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If you're not having fun, what's the point?
Years ago, a handful of gamers from the xbox.com forums, decided they wanted a place of their own, to discuss whatever they liked without posting off topic to the Xbox forums. Years later, they wanted to dip their hand into the gaming news world and created Gamercide. This is where you are, now.
Welcome and hello from the Land of opensource goodness
First off it's been over a year since u/leillo1975 posted the first of these posts, and it's been a resource for several people myself included. His post can be found here for a comparison of the differences as time has gone on. Also, First off before we even go down this road, sim racing itself is a niche within a niche. Linux's users according to steams hardware survey spend above and beyond on their rigs on average as it is. Some simple math on the numbers. Steam has 24 million active users in a day peak time not a total that's probably 100's on throughout a 24-hour period, but with just the 24 million number we can use the steam hardware survey to find out an estimation of how many are here on Linux with myself. .78% last month were on Linux according to the steam survey, so .8% of 24 million gamers is 192,000. around 200k of us. I believe a lot of people seem to forget because of the massive numbers but that's a dam city full of people, who spend a lot on their hardware on average. So the market is there and works been done, sim racing and driving on Linux has been a great place to be over the last 2 years.
Opensource
Vdrift, The only game I will put here is VDrift as it is still actively developed you can find the GitHub here https://github.com/VDrift/vdrift still a fantastic thing to toy around with works on all platforms. Torcs and speed dreams are the other two, they are still great physic games, but mostly they are just used for research now from my understanding, and with a quick google I could not find any current updates. Some updates to this, Vdrift has only had minor tweaks to the code as has been mentioned below. Not currently developed Speed Dreams is much more active and development has never stopped.... and not, this game is not for investigation, is a real simulator, and you can play and enjoy it as you can see on this videos.
Native Games
American and Europe Truck Simulator, Everything here is fine, Steam mods working great, many a hour spent just chilling to music and relaxing, FFB is working. Dirt Rally, Everything works great, slam it to ultra, set your FFB, plug that USB handbrake in and gear box and let her rip. Dirt 4, Same as Dirt Rally really but more arcade, works great Drag, is an up and coming racing game, with some serious work on independent suspension physics they just implemented. Still in Early Access but from the demo I tried all works fine. Gravel, now this game is arcade all the way really, and only the core game is on Linux native not the DLCS. Grid Autosport, A very varied game with 5 different disciplines to choose from, such as Tourisms, Endurance, Single-Seaters, Tuning and Urban. F1 2017: the last F1 game to get ported to Linux, all works well F1 2015 is also native
The power of Valve and Linux community Proton
Proton is the tool that in steam lets us Linux players just click install on Windows game and go to town. A pretty decent percentage of the time not only does the game work, but since Linux is a better performing OS anyways combined with Vulkan Graphics API, the right combination means we see better performance in Windows games that on windows example of this with Red Dead Redemption 2 https://www.pcgamer.com/red-dead-redemption-2-shown-running-faster-on-linux-than-windows-10/ Proton.db is a massive list of community reports on what games are working or what tweaks to get them to work Project Cars 2 and Project Cars 1 (also 3 if you want to call it a sim), work 100% with proton, FFB, Graphics and performance are great. Proton.db Platinum rating Rfactor 2, when I tested is working great, smooth performance and I had FFB. Proton.db Rating Gold Assetto Corsa, Works great, no issues with the standard game, Mods are working I do not play this very often so unsure of the process for that, but can be installed via Lutris or Proton to get the mods working. Proton.db rating GOLD Assetto Corsa Competizione, Same as the above working great, I play this more often as I love Gt Cars. Proton.db rating GOLD AutoMobilista 1 and 2, Working great, I do not play 1, but on 2 I am same as PC2 getting amazing graphics and game play, all controls work fine Proton.db rating for AM2 is Platinum NASCAR Heat 4, probably 5 as well, work great though more focused to the controller side, you will learn the art of drafting here much cheaper than Iracing. Proton.db rating Platinum WRC 7, Working great really, no complaints I need to go back through and spend some more time in it, Dirt rally is just so good. Proton.db rating Silver Multiplayer might be borked I need to reinstall to test it F1 2018-2020, Working great really not noticing any issues. Proton.db rating Platinum F12020 Dakar 18, working great really epic settings no issue here Proton.db rating GOLD Dirt Rally 2.0, Just tested working great! Proton.db rating Platnium
WINE games
Below are games not installed through steam Live for Speed: Another veteran, but still active and with a small but loyal group of followers. Works perfect in Linux, and much of the blame are their developers, who have made things much easier for the game to work properly with Wine. Live for Speed can also be easily installed on Linux thanks to a Snap package. I was just playing this with my DIY handbrake still working great , big thanks to the maintainer for keeping this awesome!!
Simracers or Racing Games not working or Unknown
Now in fairness here is some that are either borked, or unknown Iracing, This one is kinda a hand toss, it did have a Linux client tell it went 64bit only, it can probably work again with some easy work between the communities as there are several full time employees at Valve and community working to get more games with anti cheat working, I do not have a subscription to this service so no way to test. If you do, and love to tinker, can you please install some Linux and give it a test? Proton.db Rating is Bronze and no updates in 2 years. the main problem is the Anticheat, that block the game when you try to ride a multiplayer race ( https://youtu.be/IENl71UhoFI ) . RaceRoom, Its just plain borked I tested this before posting this as when I was on windows I spent some money here, still not working asking of Internet exploder then crashes. Proton.db rating BORKED Grid 2019, some time ago, Codemasters delete the DirectX11 executable, and now only works with DX12. In the last versions of proton has problems, but some months ago, It worked well thanks to the inclusion of VKD3D on Proton.. Proton.db rating Bronze WRC 8, I did purchase this myself to test then refunded it, it is borked and didn't feel like tinkering with it. Proton.db rating BORKED Tony Stewarts racing games, Both sprint Car and All-American Racing need testing, so no idea Sebastioen Loeb Rally EVO, This game is reported to work but it doesn't have enough reports really Proton.db rating GOLD If you own some of these games and like to tinker please feel free to play with them on Linux and submit a report.
Utilities,
PyLinuxWheel: Currently it supports a lot of Logitech Steering Wheels (from very old Steering Wheels like WingMan Formula to newer like G29 and G920) , it has more functionalities like set Force Feedback, combine pedals, export and import profiles, test pedals, set range, etc. Also, it is very easy to install as it has Appimage and deb packages. Thanks to u/odinTdh for the update in the comments! PyLinuxWheel is compatible with the kernel driver and new-lg4ff, but if you want to configure the extra functionality that new-lg4ff gives, is best to use OverSteer as is an awesome program created by the same person that developed new-lg4ff. Oversteer: This utility is more advanced than the previous one and also allows you to change the range of the steering wheel, combine pedals, create profiles for games, test axis and buttons, and automatically modify the rule permissions to easily use wheel. In 2020 we now have the logitech driver in the kernel thus making most of the features on the logitech wheels work plug and play Telemetry: It's possible to activate and consult telemetry in F1 2017 thanks to this software designed to be used with Java Fanatec Wheels, Probably the biggest update in 2020 we had, there is now a community driver on Github https://github.com/gotzl/hid-fanatecff That has the elite and sport working. I do not have a fantec wheel to test this. I will be purchasing a few in the coming months to test this out though, so I look forward to trying something besides the logitechs
Hardware
So this is what I have tested as working and reported to be working I tested in all these games and confirmed working that I own
Steam Controller
Xbox 360 Controller
Logitech Driving Force Pro
Logitech G29
Logitech G920
Multiple DIY sifters and handbrakes using Arduino and other boards
Not tested by me but reported to be working
Fanatec CSL elite
Fanatec Club Sport
I forgot Thrust master wheels first time there are two projects to get FFB working on them as u/berarma has stated below I don't own thrust master so I cant test these myself at the moment.
Some Direct drive wheel companies have reported to look into Linux Simcube being one and I have heard that the AccuForce Pro V2 works without the software and drivers, I do not know, I might pick the latter up after I toy with the Fanetec stuff. IF sim Cube sees this somehow, there is demand. We the community have been hard at work bringing more games and hardware on board.
VR
So on this question this is what I can answer for certain, Gabe at valve is more committed to Linux as a main gaming OS than windows and as such has a team working on VR on Linux combined with so many talented opensoruce developers. If the game is native to Linux with VR its going to work, if its not like PC2 for instance it still works but you might need to fiddle. I do not know the details as I have no interest in VR, I already dislike wearing the headset for mics. If you have any info or something I missed on here let me know, specially if I can give credit to the maintainers reddit accounts for some of these utilities
Please keep the comments civil and know we are all a niche community no matter on windows or Linux and are all here to race and have fun.
