Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 46

Review: Glitch, Season One

With my Star Trek rewatch wrapping up, I was looking for something new to watch on Netflix. Enter Glitch. I’d not heard of this show, but the premise seemed intriguing, so I decided to give it a shot. What I discovered was an intriguing, if flawed, series.

So far, only the first season is available, and it’s extremely short (only six episodes), so it seemed to make more sense to review the entire season instead of going episode by episode.

The other walking dead:

Glitch is a show with a simple yet unusual premise. One night, in a small town in rural Australia, a number of dead people claw their way out of their graves. Confused and frightened, they are found by a local police officer named James, and a doctor named Elishia.

They are not zombies. They’re not animate corpses. They appear to have been truly resurrected, restored to life in apparently perfect health.

This despite the fact that all of them have been dead and buried for years. The most newly deceased is Kate, James’ wife, who died of cancer two years previously. The eldest is Patrick Fitzgerald, the town’s founder, who has been dead since the nineteenth century.

In between those extremes are a diverse collection of deceased. The kind and gentlemanly Charlie was a soldier in the First World War. Carlo met his end in the 40s. Maria is a pious Italian housewife who fell in the 1960s. Kirstie was a wild child before her untimely death in the late 80s. One, found in an unmarked grave, has no memories at all and is simply labelled John Doe.

It falls to James and Elishia to hide the Risen (as they are called) as sinister forces begin to seek them out. As for the Risen themselves, they are left to struggle with life after death. Many of them are alone in the world, their friends and family having died long ago, yet for those who still have relations among the living, the path may be harder still.

It’s certainly an interesting premise. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. The mystery is intriguing, but there may be a little too much of it.

You would think that a show with such a short season would waste no time, but in fact Glitch is a very slow-paced show that is very stingy with its answers. Most of the questions you probably have right now if this is your first time hearing about the show are questions I still have, even after seeing every episode.

There is going to be a second season, so there’s still time to explain things, but I don’t like being strung along like this.

It also turn into a bit of a soap opera sometimes. Being who I am, I am of course most interested in the fantastical elements of the show, but Glitch spends more time on interpersonal relationships and who’s sleeping with who this week. It can get a bit tiresome.

Glitch also features my least favourite kind of story: the love triangle. And this is a really good example of why I hate love triangles so much. It takes up a lot of screentime while doing nothing whatsoever to advance the story. It accomplishes nothing but to make every character involved look like a total sleazebag.

On that note, another issue with Glitch is that most of the characters are pretty unlikable. It lessens the drama when you don’t care about half the cast.

The good news is that the characters that I do like, I really like.

By far the highlight of the show is Charlie. His earnest, good-hearted nature does wonders to make the otherwise grim tone of the series easier to bear.

I’m also rather fond of Kirstie. She’s not the most level-headed person, but her spunk can be endearing, and she has one of the better stories in the show. I won’t spoil too much, but the most powerful scene in the season comes from her exploring her tragic past. It’s very powerful.

Patrick grew on me after a while, too. He’s a bit of a lowlife in some ways, but he’s not without his own odd form of charm.

Those three are what carry the show. Even if I’m frustrated by the slow pace or sneering at the rest of the cast, I’m enjoying the stories of Charlie, Kirstie, and Patrick enough to make Glitch worthwhile.

Overall rating: 7.3/10 Probably not going to be your new favourite show, but it might be worth a look if you want to try something different.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: fantasy, Glitch, review, sci-fi, TV

SWTOR: Super Trooper

I’m making it a goal to finish every class story in Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’ve already done half of them, and with all the various different experience boosts I’ve accrued over the past few months, I can afford to skip everything but the class missions themselves when leveling a new character. That makes each class story quite a quick, breezy affair.

I’ve spent the large majority of my time on the Imperial side so far, so it’s time to show the Republic some love. I’m starting with trooper. This actually isn’t my original trooper that I created when I first tried the class a few months ago, but a new one I started recently with a different subclass and appearance.

The mission:

I’ll be upfront: This was probably my least favourite class story to date.

Chapter one was somewhat interesting. It’s a good premise, anyway. Not exactly what you’d expect, and it gives you a strong personal motivation. I don’t want to say too much because it’s a pretty good twist, and I don’t want to spoil it.

However, it had issues. Normally I’m not one to complain about the lack of meaningful choice in this game — it does a good job of presenting the illusion your choices matter, even though they usually don’t — but in this case it really did feel like I had no say in things. This was a rare case where I usually wanted to spare my enemies, but I never seemed to have the chance.

And in general chapter one’s story wasn’t explored in enough depth. You learn some disturbing things, but nothing ever comes of those revelations.

Unfortunately, flawed though it was, chapter one was still the highlight of the story. I literally just finished the story before writing this, and I’ve already forgotten much of the last two chapters. They’re that forgettable.

Spoiler alert: You shoot Imperials. That’s basically the whole story.

Something else that bothered me is how flat the trooper himself feels. Normally in this game I can quickly get a good feel for who my character is, where they came from, and what their goals and ideals are. My trooper just felt like a soulless avatar the whole way through.

I’ve heard and enjoyed Brian Bloom in several other game roles, and I know he’s a good voice actor, so I don’t think it’s his fault. Either my creativity has failed me, or the writing for the trooper was just that bland.

