Disappointments of 2020

Continuing the cadence of new year posts, I though this morning I would talk about some of the gaming related things that disappointed me the most last year. Some of these I am sure will be remedied in the near future, given that a handful of them are just games that have seemingly dropped off the radar. Others were just games that released and weren’t nearly as enjoyable as I would have hoped. Even other things on the list are just situations that were frustrating to deal with. Regardless here is my list of the things I was the most disappointed with during 2020.

Console Launches

I remember some frustrating launch years for many products, but I feel like this year is going to go down in history as maybe one of the worst? First off you had the scarcity of the Nintendo Switch due to the high demand of Animal Crossing combined with stay at home orders that put everyone in the mood to play some sort of video game. Then there were the delays caused by the absence of e3 in getting the word out of exactly when and for what price both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X would be launching at. Finally you have a situation that was brought on by the artificial scarcity of the Sneaker drops industry… leading bot builders to decide there could be a significant profit in grabbing these new consoles and trying to flip them aftermarket. The end result is that very few people ended up getting that shiny new console under their Christmas tree. Among the AggroChat crew I think we all wanted one… but only two of us so far managed to snag one.

Graphics Card Launches

Possibly even worse than the Console Launches is the roll out of new graphics cards by Nvidia and AMD. This situation is made worse by the fact that the 2000 series was not exactly a stellar leap ahead of the 1000 series, and folks like me have been holding onto our aging hardware in the hopes of upgrading during the 3000 series which is is sizable step forward. On the AMD side you have the fact that they have not had a single graphics card that could compete at the high end for the last several generations, making those team Red loyalists extremely hungry for product. The same bots that impacted the console sales also snagged all of the available video card stock… which is only made worse by the fact that crypto currency had been booming again. Hopefully the two day plunge over the weekend will shake those folks out of the market, and as we get into 2021 enough stock will be released so that maybe just maybe I can snag a 3070 or 3080.

Metroid Prime 4

Far as I am aware we received zero information about this game during the entire 2020 calendar year. It was announced in 2017 with this static image, and then since January 2019 we have heard nothing. We know the game ran into development issues, but I had hoped to hear something… ANYTHING… during 2020. Truth be told… what I want probably more than anything is a re-release of Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Nintendo Switch, which I figured would happen in the run up to the fourth game releasing. I just want Nintendo to remember the Metroid exists and is a really cool franchise. The life of a Metroid fan however is filled with constant sorrow.

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines II

This is a game that was supposed to release back in March and then was delayed with an undetermined 2020 release date… and now has seemingly disappeared completely with a new undetermined 2021 release date. I am sure this game is another side effect of the pandemic along with unrealistic schedules that did not take into account just how much was left to do in order to bring the game to market. I am still looking forward to it, just disappointed that we didn’t get to play it last year and at the current rate is is uncertain if we will be playing it this year either. Hopefully we get some updates about the game soon.

Dying Light 2

The first game was great and I was super looking forward to the sequel. This was originally slotted to be a spring of 2020 release date, but similar to Bloodlines seems to have completely disappeared. Tweets from the Dying Light twitter account would indicate that it is going to release in 2021, but the steam page still just says “Coming Soon”. The lack of any tangible information about the game in quite a long while makes me wonder if this is just stuck in development hell. As always the case I hope it takes as long as is needed to make it the best game possible, but I am more disappointed in the lack of information coming out than anything else.

Warcraft 3 Reforged

So confession time. I have never finished Warcraft III in any form. It released at a time when I just did not care about RTS after burning out on Dune 2, Command and Conquer and Warcraft II. However there is a lot of lore that takes place in this game that ultimately shaped World of Warcraft, and I have long thought I should probably play through the campaigns to see it for myself. When a trailer of gameplay was released during 2018 BlizzCon I was super stoked that maybe just maybe I would get to experience it in a prettier format. It had really cool cinematics which made me super excited to play it… but the final version that released didn’t seem to include any of that stuff. This video does a good job of showing the difference between the demo that was shown and the final version. Maybe someday I will sit down and actually play through it, but it was a bit of a punch in the gut when it finally released in January.

