantly practicing with her twin swords, something she had been training to do ever since she was young, long before she’d actually received them. Even though the swords have been given the nickname of “bitter blades” due to the perceived resentment of spirits lost in battle that are claimed to reside within the flaming aura that surrounds them, it is a heaviness that Brighid is willing to shoulder, even if it is just superstition.

Due to her stubborn determination when it comes to putting together and carrying out battle strategies, and how they almost always seem to work out somehow even when it seems that a giant miscalculation has been made, the rest of the team has taken to calling Brighid the “Crown Jewel of Persistence”. Her usually having control of the team’s Terastal Orb certainly doesn’t hurt the nickname.

Salina - Garganacl - Timid

A shy woman from Mesagoza, more often than not in her own mind than interacting with others. She is often assumed to be tougher on the inside than she really is, seemingly incredibly stoic and sturdy when in fact she’s more likely daydreaming and just happens to look physically imposing. Frankly she’s probably more likely to shrink away from serious threats than take them head-on unless she has no other choice. This tendency to avoid conflict also includes emotional conflict, unfortunately.

When Salina is comfortable around people, she’s actually very affectionate with them. Most everyone on the team has experienced one of Salina’s near spine-crushing hugs at one point or other, aside from Brighid, who has specifically stated she’s not terribly fond of hugs and of course Salina has respected that. Maybe someday she’ll be allowed to hug Brighid, but only on her terms.

Faraday - Kilowattrel - Naive

A girl from Levincia who’s a bit of a goofball, Faraday is often running around without a care in the world, or who she may run right into. She claims to run around so much with the intention of building up her latent static electricity, but most don’t really believe her and think she just wanted a more legitimate-sounding excuse to run around like a silly person. Despite her silly shenanigans, she is quite the battler, and has a track record of ending battles within mere minutes barring an encounter with certain weaknesses.

Faraday and Edgar have a little bit of a joking rivalry going on in that whenever he’s cooking, she’s always trying to swipe a bit of what he’s making as soon as his back is turned. Never enough to make it so there’s not enough for everyone else, of course, just enough to be a playful nuisance. Edgar has tried to counter this, and so far the only thing that seems to work is slipping something very bitter into a separate piece and hoping she goes for that by mistake. This strategy has mixed results.

Edgar - Paldean Tauros (Aqua Breed) - Calm

A rancher living in the outskirts between Artazon and Levincia. Edgar is very good-natured and easy going, somewhat surprising for someone with a Tauros title. It’s very hard to get him worked up about much of anything in an aggressive manner, as he seems to be able to let most issues wash over him without much bother. However, on the occasion where he does get genuinely angry, watch out—he can and will put the hurt on anyone that pushes him to that point, no matter who they might be. Thankfully these moments are few and far between, both for his sake and the sake of those around him.

Edgar is a pretty decent cook, and with his practice in outdoor cooking (or at least in using a miniature grill) has actually managed to get the team partially away from a reliance on picnic sandwiches. At the very least, he’s able to get some of those sandwich ingredients warmed up on the road to make them more flavorful. He does have some issues with Faraday often trying to “sample” before his cooking is done...and sometimes he can’t help himself and also “samples” his work as well. Faraday, of course, always calls him out on this when she catches him.

Meowscarada, Dachsbum, Ceruledge, Garganacl, Kilowattrel, Tauros (any variant), and other Pokemon concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Rosemary Flores, Napolitana Pantoja, Brighid Guerrero, Salina Morton, Micaela Faraday, Edgar Rivera, and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[themostefficientwaywithwater]

I sincerely hope that Gamefreak didn't debunk the fandom's main two theories (possessed Kieran and the imagination one) just because of this trend that if your public manages to predict a plot point by following the clues you been throwing at them then it means it's a BAD story and the ending must be changed at the last second to keep the shock factor. Because everyone knows a good story must have a ~*plotwist*~ rather than a fullfilling, cohesive ending.