[Video Games] A Too Human Story: How Nordic cybergods brought Ragnarok to the people that made them
I don't think anyone doubts that making games is hard work, even for those that have been in the industry for years, and following their stories can sometimes be more interesting than the games they made...or haven't made. Gaming history is littered with titles that briefly appeared on everyone's radar and then faded away without so much as a discount sale, leaving behind lessons that some studios take to heart as warnings from the past or inspiration to try and raise the bar higher for themselves. Then there are extinction events like the one that brought down Silicon Knights. This is from years ago having taken place part way through the latter half of the 00s during another round of "console wars" pitting Microsoft's Xbox 360 against Sony's PlayStation 3. Microsoft's spunky new console, despite the Red Ring of Death silently killing some of them, was at the top of its game (except in Japan) inaugurating memorable titles like the Gears of War and the Mass Effect series. Silicon Knights had a reputation shaped by its collaboration with Nintendo for the sanity crushing adventure of Eternal Darkness on the chibi-like Gamecube, a great Lovecraftian story that's one of my favorites on the system. This followed their anti-hero vampire, Kain, in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on the PlayStation years earlier which also became something of a classic (and one that I did not get to play yet...sadface). And now with the Xbox 360, they set their sights even higher with their biggest project yet. Too Human would bring to life a distant future inspired by Nordic mythology wedded to a "Shakespearian approach" to storytelling. It boasted that it could take "fifty to eighty hours" to get to level 50 with tons of loot, combos, everything that an action RPG could be and more. Delivering a Diablo-like experience to consoles was something of a big thing back in those days and bringing that to a cutting edge console leaping off the starting blocks of a new generation cycle was a major play for any studio worth its salt like Silicon Knights. They had the experience and the ideas to do it from anyone's perspective at the time and the window for opportunity was wide open. Could Too Human's "innovative" controls make its mark on consoles before Blizzard stepped in with Diablo III? Would it be the thinking man's action RPG? Could this be...The One? For many players like me that were thirsty for a new Diablo-like on consoles, we hoped that it could be.
Baldur's Journey
A bit of backstory. As mentioned before, Silicon Knights earned cred with games such as Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on the Playstation in the 90s though they had already cut their teeth in the industry with titles on PCs such as Cyber Empires in 1992 for Commodore's powerful Amiga PC series. The director for Blood Omen was one Denis Dyack. During Too Human's journey, Denis Dyack spoke about the experiences that took him into game design, mentioning that he has three degrees, one of which was for Physical Education. He was a wrestler during his university years with some of his friends going on to the Olympics or the UFC revealing someone laser focused on being both competitive with himself and whatever he put his mind to, an attitude that he brought to his work at Silicon Knights from the beginning. He, like a number of other designers then and today, didn't only see the games he made as "games" -- he saw each one as an ambitious opportunity to bring real change to the medium, to tell stories in ways that others couldn't. He'll be a major figure as this saga unfolds. Too Human was something of a passion project for Silicon Knights stretching back to the OG Playstation back in 1999 where it was teased at E3. It was one of the two projects from Silicon Knights that another studio, Crystal Dynamics, looked at before ultimately deciding to work with them on Blood Omen. After Blood Omen was finished, murmurs about Too Human began drumming up interest again with hints that it would be a multi-disc game taking place in the far future with a sci-fi cyber human take on Norse mythology. In 2000, however, Silicon Knights inked a development deal with Nintendo for their Gamecube refocusing their efforts on making two important games for it -- Eternal Darkness and a collaborative remake of Metal Gear Solid that would be known as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Following Nintendo, Silicon Knights moseyed over to the Microsoft camp in 2005 (the year the Xbox 360 would land on retail shelves) and real development finally resumed on Too Human with an eye for release Holiday 2006. A demo had even shown up at E3 that year in May as a preview for press meetings. Despite grabbing attention from outlets such as Electronic Gaming Monthly which featured Too Human as its exclusive cover story in the same month, the overall sentiment for Silicon Knights' biggest project based on what was shown...wasn't great. Writing in an IGN blog entry in 2007 a few months later, Dyack admitted that a week before the event they already knew the demo wasn't "what it should be" going into the show. Fast forward a few more months and Dyack would also question the "relative value of previewing a game" noting that the press they received at E3 didn't justify the months spent in making the demo that would have otherwise been used to actually work on issues facing the project, a sentiment that more than a few developers even today still deal with. The shadow this cast over Too Human in 2006 would haunt it well up to its release as Silicon Knights went relatively quiet to focus, skipping E3 2007 though keeping interest alive with the occasional interview with Dyack as its staunch advocate. Throughout Too Human's journey on the Xbox 360, Denis Dyack was front and center in interviews and video pieces talking up the game and Silicon Knights' storied approach to the medium, though some of the loftier claims could certainly be a bit...lofty. In one instance, he opined that the technology of the day paved the way to "create production values where people can look at Lord of the Rings or Too Human and say "I'd rather have the experience of playing Too Human.". If you were thinking that was a bit much, you weren't the only one. That led to more than a little pushback from skeptics and players, especially if you were already worn out by others like Peter Molyneux who was marching his own hype parade through the internet thanks to a little something he was working on called Fable II.
Denis Dyack Wrestles the Internet
Before "influencers" on Youtube and Twitch had become a thing and even before Twitch evolved into Twitch, gamecentric forums from Kotaku to GameFAQs to others were where a lot of internet-savvy gamers found their news and rumors. As forums and the growing power of other social channels continued to break down more barriers, NeoGAF, with its reputation for strong moderation creating something of an internet water cooler around which developers from the industry would occasionally participate in discussions there, was one of the most influential back in the day depending on who you talked to. Dyack's outspoken personality reared itself on NeoGAF's forums in late June, 2008, weeks before a demo for Too Human would land on the Xbox 360 in July with the full game raiding retail shelves in late August. Up to that point on the heels of the hype train following the Xbox exclusive, skeptics booked travel plans on their own train led by articles such as posts by Jim Sterling on Destructoid questioning Dyack's increasingly purple claims. Apparently having enough of some of the pointed negativity churning its way through the forum and elsewhere on the internet regarding Too Human, Dyack lobbed a challenge to "Stand and be counted" either "For" or "Against" the game, boldly proclaiming that Too Human was fast approaching and that "there is going to be a lot of trolls crying here". If the game failed, he was willing for his account to be tagged with "Owned by GAF". But if it succeeded, he wanted to see those who voted "Against" tagged with "Owned by Too Human". It was a gauntlet not so much thrown as dropped through top of a chain-link cage like Mankind was by the Undertaker. Or punching a hornet's nest while naked. Some said "For". Some were "Against". Others just sat back aghast at what appeared to be a childish publicity stunt from a developer who should know better, others ascribed Dyack to having balls of "titanium". Arguments were made on what Metacritic score and sales numbers would be enough to make people shut up. Others made it seem like Dyack was playing 4D chess. I ate popcorn. After devolving into debates between posters, the thread was eventually locked leaving everyone to wonder what would happen next. A bit afterwards, Too Human's demo dropped during the midst of E3 2008 on July 15th eventually reaching nearly a million downloads in short order. Dyack continued painting Too Human in glowing terms as well as mentioning an automatic camera/control system so innovative that it took eight years to develop and that he would be "shocked if there is any game in this genre that comes close to Too Human in the next couple of years." In another interview that later asked about reactions to the demo, Dyack had been quoted as saying "...what we're also seeing is for the people who didn't like it, generally just don't get it" to which Jim Sterling responded "That HAS to be the reason, Denis. We are just too stupid to comprehend the greatness that is Too Human...". Reception to the demo, which featured an entire level, was somewhat mixed. Some lauded the game for its setting while worried over its repetition. Still others were satisfied enough to keep their pre-orders. The NeoGAF thread calling for those who were "For" or "Against" had already been locked earlier but Dyack hadn't forgotten the forum. In an interview in August with VG247, Dyack explained that he chose NeoGAF to make a point about the "effects of negative forums", deciding on the site because he "considered it the worst". That quickly led to his ban and an angry response from one of the site's moderators who didn't take kindly to calls for the forum to be shut down or used as a "social experiment". Even though Dyack was pretty outspoken, a developer of his caliber being banned on a forum as popular as NeoGAF back in those days was something of a seismic event picked up across the internet. A few weeks later, Too Human arrived.
