I recommend: Enter the Gungeon

 Taking aim at roguelikes

So I guess I'm a convert for Rougelites now. How did I get interested in that kind of thing? Should we all like Rougelites now? What's the official line the Church's taking on Rougelites? I seriously cannot reconcile the person I used to be with the rougelite fantatic of today, who gobbles up these types of games like kibble. But would you believe me if I said I'm still not sure how I fall on the whole genre? I mean they're fun to me, I think, but I wonder if I'm more addicted to the struggle of trying to force through them than the moment-to-moment enjoyment of randomised chaos. At the very least, I like the prospect of games that can be played to completion in short bursts, as they fit nicely in with my schedule of doing literally anything else all day, thus it's should come as no surprise that I quickly fell for Enter the Gungeon when I saw it.

The first time I saw this Devolver Digital title was actually back before it's first release during a preview, believe it or not, and the game stuck with me because of one simple word: simplicity. It was a game that seemed to knowingly whittle down itself to the core essence, making this top down shooter with roguelite elements a pixel-art bullet storm shooter with agonisingly simple controls and an almost obnoxious commitment to it's theme of everything firearms. There's no need for grand storylines, AAA 3D renders and several volumes worth of lore if you know what you are and nail it to an impeccable degree. The only stipulation is that you must nail it, because when you've laid yourself out that bare it doesn't take much for everything wrong to stick out and ruin the experience. In that simplicity there is beauty, and Enter the Gungeon is a very simple game.

It's a dungeon crawler. One that tasks the player with selecting a character and running through randomly laid-out rooms full of enemies of various types who are all chomping at the bit to fill you full of holes. All you have at your disposal for protecting your preciously slim health pool is the arrow keys, a very useful roll and the oft-forgotten ability to flip tables like this is a John Woo movie. Yes, this game is so obsessed with sticking to the '80's action movie' aesthetic that the name invokes that it even borrowed table flipping. I mean, it's not all that useful and, in all honestly, it's more than a little cumbersome to have to seek out a surface and then turn it over; (In the knowledge that it's a very destructible cover too) but is there any better way to embody the spirit of a gun-toting badass? Of course there is. It's sliding across tables whilst shooting at enemies. And you can do that too. (Though, again, so unwieldly that's it's really only for bragging rights.)

The real 'Rougelite' part of the game comes in the items that you collect from the randomly generated chests on each floor, or purchased at the item shop or looted off of bosses. These items can be anything from extra hearts to special boosters that cause an enemy damaging impact whenever you flip a table. (Really like that one) Honestly, the effects of these items are almost criminally underexplained which makes it hard to really be excited when I find one, but the key to any successful run is usually gathering the most useful ones in the same go anyway. So far so normal for just about every dungeon-based Rougelite ever. But where Enter the Gungeon really earns it's flair is where it lives up to it's name; this is a Gun-geon, afterall, thus what you really want to be finding in those chests aren't item boosters, but newer more powerful, or more whacky, guns to change up the way that you fight.

It's yet another example of a simple concept realised to frightening efficacy. The pace of bullet hail shooters are so often decided by the movement of the player as well as their means of offensive defence. What's my rate of fire, how straight is my shot, do I have any recourse for enemies who aren't directly in front of me, etc. Similar games in this field, Binding of Issac comes to mind, recognise this and have the basic attack be subject to evolution with certain items that you can pick up, in the knowledge that as the way you fight changes the very speed and feel of the game does too. Enter the Gungeon takes that concept and balloons it to a whole new level by making a collecting game out of the sheer number of shooting implements you come across. Each gun behaves differently and changes up how you fight to survive, letting the pace of the game be set at a dime by random chance and the niftiness of the player. Are you making do with the rapid, but weak, starter pistol or do you have a slower, but reliable, spread shotgun? And that's without even taking into account the identity of the guns themselves.

Because, you see, almost everything in Enter the Gungeon is a gun pun. I mean everything. From the enemies, known collectively as the Gundead, to the various bosses, including but not limited to the Ammoconda, everything has a gun theme. Yet no part of the aesthetic is more wild than the guns themselves. You have guns that are bullets which shoot guns, as wierd as that sounds; guns that are boxing gloves which daze the enemy with a projectile fist; Guns that shoot sustained beams, guns that bounce bullets, guns that create little homing bullets after first launch, guns that start fires, guns that freeze, guns that shoot around corners and guns that create black holes. Each of these weapons have their own identity and the player is encouraged to collect an arsenal's worth of them for rainy days.

The balance comes, surprisingly enough, in maintaining ammunition supplies and choosing what weapon to whip out when. The plentiful amount of ammo that you're saddled with gets quickly offset with the number of Gundead hordes chewing at your ankles, so before long you'll actually find yourself picking between mowing down hordes and saving up for the boss encounters. At which point you'll start seeing the immense value of the refill boxes that top up a single gun, whilst weighing their worth against the mid-fill boxes that fill half of all your weapons. (the trick is timing) Then there's the blanks which are limited per floor but wipe out all bullets on the screen, and the currency you'll be picking through at the shop. Nothing I've listed about this game is inherently genre rewriting, but the mere flawless execution of them all together is what makes this game such a classic.

I would have to recommend Enter the Gungeon to all those that feel interested, yet intimated by the Rougelite genre, because of all the one's I've played this is certainly one of the most casual friendly. It's easy to pick up, provides rapid fire runs, requires no long term investments with so much to lose upon death and even gives handy quick restart options in the vein of Spelunkey to feed into that 'One more time' cycle of addiction. And bare in mind, with my recommendation, that there's vast layers of item synergies and secret bosses that I haven't even begun to delve into myself, so there's a lot for you to discover even beyond what I've covered. I just thought it was worth the write up anyway to let you know that even without becoming involved to the minuet-level: Enter the Gungeon impresses in spades. All I need to do now is Exit the Gungeon. (Which is the actual sequel/spin-off. That might just be next)

Preservation

 Say goodbye whilst it still matters

Moving on from yesterday's discussion regarding the future, what about we talk about the past and specifically the art of preserving it. (I absolutely did not plan this, these stories just lined up together.) For as I have mentioned before, when it comes to the constant growth of technology and the mechanical means at developer's disposal, there is a always a casualty somewhere down the line and it's not just our wallets. (Although I will say, these new consoles are stupidly expensive.) As anyone with a penchant for dabbling with older software will tell you, the more advanced modern hardware becomes the harder it gets to reach back. Typically this hasn't been a huge issue because most programs are always upgrading, but when we think about how an artform functions on this slide of depreciation, things might not be so straightforward. (No, not talking about NFTs. At least not today.) I think this is the sort of conversation that'll become ever more important in the near future, especially as recent events have panned out.

But first, I should start by saying that I totally understand why newer hardware tends to usher out older software, I do. It's not some nefarious plot to sell the newer gear (at least, not entirely) and nor is it really something that can be easily prevented without dedicated efforts towards preservation, so I can understand how those who don't keep it on the mind might loose track of where old systems end up. As technological understanding evolves, software developers simply find cleaner ways of working with data interpreters, or more effective programs or maybe even the OS evolves and improves. In such instances it's only natural that the ineffective or older programs get left behind, else what was the point of improving in the first place? However, this can sometimes lead to situations where programs that matter, old classic games for instance, are rendered incompatible for newer systems, and they have to rely on independent community members to stay alive.

Take the old-school Arkane RPG, Arx Fatalis, for instance. There's a game that boasted mechanics that I'm sure were rather cutting edge for the time, such as a first person interface which required the player to use the mouse in order to make fine motor movements. (Think Elder Scrolls Arena, but for everything) Nowadays, however, the simple refresh rate of bog standard monitors is enough to send that very system into haywire. (Making it virtually impossible to case any of the spells which require said fine movements) Of course, for this instance we have some fan patches to supplement the issue and change the core system so that the game is once again playable, but what happens when there is no one with the knowhow, or even the ability, to fix the problem? There was a period when Fallout 3 was unplayable because of certain OS updates, and that period was agonisingly long considering Fallout 3 is widely considered a masterpiece of the genre. Then there's all the really ancient DOSBOX games which require one to emulate the entire MS-DOS operating system just that they can function.

