I Recommend: Bad North

The best techniques are passed on by the survivors 

Playing games is a sort of a thing that I like to do, not sure if you've noticed. Sitting down and diving into games both unfathomably massive and complicated as well as those that are simple and relatively small both form perhaps the most core aspects who and what I am. That's partially why I started this series of games that I recommend, because otherwise I'd spend all my time talking about these big extravagant affairs of gaming when the smaller more intimate one's are just as important and special to me. They're just not the sorts of products that would slide into any other discussion, which is why it's important I don't forget to cover this series like I've done something like twice in a row now. (That's an angry message aimed directly at me.) With that in mind, the game I have to bring up today is one I only actually came across thanks to that ol' Epic free games deal that they love doing, which has me begrudgingly admitting that they certainly do seem to have a rather solid track record so far of offered games. (Doesn't mean I have to love every single thing that Epic store does) The title in question is: Bad North.

Bad North, or specifically for the version I'm playing, 'Bad North: Jotunn Edition' is a frightfully simple strategy game which answers the question of what could I possible do to kill time whilst I spend an actual week setting up my modded Oblivion run. (Why do I need three different mod organisers to sort things out? How did the community allow things to get this convoluted!?) The answer being; I get lost in a world of polygonal simplicity where all the game consists of is a 'king of the hill'-esque scenario that just is built upon level after level with small nuggets of tactical planning thrown in there. But don't let that get to sounding intimidating for you, trust me when I say that 'tactics' is a phrase that typically gets me running for the hills too, rather I'm talking the sorts of rock-paper-scissors tactics that you take to so easily you don't even realise you're being challenged until you've been hopelessly pulled into the cycle of island hopping.

Plausible Concept's Bad North presents the player as a group of Viking-looking polygons sitting on a mostly desolate island save for a single building present there. Over the course of the level a few ships with gently drift into dock, with their path being predictably straight for cohesive planning purposes, and a party of marauders will try to storm the island and destroy the building. All you have to do is guide your army of warriors to mash themselves into the invaders and keep your home from being set on fire. That's pretty much it, I just laid out the entire gameplay loop of this whole title. Yet I'm being honest when I say that within that simple premise there's enough game to keep you on-your-toes and hooked for a few hours at the very least. (And sometimes a few hours is all you're looking for.)

First off, it extends itself by having a barrage of seemingly endless scenarios just like that level I just described, but randomly generated with a few conceptual consistencies so that you develop and maintain some idea of what's going on. The islands that you come across might be bigger and with more than one building to protect, and that swelling in size will mean that a proportional force of enemies will come to greet you. Maybe they'll be so many enemies that you cannot devote your warriors to protect all side at once, something you'll have to figure out. Or maybe, as the levels go on, you'll find yourself facing enemy troops who are more powerful and capable of overpowering your ordinary troops. These are variables that occur naturally and are conveyed to the player through either a general overview of the island they choose to travel to for the mission or through a very barebones user interface. Both ways in which the team devoted themselves to the concept of a 'minimalistic tactical experience'.  

As the screenshots have likely succinctly imparted, minimalism is the key design philosophy that drove majority of the development decisions. The bare, yet elegant, featureless attackers and defenders, the control scheme which literally consists of little more than clicking, and even the core progression that is very straightforward and comprehensive. Tactical games have this tendency to appear big and intimidating unless you dedicate yourself to memorising all of these rules about 'unit counters' and 'resource nodes' and 'development costs' and all of these topics that are least worthy of entire dedicated tutorial pages to explain them. Trust me, as someone who's actually quite a big fan of 4x titles like Stellaris and Civilisation, they can take up a lot of your time and mind just to come to initial grips with. What I feel that Plausible Concept have succeeded in doing with Bad North, is in whittling down all of that chafe into bare simple basics that are unimposing, approachable and still fun. Now that's not to say I think Bad North makes the perfect stepping stone to being able to enjoy 4x mind you, that's still a pretty substantial leap, but I still think it makes for a great strategy game for those who don't think they like strategy because it's just too much to absorb at once. (Which I think is a genuine criticism of the genre type.)

Though that simplicity doesn't mean Bad North has stepped away from strategy staples such as progression, indeed there is a rouge heart to this little game, so some form of progression does need to be instituted so that each run can be measured against the last. Minimalism is the soul here, yet again, in order to maintain that all important approachability. Every building you manage to protect throughout the duration of the assault rewards you with coin related to how big the building was, coin that you can then spend on upgrades to make your troops more powerful. Additionally, some islands come with standing armies already upon them, that will join your roster if you manage to complete that level with them. Of course, the risk comes that if an army is ever completely destroyed during a raid they're gone for good, but Bad North, once again being much more friendly compared to the rest of the genre, offers ways to replay levels if you screw up badly and manage to lose an army unjustly.

By the late game, and where things become interesting, the real hook of the game comes when the enemies start reinforcing their troops with  three or four archetypes that directly counteract yours. There are archers, warriors and Pikemen, each with an obvious advantage and disadvantage to range and melee attack strength that can be deduced. It's up to the player to match armies with their counters, whilst positioning defensively to keep the island safe, and there's even a few specially powered armies you can earn along the way in order to sprinkle just that extra something into the variety of the formula. Throw all of that in together and you've got a surprisingly clever little tactical defence game that naturally introduces all of it's ingenuity to the player and even at it's peak is never too much to come to grips with. Making Bad North an absolutely great time for those who are here to digest short sessions of strategy action without becoming too invested (as one might with 'Into the Breach' and it's 'every mistake is deadly' policy) or getting dragged into a game that lasts months. (As one would with 'Civilisation' Because of course.)

Bad North is the sort of game that I would recommended simply because of it's wide spread possible appeal to literally any kind of game player out there. Those that are used to small chunks of bitesize game that they'll get off their phone, will find an easy to latch onto experience. Some that might be into some types of games but perhaps not so much strategy, will discover that this is a very casual yet rewarding time. And strategy fans I'm sure will be able to pick up on the understated depth in the game's mechanics that are just enough to stimulate. And beyond all of that, I love the game because visually the idea of utilising a minimalist artstyle to portray Nordic snow islands has a simple beauty to it that I deeply resonate with. What's more, the game is less than £12 on Steam, so it certainly meets it's value proposition. If casual strategy is in anyway your thing, then so is 'Bad North: Jotunn Edition'.

Sonic Colours Ultimate: and others

Sega's Copyright law will absolutely stop me.

The world of Sonic has been making significant moves of late, most of which are behind the scenes instead of the in-your-face brashness we usually expect from our favourite anthropomorphic garden rodent. On one hand we have the abrupt firing of everyone who has been part of the Sonic voice cast for the past 10 years (Except Eggman. Guess he finally won his little Sonic rivalry) all in anticipation of some mysterious upcoming TV show called 'Sonic Prime'. And now this week, on the other end, we've got ourselves a brand new Sonic video game getting teased to us through way of awfully vague teaser that is so light on details that I actually misunderstood it. And if that's not enough, a remaster was even announced for later this year because apparently Sega's feeling a bit down about not getting on the Remaster train as hard as they wanted to. (Completely remaking Yakuza 1 and 2 and remastering 3-5 wasn't enough for you guys? 'Kay.) Some older fans may kick and complain about how the Sonic series is played out and the series doesn't mean anything anymore, but clearly no one told Sega because they're just drowning in Sonic content right now!

First there's that teaser trailer; what an absolute bag of nothing that was to go on. It's just a 3d render of Sonic running through a forest before he gets zapped into nowhere land. For that we can at least deduce that Sonic is not going to be conducting his next adventure inside of his normal world, but that means literally nothing right now. The extra splash text in the trailer did little to clear anything up either, merely hyping off the fact that this game will be made by Sonic Team, "the people behind Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces.2 Oh well that narrows it down. I mean, they also made Sonic 1-4, the Adventure Games, The Advance series, 06, Boom and literally every official Sonic game ever made; but at least I know they're on this game now. Here I thought Sega were going to completely shirk all copyright law and give the development to some rando on the street they just happened to pass.