I have mixed feelings on the class’s gameplay. I liked this subclass a lot on my bounty hunter, but the trooper’s animations don’t have nearly as much flair, and it turns out to be another class that suffers badly from the inevitable button boat as you level. Always good to enjoy your class less the higher level you get.

I’m trying to unlearn the desire for min/maxing drilled into me by the MMO community and ignore the stupid fiddly extra abilities that are important for optimal DPS in a raid scenario but largely unnecessary when just messing around on my own, but it’s difficult.

That said, there are a few things I did like about the trooper story.

For starters, the actual mechanical design is a little better than average. The cutscenes are a little more cinematic feeling, and the mission design is a bit more creative — there’s the occasional simple puzzle, for instance.

Doesn’t make a big difference, but the effort deserves recognition, at least.

I also found it interesting how incredibly bad the Republic looks in the trooper story. There seems to be no end to the corruption and incompetence within the Republic hierarchy, and at times your superiors can be so nasty they’d fit right in with the Sith.

I think the trooper story did a better job of making the Republic unlikable than most of the Imperial stories have.

The squad:

The companions for the trooper also mostly failed to impress.

I found Jorgan absolutely intolerable out of the gate. When even I think you’re too uptight and hyper-critical, you really have a problem. Even the Sith are over here like, “Whoa, dude, lay off that Haterade.”

To be fair, though, the later missions do put him in a better light. I wouldn’t say I like him now, but he has earned a certain degree of (grudging) respect from me. At the very least, I don’t want to make a rug out of him anymore.

Vik, on the other hand, was utterly unlikable from beginning to end. Just a slimeball on every level. This is another case where I wished for greater choice, because he really deserved to be dishonourably discharged (again) the moment he was no longer useful.

I don’t know what to make of 4X. He’s equal parts comical, inspiring, and horrifying. I genuinely can’t tell if he’s a somewhat tone-deaf attempt at comedy relief, or a subversive criticism of blind patriotism, or both, or neither.

Yuun seems cool, though they didn’t do much with him. Would have been nice to get to know him better, learn what exactly it is a Findsman does.

Elara, at least, was somewhat interesting.

Halfway through the story I realized I’d much rather be playing as Elara than my own character, actually. Not because I like Elara so much — I like her, but there are plenty of other characters in the game I like better — but because she has a really compelling character arc. The Imperial defector desperately trying to prove herself in the face of constant scorn and suspicion. That’s a much better hook than… whatever the player’s motivation is supposed to be.

I’m not sure she should have been a romance option, though. I did romance her anyway just for completionism’s sake, but it doesn’t seem to suit her character very well.

At least you get all your companions much quicker than in most stories (before the end of chapter two). That’s always nice.

Not really a complaint, but one thing I did find a bit odd is how similar the first three companions are. Jorgan, Elara, and 4X are all super uptight, serious, patriotic types. At least it makes farming influence easy, since they all approve of the same things nine times out of ten.

The future:

Five down, three to go.

I’m not entirely sure which I’ll do next. Bounty hunter has the strongest appeal, but I think I’d prefer to hold off on it for precisely that reason.

I’m thinking maybe smuggler next. Initially it was the class that least appealed to me, but I did finally make one and play her long enough to finish the first planet, and while I’m still not sold on the class’s concept, I do like the character I came up with, and the voice actress for female smugglers turns out to be a lot of fun.

Whatever I pick, it might have to wait a few weeks, at least. I’m thinking I’ll dive into the Overwatch free weekend that starts today, and then the final part of the Nova DLC in StarCraft will finally launch, so I’m going to play that for sure. Knights of the Eternal Throne will launch shortly thereafter. So I’ll be busy for a while.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic

No One Lives Forever Lives a Little Longer

Recently I was taking a walk down nostalgia lane, listing off some of my favourite older games. This put me in mind of how much I missed some of them and wished those franchises were still around.

Some random morose Googling later, I stumbled across No One Lives Forever Revival Edition. This is a free fan-made update of both No One Lives Forever games that will run on modern operating systems.

I was a little suspicious at first, but I did some research, and it all seemed legit. Download seemed to take longer than it should have, but once it finished, I was able to install both games successfully, and they work!

The Operative holds up really, really well. I just launched it to see if it worked, and the next thing I know I’m halfway through Misfortune in Morocco.

I wondered if perhaps some of my love of the game was just due to nostalgia, but that’s definitely not the case. If anything it may be better in some ways than I remember. The core gameplay is still silky smooth and intensely satisfying, and the writing shines as much as ever. This game is just so clever, so much fun.

It’s a small thing, but something I really appreciate about NOLF is that pistols are actually a viable option. I like pistols aesthetically, but in most shooters they’re pretty weak compared to the other options. In NOLF, they’re actually pretty good.

The people behind the Revival even tweaked the graphics a bit. No One Lives Forever now supports widescreen format and HD resolutions, the anti-aliasing looks better, and to me it seems like the textures and lighting are popping a little more. It won’t be mistaken for a modern game, but the graphics were good for their day, and with the tweaks, they’re holding up pretty well all things considered.

I have encountered a few issues here and there, but nothing game-breaking. Most notably all the keybindings were messed up at first for some reason, but it was nothing a few minutes of rebinding couldn’t fix.

I don’t know if I’ll play through the whole game again. I’ve played this game an enormous amount, even if the last time was about fifteen years ago. I can still quote most of the conversations verbatim. Says something to just how memorable the game was/is.