Bored by Death
Aside from the poor combat controls, dodgy camera system, and clunky user interface with menus that felt as if they were transitioning through tar, the salt in the wound for a number of reviewers (and more than a few players) was the valkyrie death scene. Dying in Too Human can happen often due to a combination of factors, not the least of which were the janky mechanics, and that always triggered a nearly half-a-minute long cinematic of a valkyrie coming down from the heavens to escort your soul. I should mention that it's also unskippable. Concerns over the infamous "valkyrie death cinematic" had even been brought up earlier with the demo. When asked about this days before Too Human's full release, Dyack responded "The bottom line is ... If it's a sign that people love the game so much that they just want to get in and play, could we make it skippable? Sure, it's an easy change." That change that never happened and for some that played the game, it was emblematic of the arrogance that had fueled the hype behind it. Predictably, Destructoid's Jim Sterling did not like the game very much with his review though he did praise the world and the concept -- just not so much the execution. And he wasn't alone. Ultimately, Silicon Knights' magnum opus was met with middling reviews although some players did enjoy the game despite its faults. In 2011, in an interview with Joystiq in which he pushed back against criticisms leveled at the game (including those made against the infamous valkyrie death animation), he noted that the game had sold 700k copies since 2008 and that the trilogy would continue. However, this wasn't even the worst of it.
Silicon Knights Fight an Epic Battle
While Dyack wrestled opinions in defense of Too Human, Fenrir was lurking in the background. Before Epic became a Fortnite juggernaut, they were busy building and maintaining a little something called the Unreal Engine. Created in the 90s by Tim Sweeney but arguably overshadowed by id's own engine tech at the time, it eventually came into its own during the heady days of the 00s and the 360/PS3 generation with some very big titles. Much like how Quake III had reinforced id's savvy know-how to the masses (and other developers), Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) powered games such as the uber popular Gears franchise for Microsoft (which Epic was also developing) and Mass Effect from BioWare, doing the same thing for Epic which would pay off in the years ahead. So remember when Too Human was supposed to come out in 2006? At the time, Silicon Knights had blamed missing the launch on "trouble" with UE3 that Dyack later brushed off by saying things were actually working out fine. Events suddenly took a bizarre turn a year later. In 2007, Silicon Knights sued Epic Games claiming they "misrepresented the abilities of their Unreal Engine 3", essentially saying that they weren't happy with UE3, had to build their own engine from scratch to do what they wanted, and were also seeking damages. They had also alleged that Epic had saved the most functional versions of the engine for themselves and their work on Gears, "sabotaging" their development. Uh oh. A few observers might note other developers at the time using UE3 from Mistwalker (Lost Odyssey) to EA (Medal of Honor: Airborne) to BioWare (Mass Effect) apparently didn't have the same issues, or if they did, managed their way around them instead of suing Epic. Epic seemed to have felt the same way. Shortly after taking Silicon Knights' thrown legal punch, Epic countersued stating that they were clear on what was being promised, that any updates made to the engine during their work on Gears would be shared, and were now suing Silicon Knights for what Epic believed was an effort "to take Epic's Licensed Technology, pay nothing for it, and use it any way it pleases". The court case would drag on for several years, well past Too Human's debut and even after Silicon Knights' X-Men: Destiny later hit shelves in 2011. In 2012 Epic proved its case in May with a jury finding Silicon Knights guilty and awarding $4.5 million in damages. Then in November, it was reported that it was doubled to a whopping $9 million, adding attorney's fees, interest, and other costs to the tab. The courts found that Silicon Knights did copy code from UE3 including "non-functional, internal comments Epic Games’ programmers had left for themselves." leaving even the mispellings they had made in those comments intact. But that's not all. In addition to the fine, Silicon Knights was also ordered to destroy all unsold copies of the games made with the technology such as X-Men: Destiny and Too Human at its own expense. Silicon Knights would attempt to appeal the ruling which failed in early 2014. Before that happened, however, there was one more match that Dyack and company would fight.
A Kickstarter Enters the Ring
In 2011, Silicon Knights laid off most of its employees by October weeks after the release of X-Men: Destiny (which was critically panned), a title shadowed with allegations ranging from heavy mismanagement to leaving the names of people that left the company but worked on the title out of its credits. A short time later, Dyack quietly left Silicon Knights and, with a few others from the company, formed another company called Precursor Games in 2012. In early May of 2013, Precursor launched a Kickstarter to fund development for Shadow of the Eternals, a spiritual successor to Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness (Nintendo owns Eternal Darkness' rights). At the time, it seemed like a slam dunk, surfing the golden tide carried by crowdfunding wunderkind such as Tim Schaefer's Broken Age, Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, and the Ouya console that promised a living room revolution (cough cough). Precursor's first attempt set the bar at $1.3 million in funding and it wasn't doing particularly well compared to peers that had shattered records in hours. Just a few days after kicking off its Kickstarter campaign, Dyack would find himself having to respond to those publicized allegations from earlier about X-Men: Destiny, particularly the part talking how resources meant for making the game were diverted to work on a demo for a new Eternal Darkness title at the time to shop around to interested publishers instead. Dyack, who was Precursor's chief creative, explained that Silicon Knights actually put more of their own money into the project, a collaboration between themselves and Activision and Marvel, and had even apologized not only for the poor state of the game itself but for things said in public about that and "other projects". The reason he had ignored the article for so long was so as not to substantiate what he felt were groundless claims until he felt it was necessary to chase away doubts that might haunt Shadow of the Eternals. The Kickstarter was eventually canceled to reboot it again in July with a more modest funding goal at $750k and a change in scope (episodic installments instead of one big game). Ultimately, that barely achieved half of what it set out to do probably due to a number of factors ranging from Dyack's reputation over what happened with Epic and Too Human, the Kotaku article, to one of the former developers at Silicon Knights and a founder for Precursor Games being arrested for child pornography.
Free Baldur
When Silicon Knights failed its appeal in 2014, long after both Kickstarters had ended, it finally filed for bankruptcy though it was barely alive as anything more than a legal body at this point. Dyack went quiet for a time after that, surfacing briefly on Youtube in 2016 with assurances that Shadow of the Eternals lives on and blaming "extremely unethical" press for the failure of its crowdfunding efforts. He most recently popped up again in 2020 announcing work on a spiritual successor to the Legacy of Kain with Deadhaus Sonata which is quietly building content and has already laid the foundations for a detailed world with the help of the community. No Kickstarter involved this time. Oddly enough, Too Human showed up in 2019 as a free download for the Xbox One as a part of Microsoft's backwards compatibility program. According to Polygon, Epic "discreetly" confirmed giving Microsoft the green light to do so. As for waiting for that Diablo-like... Diablo III was ported over to consoles like the Xbox 360 in 2013 nearly a year after its own painful birth in the PC space, eventually showing up on the PS4, Xbox One, and even later, on Nintendo's new chibi-like console, the Switch. It's pretty fun.
[Video Games] The reboot that got rebooted: The rise and fall of DmC: Devil May Cry
Let's cut through the pre-amble:
What is Devil May Cry?