The examples I've provided so far have all been exclusively on the PC, because I think that's a perspective in which people would be most familiar with what I'm talking about when I mention hardware outpacing software. Additionally, this represents a platform for which any problems that do arise can feasible be fixed with adequate elbow grease and back door solutions. (Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes you just have to sit back and hope the developers still care for whatever reason.) But things become much murkier when we look at the consoles, your Xboxs and Playstations, for those are platforms entirely dependant on direct and constant support from the manufacturers. Should that ever falter for whatever reason, there's often no recourse. When we talk about the fears of game preservation falling to the wayside, I think of these platforms first and foremost. And such fears seem particularly apt recently, considering what's happened.

Just the other day Sony announced that the online stores for the Playstation 3, PSP and Vita will be closing down in the summer, and that marks a very real moment of loss in the gaming ecosystem as a countless number of titles are about to be wiped away forever. And I'm not being hyperbolic, whilst many of these games have PC versions that provide their existence with just a smidge more permanence, exclusive Playstation 3 games are about to become existent for all those that don't have a physical copy. Some are going to be due rereleases, sure, (Like Infamous 2, no doubt) but what about the games that don't have a now-powerful benefactor as the licence holder? Due for the aether, I suppose, destined to be wiped. Like 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle', for instance. (Yeah, you knew I'd find the Jojo game there somewhere, didn't you?)

And to some degree it makes sense. I mean these Online store fronts all have to be maintained with server costs by the console manufacturers, and if no one's actually using them the question must be raised of why they're still open. Of course, we're not in a situation where literally no-one uses the online services of the PS3 (Which is something I'm not even saying to play devil's advocate, I literally know someone who plays Battlefield 1943 on the PS3 daily) but if numbers aren't enough to justify server costs, then what's the point? Of course, one could argue that the price of paying for servers (which is so easily swallowed up by Sony's profits that it doesn't even make a ripple) is worth it for preservation's sake; but that would imply business decisions should be made with artistic pursuits primarily in mind, and that's just not how the world works. 

It's in an inevitability to be sure, but that doesn't make it any easier a pill to swallow. We've known for years that the consoles stores would go dark someday, but we've never actually had to face this reality to any significant degree until now. (With obvious exception to Nintendo Stores) The PS2 generation and all beforehand didn't rely on online stores, and the PS3 generation just about grazes the period in which games were still playable out the box and didn't require online patches for the other half of the game. So if this the cut-off then? When the next generation of Playstation hits will the PS4 go dark? And so and so forth? Will Xbox follow suit? We've heard Microsoft's grand talks about backwards libraries that they're all good and proud of, but when the precedent has just been set by Playstation the burden of ultimate disappointment is no longer on them. If they can save a few bucks by cutting the old online services, I wouldn't put it past them.

So what could be the possible solution? Well, in my mind there only thing we could hope for is some sort of non-profit that steps in to take hosting these services off of Playstation's hands for the soul purpose of preservation; but that's a pipe dream with too many unanswerable questions to pick up any real traction. (Such as, why in their right mind would Sony agree to that?) Still, I think this summer a cold chill will shoot up the spines of every gamer, as they feel a disturbance so great it'll be a like million voices cried out and then were silenced. Is this the future of game preservation on consoles? Decided solely by the whim of cynical money men? I certainly hope not, but the die, it seems, has already been cast.

The Upgrade

The year is 2021. It is a time of great innovation and technological advancement. It is also a time of chaos and conspiracy.

Life is a relentless march ever unto the horizon, never pausing, never faltering, and too must we march in her wake lest we be trapped behind to be drowned in the storm of perfidious stagnancy that so many equate to death. Similarly, we possess technology and our pursuit of such with the same unquenchable thirst that drove our industries forward, renewed our sagging selves and sometimes went as far as to reinvent our very lives. So when affixed with such pretty and ultimately empty frills like those I just exampled, the concept of 'upgrades' and 'upgrading' sounds like a worthy cause, no? To wrestle atop the flailing beast that is life and- nope, sorry, I'm stopping with the gutter poetry. What I mean to address is the fact that, considering how important we are told it is to ever improve, isn't it then worthlessly contradictory how stubborn we become about moving forward? I feel myself a particularly vile perpetrator for this cycle, a cycle of saying "in with the new" whilst clutching the old with desperate abandon. And I bring up such, in this blog here today, because I've been waxing about this new console generation on our hands.

Does it feel hollow to you? This jump forward into the gaming future, or am I perhaps clouding my judgement (and very recollection) with rose-tinted glasses? I ask because it almost feels like this console generational leap has been one of the most underwhelming to date. Don't get me wrong, there have been those eye-wateringly beautiful results from the upgrade that have me spinning, (In concept, that is. I'll likely never get one of these consoles) such as those load times, but I'm not seeing the bold face of the industry rear itself, and it seems like something we used to see a lot. Typically when a console reaches it's twilight years, the industry becomes flooded with these titles that seem to burst at the seams, bulging under misfit skin and pushing the current hardware beyond it's frail limits. These would be the games that would really ignite those hopefuls, because they portended a future that would push ever further still, rewriting that horizon with effortless zeal.

Just thinking back to the last generational leap, the titles of those days seemed to struggle under the weight of their own potential. Think back to Grand Theft Auto V, Mass Effect 3 or Skyrim. (Although Skyrim was, admittedly, a couple of years before the upgrade, it shone nonetheless) And when that next generation landed it was full of prime examples why the new technology was needed and everything it was capable of. We got 'Dragon Age: Inquisition', a fantasy Bioware game that looked better than it had any right to do with a gorgeous engine; 'Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor', a straight-forward game that pushed one of the most exciting new game concepts in years; 'Wolfenstein: the New Order', a blindingly brilliant FPS to show that the genre still could hold some surprises up it's sleeve. These were games that the last generation could not achieve, and it somewhat feels like this new leap is lacking that deluge of incredible newer titles. Or at least it seems that way... 

To be honest with you, I've framed this blog in an intentionally hyperbolic manner in order to mirror some of the voices I've read online, although in truth I have a few common sense answers for myself in regards to this assumedly-lacking generational jump. Importantly, the lack of new games that fully take hold of the hardware is actually an intentional consequence of both Sony and Microsoft's active attempts to cater for their fanbase. (And not lose out on game sales during the transition) A lot of games are still being made with this gen and last gen in mind, thus even when the next gen versions are made the improvements are largely superficial. (Higher resolutions, faster framerates. etc.) Whereas the few games that have gone all-in for the new generation, have me personally excited beyond anything else. (The Demon Souls Remake still gives me chills to look at.)

But that doesn't mean this upgrade process still hasn't left a lot to be desired. In one sense, there's been a lot of talk about the way in which these new consoles would cleanly slide into our lives without any fuss and we'd transition over cleanly. (Sans several hundred buckaroos, of course) However that hasn't been the case due, primarily, to that supply problems I've discussed here and there. Lacking numbers of consoles hitting the market, (severely hurting some online player pools) scalpers scooping up the stock that does hit the stores, the pandemic making it impossible to pick up these consoles in person and then just the general perception that none of it is worth the fuss because most fresh games are here on the established consoles anyway. (Thank god for the crossover in that regard at least.) But at least for those that managed to get lucky they have the benefit of a clean road to upgrade. Heck, just about every developer who isn't 2K went the distance of offering free upgrades, spurred by the console developers who both individually promised to facilitate this. How accommodating and forward thinking! (Even if, in truth, they're likely just trying to ensure no one is deterred from making those all-important week one purchases on flagship titles due to lacking new consoles.)

Okay, enough beating around the bush; I wouldn't me mentioning the 'free upgrade' scheme if something hadn't gone belly-up with it. (Or at least, on one side of this fence.) You see, Microsoft were the first to announce their support for this kind of thing and they did it to great fanfare and praise for being consumer friendly. Sony sort of lagged behind on the same announcement, which was confusing at it seemed like a really customer-friendly policy that should have been lauded as the jewel of their conferences as their contemporary did. And now it's pretty clear why. Microsoft specifically built their new consoles to harmlessly transition into the new gen thanks in part to the cloud save tech they'd been using for all the Xbox One's life cycle. Sony, meanwhile, seems to have been cornered into getting developers to brute-force some inelegant solutions such as save-transferring. (something I know from my Minecraft days to be less than flawless.) It hasn't been the biggest inconvenience in the world, but it's just another example of how quickly the veneer of these new consoles have waned.

