This past week I was accepted into an honor society called Beta Gamma Sigma, which is awarded to the highest performing business students and professors at universities with AACSB accreditation. This was rather surprising to me as even though my grades have consistently been good, I have never considered myself to be as intelligent as others make me out to be. While I do pay attention in school and do my work, I’m the sort of student who never opens their textbooks unless it is absolutely necessary, never reads ahead, and only reviews or studies before an exam. I honestly feel like I have been fumbling my way to academic success for the past… 10 or so years, yet it has been enough to maintain a 3.5+ GPA, and I guess that alone is enough to put me in the top 20% of business students at my school. Somehow.
After the Lootbox fiasco of 2017, it is unsurprising to see various publishers and developers shift away from the morally questionable monetization tactic, and decide against including it in their future releases, or in today’s case, remove them entirely. The developers of last year’s Middle-Earth: Shadow of War recently made an announcement saying that they will be removing the marketplace present in their full priced retail game and will be rebalancing the game to resemble what it should have been in the first place. While this is an unquestionably good move both for the industry and for this specific game, it is also easy to view it as a cynical backpedalling made by publisher Warner Brothers in an attempt to avoid legal repercussions while also saving on keeping the online market running.
After being announced back in January, Bandai Namco have finally released some significant information on the highly anticipated Dark Souls Remastered and it, unsurprisingly, appears to be a rather straightforward enhancement of the game with most of the improvements being based around upgrading how online works. It will be easier to play with others and to change covenants, a new bonfire is being added neat a merchant, and the game;s lighting is going to be improved, while textures and the like remain the same. Combined with 4K support, a higher native frame rate, and a PC version that will not be a busted piece of junk, I hope, and the game will likely be an inexpensive hit that I just hope people did not amp up to insane heights in their minds. I mean, seriously, expecting new textures and a shift to a new engine? Give me a break…
Speaking of reworkings of older titles, Activision Blizzard have finally announced the much rumored remake of the first three Spyro games, Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Much like the N.Sane Trilogy before it, Reignited will takes the original Playstation 1 titles and gives them a thorough facelift with entirely new assets and gameplay that has been rebuilt from the ground up, all in an attempt to recreate the original titles and make them available both new and old audiences.
The game is currently set for a September 21st release, but in a move that goes slightly against the rumors, the primary developer for this project is the Skylanders creators Toys for Bob and the game is set to release on both PS4 and Xbox One simultaneously, with Switch and PC versions almost assuredly coming at a latter date. I can only speculate this being due to wires being crossed and possibly exclusivity deals falling through, but regardless of the reason it is nice to see this game finally be confirmed, and unlike the N.Sane Trilogy, there’s actually a very good chance that I’ll check this game out eventually.
To close things off with a bit of unsurprising news, NIS America announced that that the latest entry in this Disgaea series, Disgaea 5, will be brought over to the PC on May 7th, with all content previously sold as DLC in the original PS4 version coming with the base game. This release serves as a follow up for the PC releases of Disgaea 1 and 2, and the release of Disgaea 5 on Switch, where it served as a launch window title. While part of me does have an inherent fascination with the Disgaea series, mostly due to its zany storylines and stylish art style, my experience with the PC version of the first game left me more than a little dissuaded from trying the other games out.