Devil May Cry is an action series developed and published by Japanese company Capcom, beginning with Devil May Cry 1 in 2001 for the Playstation 2 (Here's an advert showing it as part of Sony's holiday lineup that included landmark gaming titles such as Final Fantasy X, Grand Theft Auto 3, Metal Gear Solid 2 and... Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance). The game series began as a prototype build for Resident Evil 4 that had more of an overt action focus than the acclaimed horror franchise was known for. Rather than scrap the build, Capcom saw potential in the idea of a stylish action game, and gave director Hideki Kamiya permission to make it a full title. Kamiya would involuntarily leave the series after DMC 1 as Capcom didn't ask him to work on DMC 2. Instead, a still-to-this-day unknown phantom director was put in charge of the game and he ran it into the ground. With less than half a year before DMC 2's 2003 release, Capcom brought in a new director to course-correct and get the game out for release: Hideaki Itsuno. In less than six months, Itsuno would rally the team, basically make the entire game, and create several features that would go on to become series staples, and while DMC 2 sold well, it was critically panned for being a very boring game. Itsuno, not wanting his reputation to be sullied, came back in 2005 with Devil May Cry 3, generally considered one of the greatest action games of all time. From here several core traits are instilled: chief among which being style meters that track the player's skill with combos and Dante having a style system that lets him use different movesets. And it's in 2008 with the release of Devil May Cry 4, marking the series going multiplatform for the first time as it came out on the PS3 and Xbox 360, that this story really begins:
The build up to 2010
With DMC 4's release in 2008, Capcom set the sales expectation that the game would sell 1.8 million units by the end of the fiscal year. DMC 4 would sell two million units in under a month, but Capcom were a bit unimpressed. They were hoping that now that DMC was on a wider range of platforms that the sales would correspondingly go up, but instead the game just saw a modest increase over DMC 3. The cost of game development had also shot up in the new console generation, making Capcom more concerned about DMC4's sales just being fine, especially coming off of huge sales juggarnauts from 2007 such as Halo 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Bioshock. (It doesn't help that DMC 4 had a very rushed development leading to the now infamous case of Dante's playable chapters just being Nero's but backwards) Japan at the time was also in a weird place when it came to gaming. The mobile phone gaming market was about to take off, and the playerbase in Japan was already smaller than the worldwide market for obvious reasons. In the home regions, it was safer to look into handheld gaming, and while Capcom had dallied with the idea of a DMC game on the Playstation Portable (at one point considering a remake of the first game that reached in-game screenshots and box art that was quietly shelved for unknown reasons, alongside a prequel focusing on Dante's father Sparda), these ideas never left the ground. Seeing how Western markets were more traditionally concerned with console gaming at this time (and the success of the God of War franchise proved Action was a genre people wanted), Capcom's idea was simple: Give their IPs to Western studios and let them take a crack at it, with the idea being their knowledge of what the West wants would let the games sell better. The results were mixed. The Bionic Commando reboot is nowadays more known for the twist of YOUR WIFE IS THE ROBOT ARM and only sold 27,000 units in a month, but Dead Rising did fairly well under a Capcom Vancouver branch until Dead Rising 4 happened and uh... kinda killed the series because it was awful. Capcom eventually set their sights on giving the West a crack at DMC, leading to them eyeballing several studios. This worked out well for them in that Itsuno was also burnt out. After having spent five straight years on DMC and having redeemed its image after DMC 2, Itsuno was ready to take a break and make his dream game: Dragon's Dogma, a dark fantasy game that is very fun. It got a Netflix anime adaptation recently that is... not as fun. But while Itsuno was making Dragon's Dogma, Capcom had some time to spitball handing the series off. They eventually settled on Ninja Theory, an up and coming British team best known for Heavenly Sword (a very pretty game with mediocre action combat and a priority on storytelling), and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (a modernisation of Journey to the West that was very pretty but priotizied story over gameplay). Rumors began to circulate in early 2010 that Ninja Theory had acquired the license and would be making a prequel focusing on Dante's early days, but it would only become clear at Tokyo Games Show that year when DmC: Devil May Cry* was formally announced. And the fanbase collectively hated it. (* Yes that does technically mean this reboot's name is Devil may Cry: Devil May Cry. I'm going to call it DmC from here to differentiate it from the core series)
The TGS Trailer
For those unaware of DMC, I should stress that by 2010, it had a reputation for a certain flair and theatics. Dante was known to be a goofball in cutscenes, taunting enemy demons and making a mockery of them. He has an entire cutscene in DMC 4 where he acts like he's on the stage of a theatre with how grandious he is. People liked Dante for this reason, he was a breath of fresh air in a time when most protagonists were stotic, gritty jerks who only talked in curse words and gravelly shouts. And his flowing white hair was also certainly iconic. So here comes the new take on Dante, the West giving him a go and oh... hoo boy. There's no charisma, there's no panache. The trailer has no gameplay. Dante doesn't look like a trash talker, he looks like a meth addict. He's smoking, something the DMC 1 design documents said Dante would never do as (per Kamiya) smoking is uncool. His hair isn't even white! Now let me be clear: I am not opposed to a new take on Dante. Certainly, the idea presented in the reveal trailer that Dante is imaging the demons he fights as an acute case of psychosis is an interesting idea, as it raises the question of whether or not the demons are real or if he's senselessly killing random people. But the execution would have had to be perfect, and opening with just a fancy trailer that had no signs of gameplay for an action franchise was not the right foot to start on. What doesn't help was that the entire Western Capcom initiative was one pushed by a very controversial figure in gaming called Keiji Inafune, who would leave Capcom right after DmC's announcement in 2010. Inafune was the one most strongly advocating for the western development approach (Something Capcom were quick to stress in 2010 after his departure), but with his departure the movement had less steam. Inafune would go on to make Mighty Number 9, a Kickstarter that went miserably wrong on every turn and is usually seen as one of the most disappointing games of the 2010s. I should also point out here: Dante's radically different design from the norm of the series was a mandate imposed by Capcom.Ninja Theory's original concept art for Dante was much more closer to his traditional design- white hair, red coat and all. But Capcom, and Itsuno especially, were adament that if Ninja Theory were going to be doing something new with the franchise, that they needed to go off the cuff- in Capcom's own words, "Go crazy."
The development
So Dante got a new color palette, a darker jacket and black hair. But at the time (this news only came out two years after the redesign was revealed), people didn't know about Capcom explicitly telling NT to go off the rails, and what they saw... was Ninja Theory going off the rails in the wrong way. So from the word go, fans aren't happy. Fans are usually never happy but I mean they were unhappy. Chief Creative director for Ninja Theory Tameen Antionades said after the reveal: “The vitriol was immediate, aggressive and relentless for the next two years. Without a second of gameplay being shown, it had been written off as a disaster in the making.” Tameen would become the ball and chain around DmC's marketing, which is quite apparent in how Ninja Theory would dial back on his appearances as we get closer to the game's release. The backlash to the launch clearly surprised Ninja Theory and caught them off guard, with Tameen publically lashing out at the original fanbase for writing the game off or being unhappy at Dante's visual redesign. This would go on to dominiate the discussions about DmC for its pre-release cycle, as it became less about the game and more about the community and whether or not the response was justified (alongside in typical internet fashion, a few death threats being tossed around which apparently included a full metal song). No matter which side of it you lean on though, Tameen had habit of putting his foot in his mouth in regards to PR:
When asked by Venturebeat how he felt about the fan reaction to the TGS trailer, Tameen (and I am quoting them word for word here) “took a drag of his cigarette and without blinking or pausing to exhale the smoke from his mouth, said: ‘I don’t care.’”
Capcom likely stepped in behind the scenes and encourged a few changes. Notably, Dante's design underwent a few shifts, including making him more muscular and rewriting portions of the game to give him a few more of Old!Dante's trademark quips. A few voice actor was also cast, named Tim Phillips... though NT wouldn't budge on the haircut as it was part of the story. The Dante psychosis/prisoner angle from the TGS trailer was also completely scrapped from the final product, having Dante instead be confirmed to be sane and fighting demons, not people. Even though Capcom had encouraged NT to go off the rails... money still reigns supreme and Capcom wanted to turn a profit. So closer to release, Capcom made a point of stressing that Itsuno and several other DMC veteran staff were supervising the combat system and offering guidance. Combat designer Rahni Tucker spoke positively of the exchanges she had with Itsuno:
The damage however, was long done. Even with the post-TGS revisions, DmC was facing an uphill battle from the community, with a minority waiting to give it a try themselves before casting judgement, but the majority either being apathetic or downright hostile to the game, not helped by Tameen's attitude creating the idea that Ninja Theory inherently hated what made Devil May Cry good (again, keep in mind most players wouldn't learn that Capcom were pushing for the radical Dante changes until years post-release). Ultimately though, Capcom themselves are to blame for the choices that impacted DmC: Ninja Theory were only doing their jobs to the best of their abilities and for the most part many of the staff clearly loved getting to work on such a popular franchise and boosting their studio's name. It came down an unfortunate blend of Capcom misreading what people wanted from future projects, an attempt to appeal to a Western market that fell on its face, and a director unprepared for the mass backlash his product got. Either way, the game finally came out in early 2013.
The game itself
Eh, it was OK. DmC launched in March 2013 and got decent reviews on all platforms, getting a consistent 8/10 on all platforms on Metacritic. The PC port was especially praised for its sheer variety of features including an uncapped framerate. Critics quite liked it, praising the story and art direction, feeling it was a necessary step for the series to make the games somewhat easier to let newcomers in without facing as daunting a challenge as the games could be (I'm pretty sure learning how to fly a plane is easier than mastering Dante in Devil May Cry 4). Old Dante's most famous voice actor, Reuben Langdon, spoke on a podcast about the game and admitted that while he wasn't fond of the new Dante's characterisation, he applauded Ninja Theory's craftsmenship. The fanbase were colder, even with the pre-release biases set aside (this wasn't helped by Platinum, helmed by several ex-DMC 1 developers including Kamiya, releasing Metal Gear Rising Revengeance also in 2013. Metal Gear Rising is a very good game that involves flipping giant robots and fighting a very actractive Brazillian man with a gun-sheath sword). The game's framerate on consoles was capped at 30FPS for technical reasons when all prior games ran at 60FPS. Dante had lost a lot of his mechanical complexity (including DMC 3 and 4's style system which offered Dante special abilities he could switch between such as more sword and gun combos, blocking and dodging) in favour of a more universal moveset. The Devil Trigger super mode was pretty lame and automatically knocked all enemies into the air, which people didn't like as it made most encounters too easy. Building up style was too easy and the game had no systems to stop you spamming the same combos over and over. The game's weapon system of angel/demon themed weapons included color-coded enemies that forced you to use the right gear or you'd be punished. There was no Turbo Mode, a feature in most games that automatically boosted the game's speed by 20% on average. Ninja Theory still made a good action game, albeit one that needed a bit more refinement to reach its true potential. But the lack of several core features (or worse, poorly implemented iterations of said features) led to the fanbase adopting a term:
"It's a good game, but it's not a good Devil May Cry."