Another is in the specs. So the Xbox Series X is the most powerful console in the world, or whatever, and yet it's still averaging a messy 4k 30fps in games not specifically tuned for the 60 frames? Is this real life? And yes, I understand that 4k is largely overrated and not really the be-all-end-all. (Don't bother with trying to argue the penny-pinching logic with me, I'm probably 10 times stingier than you.) But my god, how can any modern console justify less than 60fps? For any excuse, even if that's high resolution. (Resolution which will be no-doubt offset by other cut corners and lowered settings in order to hit the benchmark) And the PS5 is apparently weaker than that? This is our brave new generation of consoles? Forgive me for feeling just that tad bit underwhelmed with the offerings, then.

Yet again, I'm likely just being a picky sod with my memory, as I have a tendency to be. Growing pains are a part of the process, and I have no doubt that in 8 years times when the next consoles are around (and there will be next consoles, don't listen to what the pipe-dreamers are saying about 'the end of the console age') I'm sure we'll all be having this same conversation and enjoying misremembered virtues from the 2021 console age. Want my proof? Those great games from the last generation, were all from the year following the console generation jump, most of them in the later half of the year. (Wolfenstein was mid-year) Showing, if anything, that these new trailblazers just take some time to be made, and I'd imagine current circumstances may have elongated that time just a smidge. So if you're looking at the new generation scratching your head and wondering if it's going to start getting good, have heart- or at least wait until this time next year to start getting really worried...

The end of Super Mario 3D Allstars

 Oh no. Our precious Super Mario 3D Allstars, gone forever. AaaaaaaagH.

I've gone over a few 'end of life' moments for games over my time on this blog, documenting the passing of some titles or services that were taken too soon. (Or not soon enough) Recently there was Anthem, and Artifact was tossed in there somewhere too, but a while ago it was Elder Scrolls Legends (Serious RIP on that one) and sooner or later it'll be Google Stadia. But if there's one thing all of those games/services have/had that Super Mario Allstars does not, it's circumstances leading up to their dismissal that were insurmountable to some degree. Whether that was because no one wanted to play this particular game or the publishers didn't want to support it anymore; somewhere along the way it made sense for the plug to get pulled on these games before things got embarrassing. (And in some instances, they got embarrassing anyway.) But today we have a game being lined up for the chopping block for literally no earthly reason whatsoever, or at least, not one which would justify such a drastic step. So be prepared to unravel this mystery as we look into what on earth is happening around Super Mario Allstars.

Firstly, obviously, this isn't a surprise by any stretch of the imagination. Right away on the eve of announcement the Nintendo task masters voiced their highly nonsensical plan to the masses and we all questioned it, but ultimately let them go wild figuring all would become clear in the months to come. So you're going to offer these high-quality remasters of some of the best 3D Super Mario games ever made for but 3 months before withdrawing them for sale forever? Yeah right. That'd be utterly ridiculous and more than just a little stupid. Right? (Someone please tell me that I'm right here.) But surprise, it's been 3 months. Everything is still preceding as planned and everyone's still scratching their heads wondering why Nintendo are pulling this prank on... themselves? The last time a big title like this was pulled from a store it more cost the game publisher potential revenue, and let's see: who's the publisher of Mario games again... oh yeah! Nintendo! (Seriously, what gives?)

And it's not as though we're talking about products with low demand here. Super Mario 3D Allstars was a single cartridge that managed to squeeze onto it Super Mario 64, one of the most classically revered games ever made, Super Mario Sunshine, a beloved entry in the franchise with some genuine hardcore fans, and Super Mario Galaxy, a game that's said to be so good it eclipses the majority of the Nintendo Wii library. There's not a dud in this box, and they're all heavy hitters in their own that certainly could have been justified for their own rereleases at some point down the line if some internal team feels like doing a remake. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if such a initiative is being taken into account for this decision) To have the now definitive versions of each of these products on the Switch, is a money printing master stroke. This cartridge could have easily become a must-have that everyone has in their Switch collection. And if you managed to pick it up in that 3 month window, good for you, but that's not everyone by a long shot.

Just ignoring the plain fact that a limited release window when it's entirely unnecessary is undeniably asinine, how could Nintendo seriously justify putting the pressure on it's consumers to rush out to buy a kids game right slap in the middle of a pandemic? I mean sure, they had it up over Christmas, how very magnanimous of them, but these past 12 months have been fraught with economic hardships world wide, so you'll be forgiven for being a Nintendo fan who just couldn't find it in themselves to forgo rent in order to pick up Super Mario 3D Allstars before it was gone forever. You could say that's a bit of a low blow to put the weight of a global pandemic on Nintendo, but I'm merely pointing out the plethora of ways in which Nintendo, with this dumb game plan of theirs, is hurting themselves as well as the fans. But the question at the end of it all is- why?

For my part I have a theory which hasn't really shifted since this all first began. Nintendo have an absolute fetish for premium pricing everything that shoots out of their stores, from hardware to old games to releases and, of course, remasters. It's what they live for, they'd sooner sell their own mother's souls to Satan than slash the price on a two year old title. But I think recently they've started to receive some furrowed brows over this stinginess in the current climate and this was some sort of attempt of theirs to try something new. If they limit the time this new remaster pack is up then no one can complain about the price sticking to the ceiling for it's entire lifespan because the game will have never been on the shelves long enough to justify price-cuts. Additionally, the forced scarcity will drive up early sells from people who don't want to miss out. Yeah, that should work fine barring a surprise global pandemic or something. But I think their's is a plan that's only going to backlash for two obvious reasons.

Scalpers, for example. My god, did they not think about the scalpers? How could they not, Nintendo have been singlehandedly feeding that entire industry since the amiibo days. People who swoop in to snatch up as much of a limited stock as they feasibly can only to sell it on at a marked up price. Scalpers have been the bane of the console market for the past few months now, and you can bet they were ontop of the 3D Allstars situation before it even released. People were selling their pre-orders for this game, that's a problem when we're talking about manufactured scarcity. Time and time again Nintendo has played into the hands of scalpers instead of just keeping the consumer fed and I just don't understand it. Is someone high-up in Nintendo deeply invested in the wellbeing of certain scalping groups or something, this doesn't need to be as hard as it always is with them.

And then there's emulation, because: of course. Whenever the conversation is raised about the legality of emulation, Nintendo come close to mind for the plain fact that they will legally swipe down any emulators they can get their hands on. This is both because they themselves are ever looking to rip people off for decades old software they want to pawn off for premium prices, and because Nintendo games are some of the post pirated out there. (Probably due, in no small part, to the aforementioned artificial scarcity) Reminding everyone about these classics only to dangle it in front of their face is going to win over some, for sure, but it'll also drive others to play those legendary titles in the only other method available to them, which also happens to be a method which Nintendo aren't seeing any revenue from. (Although, admittedly, I'm not sure if Super Mario Galaxy is playable in most available emulators. The Wii emulator was a little rough last time I saw it.)

But what we have to think and say on the matter, as fans who care about the games, is meaningless to Nintendo. They'll dance to the beat of their drums same as they always have, even when everyone's trying to tell them that the drum set is on fire. Sheer quality of their products, the effort of the development staff, is enough to stop me short of ever despising Nintendo, but the repeated knowingly stupid, draconian and/or greedy machinations of their upper management really does try at times. Imagine how much of a positive force Nintendo could be if they tried to live up to their image, even just a little bit. They could be paragons to shape the face of the entire industry; with their size, history and influence their example could mean everything. But they're not, they won't be, and until the entire current Japanese board of Nintendo retires (Don't hold your breath) we're going to be having these head scratching moments of "Why not just do the right thing" for years to come.

What's the latest with Baldur's Gate?

Keeping up with the Illithids. 