All we have to go on is that date of this mysterious new product, which has been given to be 2022. In my opinion that's close enough for a proper reveal, but I'm not the one who makes the marketing decisions round here now am I? On a more real note, the reveal did let us come to the conclusion that this will likely be another 3D outing for Sonic, so at least we shouldn't be hyped for a Sonic Mania sequel, if that's ever going to hit the pipeline like I desperately need it to. (Please god, where is my Sonic 2d goodness?) Also, with the specific titles they chose to evoke in this trailer, Generations and Forces, we might as well confirm that this is going to be a continuation of that storyline of games; where 2d and 3d Sonic team up for mostly 3d adventures. But that's not all, because rumor has a actual name floating around with this unrevealed project in 'Sonic Ranger'. (Though bear in mind that might just be a development name and would be entirely subject to change if it were.) But if it does end up being called 'Ranger', then I suppose we can expect an entire game of Sonic's struggles against that new powerful Sonic antagonist: Yogi Bear.

Yet as I sat there I only had one thought running through my head: How could the Sega marketing department muddy the waters further in order to ensure no one knows what's coming out for what in the near future? That is their job, isn't it? To make things confusing? That must be the case considering how it wasn't that long at all after this teaser that a full trailer dropped for 'Sonic Colours Ultimate', a remaster, not a sequel, to the 3d Sonic game that made the world go, "Huh, that's a game I guess", Sonic Colours. Idiot that I am, I simply assumed this to be the teased game on account of how this announcement literally followed the teaser, and featured an identical looking Sonic model, and how both seemed to feature similar particle effects. But then a third party helpfully pointed out how Sonic Colours was due for a 2021 release, and so this new 'Rangers' project seemingly has to be something distinct. Maybe. Good lord someone fix this trailer release schedule, it's infuriating!

Whatsmore, this whole debacle pulled me away from the sheer absurdity of the Sonic Remaster choice heading for 'Sonic Colours'. (Which maybe was the point) Apparent confirmations have assured us that there is absolutely a small remaster of the classic games coming soon, so we aren't being completely blindsided in favour of Colours, but that still doesn't justify why the team chose to remaster this of all the 3d Sonic titles out there. If we're talking classic 3D titles that could do with a little fresh coat of paint, then maybe we could focus on the Sonic Adventure series with it's beloved levels and music, as well as the Chao minigame which people devoted hours to. Instead we get Colours, a game who's greatest achievement is being a 3D Sonic game that isn't 06. I'm not saying that Colours is a bad game, it's just heavily forgettable. They could have remaster Lost Worlds and the reaction would be the same, no one was crying for a Colours remaster.

But at the very least this Colours remaster has resulted in one of the most unexpected heel turns I could have ever imagined. Hardly a few months after the iconic voice of Sonic, Roger Craig Smith, was ousted from the role of Sonic, he's been bought back in to voice Sonic for a limited special based on Colours. Now I still don't know what sort of holy task Colours pulled off to be worthy of a small animated video series, but at last it means RCS gets to come back to the role he set the benchmark for. I can't imagine why he was kicked out in the first place, what is this upcoming Sonic Prime series going to even shape up being without that classic wisecracker's voice to give it all oomph and meaning? (and to say "There's no Copyright law in the universe that can stop me.") Them's big shoes that Mr Smith is going to leave for someone to fill, and I think I'm not the only fan who's going to both enjoy and feel bittersweet about this which could very well be his last performance in the Sonic role.

All of these ancillary projects, of course, leave a big question mark over what exactly Sonic's next adventure could be and why it's apparently not enough to dedicate all resources to so they have to bolster fans with a remaster, an animated special, a classic collection and a TV show alongside it. Maybe I've overthinking things and these are just a bunch of separate projects that just all happened to line up next to each other, but if that's the case this sounds like bad brand management to me. I think that Sega have heard the reactions to Sonic Forces and no longer have the confidence in the main team to pull of a big release with the full weight of the Sonic departments behind them, so know we're looking at just a wall of Sonic stuff hitting us that a game can ride the back of, whether it's mediocre or not. Fans took issue with Forces, but if they have everything they could have ever wanted to shut them up alongside this new game, can they really complain even half as much this time around? (As long as we see a return to the horrible Sonic OC's in the next game, I'm happy.)

Sega have always had a hand on how to sell Sonic to the masses no matter where the public perception of the franchise is, so even when I don't understand what they're doing I'm still pretty sure they're on the right track. Sonic Ranger could have done with a more representative trailer so that I actually have something to be excited for, all they've really told us visually so far is that the game won't be in the environment that we've been shown, which leaves just about anything else you could possibly imagine as an alternative. But maybe that's all part of the plan, leave fans guessing and dreaming, I don't know. But if there's one thing I do know it's this; Sonic Colours is not a classic Sonic title which needed renewed attention and no amount of nostalgia-bait trailers will convince me otherwise; Sonic Colours Ultimate indeed...

We'll get it right next time

And the next time. And the next time.

The creation of video games is an intensely complicated and multi-layered procedure requiring the collaboration of a ludicrous number of specialities tied together with a vested interest. And even when you have all the ingredients you should need to get everything right, there's a good chance, nay a simple inevitability, that whatever you put out won't be to the standard you originally set for yourself. (Which is why we don't make promises before we make the game, Sean Murray) So whilst it might seem that would mean all Video games are destined to be disappoints, game designers tend to be pretty ambitious folk so even missing their dreams can be pretty out there in the result. But what happens when everything doesn't just go peachy? What do you do when best laid plans go wayward and you're left with a game that lets down yourself and your audience?

There's been a few titles out there where the answer has wrapped around for a query like that and ended off simply with a shrug and a: "We'll get it next time." As if all the wrongs of today are completely and irrevocably reversed by the law of 'fool me once'. "See, if we never get to 'twice' then I'm the only one who's allowed to be upset." And whilst I will say that it's nice to have a little optimism; yes, you weren't so good today but you'll definitely make up for it tomorrow, there have been a few times when such a promise has really settled a little too well within the work cycle. In the way that the issues of today are always been laid on the backburner because they can be handled tomorrow. 'The cycle of procrastination', I call it. I just wanted to see how this was working out with our favourite games.

Take the Division, Ubisoft's Tom Clancy looter shooter that roared onto the scene all the way back in 2016 with grand promises of what it could be and the heights of a gameplay loop it wanted to achieve. Basically the game wanted to be Destiny without the crazy good visuals, supremely tight first person controls, and all the other benefits you get from literally having half a billion dollars thrown towards your project. And Destiny was what The Division ended up shaping like, only in all the stupid ways that no one wanted to emulate. It had an extreme lack of content problem which left a crazy level grind that could only be achieved by the sort of endless monotonous repetition that would make a WOW veteran blush, and at the end of the day even the best gameplay in the world isn't going to save you from a grind that ba- okay, Destiny's gameplay did kinda save it, not gonna lie. But The Division was not to third person shooters what Destiny is to First person ones, and so The Division was sort of left in the dirt.

At least that was the initial prognosis, but Ubisoft went and turned that around with the sequel which addressed all the areas that people had issue with and has gone on to become a Looter shooter that new comers get compared too. The Division 2 is an example of a situation where repairing the problems of the last entry primarily ended up working out well for the studio, and I think that may come to the nature of Looter Shooters as a genre. Most people who like those games are in it for the longhaul as it is, so as long as you create a decent enough gameplay loop that can sustain interest for that longhaul. That's pretty much what The Division 2 fixed from 1, and remains the reason why it's probably going to be a good long while before the Division 3 rocks up in stores; heck, if they handle their treatment like Rockstar does with Grand Theft Auto Online, Ubisoft might never have to update.

Of course, I now go from one extreme to the other, and using the same company as a reference to prove that this trend can effect anyone. Here's one game that doesn't nail the art of iteration nearly as well, because the developers are forever stuck making the next game what the last one should have been. Yes, I'm talking Watch_Dogs. Watch_Dogs one was sold as being this incredibly freeing GTA-like game where the freedom of the user is expanded upon with these ludicrously tactile and utility-driven hacking abilities. Except, that's what Watch Dogs 2 was, one just sort of pretended to be that in missions. The hacking just felt so situational and limited, something tacked onto the city as an afterthought and clearly geared for use in missions more than in general play. Watch Dogs 2 fixed that, but then felt a little dated by the time it did, introducing one note characters, a plot which bordered on silly and a final product that was serviceable, but not quite what the Watch Dogs name felt capable of. In a way, the other open world games of the time; The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, etc; really made the Watch Dogs 2 world feel like a relic of the old way of making games like these. They'd need to catch up once again or change the type of genre they were saddling up to entirely. (Pure open world games do tend to be pretty competitive.)

