Michael R. Baker's Blog

E3 2021: Games to Look Out For

It’s been months, I know. Just haven’t been feeling the blog lately, and apologies for that! However, I’m hoping to get back into things slowly.

So we’ve just had E3 after a year break due to the ongoing global pandemic, and it’s been an interesting one. One can argue it was thin on the ground for big releases and other news, though another can argue that might be due to the ongoing crisis.

Despite all this, there were still plenty of games announced or showcased during the event, which I’m excited about, and it gives me a chance to talk about upcoming games. So, why not do that as a post-E3 event and kill two birds with one stone?

This is not an exhaustive list: I found dozens of games I’m interested in, but I figured to test the waters with a few of my favorites. If there is demand, I’ll happily write a sequel for this.

Starfield (2022)

Ooh, boy. Bethesda really needs some good news after several years of PR disasters, and they’re putting a lot of hopes into Starfield. After the lukewarm reception of Fallout 4 in 2015, all the controversy over Creation Club, and the absolute disaster that was Fallout 76’s launch, Bethesda has been floundering. However, the massive buyout by Microsoft earlier this year could mean big things for them.

I’ve long been cautious of Bethesda games, to the point I’m not wholly excited for the upcoming Elder Scrolls VI. After their development changes over the years to the lack of good RPG mechanics in recent hits, Starfield feels like a giant gamble where I don’t know what will happen. Bethesda is capable of incredible games; we’ve seen that. They’re capable of great writing; we’ve seen that as well. But how is this going to transfer in their first original IP in how many years?

I’m cautious, but I can’t deny I’m excited. It’s been described as a Skyrim in Space, and you know what? I like the sound of it. I know many like to rag on Skyrim in recent years for being shallow, poor writing, all of the famous bugs, and so on, but Skyrim is more open and available than most RPGs after it. It’s sold as well as it has for good reason. Starfield is exploding with potential, and if Bethesda learns from past mistakes (a long shot, but I want to believe in something positive for a change!), this game could be a blast to play. It could also be disappointing, but I love the idea of a massive open-world space RPG. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a high profile one, and it’s not as if Star Citizen is coming out anytime soon… (sobs into a pillow)

Just…I really hope you guys improve the writing for Starfield. Please?

Alekon (Out Now!)

Seeing this wonderful game in Wholesome direct made me want it right away, and Alekon might be one of the indie golden hits from this year’s E3. A unique, somewhat improved take on Pokemon Snap, Alekon is one hell of a debut. Taking all the things that make Pokemon Snap memorable and adding to them, it’s incredibly promising.

The devs behind this are wonderful as well, and I’ve had the joy of talking to them for the past couple of days. They are hardworking, passionate, and lovely to talk to. After a tough couple of weeks for me, it was a blessing to speak to them, who very graciously offered me a copy of their game to try out. I’ve been playing it for a while, and so far, I’m blown away.

With its diverse range of characters that feel alive, a ton of features and minigames that feel refreshing to play, beautiful visuals, and great worldbuilding, Alekon is shaping up to be something extraordinary. I love the free-roam options after completing the on-rails courses, and it works wonders for replayability. I’m only a few hours in so far, but I’m enjoying every minute of it.

Expect a more detailed review by me in the coming weeks, but this might be the PC’s competitor to Pokemon Snap…and it might just be better. It’s on Steam now for $15. Check out the link down below!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1479390/Alekon/

Two Point Campus (2022)

I’ll always be willing to play more games by these guys. It’s a successor to Two Point Hospital! Mark Webley was most famous for being part of the 90s AAA giant Bullfrog and Lionhead Studios, responsible for Populous, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, and Black and White. It’s wonderful to see at least some of these guys continue to prosper.

Two Point Hospital launched in 2018, and it was a pretty damn good game. It made my Top 10 games from that year. I loved Theme Hospital back in the day. A wacky, bonkers but lovable management game with a ton of weird diseases and shit to sort out.

Two Point Hospital wasn’t a massive game, and the hospital size is a bit limited, but it oozes charm from every orifice. It’s not even a remake, but an idolized painting of times long gone. It admirably brings Theme Hospital back into the current era, and it does a good job at it. It’s just familiar enough to bring back nostalgic fans, and it’s new and modernized enough to bring in the new fans. I’m glad they’ve been able to keep development going, and Two Point Campus has a lot of promise.

Combining city-builder elements and more of the wacky humor we’ve come to know and love with this company, this is one game from E3 everyone should look out for. The world needs more of these cozy management sims, and if they continue Two Point Hospital’s momentum, this school-focused sequel could become a big hit.

The Outer Worlds 2 (TBA)

In 2018, Obsidian released The Outer Worlds after some hype, and it released at the perfect time with people frustrated with Bethesda. As a result, the game received a lot of attention and critical acclaim in one of the best-timed launches in recent years. Being part of Xbox Game Pass helped a lot in that regard, I think. And for once, Obsidian didn’t launch a game that was broken to all hell. That was the biggest take for me.

The Outer Worlds was a decent RPG for the time, given Obsidian’s relative lack of budget. When I reviewed it in 2018, I found it a solid, if uninspired game for the time. If anything, I felt it was overvalued because it struggled in many regards, particularly gameplay and combat. It’s a good game but somewhat undeserving of its launch praise. Being bought by Microsoft will help Obsidian a lot going forward, I think. With that extra budget, there are high hopes for them.

With their massive RPG Unavowed plans, I was surprised to see a sequel to Outer Worlds in the works. I’m pleased it’s happening, though, even if it’s barely a proof of concept right now. They built a strong foundation for that universe, and its worldbuilding and dialogue were pretty strong. If they work on that, Outer Worlds 2 has the potential to be a true successor to Fallout: New Vegas…something the original didn’t quite live up to.

But hey, I’m always up for playing something by Obsidian!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl (2022)

I’m not usually a fan of first-person shooters, but they need to be something special when I am. I’m a sucker for shooters that either bring many customizations or immersive shooters where I feel lost and at home exploring the elements. Great examples of these for me are Arma 3, Ravenfield, Cyberpunk 2077, and Doom, but the Stalker series is something else. Janky but atmospheric, they are fantastic shooters. Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat were excellent, and they come blessed with a healthy modding scene. I can recommend Call of Chernobyl and Stalker Anomaly if you fancy trying out some mods.

The desire for a sequel has been brewing for years, and we’re finally getting one after a lot of development of a beefy cinematic trailer. I was left impressed, but questions remain.

Will this sequel build on the excellent atmosphere and lore of the original? Will it stay true to those? Those are important questions because a lot is riding on this. With this series in limbo for so long, a rough launch could spell disaster for this studio. It has plenty of promise, and a lot looks good from the trailer, but we need to see gameplay. With so many games having issues at launch, I’m keeping myself from hyping myself for a possible disappointment. Regardless, I have high hopes for this. It might be a few years overdue for a Stalker sequel, but I’m always up for immersive shooters.

ELEX 2 (TBA, Coming Soon)

This might be my most anticipated announcement of the event. I’ve been waiting for a sequel to ELEX for a long time, and it’s a new Piranha Bytes game!

Piranha Bytes are an increasingly rare sort of developer. Despite a small team size, and regardless of what else is happening in the world of video game trends, these guys put out unique, challenging, ambitious, and unpolished RPGs that can give AAA games a lesson in creativity. They’ve enjoyed a large cult following since the beginning, but I feel they struggle to reach many modern and western audiences because of strange customs. Many hate on them for not evolving, and I understand that. The first ELEX is very obtuse in many ways, to the point of outright fury, so I get why people got turned off ELEX initially. So did I.

However, ELEX is a fascinating RPG. It was blessed with strong world and quest design, many of which can be completed in different ways, as well as a really cool setting. It certainly sold well, enough for a sequel. With THQ Nordic’s considerable backing, ELEX 2 has the potential to be something grand and a chance for Pirana Bytes to leap their humble stature into a true challenger of RPGs. For that to happen, however, they need to consider fixing several problems that have plagued them for years, namely the combat and the rough beginnings. It can take several hours for their games to get going, often frustrated by their combat systems that demand hours of trial and error. Will they evolve to make something great, or will it remain a curse of their development cycle? Pirahna Bytes have made several games now, which tend to be hit and miss. Some are great, like Gothic 1, 2, and Risen 1, while others have failed, like the mess of Gothic 3 and the final Risen games. ELEX was something in the middle.

I will be watching, guys. And so will the world.

Falling Frontier (2021, TBA)

If anyone has watched The Expanse or read the books, you’ll be dying to have a game set in that universe. I’ve been theory-crafting what one would look like, or at least what I would want in it. Now, that’s up in the air if it’ll ever happen, but there’s an upcoming indie title that might scratch that itch. I present Falling Frontier. It actually won Most Anticipated Indie Game at E3, which is pretty high praise. Made by a solo developer in Todd D’Arcy and published by Hooded Horse, it’s one of three games the publisher is planning on bringing to Steam this year, though Falling Frontier has the most attention. The others are Alliance of the Sacred Sons and Terra Invicta, the latter developed by the guys who made the incredible XCOM mod, Long War. Safe to say, these guys are punching above their weight!

Their Steam Page: Falling Frontier is a sci-fi real-time strategy game developed by Stutter Fox Studios and published by Hooded Horse. Players explore and conquer a vast procedurally generated star system where intel and logistics are decisive factors. The game seems to explore guerilla warfare, realistic ship combat with a heavy emphasis on logistics. Now, that sounds incredibly intriguing to me. Unfortunately, too many games, war, or strategy alike tend to gloss over this vital part of warfare. If Falling Frontier gets this right, it could become an indie masterpiece.

Authors in Isolation: D. William Landsborough

It has been a while since I’ve done these interviews! First of all, a huge thankyou to everyone who has submitted an interview to me, and a massive apology for how slow I’ve been getting them out. The last few months haven’t been easy.

Today, I bring you an interview from D. William Landsborough, an awesome author who released his first novel Archangel in 2019. I’ve included the link to his book down below, go check it out, and let’s give Doug a warm welcome to the Scar’s Den!

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write? 

Hi there! My name is Doug, though I write under the name D. William Landsborough. I write primarily dark fantasy and my first book, Archangel, was released in February of 2019. It is the first in the Shadow’s Advent series and takes place ten years after the war between Heaven and Hell erupted on Earth. Unfortunately for us, Hell won. Archangel picks up after the war has already been lost as Uriel the archangel, who has been kept in Heaven this whole time, descends to Earth to start the fight anew. Since then, I have also released its sequel, Revelations, which is book two of the Shadow’s Advent series.

I’m also planning a climate sci-fi and a horror novel, which is both exciting and terrifying.

How do you develop your plots and characters? 

I don’t think I develop plot and characters separately. Rather, I like to think of a big-picture idea for the plot, usually focusing just on where we start and where we end, as well as the main characters. From there, I dive deeper into particular chapters or scenes and use those to flesh out the secondary characters.

Both plot and characters start out as sort of almost-blank canvasses with the main details there, but they become more and more complex as I further plan and write.

Tell the world about your current project!

Some fans might kill me, but I’m taking a small detour from the third Shadow’s Advent book to try something new: a horror novel. Though my two books to date are definitely on the darker side of fantasy and draw on my love of horror, this project is turning out to be a lot nastier! In this work in progress, our main character is cursed with knowing when people die. In the days or hours leading to someone’s death, their face will contort and become—honestly—quite gross and they will scream at her. Though she’s become somewhat accustomed to it, her life becomes a little more complicated when her own reflection does the same thing to her.

Who would you say is the main character of your latest novel? And tell me a little bit about them!

I’m going to focus on Shadow’s Advent for this one, since my horror novel is still definitely a WIP. In my dark fantasy series, the main character is Uriel, an archangel. Uriel, in this new, hellish world, is a great main character because of the flaws he has. What I really try to do is create this inner struggle with Uriel between wanting to uphold the piety and morals that he has held dear since he was created, and the horror and darkness that surrounds him and the other angels. It is tough for him to justify the omnipotence of his father, God, when such tragedies have occurred. 

Have you been to any conventions? If so, tell me a little about them!

Tragically, only as a convention-goer, not in any role as an author. When I first released Archangel, I was wrapping up another stint in college and trying to balance that all with a new job. I don’t think I really gave the book the publicity attention that it deserved.

When the thought of conventions came up, I justified putting it off until I could get a second or third book out to try and justify the cost. I actually had my first public book signing back in February of 2020. I was absolutely in love with the whole thing and was eager to get my next one going. Then the pandemic hit in full force in March, and there just haven’t been opportunities since, so I’m really eyeing that light at the end of the tunnel.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

The earliest I can remember is back in the fifth grade, so about at age ten or eleven. This is when I was given R.A. Salvatore’s The Dark Elf Trilogy and really got immersed in fantasy. With that love sparked, I wrote short stories and even tried my hand at starting a book in the next year or two, though I remember the first three chapters of that book being about a handwritten page each!

If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the world for a year while writing a book that took place in that same setting, where would you choose?

Iceland! I got to travel there a couple years ago and still think about it all the time. It’s a truly breathtaking place with kind people and a laid-back way of living. Plus, the landscape is so varied that I know I could come up with something great.

What advice would you give new writers?

Make a habit of writing. I can’t say this enough, but just take 30 minutes every day to write something, even if it is 500 words one day and 5 words the next. Establishing that habit helps to keep your momentum and it really helps with kicking your brain into a creative mindset rather than feeling like you need to wait for inspiration to strike.

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding?

Not necessarily for place, but I drew a lot of inspiration from theology and folklore when coming up with my angels. Uriel, for example, has a lot of traits that are used to describe him in academic religious writing.

I remember watching a movie (though can’t remember which one), where a young priest proclaims that the Bible is like the ultimate graphic novel. That resonated with me because, while not being religious myself, there are a lot of stories and characters that can be used as a platform in religions around the world, so long as you do it respectfully.

What inspires you to write?

I have the goal of making writing fiction at least a part-time income for me and a sustainable one at that. I absolutely LOVE writing, so to be able to do it more than just in my spare time is the dream that inspires me to write.

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Hitting about halfway through a work in progress and trying to get to that 75% mark. My books aren’t generally short, so after about 50-60k words, there is a bit of momentum lost from it no longer being a new and shiny project, and you’re still far away from the finish line. Mustering up the motivation for that section is always tough for me.

What is your routine when writing, if any? If you don’t follow a routine, why not?

On an ideal day, it’s wake up, make coffee and write for 30-60 minutes. Then start the day job and write another 30 minutes on my lunch. Then, if I’m feeling really good, write another 30 after work.

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write in any of your books, and why? 

Anything that sets our heroes back. I find that, especially in fantasy, the most character development happens when our heroes are faced with something borderline devastating. It’s that growth that I love to write.

Did you learn anything from writing your latest book? If so, what was it?

It was while writing Revelations that I learned to make writing a habit. It took about five years to write Archangel but only about a year and a half to write Revelations and publish it.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? A gardener or an architect?

Plotter. No offense pantsers, but your way of writing scares me more than the horror novel I’m writing.

If you had to give up either snacks and drinks during writing sessions, or music, which would you find more difficult to say goodbye to?

I don’t snack during writing sessions, so I’d have to go with that. Half the time I have coffee with my writing it goes cold, because I like to just type away until either my timer runs out or my fingers get tired!

Which is your favorite season to write in, and why? 

Winter, because I can more easily justify not going outside!

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it? 