Marvel’s Avengers

I had so much hope going into this game. I like the Destiny style of engagement, where you run missions, gear up and then do harder content. I have long felt the absence of Marvel Heroes, which was the diablo-like game that ultimately lost the Marvel license and shuttered. I had hoped that maybe just maybe I was going to get a 3D beat-em-up game that felt similar to that. The end product however… just felt like a confused mess. You had a bunch of problems, the biggest being that combat really wasn’t terribly interesting. Everything was fairly tanky and took a long time to kill, but the process of taking them out also wasn’t that terribly interesting either. Gearing was a bit of a confusing mess as well, because you collect items that don’t really have an impact on your characters appearance in any way and were mostly just “Stat Sticks”. Lastly there was the significant problem of only having around six unique maps in the entire game and everything was just a randomized sequence of objectives. I leveled two characters to the cap… geared one of them to the max… and then it was when I was leveling my third character that I realized I was not enjoying myself at all and logged out never to return.

Godfall

In a similar category, I though this game looked gorgeous and I was super interested in it given that it appeared to be a more melee focused version of Destiny. When I got my hands on it however there was just something lacking. Like it ticked a bunch of boxes but the resulting gameplay and world felt empty and soulless. This is the exact same feeling I had when I attempted to play Battleborn back in the day. Mechanically the game was fine, I just didn’t care about it. I am just realizing as I type this that both of these games are from Gearbox, but I have no clue if it was the same team or if there is any overlap. Both games however felt like they were lacking something to ground me in the gameplay other than just being pretty or in the case of Battleborn having a ridiculous number of interesting looking characters that I was not engaged with.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

I debated putting this on the list or not, but ultimately decided to. I am not saying that Shadowlands is a bad expansions, but I am saying that it has not inspired the level of engagement that I had hoped it would. This might entirely be a me thing. I went into Shadowlands with so much hope, I was changing mains and super focused on trying to get in a group friendly mindset. I had this whole plan to launch a discord community for getting friendly groups, that never really came to fruition because the resulting gameplay left me a little uninspired. I pushed forward nonetheless and when life threw me the curveball that was the lack of available healers to run with as a tank… I just started focusing more on Retribution and spent two weeks grinding my face against dungeons to get to a reasonable gear level. Then on December 10th I logged out and have yet to log back in. Sure I was distracted by Cyberpunk, but were I really enjoying the gameplay I would have found a way to keep playing the MMORPG or would have returned to it when I finished the storyline several weeks ago. Shadowlands is a series of systems that I don’t really feel like I want to engage with. So much is focused around Torghast and The Maw, and to be honest there isn’t really anything rewarding in either to keep me logging in each day and suffering through it. Sure there are legendary gear that can be forged… but the process of crafting them is so painful and costly that you can’t just really afford to keep crafting spare ones. I didn’t necessarily enjoy the leveling process enough to run up a number of alts either. As a result I have bounced and I really wish I had not. So I am left wondering… is it the expansion or have I just outgrown MMORPGs since I have a similarly hard time attaching to the day to day grind of Final Fantasy XIV.

Other Disappointments

I am sure there were other things that I found disappointing, but given how odd the year was they maybe just fell through the cracks. What were some of your bigger disappointments this year? Drop me a line in the comments because I am curious if anyone felt the same way about some of the ones I listed. The post Disappointments of 2020 appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

AggroChat #329 – 2020 Games of the Year Show

Featuring:  Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Tonight we continue our tradition of recording the Games of the Year show.  Each year we pick three games that were the most significant for us during the previous calendar year.  Additionally we throw in some honorable mentions, and then a list gets compiled of those choices and roughly sorted into games with the least overlap to the games with the most picks. This year we surprisingly have a game that every single member of the podcast chose as either a pick or an honorable mention.  We talk about nineteen games in total.