Watch Dogs Legion was the solution to those troubles. It was a game that would transcend the Watch Dogs formula from being just enough GTA clone with a gimmick to something completely of it's own. (Now it would be Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor with a Hacking gimmick) In a way this would be their solution to getting stuck in that inescapable catch-up saga which has shadowed Ubisoft's other series, Assassin's Creed, for nearly a decade now. (Ubisoft in particular really have a problem with this habit.) Unfortunately, Watch Dogs managed to create it's USP that changed the series substantially, but forgot to make the final product an engaging out and out experience, which is somewhat understandable when you consider the amount of technical ingenuity that went into bringing the thing to life in the first place, but still means that a ball was dropped. Maybe for the next entry they can work on that and hope that a new Shadow of Mordor game doesn't come out in the meantime to make their systems suddenly look obsolete.

Which brings us around to Cyberpunk, and the thoughts that although 2077 was a let down, 2080 (or whatever the sequel ends up being) will be the one to live up to 2077's promise. Even if it does, is that something we're willing to accept? Traditionally buyers remorse works purely on revenge punishment in the Video game world, wherein people who buy a bad game will not then turn out to buy the next game in the series, but developers have managed to work their way around this by saying "next time will be the time we make it." Now Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't a bad game, per se, it was just wildly oversold; but that still sets a stigma of mistruth which, typically, wouldn't be rewarded. I want the next Cyberpunk to be great, and I'm sure it will be, but I can't help but feel they'll be a bad taste in my mouth when I rock up to pick up the game I should have got in December 2020. (Theoretically, of course; I'm not buying the next Cyberpunk game in person or on day one. Digital second hand- baby!)

I think it's a strange trend for development to fall into, where the key driving force is fixing your last attempts mistakes. Of course there should be the desire to always improve, but that should be driven by a promise of innovation not of reiterating what was broken before in an act of image fixing. That just seems like such a reductive way to approach creative design. What's more, as with Ubisoft, it becomes too easy to fall into a rhythm of unending catchup as your try to meet the tastes of an audience from two years who have since changed their tastes; you'll never make the game you wanna make or keep fans happy, so why bother? Should Cyberpunk of the future wipe it's hands of the fictionalised Cyberpunk 2077 and never try to live up to the vision? Yes. They should work on what made the first game fun, the gameplay, and lean heavier into that for a less open, but more concise and better designed, branching main quest. Leave the open world to the experts, guys, it's what they're there for.

Lies of P

 The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It doesn't take all that much to win over my interest with a new game announcement, I'm a simple creature who likes shiny things afterall and new games tend to be pretty darn shiny. You could literally throw a splash screen at me and I'd at least ooh and ahh for a few seconds before clicking off and never thinking about it again for as long as I live. The trick, as is the case with anyone, comes in keeping my attention when the wind changes and not melting into the deluge of other games out being flung out there every single day. Sell yourself a little bit, let me see that ever-important USP. Well, for 'Lies of P' getting me through the door was as simple as having a title card written with such overly extravagant calligraphic zeal that I literally couldn't read it. (What is that: "Pies of 6"?) And once the hook was in and line pulled taut, the sinker was when I robbed myself the satisfaction of trying to figure out what this was about (I wouldn't have figured it out anyway, the trailer was vague) and read down in the description. Now I have to find out what becomes of this game. But I'm jumping a bit ahead with the narrative.

So you've got yourself a Dark Souls trailer set in a steampunkian Londonium-esque town that almost resembles Dunwall from a certain couple of angles. Fair enough, so far so Bloodbourne, honestly if you told me this was some sort of late-life expansion coming towards that classic I'd believe you with everything that I'm seeing. Whilst perhaps not coming across as the most stylistically unique prospect that the world has ever seen, the archetype the team chose from their imaginarium conceptual-space is already distinct enough to secure a certain type of audience for theme alone. It's all tophats, clockwork machines and corpses full of rats. (Actually this might just be London present day with that description) Oh, and there's some old looking man dragging a briefcase through the city like one of the Pilgrims of Londor from Dark Souls. See, this game is practically stealing iconic imagery so far, there's no way it couldn't get my attention someway. And the trailer ends on a dapper looking gentlemen with a robotic hand right out of Sekiro, if anyone was playing Souls bingo they'd be winning the jackpot right about now. But I'm still not sure what's particularly unique about anything I've seen here. Let me look in the description. 'Souls Like game', duh, ''PS5, Series X, PC", at least it's headed for everybody, "Inspired by the classic story of Pinocchio". Huh.

Lies. (Big nose.) Of P. (Pinocchio.) I don't know whether to bury my head in the arms and groan or slap my knee about how ingenious that is- actually, I've decided, I'm going with the former. A Pinocchio themed Souls-like? Well points for creativity, I suppose, and just when I was starting to think this looked like one of the most derivative projects of it's type that I'd seen; that's one heck of an opinion turn around. What have you gotta do to a creative mind to have them conceive a tough-as-nails action combat souls-game around the story of a young puppet looking to discover himself in a cruel world of moral quandaries? Actually, now that I put it like that this almost sounds like the premise of an Anime, so I suppose this isn't the stupidest concept in the world. Maybe. So, I guess the Blue Angel will serve as a level up NPC? Jiminy Cricket is a boss summon? Geppetto is the sad-old-man fight at the end? Is it too late to get off this ride? I'm feeling a little sick... (I bet the Monstro boss fight is gonna be sick, though, not gonna lie!)

I didn't have to look far into reactions before I saw excited comparisons to another game which I suppose was inevitable. "Isn't this just like American Mcgee's Alice?" (Still waiting on that third entry that you're never gonna make, guys. I need to know if Alice ever puts herself back together again, give me that closure!) Right away I have to put my foot down and insist that despite the surface level interpretation of 'two games based on fairy tails with a dark turn to them' that's not exactly the most perfect comparison. American Mcgee's Alice springboards off a unique and bizarre world, leaning on it's mysterious intangibility and extrapolating that into a sinister blossom of corruption, madness and total instability. This game is taking a pretty straightforward tale, with some wierdness perhaps but overall relatively sensible, and trying to make that the battleground for an action adventure Bloodborne clone. I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just saying that it's a different kettle of fish to Alice.

But sure, I'll bite; what exactly have you done to Pinocchio to make him fit inside a Bloodbourne shaped box? Well according to the Steam page you are thrown into the City of Krat; a place "Overwhelmed by madness and bloodlust", with naught but a single note: "Bearer of the curse... Seek larger Souls- Seek the king- lest this land swallow you whole, as it has so many others." Oh wait, wrong game. It actually just says "Find Mr. Geppetto. He's here in the city." So if that's not confirmation that Geppetto is assuming the role of Gwyn lord of Cinder for this game I don't know what is. ('Plin plong plin' incoming) You are tasked with being a puppet mechanoid slicing his way through this fallen city all for the hopes of becoming Human, an ultimately fruitlessly gilded cage of-a-goal considering how depressed most of humanity is. Wait a second- I just realised that's the exact same goal of The Bearer of the Curse from Dark Souls II. Pinocchio better be careful he doesn't slip up and accidentally end up becoming a time-travelling warrior-king with a half-dragon handmaiden. (Wow, Dark Souls II's weirdness hits me anew every damn day)

As much as I mock, however, I will admit that some of the Steam bullet points do sound intriguing. One such being these 'lying quests' that are somehow both procedurally generated and react to how you 'lie', whatever that combination of buzz-concepts means in action. But more importantly these quests will have a knock on effect on the ending of the game, which is a switch up from more traditional Souls-likes that usually just spring an ending choice on you two seconds before the credits. (Yes, Dark Souls 3's took considerably more effort. I'm well aware of that) I do think it odd, however, that this game appears to be championing lying when the traditional Pinocchio tale did seem to lean in the exact opposite direction- but this is 'inspired by', isn't it? Let them deviate, who cares... There's also a limb swap-out system which could prove for some ultimately transformative player builds depending on how the team realise it, and a weapon-making system which could be the absolute worst if it becomes a resource grind like 90% of all gaming weapon-making systems are. (They always sound so cool and then proceed to let me down.)

I'm not going to continue obfuscating facts here... Lies of P sort of already has me just the tiniest bit hyped out the gate. Of course, we haven't seen any gameplay as this was just a barebones reveal, but Souls-likes are my weakspot; I always end up salivating after them. I've pointed out all the similarities this concept shares with it's contemporaries, but to be honest I love all those games anyway so sharing their visage isn't really a negative for me at the end of the day. I even kind of like the idea of twisting a children's fairytale on it's head, it appeals to my predilection towards the corrupt perfectly. My only real reservation would be that the Korean studio behind this, Round8, have only really been known for retooling a failed MMO called Bless; a retooling that's still yet to come out and so could very well still be trash. They haven't exactly proven themselves, but they haven't necessarily had an opportunity to and that proving could very well start today. So well done, Round8, you've got me invested to at least check you out for gameplay in a year or two's time, here's hoping you don't end up pulling a CDPR, eh. 