Like I don't mind that the imagination theory isn't canon, and I think that Kieran not being possessed makes him a more interesting character since his actions come from his own flaws rather than from a random third party. What annoys me, however, is that by debunking said theories, the many plotholes the story has have remained unanswered. And it's not like Gamefreak doesn't know about them - they literally pointed them out to make them obvious to the player (Arven mentions that it doesn't make sense that Heath found paradoxes in Area Zero before the time machine was built, Carmine points out that we still don't know how the loyal three revived after Kieran punched their shrine). You don't point out your own story's flaws unless you actually have a proper explanation for them and you're hinting your public "yeah, we know this doesn't make sense, but it will in the future ;)". This is why the Indigo Disk/Mochi Mayhem was a letdown for most of us: we expected answers, and instead we got... nothing. Maybe even more questions that probably will remain unanswered (unless we get some video like pecharunt, which is the laziest option. you need to explain your story during the story, not after!).

I'm not trying to throw shade at these games because I hated them - I liked them in fact! And I wouldn't be so annoyed if they were capital-s Shit tier games, because I would have expected nothing. But it hurts me that a pokémon game has the skeleton of a good story and completely wastes it, and I don't even know why would they do that. Maybe they want to exploit the ""hidden lore"" to promote later games, a future remake or legends-like game, attracting the fans who think it'll finally explain""the truth"" (spoiler: it won't, and if they do, it'll be a retcon).

I don't know if Gamefreak truly has some sort of explanation for the paradoxes, the loyal three revival or Kieran's dark hand aura. If they do, they'll probably save them for another game (remake or a legends-like game), the anime, or just release another video (unlikely if they haven't done it yet). But, in my opinion, the probably don't have any, and if they ever had one, it was one or both of the aforementioned theories and they decided to scrap them for some reason. If that's so, I don't think we're getting an explanation and they'll expect us to just forget about it.

I said it before and I'm going to said it again: I liked the game. I liked the DLCs. Hell I even liked the epilogue, even with it's flaws. But you can't argue me that it seems that, at some point during the development of the Indigo Disk, they decided to change the course of the story. The Area Zero-Terapagos quest was rushed, we get nothing explained about Pecharunt-the loyal three and their connection is only hinted by a few interactions, their resurrection it's not even explained in it's video. And I refuse to believe Kieran's aura was unintentional: you can see the purple glow both when he punches the shrine (with the camera focused on his fist) and in the ID promotional art, and the camera often focuses on his affected hand, specially when he feels frustration against the player. I don't know, maybe I'm grasping at straws, but to me it looks like they had something in mind that they dedided to scrap at the last moment, for whatever reason, and they didn't have the time to create a new ending that made sense.

I don't know what happened but I sincerelly hope they didn't truly "troll us" because if they made a plotwist specifically to "troll" us I'm going to be so mad at Gamefreak I'm exploding

[44gamez]

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is more vital than ever in 2024

I spent the higher a part of my vacation break leaping from one real-time technique sport to a different: a They Are Billions failed run right here, a Command & Conquer: Pink Alert skirmish there. I even dug up my bodily copies of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Center-earth and its sequel from my mother and father’ basement. The liminal area between 2023’s late releases and 2024’s January rush supplied the proper alternative to zoom out (actually and figuratively) and benefit from the act of telling tiny little folks the place to go and what to do. At a sure level, my nostalgia morphed into curiosity. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Version’s Steam news feed has been extra lively than these of many more recent releases, and I lastly determined to take a more in-depth look. It seems, developer Forgotten Empires and Xbox Recreation Studios have been releasing new DLC, updates, patches, challenges, and seasonal aesthetics on an nearly weekly foundation because the remaster’s 2019 launch. This cadence, coupled with the truth that 26,000 people have been taking part in the almost 25-year-old RTS on Steam, satisfied me to take a detour. (I performed on Steam, but it surely’s additionally out there by way of Recreation Move.) And never solely is Age of Empires 2 nonetheless fairly rattling good — like many, I take into account it among the best RTS video games of all time — it feels extra very important than ever in 2024. To begin, there at the moment are 37 complete campaigns. This rely ignores the dozen discrete historic battles, the tutorial missions revolving round William Wallace, and the eight remastered campaigns from the earlier sport. (Did I point out Forgotten Empires additionally remastered a lot of the primary Age of Empires and launched it as an growth for the sequel?) If, like me, you favor narrative campaigns and skirmishes towards the AI in RTS video games, then Age of Empires 2 is tantamount to a single-player gold mine.