I've really slept on Baldur's Gate 3, intentionally I might add, for the better part of the year or so since I first mentioned it. But that's only because I was so enamoured by what I saw that I wanted to wait until the game was out and I could play it for myself. Well, of course things aren't that simple and Larian have the tendency to hit a prolonged state of early access before the big launch , so there's actually gone quite a few months of everyone having a pretty good idea what this game looks and plays like, at least in it's first act. and up to level 4. Meanwhile I've been anxiously glimpsing from afar, looking at the odd patch note or sneaking a peak at the trailer, letting the need to play this game slowly creep up on me. But then came the time when I played another big CRPG in Pillars of Eternity (Which I'm getting the desire to play through again, honestly) and now I just can't hold back anymore. I really want to look at what is honestly one of the coolest feeling party-based games in a long time and just smother myself in that D&D goodness.

To that avail I've been catching up on a lot of what I missed, following threads on the months development from the eyes of the community, reading pages of information on what the game currently holds and how they want to expand upon that and, to cap it all off, watching the two hour Panel from Hell that Larian put together in order to celebrate their big Patch 4. (I've even dived a little bit into 'Baldur's Gate: Decent into Avernus': the tabletop prequel to Baldur's Gate 3) Does that make me the preeminent source on all things BG3? Of course not, not even close. The best possible experience I could shoot for would be playing the game for myself, but I'm just so not in the mood to be stuck playing the first act of a grand story over and over in perpetuity (There's enough of that in every Live service, afterall.) so I've restrained myself. Plus, paying full price for a quarter of a game... that just ain't me, you know? At least not intentionally... I may have confidence in Larian to deliver, they've done it with the exact same development path twice before, but I wouldn't be true to my penny-pinching ways if I relented. (Which just means you can go play it for yourself if you want ever more insight.)

So first of all I should reintroduce the game now I know it a bit better. Baldur's Gate 3 is the long awaited successor to the famed Baldur's Gate series though, as far as I'm aware, narratively unlinked to those first two games aside from in setting. It goes for a CRPG style similar to the originals, but distinct at it's core in that this isn't a free-action combat game but a turned based style more similar to Larian's own Original Sin series. This allows for the introduction of elements like Initiative into the raw gameplay (A concept from D&D that decides the order of turns based on rolls and/or stat bonuses) and a greater reliance on powerful abilities that feel like they shake up the battlefield. Most notable in BG3 is the way in which Larian have thrown their absolute all into making this undeniably the most AAA CRPG experience being worked on at this moment, with no equal. Every line not spoken by the player is voice acted, (amending a common short falling of this genre) every interaction is rendered with a cinematic flair onpar with Bioware, (Except with much better lip-tracking from what I've seen) and the whole thing is created with this beauty that's only improved upon with each update. Visually the game is just a star.

Larian have tasked themselves with really bringing Baldur's Gate 3 to a new level as far as this genre is concerned, and the storied nature of the series is fuelling a lot of that passion and desire to perform to their utmost best. The core pillars of this type of classic RPG games, character classes, roleplaying and levelling are all upheld or reiterated upon with gusto, and they've even gone so far as to institute one of their own pillars, utility, in a way that I really hope picks up steam. If you're unfamiliar, I'm referring to the way in which the world is constructed to allow for abilities that have use outside of combat scenarios, such as to ignite a cloud of poison to dissipate it. Utility is one of the most unique aspect of Larian's development style and it's an absolute credit to the creativity of it's customers, championing that makes Baldur's Gate 3 genuinely one of the most promising role playing games to date, in my eyes.

Development of such a grand idea in a game is going to take more than a bit of ingenuity and iteration, which is why I get so excited to see the team take this seriously and work in early access alongside the community to nail everything down. It's the sort of relationship that Early Access was built for but one we see too frightfully lacking in most examples of the service. Already this collaboration between developer and player has resulted in everything from bug fixes, to balance tweaking and even a few pivots in design direction that I think have really been a credit to the genre at large. For instance, and I'm unsure how much of this is fan suggestion and how much is something they were aiming for to begin with, but the Patch 3 change to make avoiding combat reward equivalent experience to engaging, is genuinely gameplay affecting. I remember my entire approach to Deus Ex shifting on a dime when I realised they had a similar mechanic. Great stuff so far.

As for Patch 4, their most recent and the focus for the Stream from Hell that Larian did a showcase on, there's some cool goodies to talk of there. The headliner though, the thing which got everyone talking, is the Druid class which harkens back to classic D&D. With a playstyle shaped around embodying the wild extremes of nature and magic, Druids posses the singularly awesome ability to 'Wild Shape'. I.e. Morph into an animal with all the benefits of that animal and a separate health pool to top it off. So far we've seen giant polar bears who can barrel into smaller foes, a badger who can tunnel under the earth and a bird which can soar to hard to reach places, all of which obviously comes with as must utility value as they do combat efficiency. For a treat the livestream showcased a solo run of what looked to be a difficult dungeon using the utility of a level 4 druid and it was genuinely impressive for the array of tools and abilities available to one single class. From flying past traps as a bird to stealthing one room as a cat and even quickly saving an NPC's life by porting around the battlefield in badger form. And then the entire thing fell apart as key saving throws were missed and the team ultimately wiped (as can happen in truly live events) but the showcase was impressive and fun regardless, really showing the extent of love and care which the team is dedicating to every playstyle. (All these CRPGs of late are reminding why I used to love RPGs as much as I did, I'm telling you.)

And even beyond the gameplay itself, I must voice that I positively adore the presentation of this game; it looks genuinely stunning. One of the new upgrades with this latest patch went towards the lighting and that alone breathes new life into already impressive looking scenes, allowing for dark to play off of light appropriately. (Something I hope they have fun with in the later acts) The effects of the abilities to, have this great punchiness to it that I wasn't really expecting. Other titles tend to have these whimsical and mystical effects with all but the biggest of spells, but BG3 with it's visuals and sound-design invokes a weighty feeling whip to all the attacks that I'm really coming to appreciate. It perhaps robs a little of the whimsy but it feels fast, electric and modern; matching the tone of this whole Baldur's Gate project nicely.

Baldur's Gate 3, with it's robust skeleton and fanciful frills, has the potential to really set a new bar for the RPG community and I'm absolutely here for it. Even as someone who never played BG 1 and 2 back in the day, there's enough here to really ignite the ol' fire and have me drooling entirely without the steel hook of nostalgia to rope me in. (Although, admittedly, that might be somewhat due to my known love for all things turn based) Everytime I see more of this game I fall in love all over again, and I'm at the point now where I can't even decide what I'll end up being on launch day. (I know I'll play Teifling, but 'Tiefling' Druid is sounding pretty cool around about now) I'm actually excited for the long road to launch and all the stops along the journey in the knowledge that, with the map editor tools that'll likely come to, this could very well be the next modder haven game too. Let me call it now that Baldur's Gate 3 is going to be the best it can be, and accept that I could very well be eating those words if things go Projekt Red-shaped a year or so from now. (It won't though. Right?)

Does Avengers have a future?

Step up, Crystal Dynamics.

Woah, wait a second. There was a Square Enix event the other day? What- but I wasn't even prepared. This is all too sudden, how do I behave myself? I've waited so long for the day when Deus Ex came back to us and now, five years after the last entry, three after we were promised the series would return, we're finally going to get a- they didn't say a thing. Not a damn word. Once again Deus Ex gets discarded for favour of half-hearted brand starters and DLC. (You called an event to talk about DLC? Shame on you.) Square can't even talk about the Final Fantasy series in their own events because they've practically sold her out wholesale to Playstation. (At this point I'm genuinely starting to believe we're not going to see a PC port of FF7R.) God what a terrible time to be a Square fan... at least we have, what else did they talk about... Marvel's Avengers? Oh god, why is fate so cruel? You know what- Fine. If Avengers is the game we have to live with now that Deus Ex is retired, or petrified, or cryogenically frozen, then that's what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about the future of Avengers and the ways in which this team are determined not to throw in the towel despite everything.