XCOM Road to Ironman: What did we learn?

Back to the drawing board

So when we last left off on this grand adventure of 'journey to the centre of the earth', I expressed how I was terrified of moving onto month 2 because I knew it was going to turn out poorly for me. Well guess what; it did and that's another timeline burned, I suppose thems the breaks of your average XCOM game, baby. But whereas this should be a demoralising event that makes one rethink their entire approach to a stupid blog series where I smash my face up against a game I clearly suck at, instead I'm going to try and turn this around into a teachable lesson about how I'm going to win this eventually no matter what, dammit. Also, I think I've come up with a new definer for where I'm going to draw the line just to make sure that I'm keeping forever in control of the campaign and not spiralling into failure with nothing to show for it, because as much as it's 'going the whole way' to go down with the ship, I find that stuff super demoralising and think it'll just end up affecting my chances of continuing this series in general. So bare with me as I try to go over where everything went wrong.

One section in which I had set myself up to succeed with only one small trip-up was in the Metagame of building the XCOM network to cover the globe. I had executed my strategy of building a satellite at the start of each month completely successfully, the only problem being I'd forgotten (idiot that I am) how building Nexus' to accommodate those satellites comes with a set cost in engineers that raises substantially. (5 more engineers for each nexus) Of course, the solution to this is investing as much as possible in the engineer team whenever possible in order to build a small reward pool from the protected countries that'll keep you ever ahead of the curve; but given how early XCOM is so dangerous you can't really devote yourself to one side of development like that. Still, I'd leaned much heavier into research for that run when it would have really behoved me to hedge my bets a little, else I found myself spending money from which I'd never see benefit as all the Satellites in the world are useless if I can't launch them. One a bright side, however, I'd managed to invest in an Officer Training School before the end of month one, which I think is going to become the gold standard of every run; the importance of that milestone cannot be understated.

Of course, where it really fell to part was in the mission-to-mission gameplay in which I somehow managed to lose three people in the space of two missions, one of which being myself. I kept going at the time, but now I'm thinking that keeping myself alive might be standard I set myself to in as narcissistic a manner as that sounds. Because hey- I can't really be putting up with a team wipe at any single point in these runs, so if a match ever falls entirely out of my control to the point where even my personal pointman is in danger, I know to either pull back completely or go for broke. Does that sound stupid and illogical to you? Perhaps, but that's the hill that I'm lining up my gravestone for, so I guess we're doing it right now for certain. Oh, and just so we're clear this does not mean that I'm going to turn around and start trying to skip missions to keep 'virtual me' alive. No guts no glory, am I right?

Elsewhere there was the falling apart of my 'always lead enemies into ambushes' doctrine; but in my defence the game left me no choice in that regard. You're always up against it during UFO crash missions because it's impossible to say whether or not the hostiles are right next to you or bunched up by the crash. I've known roaming pods to literally jump me right out of spawn to devastating effect because I cannot set up a battleground. Well guess what- that's exactly what happened to me in this case. Roving enemy group ambush on turn one, despite me taking an aggressively conservative turtle formation on the first move to prevent that very thing from happening. But such is just the manner of RNG where you cannot control every aspect of the world, what happened next is just an example of tactical failure on my end.

So what we were looking at was a band of 'Thin Men', annoying to deal with due to the fact that they all posses a special ability that allows them to forgo all aiming chance and guarantee shooting a poison cloud on your squad. The only real counter to this is knowing that these enemies prefer to do this when your squad is bunched up and positioning people accordingly. We did that, and managed to push the 'Thin Men' out of spawn area which allowed me a little time to setup for their eventual return back into the fray. (I always hate the cat-and-mouse in such situations. Especially when they go running for several turns as though they genuinely expect me to chase them like an idiot. "Nah thanks, you come to me.") But then I fell for a bulletpoint of my own advice that, in a way I couldn't help, but I should have known better anyway. Because the thing is that I had activated that pod at spawn and setup my defence at spawn, when what I should have done is retreated.

Now again, it's kind of hard to retreat when you're literally pushed up against it at spawn, and thus was my excuse for skipping this part of my rules, but XCOM is ever there to remind you that the second you cut corners in any single fashion, they'll punish you for it. In this instance, I was punished with the same stupid crappy move I thought only Sectoids had the balls to pull off back in the day. Namely, an enemy charged into my line of sight from outside the fog of war (dodging 5 overwatches as he did, because XCOM hates me) and then sniped dead a rookie I'd brought into the mission before his turn was even up. It makes no sense how he'd be able to that considering he'd have no eyes on where anyone in my team was before moving and the rookie in question was even in cover against him, but thus was my punishment for taking a half measure. Never take half measures. Oh, and as you can see from the picture, my folly was completed by a horrifying missclick with my designated assault in the same mission. (So now you can see why that timeline is officially a bust)

It sucks to have to wrap things up so early in the run after losing one inconsequential person and three skilled ones, but the point to take away if that the first two months of XCOM are so very important that a single mistake will put you on the backfoot for a large swathe of the game; and I'd made three. The name of the game here is to push all the way to laser weaponry and carapace armour before the really terrifying units start showing up on the battlefield and if I'm looking like I'm not getting there I will cut myself off before getting too attached. I think that part of me feels I'm a little hair trigger on this, which is partially why I'm justifying myself so much. Perhaps this is coming from my 'Into the Breach' experience wherein you'd literally be encouraged to dip at the first sign of downturn. The only difference is that there it'd take a few minutes to be back into the action, whereas XCOM is notably slower paced. Still, I'm not sure if I'm being too harsh and should stick with my failures a bit longer, let me know what you think down in the comments.

So another day another timeline surrendered to the aliens, Oh well. At the end of the day it's not too bad of a loss, afterall it's the failure of XCOM one's campaign that canonically leads to the storyline of XCOM 2, so not everything is a bust, right? Still, I hope to make it considerably further before I'm back looking at the start screen next time, so I'm going to have to do a little relearning before I launch into the swing of things once more. (Also a little bit of confidence rebuilding. I know this was only month 2, but I always take my failures to heart) I know I can get further than this, it's just a matter of perseverance and ingenuity, two stats that I'd like to think I have some real-life investment into. (At least I hope so.) Alright, that's that, lessons officially learned; mistakes I won't make on the next run, right? (else the next report blog is going to be very embarrassing to write.)

New World; Old money

He's going over that cliff- ARRGH

Stockholm syndrome has now officially kicked in; we're stuck with 'New World' fast approaching as the only Amazon Game Studios title to be actively out very soon and I'm just at the stage where I want to see the darn thing. At this point it feels like this game is the work of generations of Amazon employees, passing the cradle of development across the bloodline like a treasured heirloom, all sworn to loyalty in the knowledge that this game, their birthright, would one day rise to the challenge to become the savoir this world needs. (So no pressure, right?) But I mean you really reap what you sow in that regard considering all the extended years of hype non-representative CGI trailers, bigging up the invisible game with talk about how unendingly amazing the endgame will be, and delaying it forever in order to get the thing just right. Don't you know how things work in the Game's industry, Amazon? If a game isn't coming quite together yet you just dump it onto the masses with all the wires hanging out and maybe get to fixing some of them over the course of the next two years. (Gah, amateurs...)

But we're past the hyping stage at this point. Well past it, truth be told, we're well onto the time when we can look upon the final finished game and start to judge what it is we're witnessing with our very own eyes. Is this the game we've wanted for the better part of forever ('we' being MMO fans, I'm not personally fussed) or is this just another wet fart that was promising to be a tsunami? (Not the best comparison I've ever made. And yet, somehow, absolutely the best.) The game is practically out there in the laps of consumers right now, and it's gotten to the point where marketing has no choice but to bite the bullet and actually show the thing in action. In fact they have shown the thing in action, there's some playthroughs of content to look at including a PVP siege and a Dungeon walkthrough. And what is the takeaway? Well remembering that everything is subjective and your threshold for amazing may differ from any others around you; I thought it looked boring.

