Thief, Video Game Shows, ESO, Failbetter Games, and Other Obviously Connected Topics

I fucking love buffets. It's like a human feeding trough, but with better-tasting preservatives and a total disregard for respect of one's body. But it's all (one hopes) great-tasting, and it's a great chance to actually try something new.

And while buffets are great for food, it's also my favorite way to approach blogging. I don't have much of an attention span, and collies make great pets.

More Premature Reactions to Thief
I think the implementation of Thief's mechanics and the level design, in regards to these mechanics, are all under-baked. They don't quite mesh together in a totally silky-smooth way. People keep citing Dishonored as the game that this should've been, but I don't think that's right. I think the game works fine, once you reach the level of control refinement that Titanfall hit. In Titanfall, I can traverse the environment with great ease and it all feels smooth and natural. There's something that's not right about the 'oh shit' moments in this game, in which fleeing doesn't feel right. I kept running smack into things that I should've been able to traverse, but I couldn't.

Granted, this could all be from a lack of familiarity with this game, and it could be that I'm just bitching about it being hard, and maybe I'm a 'newb,' and I'm 'doing it wrong,' but it just doesn't feel right.

I'll keep plugging away at it, but I've already deemphasized the game, especially since ...

Mo Beta, Mo ESO
I'm back in the ESO beta this weekend! And Cardinals spring training games start!

AND WE'RE GETTING MORE FUCKING SNOW this weekend?!?! As a side note, fuck this winter in its stupid fucking ass.

In any case, I'm back in ESO this weekend, which is awesome. As I've said before, I'm super-hyped for the game, and I'm curious to see what changes have been made. Yeah, I could look at the changelog, but why do so when I can find a bunch of condescending pricks to do it for me, and then yell at me for daring to ask what's new.

Actually, I will look at the changelog, now that I think about it.

What's cool is that I'll have some buddies in there with me this weekend, so I'll finally get to, once again, combine cyberspace and meatspace. I hate grouping in most games, since most people, when online, slip into their 'Captain Fuckface' persona, but when I got a real buddy or two in there with me, it's a much improved experience. So long as Joel isn't rushing through like he left his car running by the quest giver.

I don't expect any huge changes in the game, mostly bug fixes, since we're probably pretty close to 'gold,' or whatever the MMO equivalent is, but I haven't really needed much in the game besides some bug fixes, anyway.

I do wish I could lose the subtitles in conversations, though. I can't stand subtitles unless the spoken language is one I don't speak.

Failbetter + BioWare = ?!
So, this came completely out of left field for me.

To put this into clearer context, Failbetter makes some amazing interactive fiction, such as Fallen London, which if you haven't played, I urge you to correct this mistake NOW.

In any case, I'm not sure what the project is, but I know David Gaider, he of the Dragon Age, is a big fan of interactive fiction, so one has to wonder if this is a Dragon Age project ... I would love love love love love love that. I'm a big IF fan myself, so this could be fantastic.

Risen 3: This Time It'll Be Good, We Mean It
Piranha Bytes is a studio that has produced a lot of games I should love, but have not. Games from the Gothic and Risen series are specifically to what I am referring.

Much like I used to say about the Bethesda RPGs, on paper, I should love these games, but I don't. At the same time, Piranha Bytes has a fierce and loyal following, so I'll probably give this series another look this summer, before Risen 3 hits this August.

Wasteland 2
By the way, I failed to mention it before, but I did get some time with the game this past weekend, and I enjoyed it, even if I was taken aback by how old school it really is. That's not a bad thing at all, but it really has been a while for me. I'm really excited to play more and not suck ass at the game. Here's a new trailer!



 

 

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Obsidian's new game, South Park: The Stick of Truth, hits next week, and I'm pretty excited. Obsidian is among my favorite developers, even if their games often require some additional *ahem* refinement after release.

 

Even with some decent gaming sneaking out right now during the 'dumping' release window for publishers, I'm still chomping at the bit for the big RPGs later this year. Ya know, The Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, Pillars of Eternity, etc.

 

I guess ESO will be here before we know it. Methinks that will do most of the tiding over until my big boy games.

 

As always, thanks for reading!

 

-Blaine



And Thus Begins a Whole Buncha Side Quests

Sorry for the no-post yesterday. Between meetings, a busy development schedule, a lunch date, and then some bizarre health issues, it just didn't happen. But, I'm back today!

Words can't describe how much I despise winter. I don't like cold, I hate driving in snow, I hate driving on ice even more, and the shortened sunlight hours slowly make me crazy. I'm no fun to be around, and my mind slowly caves in on itself as the outlook becomes bleaker and bleaker.

I think it's fair to say that this winter has been the worst I've experienced in my adult life. The lower-than-average temperatures, the incessant snow fall, and the never-ending clouds have made the usually mild and not-that-bad St. Louis winter an absolute daily horror.