So... I guess that means I have to be positive? >Sigh<. (Be strong for Jensen. It's what Adam would want.) I guess Avengers is a game that's not utterly terrible. Those with the spare time and wherewithal to dedicate to it's elongated levelling grind have insisted that it's a half decent romp at the end of the road. For my part, I'll say that I did have a glimmer of excitement during one of the bigger battles when every Avenger was doing their part and our eyes locked with that indomitable glimmer of a group untie- and then the game crashed. (I kid you not, that's a true story.) But months of delays, an unfriendly opening 20 hours of grind, a lackluster story, plain bad character writing, uninspired enemy types, lazy monetisation strategies, separate levelling trees for each character, anaemic multiplayer lobby pools- (actually, I'm going to cut myself off) after everything; a lot of people have already given up on the game. Coffins are being picked out, tailors are crafting the funeral suits and everyone is ready to plot this game's spot in the cemetery right between Anthem and- Artifact. (I literally had to look up that game's name because it was so forgettable and it only died this month) It would even fit the pattern, all games that start with the letter 'A'. (Guess superstitious developers out there know what to avoid in the future.) But Crystal Dynamics, bless their Deus Ex smothering hearts, want everyone to know that's exactly what's not going to happen to them.

"We are committed to the future... for years to come" No, that's not the exact statement which Bioware made in regards to Anthem less than a year before they stopped supporting it, nor is it the words which I can only assume Valve appropriated in regards to Artifact. It's the 100% original promise made by the Avengers team to let everyone know that 'we mean business and this is a game that's going to be here for the long haul so please buy it we need the validation for our investors.' And, in the manner of all these live service disasters, the team want us to know they have a map to fix this game's longevity, showing us the road that development is poised to travel. A 'Roadmap', if you will. If this is starting to sound eerily like the death cries you've heard from so many other games so many times, well done, you have a rational mind in your noggin, but then no one ever accused Marvel's superheroes of acting too rationally before, now have they? 

No, Marvel Heroes are know for defying the odds, reality, even death at times, so why can't Crystal Dynamics do their same in the fight to save their game? It starts with a grand renewal, a gift granted to this game through merit of good timing; a fresh re-release on the new consoles. How novel. Were it only that we all got granted the opportunity of a second chance in a new skin, free of the warts of the old world, with decent frame rates and less critical crashes. Yes, it seems Avengers will be available to a brand new crowd of- except there's the fact that the new consoles are still prohibitive to the wider community... hmm, that's a problem Square can do literally nothing about... But perhaps it won't matter. Those who do get to have a console will surely be enough for decent player figures. But then there's also the bad press around certain decisions that are being implemented, specifically the XP reworking which sort of reveals how out-of-touch the development team is from the community. But if we erase the mountains in their way, then Avengers might, perhaps, conceivably, possibly, knock-on-wood, perchance, maybe, conditionally have a future.

And that would be a future written in new content, because that's what they'll need to weather this storm. The two Hawkeyes event took it's sweet time, but now that it's out we can finally begin looking forward to brand new horiz- oh wait, there's still the other pre-launch promises that the team promised. Yeah, they have yet to deliver on the promised Spiderman DLC that Square sold to Sony, so that's in the works. Then there's the Antman DLC which- huh? Wait, sorry my bad there is no Antman DLC, just supremely confusing marketing. So it's just Spiderman then. And when he finally makes it we can all breath a sigh of relief and start looking towards the future of for what Crystal has in store, and in fact they've already deigned to tease us during this event. See- they're not all talk, there's a tiny bit of bite too.

In a move that seems either honorary or ill-timed, Avengers is going to spend their next DLC slot in Wakanda reintroducing us all to Black Panther, making for a lot of emotions that I wasn't expecting to feel. On one hand I always liked Black Panther and find the idea of playing him pretty cool, (He was a favourite back in Marvel Ultimate Alliance) I even like his ingame outfit a lot, and on the other hand it kind of feels like stepping on the shoes of Chadwick Boseman. Now, I recognise that's an entirely personal gripe that you, ideally, do not share. Heck, I even feel weird about them going and making a Black Panther 2 movie, so obviously the video game version was going to rub me strangely. I shouldn't be affronted, Square's Avengers is hardly related to the MCU anyway. Besides, Wakanda certainly will make for a welcome and familiar visual to offset the tired skyline of 'nowhere' from the base game. (Between this DLC and the Hawkeye's 'Fallen Earth' environments, this game's almost in danger of looking varied!)

But that's just a stepping stone, a means to an end, because no amount of small time character piece is going to win fans over, make them sure that there's a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. You need something for them to hold onto, something they can share rumours and theories about, something that can whip their expectations up all into a frenzy so that ultimately you can disappoint them, but by then they'll be invested in your game and you can take that money to the bank. What you need, is an Endgame. (See what I did there?) And, would you believe it, but Square's Avengers actually has that. I mean, it's nothing as grand and secretive, and desperation has decreed that the team already shared it with us in hopes of sparking the imagination, but it's a plan nonetheless. It's the Kree invasion, and you know what? That's not too bad of a plan. It's a ballsy promise that is almost certainly going to crash and burn- but what if it doesn't? (And that is where the addiction lies.)

When this started I remember noting about how amazing it was for Square to squander the Marvel licence, and whilst that holds true, some part of me can't help but wonder if the Marvel name alone is powerful enough to sustain itself. Because to be honest, no one really saw a future in Anthem, Artifact died the day it was announced and booed off the stage, (that's still the most wild announcement I've ever seen) but Avengers has that name, and with that there's promise. I won't lie and tell you that Avengers is definitely going to blow up and become the game that shakes the world, but I can genuinely see a reality where it reaches a point of sustainability, albeit with a lot of changes from where it's at today. It all really just depends on how much lifeforce they want to suck out of the Deus Ex fanbase in order to support it, and seeing as how they just put my favourite Cyberpunk series on ice to sit out another year, I guess that gives at least another year of appropriated lifeforce. Who knows, if everything goes to plan they might not even need to go F2P. (Though I suspect that's a foregone conclusion at this point.) So does Avengers have a future? For Deus Ex's sake, it better.

Famicom Detective Club

Elementary.

During the Zelda stream that was not a Zelda stream (damn you Nintendo for getting my hopes up) there were a few upcoming projects that caught my eyes for the right reasons, except for being purely distilled hate juice like DC Superhero Girls. Some of these new games that dominated Nintendo screen time really branched away from the typical sort of game you'd find at a major console developer run event, to the extent where I actually said "Huh, that looks interesting". What's more, the game that actually arrested my interest for this particular blog was a remake of something I'd never even heard of before but was certainly interested in, so how lucky was I to be present for the grand revival process! I am of course referring to Famicon Detective Club, as the blog title implies, and honestly I'm a bit mad at myself for not hearing about this game. This here's almost as unforgivable as not having played any of the classic Ace Attorney titles, but then I suppose that's the wonder of living in an age of remakes, that which is lost can come back around again to surprise us.

To be fair, Famicon Detective Club might not have always been up my street, being a murder mystery title set in Japan. But I guess I just saw this title at the perfect time for it to stick in my subconscious, what with me recently discovering the amazing English dub for Ghost Stories, (which takes place around a rural Japanese town and is hilarious) falling in love with the PC port of Persona 4 Golden (Another murder mystery in Japan) and watching Jojo Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable for the first time. (About the wild and scary goings-ons in another rural Japanese town.) What I'm trying to say is my entertainment consuming habits just sort of threw me into the perfect state to absorb this game and maybe you don't see the same enthusiasm I'm currently experiencing; but, in such a case, if you keep an open mind perhaps you'll see some merit in this title that you might have missed out on too some 33 odd years ago.

Releasing back in 1988, Famicom Detective Club represents a very old-school version of the point and click adventure genre in which you navigated a world forever in a context box, exploring environments with situational cursors and questioning subjects by getting right in their grill, Oblivion style. If you're one easily charmed, then, by classic point and click married with a rough Famicon-rendered approximation of 90's anime, perhaps this is a game you should be tracking down right now. Wait a little, however, and you'll be able to get ahold of these remakes that completely rebuild the game graphical, musically, in terms of presentation and, I'd imagine, with everything but the story modernised. I'm talking an official English localisation paired with semi-animated cutscenes and even a smidge of genuine voice acting; these guys really did go above and beyond to bring these old mystery games to life!