Again, 'personal opinion warning' for all those hopefuls, coupled with a 'these are just previews, the full product could put them to shame." Yada yada, are my bases fully covered yet? Good, because I'm about to go off. That Dungeon, one of the pieces of content designed to be played through again and again in the loop of progression was just about slaying ghosts in an abandoned mineshaft. Is that 2006 calling? How is it that the best you could come up with for one of the staple gameplay sections in this vast fantasy world tinged with the supernatural and colonialism? An abandoned mineshaft with boring looking ghosts? In their defence the team said that there would be different versions of this dungeon to run, some of which might not put you instantly to sleep to walkthrough, but I doubt it's going to be anything like those redux dungeons from other MMO's, where the entire contents and storyline evolves each time you run it. And then there was the PVP fort battle which looked quite fun and was touted for featuring 'massive' 20 on 20 player skirmishes. '20 on 20' is what's considered 'massive' these days? (>Laughs in ESO<) But I'm here laughing at the surface like a superficial jerk, what about the heart and soul underneath?

Of that I'm unsold, but not as dismissive. New World doesn't feature any rigid classes or class abilities, but rather a heavily simplified levelling tree where you latch onto equipment abilities so that you can 'build the class you want'. A.k.a "We couldn't find a way to make the game play significantly different with classes so we made the game in a way where all 'classes' feel the same." You don't need to lie to me, Amazon, I see you. A heavily lauded element is the way combat works, in that it's tooled to play like a single player action game with enemies that don't just run up to you and start spamming abilities. They duck and weave and just make your life hell when you go for them, looking like actual action game enemies. It's something that's more impressive if you're familiar with MMOs than if you're not, and as a familiar myself I guess my only real takeaway is "I better have constantly good ping else this game is going to be impossible to play". Also, visually it's said to be 'the prettiest MMO on the market today', which is already a misnomer as this game is not yet on the market. I don't know, I think attractiveness is a concept utterly divorced from fidelity and comes into the actual design of the world rendered, and New World's world has yet to show me a single inch of it that sticks. The colour palette isn't even striking, I just see bland everywhere. (Hey, maybe I'm not looking hard enough. I don't know.)

But all my raised eyebrows will surely be struck off in an instance when I hear about how the team seeks to handle monetisation right? Hmm? Oh, you bet they went off about how they're looking to make a buck from this game, one which you already have to buy in order to play in the first place, and the outlook is... it's bleak. First off, and this needs to be said, Amazon: if you treat your perspective audience like idiots and lie to their face, we'll spit in yours and cost you in cold hard cash; believe that. I say this because of their very own twitter statements where the team said they're 'trying out' quality of life features for players, just to get to know what sorts of things would be a right fit for their future player base. (Picking out furniture for the big move-in, huh, I get it.) Only the 'QOL' features they landed on somehow all seemed to line up perfectly to chokingly terrible monetisation strategies that have been tried and tested by other bottom feeding greedy publishers out there proving that Amazon Game Studios is so incompetent that they can't even swindle their consumer base in unique ways.

Okay, tell a lie, there was one real uniquely terrible thing they revealed. And remember, this is post launch and something that, in my heart of hearts, I want to believe they fabricated so that they can get free internet Karma points when they 'walk it back'. You really gonna charge me for Fast Travel, bro? In an MMO. Charging MMO players for fast travel is pretty much a hostile declaration of war on everyone's free time, ensuring that whatever cool levelling loop you come up with it'll always be limited to how fast they make your movement speed or how much you're willing to shell out to Amazon's money vault. That's literally super villains level of greedy dumb, to the point where I don't even believe it's real. It can't be. No one is that utterly out-of-touch with their fellow carbon-based lifeforms that they cannot understand why that's a bad idea. Seriously galaxy brained stupidity there, well freakin' done, team, you broke me already.

The next is one that's actually rather believable, because it's a hill that the Internet have been trying to die on quite a lot recently. 'Time savers' and 'Content skippers' are here to liven up your gameplay experience by letting you speed past it so that you can get to the 'good stuff'; just so long as you can cough up some grub for the big man upstairs; "come on, we ain't runnin' no charity!" If you are so insecure about how much value your game is worth that you have to sell a way to skip past it, you have failed to make an intriguing game. You have made- a bad game. Of course the team defended themselves with all the skill of a toddler arguing about way Leonardo is the coolest ninja turtle. "Nuh uh; we're just accommodating for those that don't have the time to play as much as others." Oh, you're thinking about the working man? How very magnanimous of you, Amazon GS. You're looking at the beleaguered everyman and thinking "He can't keep up with the curve so let's use that as a way to exploit some money from him". Geez, how did you get so kind and considerate, Amazon, I really want to know. I mean, the clever way to solve an issue like this would the development of somesort of XP slingshot system which might keep some players who play less levelling at a faster rate. Some might choose to exploit that, but they'd be intentionally limiting their own playtime in order to do so, therefore at the end of the day everyone ends up on the same playing field. However that would take thought and care, two things that I can see the folk over at Amazon are functionally incapable of now that they're mindless automatons programmed to respond only to the word 'profit'.

So as if it needs to be said at all; this isn't really how you go about launching your brand new MMO that's going to set the industry on fire. This is how you set your last bridge with the public on fire before you've set off on it, ensuring that your entire pox-ridden studio goes up in flames in the entirely preventable disaster. There's still time to save some face and put out the fires, some of the more gullible elements of the gaming community have already resigned themselves to this game and will surely try their damnedest to salve any wounds this game might sustain no matter how much they have to debase themselves to do so. But the rest of us just see a lukewarm offering steadily congealing and becoming more and more unappetising as the days go by, setting into a viscous muck that'll be damn near inedible by launch day unless emergency reparations are made now. Coming back to me, I will say that Amazon already lost me as a prospective player, but then their job was to win me over to begin with so they had an uphill struggle, whether you're still willing to give Amazon a chance despite... everything- well that's a decision only you can come down on. (I swear, if this game becomes a success with no amendments after this I'm going to lose so much faith in humanity I'll go hollow on the spot.)

Stadia: "We're still alive, stop asking"

 This was a triumph

We all like to believe the best in ourselves. It's healthy, we are told, to smile in the mirror and say "everything's going to go great today" each and every morning in order to train yourself to expect the good things in life. It's unhealthy, these same people say, to dwell on failures and impending hardships, at least not when they are beyond our control and nothing we can do will prevent them. I recognise these general beliefs and do accept them, even if I practice their exact inverse myself, which could be defined by some as Cognitive Dissonance. You know what else could be defined as such? Performing all the telltale signs of wrapping up your failed venture whilst wagging your finger and saying that "Things are going great!" whenever challenged. Which is it? Are you championing on or succumbing to the inevitable waves of The Deep? Lie through your teeth to the public if that's what makes you happy, but for the love of god figure that out within yourself else you're going to be in real deep crap when the hangman's number gets called.

Just recently the conversation sparked by Google Stadia's Platform and Games Marketing Lead, Nate Ahern, seemed to perfectly replicate the 'this is fine' meme during an interview with 'is a real site even though it sounds like a parody' Gamesindustry.biz. (I think it's the 'dot biz', just sounds weird.) Nate rocked to the interview and lived up to his job title spectacularly by dispelling any and all concerns around Google Stadia's long term viability through labelling those dubious thoughts as the rhetoric of "nonbelievers". (Wait, he said that? He used the words "Nonbelievers"? Wow, and I thought the Reddit for Stadia just seemed like a cult.) Now we all know that this here is a man professionally employed to lie to people, making him an absolutely indispensable element to both this industry and society at large who's life absolutely has purpose and value. Nah, that's all a bunch of crap and so is his talking points, but seeing as how we've seen a little glimpse behind the curtain towards how Google communicates with it's Stadia teams, I'm willing to bet that the messaging we're hearing here mirrors that within closed doors. So with that assumption; How's Stadia feeling nowadays?

"We're well on our way to over 100 new games launching on Stadia in 2021" Ahern said, presumably followed by an expectant pause for imaginary clapping. 100? 100 my man? So that'll bring Stadia's library up to, what, 200? This is supposed to be the 'be all end all' of gaming solutions, powered with tech so advanced that it simply cannot be beat and is capable of running feasibly any single software you could ever choose to upload. You should be dripping with games off of your service, you should have games coming out of your eyeballs, but you're sitting at 100. Why? I'll tell you; it's because Google, fools that they are, don't care about the plethora of talented smaller games out there which form the backbone of the industry. All they want is the big titles with the fancy studio credits to back them up and they're willing to, as leaks have shown, pay through the nose for those games. The same money that went towards a Red Dead 2 port could have secured ports for a thousand indie titles for Stadia. You seeing the problem here?