That said, I do feel kind of tempted to at least get to Unexpected Turbulence… or maybe Rendezvous in Hamburg. Always liked that one.

I went into No One Lives Forever 2 long enough to verify that it works, but I didn’t explore it in any depth. I do plan to play through it, though. It’s another game I missed out on due to Real Life, so it’s all new to me.

I’m kind of nervous, honestly. After how brilliant the first was, and after so much time, how can it possibly live up to expectations? I feel disappointment may be inevitable. And I know they replaced the voice actress for Cate Archer, which is a heinous sin.

But still, I need closure.

Now, I will be honest: This Revival Edition is essentially piracy, and normally I don’t approve of that. I believe that creators should be paid for their works.

But there are a number of extenuating circumstances here.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, there is no legal way to obtain a copy of either NOLF game anymore (short of finding an original disc, and good luck with that). They haven’t been for sale in a very long time, and they’ve fallen into a legal limbo that may prevent them from ever going on sale again. I’d pay for these games if I could, but I can’t. It’s simply not an option.

Secondly, these games are classics. I don’t know about NOLF2 (yet), but The Operative is easily one of the greatest games ever made. It should not be lost to history. It deserves to be kept alive. Newer gamers need to have the opportunity to experience it.

So in this case I think it’s better to keep the games alive, no matter the method.

If you’ve never played No One Lives Forever before, I highly you take the opportunity to do so now and enjoy one of the high water marks of the gaming industry. And if you have played them before, enjoy them all over again in HD!

Filed under: Games Tagged: No One Lives Forever, pointless nostalgia

Is Blizzard Moving away from Narrative?

I’m generally pretty optimistic when it comes to video games (probably the only way in which I’m optimistic, especially after this week). However, recent events, and most especially this year’s BlizzCon, have gotten me worried as a fan of Blizzard Entertainment’s games, and their stories especially.

While it could just be a coincidence, I can’t escape the feeling that Blizzard as a company seems to be moving away from telling stories with its games lately.

Perhaps I’m simply being paranoid, but it seemed a thought worth giving voice to, so it became the topic of my latest article for MMO Bro. Head on over to read my thoughts on the apparent shift away from story in Blizzard’s games, and why it matters.

While you’re there, you could also check out my thoughts on the World of Warcraft announcements from this most recent BlizzCon.

For all its faults, at least WoW is still embracing its lore.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, Starcraft, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, writing

My Top Five Games: New School

Instead of doing a top ten list of all my favourite video games, I’ve decided it’s more fair to rank my favourite older and newer games separately, five each. I’ve already covered the old school greats, so now it’s time to run down my top five games from the modern era.

5: Dungeon Siege III

Entry #24601 in the “things Tyler loves that everyone else hates” category is Dungeon Siege III.

It is a very big departure from the previous games in terms of game mechanics. Part of me misses the old model. But looked at on its own merits, it’s still quite a strong RPG.

Choosing a class (or character in this case) is more generic than just playing and evolving naturally, but the “class” designs are among the best I’ve seen. Lucas is just your standard warrior dude, but the others are more unique:  Reinhardt is a steampunk techno mage; Katarina is a gun-toting, curse-flinging gypsy witch; and Anjali is a divine warrior-priestess who can shapeshift into a fire elemental.

Anjali in particular is one of my all-time favourite characters/classes in any RPG. Just so much fun.

And while it was a departure in terms of gameplay, it’s a true sequel to the original Dungeon Siege in terms of story, something DS2 definitely wasn’t. In fact it improves upon the already strong lore of the original, deepening and expanding it, and it evolves into a complex, powerful story with an incredible ending.

Add some gorgeous graphics and a lovely soundtrack and you have one of the most underrated games ever.

4: Portal 2

Much has already been said about the Portal games by myself and others, so I don’t see a lot of need to repeat it. If you’ve played them, you know how special they are. If you haven’t, go do that right now. I’ll wait.

Both games were good, but I think Portal 2 is the more memorable one. The first Portal was entirely too short. Portal 2 had all the same wit and creativity, and while it’s still a relatively short game, it’s not quite the “blink and you’ll miss it” affair the first was.

3: Mass Effect 3

And again another of my unpopular opinions.

While I seem to be the only one that feels this way, I found Mass Effect 3 to be the strongest entry in the trilogy by a significant margin. I’ve always been a fan of epic, apocalyptic stories, and ME3 certainly delivers on that front. In the previous games, the Reapers were a distant threat, but in ME3 their full fury is unleashed, and as the game unfolds, you get to see them tear the galaxy apart in excruciating detail.

It’s a dark, intense story, and I admire that it pulls no punches. The heroes fail many times throughout the story, and the losses are deeply felt. Not many games have the guts for that.

Like ME2, it’s also a very big game with lots of side missions and secondary content, but unlike ME2, none of it feels irrelevant or chore-like. Everything connects to the main story. Everything feels important, and exciting.

Even the most minor side-quests can be memorable. For me one of the most gut-wrenching moments of the game is a brief side mission where you assist in the evacuation of the Elcor homeworld. It’s just the most basic kind of collection quest, but the ambassador’s reaction at the end is so powerful.

And then there’s the excellence that is the Rannoch arc, and the sheer joy of drunk Tali, and all the little conversations between the crew members between missions, and Traynor… It’s just an excellent experience all around.

