I’m going to avoid talking about the thing that happened over the past week and go on a completely unrelated tangent. Why do some Japanese developers insist on using 2D animated anime cutscenes in fully 3D games with a high level of visual fidelity and an anime-esque art style. It doesn’t happen much, but whenever it does, it always looks poor in comparison to anything done in-engine, as the level of detail in the models and the smoothness of the animations are better than anything that could reasonably done by an outside studio. Yet some games still make use of this practice, the first that come to mind being Catherine, Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls, CyberConnect 2’s Naruto games, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, and even the upcoming Persona 5.
Seeing as how I just published my review of Mass Effect 3, I should probably talk about the new information that was revealed for Mass Effect Andromeda. To recap from the beginning, the game is set light years and hundreds of years after the events of Mass Effect 3, centered on a ship of explorers who decide to settle in the titular Andromeda galaxy. But, as should come across as no surprise, something went wrong and human explorers are left to defend themselves in hostile worlds, and against the new hostile alien race, the Kett. Beyond that, the game will tell the story of Scott and Sara Ryder, two human explorers who gradually prove themselves in these brave new worlds, exploring the wide open terrain of planets, uncovering secrets, and fighting various creatures they encounter. Also, their dad’s involved too.
As for the exact details about that, well, they are pretty numerous, so I’ll just simplify them. Combat will be more dynamic with a revised cover system and a revised power cooldown system. Relationships will return in vogue, but will be less about pursuing sexual romances and more about forging memorable moments and loyalty missions. The morality system is no longer binary, or at least they say so. Customization in general is also supposedly improved, aside from the name thing, which actually upsets me quite a bit. I wanted to tell the story of Truck Ryder, Baby Ryder, and Shadow Ryder, but I guess that’s not allowed.
Pokemon Go was a brief phenomenon when it launched a few months ago, but the difficulties found with completing the Pokedex, technical issues, gameplay issues, and communication issues all helped it fall off the radar over the past few months. However, the developer of the game, Niantic, seems determined to add more content to the game, and in the most recent update, it has been revealed that Generation II Pokemon will be added to the game eventually. Even though there are still some general problems with its core functionality, so I’d rather see them work on that rather than adding the other 650+ Pokemon.
Despite the fact that I remember the original Metro 2033 rather fondly, as it was an intense and atmospheric first person shooter with a very distinct look and feel, I really was not a fan of the sequel, Last Light, or the Redux version that I reviewed a few months ago. As such, hearing news that a new Metro game is due out in 2017 is not the most thrilling bit of news. Details are basically nonexistent, but last I heard the developers, 4A Games, intended to make an open world game, and it’s not too hard to imagine an open world Metro game. It would just follow a character exploring a post-apocalyptic Moscow, which has a nice appeal to it, albeit one that is somewhat tarnished by the garish drapings that oft accompany an open world structure
Let’s see… Another Idea Factory game is coming to PC, but I don’t care about Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, so… that’s all for now. Goodbye!