Right away I knew this would be a game for me in the setting alone. Sleepy Japanese towns just seem like the perfect breeding grounds for 'murder' mysteries in a manner that no other setting really captures for me. Sure, there's some promise in the 'American town' murder stories too, they both share that sense of isolationism, but I find that whenever Japanese storytellers broach into their own towns they bring a certain level of bizarre mysticism that tickles me with uncertainty. (Even if that's uncertainty about whether or not these are the accounts of former locals remembering childhood with spook-tinted glasses, or simply city slicker propaganda jumping on the 'rural = weird' bandwagon. Eitherway, I love it) The isolationism, accountability and quiet nature of these settings never disappoint for me, and so these remakes are an instant must buy already in my shoes.

In the manner of great murder mysteries, (and, I'd imagine, adhering to the inherent limitations of the original hardware) these detective stories take up one encompassing tale each, rather than try and handle several over the course of a single narrative. In terms of writing this allows for the full weight of the tale to be on the single story, and for the mystery to branch out to it's fullest, so I'm quiet excited to try them out both. Unfortunately, as this is a Nintendo game with their help attached to the creation process, I can only imagine how this very fact is going to exploited for their notorious 'overpricing' structure. There's unfortunately only two of these stories to be bought to the Switch, but they are of course being sold separately and for an eye-watering $35 each, because Nintendo refuse to miss an opportunity to squeeze a triple A price point out of their projects.

The reworking of the presentation is what has really got me sold on this game, because I find it simply gorgeous to look at. The original, obviously for releasing on the Famicom, was limited in what it could achieve thanks to the system and thus was artistically rather sparse, especially in colour, for The Missing Heiress. The sequel had a lot more going for in this department, with complex backgrounds and in-depth character colouring. Over the years a few releases here and there have breathed more into the game's art, but I think this marks the first time of a complete reworking, so now the visuals pretty much rival stills of what you'd see in a full blown anime. The animation does leave somewhat to be desired, however, with background characters somewhat gently blowing in the breeze to indicate some rough approximation of life, but it's still a worlds of difference from the original. I genuinely find this pleasing to the eye and commend the team for the effort.

The art of the murder mystery in fiction is quite a storied one, reaching back across all mediums for literal generations. There's something about the pursuit of a culprit against the steely hand of death that writers and consumers alike find endlessly fascinating, else we wouldn't keep this genre in business still in today's world. I think that comes out of a dual, and possibly conflicting, search for newer presentations of the formula we enjoy as well as the familiarity of a story that's designed to be satisfactorily wound-up without feeling cheap. And maybe the very genre itself serves as a comforting affirmation to it's readers, as it did back in the days of the earliest Sherlock Holmes novels, that no matter how heinous the crime or ingenious the perpetrator, some justice will come their way, maybe through the flourish of some crude and enigmatic detective fellow.

Famicom Detective Club marks another step in the way that games are slowly making their way across the continental barrier and becoming more available than ever before. More often than not it's becoming clear that limited releases in one region of the world is simply refusing yourself money, as fans of media lie in every which corner despite nationality. This game's localisation after so long does inspire some hope, however slight, for some of the most long requested Nintendo localisations. And for me, given that Nintendo is the biggest Japanese game's company, I hope their example will shake something loose in the noggins of their contemporaries because, darn it, I want the full Yakuza series localised! Yeah, I took a blog about a Nintendo game and found a way to wind it back around into Yakuza, what of it? 

Star Citizen management sucks?

I don't know which 'fake shock gif' to use.

I went for Joseph Joestar.

Star Citizen. My god it's been a while hasn't it? Well, I mean it's been a long time since I did a blog which really went to task on the goings on over at Cloud Imperium Games. And that has been because of a couple of reasons. Firstly, that was because I didn't really come across anything worth talking about, they've been decently controversy free for the year (perhaps conspicuously so) and secondly because I just covered them so extensively in my first couple of blogs. The one's were I looked at their Rise and Fall. (Make sure you put some time aside if you want to read them, they're a doozy.) No, it would take something truly scandalous to get my attention again, something that either changes my mind 180 or simply bookends that which I've researched about them so far. (Today I'm looking at the latter kind of story, if you couldn't tell.) So buckle up as we take a look at a rather tangible, and pretty upsetting, example of how the mismanagement which defines CIG as a studio effects the world outside their game too.

So perhaps you remember a little bit of an natural disaster happening over the winter. No? In Texas? The whole sudden snowstorm which rocked a state that was totally unprepared for it? Basically it was like any winter over in the UK, during which everything grinds to a halt like this doesn't happen every year, except that core chunks of infrastructure were specifically built under the assumption that this wouldn't happen. State-wide construction standards typically designed all residential homes with methods to shed heat, great for the hot summers but potentially deadly for this snow storm, roads were inoperable for longer than one would like thanks to there being not enough anti-snow vehicles and materials to hand, and the power grid was knocked off course thanks to both the blizzard and the fact that Texas rocks an entirely independent grid from the rest of the country, meaning a few setbacks would bring the entire place offline with no backups. Safe to say, it was a terrible winter over there and it resulted in people losing heating for days, having their homes flooded from burst pipes and, in the worst of cases, dying. Serious stuff.

And that sort of makes you wonder what a game studio like Cloud Imperium Games has to do with things, doesn't it? Well, as I mentioned in that Rise blog I linked to, back in February 2013 Cloud Imperium opened up an Austin branch, meaning that they, alongside many other prominent game studios, had employees in the crosshairs of this natural disaster. What a conundrum. There's no stricter test of one's worth than placing them in situations of emergency, and as an employer who's expected to look after those under their company name, there come certain responsibilities that need to be met. Other studios like Aspyr, Certain Affinity and Owlchemy labs halted operations completely, aware that this week it was of much more import for their employees to focus on keeping their families warm and fed. EA and Gearbox didn't stop everything ('Too big to fail' as Activision is fond of saying) but they did put up employees in hotels, deliver them supplies and check in with them to ensure, you know, that they were safe. CIG on the otherhand, did none of that. And "why" is the question on everyone's lips right now.

Yes, during the snowfall in Texas employees were treated to the ultimatum from management that they had to either make their way into work, or figure out to make it up to in the meanwhile. (It almost sounds like a mafia movie when I phrase it like that, doesn't it?) Some sources that reached out to the news claimed that they were outright told to consider entering paid over time if they absolutely could not make it into the office or work from home. That's right, rather than try and reach out and help their staff through this troubling time, management did the rounds cracking the whip and keeping people sweating. It would be a couple of weeks before top brass could reach out through email about the situation, thanks to the state-wide Internet blackouts which, incidentally, made working from home pretty much impossible for a lot of folk; and when they were finally in touch, CIG used it as an opportunity to reinforce their stance on overtime and let everyone know that they weren't getting off the hook for this. You know, despite how every other industry in the state was trying to pick up the pieces as best they could. (Does CIG know something about the Texas storm that the rest of us don't?)

Of course this was ridiculous. Having to spend vacation days or go into overtime in order to make up the cost of a natural disaster is some dystopian 1984 kind of thing, unless CIG truly thinks that it's staff were living it up in the week they spent shivering in their homes hoping their sewer systems don't burst and try to flood them. (Talk about living the vacation dream!) All this smells suspiciously like CIG punishing their staff for trying to take a sicky, and according to some sources that is exactly what the impression was. Yeah, somehow the idea got around that the Austin office was taking a snow day and overblowing the effects of the storm, a perception which, apparently, lasted longer than the week of chaos. Do you believe that? Because I honestly don't. Even over here across the North Atlantic ocean I was aware of the situation in Texas by at least day 3, and I don't even have any employees in the state! The instant and interconnected state of world news makes ignorance a pretty tough pitch to sell, but then what's the alternative? Malice? Straight lack of a will to compromise? As I implied earlier, we can merely speculate.