Picture: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Recreation Studios Whereas I at all times hesitate to think about a breadth of content material a high quality in and of itself, it’s each surreal and inspiring to see this many new missions, cutscenes, and distinctive models in Age of Empires 2 this lengthy after its preliminary launch. Forgotten Empires’ remaster performs like a dream, with a bevy of quality-of-life enhancements (I’m taking a look at you, farm queues) and enemy AI that truly is aware of learn how to exploit your weaknesses and bait you into susceptible conditions. Certain, pathfinding continues to be an albatross round Age of Empires 2’s neck — chasing one scout midway throughout the map with a complete battalion of cavalry won't ever be enjoyable — but it surely’s a a lot smaller albatross today. I can really maneuver a complete military throughout a river ford with out half of it doubling again to seek out one other crossing. Relating to a sport that feels this good to play, I’ll take all the missions I can get. I kicked off this specific stint with one Vlad Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler) and his marketing campaign to guide the Turks, Magyars, and Slavs towards the Ottoman Empire. Every of the 5 missions in his storyline contain vastly totally different eventualities. The third, titled “The Breath of the Dragon,” is as difficult as it's thrilling, tasking me with capturing the central Wallachian metropolis of Giurgiu earlier than defending it from assault in each path. Its placement on the banks of the Danube necessitates build up a naval presence and crusing to quite a few small settlements working to provide the principle Ottoman citadel of Darstor. When my Slavic forces lastly entered Darstor, destroyed its fortifications, and demolished its fort, I nearly needed to step away to catch my breath.

Picture: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Recreation Studios My return to the 1999 basic begs the query: What about Age of Empires 4, the newest entry within the collection? I’ve been a fan of Relic Leisure’s sequel since its 2021 launch. That appreciation has solely grown because the group refines and builds upon an already spectacular basis; I particularly admire 4’s asymmetrical faction design, which makes taking part in the nomadic Mongols, for example, really feel vastly totally different than managing the advanced dynasty system of China. Age of Empires 2’s civilizations, by comparability, really feel far more uniform outdoors of their distinctive models. However in its slick mechanics, its gorgeous artwork fashion, its wealth of inventive missions, and its robust content material cadence, Age of Empires 2 stays atop the pedestal it climbed nearly 25 years in the past. I haven’t even touched “The Mountain Royals” or “Return of Rome,” its latest expansions, as of this writing — however I completely plan to quickly. The sport’s ongoing well being is proof that, given correct time and funding, a group can revitalize a basic in a medium identified for its ephemeral works. I booted up Age of Empires 2: Definitive Version on the doorstep of 2024 to be able to replay a permanent basic; I additionally discovered a vibrant trendy sport. Join the Read the full article

[thetoxicgamer]

