Missy's Game Shelf

  • Dragon Age: Veilgard Worries Me

    If you’ve been reading my last few posts you know I am a huge fan of RPGs and my favorites come from Bioware. To the point that Mass Effect 2 is my favorite game and the remake of that trilogy is something I enjoy going back to. Now the recent announcement of yet another name change for the forth Dragon Age game doesn’t worry me what does though is the announcement itself. This game is releasing later this year in the fall timeframe and it would be nice to see some progress. There have been several cinematic trailers for this game and not a single gameplay trailer to show mechanics and the game itself I don’t know why they made a trailer to announce both the release and the gameplay premiere on July 11 when they could have just given us a gameplay trailer then the release date. Also I don’t think anyone is expecting this game to be as good as Dragon Age games prior. Casey Hudson the original writer and several others left the studio a few years ago, but I was hoping for a more simplified game in the same spirit of Dragon Age. The recent trailer does show off the Companions that will show up and while I was happy for some news not seeing gameplay this late into development and with a fall release date is a red flag that maybe this game isn’t going to be good. I don’t mind showing the companions in a trailer for the game Inquisition did the same thing, but where Inquisition shined in this is you were able to see the various abilities and each Companion was given more than a few seconds to show what they could do. Here Varric returns as a voice over and each one is given a sentence before you can figure out what is really going on. Everything feels rushed with this trailer and the worst part is we still don’t know anything about the game.

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  • Are Mascot Horror Games Overly Exposed? (Edited Version)

    This is my opinion, but after Five Nights at Freddy’s it feels like every indie game I’ve seen recently has to be Mascot Horror. Five Nights at Freddy’s is successful, but with the release of Indigo Park Chapter One it feels like there is a certain over saturation of these. I understand there are titles that do the formula right and I do enjoy games like Poppy Playtime and Garten of BanBan is fun for its meme potential and just being weird, but for every game like those there are tons flooding the market.

    It reminds me of when after Mario first became popular every
    game needed to be a platformer. Some like Sonic the Hedgehog, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot have been remembered and had recent releases, but others like Banjo Kazooie and Conkers Bad Fur Day get one or two releases on the XBOX store or someone makes a game similar to it.

    Similarly, when Halo became popular near every game after
    needed shooting mechanics. Some did well like Call of Duty, but Resident Evil
    started trying to copy the formula to an extent and from that we got Resident
    Evil 6 which was less horror and just a bland shooter. We can still see games
    try to incorporate shooting and while some like Mass Effect and Palworld do it
    well due to their own mechanics others do it terribly.

    This isn’t limited to just Indie games and some AAA games. After
    the release of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wilds every game has been open world in some way. Pokemon Legends Arceus and Gension Impact did the system well, but at the same time from this we got Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and Sonic Frontiers.

    While I understand getting inspiration or trying to profit
    off a trend it can lead to a lack of creativity or variety in content people
    want. While to an extent each game mentioned is different in some regard and
    fun, there is a problem with the amount of similarities and genre.

  • Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door Switch Remake

    Much like Super Mario RPG prior to this I never really played Paper Mario. I always heard good things about it just never got around to picking it up and playing it. So when the remake was announced I was happy to give the game a chance. Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door is an RPG and much like other Mario games in this genre it is more a game that isn’t too hard for beginners to learn the mechanics, but harder to actually master. Mario games have always had that trend easy to pick up and beat the game, but hard to master the controls and mechanics for the harder or optional challenges.

    The game differs from other RPGs being more reaction based over stat based. Much like the Mario and Luigi RPG series you can dodge and counterattack called the Superguard. The timing on this is hard to get and due to that I never used it preferring to guard and use healing items or recovery moves. One huge difference is the audience watching the combat as their appeal and the crowd rises you can gain access to special more powerful moves or they can throw useful items to you, but they also can throw rocks and cans doing damage. Certain moves and members can effect the stage in different ways making the backdrop fall, the smoke freezing you or your enemies, or lights to fall. All of the bosses also affect this either by scaring the audience off or attacking them so they can’t help the player gain appeal as easily. Appeal rises mostly by pulling off moves and defeating enemies. The more members of the crowd the more appeal. There are ways to get more appeal either by performing a stylish move by pressing A at the right time or showing off to the audience.

    The story is the normal Princess Peach got kidnapped you need to find her and find the Crystal Stars to open a door. Most Mario RPGs actually don’t have Bowser as a main villain sometimes he helps as much as attacks you. He is involved in the main story just not as the main antagonist and didn’t kidnap her. Each chapter has its own theme and storyline all contributing to the main story. Each NPC and main character has their own charm making the story and writing more enjoyable.

    The graphics looking like everything is made out of paper crafts and cardboard showcasing a world completely made out of paper is nice to look at adding a level of charm to it. The gameplay is fun and is a thoroughly enjoyable experience I’d recommend it if you haven’t played this game yet.