He also had the gall to tout "We're continuing to make Stadia a great place to play games on devices you already own." Oh, he must be talking about the way in which Stadia, within the past month, added a search bar to it's storefront. After a year in service. Now comes the Searchbar. From the company owned by Google. (Great strides guys, great strides) Now I know all the jokes were already made at Stadia's expense, but in all fairness I suppose they didn't exactly need a search bar for the beginning of Stadia's life since those geniuses had the bright idea of launching a subscription games service with less than 20 games. But know they're sitting at slightly more games, it's kind of a necessity. Of course, anyone with user interface design experience would have highlighted this as the sort of accessibility feature which should have been baked in before launch, but Stadia's an industry trend setter, guys, they can't be troubling themselves with such trivialities like 'basic programming jobs'.

And here comes my favourite part "I'd tell any non-believers-" (oh oh, that's me!) "-to take notice of how we're continuing to put words into action, as we grow the Stadia Makers program and partner with AAA Studios like Capcom, EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft and others." Oh, do you mean how you're getting raked over the coals by those companies as they continue to use you like their own personal piggy banks? 10's of millions have gone to securing Stadia ports of old classic titles, just so that Stadia can turn around and say that they have it, seemingly oblivious to the reality that most people they're aiming for probably already own those games and would probably prefer to play them through the method that doesn't cost them in subscription fees and internet charge bills. Stadia sees itself as a equal to these storied game studios, but those studios just look back at Stadia like rich rubes easily taken for a ride. No one believes Stadia is going to be around long enough for these studios to regret their pointed mistreatment, so they're plundering it's coffers before it's gone and for once I can't blame the greedy rats. I'd do the same in their shoes.

As for the 'Stadia Makers Program', that's an initiative to get smaller creators to make their games to be day-one launches on Stadia, I assume with a leaning towards exclusivity, but from the frontpage they don't appear to say that's a requirement. If this is the program that Stadia is so proud of growing they might want to illustrate that through, I dunno, marketing? Branding? Maybe updating the official webpage because it still mentions Stadia as owning just over 30 games? I just think it's weird that this sort of effort is going towards new developers rather than reaching out to Indie developers that already have Hits out there. It's clear that Stadia want to seek old classic AAA's so why not classic indies? Where's Spelunkey, Binding of Isaac or Stardew Valley on Stadia? Where's Shovel Knight? Dead Cells? Minecra- oh wait, there's no way Microsoft would cut them that deal... (still for a modern platform to not have Minecraft is pretty sinful)

Here's the facts for Stadia's 'grand effort' in putting actions to words; they're failing. They've been failing since before day one. Promises of native 4k support for all games going broken, stable performance can still be illusive to this day without spotless internet and, most disappointingly of all, their first party efforts have been scuppered. What the heck are we supposed to think about the health of your platform when you shut down all your first party studios before they can put out a single game!? It's total madness to think about, but Stadia seem like they're getting ready to put all their stuff in boxes and throw it into the retirement closet whilst hosting their grand celebration tours to let the masses know everything is steaming on ahead. And as I mentioned it mirrors internal policies. Google Stadia game developers had their studio shut down abruptly and with no warning after being told how much of a good job they were doing; no one has a clue what's going on even in an internal level!

So I guess the question I have to pose to you today is thus; when Stadia's head of marketing assures us that Stadia is alive and well with a future in this industry: do we believe him? Regardless of the fact that he's hired to lie, that Stadia has floundered on it's face time after time, that is entirely misunderstands it's target audience, that it requires premium internet to even work right, do you believe this man's words? And of course, you must know that even if you say yes and believe this man would never lie about something so sacred and pure; that doesn't mean he's right. His head could be next on the chopping block and he wouldn't know until the guillotine landed, because Stadia is just a Trireme pushed out in the Aegean sea with a rough sketch of what Troy might look like and without any oars. ("Trust in Poseidon, he'll get us there fine!") If all of that is enough for you than congratulations, you have more faith than me, friend. Just hope that faith has enough electrons to keep servers running after the power company comes and cuts Stadia's lines.

Tamriel Rebuilt

White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise

When talking about mods before I've touched on my adoration of those large scale land-maker mods which command a full amateur team's worth of talent in order to craft a new chunk of concentrated content to rival that of Bethesda's own talent. Of course, when I bring it up I mostly do so in order to celebrate promising upcoming Skyrim mods, however there exists a huge amount of projects that are already out there as well as ones not just limited to the worlds of Skyrim. In fact there are already completed new lands mods for Oblivion as well that I want to get around to eventually, however the focus of this blog is on one of the biggest examples of these mods for Morrowind. Yes, 2002's Morrowind is no stranger to the hugely ambitious mod projects that characterise the Bethesda modding community, and I knew that if I was going to be doing a 'complete' Morrowind playthrough then that just meant that I had to touch on some of these mods too. And so I tackled the biggest, most ambitious of them all; Tamriel Rebuilt.

Tamriel Rebuilt is a new lands mod that aims to create various entire provinces from all around Tamriel and bring them into Morrowind complete with unique enemies and dungeons, questlines and sidequests, music and distinct visual flairs no matter where you go. It's a work-in-progress affair built entirely by volunteers who work in their own time, and it's very likely to stay in 'work-in-progress' for the foreseeable future, but even then there's an amazing amount of work that's already been done and shown out there to the public. Right now there are three major branches to this project that are far-along enough to be in the public eye and they are, funnily enough, Tamriel Rebuilt, (which covers the Morrowind Mainland) 'Province Cyrodiil' and 'Skyrim: Home of the Nords'. I've tried all three and have come away so incredibly impressed that I want to talk about each briefly today. Other projects that don't have public builds out yet are 'High Rock 427' presumably dealing with the home of the High elves, 'Project Valenwood' for those Wood Elf fans out there and 'Elsweyr: Project Sugar' which sounds a little racist. (Oh, you just assume that all Khajiit eat moon sugar? They're an entire race of addicts, are they?) However apparently that was the official name of a cancelled sequel to an Elder Scrolls spin-off game. (So it's Bethesda themselves who started the stereotype, I knew it!)

The second I was done crying blood from finishing Bloodmoon's stupidly difficult final quest, I installed a plethora of mods for Morrowind and jumped right into all of this New Lands insanity, starting with 'Skyrim: Home of the Nords' because I've always attuned myself to my Norse brothers the most. It was at this point I learned that these mods are best played in the OpenMW version of Morrowind, a version of the game run on a fanbuilt engine that is frightfully easy to set-up but doesn't export saves (at least not automatically. The team don't seem all that fussed on developing actual workable tools for it either) and for some incomprehensible reason the aspect ratio for 1080p is stuck at some horrible 4:3. I'm sorry I don't have a 4k monitor! Why must I be punished through my aspect ratio? OpenMW is probably the correct way to play Morrowind in the current day, fit with an engine actually capable of running some custom scripts, but I wasn't having none of that hassle. For Tamriel Rebuilt, however, that meant I wouldn't have an ingame map to tell me where I was because the vanilla Morrowind map has fixed dimensions. (Thank the project's loremaster for the in-universe guide books; they saved my hide!)

'Skyrim: Home the Nords' takes Bloodmoon's attempt to bring Norse culture to Morrowind and puts it to total shame through it's own efforts. Taking place in the more temperate Eastern climates of Skyrim (For now, this mod is still work in progress) this mod envisions a version of Skyrim from before Bethesda fleshed it out themselves, based on the lore that was around at the release of Morrowind. Does this make for a richer world? No, Skyrim and Nords were very clearly underdeveloped as a people before Skyrim, but it does make for a fascinating look at another direction the series could have taken. Visually the new world is stunning with mountainous pathways, twisting barrows and surly tundra plains aplenty. I'm being serious when I say the team put Solstheim to shame with their landscaping, truly applaud worthy. The cities, on the otherhand, are curiously flat topped with the only exception being the small Reachman camps scattered here and there. I think that may be in keeping with the aesthetic from Arena, (Which I thought existed because of engine and team limitations rather than because of an actual conscious design decision) and is does rob the two featured cities of any even remotely interesting skylines. 