I start with an idea in my head about the character, their personality traits, how they feel about other characters, etc. Then I start writing and they tend to grow themselves. Sometimes backstories appear that I never thought of in the first place, and sometimes you think of an action or piece of dialogue in the moment that just suits them perfectly. I am a big proponent of letting your characters grow naturally.

What are your future project(s)?

This year I am focusing on my current horror WIP, the third book in the Shadow’s Advent series and finishing up the first “season” of Nightshade, my urban fantasy short story series on Patreon. After that, it’s more horror, more Shadow’s Advent, more Nightshade and hopefully the climate sci-fi soon.

What is your favorite book ever written?

Revelations! If I can’t count my own, then I’d probably have to say American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It tends to fluctuate based on my mood, though!

Who are your favorite authors?

Neil Gaiman, Richard Kadrey, Adam Nevill, V.E. Schwab

What makes a good villain?

My villain, Dante, is one of my favourite characters and I think that’s because he isn’t just bad for the sake of being bad. If you can make you villain relatable or understandable or if anyone can empathize with them, then you have a great villain.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

What is this spare time you speak of? While I try to balance writing books, freelance writing and a 4-day a week part-time job, I do enjoy playing board games, watching movies and the like. When the weather isn’t so chilly (and there’s less of a pandemic), visiting friends for weekend cottage trips or get-togethers is always a blast.

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

As long as I’m writing something that is interesting to me and others, I’m happy with it. 

Coffee or Tea? Or (exult deep breath) what other drink do you prefer, if you like neither?

Coffee! But I say that as I’m drinking tea. My better half is a tea drinker and my French press cracked, so I’m drinking more tea than I normally would. It doesn’t quite scratch the same itch for me, though.

You can travel to anywhere in the universe. Where would you go, and why?

The more I think about travelling to another planet, the more work it seems like it will be to not die. With that in mind, I’d love to go somewhere like the Northwest or Yukon Territories; somewhere quiet and beautiful.

What superpower would you most like?

The ability to project common sense onto people. Is that too sassy?

What are two of your favorite covers of all time? (Not your own.)

I’m going to go with any of the Sandman Slim books that are in the movie poster style. Very unique and fitting vibe for those books. And while it’s still on my bookshelf unread, the cover of Gods & Monsters by Janie Marie made my buy it with only a glance at the synopsis.

It’s a very difficult time right now for the world. When quarantine and pandemic comes to an end, what is the first thing you would like to do?

My fiancée and I had to put off our wedding by a year, from last August to this one, so I am really looking forward to our new date this year and the honeymoon that follows. I know it might not look the same as if it had happened pre-pandemic, but we’re going to make the best of it.

That, and hug a lot of people.

Finally, what is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

I’d love for you to swing by and say hi. I’m mostly active on my website (www.dlandsborough.com) and over on Facebook (www.facebook.com/dwilliamlandsborough). Hope to see you soon!

Valheim Review: A Giant in the Making

It’s me again! I know, it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything for my blog. Blame burnout, blame other stuff, yada yada. First of all, this article is a repost of my work for another blog Sassygamers.com, a wonderful site where I share my views on all sorts, so I will do the good thing and post a link to it down below. I just figured it would be good to have my impressions on my personal blog as well. Link is down below!

https://www.sassygamers.com/valheim-impressions-how-you-do-early-access

How many times have we seen survival games in the industry? There was a time where it completely saturated the market. Even now, it’s still a popular thing, with thousands of versions out there. Now the market’s latest craze is the roguelike, to the point where it feels that every third indie release is some kind of variant. I understand why, its a relatively easy thing to create.

I could list the number of games in the survival genre for hours and still not cover them all. Minecraft is the definitive one, but it’s certainly been a controversial genre. It’s really hard to get it right, and for every success, there are dozens of failures. Even the ones that make it are often divisive. Giants like Rust and DayZ are plagued with problems. Others, like Ark Survival Evolved, Space Engineers and No Man’s Sky have all had troubled development cycles that trouble it to this day, often because of poor developer decisions. Other common problems include poor optimization, server overload, mountains of glitches that ruin a player’s experience and multiplayer griefing.

It’s a behemoth challenge. How do you make a game where you can do anything exciting, while making it fair for everyone? It’s an age-old question. So far, only Minecraft has gotten things mostly right. Well, I’m happy to say that this month, another challenger has come to the market that’s looking pretty good. That’s what they all say, right? Well, put it this way. I never play multiplayer, but this game makes me want to.

I’m talking of course, about Valheim. Releasing early February, it’s taken the scene by storm, with overwhelmingly positive reviews and hitting the top sellers on Steam. Developed by unknown developer Iron Gate AB, it was picked up by Coffee Stain Publishing. These guys have a flair for eying solid titles, including the excellent Satisfactory and Deep Rock Galactic. So far, it seems they have struck gold again. As I write this, Valheim has broken the 100,000 concurrent player mark.

What makes Valheim special? On the surface, it doesn’t do much new. This is the synopsis of the game’s story thanks to the description on the Steam page:

A battle-slain warrior, the Valkyries have ferried your soul to Valheim, the tenth Norse world. Besieged by creatures of chaos and ancient enemies of the gods, you are the newest custodian of the primordial purgatory, tasked with slaying Odin’s ancient rivals and bringing order to Valheim. Your trials begin at the disarmingly peaceful centre of Valheim, but the gods reward the brave and glory awaits. Venture forth through imposing forests and snow-capped mountains, explore and harvest more valuable materials to craft deadlier weapons, sturdier armor, viking strongholds and outposts. Build a mighty longship and sail the great oceans in search of exotic lands … but be wary of sailing too far…

It’s a different premise to its competitors, and Valheim packs a punch in its launch state. Let’s jump right into the different aspects of the game. Remember, I review and judge early access titles based on what is already in the game, not what is promised. Judge on current content, not promises. Judge the smoke before you see the flames. Fortunately, Valheim is a meaty, enjoyable experience from the beginning.

Visuals

While the models are low-poly, at best PS2 level of quality, the developers have chosen to focus their attention on other key areas, such as lighting and environments, and holy, does it work. Sure, it’s not particularly pretty you’ll have on the market, but it blends surprisingly well. I would have liked to see better character models, and the enemies could use some work, but the bosses look good.

If you’re someone who loves graphics, you may not enjoy this. Personally, I think they picked their priorities effectively. The game has some wonderful physics regarding destruction and chopping wood, to boot. The visual design is much better than you might think going in, and the excellent lighting does wonders for immersion. You don’t believe me? Look at some of the screenshots:

Performance

In my current playtime I’ve barely come across any bugs. Maybe a couple of minor glitches here and there? I have to nitpick to find issues in this regard. Despite single player running rathr well, multiplayer has some problems with performance, and I do hope it gets looked at. Optimization here needs work, and once you have a pretty big town built up, I found frequent frame drops. Again, it’s not awful, and the performance at launch was much better than I expected, but it is something to mention. I hope future patches improve this, but it’s got a foundation to build on. To sum it up, singleplayer feels fine, but multiplayer will struggle once you’ve got a town built up. There’s also quite a lot of pop-in with textures as things load, but for a procedurally generated world I’m not going to lean too much on this as a criticism.

The dedicated servers could use some improvements as well, and I found a lot of inconsistent performance in trying to log on. We haven’t had a single desync or crash in either of the two multiplayer server’s I’ve played in. If we put aside these flaws, the game runs surprisingly well, and I think it can do well even on mid-range systems. Valheim also requires very little disk space, less than a single gigabyte.

Combat

The controls feel a little clunky at times, but overall it feels good. You have many ways of movement, and the combat system gives me Gothic and Dark Souls vibes. It’s tough, but not overly punishing. You have a bunch of weapons with the tools to make them work, and I’m quite fond of the combat. It takes time to use the bow, but once you’ve tried it a bit, you’ll get used to it. There’s plenty of enemy types, and the boss battles are a ton of fun. The death mechanic also works great. Once your character dies, his tombstone is available where you died. Go interact with it, and you’ll regain all your items. This is infinite, so there’s no worry about your tombstone decaying.

Environment is also an enemy. You’ll get rogue storm events, tsunamis and more. The gods really want to punish you!

Game Mechanics

The open world is already massive, with even more content to come (50% content complete at launch). It’s procedurally generated, but unlike most games like it, it doesn’t feel like one. The game has plenty of diversity in its biomes already, with more planned down the line. Exploration is fantastic so far, either playing solo or with friends. There’s also a persistent way of progression: you can go into any world, with any character, which makes for a ton of replayability and some new game plus options. For example, you can build up a base in one world while exploring and hunting other areas. No two worlds are the same, which gives for a ton of ways to play the game. There’s no sandbox mode next, but it is a possibility for the game’s roadmap.

In order to set a spawn point, you need to craft a bed. To make a bed, you’ll need a place to put it. This is where the game’s building mechanics come in, and even in its early state, the building is in a great state. You can craft a ton of stuff, from new weapons and armour, to buildings of all shapes and sizes. The snapping mechanic is fairly smooth, though building a refined house for yourself will take some practice. There’s really a lot to work with and it’s impressive how much you can do. We have longhouses, moats, roads and a mall fleet of ships. You can farm plants, brew mead and beer, cook, fish and tame animals as well.

The leveling system is simple, a bit like Skyrim. The more you perform an action, the better you become at it. It works nicely enough, especially for a game like this. Survival works a bit differently in Valheim. While you can and will die of cold exposure, you won’t starve to death. However, it’s beneficial to, because every bite will increase your health. I prefer this to others because it’s a difficult thing to balance, but it’s not a chore.

Overall, the mechanics are fantastic for an early release. While parts of the game are certainly difficult, it’s forgiving in other areas. Repairing buildings and items for instance is completely free, and dismantling structures refunds you the entire cost.

Sound, Music and Voice

While I can’t say anything for the game’s voice acting (because there is none), the music and sound effects are overall solid. The Viking themes really set the scene, and it becomes a metal rave during the boss battles. The sound effects feel meaty for the game’s tiny footprint, and overall I cannot think of any negatives. I would like to see more music tracks as the game continues its development.

Lore, Worldbuilding and World Design

While there isn’t that much in terms of world design (this isn’t a handcrafted experience), there’s still a good amount of lore and worldbuilding in the world. You come across a lot of dungeons and abandoned villages, and the visual design does quite a good job at explaining what happened to these places. One time I came across a wonderful little hamlet in my solo playthrough, but nobody in sight…only to then get attacked by a troll and several skeletons. That may explain things a bit. It’s subtle, but pretty good, especially for a procedural game like this.

Value for Money and Overall Enjoyment

I won’t discuss quest design in my review this time, because there isn’t really anything in the way of dedicated quests besides boss fights. I’ve seriously enjoyed playing this game. It’s a mark of the fun where I struggle to physically write the review, because I’m playing the game in the first place!

When this game launched, I know there was a lot of talk wondering how much the game would be. To my surprise and delight, Valheim costs very little, at £15.49/20$. With more content and polish than most fully released titles out there, and even more to come, I’ve rarely come across a launch title where I feel like I’m ripping the developers off. I’m not saying they should charge more, but it’s guaranteed worth its asking price.

CategoryScore/10Visuals8Performance7Value for Money9Combat8Lore and World Design8Sound, Music and Voice7Game Mechanics8Overall Enjoyment10

Conclusion

Valheim is a breath of fresh air and almost feels like a reward for everyone having such a terrible 2020. I wasn’t expecting it to be as enjoyable as it has, and it takes a lot for me to play anything multiplayer. It’s refreshing Viking vibes, excellent exploration, fun combat and strong early impression makes for a great experience, at least early on. It’s taken someone like me to want to play with other people, which is high praise. It’s like a strange smoothie of Minecraft, Terraria and Skyrim, with a tiny bit of Gothic. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

Is the game perfect? Of course not, because no game is. The performance needs work especially for co-op, so that could do with improvements. While I have no problem with the graphics, I know the rough graphics will turn some people away. I hope they don’t, because this game deserves a real chance.

2021 has already seen some solid early access releases, including Everspace 2 and Dyson Sphere Program, but Valheim feels great already. This could be a potential GOTY in the future. I was having so much difficulty pulling away from the game long enough to play my other games, or even to write this review. That should tell you something.

My Impressions of Cyberpunk 2077

Expectation is a powerful word, and it can make or break you.

The jury is still out on Cyberpunk, and it may be some time before we uncover it all. It’s certainly grabbed the world’s attention. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a delight towards the end of a brutal 2020 became something like a nightmare for many.

Before I begin, I’d like to say something. I haven’t played a game like this in a long time. Something so enthralling, impressive and enjoyable, frustrating and disappointing as Cyberpunk 2077. It’s an infamous game, for all the right and wrong reasons. Strap in. This is going to be quite the long read. I hope to bring an unbiased view to the table, or as unbiased as one can make it. I’ll cover as much as possible.

I’ve been fighting for weeks working my feelings with this game, because I’m still conflicted. I decided to hold off on writing a review until now. Even now, I feel confused by my feelings towards it.

Eight years of development, hype and controversy have created a perfect storm, as Cyberpunk became one of the biggest and most notorious launches in video game history. Once one of the most beloved companies in the industry, CD Projekt Red now has a giant target on its back, and has much work to do in order to repair that once glowing reputation. I’ll touch upon some things while I can in this review, because ignoring these issues is impossible. However, I’m going to touch upon my experiences with Cyberpunk 2077 best I can, because there is a lot to digest.

The Story So Far

Well. CDPR had a lot riding on this, didn’t they? What started as a smaller company really blew them into the limelight in 2015 with the excellent The Witcher 3, which has been lauded by critics and fans as one of the best video games of all time. It transformed them from a smaller studio capable of good games into a massive, AAA behemoth. The Witcher 2 was pretty good as well, perhaps held back from its rough opening which turned away a lot of players, me included.

What helped was their excellent post-launch support and approach to DLC. CDPR have marketed themselves as ‘not like other AAA companies’ for a long time. When Cyberpunk finally launched, this claim has come full circle. Oops. Anyway, You know the issue. Season Passes, Games as a service, micro transactions, DLC not being worth the price, intrusive DRM, all the things consumers hate. (Yet we still keep buying them, continuing the circle of shit…But that’s a fight for another day).

Witcher 3 had none of this. Sixteen free DLC, loads of patches, strong expansion packs that felt like real expansions, and DRM-free. CDPR have fielded the excellent DRM-free and consumer friendly market Good Old Games for years. So you can imagine, the consumer reputation for CDPR has been fairly high for a while. When Cyberpunk got announced, and with all the marketing shenanigans, hope was high, and I mean high. I don’t think I’ve seen a game as hyped as this in the industry for years.

Hype is a very dangerous game. How many games have fallen into the hype circle only to end up not as expected? Spore, No Man’s Sky, Destiny? The list goes on. When a game is hyped so much, they will always be disappointing compared to the idealistic (and foolish) vision we seem to get, and it’s a circle we cannot seem to break. In Cyberpunk’s case however, I’m willing to discuss this further. You’ll see what I mean later.

The marketing push for Cyberpunk was insane, and barely a day went by where I didn’t see something about it. The more something is hyped and built up, the more goes wrong, the more emotional attachment people have to it. Cyberpunk was delayed frequently, with concerns flaring up especially about the extensive crunch the developers have been put under. The Covid-19 pandemic has only made things worse on that regard. The release was delayed, first from April 2020 to September, than pushed back again to November. Finally, a set release date of December 10th was ready. No more delays, the big-ups at CDPR declared. Perhaps they should have waited…

Then came real problems. Firstly, CDPR provided review copies to major outlets with strict embargos, forcing NDAS and only allowing footage provided by themselves to be shown in reviews. Furthermore, PC was the main target of reviews, excluding consoles completely. Seeing how bad the state of the game was on consoles, especially PS4 and Xbox One, this was seen by many, me included, as a deliberate attempt to mask how the game really was. This is not how you treat your consumers.