The fanbase were willing to concede to the good aspects of the game- especially in audiovisual aspects. Enemies now got a subtitle during their first appearance, weapons getting a slight glint when the player pauses to let them know they can launch a pause combo attack, the soundtrack was now dynamic and evolved up the higher your style rank got, alongside the killing blow at the end of a fight getting a cinematic camera angle. Ninja Theory's sense of style itself was something that impressed the Capcom team, as all of these aspects were modified and adopted into the mainline games come 2019. The game was also very beautiful in places, leaving the Gothic archetecture of the main games for a more European feel in Limbo City. Madrid in Spain and Genoa in Italy are clear influences on the archetecture, and the design team adapt them well in making Limbo a city that is itself a weapon trying to kill Dante through compressing alleyways, closing off paths or mocking him through writing on the walls, Splinter Cell Conviction style. Combichrist and Noisia's collaberations for the soundtrack were also praised between their licensed work and new music composed just for the game, especially the songs Never Surrender and Throat Full of Glass. But for all the praise, reluctant or otherwise, that game got mechanically, the story that the critics had acclaimed as mature and a right step forward had few supporters among the playerbase. There's been a lot written and said about DmC's story so I'll cap off the highlights here:
Dante's brother Vergil in the core series is a man of MOTIVATION who would sooner cut his throat than admit to anything being stronger than him, alongside someone who hates firearms. Entire essayshave been written about how amazing Vergil is in Devil May Cry 3 and in some communities, his name has become synonymous with the rival archetype. Here, he's presented as a thinly veiled analogue to the Anonymous movement (you can carbon date this game to early 2010s in general with the Anonymous analouges and WAKE UP SHEEPLE energy), openly admits to Dante that "I'm powerless to stop you" from just leaving his goal to stop the demons, and in the most infamous scene of the game, uses a sniper rifle to shoot a pregnant woman in the chest, blowing out her entire stomach, before headshotting her. To make things even worse for the reputation of this version of Vergil (who had been mockingly named Vergin), the launch version of DmC had him wearing a fedora. In 2013. I don't think I need to add anything to that if you remember what became of the fedora around 2013.
Despite Tameen's comments about women in video games and "prostitutes with guns," DmC was reviled for how deeply mysoginistic the game truly was. Kat (the one heroic female character in the game and the only female character to survive the game), had several far more revealing costumes planned in concept art (Alongside the idea that Kat fought with a violin weapon pre-Lindsay Sterling which was pretty cool). Here's one of the better pieces of art where Kat was planned to be a biker chick with platinum blonde hair. Kat is ultimately a vehicle for Dante's character development as he softens up around her, only for her to be kidnapped and brutalized by the police. Dante and Vergil then kidnap the mistress of Mundus (the main antagonist) who is pregnant with his child, and trade the two women off like Pokemon cards (the camera in the trade scene, linked above in the Vergin section includes several disturbing shots that linger on Kat trying to get up after being shoved to the ground), leading back to the Sniper Rifle Abortion. The fanbase got very creative with memes relating to that part of the game. Kat's main involvement in the final act of the game is just to give Dante a map of the building she was tortured in, then hide behind a dumpster when Dante and Vergil come to blows over whether or not they should rule humanity. And in the re-release of the game, the final cutscene is modfied so the last shot of the game is Dante copping a feel of Kat's ass.
The end was an OK game let down by a bad story. The tale of many a game. And unfortunately, partly thanks to the game just not being good enough for the DMC pedigree, DmC underperformed. Capcom initally hoped for 2 million units to be sold like DMC 4, but later quietly lowered their projections down to 1.2 million.Some rumors speculate that Capcom had to artifically boost the game's sale numbers by counting anyone who downloaded the game when it was for free as part of Playstation Plus in January 2014 (games that go on PS+ or Microsofft's Xbox Live Games with Gold service are usually games that are either selling so well they can take the hit, are past their lifespan and looking to reignite the playerbase, or did very badly and this is a last ditch effort to get interest into the game). While not speaking directly about DmC, Capcom spoke frankly in a financial report regarding their Western outsourcing, attributing the lack of success to a "delayed response to the expanding digital contents market," "insufficient coordination between the marketing and the game development divisions in overseas markets," and a "decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing". The long and the short of it was: DmC flopped commerically, failing to meet the sales of DMC 4 in the West (which remember was Capcom's entire reason for the reboot) when it was released on the exact same platforms, and the consoles had a larger install base due to five years having passed. For what it's worth, Itsuno himself support the game and approved of Ninja Theory's efforts, even saying he'd have been honored to work on a DmC Devil May Cry 2 had Capcom gone with that project. Some post-launch support would follow, including DLC costumes based on concept art for Dante and several alt skins based on his DMC 1 and 3 appearances, Bloody Palace (basically a time trial gauntlet run) and a campaign focusing on Vergil that sets up a sequel hook which never gets followed up on. Some Ninja Theory staffers didn't take the news well, especially as they knew that their reputation was going to take a large hit after DmC. Art director Alessandro Taini gave a GDC talk where he went on a weird rant involving editing DMC 4 Dante into stills from... Brokeback Mountain and Batman and Robin, while also saying reboot Dante was based on... Tyler Durden from Fight Club (for those who don't know Fight Club, you're not meant to agree with Tyler or find him a role model). Keep in mind that this is Taini basically shit-talking character designs he had no hand in making. In a hilaripus twist of irony, Dante would later in the series get a cowboy hat as a weapon. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Capcom up to this point had been going back and forth on what DmC even was- was it a prequel, a reboot, an alternate universe? They seemed to change the answer every month. But after the game's failure to meet expectations commercially, they quietly settled on it being based on an alternate universe, as was confirmed in of all things, Donte appearing as a DLC alt skin for Dante in Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.
In 2015, Capcom re-released the game for the new consoles as DmC: Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition. This was largely helmed by the Capcom team in Japan who modified the game to make it more in line with DMC's series standards of gameplay. And you know what? It's really good! Genuinely, it actually makes the game and takes it from "A good attempt" to "one of the best Western attempts at action games period." 60FPS on consoles, all DLC included, Turbo Mode was back, a new mode called Must Style where you have to get an S Rank in combos before your attacks do damage, all alongside an insanely detailed changelog penned by Rahni Tucker. The one downside? It never got released on PC for unsaid reasons, presumably that most of the new gameplay additions... were based on mods made by the PC fanbase. Mods you can no longer find as the site storing them has gone down. However even with this, DmC would get sand in its eye one more time. In the same year, Capcom released a similar re-release of DMC 4 called Special Edition. It was far more bare bones than DmC: DE, only adding three new playable characters in Lady, Trish and MOTIVATION Man himself, Vergil. Despite the game only getting a physical release in Japan and being digital only here in the West (whereas DmC: DE got a full release), Capcom eventually said that DMC 4 SE obliterated the DE in sales, with Capcom specifically saying that 4SE's digital sales led to a better quarter in 2015 than they were anticipating. As of 2020 (due to Capcom counting their re-releases of games separately than the original release when it comes to sales), we know that DMC4SE has sold 1.5 million units, while DmC: DE sold 1.1 million. However, ultimately, I'm very joyful to admit that everyone got a happy ending! No, literally, everyone came out of this for the better. Ninja Theory in 2017 would release Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, a critical and commerical darling made on a self-styled "AA" budget that was praised for its handling of mental health through the lens of its MC Senua. It made its budget back easily, they're now owned by Microsoft and they're currently working on a sequel called Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2. Capcom would bounce back from their slump in the Early 2010s, beginning in 2017 with the releases of Resident Evil 7, Monster Hunter World and a certain title I'll mention in a minute. They've been releasing hit after hit for the last four years and they have more on the horizon. And Itsuno, now having made Dragon's Dogma, came back raring to go with more Devil May Cry. Though there are some rumors by Dante's voice actor that he had to threaten to leave Capcom to get it, at E3 2018 as part of the Microsoft panel, Itsuno took to the stage and announced: "DMC IS BACK!!!" (Watching people react to this trailer and freaking out when they see it's DMC gives me so much serotonin) Thanks for reading this... long disaster of a post. Have a good one, and remember to keep this party crazy. Let's rock. :)
Additional reading if you'd like more words on this reboot:
I played a bunch of games in 2020. Here are my thoughts on each.