Their vision of Skyrim plays a lot more with the Nord's relationship to their 'border buddies' the Redguards and how those tensions could spark into skirmishes. The city of Dragonstar, revived for this mod, is a particular standout to me as it sits split down the middle with a gate that divides the Hammerfell run districts from the Skyrim run ones. The wilderness is full of wild and weird creatures exclusive for Skyrim in keeping with the weirdness of Morrowind's design aesthetic rather than 'TES V: Skyrim's more conventional enemies. Some of the factions are actually joinable and have unfinished but playable questlines and there's an actual arena in the game. Bethesda couldn't even shoot for an arena for the actual Skyrim, so this team even has a one-up on them in that regard. Honestly, Home of the Nords is worth it just for the sightseeing alone, the single Aylied ruin I stumbled across during my own explorations was mind-blowingly cool and uniquely designed, all the Skyrim exclusive items are modelled to a high degree (sometimes with better textures than base Morrowind items) and the new musical tracks provided by Tamriel rebuilt I think fit this environment the best. Strong offering that's an B Grade for what's there so far. (Though of course, bare in mind that all these mods are far from done and you will fall off the edge of the world if you try to walk into Hammerfell. I know. I tried)

Next I tried out 'Province Cyrodiil', but honestly this project is so early along in development that it should really be called 'Island Stirk' seeing as how that is as far as you can go right now. This is a mod that's a lot more like a tour rather than an exploration, because the land you traverse is pretty truncated. But that does allow you opportunity to enjoy everything this mod has to offer in the space of a couple of hours, so if that's what you're looking for than bully for you. Stirk is a typically tropical Cyrodiilian landscape, with warm sands and beaches, and honestly hardly any horrible monsters at all to deal with. The island is pretty sparsely populated too, with only one major port to speak of. The Aylied ruin from this mod is much more akin to Oblivion's design (disappointing, in my opinion. Home of the Nords' one was wild) and there's no real quests to speak of. Still as a mission statement for where the team want to go once they hit the mainland, Stirk does cover most every base well enough for what would be required in the various environs of mainland Cyrodiil, and I'm excited to see what becomes of this mod once plans start forming. I'll give it a C Grade for now, interesting in intent but yet to prove itself.

And finally I saved the big boy for last; Tamriel Rebuilt, the one who started it all. Beginning as a 'simple' plan to envision the Morrowind mainland, it's now grown into so much more and I wanted to see the base that launched so many other projects off of it. And right away I can say that the new parts of Morrowind mainland fit the landscape perfectly. So much so that when I had installed the mods but was still wrapping up some last faction questlines, I Almsivi Interventioned from the Tel islands (Expecting to be in Ebonheart or Ald Ruhn) and wound up confused and wondering through the mod for a good 5 minutes before I figured out what had happened. I literally thought I'd lost my mind before opening up the map and going "Oh, these are new lands!" I suppose that should make sense considering the tools that made Vvardenfell were right there for people to use, but these guys simply nailed the world design of the Bethesda team to a scarily accurate degree, and then went even further beyond.

My tour of Morrowind took me to some incredible looking places that matched the grandeur of Vivec or the personality of Ald Ruhn. Particular standouts to me was the mountainous city of Akamora and the familiar imperial streets of Old Ebonheart. But there was one city in particular that made my breath catch when I first saw. One that, even now, makes me excited to think back on for it's incredible uniqueness. That city is Necrom. Oh good lord the team did an amazing job with Necrom. Unlike anything else that Morrowind has to offer, Necrom is a city of the dead on the eastern peninsula that wears Morrowind's Egyptian influences proudly. Formed out of monolithic mausoleums that invoke the spirit of ancient Thebes, characterised by towering halls of marble white, populated by the ominous Ordinators-in-mourning with their weeping masks; Nercom is just brilliant. Truly and utterly. The only shame is the lack of quests and fleshed-out characters to populate this city, as such a stunning landscape simply demands that attention. I would adore the chance to write some stories and questlines for this place, it's very existence inspires a thousand voices to sing in my head. (But I've never coded a Morrowind mod before so I'd probably be better off leaving that to the actual coders, eh.) Tamriel Rebuilt has some quests to it, but it's mostly just an mindblowing tour as it stands right now; even then, the quality of what's on display right now easily earns the A grade from me. I can see why other teams were inspired to go off and start their own projects from this, some of the work is just breathtaking.

The modding community of Morrowind may not be as large as Skyrim's or Oblivion's, but as long as it has projects like this ongoing for it I don't think there's any doubt that it's just as chock-full of talented individuals looking to express themselves. Having played around with Mods and modding for a few years now, I can safely say that Tamriel Rebuilt is one of the coolest mods of it's type that I've seen, taking a classic and legendary RPG and matching it in scope and even beating it at it's own game in some places. Even if you've never played Morrowind before and are just looking for a base experience, I'd implore you not to finish up with the game without taking a look at the communities' best before you move on. All and all the Tamriel Rebuilt project is an easy recommend for owners of Morrowind, maybe not as a project to put on the calendar and wait upon with baited breath, but to check up on every now and then and be blown away by the things these fans get up to in thier spare time. Sometimes it's exciting and appreciation worthy, and othertimes it's nothing short of inspiring. Unbelievably great job keeping Morrowind alive after all these years team, you've got this blogger in awe. 

Lightforge games

 A new challenger enters the arena

So it was an interesting Saturday over here in England. Just finished watching this year's Eurovision during which the UK won exactly as many points that they deserve. (I say that because of the country itself, not because of James Newman. He was fine.) So after I got done laughing, I went looking for the type of story that would indicate a new beginning, something that would totally flip the industry on it's head so that we wash away the sins of the past and strive into the future unabashed. Well, straight away that is a lofty goal as institutions love to remain rigid no matter what, but I did remember hearing about one thing which, if we're being particularly charitable, could certainly be looked on as a new beginning. (Or more of the same. Realistically only time will tell.) So with that in mind let me tell you all that there appears to be about a new game's studio on the block, and her name is 'Lightforge games'.

Formed from a cadre of ex Blizzard and Epic employees (I feel like I hear that refrain a lot- are there any current Blizzard/Epic employees left at this point?) Lightforge want to smush together their considerable talents and enviable resumes to launch themselves into that most underappreciated of fields... RPGs? Wait, did I say 'underappreciated?', I guess what I really meant to say was 'overpopulated to the edge of a mass starvation event'. Don't get me wrong I positively adore a good RPG now and then, in terms of sheer volume it's probably my most played type of game ever. (They still don't quite make stealth games with any sort of regularity in the industry) I just expected a crowd like this to err towards something more communal, like an online action competitive game or strategy titles, but I suppose that's the reason they've forged out on there own, no? To start afresh making games they otherwise wouldn't be.

One Matt Schembari spoke about the new venture with some excitement in a press release, as he likely should be considering he just happens to be the brand new CEO guiding the thing. "We all love highly social, creative games, we particularly love games were players drive the narrative". (Yeah, I used to like those sorts of games too before I decided to start writing one...) "We are looking to combine elemants from Minecraft or Roblox" Huh "with tabletop RPGs to form a new way to play roleplaying games. Given our backgrounds, making a game that looks to revolutionise RPGs was an obvious choice." Okay, so ignoring the self aggrandising pomposity at the end there; are these guys talking about making a narratively flexibkle table-top based roleplaying game with heavy emphasis and user generated content? Or perhaps just a deep soul of creativity imbued in there where players can create whatever they wish in order to play the sort of roleplaying RPG they wish? That sounds... ambitious, but quite interesting too.

Of course, one of the most interesting and underreported parts of this story comes where they reveal that Lightforge is an 'all remote studio'. Now thanks to this little detail being underreported I must say that I'm only 80% sure what that means, but I believe it means that the team are working entirely from home and coming together remotely online. This would obviously be a consequence of the pandemic stopping folk from coming together, because several prominent game studios have had to prematurely adopt similar policies in the past year and reported strained relationships because of it. Communications issues, loss of tactical cohesion, productivity, all these aspects have taken hits in the wake of such measures because these teams were built and designated without consideration of such circumstances ever needing to take place.

 Lightforge, however, are birthing themselves into that environment and are trying to thrive under those circumstances, and it might lead to an interestingly different sort of development studio on the otherend. Like a Snake-brick born from Gold Experience whilst inside of Purple Haze's poison, perhaps the nature of this studio's creation will lead it a natural resistance as teams are built, trained and grown around the 'working remotely model'. If they manage to make it work for them, then the positive benefits could be immense for a studio like this. For one, it would mean that they could maintain studios built of international teams, without having to twist those developers to relocating in whatever stupidly expense city the idiots up in management decided to settle down in. Talent from the world over could be accessible to the folks over at Lightforge games, giving the opportunity to imaginative developers from anywhere with an Internet connection. That's a future more exciting then any RPG moldbreaker premise the studio can come up with.