The second issue was a medical concern, and far more serious. Game Informer Liana Ruppert, who has epilepsy, suffered a seizure during a brain-dance sequence (something which comes up frequently in the course of the game). This came without ANY warnings. While CDPR was quick to fix this, how the hell did that sneak past quality control? It’s one thing for bugs, but to have scenes in game that induce seizures without any warnings of it? Oof. What disappointed me most was the personal attacks on those who exposed these issues. Really guys, there’s enough hatred and anger in the world right now. We’re better than this.

While the PC version was buggy, nothing compared to how bad things were on last-gen consoles. Considering CDPR said outright the performance was ‘surprisingly good’, it sounds like a lie to many people. When Sony ended up pulling Cyberpunk 2077 completely from their stores on the PS4 a week after release, you know you fucked up.

So yeah. The launch of Cyberpunk has been quite the pickle. I wasn’t too surprised, because most of their launches have been rough. Even so, with this much hype built around it, the last thing you want to do is fuck up the launch, which they achieved in spades.

Many have compared it to other terrible game launches, such as No Man’s Sky, Anthem, Marvel Avengers, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Mass Effect Andromeda. For a company who constantly tells everyone they’re not like other AAA studios, they fell right into the same pitfalls, and it’s come with quite the drop in reputation. It’s led to attempted lawsuits, a grilling by the industry. The devs of Cyberpunk grilled the management over the unrealistic expectations. It’s clear the game was released too early. Time will tell whether post-launch can fix these problems. They have made several public apologies about it, but as people say in A Song of Ice and Fire, words are wind. I put more trust in deeds, and after how terrible the launch was, a lot of people will believe it when they see it. They want to fix it? They need to prove themselves. The management over Cyberpunk has been a disaster.

So, there’s this out of the way. What did I think of the game? Is Cyberpunk really as overhyped as some people claim? Is there hope for this giant after all?

The Game Itself

While the launch of Cyberpunk is a mess, and in spite of everything, I find it difficult to lump this in with the likes of Anthem, Fallout 76 and others, because I genuinely think this is a good game. To avoid spoilers, I’m not going to go into the story in much detail. You play as V, mercenary who comes from one of three backgrounds: Nomad out in the clans outside Night City, Street Kid, or Corp lifestyle. What was promoted as something far more significant turned into a joke, because these life paths mean very little. You get maybe half an hour max, then everything converges into the same story with little difference. Apart from some dialogue choices, there is little change from each lifestyle, which was a big shame. You experience the lights and flashy life of Night City, pull off big jobs, and struggle to survive with a piece of tech that tries to kill you, helped by the simulated echo of Johnny Silverhand, terrorist and rockband dude. That’s all I’m willing to spoil, but I quite enjoyed the story so far. I’m 60 hours in as of writing this review, so I don’t know yet how it all ends, but I’ve been liking the ride so far.

I’m going to split this into separate categories and go from there. Grab some snacks and drinks, this is still going to be a long read!

Performance

Let’s kick things off with performance. I played this on PC, and while it’s in a much better state on here than on consoles, it’s one hell of a demanding game, and a real optimization hog.

I originally played on a ‘Gaming laptop’, with GTX 1060 Max-Q 6GB, Intel i7 8750H and 32gb ram, with the game installed on a SSD. I just managed to keep around 30 FPS on high settings with the laptop, but heat management is rough, and I do not recommend it on a laptop. Despite these, I never got a crash, and loading times in this game are a beauty. From clicking play, you’re in the game in a matter of seconds, and loading saves etc remain incredibly quick. One of the areas where it’s solid. Again, you need the best hardware to play this properly, and stay the fuck away from older-gen consoles. What were they thinking…

When my laptop began to suffer because of the demanding way this game is, I looked to other options. This is something where the cloud gaming is a blessing. I went with GeForce Now around the 40 hour mark, and it proved to be a godsend. I can now run everything on Ultra without a hitch, and even get Raytracing with a Founders membership. If you want to try Cyberpunk but struggle with hardware, and your connection is stable, give either Stadia or GeForce now a go. I haven’t looked back, but I was pleased to at least try it on a mid-tier system so I could report.

Technical stuff

Yeah… About that.

Moving on from general performance to the technical issues. Buggy. Oh lord, buggy. Sure, it’s not the worst I’ve ever seen, but I think everyone expected better. Most of this wasn’t game-breaking, but I had stuff like dodgy animations, the odd broken textures like looking into a building and seeing the ghost-vision of cars in the distance, occasionally doors closed and unable to open so had to reload saves. Not a single crash for me, but I am lucky. The pop-in of cars and people, draw distance was also disappointing, even on the highest settings. That with broken lip sync and ocasional sounds not firing when they should made me have to reload a save now and then.

The water physics is also one of the worst things I have ever seen for a game, let alone AAA. There’s almost no need to go into the water, but it is atrocious how bad it feels. Still, there was one side quest where I did have to go scuba diving, and I had no problems with the water then. It turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the game period. If only all the water was like this.

I’m lumping in AI with this as well. The civilian AI is shit, bobbing about like a dead fish and cowering for the slightest reasons. May I say teleporting police AI? Please, fix this. A lot of my gripes will go with this alone!

Combat AI is a mixed bag. In one corner, they do quite well. They can flank you, hack you, use grenades and cover, so in this side it’s solid, and on other times they just don’t respond properly. It’s very easy to cheese. Something that can use polish (like a lot of things in this game) but it’s a nice foundation to work on.

Overall, it’s a bit of a jumbled mess in terms of stability. It seems to be their priority to fix, so we’ll see how things go!

Visuals

Absolutely gorgeous, but you need a really powerful rig to make full use of it. The game can run on weaker hardware, but you are sacrificing a lot to get it to work properly. I’d recommend holding off on this until you have something more powerful for the best results. GeForce Now with a Founders membership unlocks Raytracing, which any computer can use. It’s an option for people like me to get the best results. Now, at max? Jesus it’s one of the nicest games visually you’ll ever see. It’s rare to have games inside one city. Only a few do it, and Cyberpunk’s city, despite problems which I’ll touch on soon, is one of the coolest settings I have ever played.

I’ve got a collection of photos I took from in-game, so check it out yourself.

Quest Design

Overall? Quest design was a strong point, something I expected coming from the Witcher 3. There’s quite a lot to unpack here. They’re divided into several chunks:

1) Little bands of police gang fights, kill and find evidence for small cash rewards. Nothing to be said about this one. They’re just little grindy things.

2) Gigs, which have several types. Each area usually has 2-3 ways to do it, and there are several options to enter the areas and complete the missions. The gigs are a mixed bag and some are very simple, but there are examples of great worldbuilding, and even these little quests can tug on your emotions. Read up the shards to find the lore. Some is very well written and I’ve had a lot of fun with them. The gameplay is addicting enough to make even little grinds fun, which is something few AAA games did for me. Well done to them for that I guess, even if it feels rough at times.

3) Side quests, which connect and weave into the main story as well as open up over time. Overall these are very strong, and there’s a lot of them throughout the game. This is where the Witcher 3 quality most shines.

Don’t come expecting overall Witcher 3 quality, but there is some gold. It’s just well hidden and its sometimes hard to find the good quests. There is a lot of other ‘quests’ like little police/gang encounters which aren’t really anything, which is the most obvious on the map. The UI could use a polish to show off more of these better quests. I cannot complain about the game’s quest design overall though. It’s still better than most games I’ve played in game design, especially for a AAA level. It struggles with some of the same issues from Witcher 3 and open world syndrome.

I have two big criticisms. Sometimes quests kinda…vanish. By that, I mean the dangling threads remain there, like a juicy pear out of reach. This was seen most with some of the biggest characters. After a long and memorable series of side questlines, both characters in question just kinda…stop, with little interaction afterwards. They stop. Which is frustrating.

While I enjoy the quests, they suffer from Elder Scrolls Syndrome: the time scale doesn’t work with the threat. You’re supposed to be dying, but there is no time pressure for anything. You can ignore the main quests and keep doing missions. There are a few timers in some cases, but they are few and far between. This is good for exploration and to avoid stress of missing important events, but the dissoance from the dangers in-game isn’t very realistic.

I would love to see some dynamic quests. The city is big enough to go for it. Just some more things to do, you know? There’s amazing potential in this hub.

Combat

I’m not sure how to put this. Combat is messy and unbalanced, with some stuff which plain doesn’t work. It’s very easy to break, but is also a lot of fun. Guns, melee and hacking. Enemies get bullet spongy, and weapons aren’t very interesting ala guns. Gunplay can work well in a pinch, but it feels stiff. Melee is mostly just hacking and slashing, upgrades and perks are a mixed bag. Hacking should be more interesting, and overpowered when maxed. Insanely fun, but very easy. Fallout vibes, though the loot is not good. I wish the hacking had more quirks, and they could use some more content. Overall, combat needs work, but I got into it much faster than I did with Witcher 3. It still feels like a potential weakness, and it’s unpolished, but I’m glad to see improvements from it. Once again, stuff like UI and controls need fixing, and I would like to see fewer weapons with more diverse attachments.

Overall, the game is just too easy no matter the difficulty, and stealth is broken. It may be fun, but it needs to be strengthened significantly. Even so, sword and gunplay is solid, especially for an RPG. Needs tweaks and fixes like many things in Cyberpunk, but they have a nice little foundation. Same goes for hacking, even in its rough state it does a good job, the best I’ve seen hacking in a while, actually. Just…it could be better.

Lore, Worldbuilding and Design

Again, this feels mixed. (See a theme, here?) On one side, the city is gorgeous, and there’s a fair amount of gold to it, but at the same time, it feels very railroaded in design. I would’ve liked to see more options and assets, as there are signs of them. Some areas of the game look incredible and there is variance, just not enough.

The more time I spent in Night City, the more it began to fall apart as far as immersion goes. There isn’t that much to do in the city. This in itself isn’t a bad thing because the last thing a game needs is bloat, something open world AAA games fail at, but I expected more. More races perhaps, being able to play on the game machines in little minigames. I think people went in expecting GTA which isn’t what CDPR do. Witcher 3 did a lot like this, but they had Gwent. Rockstar’s worlds do a much better job in immersion which is why the disappointment is there. I expected better, though there are some examples of stunning worldbuilding. It’s just hard to find. Look in shards and computers for information on the world, and a lot of it ties together surprisingly well. Even misc NPC conversations reveal a lot. I think this needs a lot of work, but it’s on the right track. The next few patches are critical for it. The problems with the gangs as well are noticeable: there isn’t really much in terms of interaction. I would have liked to see more.

Overall, with what CDPR promoted about the game, I feel frustrated and disappointed with the whole immersion thing. It does work on a surface level, however it really begins to pick at you the longer you spend in the open world. More customization. The character customization is a joke. In fact, customization across the board is a joke, and one of the things they promised, we did not get.

Little things like playing on the arcade machines is an example. It doesn’t need to be much, but the lack of ways to interact with the environment was a turn-off.

World economy is also a bit broken. Vendors share an inventory, so this needs to be looked at. Loot is piss easy to find and not much of it is interesting. There’s some fun items in-game, they’re usually the most expensive. It takes a bit too long to grab the most exciting ways to play. Another thing that needs balancing.

Writing and Voice Acting

It’s good in places, great in others. Main character V is controversial, I know many who dislike his ‘over the top badass character’, but he grew on me the longer I spent time with him. Like Witcher 3, it’s not quite as strong across the board, but I think it does a good enough job. It’s not amazing, but it does better than most AAA out there. I don’t know if that’s a sickness of the industry, though. I can’t find much to fault in the voice acting of the main cast, but misc NPC is a bit of a mess. There are some brilliant characters in this game, some of the best I’ve seen in any. I loved Jackie, Judy, Panam and River most, but there are good examples throughout. Even a lot of minors were memorable, and this is a strong point of the game.

Despite this, I have to say some quests and characters feel unfinished, never appearing again. You can tell that things feel this way as you play, despite how much I enjoy playing it. I’d like to see patches which can fix this in the future, or some free content patches that expand it. I don’t know how much was cut pre-launch.

The main story is relatively small in comparison to others, 20-30 hours if you do nothing else, but there’s a lot of side content, and like Witcher 3, this is where the game begins to shine. Still, I enjoy both, so I expect average game time to be 50-60 hours easily, even more. I see people saying the game is short. No way that is the case!

The Future of Cyberpunk 2077

It’s no secret, Cyberpunk 2077’s launch was a mess. I don’t know if it’s broken promises on a level of Spore or No Man’s Sky, but it’s difficult to compare them. Speaking of No Man’s Sky, a lot of people have it wrong about that. NMS was an indie game given a AAA publisher, AAA marketing and unfortunately a AAA price tag. This, not helped by Sean Murray’s complete lack of PR ability created a deadly storm, but Hello Games’s excellent post-launch support has redeemed it mostly in my eyes.

CDPR have no such excuses. Usually I blame the consumer base for unrealistic expectations and giving in to ridiculous hype, but with that insane marketing promising more than the sum of its parts, it is much harder to place blame on anyone but the marketing. Cyberpunk 2077 was released too soon, to the frustration of the devs. I blame the upper management more for the failures, knowing the pain of game development. Seeing the death threats and abuse of the devs is frustrating.

Regardless, the storm that has followed this release is justified. There is light at the end of the tunnel: CDPR has a good record of post-launch support, with plenty of good content for their games. I still think there is hope for Cyberpunk. It’s just a shame the launch was in such a state, and it will be some time before we see the flower blossom.

Every big game dev meets a huge challenge that makes or breaks them. Bethesda, once one of the most beloved, is now in the shitbin of big companies.

This is CDPR’s big challenge. Only time will tell which way they go. Honestly? The fall from grace, if anything, is a positive. No company should have that much power, and no game studio deserves eternal loyalty. It needs to be earned, and perhaps they rode the Witcher 3 swansong for too long, and got complacent? I don’t know. Either way, they have a lot of work to do to restore confidence. Let’s see if they can back up their words with their promises, because fewer people are going to believe their word now.

Now, the fun part. Let’s tally up everything and give some scores!

Summary

Visuals: Stunning, but you need a top rig to get the feel for everything. One of the most gorgeous games out there on the market.

Performance: While the loading times are lightning fast, the various glitches and bugs, plus the rough optimization and AI issues really drag Cyberpunk down. Not the worst launch I have ever seen, but it’s not good either. Ironically typical of a AAA launch these days – everything CDPR swore they were not.

Quest Design and Stories: Despite some issues, I’ve had a lot of fun with these. Even the little quests have a few different tricks to play them. It’s not quite what Witcher 3 was, so for a studio which should always be trending upward, people may find this a little disappointing. I found it quite solid and the story has been interesting. Even so, the way some stories and characters just drop away began to irk me at the end. It really shows that the game was unfinished. I’m giving it a higher score for this nonetheless.

Combat: Messy and unbalanced, but might be the most fun I’ve had with AAA combat in a long time. It needs a lot of work, as does the combat AI, but there’s a surprising amount of options, and the hacking is one of the most in-depth I’ve seen in a while. I’ve struggled enjoying combat in many games, but this is one I’ve found enjoyment in. It’s too easy, and I don’t like the bullet spongy enemies.