If any of you have played some of the same games I have, I'd love to hear about your experiences! GAMES I FINISHED (Note: I am not a completionist, so 'finished' is relative)
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PC) - I first bought Monster Hunter World on PC when it was on a good sale. I had never played a Monster Hunter game before and I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Let me tell you all something: Those first 10 hours were a drag. The game has so many different systems and mechanics that I felt like I was way out of my league. The graphics, charm, and monster fights were just enough to keep me going. And then, after about 10 hours of trying to get my bearings, something clicked, and I was hooked. Before I knew it, I had blasted through the campaign and was farming gear and carefully calculating the perfect build to combat each monster. Once Iceborne released on PC, I hopped in immediately, and was not disappointed. The expansion felt like it almost doubled the size of the game, and more of the same is certainly not a bad thing. My only gripe: Not realizing I could change the voice lines to "monster hunter language" until after I finished the campaign. If I hear that handler call me "pard" one more time I'm going to punch a hole in my monitor.
Black Mesa (PC) - Half Life 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, tied with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Mass Effect 2. I've been waiting for Half Life 3 for 13 years (Alyx doesn't count), but in the meantime, I'll take a Half Life game that's been in development for that same length of time. It was refreshing to play such a classic game with a fresh coat of paint, as some older games are getting harder and harder to go back to. They included some levels that were cut from the original, but based on the pacing of those levels, they were probably cut for good reason. The work they did on Xen was phenomenal for such a small team, although it did have some graphical issues. I really appreciate the small extra story touches that they added to Xen. All in all, still a great FPS experience to this day.
The Witcher 3 (Switch) - Aka Switcher. I bought a Switch for myself Christmas 2019, and this was the first game I bought for it. I already played the game on PC when it came out, but after watching the Netflix series, I was itching to dive back in. It took some time adjusting to the small screen and lower framerate, but I eventually came to love playing The Witcher on the go. It's a great game to pick up, tackle a couple side quests, and set back down. In February the developers released a stellar update that patched the graphics/framerate and allowed cloud save sharing with Steam and GOG. Once I had the ability to go back and forth between the Switch and PC as I pleased, I started playing more frequently. Although The Witcher 3 is not my favorite game of all time, and it does have its flaws (friggin Roach), it is my opinion that this is the highest quality game ever made. We'll see if Cyberpunk can top it later this year. (Spoiler alert: It didn't)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) - This was my first foray into the world of Animal Crossing. I've got to admit that I enjoyed the childlike simplicity and charm. However, after a few days of play, I started to get annoyed with some of the mechanics that seem to be designed in such a way to artifically inflate the grind: -Not being able to craft items in your house using ingredients from storage. -Having to perfectly position yourself to place items where you want them outside of your house (the Sims-like interface from your house should be available everywhere) -Performing the same animation to pick up every single object. -Reading unnecessary text/dialogue every time you want to perform a simple task. -Not being able to interact with the items you craft. They are nothing more than decorations. However, these were not enough to spoil my experience. I played through to the end of the 'campaign', plus a little more. Even later in the year when I hadn't touched the game in months, I would still occasionally hear that relaxing island music and see those cute cuddly characters in my mind. Blathers must be so depressed without me delivering him fossils... Okay maybe I'll play a little more.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (PC) - Wow. This is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. The colors, sounds, characters, and animations are all woven together in a stunningly graceful fashion. I played the first one and enjoyed it, but this one improved upon the first in almost every aspect.
Halo Master Chief Collection (PC/Xcloud) - I had already beat Halo 1 multiple times in my childhood, but coming off the recently re-released Halo Reach, I was excited to dive back into Halo's universe. I experienced some bugs but the game was largely just as I remember it, with slightly higher resolutions and framerate. The multiplayer isn't half bad either. My friend that I wanted to play with had some terrible audio issues, so it was a bummer playing it alone. I went on to play all the other re-released campaigns this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed each one. The combat would probably seem pretty basic for someone new to the franchise, but that's not likely to bother us nostalgic old folks. This was my first time playing Halo 4 and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, considering how many Halo fans abhored it.
Doom Eternal (PC) - Honestly, I had some mixed feelings about this one. Coming hot off the badassery of Doom 2016, I was hyped to rip and tear once again. However, I missed the coherent storyline, sense of dread, color palette, and simpler mechanics of Doom 2016. The developers chose to throw all of their eggs in the combat basket with this one. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; I initally had a lot of fun learning the flow of combat and shredding demons a new one to a blood-pumping metal soundtrack. But eventually I started to get frustrated that I was being forced to play the way the developers wanted me to play. The combat loop is the same every fight, and I started getting more frustrated with it as time went on and more enemies and chaos were added in. With the bloated mechanics in combination with platforming bugs, by the end I just wanted to be done with the game. I know a lot of gamers will love Eternal for it's complex combat system. However, prefering a mix of solid mechanics, storytelling, and world-building, Doom 2016 remains the standard for me.
Resident Evil 3 (PC) - Resident Evil is one of my favorite video game franchises, and Resident Evil 2 Remake was my favorite game of 2019, so this was a no-brainer day one buy for me. While I don't regret my purchase, I have to admit that the game is only worth $20-30. It was nonstop action from start to finish, and the production value was great, but it needed a few more hours to make it as great as its predecessor. I'm disappointed that they didn't spend a little bit more time developing this one.
Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) - I dabbled in Final Fantasy VII about 10-11 years ago but never finished it. The story was cool but the graphics hadn't aged well into the PS3/XBox 360 generation. With the remake I was excited to hop back into Midgar with 2020 technology, and holy crap... this is a hot contender for game of the year. Engaging and varied combat. Visuals that should be impossible on 7 year old hardware. Fascinating characters with stellar voice acting. A classic story with a new twist. Goofy Japanese dialogue. Waifus. This has been my favorite gaming experience of the year so far and it's going to be difficult to top. Cyberpunk 2077, will you have what it takes? (Spoiler alert again: It didn't)
Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition (Switch) - What I remember most about this game is that I started playing it in the car while my wife was in the hospital finding out the sex of our unborn baby (I couldn't go in due to COVID). Other than that, it was a pretty fun first-person shooter. It was certainly a better Duke Nukem game than Duke Nukem Forever.
South Park: The Stick of Truth (Switch) - This was another one I picked up on the Switch on sale, along with a lot of other games I played this year. I already owned the game on Steam, but the ability to play games anywhere made the Switch my go-to device for most of the games I played. The developers really did a fantastic job of making it feel like you were in the actual South Park cartoon. I had a lot of fun with it but, man, maybe it's because I'm older now and my sense of humor is changing, but a lot of parts of this game are just 'gross'. Don't get me wrong, I lol'd a lot, but I also cringed an equal number of times. Highly recommend! :)
Diablo III (Switch) - I remember well the infamous launch of Diablo 3. Diablo 2 was one of the defining games of my childhood and my friend and I were looking forward to this one dearly. While I didn't hate it as much as most of the community, it did not stick with me like it's predecessor did. With all the positive changes that I heard were made to the game, I was curious enough to give it another try, and I've got to say, Blizzard really did a good job of making Diablo addicting again. While running through the same campaign over and over gets a bit tiresome, the loot, skills, and endgame have all been done beautifully. Not only that, it's ridiculous how well this game runs on the Switch. It's like the game was designed from the ground up with the Switch in mind. Every time a new season started I rolled a new character and had a blast. My end-of-the-year Switch statistics told me that Diablo III ranked second in my hours played this year behind The Witcher 3.
Bastion (Switch) - Another game I own on Steam, but bought on the Switch anyway. This and many other games have sat in my Steam backlog for years but I never quite got through them. As stated previously, the ability to take my games with me anywhere (even just to the couch) made it so much easier to finish them. Bastion was a fun little game that embodies the importance of having a sexy-voiced narrator recounting all the events of the tale. If you loved this years' Hades, you will no doubt enjoy Supergiant's early attempts at storytelling and combat.
Transistor (Switch) - I went from Bastion straight into Supergiants incredibly strange cyberpunk experience. As with their previous game, I liked the narration and outstanding artwork, but I can't say I liked what they did with the combat. Part of me liked the flexibility in tweaking my build, but something about the quasi-turn based style felt a bit off to me. Not a bad game at all, but it just didn't click with me.
