Yeah, past two weeks have been slowing down, and everything is going to wind to a halt come the post Christmas lull. With people looking forward to a very fruitful Q1 for 2014, and looking back at the prior year to hand out awards, which I plan on doing along with some work on the actual infrastructure of this blog… I basically did that, apparently. Now to just finish the draft for Punky & Yuccot: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure.
You know what system rocked this year? The 3DS. With a very steady dripping of great titles, it almost makes me think I was smart to pick the system up at launch day. However, 2014 just seems rather lacking in comparison, with Bravely Default, Persona Q, Monster Hunter 4, Conception II, Yoshi’s Bland Island, Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Smash Brothers– Okay, fine it’s a good line-up for the first half of the year! But now Dragon Quest might be catching up based on newly found trademarks, it seems very RPG heavy. Which I only mention as it will make one more reason for me to not get a Vita, as most of what I’s play on it would be RPGs, and that Girls und Panzer Vita title, which sounds rather keen, and assuming it is localized.
What is also keen, but a money sink is naturally Steam, which is now introducing user reviews, something I take full credit for because I thought it should be in place when I started using the service. With the playtime being attached to the review naturally being a very nice touch. Or if you don’t care about community nonsense and want to play some games, you can always get a Steam Machine, like the one from iBuyPower, a slick looking white and green box that is mightier than the new consoles, and is about as expensive at $500, far better when they mentioned $800 consoles a while back, but that could be due to how expensive they are to make, after all, the Xbox One costs $471.
Thought that’s nothing compared to what the Crash Bandicoot IP cos- Huh? Activision still owns Crash? Well, that’s a bummer, though they could still work something out with Sony to have the franchise back to make all those kids two-five years older than me happy. Seeing as I’ve only beaten two Playstation exclusive titles… ever. A feat almost as unbelievable as a Nineteen year old forging a fully realized and quality 25 hour long mod for Skyrim that dropped a few jaws, called Falskaar in order to get a job at Bethesda, which didn’t happen, but Bungie works too, just going to show how you should spend your teen years learning how to code, assuming you can actually read books on the subject, unlike me.
Instead, I just learned a ton about games, played lots of them too. Though only a handful of old ones, likely accounting for how I’m not super excited about how Atlus can now use all the old Sega IPs. Though, the studio is very RPG heavy, so I’m stumped about how they could reboot Kid Chameleon, though we may have Vectorman be a Persona or something. Meanwhile, another semi-large RPG company from Japan very suddenly bit the dust with Bankruptcy, as Neverland, makers of Rune Factory, are no more. Though, I never played any game in their twenty year history, so I’ve got nothing to say beyond the usual pitter patter of a studio shutting down.
Though the exact opposite of a studio shutting down is probably the acquiring of one, which Sony did with Gaikai as they planned to have major streaming of titles onto the PS4 across the world. Some expected this to be released with the system itself, but now some magical sources went out and said we’d need to wait until Q3 2014 in the US, 2015 in Europe, and a big fat TBD for everything else. This may seem odd, but setting up a web of servers, testing them, and preparing to stream full titles from what could be a massive Sony backlog does sound like a nightmare. I just hope this leads to a very keen idea I done got where you can place a PS1/2/3 disc in a PS4 and have that game be streamed for you, as backwards compatibility has gone with the buffalo. Around the train tracks and in people’s bellies.
Oh, but there is something I discovered that is certainly worth the rubbing of a belly, and that is the announcement of a semi-sequel to Chaos;Head, Chaos;Child. Now, Chaos;Head was not a very good anime, and I certainly lack the knowledge to play the Japanese only visual novel. It was a series of great set ups that amounted to one of the most insultingly simplistic endings I have ever seen, as the series had more loose ends than most men have leg hairs. However, the series is notable for pretty much being among the more influential things I’ve consumed in quite some time, as I basically took the main character of the series because I felt that he had potential only I could untap. As for this new title? I know jack about it, and seeing as how PC based visual novels are not a thing in the US, we may never see it. Though we are getting Steins;Gate soonish. Courtesy of JAST USA, whose library I want to review completely.
So how was gaming’s most well known awards show? Well, the tagline was Binge Responsibility, it was called VGX, it was almost cynical in its execution, and I’m not leaving links because I don’t want to. With expected trailers for The Division and it’s real time dynamics, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, which is basically the PC version but now on a console. Donkey Kong Country HD and the cranky old man with a pogo stick you can play as, a move that is pretty badical. Dying Light looking like Dead Island 2.0, though the fact I never played Dead Island despite owning it sums up my thoughts pretty well. Thief is Deus Ex 3’s developers doing Dishonored but darker, meaning I don’t really care for it. While both Titanfall and Witcher 3 are titles I plan on nodding my head to, never letting them in my house, because I think they are dirty. Also, Quantum Break looks like a game called Quantum Break.
But the reveals are why people like me and sat through the D presentation, with Telltale planning two projects. The first is Tales From The Borderlands, a title that sounds farfetched as all heck. While also teasing a Game of Thrones title that they have barely started working on, but will debut in Q4 2014, because they have so much on their plate than expecting the title any sooner is preposterous. Much like the idea of No Man’s Sky, a procedurally generated mix between Destiny and The Witness, except the gameplay is apparently more or less just exploring, though it already looks amazing considering it is being made by four dudes. Though bigger studio titles like Double Fine’s Broken Age still manage to look like a gorgeous painting that I would like to rub against this January.
However, that was about it, from what I could remember anyhow. Meaning that there was no Fallout 4 mention, because that website was a hoax by some jerkwads. With Alien Isolation either being another prickish rouse, or something Sega is still getting prepared. Heck, not even a Majora’s Mask 3D reveal given how Skull Kid will be appearing in Smash Brothers 4 as an Assist Trophy. A move that makes me 99% convinced the title is in the works. Just like how I’m 99% sure Reggie wanted to mess with me by teasing a new Metroid only to say they don’t have anything to talk about. Freaking franchise needs a 3DS 2D installment more than we don’t need a 2014 Batman Arkham game.