2: StarCraft II

StarCraft II’s sheer scale can make it a difficult game to rate. It has had two expansions the size of standalone games plus a fair bit of DLC. Looked at as a total package, StarCraft II is now massive in scale.

And it has had its stumbles along the way. Wings of Liberty was mostly a good game but did suffer from Blizzard’s failed experiment with non-linear storytelling, and I think we can all agree Heart of the Swarm was something of a disappointment.

But when you look at the big picture, it’s clear StarCraft II’s successes easily outweigh its failures. Despite its hiccups, Wings of the Liberty still wound up being a pretty strong story, and Legacy of the Void was one of the greatest sci-fi epics I’ve seen in gaming. Hell, even Heart of the Swarm gave us Abathur and the Primal Zerg, so it was hardly a total loss.

Similarly, I’m not without complaints about its gameplay, but overall SC2 still deserves to go down as one of the great RTS games of all time. The campaigns have featured some of the most creative level design in gaming history, the co-op mode added in Legacy of the Void is infinitely replayable and incredibly fun, and its competitive play remains one of the greatest tests of skill in the gaming world.

1: The Secret World

I’ve already spent no shortage of time raving about how amazing TSW is, so I shouldn’t repeat myself too much.

A lot of my love for this game boils down to the fact that story will always be the most important part of gaming for me, and TSW has some of the best writing in video game history. Its dialogue is second to none, its characters are unforgettable, its world-building is spectacularly deep and incredibly original, and its ambiance is like nothing else.

But it’s no slouch in the gameplay department, either. I love how you can build your own “class.” I love that it’s challenging, but not cheap. I love how the enemies are powerful and intelligent rather than just HP sponges to be mowed down. I love that its progression is fair to all playstyles and offers incredible freedom to the player. I love how many awesome cosmetics there are to collect.

As with the first list’s winner, Warcraft III, The Secret World is probably as close to a perfect video game as we’re ever going to see.

Honourable mentions:

Despite some initial stumbles (and a few lingering problems), Diablo III has evolved into a really excellent game, as the hundreds of hours I’ve sunk into it can attest. It was sort of a dead heat between Diablo and Dungeon Siege for the fifth spot in this list.

Something that has been interesting about recent years in the gaming industry has been the growing push for video games as art, and it’s produced a number of titles that are truly amazing experiences despite being light on gameplay. The Park, Oxenfree, and Remember Me all come to mind as examples of this.

Obviously World of Warcraft is conspicuous in its absence from the list, but despite the countless hours I’ve spent with it, it has far too many flaws to be considered a truly great game. SW:TOR is another title that has given me some great times but has too much wrong with it to earn a spot among my all-time favourites.

It does seem a bit strange that I’ve spent the majority of my gaming time over the past ten years playing MMOs, and yet only one of them made my top five (albeit with top honours). I’m not sure what, if anything, should be read from that.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Diablo, Dungeon Siege, fantasy, Mass Effect, Oxenfree, Portal, Remember Me, sci-fi, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Starcraft, The Park, The Secret World, video games, World of Warcraft

BlizzCon 2016: WoW News After All, Plus Heroes and Diablo

This year’s BlizzCon didn’t exactly get off to a strong start. It’s worth noting I’ve experienced a significant traffic spike over the past two days, and from what I can tell it’s mostly from people Googling “BlizzCon disappointment” and similar phrases.

That said, for all the disappointment of the opening ceremony and the way Diablo is falling apart, there has been some good news in the subsequent talks and panels. World of Warcraft, especially, is coming out of the convention looking very good, despite being all but ignored by the opening ceremony.

The road ahead:

Blizzard amazed all and sundry by discussing not one, not two, but three upcoming content patches for WoW.

First up is patch 7.1.5, a minor patch adding a few tweaks and new systems. Brawler’s Guild will be returning with new content, which should excite both of the people who play it.

They’re also adding a new series of micro holidays that will only last for a day or two. They’re going out of their way to make these not particularly rewarding, even in regards to cosmetics. That’s nice in that it’s no big deal if you miss logging in for such brief events, but it makes me wonder what the point of these things even is.

Finally, the one thing in 7.1.5 that interests me is that Mists of Pandaria dungeons will now be included in Timewalking. Mists was probably the best dungeons have ever been, so that’s welcome.

Most of the big news, though, focuses on the next major patch: 7.2, Tomb of Sargeras. As the name would imply, we’ll return to the Broken Shore to confront the Legion at their beachhead. Obviously the Tomb will be a raid, with figures like Kil’jaeden and the Avatar of Sargeras as bosses.

I’m kind of not sure how to feel about this. Where do they even go from here? Like, how do you escalate from fighting basically the entire Legion command structure? This is only the second patch…

There will also be a new faction to grind reputation with, Legionfall. I’m already having flashbacks to the ungodly Suramar grind, but rep grinding seems to be par for the course this expansion, so I guess we’ll have to roll with it.

Otherwise, though, it’s looking like a really promising patch.

The best news is probably on the dungeon front. Not only is the Tomb of Sargeras going to have a five-man wing, the Cathedral of Eternal Night, which will not be mythic-only, but all current mythic-only dungeons will gain queueable heroic modes (Karazhan will be divided into two wings to make it more manageable).

This is simply fantastic news. The WoW developers learning from their mistakes is shocking enough, but the fact they’re doing so relatively quickly is all but unheard of. It’s almost like they have some humility, or they value all their players equally or something.

