Tag: gaming

Game Informer Australia Shutdown

Game Informer Australia editor David Milner recently announced on Twitter that the Australian Game Informer which is owned by Eb and parent company Gamestop would be shut down. Gamestop hasn’t been doing well recently and this is the results and has stated it will be cutting cost and trying to improve profits. The American version of Game Informer will now be sold in Australian stores. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mortal Kombat 11 Launch Trailer Features Original Music

When MK11 was first shown there was a small clash between older and newer fans, and it was rather a dumb one. This is coming from a guy that played the original as a child when it released and remembered when MK11 almost killed gaming and was basically responsible for the creation of the ESRB when parents freaked over the blood that looked like spray paint. That clash was over the music and it not being the original music, which is now in the official launch trailer.

Seeing as how the story is about the past and present meet the music thing makes sense, and it really makes sense they didn’t suddenly just go back to the original music with the first trailer. While I am happy to see it back, maybe this will finally make some of them stop complaining about it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Why We Need to Stop Gatekeeping In Gaming.

We have all seen it, maybe some of us even participated in it. Not in the joking “git gud” to your friends sort of way when they died 27 times 12 minutes into Dark Souls either. You know the type I am talking about, the type that snaps over the idea of Elite Dangerous getting some features that make the game more approachable for newcomers or that will openly bash and complain over people using docking computers. Don’t get this confused with people that have the legitimate argument that all games aren’t made for everyone and you should improve your skills, not dummy down the games.

For example, I suck at puzzle games and first-person shooters aren’t exactly my strong suit. The answer for me was to not play puzzle games much and to practice at shooters I enjoy playing. Dark Souls type games simply require more practice than most games but demanding an easy mode would change the entire concept of the game. This isn’t the same as complaining over things that don’t do this.

Flight assists in most flight games don’t change the fundamentals of the game and for me, this is the key difference between attempting to be a gatekeeper in gaming or not wanting the fundamentals of a game changed. Is what you are asking for going to change the fundamentals of the game as a whole and does it even have anything to do with you? This is really the key point in all this if it isn’t something you are forced to use and doesn’t do anything to the gameplay for you personally, why bash others or complain? Sure I don’t think Dark Souls type games need an easy mode, I just won’t use it. Worse, bashing others that may want it (and not in a friendly banter way) doesn’t do anything besides make all gamers look bad. We already have enough problems with the media claiming games are making people violent school shooters.

So let’s focus on improving how we personally play or helping our friends get better and stop making the industry and fans, in general, look like jackasses by trying to make sure only people we feel are worthy play our games. Don’t get me wrong, by all means, joke around and bust balls, but we don’t need gatekeepers. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Confirmed PS5 Info from Mark Cerny

It isn’t often I post about the next consoles to come, as I have stated in the past I don’t care for new console rumors. However wired.com spoke to Mark Cerny, a name many of you probably don’t know and rightfully so. He was the lead architect of the PS4 and is the lead architect on the new system that will likely be called the PS5. You can read the Wired article but I am going to touch on some of the key points.

First, Mark was very clear on this, The PlayStation 5 will not be released in 2019. There is also, to quote Mark “Something a little more specialized” built into the S5 in terms of its hard drive and a Solid State Drive you would find for example in your laptop or as an external for your current system. This allows a 15 second load time in Spiderman to take less than 1 second, which again is the example he used in person on a dev kit.

Another notable take away is the PS5 is confirmed backward compatible with PS4 games and will have a disk drive, and multiple companies are currently working on next-gen titles. He also hinted that some of the big titles currently being worked on for this generation are also going to be multiplatform titles.

The biggest news tho is that this will truly be a next-gen console and not just a small step upgrade. For example, it will boast a substantial boost in terms of CPU and GPU that I won’t bore you with, and it will also support 8k, not just 4k. That all seems pretty impressive, but how it all comes together is the important part. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Anno 1800 Open Beta Review

It has truly been a long time since I played an Anno game. I am talking early 2000’s long time. I didn’t really know what to expect coming into this, but it was free and I will always check out a free game or beta when I have the time.

The beta starts off with you needing some money to get home to your sister so you use dynamite to blow up some fish. This will teach you how to use items and move the ship around, and it made me chuckle so that was fun. After this, it is a quick sail home to shock your friend and servant whose life you saved at some point with the fact that you are rich which will admittedly annoy him since you were just blowing up fish for cash and sleeping in barns while you and your family own an island and hundreds if not thousands of buildings.

Turns out dear old dad died in prison after being accused of treason and your sister needs your help to not only clear his name, but build a new empire and deal with your jackass uncle. I won’t go further into the story they shared because it does go along with the game they will be releasing but you will be attempting to unravel a pretty in-depth conspiracy it seems, and it did have me quite interested and I was a little disappointed to see it end.