Lore, Worldbuilding and World Design: Inconsistency with interaction and immersion brings down otherwise strong design, not helped by flaws with the popping in of cars and people. The world has amazing potential for future work. There’s some examples of wonderful worldbuilding, but it’s let down by the issues I already mentioned.

Sound, Music and Voice: The voice acting is stellar across the board, though there isn’t as much music in the game as I expected to be given the genre.

Mechanics and Economy: A broken economy system with a rough UI brings down the score. The systems are deep and complex, though it takes too long to really get into them. You may well finish the game without experiencing the best of what they have to offer. The driving feels rough, especially when outside Night City. They could improve the handling on most of the cars, though I managed to enjoy them. Crafting is nearly pointless, because you get new and better weapons all the fucking time. Overall, there’s big flaws, but I can see potential.

CategoryScore/10Visuals9Performance5Story and Quest Design7.5Combat7Lore, Worldbuilding and World Design7Sound, Music and Voice Acting7.5Mechanics and Economy7Overall Enjoyment Factor8.5Final Score7.3

Conclusion: Inconsistent Brilliance?

That was a lot of words. So, yes, my overall ‘score’ for Cyberpunk 2077 is the highest I’m willing to go right now. The game has serious flaws that go beyond just bugs, and it failed to meet the insane level of expectation desired, a symptom of the hype it created. Even if it didn’t have all the problems, it would never have met the massive expectations given, but the sloppy and unfinished measure of the game left a sour taste at times. It’s been difficult to judge it properly, and I’m conflicted even now. For everything I liked, there was something that annoyed me. The game isn’t revolutionary, and feels like a lot of different game types crammed together, barely held together. The catastrophe of the Covid-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact as well, though we cannot use that as an excuse for everything. There are few excuses for the state of the release, I have to stress that. With how rough the development process was for Cyberpunk, it’s a miracle it even released in the way it did.

And despite everything, I can’t deny my enjoyment for the game. I’ve liked exploring, the combat has been fun for an AAA game (which I find many lack in this department), and the quest design is stellar. I wasn’t expecting to play so much at this time. When I booted it up on launch day, I intended to play just a few hours, yet here I am, 60 hours later and still going. I’m quite surprised how much fun I’ve had in a game that’s this untuned.

It’s honestly frustrating how games in this rough state can still grab me, which is a symptom of the entire industry. Perhaps Cyberpunk is the catalyst for some change in the games industry, because it sure as hell needs it. I hope so. Perhaps we can finally stop blindly preordering based on PR? I plan to finish the game, and I find it enjoyable enough to replay once more content and fixes are in. Unlike many similar games as well, I don’t think I’ve ever been bored. That takes a lot to do.

Do I recommend the game right now? If you’re willing to wait, I strongly suggest doing so. There’s so many games out right now that there is no pressure in just holding until bigger patches come in. This fear of missing out and the fetish people have for wanting to play something immediately, along with pre-orders is contributing to the mess that’s facing the games industry. If you’re willing to overlook bugs, have a powerful enough PC rig, and are patient with some issues, then give it a good go. I took the plunge, and I’m happy that I did. I’m cautiously optimistic for the future, but for the first time, CDPR cannot rely on people just trusting their word anymore, they lost that immortal flame when they botched this launch. They have to back up their words with fists, and this is something they cannot afford to mess up.

Think of Cyberpunk 2077 like a wedding party, the biggest of the year. Some of your best friends are either lost in traffic, while others couldn’t be bothered to show up. The venue is a little rough around the edges, not the glorious hotel that was promised in the brochure. However, many of your good friends are still there, and the night while messy is a blast. The food is good, and you go home with a smile on your face and a full stomach. That’s the best way I can describe it.

Surprise End of the Year Post

Well, this year has been odd, hasn’t it?

I’m not going to go into all the cheerful things like worldwide pandemics and stuff, there’s enough of that online. I’ll just say that it’s been okay for my family and I, we’ve managed to get through so far without serious hardship, something we’re very lucky with. I’ve done what I can to help friends and family, and I’ll continue to offer support as much as I can. With the vaccines in motion, perhaps we can have some improvement by the end of next year. Until then, we still need to be careful.

So, let’s focus on the cool stuff. Or at least try. A lot has happened for me this year, good and bad. I wasn’t planning on writing an end of year blog because of my struggling creative brain, but here I am. Fuck it.

Mercenary Work

2020 started off on a rough note, with my chronic health in a bad spot. Inner ear infections pretty much made things a bust, and I started off 2020 barely able to do anything, eventually ending up where I had to leave my position at Grimlore Games in the end of January. (This ended up being a blessing in disguise later, so watch this space!) While this was pretty painful, we ended things on a good note and we stayed in touch, which ended up working out pretty well for the summer! Really, I’ve been thinking of the positives. For something I had no expectations with, it was one hell of a breakthrough for me.

I must have done a good job during my nine month stint as Junior Writer, because my fortunes changed in the summer when Grimlore Games recalled me to work on Spellforce 3: Fallen God. I had spent six months on the game prior to my departure in January, so rejoining as a mercenary for a short contract was the perfect timing, in a year when incomes dropped considerably, relying solely on savings with some small self employed support. I worked behind the scenes on worldbuilding, lore, item texts and book texts for the game launch in November, and it looks like we’ve done a solid job. Well done to my fellow team members who worked on the game, and a massive shoutout to my fellow writers Nicolas and Katie. (I don’t know if I could have gotten through the summer months without your support).

Spellforce 3 Fallen God feels like a critical success, and hopefully there is still an opening in the games industry for me in the future. What started as a rogue curiosity has ended up being something quite special, so that is one of my goals for 2021. This is special to me, because unlike 2019, this is the first game I feel I’ve made a major contribution to. I figure it’s the right time to talk a little what I did for Fallen God.

Overall:

Creation and original concept of major character Zazka (Which seemed to be a big success with players)Names and basic concept for trolls Crumb, Julog, and AnugWork on the world lore around Urgath – political law of the orcs, humans and elves.Basic work around the Tusk Hunter faction.Assistance in bug-fixing, localization, QA and playtesting.

Quests:

Assisted in dialogue and concept of two side quests (Not to completion – Brittlebone Village and Urgathian Jungle)Dialogue for the goblin Zlreek

In-Game:

Inspections in-game for lore purposes (100 or so)The race description of the Trolls for multiplayer skirmish modeMultiplayer troll equipment and heroes80% of the in-game letters, books and documents to find in the game400-450 names and descriptions for items, equipment and loot found in-game. (Around 90% total)

It has been quite the journey. When my health issues flared up the beginning of 2020, I didn’t expect things to turn out how they did, and I’m happy the game is being well received.

A Struggling Author’s Future

I have to discuss book writing next, because this is where I feel a little lost with my future. Let’s start with some history.

The Thousand Scars – The Counterbalance Dilemma

As of mid-February 2019, I officially parted ways with my publishing press Nordland Publishing behind The Thousand Scars and I stopped all sales on the book. First of all, a big thankyou to Nordland for the time. It was the right decision, even if my future as an author feels a little confused.

So, let me tell you a little story about The Thousand Scars during 2018, it’s first full year of publication.

I’ll let you all in on a secret. I should have been happy, or proud, or elated when it launched. Instead I just felt exhaustion, numbness. I even felt deflated. I remember doing the launch reveal and just being so drained I ended up cutting the livestream early. There weren’t many people watching it so I don’t think it mattered.
I achieved what I planned, but now what? Then the doubts started. Did I release it too early? Did I know what I was doing? Was the book any good?

The first few months were rough. I was trying to market, but it was tricky. To make money you need to spend money, generally through ads and that was something I did not really have. Of course, this was something I learned from this year, a painful lesson, but one worth learning. Connections and community building is something I’ve worked on for years, but perhaps I was in the wrong places.

Reviews and feedback were few, sales even fewer. I started wondering if it was even worth doing anymore. Publishing The Thousand Scars nearly broke me emotionally.

The Thousand Scars was selling poorly, but feedback at least was mostly positive, for a first book by a new author I guess. I’m not in this for money otherwise I’d just do a standard job so money is not my motivation. I wanted to show it to the world, but I was so drained by it and its lack of success that I was close to giving up. I still had the second book in the series to work on, and it was getting ballsacking difficult. I had few fans, but I didn’t want to let them down. I did get a lot of support from fellow authors in the indie community, urging me to keep fighting. I did so. I have severe ME, and job-wise I don’t really get many chances. Writing and cartography is all I know how to do. I couldn’t give up, not now. A word of advice to fellow writers. Connect with others and support each other. They are not your rivals, but your allies in this fight.

I wanted to go further. So I drafted ideas for another novel set in the same Counterbalance universe but a standalone, something different. Something to take to agents. Something to prove I have improved. I started work on it in April and it surprisingly began to take off. I made progress.

Then SPFBO 2018 began, a massive blog-contest for debut indie authors. I signed right up with The Thousand Scars, thinking that even if I didn’t have a chance of progressing, even a little more exposure would do the trick.

It ended up being the lifeboat I needed. I landed more connections, and my interviews for my fellow authors really helped increase exposure for them and myself. I even had a few people backing me for winning my group. . .snorts out drink

More people read The Thousand Scars. More people added it to their reading lists. It got some pretty damn good reviews and feedback. I made some Top 10 lists, made some huge fantasy blogs. I even got Longlisted in Booknest’s End of the Year awards for Best Debut! I still don’t know how in the name of Horse’s wrinkled ballsack I pulled that off.

Connections change things. People got excited for me and my future. I’ve been learning a lot about self-publishing, which is important for going ahead.

Moving Forward

After the split, I decided to return to The Thousand Scars in preparation to republish it. Originally it was just going to be a coat of paint. The more I spent with it however, I decided to fully rewrite the book. While the base idea was good, it was too half baked, and I was frankly ashamed I let the book go out in that state.
Now, I’ve had a few people worry that I’m changing the book or I’ll keep going back and editing it over and over.

That is not the case. This will be the only big edits I intend to make. Most of this is fixing mistakes (Chapter Two had 11 typos alone…), and fleshing up the prose based on what I have learned. After reading the manuscript, there is no way I am letting it back into the public without a good hard seeing to.

Now, the beginning will change slightly because it was easily the worst portion of the book according to feedback. I feel I dropped the ball too soon. Too many characters introduced in stupid ways, too soon. The more I realised this, I feel it’s a perfect chance for me to give the book what it deserves. After several months of editing and beta reading, I think the book is finally in a place where it deserves to be.

I was hoping to get the new Thousand Scars released in 2020, but that was before everything happened. I need formatting, book cover, proofreading and copyediting, and that all takes time and money I need to save up.

This is when my concerns move in. Counterbalance is an extremely complex series, and the more time I have spent with my writing this year, the more concerned I’ve become about my capability to finish it. I don’t want to be one of those guys who releases a book, and spend years trying to get the next book out. I’m concerned in its current state, Counterbalance is uncompletable. I’m going to dissect the series, and I feel I need to make some big changes. Not sure yet what will happen.

This year has completely burnt me out on a creative level, and I’m going to spend the next few months focusing on a complete mental health reboot. 2020 has taken a beating on the mental health side. I don’t think I’m even going to look at Counterbalance for a few months. Perhaps I need a fresh set of eyes on it.

It’s not over, however. With other fantasy ideas in the works, I still think there’s a future.

Twitch

Yeah, so I became a streamer as well. I’ve been doing a lot of socializing with a group of amazing friends, all of us streaming and exploring that avenue, and in April, I decided I wanted to join in with that. Small things, playing some indie games, showing off stuff people may not know about, doing small game playthroughs and trying to work through the insane backlog.

Here’s a link to my channel. I have plans for it in 2021, but perhaps I need a creative reboot first before I go back to streaming full time. It’s had stunning success however, far beyond what I expected.

https://www.twitch.tv/diabound111

I’m also going to shout out some of my friends channels as well, because they’re all amazing people and better content creators than I am

Games of 2020: 5-1

We’re finally here after weeks of teasing and build up. Hey, at least it’s not eight years worth!

Previous Articles for GOTY 2020

https://thousandscarsblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/27/games-of-2020-best-of-early-access/

https://thousandscarsblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/games-of-2020-the-honorable-mentions/

https://thousandscarsblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/08/games-of-2020-dropped-the-ball/

https://thousandscarsblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/16/games-of-2020-10-to-6/

Desperados III

I was fortunate enough to get the chance to play this awesome game six weeks before release, thanks to the awesome guys at THQ Nordic. Desperados III is made by the same cool people who made Shadow Tactics, Blades of the Shogun. I’m happy to say that Desperados III is a brilliant sequel to the series, and it does a great job in expanding everything that Shadow Tactics did well, and improving on those mechanics.

The gameplay is the lynchpin of the entire game, and my word does it hold up in this regard. You get a bunch of different, fleshed out characters, each with different and specified abilities, and you’re thrown a gauntlet of challenging missions to test your skills on. From Cooper’s knife throwing, loud guns and coin distractions, to Hector’s traps and axe play, to even some mind-fuckery with Isabelle, you get a ton of options for completing the levels. The characters are well designed, and while I haven’t found anything particularly enthralling about the story, it’s serviceable and keeps me entertained. It’s the character personalities you play that’s the true strength, despite the villains being a bit cartoon evil.

Shadow Tactics was known for it’s difficulty, and Desperados III is no exception. I’ve never been one for difficult games like this, so I look at my 48 hours played and barely halfway through the game as a kind of humiliation. While it can be frustrating at times, I’ve grown rather fond of it, and it’s genuinely rewarding to complete the tasks each mission gives you, especially after struggling with it for hours on end. The game blesses you with a no-penalty quick-save option and pause to plan your moves real time, and the sheer versatility and options it gives grants you a lot of replayability. I know I’ll be replaying this game on completion to try and get the achievements. There’s a ton of content, and while it may not look like that with sixteen missions (nineteen if you count the Season Pass), the missions are all rather chunky with lots to do. With the Baron giving you tons of additional options and unlockables, with a flexible difficulty setting, there’s no shortage of things to do in this game.

As for flaws? There aren’t many. They did a really good job here. I have seen a few instances where my game refuses to load saves, forcing me to backtrack (though it may be to repeated quick saving and saving over them, causing corruption. Don’t abuse that mechanic like I have). The repetitive dialogue of the enemies when looking for you can also be a bit grating, but these are minor nitpicks. This is a chunky, well made game, and well worth its hefty price tag. Don’t be put off by that, give it a try. I would have been happy paying full price for this, and I’m someone who doesn’t like buying anything for full price. Take that anyway you’d like.

Desperados III is a real success story, and I hardly expected to enjoy it as much as I have done. I haven’t finished the game yet, but I’m sure going to keep at it. It’s a game that keeps on giving, has great build quality, and enjoyable difficulty. Even when I want to punch things when the evil guys spot Hector sneaking into position with his trusty Bianca and blows my ten minute planned scheme into smithereens. The Top 5 spot feels right for Desperados III, and its well deserving of that rank.

Monster Train

Deck-building games have been growing in popularity since the launch of Slay the Spire (Which came out of early access in 2020, but you won’t be seeing it this year. Why? Because I haven’t played enough of it)

Monster Train’s systems are easy enough. You have to defend your train from a growing onslaught of enemies, and protect your heart (called the Pyre). If it gets destroyed, you lose. Simple, but makes for an addictive gameplay loop. 8 levels, with increasingly difficult enemies to fight.