Topics Discussed

  • Games of the Year Picks
    • 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
    • Cryptic Sudoku
    • Cyberpunk 2077
    • Death Stranding
    • Half Life: Alyx
    • Ooblets
    • Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX
    • Ring Fit Adventures
    • Animal Crossing: New Horizon
    • Crusader Kings 3
    • Final Fantasy VII Remake
    • Ghost of Tsushima
    • Phantasy Star Online 2
    • Yakuza: Like a Dragon
    • Genshin Impact
    • Hades
  • Honorable Mentions
    • Horizon Zero Dawn
    • Disco Elysium
    • Guild Wars 2
The post AggroChat #329 – 2020 Games of the Year Show appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

Seeking Mobile Experiences

One of the things that I noticed while going through my Giant Wall of Games list ™ is that during the 2020 Calendar year I pretty much played NOTHING on my phone. That isn’t entirely true, because I downloaded and tried a few things but nothing significant enough to actually log in the list. There were a handful of games that I installed and immediately uninstalled for various reasons, but in the past I had something like Dragalia Lost or Pokemon Go that was always on the list. So on a whim yesterday afternoon I put out a call to my Twitter family.
Okay friends. Since I have long considered mobile development a largely poisoned well. I figure I will crowdsource this… best mobile games available for Android that are not f2p monetization/gacha traps or match 3 games…. GO!

@Belghast
The problem I have with mobile gaming is that the discovery mechanisms seem to largely be dominated by either Gacha games or games with otherwise similarly questionable free to play mechanics. There are also a number of games that I would clump into a category of being a port of a game from another platform but that are made worse by touch screen controls. I have a number of SquareSoft mobile ports and they are an infinitely worse experience than playing the same game on pretty much any other platform. What I seem to be lacking however are the games that either wouldn’t work without a touch screen interfaces are somehow uniquely enriched by having one. Some of the constraints I am looking for are as follows.
  • Must be Android – I have zero iOS devices by design
  • Must be a Direct Purchase, One Time Unlock, or Free to Play with very optional and non-obtrusive monetization
  • Should be a gameplay experience uniquely enhanced by the touchscreen interface and not just a port trying to make up for those shortcomings
  • No Match Three Games – While I love Bejeweled, I need to move past that
I have to say I absolutely love my Twitter family because once again they came through for me with a massive list of titles to try. This mornings post is as much for my own benefit as it is for sharing these picks with the world, because I wanted a nice clean way of keeping track of it. A few of the titles that were thrown out were games that I had tried and ruled out for one reason or another, so I am dropping them from the list. The titles that are currently in the running for eventually garnering my attention are as follows.
Ultimately the above block of six games is what I chose for my very first cohort. Monument Valley is a game series that I had heard really good things about but ultimately forgot existed. You Must Build a Boat is a game that I have heard someone at some time in the past raving about it… I thought it was Kodra but it might just be a fuzzy memory of Liore when Cat Context existed. Loop gets bumped up in priority because it is was created by a mutual, so absolutely going to check that out. Eve Echos is a game that I had already installed but never actually got around to checking… so just grouping it in by default. Pathfinder Adventures because i was curious and Pixel Dungeon because also curious.
Mobile gaming is pretty much a bedtime activity for me, and last night I managed to try out one of the games before sleep ultimately claimed me. I had not really been sleeping well for a few nights so I did not make it super far. Monument Valley is gorgeous and is exactly the sort of game I am looking for. I am not exactly sure how this game works without a touch interface, and as a result it isn’t just making up for that limited toolset but exploiting it. The puzzles are interesting and change enough to feel fresh each time you move onto a new monument. I made it through five before my eyelids were too heavy to continue, but I am probably going to be playing this one for awhile until I either complete it or get distracted by some other shiny object. Since this has apparently turned into a post with just an excessive number of bullet point lists… why not add another? I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the folks who participated yesterday in throwing out game ideas. There was a flurry of them that all came in at once, and I think I have accounted for them all… but apologies if I inadvertently miss someone. Yall are awesome in my book. Essentially over the years I have developed this borderline toxic attitude that mobile gaming is by nature mechanically worse than gaming on pretty much any other platform. I am trying really hard to break this mental block. My hope is that by exposing myself to the games that my friends consider the best, I will start to see the potential of this platform that I have largely relegated to idle match three games and Gacha gambling. I know there are unique experiences that can only be had on a mobile phone, so I am hoping to find more of them. Now this is the point where I reach out to my readers as well. If you have any mobile games that you love and feel like are must play experiences, please drop me a line below in the comments. I will look into all of them and potentially add them to the list above. The post Seeking Mobile Experiences appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