This Year’s Best Zombie Game Gets New Major Expansion

Dead Island 2 is a thrilling and gruesome game that has captured our hearts by combining elements from the first game while making significant improvements. The game's world, even though it's adorned with gore and visceral details, is visually breathtaking. Its gameplay delivers a nostalgic and exhilarating experience that many modern games often lack. The game's developer, Dambuster Studios, and its publisher, Deep Silver, have just announced the release of the game's first major expansion, titled Haus, and it's arriving sooner than you might expect. Although I'm not typically a fan of zombie games, Dead Island 2 was an exception for me, and I'm grateful for that choice. I initially played the original game on my Xbox during my middle school years, inspired by recommendations from friends. The announcement of the sequel triggered my nostalgic sentiments and lured me back into the gruesome world of Dead Island 2. I'm not alone in this sentiment, as the sales figures for Dead Island 2 speak for themselves. Dambuster Studios' sequel has proven to be incredibly enjoyable, but I hadn't played it in a while, feeling that I had exhausted its content. With the arrival of the game's first major expansion, my excitement has been rekindled, and memories of my childhood gaming adventures are flooding back. Dambuster Studios aptly describes Haus as "the most powerful cult you've never heard of." The expansion promises to unravel the enigmatic identity of an LA-based cult. Rumors and secretive invitations are circulating about Haus, and anyone who ventures into this cult's private enclave mysteriously vanishes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GkSO54YQhk Haus is described as "a specialized research and development campus" by its representatives, with the nature of its work being highly confidential. The cult requires exceptionally skilled individuals and almost complete isolation for its secretive endeavors. If you find these details intriguing, you'll have the opportunity to uncover the truth behind Haus when the expansion is released on Thursday, November 2. For those interested in delving into the expansion's lore, you can learn more about Haus on Dead Island's official website. If you're looking to purchase it, the game's expansion pass, priced at $29.99 / £24.99, includes this new DLC. Dambuster Studios is also planning another expansion for the sequel, but it won't be available until 2024, providing ample time to unravel the secrets of Haus. If you're eager for more spine-tingling content, you can explore our selection of the best horror games, especially suitable for the Halloween season. Alternatively, if you prefer thrills over chills, you can explore our collection of outstanding action-adventure games, some of which incorporate eerie elements. Read the full article

[corpsephage]

Sonic Frontiers Pre-DLC-Three Whinefest

I couldn't really get much into Sonic Frontiers, and I thought the final boss and ending was a little lacklustre. Apparently the writers agreed with me, because they're releasing a new ending as free DLC tomorrow.

I actually had a lot of thoughts about Frontiers and this'll likely be the last time I can air them before The Final Horizon comes along and makes me eat humble pie with how good it is. But I don't want to rip on it too hard because I know a lot of effort goes into making games like this.

I think Sonic Frontiers works best for me when I look at it like a tech demo for a future open world Sonic game. Compared to the variety of stages you get in other Sonic games - here's a casino with giant pinball machines, there's a European city full of balloons, here's a mineshaft from Halloween Town - the Frontiers open zones kind of felt sparse and empty, and there wasn't much I could find to do except go from one bit of plot to the next. This is a trap a lot of open-world games fall into, when the world is wider than it is deep, and there's everywhere to go but nothing to do.

However, I did like the enemies. They kind of looked samey aesthetics-wise, but they were all unique and had their own abilities that cleverly played off from Sonic's own, like the enemy disguised as a bounce pad or the one that would steal a Chaos Emerald from you.

In terms of boss fights, I think I preferred the part where you were normal Sonic running up their bodies to being Super Sonic and frantically smashing buttons. I was a big fan of Shadow of the Colossus, so anything that reminds me of those bosses is a plus.

Plot-wise, well... usually I can take or leave Sonic game plots, but this is probably the most plot-heavy Sonic game we've had so far. It's been described as "melancholy", and while it's not exactly grimdark-edgy, I wonder if it's a good fit for a Sonic game. I think the tone that suits Sonic best would be “fun”; not necessarily “silly” or “goofy”, just “fun”. That’s not me saying the whole thing should be happy-go-lucky, I think it should take slow moments every now and then to add complexity to the story.

Sonic's friends have these character arcs where they learn important lessons, like Amy learns not to be creepy-in-love with Sonic, Knuckles learns not to be tethered to the Master Emerald all the time, and Tails learns to stand on his own two feet for the umpteenth time. Part of me feels like maybe they're overcorrecting things that don't need that much correcting - especially Tails, whose whole arc felt kind of like an apology for the whole "Sonic, help me!" throwaway line in Forces.