There are five different decks in the base, with a major deck and a minor as backup. This makes for some interesting different strategies, and it’s something I’ve really enjoyed playing with. Each deck has a different core plan around it. For example, the Awoken are based around damaging your enemies through them hitting your monsters while using spells for damage, while the Morsels are eaten to buff your stronger monsters. Be careful, because different enemies have different plans of their own. For example, the Morsel deck is powered by sacrificing your army to strengthen your bigger guys. Be a shame if one level had monsters that gained strength for every death?

Just like your opponents, you get boss monsters of your own, and every few levels you’ll get to upgrade them. Transform your champion into something stronger, and you get the chance to strengthen your monsters as well, giving them more HP, more attack damage or give them more abilities. All you need to do is give up gold. There are special challenges too, where you can accept a difficulty modifier for a greater prize. Artifacts also add replayability, with boons that help you out along the way.

Because of this, there is a ton of strategy involved, and it’s really been addictive. I haven’t played 60 hours plus in this game for no reason. Monster Train was not long in Early Access this year, relying on a lightning fast development and launching in 1.0 earlier this year. That’s good, because even at launch, the game was in a beautiful state, with a ton of content and very few technical issues. This game is charming, polished, highly re-playable, and above all, extremely well made. Roguelikes need good gameplay, and Monster Train does so well in these regards.

There’s even mod support now. It’s a slow start, but I know there will be even more content from modders soon. Monster Train is brilliant, and deserves to be at the top of the pack. The best Early Access title of 2020 for me, and it deserves its high place of honor.

Hades

It came down between Hades and Factorio for the ‘Game from previous year that hit 1.0 this year” award, and I decided that while Factorio is a subjectively better game, I just haven’t played it enough to review it properly. Hades is still amazing, and goes beyond its genre in ways I can’t even begin to discuss.

This game broke me for other roguelikes, though there are great examples of them elsewhere. Hades just goes that step further. I have to say, deciding where to place this was probably the hardest task of all. I knew it deserved to be in my Top 5 at least, but how high? With the top two slots given to games that gave me incredible enjoyment, I think Number 3 is the best place for Hades.

Releasing in December 2018 on the Epic Store in Early Access, Hades eventually came to Steam a year later, and launched for real in the middle of September 2020. Made behind the same brilliant guys who made Bastion, Transistor and Pyre, Hades is by far the best game they have ever made, and it’s an example of how good you can make a roguelike/rogue-lite.

I’ll be honest…I don’t particularly like many games in this genre. It might be fatigue because the gaming scene is oversaturated to hell with them, especially in the indie scene. I understand why. It’s a simple mechanic that doesn’t require too much thinking to create. Randomly generated dungeon crawlers, often with permadeath and unlockables to carry through, the gaming scene is overloaded with them. What was once the open world sandbox, Minecraft clone or zombie game 20014 is now the roguelike. It’s really difficult to find games in this scene that really stand out. Hades might just be the best of the lot, and it has a quality to it which people will use to judge all future roguelites/roguelikes/roguebottoms for years to come. It’s that good.

The concept of Hades is simple. You play as (roll credits), Hades’s son, immortal prince of the Underworld. You don’t like living there anymore, and your goal is to escape. That’s it. Joking, there’s a ton more on the surface, and the many Olympian gods juggle to offer you their support to escape the grouchy Dad, playing their own power game. The writing and voice acting in this game is astonishing from beginning to end. It’s unbelievable just how solid everything feels. It’s the best example of what a roguelite can really be, with a story that’s engrossing and emotional, characters that are fleshed out and keep giving after hundreds of hours of gameplay, and fast, well paced combat that never gets boring. Seriously, I’ve got a lot of hours into it, and I’m still finding new voice lines I’ve never heard before. There is a rich and diverse cast, and the game oozes both charm and quality design. The art style is beautiful, with randomly generated paths in Tatarus that are a beauty to look at, and the combat is brilliant. Even for a complete dunce like me at these games, it’s enjoyable and satisfying, with a design that’s easy to play, but difficult to master. The boss battles feel personal, and finishing them is a delight.

There’s so much to unlock as well, extra content, upgrades for your character and bedroom, rooms to unlock with all the nice features, new weapons and ways to upgrade them, and so much more. The amount of content that’s packed into Hades is frightening, piled into a price tag that’s almost insulting to the developers. I rarely find a game that punches below its weight in terms of cost, and too often I find games overpriced. For Hades, I think they could charge more and it would still be worth every penny. With a Switch port that’s brilliant in every way, including Crossplay, Hades is a standout game of 2020, and one of the best games I’ve played, not just this year, but perhaps ever. Even if you don’t like games of this type, I ask to give Hades at least a try. It has no real flaws, except perhaps a difficulty curve that can get frustrating if you’re not suited to difficult games. It does have the same progression issue of other roguelikes, but again, everything feels so tight and well crafted that it’s rarely an issue.

Bravo, Supergiant Games. Bravo.

Popup Dungeon

I love games like this, where you get given a vast toolbox and the speech: “go and explore, have fun. Hell, make your own games!” I picked up Popup Dungeon during September, about a month after its release in the middle of August. I remember wanting it as soon as I saw it, but because I was working hard on the release of Spellforce 3: Fallen God, I had a ton of work to do writing and worldbuilding wise, so I held off on making any big purchases. When things calmed down towards the end of September, I bought Popup Dungeon and began to play. I was not prepared at all for how much I began to enjoy it, and it came so close to my GOTY you could taste it.

The art style grabbed me from the beginning. It’s built around some kind of papercraft model artwork, with a goldmine of cool designs. There’s so much love and charm that oozes through the walls, and all the varied set pieces. Popup Dungeon is a game where you can create almost anything, a game engine within a game. You can make your own characters, spells, enemies to fight, items. Whatever is in the game, you can make yourself with a little work, and there’s no programming skills needed. I’ve waited a long time to find something like this, and I’ve had a ton of fun with it so far.

The game functions like a dungeon master, with events that pop up during the several campaigns already given to you at the start, including a twenty-five level dungeon crawler where you must ascend the Wizard’s dark tower, and all of these have stellar voice acting. The different themes and settings are quite diverse (medieval high-fantasy, Sci-Fi, outer space colonies, etc.), and the characters are all memorable. The devs did a great job making the campaigns interesting, especially for those who just want to play. There’s also a buttload of endless content available too like arena modes if you just want to try out some character powers, or test your new creations in the field. There’s a serious content overload, and I’ve only scratched the surface of what to expect in this game. Combat is a turn-based tactics like Xcom, with so many abilities, enemies and different spells that it can be overwhelming to work out what the hell you’re supposed to do. The gameplay is deep, addicting and enjoyable, with a sense of progression that always left me coming back for more. There’s a charm system you can use to add upgrades to your roster of characters, but this will also increase the difficulty of the encounters!

As of writing this, I’ve put in over 40 hours into Popup Dungeon and completed perhaps 10% of the content. It might be because I just suck at the game at times, and there is some serious difficulty spikes. This, combined with the sheer weight of choices, make it so getting into it might be a bit overwhelming at first. However, I cannot recommend Popup Dungeon enough, and it’s why it’s so high on my list. I even had it as my Game of the Year a couple of times. Really, just give it a try. It’s unique on the market, and one of the best indie releases of the year. The build quality is amazing, there are surprisingly few bugs for the complexity of the game’s mechanics, the campaigns are fun, light-hearted and deep entertainment, the voice acting is brilliant, and there’s so much creativity unlocked. I’ve found a ton of modded, custom made content. Hell, I can fight enemies and crush them with Seto Kaiba’s Blue Eyes White Dragon, protecting them with the Death Star. True story.

Spiritfarer

It takes a lot for a game to emotionally grab me. Outer Wilds did it last year, which won my unofficial GOTY award for 2019. Sitting in the forest with my fellow friends, toasting marshmallows and playing music to the end of the universe gave me catharsis. Enderal: Forgotten Stories is another game that was an emotional rollercoaster, and Lost Ember was the beginning of my enjoyment of ‘arty emotiony feely’ games.

Spiritfarer made me cry. Blame the lovely hedgehog spirit with dementia, who finally remembered me after I wore the hat that reminded me of her daughter…yep…Spiritfarer is an emotional gut punch, but it’s a very wholesome gut punch. Fuck you, game.

Spiritfarer is a game that explores death, but it does it in a cosy and chill way that’s almost a meditation in itself. Artistic indie games are all the rage, but few manage to grab you on a video game level as well. While Spiritfarer isn’t perfect in that regard, it does a hella better job than many others in its category. It celebrates relationships, and while its a reminder that death is a painful thing, it’s incredibly wholesome. The tears I’ve shed playing this game so far are from remembering good times in my own life, as well as emotionally engaging with the characters in Spiritfarer, who come from a diverse and well written cast despite the subtle dialogue. Some of the characters are adorable, others are frustrating but begin to grow on you, and others are just so fucking lovable you feel a gut punch when they finally go.

On a personal note, I’ve been to a few funerals in my time, some a lot more painful than others. One which always sticks out to me was my nanna’s funeral in 2018. While that whole weekend was for a sad occasion, I cannot look upon it without feeling fond of the whole thing. My family and I celebrated my Nanna’s life, who was a wonderful human being in every way, and the funeral and service was both memorable, wholesome and beautiful. I will always look back to that weekend as a positive experience. My family spent our time at a lovely hotel at a marina (one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed at) and I recall a lovely evening with myself, my parents and my sister around a table in the restaurant, just remembering things. It was nice.

Back onto Spiritfarer, while the journey has been an emotional one, it’s been pleasant, because Spiritfarer is comfortable in the best way possible. You play as Stella, newly appointed ferrymaster to the Spirit World when Charon retires. With your rowboat and ship, and accompanied by your adorable kitty Daffodil (The loading screen is her playing with string. Insert adorable squeeing noises), you take on a growing cast of spirits who want to make peace with themselves and journey the world. There’s a lot of management as you build homes for your new family, providing to their needs. You can cook food for them, and there’s a dedicated hug button. The world needs more hugs than ever.

There is crafting, fishing, cooking, plant growing, building, platforming, all the usual elements in a game like this, and all of them are pretty nice to get into. Sure, some of the timers for them are a bit annoying and require some fiddly controls, but it’s all done well. There’s also no pressure to do any of it. Plants don’t die off, though they might get eaten to fuck by sheep (keep those greedy boys in pens!) Your guests will also never starve, even though they’ll complain a lot if you don’t feed them. Guess spirits don’t need food to survive, it just tastes good. Huh.

Spiritfarer is a deceptively long game, with around 30-35 hours estimated content. It took me over 50 hours to complete my playthrough, as I loved exploring and taking time with my spirit friends before the goodbyes. The only flaw I can think of for Spiritfarer, besides occasionally frustrating platforming is it possibly overstays its welcome? I’m not sure. But I cannot fault Spiritfarer for the way it grabbed me on a personal level. Few games are able to do that, and it’s for that reason why Spiritfarer is my personal GOTY.

Finale

It’s been quite the journey. Nearly 20,000 words over six articles, 26 games covered, and a lot has been said. It’s been a strange year for gaming. Giants have fallen, indie and AA continue to impress, and so much more. Let’s see what 2021 brings.

And yes, you will be seeing a Cyberpunk 2077 review early next year. Perhaps by the end of January. And boy, do I have a lot to say about it, both good and bad.

I hope everyone has the best Christmas and New Year they can under the circumstances. Be good to each other.

Games of 2020 – Intermission

Welcome to the article where I shove in my views on a bunch of games I haven’t covered yet. This is more of a talk where I get to ramble about a bunch of video games I’ve played that were released in 2020, and games I’ve either not included in the other categories, games I haven’t put much time into, or just stuff I’d like to discuss.

It’s a bit of a clusterfuck this time, so let’s kick things off right away. These won’t be as long as my previous reviews, more quick fire rounds. It would have been a much longer list than this, so I might keep others back for future articles in January. Let us see!

Gedonia

I wanted to talk about this indie gem sooner, but I only had so many places to put it. It isn’t a Top 10 game, and while it’s a pretty cool early access RPG, other games in that category just did a better job. Still, I wouldn’t sleep on Gedonia. It’s a fascinating little project made by a single developer. You guys are really putting out the good work!

My first thoughts of Gedonia were: so it’s like Zelda mixed with Skyrim? Well, it’s more like the former than the latter. It’s very rough, with a lot of weird bugs with content that needs plenty of work, but there’s easily enough promise here to get stuck into, and I wanted to talk about it at some point. For a very reasonable price tag of 10$, you get to play around in a quirky open world RPG that has a lot of promise, and I’ve seen worse from bigger studios. The music is quite pretty and relaxing, and while there’s very little voice acting, the dialogue is cute and keeps me entertained.

Even though the game is more like an early alpha, Gedonia comes with quite a lot of content. There are plenty of quests to carry out, and the world map is starting to include world events like goblin attacks, with quests that add to the gameplay. The combat, while very clunky and slow, does show promise, with a ton of different ways to kit out your rather goofy character. The character models need work, but there’s some kind of charm to playing something like this. You need sufficient stamina to carry out attacks, so I found I had to run about and dodge attacks while my stamina bar recovered sufficiently to keep combat going. It’s a little iffy, but it’s not quite as bad as ELEX, so it’s something I can tolerate.

Gedonia shows promise. However, it was just a bit too early in development to place it in any of my main lists. Still, if you have 10$ and want to support a solo indie developer, and would like to try out an interesting game, I can recommend Gedonia. I’m keeping a close eye on the game. It might be a bit soon if you want a true, complete and polished experience, but there’s enough to keep your intrigue if you, like me, enjoy trying out games in development.

Kingdoms Reborn

I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve played a torrent of early access titles this year. I’ve had so much fun exploring passion projects, and Kingdoms Reborn is one such game. Launching in early November, its premise grabbed me right away. An open world-Banished style game, focused on trade and multiplayer? I like the sound of that.

It’s pretty darn cool. Sure, it’s in early development like most of these games are, and I’m intrigued to see how it goes on, but I’ve been liking it a lot. You pick your starting location in a rather pretty setting, find a place to begin your bustling city, and begin. You pick up buildings through a trading card system, and only through that system, though houses, farms and roads etc you can make from the start. Everything costs a certain resource, and your goal is to make it through each winter. That means food, and making sure your little guys don’t starve to death. Unfortunately for them, I’m somewhat known as a bit of a sadist when it comes to games, and imagine their shock when they realized I’m entertained when my villages suffer.

The gameplay loop so far is quite simple, and it’s at the beginning of a long development cycle, but it’s fun. It might be worth giving it a look, although it has a long way to go. I decided the game, while entertaining, was just too early to recommend in my Early Access showcase list, but let’s see how it develops in the coming months!

Satisfactory

Boy, this has had an interesting history, and I’m still not sure what to think on it. Back in 2019 during the height of the Epic Store controversy regarding exclusivity, Satisfactory was one of these: Epic exclusivity for one year, with a release to other platforms after the year is up. There have been hundreds, if not thousands of takes on this, and I’m not going to add too much to it. Personally, while I prefer open launches throughout, I don’t blame a smaller dev for taking these deals. That money can mean security, and in a time like this that’s important. At the same time, I appreciate and understand the frustration consumers get from not getting it on their preferred platform, especially when exclusivity wasn’t a major thing on the PC until the Epic Store came along, though separate launchers like EA’s Origin and Ubisoft’s Uplay are still a thing. Even so, I don’t mind waiting (shrugs). I have enough games to play, anyway.