Seeking Mobile Experiences

One of the things that I noticed while going through my Giant Wall of Games list ™ is that during the 2020 Calendar year I pretty much played NOTHING on my phone. That isn’t entirely true, because I downloaded and tried a few things but nothing significant enough to actually log in the list. There were a handful of games that I installed and immediately uninstalled for various reasons, but in the past I had something like Dragalia Lost or Pokemon Go that was always on the list. So on a whim yesterday afternoon I put out a call to my Twitter family.
Okay friends. Since I have long considered mobile development a largely poisoned well. I figure I will crowdsource this… best mobile games available for Android that are not f2p monetization/gacha traps or match 3 games…. GO!

@Belghast
The problem I have with mobile gaming is that the discovery mechanisms seem to largely be dominated by either Gacha games or games with otherwise similarly questionable free to play mechanics. There are also a number of games that I would clump into a category of being a port of a game from another platform but that are made worse by touch screen controls. I have a number of SquareSoft mobile ports and they are an infinitely worse experience than playing the same game on pretty much any other platform. What I seem to be lacking however are the games that either wouldn’t work without a touch screen interfaces are somehow uniquely enriched by having one. Some of the constraints I am looking for are as follows.
  • Must be Android – I have zero iOS devices by design
  • Must be a Direct Purchase, One Time Unlock, or Free to Play with very optional and non-obtrusive monetization
  • Should be a gameplay experience uniquely enhanced by the touchscreen interface and not just a port trying to make up for those shortcomings
  • No Match Three Games – While I love Bejeweled, I need to move past that
I have to say I absolutely love my Twitter family because once again they came through for me with a massive list of titles to try. This mornings post is as much for my own benefit as it is for sharing these picks with the world, because I wanted a nice clean way of keeping track of it. A few of the titles that were thrown out were games that I had tried and ruled out for one reason or another, so I am dropping them from the list. The titles that are currently in the running for eventually garnering my attention are as follows.
Ultimately the above block of six games is what I chose for my very first cohort. Monument Valley is a game series that I had heard really good things about but ultimately forgot existed. You Must Build a Boat is a game that I have heard someone at some time in the past raving about it… I thought it was Kodra but it might just be a fuzzy memory of Liore when Cat Context existed. Loop gets bumped up in priority because it is was created by a mutual, so absolutely going to check that out. Eve Echos is a game that I had already installed but never actually got around to checking… so just grouping it in by default. Pathfinder Adventures because i was curious and Pixel Dungeon because also curious.
Mobile gaming is pretty much a bedtime activity for me, and last night I managed to try out one of the games before sleep ultimately claimed me. I had not really been sleeping well for a few nights so I did not make it super far. Monument Valley is gorgeous and is exactly the sort of game I am looking for. I am not exactly sure how this game works without a touch interface, and as a result it isn’t just making up for that limited toolset but exploiting it. The puzzles are interesting and change enough to feel fresh each time you move onto a new monument. I made it through five before my eyelids were too heavy to continue, but I am probably going to be playing this one for awhile until I either complete it or get distracted by some other shiny object. Since this has apparently turned into a post with just an excessive number of bullet point lists… why not add another? I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the folks who participated yesterday in throwing out game ideas. There was a flurry of them that all came in at once, and I think I have accounted for them all… but apologies if I inadvertently miss someone. Yall are awesome in my book. Essentially over the years I have developed this borderline toxic attitude that mobile gaming is by nature mechanically worse than gaming on pretty much any other platform. I am trying really hard to break this mental block. My hope is that by exposing myself to the games that my friends consider the best, I will start to see the potential of this platform that I have largely relegated to idle match three games and Gacha gambling. I know there are unique experiences that can only be had on a mobile phone, so I am hoping to find more of them. Now this is the point where I reach out to my readers as well. If you have any mobile games that you love and feel like are must play experiences, please drop me a line below in the comments. I will look into all of them and potentially add them to the list above. The post Seeking Mobile Experiences appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.