Furthering the impression that Blizzard may actually value multiple playstyles, the class storylines will continue in patch 7.2, and there will be a new artifact appearance earned through a difficult solo challenge. More emphasis on skill rather than grind is always a good thing.

Next, flying will return in 7.2. We don’t have a lot of details on what the second half of Pathfinder will entail, but I’m expecting a lot of rep grinding. Not looking forward to that, but I am glad that we now have a clear answer on flight’s fate, and that it isn’t something we’ll have to wait until the very end of the expansion for.

On top of that, we’ll also be getting unique class-specific flying mounts. Some will even have multiple variations for different specs.

Rogues will get a crow.

A crow.

I’m not normally the sort of person who gets particularly excited about mounts, but crows are awesome, and a nice, unpretentious crow or raven mount has been my most-wanted mount for years now. The class mounts require exalted with Legionfall and completion of the new class story, so I doubt I’ll bother for most characters, but I need that crow in my life.

Another cool-sounding feature in 7.2 is the addition of Legion invasions. These will be similar to the pre-expansion event, but tied into the world quest system. They’ll only be in the Broken Isles, which is a bit of a shame, but the pre-expansion invasions were a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to these.

The final major addition currently announced for 7.2 is the addition of a PvP brawl mode, similar to the brawl modes that have proliferated to virtually every Blizzard game seemingly overnight.

I don’t PvP much, so I personally have no particular opinion on the matter, but I do not think this will go over well. WoW players are not the sort of people who like surprises or adapting to unusual mechanics. They like things safe, predictable, and rigidly balanced.

Overall, 7.2 is not without its worrying aspects, but overall it’s shaping up to be a very promising patch.

Lastly, they provided a brief teaser for the next major patch after 7.2: We’re going to Argus.

Not sure how to feel about this. Thanks to my enmity for the Draenei, I’ve long-dreaded the seemingly inevitable foray to their sparkly, lore-breaking homeworld. But I guess the silver lining is that it will just be a patch, not a whole expansion.

It’s another thing that makes me wonder where we go from here, though. How do you follow up “invade the Legion’s homeworld and kick the asses of all their leaders”?

The rest:

There’s been a bit more non-WoW news, as well.

Haunted Mines will at last be returning to Heroes of the Storm, with some tweaks to its design. I don’t play Heroes much anymore, but I always liked Haunted Mines, so it’s heartening on some level to see it returning.

Heroes is also getting some tweaks to its leveling mechanics. Hero levels will now be (nearly) infinite, levels past ten will be quicker to acquire, and every level will now have some form of reward. Seems pretty similar to Overwatch, but with less RNG. Sounds good.

Diablo is getting an absolutely bizarre new mode called challenge rifts. As I understand it, they’ll randomly select a player out of the entire game’s community, and then for the rest of the week everyone in the game will be able to play a clone of their character — same skills, same gear — to compete on leaderboards.

Oookaay…?

Otherwise, the Diablo fanbase is pretty much rioting and setting fire to cars right now. I’m still feeling pretty bitter myself. Reaper of Souls was so good, and I was so excited for what was to come. Now it looks Diablo III is simply being abandoned, at least as an actual RPG with a narrative.

I just don’t understand what’s going through the minds of the people at Blizzard. RoS was a big success by pretty much every conceivable metric. Why not keep the momentum up? Why are they just throwing in the towel?

I’ve actually been giving serious thought to writing my own fan fic “expansion”* just to satisfy my own sanity. Wouldn’t exactly be the first time I’ve done something like that.

*(With black! And hookers!)

Filed under: Games Tagged: Diablo, fantasy, Heroes of the Storm, sci-fi, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

BlizzCon 2016 Is a Disappointment

I woke up today feeling like it was Christmas morning. BlizzCon is always exciting, and after some of the hints we’ve seen, I was expecting some really huge news.

Instead, it’s turned out to be perhaps the most disappointing BlizzCon to date. Certainly the most disappointing since I’ve started following it closely.

Overwatch: The worst kept secret in gaming

They began with the announcement we all knew was coming: The hacker Sombra will be the next playable character in Overwatch.

I’ll give them some credit for announcing her in a pretty dramatic way. They began with a retrospective video of Overwatch’s launch, only for Sombra to hack the feed — I genuinely thought the stream was crashing for a bit — and for that to dovetail into a new animated short introducing Sombra as she aids her Talon allies in attacking Volskaya Industries.

Sombra looks a lot more interesting than Overwatch’s other antagonists to date. She has an agenda of her own and seems to be playing both sides — her loyalty to Talon seems far from absolute.

That said, Blizzard’s continued reticence to do anything with the Overwatch IP is making it increasingly hard for me to get excited about anything to do with the game.

I do appreciate that they are maintaining their commitment to diversity in Overwatch, if nothing else. Both characters added post-launch have been women of colour, and the game’s cast is now close to perfect gender parity, as well. Now at ten females, twelve males, one non-gendered.

They also announced a new “arcade” mode that mostly seems to involve death match arenas, some new maps, and an ambitious new eSports league, but again, not really interesting me.

StarCraft: SkyNet, Nova, and Stukov

StarCraft II is the only game coming out of this BlizzCon’s opening ceremony to offer me anything approaching genuine excitement, which is a sad commentary on the whole convention.