So, Coffee Stain got a bit of flack for taking these exclusivity deals, and their response to it was fair, albeit teasing in a provoking way. A reasonable response, although I’m always fascinated how devs do PR sometimes, and it’s a murky quagmire. While it wasn’t quite as bad as other cases, it’s an easy way to rile up potential customers, who have a lot of emotion when dealing with the Epic Store. Even after the exclusivity period was over, they took their time releasing the game to Steam, again using their quirky means of communication to ‘tease’ a release date. But finally it did come out on 8th June, 2020, to critical acclaim. Hundreds of thousands of sales, and 96% overall positive reviews. Like the methods or not, it’s proof that this is a real success story. From my hands on experience with the game so far, it feels like it deserves the acclaim, though it’ll take a while before I have a concrete opinion on it.

Onto the game itself, Satisfactory is similar to Factorio on first person mode. With impressive visuals that remind me a lot like Subnauctica (another incredible success story from an indie dev in early access), Satisfactory punches above its weight from the get go. My jaw dropped a bit when I booted the game up for the first time. I was expecting muddier graphics, and it looks really nice. The optimization could be improved, but overall it runs very well and shouldn’t be an issue for decent systems. Just like Factorio, you build factories…a lot of them. While Satisfactory has quite the steep learning curve, I’m quite impressed with how much it eases you into it. There’s four major biome worlds to explore and get lost in, with one that functions very much like a tutorial. The voice acting of the AI helper bot is well done, the UI is quite intuitive without being too complex, and you’ve got a bit of breathing room. The open world is vast with a great emphasis on vertically. While the open world is big, there isn’t as much room to expand as you might think, at least if you’re thinking horizontal. There’s a lot to build in this game, and some areas are massive, so you might want to build up, rather than along.

It really helps that resources are infinite, because trying to micromanage resources can be a problem in other games. Constantly running out of materials to craft and having to run about the map like a headless chicken can be frustrating, but there’s few issues like that in Satisfactory. There’s quite a lot of enjoyment to be had in exploring, as these worlds aren’t procedural, like many similar games, but hand crafted, and it’s a very pretty world to boot. I have memories of Ark: Survival Evolved when exploring, without all the problems that plague Ark.

Having a dedicated tutorial island is essential, because without it I would have been lost. A lot of similar games expect you to blindly run around like a chicken, or give you a smack on the bum, say “good luck” and walk away cackling like a supervillain. With its nice UI and helpful hints, you shouldn’t be too overwhelmed when playing this game, especially at the beginning. I’ve only done the tutorial and just about to start in the more gritty aspects of the game, but I’ve been pleasantly challenged so far and I’m looking forward to playing more.

Like all awesome sandbox games, this game also has mod support, and quite a lot of it as well. While the mod support is unofficial and not officially supported, it feels robust. I’ve only tried a few mods so far, but there’s a ton to choose from. I’d like to see official support down the line with Steam Workshop integration, but it just adds even more game time to what is already becoming an addictive game. Apparently, it is coming, so watch this space!

As for flaws, I can’t really find many. There’s some glitches here and there, and I’d like to see less pop-in with far distance objects. There’s also quite a lot of bugs with multiplayer. While playable, it is the weakest part of the game so far. Provided these get fixed in later updates, with the typical content patches to advance the game-state, I find myself being quite happy with Satisfactory. It’s available for $30 on the Epic Store and Steam, which is quite a reasonable price tag for the sheer amount of hours you can get in the game, comparable with stuff like Rimworld, Factorio and Kenshi. I can’t say it’s perfect, but its a dependable game with a lot to offer.

Immortals Fenyx Rising

A decent Ubisoft game? Wonders will never cease.

This game has taken me by surprise. After a torrid year for Ubisoft with inward turmoils, harassment and two broken launches in Watchdogs: Legion and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (though let’s face it, hardly any of their games release in good shape), Immortals was a breath of fresh air for me. With a weird mix of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a little bit of the new Genshin Impact inside, I’ve grown to rather enjoy this game so far. I’ve only a few hours in, so this won’t be much of a review. That review is promised to another blog, Sassygamers, so it’s them I need to thank to hooking me up with a copy of the game.

The story doesn’t feel anything special: Prometheus and Zeus narrating over your gormless hero Fenyx in an over the top, humor-laden dialogue as you try and deal with the big bad threat. It’s corny, and at times tries too hard to be funny, but I’ve found it enjoyable nonetheless, with a few laugh out loud lines that really cheered me up. In a year like this, perhaps an amusing piece like Immortals is the way forward. Not everything has to be serious, all of the time.

What really matters is the gameplay, and I’ve been rather enjoying it. The combat doesn’t do anything particularly well, but it’s solid and fun, and the puzzles at least in the opening slice of the game feel varied. It’s enough to make you think, but not too difficult. It’s a cheese board experience: enjoyable, makes you feel warm and pudgy, and so far? I’ve been pleasantly surprised how nice Fenyx feels. There will be a review in the future, but I wanted to share some brief thoughts on it while I still (hopefully) have folks attention. It’s cute, amusing, doesn’t take itself seriously and comes with some pretty nice gameplay to boot. Might be one of Ubisoft’s best releases in a while.

Persona 4: Golden

IT FINALLY FUCKING RELEASED ON PC! WOOOOOOOOO!

Ahem… I should lay off the coffee. Honestly, I was tempted to just say ‘fuck it’ to my no ports rule and include this in my Top 10, because let’s face it, the PS Vita is one of those oddball handhelds that got screwed over by Sony’s terrible decisions regarding it (rip). Persona 4 Golden never saw the light of day until Summer 2020, when Atlus finally decided to get off its ass and include one of the Persona franchise on Steam, and boy did it deliver.

I love this game so much. I might even like it a bit more than Persona 5, even if the latter is a better game overall. I just feel drawn more to the characters of Persona 4.

I…I know this should be more of a review, but I’m just so happy to see it finally come out on PC. It’s dirt cheap, runs well and is one of the best games ever made. I won’t spoil anything further. Buy it and try it out, even if you’ve never played Persona games before. The soundtracks kick ass, the gameplay is pretty good and there’s a lot of great worldbuilding. You might need some snacks for the lengthier story sequences, though. Enjoy!

Next time is the grand finale: my Top 5 games of 2020! Hope to see you there.

Games of 2020 – 10 to 6

We are finally here with our top 10! It’s been a wild ride, 2020, and I can’t fucking wait for it to end. In the meantime, we’ll be going through my Top 10 favourite games that released in 2020. Let us begin with some reminders!

Previous Years

For fun, let’s look back on the other years for my lists. These are not completely in sync with the articles of those years – they are with hindsight.

Top 10 from 2017:

Divinity Original Sin 2Hat of TimeZelda: Breath of the WildELEXAssassins Creed OriginsTotal War: Warhammer 2Hollow KnightSpellforce 3West of LoathingHellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Top 10 from 2018:

RimworldKingdom Come DeliveranceHitman 2Pathfinder: KingmakerKenshiSubnauticaTwo Point HospitalRed Dead Redemption 2BATTLETECHCrosscode

Top 10 from 2019:

Outer WildsPathologic 2Disco ElysiumEnderal: Forgotten StoriesFire Emblem: Three HousesStreets of RogueWildermythLost EmberPlanet ZooOutward

RULES

Yep, we’re back to the rules. I’m following a strict guideline because of the sheer number of games I’ve played this year.

1. Candidates have to be released in the year they are made, for any platform. I have to own the game and play it for a decent amount of time to count it.An easy enough rule. GOTY Games for me are games released that year, rather than games I’ve played. So, stuff like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding, while PC releases and good games, cannot be part of my list.2. Early Access Titles that are launched in 1.0 this year count, but only if they weren’t featured in previous years. Trying to keep this to a minumum for my Top 10! I will give a little spoiler, there are three high profile games in this category that are in a battle for who gets to be on my Top 10. I wonder if anyone can guess what they are? There will only be one of these in the Top 10 this year, but it is such a strong game I had no choice. This rule is because of 2018, where several older games made the Top 10, with Rimworld winning outright.3. Remasters or Remakes will be allowed if they add a good amount of new content.A fair rule, exists to avoid too much clutter.4. Early Access titles ARE allowed, but only with enough content to support my view. Only three games from these criteria are allowed in Top 10, which will be declared in “Best of Early Access.”Again to avoid clutter, but this is going to be an extremely difficult discussion, so much so I’ll have at least one article dedicated to it. Indie Early Access has been huge this year, with several excellent titles that could be a challenge for the GOTY.

I will also say this outright, I will not be featuring Baldurs Gate 3. While Larian’s latest title has potential to be a giant killer, and despite me enjoying what I have played, it is just not in the amount of content/polish where I can justify putting more time into it. Perhaps 2021?

While I am allowing 3 titles to be in my Top 10, it’s just a guideline.5. I need to be fair. You’ll see why. In other words, No games I worked on can be in my Top 10, even if I may think they deserve to be in my Top 10.Yeah…you’ll hear me gushing to the heavens on media long before I mention the game. A simple rule, just for fairness, really. That was Spellforce 3: Fallen God.6. No Ports.Again, this is to avoid clutter. Sorry, Persona 4: Golden

Previous Articles for GOTY 2020

https://thousandscarsblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/27/games-of-2020-best-of-early-access/

https://thousandscarsblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/games-of-2020-the-honorable-mentions/

https://thousandscarsblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/08/games-of-2020-dropped-the-ball/

And now, the big reveals. I’ll be showing off the 10-6 rankings for today! Let us begin:

10. Crusader Kings III

Let’s begin with something that did not expect me to like so much, partly because I am iffy about the company as a whole.

Crusader Kings III surprised me in a way I did not expect, and I have to give Paradox some credit for this one. Again, something I wasn’t expecting to say. This game is good, but let me delve a bit deeper.

I have an odd relationship with Paradox games in general. They make good games, and support them for years, but they do so with a very liberal approach to DLC which makes getting into their games after a few years intimidating. This has been a double edged sword: on one hand you know they will support their games for a long time, the bad news is you often have to spend a ton of money to pick up the “optimal” version of the game. This is frustrating, and it leads to quite a few developmental problems. Stellaris still struggles with this, and Battletech is, well, Battletech. A lot of underlying problems don’t get fixed.

Crusader Kings III is something I had my eye on ever since it got announced, but I did have my concerns. The last big Paradox game to come out was a god damned mess at launch (Imperator Rome) and it probably pissed off a lot of people. With that in mind, as well as Paradox having their hooker love relationship with add on content, I wanted to wait on Crusader Kings III and see what people thought. Crusader Kings III also launched with quite a high price tag, and with Paradox’s reputation taking somewhat of a hit in recent years, this turned a few people off. What softened the blow was the game being available on the rather nice Xbox Game Pass for the PC (an excellent gaming deal, even if their app is a bit shitty.) It has a relatively small footprint on the harddrive, with system requirements that are fair. So I picked it up and began playing.

I needn’t have worried too much. Paradox likes making complex games with a lot of depth, but there is a sacrifice for that. It usually involves a massive learning curve, and if it takes too long to get into the game, you’ll turn off a lot of people. They seemed to want a change, and Crusader Kings III does a wonderful job at easing you in gently into its meaty folds. That was a terrible comparison, I apologize.

Crusader Kings III still a deep, complex and complicated game with a steep learning curve, but with much better UI and a tutorial that constantly helps you learn as you play. This is huge, because I found myself getting absorbed by this third edition than any other Paradox management and kingdom builder game. The content is chunky, I care about the characters I make, and it’s just generally good gameplay. Overall, it’s one of the strongest Paradox launch games in years. It feels like a true sequel to Crusader Kings II, and while it could do with some more features, it feels like a much stronger experience for it. They did a true 180 on their previous launch in Imperator, and that’s a great thing. While some features have been streamlined for the sake of bringing people in, they didn’t dumb it down like other game franchises. (Makes a cough that sounds a lot like Skyrim and Todd Howard). It’s still early days for this giant, but I’m quite impressed so far. It’s a much better game than I expected from them, and even though I only own the base game for now, I’m liking it enough to consider the DLC. It still has some way to go, however.

Paradox, you have impressed me so far. Keep it up! (And don’t fuck us with DLC without some good lube, at least.) It’s just a shame you once again fucked us with Empire of Sin…

9. Traveller’s Rest

There are three early access titles on this Top 10 list, and I probably won’t change much for what I have to say. So these are mostly copy/pastes from my previous Best of Early Access article for that particular game, with extra notes. At number 9 this year, I place the lovely Traveller’s Rest.

You notice how in RPGs, you always seem to go to taverns? You drink beer, occasionally get into fights with people, piss off the innkeeper, occasionally solicit tavern girls and pick up quests? What if you were the innkeeper? There’s been a serious shortage of these kinds of games, and often they struggle with their design. Crossroads Inn is one of the few examples I can think of, a game that’s had a rocky development to say the least. It’s still interesting, and I’m looking forward to playing that more, but it’s a genre I wish we had more games of.

That’s why I was so interested in Traveller’s Rest. Released in August of this year, Traveller’s Rest is a charming game that reminds me a little of Stardew Valley in its art style and design. You get your tavern from humble beginnings and you need to build up from scratch, making your tavern as comfortable as possible, sell drink and food (which you make yourself) to your guests and rake in a profit. It’s pretty quaint, and surprisingly well polished for a game from a single developer.

There’s a lot of charm in this game as well, with lots of content. You unlock more and more tools and equipment the higher your reputation goes, such as a farm where you can plant crops, and upstairs rooms where you can host guests. The game has a lot of micromanagement especially early game, and you may find yourself overwhelmed at the beginning. This does get easier when you unlock bar staff, who will take care of most of the legwork allowing you to focus on brewing and crafting. With the amount of customization you get to do with your food and drink, there’s an awful lot of experimentation.

Your customers are fickle, and you’ll need to work hard to impress them. Make sure your tavern is clean, as if your little guy don’t like their experience, they will give you a negative feedback, which reduces your reputation score. It’s best not to expand too quickly, a few tables to begin with to seat guests, and order in more stuff as things progress. You get an extensive XP and Tech tree as upgrades which all contribute to your experience, adding more things you can craft or make, improving your abilities as an innkeeper and all sorts.

While this game is addictive, charming and a lot of fun so far, I do have some minor issues. The menu/UI systems are a little clunky, and you’ll need to micro them about by clicking through menus constantly to get where you want to be. That could be improved. Furthermore, NPC interaction leaves a little to be desired, with limited options so far. You do get to unlock more features, but I would like to see an overhaul of their dialog system just to add a little more life.

Despite the few flaws so far, this is a well crafted sim, and one of the strongest in its genre. We’re only a few months into its development, and I’m really excited to see how it progresses. One to look out for, for sure!

It took me some time to decide where to place Traveller’s Rest on the list, and ultimately I decided on replacing Teardown on the Top 10 (Sorry guys, you’re an amazing game too!) However, I decided that 9th place was a good spot. It feels stronger than Crusader Kings III, while not as memorable or interesting as other games higher up the list. It’s a very strong indie title, and if development continues in the way it has into 2021, this could be one hell of a sleeper hit.

8. Paper Beast: Folded Edition

This game proved to be both an acid trip and a really pleasant surprise.