    Score: 9/10

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  • Helldivers 2 Future And Takedown in 180 Countries Due To Sony Playstation Decisions

    Helldivers 2 was a very successful game up until a few weeks ago in an ongoing situation. Helldivers 2 was always available through Steam with no issue up until Sony decided to destroy any good publicity and reputation this game has. Sony decided to force players to link their accounts to play the game. For some this isn’t a big deal, but the issue comes in when there are several countries where even getting a PSN account is difficult. As a result Steam has taken the game down in various countries. This wouldn’t be so bad but after everyone started protesting the game Sony outright lied and said they reconsidered the option to force account links, but just didn’t. It should be noted the developers and creators of Helldivers 2 are not happy over this change as well as the loss of thousands of players. They weren’t to blame for this.

    Now Sony doing this is no surprise to anyone they have infamously failed in the past with cross play. Call of Duty used to be limited to just other Playstation players. While we had similar situations there was few times when the situation resulted in a loss of revenue this large. Sony has been toxic to players before, but rarely has that had an effect this large to the point people who own the game can’t access it or people can’t play it. All of this has caused the future of this game to look dim, but if Sony does actually come through and allow this game a chance it could be one of the best games this year.

  • Microsoft/XBOX Recent Shut Downs May Be Due To Massive $70 Billion Activision/Blizzard Payoff

    Recently, Microsoft shut down studios named Arcane Studios, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Games. This comes as a shock as most of these studios created amazing games. Arcane may have missed the mark with Redfall this year, but it was still the talented developer behind Prey and Dishonored. Tango Gameworks was the winner of several awards due to their newest title Hi Fi Rush being both commercially and critically acclaimed. Alpha Dog Games haven’t created anything groundbreaking they were a mobile game developer, but were responsible for Wraithborne and Monstrocity: Rampage. Roundhouse games is the continuation of Human Head Studios and often assisted game development. There are rumors that there could be more. This has caused near everyone to ask why these were small, but talented teams capable of creating memorable games that people loved.

    The change comes in light of an estimated $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. While it was expected the XBOX Game Pass and games developed would offset costs those had been going down in recent years. So Microsoft began cutting studios to fill the costs and fix losses. Rather than letting these studios grow and develop their IPs they shut the studios down breaking their promise to them. Many more studios are terrified for continuation. So Microsoft basically made a bad deal and others suffer job loss and loss of revenue because of it. They basically shut down studios that had potential for a company that has a good idea every few years otherwise they just release a new Call of Duty game that is basically the same as the last one.

    Sources:

    “Microsoft & Xbox reports reveal reckless Activision Blizzard acquisition & failing Game Pass gamble” YouTube, uploaded by Yongyea, 9 May 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpn-p8_D8GY&t=938s

  • Dragon Age Origins: Awakening Expansion Review

    This review is different from usual the gameplay from Origins is basically the same so I will not be going over gameplay because I already did that for a review of the base game. Giving gifts and keeping Companions approval up is back. There are a number of bugs in the expansion that can prevent you from even starting Companion Quests in one playthrough I couldn’t even trigger Velannas and accepting a quest makes Sigrun’s impossible. As soon as you figure out how to navigate the quests in this game there is still a chance Velanna’s won’t show up as it is tied to a Random Encounter that doesn’t spawn often. A bug also causes Ogren’s approval to rise slowly if you recruited him in the base game.

    Awakening, Witch Hunt, and Golems takes place several months after the events of Origins and sets things up for Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition. Here you meet characters that have minor to major roles in Dragon Age 2 and many rumors in Witch Hunt reference Kirkwall the area explored in that game and set up Flemeth as an enemy. Awakening introduces Anders and Justice as companions and this is later important context for Dragon Age 2. While Golems isn’t referenced in future games as much as the other two and the base game. It does show varying effects of Lyrium and shows off the Harvester this would also not be important till Dragon Age 2 and the introduction of Red Lyrium. So while the expansions are small they do focus on the overall plot more. You can skip them and not much will change other than more knowledge of the characters backstories and in a game series like Dragon Age where the plot and characters are the focal points.

  • Battlestate Games and Escape From Tarkov $250 DLC. May Have Just Lost Their Entire Audience.

    I think at this point I should just have a paragraph saved that says I’m not a financial advisor or lawyer so I can just copy paste it every time something happens. This situation happens less than a month after the Star Wars Outlaws thing I wrote about. I’m not a fan of Escape From Tarkov. I didn’t think a company could be this stupid or greedy. So I pulled up the website and it was true.

    Now all that said the actual situation. Escape From Tarkov is an Extraction Based Shooter similar to Helldivers 2 and The Division. You go to an area, loot as much as you can, and return to a base to trade or switch gear. Up till now, Escape from Tarkov has been doing great in the industry. They have an audience and as a game of this genre that is hard to do. The updates and content have been relatively well received. This includes a DLC that costs $150 and was advertised that all future updates and DLC was free you only need to download it. This expansion actually lowered in price and someone is actively changing it on the website, but the original is still viewable in way back machine.

    The controversy comes in when a new PvE mode was introduced and an update to the game. The problem is not only was this expansion far more expensive than anything else at $250 already too expensive in my opinion. So it could be argued that false advertising is in there they then tried back pedaling saying that it isn’t DLC, but an update. I struggle to know the difference. Now, normally you’d expect one or two people to defend this game, but everything from the games Twitter to the Reddit has people leaving.