Then there's Sage, the new character for this game, honouring the SEGA tradition of adding at least one new character every game. Truth be told, I kind of like them adding new characters, as long as they aren't just re-skins of the same "tutorial fairy" archetype (I think that's why Blaze and Silver had the staying power they did, being headlining playable characters in their debut games and all).

Sage had a lot of potential that I didn't think they got to explore. It's an interesting idea that she unconditionally loves Eggman like a father, but learns more of her morals from Sonic, which has the makings of a really tragic character. But they didn't really go in-depth with this my-two-dads-hate-each-other hook, and when they tried to do the whole Toy Story 2 bit with her (you know the part I'm talking about) I just couldn't take it seriously.

The main villain of the game turns out to be a big purple rock, which left me quite underwhelmed considering the build-up it got. The Sonic wiki reckons it's the ultimate overarching evil in all of Sonic ("Oh my God, I should have known! The one behind all this! All this time it was a big purple rock!") which is big talk considering Eggman is right! There! I get they were trying to go for a whole Azathoth/Yog-Sothoth thing, but I think Sonic-style dark gods need some more meat on their bones than the Lovecraft "it's indescribable, just trust me bro" style. I've seen some impressive fan designs for the big purple rock that make it look a lot more malevolent.

Honestly, I think Sage should have been the final boss. That’d really put her feelings between Sonic and Eggman at the emotional core of the story. Imagine once the towers were finished, Eggman comes out of cyberspace and the first thing he tries is to kill Sonic and his friends there and then - maybe he orders Sage to do it - but poor Sage can’t bring herself to kill her Uncle Sonic or disappoint her beloved dad, so she has an emotional breakdown which allows the evil cyber-force to enter into her mind, and the final boss ends up being her piloting this super-titan made of all three of the other titans. And maybe at the end Sonic knocks some sense into her – telling her to be her own person and all that – and she uses her free will to sacrifice herself and stop the cyber-evil. Or something. Look, I still can't believe the final boss was a QTE against a big purple rock, alright?!

But if there's one thing I do like Sonic Frontiers for, it's for being ambitious. If you look around the Sonic Fanon wiki, you'll see a lot of pretty detailed Sonic game ideas, and a lot of them have pretty high stakes and expansive stages - open-world designs featuring ancient evils from ancient civilizations and stuff like that. The first thing I thought of when I saw Frontiers, right when it was nothing more than a teaser, was that it reminded me of those fan game ideas. And in a strange way it works. Kind of. Sorta. I didn't hate it. On reflection.

If nothing else, Frontiers proves that an open-ended Sonic game can work. If the open world was more lively, it'd be a magical experience. Picture Sonic running through the countryside at night, over hill and dale, past streams and forests, the flickering lights of cities in the distance. Slaloming through traffic on the interstate, running up the sides of skyscrapers and springing from the rooftops, pedestrians down below wondering what that blue flash was. That kind of freedom and openness suits Sonic down to the ground. Split the world into denser and busier areas for fast-paced reflex-testing, and wider, quieter areas for taking it all in - that's a true Sonic simulator right there, looking into his world of worlds.

The new DLC also gives SEGA the chance to prove itself with other playable characters, like back in the days of Adventure yore. I actually like the presence of other playable characters - like I say, you don't make a fox with two tails who can fly and not have him playable - so long as they're fun to play as. Honestly, I hope the new DLC does it well, because if it's a success, then the next game might be willing to expand upon all this potential. You never know, we might be looking at a proper Sonic the Hedgehog RPG in a few years, and it could be the biggest Sonic adventure since... uh... Sonic Adventure.

So, yeah - Sonic Frontiers - didn't dig it - could've done better - and I hope it does do better, because it has a hell of a lot of potential, and I'd love to see an open-ended Sonic game taking place in a living, breathing world with the groundwork Frontiers has laid. And if we can play as Tails, Knuckles, Amy and all the rest, so much the better. Bring on Grand Theft Sonic, I say.