For their part, CIG management at least came back with excuses on the 21st, offering that most ironclad of explainers in that "Oh my god, we didn't know, how terrible." It wasn't until the cult leader himself, Chris Roberts, got ahold of this that any promises of recompense were made, in that everyone would be paid. No word on whether or not he'd make plans to compensate any vacation days or overtime that staff felt pressured into entering, but I'm sure he will; they're all about damage control now. CIG have known about this pretty big blunder for a few weeks now and have been trying to reach out individually to staff to 'check up' whilst, I imagine, slipping a little bit of the "but we don't really need to tell anyone about this, now do we?" But it seems too late, as the story is now out there and it a fair number of staff have been more than ready to throw their management under the bus for being clueless and unhelpful in a time when there really was no excuse to be.

Cloud Imperium Games is a surprising company to see in one of these controversies, I must say, because outside of the hairbrained way they've been making their money-black-hole of a game; I've never really heard of any huge internal blunders like this coming out of them. I mean sure, there's been the odd accusation of nepotism considering how many of Roberts close friends are in important roles, but those accusations are typically being made from the outside and I certainly don't know enough about his family to comment on who's qualified for what role. And yet in the same breath I find it hard to believe a studio the size of CIG (Around 500 staff) couldn't have known about one of the biggest natural disasters of the year so far. Which leads me to believe that they undersold it to themselves purposefully out of some learned stubbornness in order to justify forcing staff into pushing themselves and either to ignore personal responsibilities or simply pass the buck in perpetuity. That's just my theory on the matter, but it certainly seems to make more sense right now than any official statements.

The only thing I can't reconcile in my brain after all of this is what the hurry was to push their Austin staff so. They've been working on the same game for the better part of the last decade and have proven how easy it is to raise more funds if things get dire by simply skewering their future in-game economy by releasing a new preorder 'megaship' and feeding off their backer's lifeforce. CIG doesn't have to answer to investors, (or at least, not to the same degree as other developers do) they don't have to answer to the community, (their cult shields them from criticism) perhaps somewhere along the way the big wigs decided they didn't even have to answer to themselves either. Take this flash of dystopian corporatism as a prelude and it spells a dark future for every industry, when employees are treated like soulless work horses and worked tirelessly without care. Or maybe I'm being hyperbolic and this was all a huge misunderstanding. Let me know where you fall on all this, I'm still undecided.

Kotaku gets bored, stirs up Internet

 Are you still a news-site when you engage in nothing but rabble rousing?

Let no one ever mistake this blog here for a source of the news. I'm not. I'm a nobody enthusiast who makes observations on the games industry related incidents I hear about through this medium. Often upwards of one week after the fact, ensuring that I'm not, and never will be, the breaking source of misremembered fact. I maintain such because it is a position without the responsibilities and expectations of journalism, because I like the freedom to comment however I want on whatever I want, and because I'm lazy and do this for fun. I can't be bothered to be prowling about for the cutting edge of the news or, worse than that, actually go and seek that stuff out. I ain't no Lois Lane (You know what they say: She doesn't seek out the news, the news seeks out her) I'm just a guttersnipe feeding off the dregs of the info circuit for his own mild amusement. And yet somehow I still resist the urge to go sabre rattling.

How galling it must be then, for the professionals all over, when one of the most well known 'journalist' sites for the Industry, Kotaku, has a reputation primarily not for it's journalism work, but for making a habit of kicking hornet nests for clicks. For anyone who seriously tries to make a go of the profession this must feel like a blow to the stomach each time they make another transparent swipe at their own job's integrity, turning the whole act into a circus show. I merely mention this because, at this point, it's just so obvious and sad. I can't remember the last time I saw their logo adorn a page which wasn't sensationalist click bait but instead something of value and worth similar to modern Bloomberg gaming articles. Oh wait, yes I do: it was back when their editor was the very guy who writes those modern gaming Bloomberg articles! You'd have thought he'd have left a bigger example on the team he departed from, huh.

But enough posturing, what have they done this time? The usual, taken a topic which has a few legs to walk with and completely drown it with zeal because it's more likely to upset the passing eye that way. What topic? Lootboxes- oh god, it's 2019 again! (Quick, someone warn the world there's about to be a global pandemic!) But, yes, I will admit that there is a point somewhere within the convoluted mess of an article that riled up a storm. Because that's just how this sort of stuff works. They take the vestiges of a point and stamp it into irrelevance with bravado and pandering. To be fair, that does take a certain degree of showmanship and skill, I'm just not sure it's coming out in the right profession or the right medium. But what are we talking about exactly? Well, in the words of a madman "Pokemon GO eggs aren't Lootboxes...". Okay, agree to disagree there but I see where you're coming from, and it could be the grounds of an interesting conversation about what exactly are lootboxes and how we defi- "...they're fun presents!" >sigh<. Why are we still here?

Recently Niantic made a change to the way the policy with which they handle Pokemon Go's Eggs, in that they decided to actually show people the types of potential Pokemon each Egg can contain with little signage indicating rarity tiers of each mon. There wasn't any actual statistics assigned to that signage, however, such as percentage chances or the number of eggs one would likely have to go through to hatch that. (Stuff which seems kind of expected when even Lootbox essential games like Genshin Impact are capable of swallowing their pride to cater) Instead all this really served for was an official confirmation for the contents of Go eggs. Cool. Not to throw water on ya'll Niantic, but we already unofficially got that data years ago. It's called, experimentation and/or data mining. You've saved the community, like, half a day of fiddling around after every Egg update at best. As you can imagine some people were a little more perturbed by Niantic's lack of candour, and it all might have stirred from some old soured emotions towards Niantic's Egg system and their similarities to lootboxes. Only, you know, apparently without the need for full disclosure if we're to bow to Niantic's whims.

For Kotaku, however, this is not only a non-issue; but we're all a bunch of clueless morons for ever deigning to raise this topic in the first place. Why? Because Eggs aren't Lootboxes, dumb dumb, they're really fun surprise mechanics. Wait. No- that's EA's excuse. What did the 'Journalists' say again? Oh, that's right; "Fun presents". (I honestly snicker every time I read that. Did Niantic corporate send you a gift basket or something, what's with the cringe spin-job?) To understand things as their article puts them, Pokemon GO eggs aren't Lootboxes because they don't necessarily cost money to acquire, (Guess that means Overwatch Lootboxes aren't lootboxes) don't cost money to open (Or Genshin boxes, for that matter) and don't offer tangible gameplay benefits. (...we'll come back to that point.) All of these stipulations do raise an interesting point; what exactly are lootboxes?

Well in my mind, they are a mechanic wherein game items are thrown into randomised pools that the player has the chance to pick from at random, very basic and straightforward. (likely redundantly so, but I'm just trying to cover the basics right here, not write in new laws) Quite a lot of lootboxes out in the world today don't actually require real money to be purchased, because most Devs realise that such puts an immediate barrier to partaking in the system which permenately puts some players off. Better to let them get a taste before circling in for the kill. The way one makes money off lootboxes isn't by selling them, that's too gauche, it's be giving folk the 'option' to buy packs and then implementing such low pull statistics that it whittles people down to pulling out their wallets or limiting the number of boxes you can work in at one time or, as is becoming popular more recently, just implementing limited-time events in order to establish a sense of FOMO and override customer's 'common sense' brain nodes. (Why do you think Genshin operates with Banners?) Huh, you know that last one almost sounds like the sort of thing that Niantic do when they make limited time exclusive Egg Pokemon... fancy that.

But none of that even matters when the rewards on offer don't provide tangible gameplay benefits. Except that they do. Of course they do. This is a Pokemon game, duh. What- what do you think Pokemon games are? You catch Pokemon in them, you train Pokemon in them, any method which grants you access to Pokemon is giving a tangible gameplay benefit. How can you- Why do you- who hurt you, Kotaku, that you must now hurt our common sense in recompense? The pool of Pokemon that come from Eggs is substantially important, as they mark the only way in which the worldwide community can guarantee access to certain sought-after Pokemon breeds out of special events. Remember when Deino was exclusive to Eggs? Do you know why that was? It's because Deino evolves into Hydreigon, which is a Pokemon listed among the prestigious number of 'Pseudo-Legendries', so named for their incredible base stats. How desirable, no? But the only to get this one was through eggs? Seems like the kind of thing you'd want to grind boxes for. Only, you can only work on a certain number of boxes at a time, so you'll probably want to buy so speed-ups so that you don't have to go walking 10Km to open each egg, that'd take all day afterall. Oh, but then you have to bear in mind that in order to evolve Deino you'll need to pull him several times, (about 10) which means even more boxes opened, buy more speed-ups. Oh, and the chances of getting a shiny are 1.9% atop of the chances of pulling him in the first place, so if you're so inclined that'll be more time savers for you. I mean sure, you could just grind these. Just have no job, or life or other things to do ever. That's all Kotaku and Niantic ask of you, step up!