    Battlestate Games. “Escape From Tarkov Purchase”  https://www.escapefromtarkov.com/preorder-page

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  • UBISOFT PRICING MODEL FAILURE

    I have bad news and more bad news. So EA may have finally lost the Star Wars license, but this comes to who did get the franchise. Well, with the announcement of Star Wars Outlaws it seems Ubisoft got it. Now, most may think that is amazing news sad to see Star Wars Fallen Order might not continue, but it beats another Star Wars Battlefront 2 fiasco. So when people heard about the new game it was time to check for the pricing and it is the worst thing I have ever seen. One the base game is $70 over the usual $60 and I’d ignore that preorder bonus it just looks like cosmetics they didn’t put in the game. Now in the gold edition it is $110 getting the base game, some cosmetics, and a season pass. The season pass just includes a mission and a pack that seems to be more cosmetics as well as a 3 day early access making me question why 3 days are not a lot. If it already sounds bad the ultimate edition is $130 comes with everything, 2 cosmetic packs (Does this game have no cosmetics of it’s own?) and a digital art book.

    Now, I’m going to tell you the even worse part. Ubisoft has a second launcher aside from the ultimately horrible Uplay called Ubisoft+. While Uplay may not be used anymore or they just rebranded it this means to even play these games you need to pay $20 no matter the version so let’s review, to simply play the base version and cheapest version of this game you need to pay at least $90 alone, and anything after that can mean $130-$150 for things I don’t consider content. Or the alternative idea buy about 10 indie games or two AAA games that you could have more fun with at an equivalent amount of money.

    Sources:

    Ubisoft. “Star Wars Outlaws  Standard Edition.” Ubisoft, 20, April, 2024 https://store.ubisoft.com/us/star-wars-outlaws/645ba713a9ce0448bffa4c12.html?ucid=SCH-ID_188881&maltcode=brand_C2W_SCH_googlesearch___SWOUT____&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwrIixBhBbEiwACEqDJWTYLjopjti7QKS0ldv_lifLLBfpdbIIyoMQ4gooYjttWCgJXrgNbBoCRVsQAvD_BwE

  • Hesitant to Play and Review Dragons Dogma 2

    For the record my favorite games tend to be RPGs. So Dragons Dogma was a game I played, but the game was clunky and at the time was new, but looked a generation old. Further the draw to any RPG are the characters and story and honestly Dragons Dogma has an awful story and your party members and major characters are bland. While they are supposed to be other players in an online type of thing they give zero reason to actually wonder about them. The story is a dragon stole your heart and you need to kill him with no stakes or risk if you just don’t in fact one of the endings has you choose not to. To say I am hesitant to waste money on Dragons Dogma 2 is an understatement. Greedfall had moments that separated itself from Dragon Age and Skyrim, but Dragons Dogma constantly had me asking why am I playing this when I could be playing something else. Dragons Dogma never felt like a game I would want to return to and consistently did everything worse than Dragon Age from graphics to characters and story. It failed in comparison to games older than it and felt like a mish mash of ideas thrown at a wall to see what sticks rather than a coherent story and game. Now things could be better in the sequel, but I wouldn’t know.

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  • Dragon Age Origins Review

    With the news that Dragon Age: The Dreadwolf could be releasing sometime this year I wanted to revisit the series. Dragon Age Origins was the first in the series and while not my favorite Bioware game it is clear that elements of this game was included in their other games. This is also the only Dragon Age game that doesn’t have a Dialogue Wheel mechanic rather choices are written out and clear while the wheel isn’t bad I prefer this system better. The game has an emphasis on keeping companions approval up if you don’t then some will leave your party at different parts of the game. Also each companion has a side quest that is tied to approval and what happens around them.

    The game has three classes Warrior with a focus on sword and shield, Greatsword, and dual weapons. While powerful and with a lot of health they are constantly tanking damage. Rouges focus on archery and dual weapons which later games would make exclusive to rouge rather than shared with warrior they are more tactical fighters using stealth, but aside from the ability to pick locks the gameplay didn’t change much between the two. Mage is the last class and this is by far the one I had the most fun with. Mostly due to the differences Mage is ranged fighting and can cause damage that adds additional effects further some things they can do are just unbalanced like the crushing prison or creating a giant storm.

    The plot is based on the Of Frost and Fire book series the same thing that inspired Game of Thrones. So each Origins protagonist has their own origin story quest and motivations. This is something I wish they would bring back. Inquisition does have varied races, but none of the quests change. The game starts with a war with monsters known as the Darkspawn and the need to destroy them and bring peace and the player navigating the different politics of each area. I need to mention this games graphics have aged poorly. I don’t know if it is because I was playing on the XBOX 360 so regardless the game wouldn’t look good compared to the PC, but it still looked awful even compared to other 360 titles. If you are looking for a game that pushes the XBOX then look somewhere else the clunky graphics can take away from the gameplay, but if you ignore it then it is still a good time.

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