A late addition to the Top 10 list this year, “Happy Clusterfuck” is the best way to describe this game. I still have no idea what’s happening, how to approach the puzzles, and why I’m playing it, but it’s struck me like few other games have. It may be relatively short, but it’s unique, and certainly enough to catch my interest. Right now, it’s only sitting on a handful of reviews on Steam, which is a shame. More people need to try this out, because it’s the right kind of acid trip a gamer should take.

The world explores animalistic behaviors with critters beautifully crafted in an origami style, and you partake on an adventure where you must solve puzzles using the rules of the world. You have a grabber kind of tool where you can seize things, generally the different animals who all have weird traits. Some are predators, some function like dung beetles, some shit out sand as they walk and follow shiny things (so you can manipulate their path as they walk. It’s pretty cool), herbivores that only eat certain plants, strange worms that suck up sand with one end and vomit it out of their asses on the other end. The puzzles are quite elaborate and extensive, and while the adventure mode is pretty linear, there’s a decent amount of content for the price. There are unlockables for the games sandbox mode, which gives you a god’s playground in order to experiment with the many tools or animals. I love stuff like this from my days playing Black and White, Spore and Fable, and this little world gives you room to have some fun.

The physics engine is really pretty quaint. You start off with no fucking idea what’s happening, as you have to run from a sand storm and forced underground. From there, you have to work your way back to the surface, unblocking passages through difficult puzzles…really, I had no idea what was happening at the start. A few times I had to look up video walkthroughs, as some parts of the game are quirky.

Paper Beasts isn’t particularly long: you can go through the seven chapter, twenty-something long campaign in around 10 hours or so. However, it’s one of those journeys that sticks with you. I’ll probably give this the “Lost Ember” slot for this year. The sandbox and god game elements are also fun to mess around with and add some pleasant replayability. I highly recommend giving this game an honest go, as it deserves more recognition, and for that reason, it belongs on my Top 10.

7. Cloudpunk

For those who don’t own Cyberpunk 2077 yet, if you want a cyberpunk setting, Cloudpunk might just surprise you. Oh, and before anyone asks, Cyberpunk 2077 is NOT in my list this year. It got delayed too much, and I finalized my Top 10 before playing it, so it’s not in consideration. I’m willing to discuss it in a later article of course, as I am playing it as we speak.

It was between Cloudpunk and Wasteland 3 for this slot, and I gave it to Cloudpunk based on the atmosphere alone. Driving chill games are a pretty big niche but when done well, are done really well. Euro/American Truck Simulator and Elite Dangerous are two such examples, and I’m going to add Cloudpunk to that list.

Cloudpunk is a game that has certain issues, some superficial, and others more serious. The story is relatively short, and suffers from pacing. The entire story takes place on a single night, when spreading the events out over a week might have fixed those issues. You play as Rania, a girl moving from the outer districts to the massive megalopolis of Nivalis, a gritty, cyberpunk city where profit and debt are king. Yep, we’re back into the capitalist vibes that come with every cyberpunk theme. You’ll see the usual stuff, AI things, droids and all that stuff. You play as a delivery driver working at Cloudpunk, a nice little taxi service with a dark undertone. You get to do nice things like deliver suspicious parcels (that may or may not be to do with explosives), pick up odd passengers and run across the city multiple times in order to fund your iffy new life in Nivalis. Accompanied by your AI dog companion, it’s a short but sweet story. It’s amazing at setting the scene, and the worldbuilding while very subtle does the job well.

You don’t get an awful lot to do in Cloudpunk right now, which some may find a little offputting. You can drive your flying car around, and there are segments where you go out into the streets to chat to people, pick up collectables. You can upgrade and repair your car with gear, but this doesn’t do a whole lot. It’s not the substance that makes Cloudpunk interesting however, it’s the immersion. It really makes you feel like being in a crowded, over the top cyberpunk city. In the early stages of Cloudpunk’s launch, you could only drive/go on foot in third person, which made for some really off camera angles. However, the devs have made wonders in recent patches, and now you can play the entire game in first person now.

First person driving is a game changer, as these screenshots down below show. It just…it’s breathtaking how the game looks and feels from this angle, and it’s amazing how one change revolutionizes the game. Before this update, Cloudpunk was on the brink, but I was planning on dropping it from the Top 10 for Wasteland 3. However, upon playing the game with the new driving update, it’s an incredible change and it’s so relaxing driving, listening to the rain. With big content updates planned in the future for a more extensive main questline and other things (which this game really needs), there’s a big hope for Cloudpunk.

The story isn’t much to write home about; dealing with an increasingly rogue AI called Cora while Nivalis buckles under its own weight while you do odd jobs, but the characters are overall solid, and diverse. I used to laugh at the voice acting, because it’s one area that really needs improvement. Some are excellent, while others are atrocious. The dialogue and writing are a bit of a mixed bag as well, and it’s almost a blessing that the main game is an 8-10 hour experience.

This isn’t a bad thing. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, which is important. With more games relying on expanded playtime, it’s sometimes nice to have a shorter game. The ending is a bit of an anti-climax that doesn’t change much in the long-term, but it gets the job done, I guess. Storytelling isn’t the game’s strong point.

I’ll make this clear: Cloudpunk has absolutely stunning sound and visual design, and it’s that which sells the game for me. I’ve rarely played a game in 2020 that drew me into its world, and it does it gently. You can’t really interact much with the world, and I’d love to see future updates that allow little things like that, but the driving is a pleasure, especially in the first person, and you’ll rarely find an indie game with as much atmospheric delight at this. It’s relatively cheap, and a fresh experience. You might need to fiddle with settings for top performance, as it’s surprisingly intensive, and it might be the most flawed game on my Top 10, but it deserves to be here. It has a charm to it that other games haven’t given me, and that’s why it is so high on my Top 10.

Just don’t buy the Switch version. Please. Don’t embarrass yourself. Stick to the PC version. And developers, fix your Switch port. Please?

6. Urtuk: The Desolation

Just like Traveller’s Rest, I’ll post the review in italics, but do not sleep on this game. I’ve rarely enjoyed a tactical experience like Urtuk.

Single developer games are really ramping up in quality, and this turn based tactics game is really strong. Made by a single guy, David Kaleta, Urtuk: The Desolation is really an interesting game with a ton of polish.

Set in a grim, low-fantasy open world, you command a small force of brave adventurers as you travel through this desolate, ruined realm, looking for a tunnel to advance through the world state. I have to talk about the combat, because I have rarely played such a strong, dynamic system. Heavily relying on terrain, the turn-based system is fluid, highly adaptable with a ton of depth. Your characters are diverse as well. Support your characters with a wide range of styles too, and upgrade them with mutators; dangerous abilities that reduce your health, but vastly increases your options. Attack from range with your crossbowman, snipe them with your assassin blades, be a high risk, high return berserker with a big axe, support them with your monk. Being able to swap out mutators at will gives you a ton to work with, and I mean it when I say this is one of the best tactics games out there.

Like I said before, the terrain gives you plenty of things to do. Shove your opponents into spikes to damage them, into oil pits to slow them down, or down spiked ravines to kill them instantly. Of course, your enemies can do the same to you as well, so be careful. You can also extract abilities from your enemies, who come from a wide range of classes like Scavengers, Beasts, Vampires and Werewolves, and use resources to steal them for yourself. This gives even more replayability. Upgrade your characters to gain more stats, and you gain money and life essence. If your characters are injured, heal them with medicine, which is limited. You can buy more, but this is a gritty world and it doesn’t come cheap. The world grows around you as well, with parties hunting down your mutated characters and they grow stronger alongside you. Your guys also level up and learn new abilities, which gives a ton of awesome new things to do. There’s a lot of experimentation available, and it’s open-ended gameplay is a strength, not a weakness.

Urtuk really is a passion project with some excellent build quality. There’s even a Conquest mode in beta set aside from the main campaign, with unlockable options and more planned. It’s also fairly cheap and runs on almost anything, with a great soundtrack.

Urtuk is really fucking good, guys. It’s a tight and well designed tactical RPG, and it might be one of the best in the business. It was difficult deciding where to place this, because a large part of me wanted to put it in my Top 5. However, I think it’s in a good place. Give it a go, and I think you’ll be as impressed as I am. Really one to look out for. Take a bow, David. You’ve done an incredibly good job.

Finale

Before we announce the Top 5, I will have one more article to show, which will be a buffet of games that deserve at least a few words, good or bad. Until then, be prepared!

Games of 2020: Dropped the Ball?

If you can dodge a car, you can dodge a ball…

Dodgeball was a fucking weird movie.

I was intending to release my Top 10 games article this week, at least the first half, but I wanted to get the more negative side of things away first. Hopefully this will still be a illuminating read.

Now we’re onto more critical topics. While there have been a lot of great games released in 2020, there have been the games that could have done better. A lot better.

Unlike previous gaming rants I’ve done in the past where I’ve really torn into games, I’ll try not to do that this time. I also wouldn’t call these games bad by any means. In fact, some are pretty good, enjoyable and ambitious. However, all of the games I will be discussing today have had major problems, either in development, gameplay itself, their launch, or other factors. I’m going to try and be as honest and respectful as possible as well. With my new insight in the industry, and factoring in 2020’s pandemic for affecting a lot of development cycles, some slack should be given.

Still, this should be an entertaining article for many. These are games I’ve played this year which just missed the mark for me. Now, I’ll always say this is subjective (because every fucking opinion is!) and what may not work for me, may work for you. Hell, I enjoyed some of these games, and still do. They all deserve second chances, which is not like other games I’ve reviewed in the past. Looking at you, Anthem.

Before I start, I’ll say I have not played abominations such as the Outer Worlds Switch port or WarCraft III Reforged. So they are not on this list.

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord

Oh, boy. Why don’t we kick off with one of the most notorious games of all time, let alone 2020.

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Do you guys remember Mount and Blade: Warband? It was one of the best sandbox games ever made, with an addictive gameplay loop, incredible mod support and a structure that is hard to beat. Taleworlds took their time with this, but Warband is one hell of a success story. Years ago (I’m talking like 2011 time), Taleworlds Entertainment announced the development of the sequel, Bannerlord.

And we waited. And waited.

Years passed. Elections, economic crashes and war passed with a blink in the eye. Still nothing. Development videos came and went, with development moving like a sloth on crack. You can imagine what the player scene and fanbase were thinking. When is the game going to come out? Will it come out? Will this become the Winds of Winter of games, or Star Citizen?

Then we finally got the game…in Early Access in March 2020. And a £39.99 price tag. That is quite the price jump from Warband’s very fair price point, and for a small studio in alpha state? That’s a big balls play that was controversial from the beginning. I’ve always been fascinated by pricing in games, and what people view as acceptable. In a year of financial instability and worldwide chaos, money is even more important, so a £40 title by a developer with a reputation for slow development and barren launches was always going to be difficult to sell.

[image error]I do love the shield wall.

I’m not criticizing them too much on this, as I like the developer and I enjoy Mount and Blade. Warband is one of my favourite games of all time. There’s no other game like it on the market. With the first giant worldwide lockdown. Taleworlds did a good thing and released Bannerlord a week early, something people rarely do. Furthermore, it got a chunky 20% discount at launch. So I picked it up and began playing.

Let’s start off with the good. It’s Mount and Blade just like I remember it. The combat is fun and meaty, and roaming around building an army from scratch is great. The gameplay loop, so important in an endless sandbox RPG like this, or any game for that matter, is still solid, and I had fun for the first 20-25 hours. Warband was never a looker as graphics went (It makes Morrowind and Oblivion look pretty), so Bannerlord’s graphical improvements were a delight. It does look rather gorgeous at times, and the cities look good, even in their placeholder, rudimentary state.

And this is where the bad begins. It’s just like Warband, and that’s where the problems begin. I expected more progress in the game after so many years, you know? Even in 2020, I feel they released it in a half-baked state. Sure, it’s playable and fun, but half the systems barely worked, the kingdom management and economy is broken, and everything just feels a bit off. It’s also quite the demanding title with it’s fair share of bugs and glitches. While things are improved over Warband (and thank christ for that) such as inventory management, a family dynasty with birth/death, more flexible companions and an enhanced sense of progression, the story is barely worth mentioning, the AI is a complete mess and very few battle maps. The towns and villages are very repetitive, though they have been open about all this; many things are in placeholder, and will be updated…

I have my concerns about Bannerlord. After so many years in development for it to be like this, I have to admit I’m a little worried, and as we step into the end of 2020, it doesn’t feel like there’s been much progress. Sure, bug fixes and perks have been added, with improved systems, but it makes me wonder if they have the ability to pull things off.

Despite this, there are some lights at the end of the dark tunnel. Full mod support finally got released not long ago, which will go a long way to helping, and while I’ll be a little mocking of the games slow development, I can’t fault their communication and desire. I began Bannerlord full of praise back in April, but like a messy kebab from a questionable takeaway, the shits began hours later. Still, I can’t deny the game is fun and satisfying, if you’re prepared to handle a perfect example of controversial early access development. Let’s see how it goes before we pass judgment.

Iron Harvest

Oh, Iron Harvest, what you could have been.

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A kind word of advice to anyone who wants to develop a game. If you’re going to charge close to AAA price of £45 odd, at least make sure:

1) Your launch goes as smooth as possible and

2) Make sure you keep your promises?

Iron Harvest failed both of these, so no wonder the backlash was so strong.

People get very testy over video game prices, and if people think it’s too high for what it is, they will complain about it. Iron Harvest at its core has a stunning art piece with really strong writing, especially for a strategy game. There should be more strategy games with writing as solid as this. However, the launch was a real mess. Not only was the game buggy, but it launched with only a portion of the multiplayer maps available. That, combined with iffy AI interactions make for a difficult first impression. Yes, I know they have a roadmap and plan on changing this, and yes, it has improved significantly since its launch, but this should not be okay.

I try, as my new experience in the gaming industry, to be more sympathetic towards devs. And I really am for these guys. Clearly, something was happening behind the scenes to rush its launch, which must be frustrating. I can’t help but wonder had they charged a more reasonable price for a game like this, reception would have been a bit more positive.

Unlike every other game on this list, I got stopped playing Iron Harvest by technical issues. I was going into the campaign, and I’ll say it’s a pretty nice experience. The mechs are cool and the worldbuilding is excellent, just probably needed a few more months in the cooker. It’s quite a good campaign, and I really feel like it could have been something I would have liked. Imagine my horror when my system revved up like a rocket, and BOOM! Blue Screen of Death. No other game or application gave me it, it was just something in this game.

I tried again, same thing. Nothing I did could get past the issue, so I unfortunately had to give up on the game around a third into the campaign. It’s a real shame, because the campaign and the game itself was starting to grow on me. I enjoyed the characters and the story, and I was beginning to get to grips with it all. There’s still deep problems with Iron Harvest, such as shallow core gameplay, a buggy and at times broken AI, more bugs which make it easy to exploit, and a multiplayer that is shallow at best, and nearly unplayable at worst.

Still, there’s hope. The developers are working hard to repair the mistakes, and the game might have a bright future with their solid communication and motivation. I’m just sad I got stopped by technical problems. It really could have been something. Still, even if I didn’t get the computer screwups, I would still stick Iron Harvest in this list. It’s just got too many issues for me, from a game which needed everything to be perfect at launch. Shame, because the campaign was shaping up to be something good.

The Waylanders

Out of all the games on this list, I feel the most regret putting this game here, because in some regards it doesn’t deserve it. However, things about the Waylander’s launch state irked me enough to put it on here.