Firstly, the final installment of the Nova DLC was confirmed to be launching on November 22 (appropriately enough), which is welcome news. More Nova is always good, and now that all three parts are out, I can finally play through it.

Second, fan favourite and eternal badass Alexei Stukov has been confirmed as the next playable commander in co-op. He would count as a Zerg commander, I suppose, but he seems to be very unique, based mainly on infested versions of Terran buildings and units.

We’re short on details on exactly how Stukov is going to play at the moment, but it’s good to see more ambitious updates to co-op regardless. And those infested battlecruisers look pretty sweet.

Also, walking bunkers.

Yes.

They’ve also mentioned new co-op maps coming soon. Details on this are only now coming in as I’m writing, but it looks like we’re finally getting that co-op version of Outbreak we’ve all been wanting forever. Awesome!

On the downside, I’m also hearing Blizzard is going to add leaderboards to co-op —  a competitive aspect that I don’t think anyone wanted, and which may lead to co-op ending up on the same endless nerf/buff rollercoaster as 1v1.

Finally, perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of BlizzCon so far is that Blizzard has partnered with the DeepMind team to use StarCraft II for advanced artificial intelligence research. It’s at best unclear what if any benefits this will ultimately have for us as players, but the very fact that the game we love is now going to be at the forefront of AI research is really exciting.

Heroes and Hearthstone: Steady as she goes

Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone are pretty much just chugging along as you’d expect. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to get particularly excited for, either.

As many expected, Varian Wrynn will be joining Heroes as its next playable character. Although I was expecting a very standard warrior, he’s looking to be one of the most unique heroes to date. He’s actually a multi-role hero (I wonder how that will work with quests?) who can radically change his capabilities through several crucial talent choices.

The other new hero is Ragnaros the Firelord. I don’t have any particularly strong feelings about him at the moment.

They also spent a lot of time talking about next week’s brawl. I’m not sure why a weekly brawl is worth so much attention in the opening ceremonies. Were they just trying to fill time?

Meanwhile, Hearthstone is of course getting another expansion, Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. I don’t have a lot of interest in Hearthstone, and I don’t see this expansion changing that, but I will say they seem to have some neat ideas. Tri-class cards are pretty creative, and the Kabal and Jade Lotus factions seem genuinely interesting — would love to explore them in WoW.

Diablo: Remake, necromancer, and disappointment

But by far the biggest disappointment came when they finally got around to Diablo announcements. After the necromancer leak, I was sure we were finally getting another expansion to wrap up Reaper of Souls’ cliff-hanger ending.

Nope.

We are getting the necromancer as a paid DLC, but no new story content. They did mention two new zones (as free updates), but they’re going to be adventure-mode exclusives like Greyhollow Island. Something to poke your head into for an hour and then forget about.

The other big news is that the first Diablo game is being recreated within Diablo III. We’ll be able to use our existing characters, so I guess the original classes aren’t coming back, but they will be bringing back at least some of the original mechanics (including intentionally making the graphics look worse, because apparently common sense and the Diablo franchise have severed all ties).

This is a confusing decision, and I’m not sure who the target audience is. I can understand trying to capitalize on some nostalgia, and broadly I like the idea of resurrecting old games, but it’s going to be too different from the original to satisfy the purists, and I’m not sure how much modern gamers are going to enjoy something that has been deliberately designed to be more clunky and visually unappealing than current content.

Diablo III badly needed a new expansion. There are so many story threads left unfinished, so many lands left to explore. The game can’t survive on adventure mode and seasons forever. I want to play more, but there’s just nothing left in the game for me to do. The base game and its expansion were wildly successful, and there can be no doubt a new expansion would do well. I just don’t get it.

The necromancer does look cool — I love necromancers in general, and Diablo’s take on the archetype especially — but is it worth forking over cash just to play through exactly the same content as a new character?

I hate how gamers are always pronouncing premature death on games, but at the risk of hypocrisy, I think we may now declare Diablo III dead in the water. Yes, it’s getting some more updates, but there doesn’t seem to be any kind of true forward momentum here. The story has been abandoned unfinished, and the game is just chasing its tail.

Between this, StarCraft’s apparent abandonment of mission packs, and Overwatch’s inexplicable aversion to exploring its own lore, I’m beginning to wonder if Blizzard is simply moving away from narrative in its games altogether.

That’s pretty much the only thing that could finally break my lifelong Blizzard fandom.

* * *

And that’s it. Nothing at all announced for World of Warcraft. No mention of a Warcraft movie sequel. Undoubtedly more news is to come as the convention unfolds, but it’s not likely to be anything huge.

What a massive disappointment.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Diablo, epic nerd rant, fantasy, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, sci-fi, Starcraft, Warcraft

TSW: Halloween 2016 Post-mortem

When last I discussed this year’s Halloween event in The Secret World, I pointed out that we had yet to see the whole event and that my opinion of it might change once we had.

We now have explored the mystery of the Rider in its entirety, and I do find my view of the event has shifted. Largely for the better.

I’m not going to explain every stage of the event in its entirety, because I have other things to do today. If you want to understand the event and all it’s entailed, I direct you to the official forums.

The meat of it involves world bosses. Every half hour, the Rider will appear in a certain zone, spawning event-specific mobs throughout the zone. Slaying all these mobs before the Rider moves on to the next zone will summon a manifestation.