Lines XL (Switch) - Picked up for free with coins in the eshop. Why the F is connecting a bunch of lines so darn engaging? I'm not even a big puzzle game fan. Probably because it's easy to do while chilling on the couch watching TV. I went ahead and picked up Lines X and Lines Infinite after this one.
Borderlands 3 DLC (PC) - I picked up the season pass on sale, and what can I say? It's more Borderlands. Expect ridiculous guns, cringy jokes, and lots of fun shooty action. I don't know why so many critics hated the humor in BL3. I quite liked it. Mancubus Bloodtooth was my favorite new character.
The Last of Us Part 2 (PS4) - This was probably my most anticipated game of the year, then the leaks came out and the internet blew up. I managed to avoid spoilers, but based on everyone's reaction, my hype quickly faded. When it released and the major game journalists released their reviews, I became a bit more hopeful, but the internet came out again in full force accusing them of corporate shilling. About a month after the game came out I decided I couldn't wait any longer. After completing this game, I can confirm: The internet is full of people who just want to be pissed off about any and everything, even if they don't know why. I'm a big fan of the first game, and I thought the story in this one was fantastic. Furthermore, the combat, visuals, animation, acting, and attention to detail are at masterpiece level. This game deserves all the critical acclaim it received. My only gripes are that the second half of the game dragged on a bit too long, and the ending felt kind of empty if there does not end up being a Last of Us 3.
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch) - I didn't quite finish this one but I put a solid 40-50 hours into it so I think it's safe to include here. I do plan on finishing it soon before Monster Hunter Rise comes out, because even though the graphics are dated and it's missing many of the modern features of World, this game is fantastic. It's got so much content that World doesn't have, with loads of cool weapons and armor. The online community is still pretty active as well.
Steamworld Dig (Switch) - A light metroidvania where you dig deeper and deeper into the Earth to mine precious metals then return to town to sell them and level up. I quite liked the gameplay loop and was able to finish in a few hours. Well worth the $2 I spent.
Gorogoa (Switch) - A unique puzzle game that has you arrange a series of pictures to reach the ending. A brief but enjoyable experience.
Doom 64 (Switch) - A true continuation of the classic Doom experience. Whether or not that's a good thing is a matter of personal opinion. I do have fond memories of classic Doom, so I played a level here and there until I finished it. However, I can't necessarily say it's a very good game from a modern standpoint, as some of the level designs are confusing and the enemies start to feel samey after a while.
Lode Runner Legacy (Switch) - The voxel graphics turned me off of buying this one sooner, but it was on a steep enough discount to entice me. Lode Runner: The Legend Returns was one of my favorite games as a child, and I was hoping for something to scratch that itch. I finished the majority of the levels, but it ultimately lacked the charm of the previous iterations.
Star Wars Squadrons (PC) - This one has earned EA a digital tip of my hat. They pulled a complete 180 from Star Wars Battlefront 2. I think the gaming community should take note of how much influence they have with social media. If a company screws up, come out in droves and let them hear it. Activision and EA are easy to hate on, but even beloved companies like Nintendo need the community to rally when they make a poor decision. In any case, it's been way too long since a great Star Wars flight sim has come out. If you miss Star Wars: X-Wing and Tie Fighter, you will not be dissapointed here. A fun little campaign and multiplayer with tight mechanics and fun cosmetic collectables (that are built into the game and require no microtransactions whatsoever).
Super Mario Galaxy (Switch) - Freakin' Nintendo and their limited release window. How could I not buy the Super Mario 3D All Stars Collection? I don't necessarily regret the purchase, but 3 old emulated games for $50 is a bit steep. With that out of the way, this was my first time playing Super Mario Galaxy, and I loved it. They did do a nice job of the making the controls work on the Switch. I haven't played Super Mario Odyssey yet either but this one got me looking forward to trying it out.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4) - The original Call of Duty had the best military FPS campaign that had ever been designed up to that point. Instead of providing the same old action-packed superhero experience, it provided a very raw, boots-on-the-ground perspective of what the horrors of war were actually like. As the years went on and Call of Duty became the juggernaut it is today, the campaigns started to lose their appeal to me. I remember reading that Infinite Warfare had one of the best CoD campaigns yet, so I didn't mind trying it from the $5 bargain bin at Gamestop. While some of CoD's traditional themes and characters are still there, the world and the story were actually quite good. The campaign even had the player exercise some choice, which I was not expecting. This was also my first experience using Remote Play from the PS4 on my phone, which worked a lot better than I expected.
The Evil Within (PC) - I thought I'd bust out a spooky game from my Steam backlog around Halloween time. The Evil Within was just good enough of a game for me to finish, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. The gameplay is a bit rough around the edges, and can't decide if it wants to be a horror game or an action game. The story and characters were also fairly forgettable.
Dead Cells (Switch) - An extremely solid rogue-like experience. Tight combat and a ton of different weapons and power-ups to unlock. I still have a ton more to do, especially since they keep updating it.
Return of the Obra Dinn (Switch) - This one had me hooked for a solid 5-6 hours straight after I started it, which is something that does not happen very often. I solved about a third of the fates during my first view of all the scenes, then backtracked a bit and solved a little over half. Then the game just hit a brick wall for me. I really did not want to keep walking back and forth throughout the ship trying to find the scene I want. I feel like this game would have been much better if there was an easy way to view all the scenes in order after you've unlocked all of them. I ended up looking up the rest of the fates online to see the end of the story.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019 campaign) (PC) - Although most people will remember this game because of Warzone, it actually had a descent campaign. It's always good to see Captain Price again, and the cutscenes had some of the best animations I've ever seen in a game. I remember my wife walking in the room and asking, "Is that real or is it a video game?"
Hades (Switch) - If there was ever an indie game that deserved a Game of the Year award, it's this one. This game puts most AAA titles to shame. Honestly, I'm not sure I can say anything that hasn't been said already. Supergiant really perfected their combat with this one, and spared no expense on top-notch dialogue and voice acting. I'm currently taking a break from grinding the endgame but I know I'll be back soon.
Blasphemous (Switch) - Outstand art direction and world-building, mediocre combat, and lame collectables. The game was just 'Dark Souls' and 'Metroidvania' enough for me to see it through to the end (I love those two genres). I was hoping that it would be more like Salt and Sanctuary, but it's probably more akin to a 2D Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. You will end up relying heavily on personal skill and learning enemy movement patterns since there is very little progression. Also, no cool weapons or armor to collect.
Celeste (Switch) - After playing the first hour I was like, "This isn't too hard at all!", then shortly after I ended up eating those words. Very cute game with likeable characters and some controller-crushing platforming. I didn't collect all the strawberries but I had a lot of fun with it.
Doom 3 (Switch) - This is Doom as a horror game rather than the action-packed experience we know today. For the time it was an okay first person shooter. Today, it's probably not worth going back to. You will spend hours walking down very similar-looking corridors, getting lost, and shooting the same enemies with the same guns.
Half Life: Alyx (PC) - As mentioned previously, Half Life 2 is tied with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind as my single favorite game of all time. Even though I love Half Life, I never would think a single game would be worth purchasing a new VR headset for. However, a friend from church offered me his old Oculus Rift for a ridiculous price, and I couldn't refuse. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to play this game, and I'm twice as glad that the story was never spoiled. On top of the story, the incredibly novel gameplay and loveable characters make this an absolute must-play for anyone with a VR headset. With how cleverly this game impacts the storyline of the Half Life universe, on top of being one of the most unique gaming experiences of all time, this game takes my award for GAME OF THE YEAR. If you're a Half Life fan and can get a VR headset used/on sale, it's worth it for this game alone. Trust me, you need to play the game yourself instead of watch it. The feeling of panic while manually reloading my gun while a hoard of zombies are bearing down on me is one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've ever had.
Bioshock (Switch) - A classic that has one of the top 5 best intros and top 5 best twists in gaming history. I've already played it multiple times in the past but I felt the urge to play it again. If you've never played it, it still holds up very well to this day.
Axiom Verge (Switch) - I remember reading an article in a gaming magazine years ago about the guy who developed this game entirely by himself. Honestly, considering this was made by one person, it's incredible. It's one of the best metroidvanias released in recent history, with some interesting mechanics and a very memorable soundtrack. I can't wait for the sequel in 2021!