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I’ll start by saying I think it has a bright future. Waylanders is an Early Access title that’s a spiritual successor to the popular Dragon Age franchise, even developed by a bunch of talent’s who worked on Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Pillars of Eternity. Launching in June 2020, it presented an important dilemma in game development: when is it too soon to launch a title?

Because Waylanders was not a game at launch. Pre-alpha is calling it generous. It was a few hours content if that, buggy and broken at times, built on the back of something that promised far more. This is not how a game should have launched. There’s the makings of an excellent title in here. The characters are interesting, the dialogue is well written and there’s the embryo of a really good story inside.

[image error]Some of the characters are really fucking cool.

The problem is you barely get any chance to see it. There’s missing content and cutscenes everywhere in the beginning of the game, and when you’re trying to see if it’s worth continuing, it makes for an awful first impression. I streamed my first thoughts live on Twitch, and I was laughing throughout at the experience, but it made for an uncomfortable opening – not the kind of game that made you want to keep trying. There’s also all the bugs and glitches, but eh. This I’m more forgiving of. The game is pre-alpha and they were very open in discussing that. I knew what I was getting into. For the Kickstarters, it must have been frustrating to see it launch it the state it was.

They’re also asking a rather steep £29.99 for this. Now, I’m of the belief that if you’re selling an alpha state, your price point should reflect that and launch at least a bit cheaper. There’s been several big early access releases that launched too expensive for me, like Waylanders, Bannerlord and Baldurs Gate III (the latter is a special case, but it suffers from the same issues, if not more so for its AAA price tag). Right now, Waylanders is not worth its current price point, not even close. And it makes me sad to say that, because I think of all the games I’m talking about today, it has the highest potential. There’s some great worldbuilding in here with mythology rarely seen in games, and the characters were pretty good.

[image error]World is a bit…barren.

I just feel they released it too soon. It’s seen significant patches and a lot more content, so it’s in a better state than it was. I’d just wished it was like this at launch.

Windbound

Another game that launched too soon in my eyes. I had high hopes for this one, I really did. An open world style Zelda survival game with riding boats? I liked the look of it, at least in the beginning.

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And then I played it. And oof. It’s really a ‘jack of all trades, master of nothing’ kind of game. By that, I mean it’s trying to be several different games, and doesn’t do a great job at any of them. There’s survival, crafting, open world, seafaring…it does do a lot.

Now, I’ll start by saying it has some nice qualities. It’s fairly relaxing, the graphics are cute and quaint, and the music is nice to listen to. While the story isn’t anything very exciting, its serviceable and does its job. The problem for me was how the mechanics played out. The survival mechanics had little place in a game like this, and I found myself having to constantly watch my hunger levels. The combat was also simplistic and not interesting, with basic enemies that weren’t dynamic. I never found myself challenged by the combat, and fighting just felt like a slog.

The biggest problem for me was the game’s perceived length. It was advertised at 40 hours, but no way in fuck is that the case. Sure, if it lasts longer because of the crafting, exploration and side quests than fair enough, but they barely felt worth doing for me. The main quest is more like 10-12 hours max if you take your time. A lot of people felt it was badly advertised, which I agree with in a way. It doesn’t know what game it wants to be, and in such spreads itself too thin across too many genres, most in an over saturated market, and the quality suffers. It’s still a chill game and has potential, and the developer has been making progress in fixing these issues, including an endless mode that should add to the content.

Overall, not bad, but it was a disappointing release for me. I think there’s enough to make it worthwhile, as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

A real shame, because Age of Empires II’s remaster was pretty good.

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Sure, its a bit buggy, but it does a lot of things well, and it’s a joy to play. So when they announced the AOE3 remaster, I was intrigued. Would it live up to expectations? AOE3 is probably the ugly duckling of the Age of Empires scene, overshadowed by the likes of its predecessor and the excellent Age of Mythology. (We do not talk about Tales of the Dragon.) Despite the tough competition, it was still a good game with some fascinating mechanics, and decent campaigns, though I think they were outclassed by its rivals.

This remaster…had some big launch issues, and it was a real disappointment how botched it was. I’m talking about the usual broken AI, graphical glitches and bugs, muddy graphics despite the advertised graphical upgrade, a general lack of improvement over the original game (a big comedown as opposed to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition), memory leaks and much more.

There were also some concerns by people over historical revisionism with the game. Some stuff, like changing the Sionx and Iroqois to their preferred names, feels perfectly fine, but I did find some concern over them trying to get rid of colonialism in a game exactly about that. It’s a dark time in world history, and I understand what they wanted to do in such political times. In this case however, it felt more like trying to gloss over that period of history completely…and that in my mind is a bit of an error. I completely understand why they felt they had to do it, but it has a sour taste on the mouth.

This, alongside broken multiplayer and unbalanced new factions to play, makes this remaster another example of something that was a bit rushed out the gate. Even so, there’s still time to fix things, and unlike other games (Cough, XIII Remastered) there’s a place for this game. Disappointing to see it being a bit broken though.

Conclusion

There were a few other games I could have placed here, but five was a nice number. Join me soon, as I reveal the first half of my Top 10 games of 2020!

Authors in Isolation: Anna Stephens

I have a particularly special interview for everyone today! I was lucky enough to pull Anna Stephens away from her excellent new release The Stone Knife long enough for a quick chat in the Scar den. Come check it out by clicking the link below!

First of all, tell me about yourself! What do you write?

Hi, I’m Anna Stephens and I write epic fantasy that often slides into grimdark. Battles and betrayals predominate, but there’s always a thin thread of hope (sometimes very thin) to carry the characters through the carnage.

My debut series is the Godblind trilogy – Godblind, Darksoul, Bloodchild – and my new series, Songs of the Drowned, begins with The Stone Knife, which has just come out.

How do you develop your plots and characters?

I tend to start with characters first, with a voice or an image that come to me and from which the characters begin to develop. I get a sense of their personality and how they live first, and then build them up until they’re broadly ‘real’, so to speak. Then I start thinking about what sort of challenges they might face and how they’d deal with that, which gives me an idea of what the world might look like and the conflict they’re going to end up in.

So it’s all character first, world second, plot third for me.

Tell the world about your current project!

I’m currently redrafting the second book in Songs of the Drowned in line with the edits made to The Stone Knife, the first book in the new series, which was published on 26 November.

Songs of the Drowned is an epic fantasy series of empire, colonialism, conquest and resistance, set on a tropical peninsula and featuring queernorm societal structures, magic, monsters, shamanism and spies.

Who would you say is the main character of your latest novel? And tell me a little bit about them!

As is usual with me, I have more than one protagonist, but I’ll talk a little bit about Xessa, who is a deaf warrior dedicated to doing battle with the Drowned, the humanoid amphibious predators that plague her people, in order to secure enough fresh water for her city.

She’s vibrant and reckless and fiercely loyal to her people, friends, and city, and when the Empire of Songs begins its invasion of her homeland, she has to confront her own prejudices and horror at killing people rather than monsters.

Have you been to any conventions? If so, tell me a little about them!

Many! I really love conventions, everyone’s there to share in their love of books and geekdom and SFF fans are mostly giant nerds, which means I fit in well. In general, everyone is really welcoming and it’s easy to make friends and catch up with people you haven’t seen in a while.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I think it’s something I’ve always wanted to do for as long as I can remember, but I was fourteen or so when I expressed it as something I wanted to work towards. My family didn’t take me seriously for a long time, and even when I started getting short fiction published I don’t think they saw it going anywhere, but it never discouraged me. I’ve always been extremely stubborn when it comes to things I’m passionate about, and it paid off in the end.

If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the world for a year while writing a book that took place in that same setting, where would you choose?

As my current series takes some inspiration from Central American civilisations, I’d love to spend time there for a year, visiting Tikal and Calakmul and Tenochtitlan, among other places, and speaking to farmers and weavers and historians.

What advice would you give new writers?

Finish the draft. It’s impossible to improve or edit a book you haven’t written or finished. Just the act of writing a novel-length manuscript is a huge achievement you should be proud of, but if you just keep rewriting the opening 25,000 words over and over to ‘make them perfect’, you’ll never get any further.

Finish the draft.

What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding?

As mentioned, in order to create a world and civilisation with real depth and a sense of realness to it, I did a lot of research into Central American – mostly Mayan, and some Aztec Triple Alliance – history. I focused on agriculture and architecture, farming and the cultivation of jungle, road-building and social structures of the pre-Mayan Collapse nations.

This gave me a shape for my societies and how they interacted with their environments and each other so that I could build my cultures in a way that fitted with how people lived and moved and travelled and fought. I wanted them to be a seamless part of their world, not a society stuck in a landscape it didn’t understand and couldn’t interact with.

What inspires you to write?

Oof, everything! I like to write about issues that are important to me, but I also like to have fun and entertain people. I want you to finish a book and know that it’s made you think, but I also want to know that you had Real Emotions while reading it and maybe even learnt a couple of things.

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

It can really vary by project. I struggled with the first draft – the first couple of drafts, really – of The Stone Knife, because it’s such a different book to my previous ones, but I really got stuck in to the editing process and that’s when I fell in love with the characters and story. Before that, with Bloodchild, my third book, I loved the drafting process and struggled with the editing.

So there doesn’t seem to be any particular rule for what I’ll find difficult with any new project.

What is your routine when writing, if any? If you don’t follow a routine, why not?

Lots of green tea, lots of instrumental and/or foreign language music, and LOTS of staring out the window or going for walks to try and resolve plot issues.

I try and write every day, but my weekend word count is half my weekday count, because hey, it’s the weekend. And if I don’t write on a Saturday, I also don’t worry about it. Unless I’m on deadline (which is mostly always) when I write every day without fail and can often be found hastily scribbling ideas and notes for myself during the evenings.

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write in any of your books, and why?

Wow, that’s a tough question! It’s also going to be spoiler-heavy, so look away now if you haven’t read my first trilogy!

I really loved the final chapters of Bloodchild, even though each one seemed to try and outdo the last in terms of emotional devastation. The epilogue to Bloodchild was probably one of my favourite things to write, because I’d been waiting at least fifteen years to show that single moment.

I still can’t read the final chapters without crying.

Did you learn anything from writing your latest book? If so, what was it?

I learnt a lot about the environment and history of Central America, which was absolutely fascinating, and I went through a really strange period when I was drafting The Stone Knife in which I’d write something, or introduce a character, plot twist or concept, and then a week later, I’d find something very similar to the thing I’d invented in the book I was reading for research.

For example, I have two advisers to the Singer called the ‘Spear of the Singer’ and the ‘Spear of the City’, who look after the military and economic sides of the government respectively.

When I was reading “1491: new revelations about the Americas before Columbus”, I came across a reference to the Mexica, who divided authority between a tlatoani – a diplomatic and military commander – and a cihuacoatl – who supervised internal affairs.

It was so similar to my Spears that it was actually a bit freaky.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? A gardener or an architect?

I think I’m halfway between the two. I know how it starts and ends, and I have four or five major plot points that I need to hit, but how we get to those plot points I leave up to the characters and my subconscious. I like the freedom that gives me to try new things, but within a framework to keep me on track towards the ultimate goal of the book.

If you had to give up either snacks and drinks during writing sessions, or music, which would you find more difficult to say goodbye to?

Oh, that’s really tough! I am mildly addicted to green tea, so it would be really hard not to be able to drink a few pots of that a day – I’m drinking some right now, in fact – so I’d probably say music. I do have some days where I won’t listen to music for long stretches while writing.

Which is your favorite season to write in, and why?

My study is the coldest room in our house (typical) so I am not a fan of winter from a writing perspective. I’d probably say spring, because the birds are active defending their territories and the weather’s generally a little warmer, meaning I can lose the fingerless gloves.

It’s sometimes difficult to get into understanding the characters we write. How do you go about it?

I like to give each character one defining trait to build their personality around – the loyal warrior, the astute politician, the curious shaman etc. That becomes the core of them, and then I spend time wondering how they would react to different situations and threats and rewards. I’ll intentionally brainstorm arguments between characters to see how they react – are they combative or diplomatic – or I’ll imagine them outside their comfort zone and how they deal with it. It all goes to building up my understanding of their personality. It’s like making a new friend.

What are your future project(s)?

I’ve got some more Black Library projects that I’m working on, a Super Secret Project I can’t talk about, and book 2 of Songs of the Drowned. So I’m pretty busy!

What is your favorite book ever written?

This question is absolutely impossible to answer because it changes so regularly. I’ve read Lord of the Rings a dozen times, but I’ve also read Green River Rising a dozen times and they’re wildly different books. It really changes depending on my mood.

Who are your favorite authors?

Oh, yikes. Um, I don’t think we have enough time for this.

Tolkien, Jen Williams, Terry Pratchett, Tim Willocks, Joe Abercrombie, Sam Hawke, Ursula le Guin, Mary Shelley, Euripides, Daphne du Maurier, Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Kameron Hurley, Nnedi Okorafor, Tessa Gratton, Giles Kristian, Scott Lynch, Robin Hobb, Tasha Suri, Murakami Haruki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Alice Walker…

What makes a good villain?

Someone who is every bit as complex and conflicted as the hero. Someone who believes that what they’re doing is right and for the right reasons. Someone who doesn’t revel in bad things for the sake of them being bad. Someone you have to love a little bit.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

See the ‘current projects’ answer above – I don’t have spare time!!

Read, watch an indecent amount of Chinese and Korean dramas, practice HEMA and karate, drink gin.

If you couldn’t be an author, what ideal job would you like to do?

I always wanted to be a firefighter, as I come from a family of firefighters, but back when I was eligible to join they had stricter rules on eyesight and I’m blind as a bat. I think, now, if I had to do it all over again, I’d be a nurse. I like helping people.

Coffee or Tea? Or (exult deep breath) what other drink do you prefer, if you like neither?

Green tea, loose leaf, in a Japanese pot served into a chawan.

You can travel to anywhere in the universe. Where would you go, and why?

I’d love to find a friendly alien society and see how they do things, what lessons we can learn from them. But the emphasis is firmly on the ‘friendly’, thank you very much.

Do you have any writer friends you’d like to give a shoutout to?

Lots! Books I’ve loved this year are by Tasha Suri, Leife Shallcross, Devin Madson, EJ Beaton, Sam Hawke, Shelley Parker-Chan, Zen Cho, Fonda Lee, Pete McLean, Edward Cox, Tade Thompson, Stewart Hotston, David Wragg, Demi Harper…

Pick any three fiction characters. These are now your roadtrip crew. Where do you go and what do you do?

Oh no, too many choices. Um, I’m going to go with books I’ve read that aren’t released yet, so Priya from Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, Zhu from Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun, and Lysande from EJ Beaton’s The Councillor.

There will be alcohol, possibly drugs, and a lot of murder. But we have cool magic and the Mandate of Heaven on our side, so we’ll be fine.

What superpower would you most like?

Flight. And a prehensile tail (which isn’t a superpower, I know) for holding snacks.

What are two of your favorite covers of all time? (Not your own.)

City of Lies, by Same Hawke, and The Vagrant, by Peter Newman, are both spectacular. And a special shout out to the red and white cover of The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Mishima Yukio.

It’s a very difficult time right now for the world. When quarantine and pandemic comes to an end, what is the first thing you would like to do?

Meet up with friends and hug them until it gets awkward and over-long.

Finally, what is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

Twitter – @AnnaSmithWrites – and my website – https://anna-stephens.com/