As for the gameplay and graphics, both were smooth and offered me no problems even on my laptop even on medium settings. Building your town feels fluid and offered no problems and I never really felt like I didn’t know what was going on. Each building is explained pretty well and I didn’t really have to ask how they worked which I appreciated. The full release is looking like it will be worth buying. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rim World

oh Rim World, how the hell do I describe you. Well here is what Steam says.

A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Firefly. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.

That is copy and pasted directly from Steam. It kind of tells you what the game is, but it really doesn’t tell you anything. My game started with three people crashed on a planet, it can be three random or customized people. You will start by gathering some resources and then building yourself a home. This is around the time a crazed rabbit attacked my startup colony and killed my dog. That isn’t a joke, I skipped the tutorial because I figured how hard can it be? Well, I didn’t know how to do anything and the damn bunny killed my dog before I figured it out.

After I went back to the tutorial, which you should play, things got a bit better. Notice I did not say easier. Why? Because the entire game is just trying to kill you. From food to raiders to animals, it can all kill you. In fact, the game is more or less designed to kill you. Yea you can escape the world you crash on but until you get some experience this isn’t likely.  For me the fun was just building stuff and trying to survive raids and seeing what happens. Is a bunny going to attack? Are their robots in these ruins? Who knows. There are also some pretty insane mods. I don’t use mods but I saw one that basically let you build in space, one that lets you make prisoners work for you.

The game, in general, is just a lot of fun, even when you lose. If you like building and survival games, this one is worth checking out just know that it isn’t easy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Octopath Traveler to PC? It Seems Yes.

According to Gematsu Octopath Traveler will be coming to PC on June 7th. This comes from a now-deleted blog post directly from Square Enix and it will be available on both Steam and the Square Enix Store. They didn’t mention any sort of changes, and obviously, I would take this with a grain of salt, but for people that don’t own a Switch, this could be exciting news. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Victoria 2 (PC)

Victoria 2 is a grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive and is considered by many to be one of their more difficult games to master due to its complexity. I by no means consider myself a master, or even good at the game, I simply know how to play a bit. I have some experience with their other games such as Stellaris Console Edition (PS4) and Crusader Kings 2 (PC) and I have to admit, it truly is far more complex.

To start you pick a real-world country in the 19th century, and manage it in just about every aspect possible. I will use America as an example since that is where the tutorial takes place and it is my home country. You start just prior to the Texas war for independence from Mexico and is really one of your first major decisions. Do you want to get involved or do you leave them alone to fend for themselves? Well wanting to do the right thing for America, I helped them out and they later became a state, true to life. From here I was setting tax rates, attempting to settle Oklahoma and out west more and moved into what is now Canada. This pissed off the British who at this point still own Canada, they then invaded me. Not know how to really defend myself they took over my new settlements in the north, and the New England states all the way down to New York before I restarted the game.

I decided to not piss off Britan and rush the American Civil war by instantly pissing off the south over slavery, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of rebels and the North getting stomped in the Civil war. After that every 6 months a new civil war would start. Yup, time to restart.

Around the 5th restart I got the hang of the game, most of what is modern America eas under my control, I managed to outlaw slavery while avoiding the American Civil war completely and my tax rate was almost 0 due to my economy being insane with investments all around the world. Until the British, Mexico and for some reason I still don’t understand Haiti invaded me. About 2 months in and Hati quit the war, but fighting in both the north and south was taking its toll on my troops and economy. About 6 years later Mexico asked for peace and gives me Arizona for me to leave them be. The damn Britsh are the bane of my existence tho.

These are the types of scenarios you will come across in Victoria 2, and they get even more insane and weird if you decide to start as a country like Italy or Egypt. You can do things like make Canada never exist, let the Cherokee thrive, have a small African nation take over Asia, your skill level and imagination are the only things stopping you. Well, that and a pretty high learning curve and make no mistake, it is high. That is the only real issue with the Paradox grand strategy games, they take time and dedication to learn, but damn are they worth it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Depraved (PC)

Depraved is a pretty typical city builder but this one has some survival aspects to it as well. This is a nice change of pace from the usual build stuff, wait awhile build new stuff we usually get. This time in the old west you are not only picking a spot to build that will allow you ample room to build, but also access to supplies such as rock, wood, and food. You will then need to build enough houses for everyone, give them jobs and attract new people.

If this sounds easy, it is because I haven’t gotten to the part yet where bears will occasionally attack you if you wander too close, the winter will come and attempt to freeze you to death. Bandit attacks will also come and go because what is the wild west without that?

The game does a great job of making you decide what to build and when since it won’t be easy to stockpile materials in the early game. You will constantly be building something to attract more people or keep people alive. For an early access game, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of content, and I will be checking back in or more. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.