Even now, we're experiencing a brief respite, with temperatures in the 60s, only to plunge back into the near-arctic 20s next week.

I hate this shit.

There are, however, two things that help staunch the emotional bleeding. 1) the big one, the beginning of Cardinals Spring Training, and 2) the resumption of decent releases in the gaming scene.

My Cardinals are looking good, as they usually do, and I'm beyond thrilled to see the pictures from Jupiter, Florida of my boys in action.

And, next week signals the kick-off of the spring releases, which usually runs March to May.

Of immediate notice is that next week, we get Thief, the following week, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the week after that, Titanfall (it's not an RPG, but I'm still very excited for it after playing quite a bit of the beta.)

Thief has gone through an interesting obstacle course since its announcement. It's from Eidos Montreal, they of the fantastic Deus Ex revival that yielded Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Those that have played through it, including myself, generally thought that, overall, it was lovely and worth missing a few meals and sexual opportunities.

So, when Thief was announced, most of us said, 'yay.' Eidos Montreal was the right studio to handle this.

Then, things started to get a little murky.

The game faced multiple delays after being announced in 2009.

Last July, studio GM Stephane D'Astous resigned, citing differences with the parent company, the increasingly notorious Squenix.

After that, over the winter, various press outlets started expressing concern over preview builds of the game.

Lately, though, more positive impressions have been trickling in, and we've gotten to see the entire first mission, in handy web video form.

 

I had a lot of internal back and forth on Thief, but ultimately, I decided to pull the trigger on the Steam preorder. The game certainly looks like a Thief game, and I love that there seems to be a lot of choice in terms of how to approach missions.

Thief hits Steam on Tuesday, 2/25.

Now, when games hit in this window, I'm typically of two minds about them. One thing about which I'm certain is that market analysis told the publisher this is when the game needs to release.

Bear in mind, release dates dictate development schedules, not vice versa. Yes, development problems can cause release dates to shift, but there is still going to be a ton of analysis done to determine what date maximizes the number of units shipped, and then sold.

So, knowing that, publishers position certain games in this early spring window for a reason. In the summer, games tend to sell poorly. In the fall, everyone pushes out their mega-huge releases. Late November is the grand-high HUGE release (Call of Duty), and then December and right after is typically the 'we fucked up, but if you still wanna buy it, here it is' window.

That early-spring window is what yields two possibilities, at least to me. 1) this is a solid title in which the publisher believes, but it just couldn't get out the door in time for Black Friday, for whatever reason, and this positions it far enough from Christmas for marketing to have breathing room to do its thing, plus it gives our Q1 financials a nice little boost. 2) this game kind of sucks, but it has a popular branding attached to it, and not much competition on that date, so we're just gonna hunker down, squeeze it out, and it is what it is. YAY PREORDERS!

Sometimes, you can use the review embargo as a metric. If it's heavily embargoed, that's usually not a good sign. That generally means the publisher has asked, 'how's the review? Oh, that bad? Okay, it stays embargoed until release day.' Typically, they'll lift the embargo for good reviews, so if you don't see any early reviews, that typically shows a lack of faith on the part of the publisher of the title in question.

As far as Thief goes, I'm feeling a lot better about it now than I was. I imagine I'll play quite a bit next Tuesday, then have some impressions to share on Wednesday.

Side Quests
 - looks like you get a free copy of Wolfenstein with the preorder of a Doom beta key. I'm actually very excited for that.
 - looks like we're on the homestretch for Wasteland 2's development.
 - here's the Thief launch trailer:

 

So, are you picking up Thief next week? Why or why not?

Thanks for reading, as always!

-Blaine

2014: The 'Curious' Games

I've often had pride in the fact that I'm not afraid to try something new. Whether it be a new Indian dish, a show that's not science fiction or fantasy, a band that is formed of guys that are not from a grunge-era band, or a girl that does not have red hair, I'll try anything once.

Where the consideration comes in for games, though, is two things. Time and money. To ask someone to invest $20-60 dollars AND a lot of their free time into something that's an unknown quantity, that's a big deal. Ask someone to do it several times in a year, and that's an even bigger deal.

Bear in mind, I'm not talking about n3wb-P3wn3r69, I'm talking about someone like me, that's semi-retired from the hardcore gaming scene, and just wants to enjoy himself, rather than have pride in having played every indie/hardcore release.

The games I'm talking about today are upcoming releases that I'm leaning toward buying, but more because I'm really interested in what the marketing and publicity has presented in terms of feature sets and story, rather than because they're part of a franchise I know and love.

Divinity: Original Sin (PC)
The Divinity series is one of which I've had an awareness, without really ever jumping in too deep. Yes, of course, I own every game in the series (thanks, Steam sales), but they keep getting brushed aside by something new and shiny before I can really sink my teeth in.