However, as we discovered halfway through the event, if a number of players use the /worship emote at specific points around the zone while one player utilizes various event drops at the Rider just as the last mobs are killed, you can enact a ritual to summon an empowered version of the manifestation, which drops improved loot.

The empowered bosses also dropped clues that led to the next few stages of the event, ultimately culminating in the Rider making an appearance in Agartha, where he will stay until the end of the event on 8th. If you /bow to him, you get his mask.

It’s not a perfect event, and there are legitimate criticisms to be made. What’s bothering me the most right now is how low the drop rates for the new cosmetics are. Given how much work empowered manifestations are to summon and kill, you’d think the drop rates would be a bit more generous. I’ve yet to see a single drop of any of the new fiery eyes items, and the prices for them at auction are usually extortionate.

Still, the event has grown on me. The summoning rituals are a lot of work, but the community is adapting to it incredibly well. In the space of a few days we’ve gone from running around like headless chickens to a (mostly) well-oiled machine that (almost) always successfully completes the summon.

It is does speak very well of the TSW community. I’m mostly pretty cynical about gaming communities in general, but the amount of cooperation TSW’s players have displayed is impressive. In most other games this would probably be much more of a horror show.

Initially I found the summoning process tedious, and to some extent it still is, but it does feel good to be part of something greater. It’s gratifying to see a boss spawn and know that you had a hand in bringing it forth.

Even one of the more annoying aspects of the event, the fact that the lore is not a guaranteed drop, has been greatly mitigated by the community. When a lore piece does drop, someone will usually do a call-out in event chat so everyone can come and collect it. Sometimes that person is even me.

Also, while my own contributions on the matter were virtually non-existent, it was fascinating to watch the mystery unfold, to see the community fall ever deeper down the rabbit hole.

I have to wonder if this event is actually a fulfillment of a long-held promise, that of the puzzle raid.

Puzzle raids are something Funcom has been promising since the game launched, but which have never materialized. We’ve never gotten a terribly clear picture what they’ll look like, but the general impression was that they would be similar to investigation missions, but on a much larger scale — something requiring mass cooperation by many players.

Sort of like the Rider event.

Food for thought, anyway.

There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over datamining in relation to the event, but it seems like a manufactured controversy to me.

To be clear, it is true that a small number of players did datamine the event’s details in their entirety, but I’ve not seen any hard evidence they actually influenced how the event played out. Aside from one or two people on the forums spewing off conspiracy theories and calling everyone sheep, all indications are the community solved everything legitimately.

From my perspective, it’s been an intriguing mystery, and a great way to bring the community together, and while it’s a long way from perfect, I’m glad to see Funcom is still capable of ambitious, out of the box thinking.

Playing MMOs can sometimes be something of an awkward fit for someone as antisocial as me, but at times like this I’m really glad I do. Seeing hundreds of people working together in common cause to orchestrate the summoning rituals is unlike anything you will ever experience in single-player games.

There is something truly special about events like this, and I always feel privileged to be a part of them. In time, I know I’ll forget the annoyances of this event, but the fond memories of mystery and cooperation will remain for many years to come.

It might not be over, either. The lore makes mention of “deep December,” which has some people wondering if our Rider friend may be visiting again over the holidays…

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, The Secret World

Review: Travelers, First Two Episodes

I remember hearing something about a new time travel-themed show called Travelers that sounded interesting. Unfortunately it slipped my mind to keep an eye out for the premiere, but then I got a message from one of my regular readers mentioning that they’d fallen in love with the show and recommending I try it. Showcase’s website had the first two episodes available to watch, so I gave it a go.

Pilot episode:

In the world of Travelers, some unnamed disaster in the far-flung future has wiped out most of humanity. In order to prevent this grisly fate, the technology has been developed to send people’s consciousnesses back in time, where they possess the body of someone moments before their death.

The first episode introduces us to one particular team of travelers (apparently there’s an entire army of them) as they enter their hosts and adjust to life in the twenty-first century.

It’s not a strong start.

Travelers’ pilot is very slow and tells us precious little about what is actually going on. I have a certain feeling of being strung along in the hopes of answers, which is something I truly hate in fiction.

It’s already clear that a lot of the series is going to be devoted to showing the travelers’ struggles to maintain their covers and cope with their new lives — the pilot is devoted almost entirely too this — but that’s not an angle that much appeals to me. I’d rather focus on the sci-fi.

I will grant that a few of the concepts are a bit interesting. One traveler, Philip, landed in the body of a heroine addict and is now struggling to cope with his withdrawals, and another, Marcy, wound up possessing a mentally challenged woman and now has to explain why she can suddenly read and use complete sentences.

The other characters are far less interesting, though.

There are other problems too, such as numerous plot holes. Supposedly most of their intelligence on the past comes from mining the Internet for data, yet apparently they don’t understand Internet slang?

There’s a lot of stuff like that. One moment, the travelers’ knowledge of the past is encyclopedic, the next they’re running into all kinds of problems due to their incomplete intelligence. Marcy being one of the more prominent examples.

Furthermore, it’s clearly established that their goal is to change the past, on a large scale, and yet sometimes they seem determined not to change history. At one point there’s a scene where one traveler has the chance to save someone from death, but he doesn’t because that death was “supposed” to happen according to history. It would be a powerful scene, but the whole point of the travelers’ mission is to change history and save lives, so it just doesn’t make any sense.

The one thing I can say in Travelers’ favour right now is the cast seems really strong. Every actor seems unusually comfortable in their roles for a pilot, and they’re all putting on strong performances.