There's plenty of horror stories of people spending upwards of $1000 on each Pokemon Go event despite not 'necessarily' being required to because of course there is, that's how GTA Online keeps making more money each year despite operating off of an identical philosophy. But on the other hand John here has a casual friend who's level 39 and never spent a dime. Neither have I, John, but that's because I'm a cheapskate pauper who's so stubborn he'd rather give up on game entirely than let it twist his arm into dishing out money it hasn't earned in his eyes. Not everyone is so stingy, and some people are actually interested in playing the game with some seriousness. Does that mean that Niantic's Eggs are some particularly predatory and nefarious plot to exploit these people? No, they're no more nefarious than some other common systems, and a lot less nefarious than some of the worst ones. But is still makes them Lootboxes. But heck, you can still call them 'Fun presents' if that does it for you, man. Just don't expect the rest of us to get lovey-dovey with Niantic corporate next to you, 'kay?

After the Fall

I think we dropped the baton like the sixties didn't happen

There's a certain breed of executive out there who's convinced that the 'future of the games industry' revolves around sales models and accessibility. The kind who split hairs about how much a game should cost, the shape of it's post-sales monetisation schemes and selling games to people through direct, preferably subscription-based, online fronts that limit manufacturing costs. And, of course, they are right that these are preeminent issues of the gaming market that need to be discussed and figured out, although not always to the ends that they seek. However, I'm more of a direct consumer of games, with little love for the industrious side of our little industry; instead I find myself interested in the creative side of our 'industry future'. For in my eyes, what value is there in reworking the sales model of a game that's a pale update to an 18 year-old series? >cough< COD >cough<. Thus, whereas Google wants me thinking about the platforms I game on, I think about the construction of the game, which leaves me still somewhat insistent that VR has a Requiem to come.

We've heard precious little from the exciting frontier of VR gaming, despite it seeming very clear how it would be the fertile ground for the gaming future not so long ago. How long back was it that everyone was getting in on the market with either fully realised VR games or VR reworkings of old titles? Heck, I'm sure it wouldn't surprise you in the least to know that even Skyrim got a VR version released. All other huge leaps in the game-creation-process tend to be a tad more technical and so can become a little lost in translation. Raytracing? I suppose that effects real-time reflections or something? Sure, that's a little cool for a few minutes. 4K 60FPS? Still not really sold on the fact that 4K makes things better enough to warrant several hundred extra pounds to be honest. More teraflops? That still, and always will, sounds like a made up thing that the tech sector dreamed up in an industry-wide group snapchat to troll us normies. But when I think of VR, that's when my eyes really flash with visions of the future, when I wring my hands together and drool with anticipation, when I Stand tall and proclaim "Kono Giorno Giovanna niwa yume ga aru". (Wait, only half of that last statement made sense. I said I'm who now?)

The problem with VR, as I see it, is that so many of the VR titles made specifically for the platform are experience pieces that really aren't substantial enough to warrant people to go out and buy a machine to test them for themselves. (That and the prohibitive cost of any decent version of the hardware) Maybe you'll get to climb a mountain, or swim with sharks or... reject your humanity and become a VR Chat degenerate, descend into a bad game with Worse Company; but is any of that really worth your time or money? Recent years have given a few Shining Diamonds that stood out from the crowd, but you still can tell the herculean effort that went into making these titles far exceeds the work that would go into a normal title, thus it makes sense why so few studios take up the challenge. Yet whenever one does I would be remiss not to give them the time of day, and so when I see 'After the Fall' promising to deliver VR customers that classic co-op FPS action content that they've been missing out on, I see the potential.

Made by Vertigo Games, a studio with some priors in the VR sector, 'After the Fall' takes a frighteningly simple concept and threatens to modernize it under the scope of a VR title. We all know Co-op zombie shooter games afterall, the sorts of games that pride themselves around carnage thrown at the screen and wall-to-wall chaotic action in the most exciting moments. Games that champion multiplayer corporation with Echoes of the apocalypse sprinkled in there for flavouring. Titles like Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood and... well those two mainly. How much can the VR space add to the frantic action of those types of games in order to forge a true Gold Experience? Immersion. That added layer of dynamic and accurate player-avatar movement-tracking fits right at home with the in-your-face insanity of zombie horde shooter games.

'After the Fall' takes place within the alternate 1980's of Los Angeles (because every game has to be set in the same 2 US cities, apparently) and is said to take place 20 years after the end of the world; which almost makes it sound like a side-game from the 'Remnant' series. Wait, hang on; so The World ended in the sixties? Is this some sort of anti-hippie propaganda? Perhaps that's the hidden piece of lore to flesh out this game, because otherwise I suspect we're looking at a gameplay-focused romp with as little context as possible. As long as there's space for zombies of all different types to launch themselves at you, they'll have all the story they need because we honestly don't need anymore than that. (L4D certainly thrived just fine on that alone) Although speaking of; this will be a game to feature special types of undead and even big bosses, crossing that gap from average Zombie game to one that at least promises to have some sort of potential difficulty curve. (I appreciate the effort, big props.)

Even just looking at little glimpses of gameplay I can really see the ways in which Vertigo have grabbed ahold of this VR opportunity to try and push this somewhat familiar formula forward. In one shot you can see zombies crawling on the ceilings in an almost Xenomorph-esque fashion, taking up the sort of space that might only be caught in your peripheral vision, because that's the sort of cone of vision now open to the level designers through a VR headset. Gun mounted flashlights can open up the possibility of dark and tighter spaces that require quick movements in order to see around and faster moving enemies than what is typically seen in the VR scene helps keep the pressure up so that the average player won't fell like a total waste of space when he Bites the Dust. (Somehow even when you get helplessly swarmed by unassailable hoards of merely walking zombies, it still becomes the most embarrassing moment of your life.)

Of course, bringing all of this to the VR space is going to come with it's setbacks, and in this game's case the most obvious example is in the graphical fidelity. Looking at some of the character models for the enemies it's clear to see that we're looking at rough textures and rendering, but that's really what you have to deal with when making games for the most affordable pieces of hardware. Resolution is taxing and only the Index, as far as I'm aware, has a resolution capability surpassing 1080p, but giving how those headsets are still closer to 4 digits than most would like, it makes sense for Vertigo to aim for more sensible specs. And even if the raw graphical potential won't bring me to Heaven's Door in ecstasy, I can still respect the artistic intent behind it, because it's not so often we get to see a zombie apocalypse take place in a world so fallen. I like the '20 years of decay' style this game has going for it, give me S.T.A.L.K.E.R vibes, which I appreciate. (Although the colour grading is looking a little monochrome, as I'm sure you notice. Blue is gonna get boring real quick.)

Truly ground-breaking VR titles that fully take advantage of their unique platform to make their game are sure to be what grants eventual value to the VR market. But the games which pull that off, your Half Life: Alyx and Boneworks sorts of games, don't come around every other week. I think that we'll need an entirely separate industry of dedicated and learned VR developers to reach a good point with the VR market, and things are certainly trending in that direction. Until that time, however, games like this one which take the familiar and identify a few ways in which VR could maybe do it better will take up the space between now and then. But I feel it, in my bones I do, that one day VR games are going to reach a point where their sheer value proposition, immersion and engagement is going to hit the gaming public like a Sheer Heart Attack, and titles like 'After The Fall' will be the rungs on the ladder to get there. If there's but one question I have for myself to end on, it's why on earth did I choose to make no less than 12 stupid JOJO references in this blog.  Because that's just how excited this promising future makes it- is my excuse.