Coming back to that game idea, however, this really does seem to be the single trump card in Lightforge's sleeve, to the point where it doesn't feel like these guys came together to make a studio, but to make one game in particular. (One that I assume is going to be called 'Lightforge' or some variation upon that) Mosey over to their official website and you'll see such 'eyes to the heavens' statements like; "We want to blur the line between creator and player", "Curiosity is everything", "We're looking for dreamers... from all walks of life". (Really? So if I have the numbers of any plumbers should I send them your way then?) From one point of view these are all the sorts of words that a creator says before the land flat on their face. "I want to change the world! Also, I don't know how to. Oh god, I've screwed up everything. What do you mean we've been stalling for 6 years and need to put something out. Crap, crap, crap; here's a CG abomination I guess. Wait, you liked that and you need it finished in a full game within a year? Here you go, it's Anthem." 

But playing the optimist for once in a blue moon, I truly do wonder at the sort of vision that their painting because this RPG game seems contradictory if not revolutionary. Making a brand new creative engine that's support roleplaying seems to imply what we're looking is a virtual Dnd campaign maker, but perhaps with a sort of gameified creativity to it, similar to how Minecraft functions. Of course, in such a definition, (although I'll remind you it is my own) I would be required to point out that Baldur's Gate 3 is similarly looking to create a Dnd Campaign machine. However, in this stage of whsitle head-in-the-clouds Imagineering I suppose literally any direction is possible. In fact, when I first read their description the game which came to mind was actually Hytale. (Which hasn't made an update on it's blog in 6 months, which is either troubling or indicative of heavy development.) Whatever Lightforge games first title ends up looking like, I bet it's the sort of game that these devs are looking to sit behind for the longhaul, so it is going to be an event no matter which way fortunes turn.

It's always fascinating to me whenever cushy developers look to extravagantly discard the throes of comfort and launch themselves into unknowable exciting ventures. It feels like the world of gaming is slowly starting to decentralise itself and become bigger and more interesting, something which should be championed by all-comers, because it means more of the thing that you love and maybe even something you don't even know that you'll love yet! And the fact that it's happening more and more in the world today is either an indication of great smaller products overwhelming the mass market in the near future or/and an impending total breakdown of traditional mega gamestudio structures. (And I'd champion either eventuality to be honest.) But for now just rest assured that this Lightforge Games have some big moves planned in their future that, should fortune be on their side, might just be the next big thing to rock gaming. I'm routing for ya.

The Legacy of Beserk

A legend has passed

On the 20th of May 2021 it was announced that the legendary Mangaka Kentaro Muira had died a few weeks earlier, shocking just about everyone in the Manga and anime community to their core. Muria was only 54 at the time, characterising news like this as quite alarming and certainly unexpected, but beyond that comes the innate sadness that the creator of the legendary Beserk franchise has passed. Across the internet people mourned in their own ways, from simple posts to extravagant and populous virtual wakes in Final Fantasy XVI. And I personally feel the empty pit in entertainment left behind. I remember hearing a fan remark how Beserk was a series that had started before they were alive and would end after they had died, and I'm not sure if that latter will still hold true, but certainly it's legacy will maintain it as one of the most referenced and influential manga's of all time. It has been a very remorseful week in the meanwhile.

Personally, though, I will admit it's a little strange to feel so affected by this passing considering that I had never, at any point in my life, actually read Beserk, watched either of it's adaptations, played any of it's games, or just interacted with that direct world ever. I had heard of the series, of course I had, but it's one of those that I'd never gotten around to and now sort of feel pressured to rectify that. But even that new-found pressure doesn't explain why the initial shock hit me so hard. I think a part of that comes from my new found love of another hugely influential manga series in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, which is similarly maintained by a lauded creative head who's certainly been around the scene for a long time considering he is now... 60?! Hirohiko Araki is 60? (I mean... either he's put on the stone mask or he's a Harmon practitioner, because that face looks late 20's at most.) But the other part of my reaction comes from the way in which Kentaro Muira's seminal work, Beserk, as I hinted, has influenced so many staples of gaming that I love to this day.

Following the journey of a mercenary called Guts, Beserk is an epic fantasy tale telling the journey of this orphan's life across a dark gothic world meeting friends and foes, and making the worst foes out of friends. Perhaps what I know the story best for, at least personally, is one period wherein a character boarded a ship for a far away land and it took them around 8 years to get there. That was in real time, by-the-by. (Thus is the consequence of waiting for incremental chapter updates from a perfectionist.) The story has yet to be treated to a regular anime dedicated to covering it's every step, the current anime has only released 2 seasons in the space of 5 years. (Which I guess could be seen as overarching perfectionism getting in the way of content production) However what's already there has bought to life significant chunks of the story and birthed at least one theme so iconic you probably don't even realise that you recognise it. (That's Gut's Theme by-the-way, look it up)

So now you know what it is, you probably want to know if it's influenced anything you've heard of. Well off the bat I think it's safe to say that one of the most famous titles it influenced, to the point where fans have speculated that the entire series exists as the creator's own unofficial adaption/interpretation of Beserk, is Dark Souls. That's right, the king of Gothic decay actually borrowed it's heart and spirit from Beserk, such to the point where they even included the iconic weapon of Guts as one of the staple swords you can find and enchant in the game. There's plenty of thematic parallels that people have picked out over the years, but overall the consensus is that if you want to feel like you're in the world of Beserk, Dark Souls might just be the closet thing to it. Again, I stress that I'm sharing the opinion of others here as I cannot attest to the similarities personally, but that's what I've heard insisted.

Another such influence was actually the classic Capcom series Castlevania, although that's more in reference to the world and story built retroactively for the franchise rather than for the original games themselves. As much as those games did have unmistakable gothic elements running in their veins, they were still a long way from the indepth development that the series enjoys today. Now, steeped in written literature, tons of story heavy entries for the franchise and a recently wrapped up Netflix series that is said to be excellent, it's easier to see the ways in which this dark fantasy owes it's heritage to Beserk. At least, that explains the ever so sleight similarities in tone that Castlevania shares with Dark Souls, even if Dark Souls is notably more hardline.

But I realise that, despite both of their meteoric rises in the past decade, both of those examples can still technically be considered 'niche'. I mean even then they both certainly fall on the heavy end of the concept of 'niche', but not everyone is familiar with the vampire series or the punish-you-till-you-cry games. What if I mentioned a series that's a lot more common with the regular folk; like Final Fantasy? That's right, apparently FF itself owes a lot to the legendary manga series; and even saying that I feel like that's something I should have already known. I mean just look at Cloud's Buster sword from FF7, surely there's a bit of a reference there? And that's not mention several of the character design parallels which may now be known as tropes but back then had real paths of influence and iteration. And I know for a fact that Nier and Drakengard both have directly credited Beserk for the fallen world they both depict, as celebrated with a refence here and there in both series.

And finally I want to sink back into obscurity to talk about a series which only I love, but it has Beserk influences so that's my excuse to drag it into the light once more. So Dragon's Dogma (Who's booing?) is another case of a game that I low-key think was trying to stealthy adapt Beserk without asking permission, I mean that just looking at the whole look of the rolling hills of the world, the choice of classical monsters with conceptual twists or amplifications, the general apparel of the world's inhabitants, the general premise of being a impromptu leader of a gang of mercenaries who wonders the land doing oddjobs. Only, I'd imagine that the stealth adaptation might have hit a bit of a snag when the team literally partnered with Beserk to bring two whole armour sets into the game directly modelled off of Guts and Griffith's iconic clothes. (Thems some powerful influences)

Though the manga series of Beserk may now have been prematurely cut sort in the wake of this, as I doubt anyone is going to to try and take it over with how personally driven and uniquely spirited these lauded Manga stories tend to be; the legacy of Beserk will continue to touch our entertainment lives in a plethora of different ways. Games, Manga and Stories will forever continue to me made with a tinge of Muira's legacy to them, and that's about as pervasive and lasting of a legacy as one man could possibly hope to have. So even though I was never as close with your work as I could have been, I bid a fond farewell and thank you to Kentaro Muira in the knowledge that we all we see his spirit and works through the stories that we love.