Also, it is good to see yet more Canadian sci-fi. Already spotting some familiar faces, like Ian Tracey (Sanctuary’s Dr. Jekyll and Continuum’s Jason Sadler) and Leah Cairns (BSG’s Racetrack).

Overall rating: 5.9/10

“Protocol 6”:

Travelers’ second episode is a bit less uneventful, though still not terribly impressive.

With the team assembled, the travelers embark on their first mission: preventing a massive explosion that originally claimed thousands of lives. The sudden shift from fishes out of water to expert team saving the world is a bit jarring, but at least it’s a little more interesting.

There’s not quite as much time wasted on each character’s alter ego, and the pacing isn’t quite so slow, but there’s still a fair bit of problems. There’s still that inexplicable disconnect between their trying to alter the past while also trying not to alter the past. There’s still no clue what happened to make the future so bad, and no hint of any over-arching storyline. It will be a tremendous waste of potential if this turns out to be a “case of the week” show.

I don’t understand why the different traveler teams aren’t allowed to help each other, either, but add it to the list, I guess.

The only thing about this show I’m particularly enjoying so far is Marcy. The dynamic with her social worker is pretty interesting.

Overall rating: 6.1/10 I’m not sure if I’m going to keep watching this show right now. There’s some potential, but it certainly hasn’t impressed me so far.

All apologies to the fellow he recommended it to me. I’m sure this isn’t the glowing review you were hoping for.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: review, sci-fi, Travelers, TV

Gaming Round-Up: Halloween in Landmark and TSW, Nova Raving, and Skyforge

Halloween as an adult is always a little depressing, isn’t it? It used to be a day you spent all year looking forward to, and now… it’s Monday.

Halloween celebrations in online games can at least soften the blow a bit.

The Secret World’s Halloween celebrations are, of course, the stuff of legends, but I must admit I’m not quite feeling the usual joy this year.

The new event is… strange. There’s not much story. A lot of it boils down to new world boss fights, but there’s a sort of puzzle-like requirement to summon them. Mostly it involves a lot of people running around like headless chickens, desperately hoping to find their targets before the boss despawns. I can’t say I’m fond of the time limit.

Of course, the official forums are on fire. For my part, while I agree with most of the criticisms, I’m inclined to judge the event less harshly than some.

I at least give Funcom credit for trying something different. The elements of mystery and community cooperation that this event hinges on are cool in theory. In practice it hasn’t turned out well, but I don’t think we should penalize developers too harshly for trying new things. The industry is risk-adverse enough already.

Ultimately, you have to accept that not all experiments are going to work, so if you want games to try new things, you need to learn to live with the occasional hiccup.

It is worth noting that as of this writing we haven’t uncovered the entirety of the event yet. There’s quite a mystery over how to summon the empowered versions of the bosses. My opinion of the event may change, for better or for worse, once we’ve seen all of it.

All the previous events are back again, too, but those aren’t quite igniting my fancy this time, either. That’s just simple burnout, though. The Broadcast is still awesome, but I’ve done it a rough estimate of eleventy bajillion times now, so it doesn’t have quite the same lustre it used to.

One thing that has been interesting, though, is that I recently discovered an old friend from the TrekUnited days has gotten into TSW, and this is her first Halloween in the game. I’ve been helping her out here or there, which is gratifying. She even lucked into a couple of rare drops from my goody bags.

On that note, the new dance from this year’s party bag is awesome. I think it’s the most elaborate emote I’ve ever seen in an MMO.

Tip: For best results, equip Hell skin fist weapons before dancing.

Meanwhile, Landmark is also having a Halloween event. As one would expect from a game like Landmark, it’s mainly player driven. The developers just plunked down an island for seasonal builds and let people go nuts.

I haven’t had too much time to spend in Landmark lately, but from what I’ve seen the Halloween island is another testament to the talent of the Landmark community. It’s not particularly scary, but it’s fun in a cheesy haunted house kind of way.

The trouble with Landmark from a blogger’s perspective is that there’s never too much to say about it. Wandering around gawking at pretty sights is plenty enjoyable, but it doesn’t require in-depth analysis.

In other news…

Moving on from Halloween, I’ve got a few more articles published at MMO Bro I hope may be of interest.

Firstly, I take a look at the surprisingly swift release of Nova as a playable commander in StarCraft II’s co-op.

Nova is astonishingly fun, I have to say. She solves almost every complaint I’ve ever had about SC2’s game mechanics. As much as it feels like a betrayal of my Protoss brethren, she may well be my new favourite commander.

The fact she’s spectacularly overpowered doesn’t hurt, either. I’m trying to get plenty of games in with her now, because I’m convinced she’ll be nerfed soon. The reactions from some of the people I’ve been matched with have been hilarious, though a lot of them can’t be repeated in polite company.

Next, I also took a second look at Skyforge following its huge Ascension patch, only to discover it really isn’t that different.

Skyforge feels like a tragic waste of potential to me. It does some things very well, but when you get down to it, it’s still an incredibly shallow game.

Not for the first time, I wish it was possible to combine different aspects of various MMOs, Frankenstein-style. Imagine SW:TOR’s story with Skyforge’s combat and graphics. That would be a truly amazing game.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: fantasy, Landmark, sci-fi, Skyforge, Starcraft, The Secret World, writing