So, this past month has been very hectic for me on account of having had the audacity to take two summer college classes at the same time, which is an undertaking I would not advise anyone to do, as it eats up your time and can be a source of undue stress. However, the completion of these classes indicate that I am nearly done with school, as I am within arm’s length of my bachelor’s degree. For most people, that would be the conclusion of the chaos that is school, but I have resolved myself to becoming a Certified Public Accountant, and in order to attain such an elusive goal, my educational pursuits will need to continue for at least 2.5 years. So while the act of ending this semester and doing all the work I needed to attain a bachelor’s is a considerable landmark for me, the true end of the chaos that is secondary education won’t be until 2020 at the earliest.
E3 is historically the biggest source of news in the game industry every year, and as such the week or weeks following it tend to be rather slow ones, with publishers and press both getting back into the swing of things before the festivities resume next year, and partially during other annual conventions. Minor details were revealed by various companies, but emphasis on minors, with no new major bits of news popping up, let alone ones that grabbed me.
I mean, the biggest piece of news I came across this week was how Life Is Strange 2 was announced… via a nondescript teaser trailer that does not show off any characters, settings, or even the game’s general tone. Just a stitching of the game’s logo and the reveal that episode 1 of 5 will debut on September 27th. Not even an announcement of the target platforms. I am also not sure why this was not included in Square Enix’s E3 event, but then again, I understand very little of what drives Square Enix as a company.
So, is there anything else I can talk about… Ah, I know. Throughout this site’s lifecycle I have routinely tried to make my way through what I refer to as Performance Driven Games. Titles that heavily emphasize the player’s ability to conduct their play efficiently and effectively, in exchange for higher ranks and incrementally better rewards. Titles that encourage gaining a form of mastery through successive playthroughs and usually offer some form of greater depth. Examples of these include the entire character action game gender, your Devil May Cry and Bayonetta titles, in addition to things like the classic Resident Evil titles, which go so far as to discourage saving the game.
Games like these are titles that I feel I should at least be able to play through to completion, but I honestly struggle to get very far in them due to how, well, as somebody who has achieved high academic marks throughout their life, it is incredibly discouraging for me to be given a low rank, or rather grade, on something that I consider to be skill based. To the point that seeing one communicates to me that I should stop, start over, and try again, rather than focusing on making it through the given title as best I can, which is the approach I take in most other games. It is something that has routinely prevented me from simply playing certain games, despite it being such a petty and insignificant point, but I simply cannot get over it for the life of me. Well, unless I can identify the general gameplay as unrefined or the goals being arbitrary, like the ranking system in most Sonic games, which I really do not mind.
Yet despite having identified this issue, I still find myself coming back to the idea of playing these Performance Driven Games periodically, as emphasized by how I scribbled a Bayonetta review in my July review schedule. A schedule that I am really quite behind on… And I should also prepare for my finals, so that’s all for now. See ya next time!