That changed a little last year, when Larian Studios released the mostly-excellent Divinity: Dragon Commander. However, that game is a sharp departure from the rest of the series gameplay-wise. I enjoyed it tremendously, for the most part, but had been waiting until the prequel to the series, Original Sin, was out before I really jumped in.

CONFESSION: I've already bought this game, so I suppose counting it as a 'Curious' game is a moot point. However, before playing the alpha, I was somewhat on the fence, despite having impulsively funded the game. Everything I knew about the series told me it was something right up my alley. The deep lore, the big worlds, the cool story, the solid combat.

The alpha, thus far, has confirmed that I will fucking LOOOVE the combat. Rather, I DO love the combat. Ever played a tabletop strategy game like Warhammer 40k? OK, there's your combat system. Were I saying this to me, I'd slap the person for daring to invoke the greatest combat system ever, and then hand over my money to Larian.

Where my curiosity mostly lies is in everything else in the game. What I've played of the alpha is pretty nice, but I'm curious to see how the rest of the presentation comes out, how the character builds are, and how the co-op works.

In all, I'm pretty excited.

Bravely Default (3DS)
Everything I've read and seen says that this is the Final Fantasy game we've been waiting for since the end of the PlayStation 1 era.

I just wish it was on any platform that wasn't 3DS.

Yeah, I could borrow my son's 3DS, and yeah, I also wanna play the new Phoenix Wright game on the 3DS, but ... it's still one more game platform I gotta buy. I am not excited about that.

Watch Dogs (PC)
Yeah, this isn't technically an RPG, but it sure has plenty of RPG elements, and I think this, rather than Thief, may be scratching the itch left by Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Also, I did my undergrad in Chicago, so I'm eager to see how closely they've rendered the real city.

Everything I have seen about this game blows me away, in particular, how much the user can use the environment around him or her to accomplish various goals. Promises like that, though, can sometimes underwhelm in their final implementation, as we've seen many times. Of course, it could also be the next DXHR.

Just please give me Steam achievements, and not just Uplay achievements.

And let me have my character take advantage of $.50 draft nights at the Parkway Tavern on Fullerton, if that's still a thing. Hell, if it isn't, make it a thing in the game. That was awesome.

Age of Decadence (PC)
I'm so excited about this game, I refuse to take part in the Steam Early Access. I don't want anything ruined for me before the finished product is out.

Turn-based, low magic, post-apocalyptic setting + an emphasis on choices and consequence? Where do I sign up? Oh, on Steam, it turns out. I've contemplated buying into the early access, just to help contribute to the game, and then not playing until it's done, but I know I'd be unable to resist just getting a taste. I don't want to have to replay anything in the final game. I'm so pumped, I want it all to just be new.

Curiously, though, it's been in development for, literally, 10 years, so I have some concerns about that. When you iterate on something that long, everything from the ideas to the tools you're using can become woefully outdated. That doesn't appear to be true here, especially since graphical fidelity doesn't appear to something with which they're very concerned, nor should it, for an old-school isometric game that still looks pretty decent.

What has me curious, and pumped about this game is the motivations and ideas behind it. Like I said, the interesting setting, plus the emphasis on choice really has me excited.

Wasteland 2 (PC)
And another 'old-school' PC RPG release, though this might be the biggest of them all. You like the Fallout series? Thank the original Wasteland.

To tell the truth, though, I've never played it. I know. It's true. It was released in 1988, when I was but a lad still cutting my teeth on Legend of Zelda.

This game features an overhead, rotatable view, turn-based combat, and a party of up to 7 people. The NPCs sounds pretty interesting, too, and seem like they're going to have a lot of logic dictating unique agendas on the part of the NPCs.

I will say, I'm fascinated by the resurgence of turn-based combat in these crowd-funded RPGs, and it tells me that there's an appetite for it out there. I know I've certainly missed turn-based combat. Frankly, I enjoyed both turn-based and real-time, but I like having both, and the turn-based games all but went away some time ago, at least in terms of the high-profile RPGs.

There's an early access version available on Steam for $60, but word on the street is that price will come down upon final release.

I'm heavily leaning toward getting this one, as well, but timing, if it slips all the way into the fall, when all my big boy games come out, may become a question. This game sounds beautifully huge, and rather demanding of time, but potentially worth it. We'll see when this actually comes out. It's in beta now.

Star Wars: The Old Republic (new content) (PC)
What an interesting couple of years and change it's been, SWTOR. I've stuck with you the whole way, and I'm still with you, but if you don't get some significant new story content, we're done this summer. It's not me, it's you. And ESO.

What about you? What games are you really curious about? What games have you just on the edge of preordering? Lemme know!

Thanks for reading! I'll be back tomorrow with my 'MUST HAVE' games of 2014!

-Blaine