GAMES I STARTED BUT DID NOT FINISH
Warcraft III Reforged (PC) - You know a remaster's a failure when you load it up for the first time and it looks almost exactly like the original. I refunded this one almost immediately. While it's somewhat cathartic to hop on the Blizzard hate train, I was genuinely looking forward to this game, and I would much rather have seen Blizzard succeed. It's heartbreaking to see what they have become.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 (PC) - I plowed through 30 hours of this game in no time, then progress drastically slowed down once I started working through Act 2. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why I struggled to continue, since Act 1 was so strong and I absorbed every little detail it had to offer. It may partly be because Act 2 lacked direction. The map is quite large and littered with enemies who are far above your level, and it seemed difficult to find sufficient side quests to level up. It may also be because the story and character arcs hit a wall in Act 2. I primarily play RPG's for the story and characters, and without any meaningful developments to keep me going, other games started to become more interesting. Part of me wants to go back and see this through to the end, but I'm not sure I'll ever have the time. Maybe if I pick it up on Switch...
Outer Wilds (PC) - I bought this game on sale after hearing so many good things about it in 2019. It may be that I didn't give this game enough time to "click", but after a couple hours of play, I couldn't find the motivation to keep pushing through. The lack of dialogue made the worlds feel lifeless, and I wasn't interested enough in the mystery to try and solve it. Also, the flight controls really wore me down. I know the solar system is meant to mimic real-life physics, and I would probably get better at it with more practice, but spending 10 minutes trying to chase a planet down doesn't fit my definition of fun. If I should go back and give this game another shot, please convince me in the comments below!
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC) - I love the Souls games. I beat all three Dark Souls and Bloodborne multiple times. They were tough but I always found a way to overcome their challenges. I could not, however, bring myself to finish this game. Mere mini bosses have attack patterns that would take way too long to memorize. The game required constant focus that stressed me out way more than it needed to. I knew when it came out that this game was almost nothing like Dark Souls, which is why it took my a while to hop onboard. Once I finally got my hands on it, I felt no regrets waiting to get it on deep discount.
Silent Hill Homecoming (PS3) - Oh boy. I knew going into this to keep expectations low. I'm a big fan of the mainline Silent Hill games so I wanted to at least try this. It's a decent action horror game, but a poor Silent Hill game. The combat system feels very out of the place, some of the puzzles are a pain, and the experience was riddled with bugs. I played about half of it then watched the rest on YouTube.
Cave Story+ (Switch) - This may be the original indie darling, which is why I've heard so many positive reviews about it. I hate to say it but it doesn't hold up in comparison to the quality of modern day indies. It's definitely not a bad game but it didn't do enough to hold my interest.
Grimvalor (Mobile) - I was looking for something to play on a new phone I bought this year, and this little guy came up with good reviews. As a fan of the Souls series, I enjoyed the basic attack/dodge loop of combat. However, it didn't quite have the meat to keep me engaged longer than a few hours. I watched a speedrunner finish the rest of the game on YouTube and I don't necessarily regret putting it down. It's a shame that a mediocre game like this one can rate so highly on Mobile, since the bar has been set so low by a mountain of games that are utter trash.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) - Okay hear me out. I agree with everyone who admonishes this game as one of the greatest of all time. The art style, sounds, story, and charm are still top notch to this day. However, I may be one of the most impatient gamers alive. It's very hard for me to stay engaged with a game when I don't know what to do or where to go next, particularly with some of the less obvious puzzles in the dungeons. The Sheikah Stones would have been much more helpful if they were more accessible. I kept pushing for a little while but my playtime dwindled until I decided it was finally time to hang it up. You may go ahead and shred my gamer card now if you like.
Trials Rising (Switch) - This one was a surprise hit for me this year. I remember playing games like Trials on Flash over 15 years ago, so I thought I'd give this a try. I really need to give credit to the level design and art team. Each level has it's own unique backdrops, the creativity is through the roof, and the physics are spot on. And getting absolutely destroyed at every finish line never failed to put a smile on my face. The reason I didn't finish is because some of the later levels were just way too hard. It's probably because I purchased the game on Switch and the triggers are buttons instead of levers, so I wasn't able to adjust my acceleration properly.
Final Fantasy VII (PS1) - Dangit y'all, I tried. The Final Fantasy VII remake got me itching for more stories in the Final Fantasy VII universe, but this game was just too hard for me to go back to without nostalgia goggles. It's not a bad game, but just a bit too rough around the edges from a 2020 standpoint. I played about 20 hours then watched a YouTuber play the rest of the game so I could experience the story (which gets freakin weird about 3/4 of the way through).
Cyberpunk 2077 (PC) - Oh CD Projekt, I really want to play and love your game. But when dead bodies are flailing about on the ground, NPC's are stuck in animations, and pieces of furniture start randomly exploding, I'm going to have to let you sit in the oven a little longer before I try you again. There's definitely a great game in here but man if this wasn't the cherry on top of 2020.
GAMES THAT I DABBLED IN/GAMES THAT ARE NEVER "FINISHED"
Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) - I spent some time unlocking all the fighters, dabbling in the World of Light, and playing with a friend. I'm blown away by how much effort they put into this game to make sure all the fans of previous games were happy. Honestly, it just made me a bit sad that Pokemon's development team doesn't have the same passion. If the Pokemon team put in half as much effort as the Smash team, Pokemon Sword/Shield may have been the greatest Pokemon games of all time. Sadly that wasn't the case, and I hope they turn things around.
Legends of Runeterra (PC/Mobile) - Ever since Hearthstone went into open beta, a week had not gone by that I had not played at least a few matches. That is, until Legends of Runeterra. Although Legends of Runeterra did not grip me the same way Hearthstone did, the wonderful art and presentation were able to draw me in in a way that Magic The Gathering Arena and the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online could not. For those unfamiliar, it's basically the offspring between Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone. It's more complex than Hearthstone, but still simple enough that my little brain can grasp the primary mechanics and card interactions. I did spend a little bit of money on it, but never felt I had to in order to progress.
Hearthstone (PC/Mobile) - Okay, I know I just bragged on Legends of Runeterra, but I still have a soft spot for Hearthstone's Arena mode. Whenever they rotated new cards into Arena, I would hop back in for a while to check it out. Or maybe I just wanted to relive the glory days of the expansions from 2014-2015. Man those were awesome times. I also dabbled in Battlegrounds which was pretty fun.
Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (PC/Mobile) - The mechanics in the Pokemon trading card game are so unique from other TCG offerings that it got me to come back every so often. And of course, who doesn't love Pokemon. But man, I wish this game didn't look like a high schooler designed it in Flash. The gameplay is great but what on Earth is keeping Game Freak from capitalizing on this app? Do they know how many people would dump money into it if they spent just a little bit of time polishing and advertising it? Seriously, this is easy money right here.
Call of Duty: Mobile (Mobile) - For over a decade I've detested the mobile gaming market. Everything about mobile games represents what I hate most about what the industry has become: quick cash grabs, relentess greed, and a landfill of low-quality games that would make even Atari's E.T. wretch. To be honest, I don't even know why I tried Call of Duty Mobile; perhaps it was just curiosity because I do enjoy CoD multiplayer. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. I was elated to play all of my favorite maps from CoD games of old, and using an XBox controller linked with bluetooth, I would spend hours wrecking shop. Some people may be getting tired of Battle Passes, but I love that I can play the entire game for free. I actually bought the Battle Pass a couple times because I wanted to support the developers.
tl;dr Half Life Alyx wins my personal pick for Game of the Year, although if I were to be totally objective, I think Hades deserves it the most. I would give Final Fantasy VII Remake a very close runner-up. And the Nintendo Switch may be my favorite console of all time.
I finally purchased a series x. My first xbox since the 360, in between been playing Nintendo consoles. One thing that has been a shock for me is that when you purchase a game you can't just play it from the disc. For example Hitman 3 had to install from disc and then download 60gig before it could be used. I have three games and have used more than half of my series x HD space already I have had the xbox for three days and haven't played any games yet due excessive downloads required My points are: 1 why do we bother with cds if we can't play games from them and still require large downloads? 2 HD space is not sufficient, most people would own more than 6 games? 3 excessive downloads required, not everyone has fast internet or data on their plans. Some people don't have internet and just want to game. Should be able to boot from disc without external download
My first Red Dead Redemption Experience, 10 years late
I'm not good with essays nor native in english so forgive me if my grammar is all over the place. I've always had an xbox 360 when I was a kid, but never got to play "real" games because my mom kept buying me kinect games instead. Years later, I'm finally able to play the games I've always wanted to play in my life. One of those games is a game that has been talked around the internet for years for being a masterpiece, Red Dead Redemption. And the fact that the second game already came out like 2 years ago, made me more excited to get into the story. Seeing that the game was from 10 years ago, I didn't really expect much from it. I just expected it to be a wacky cowboy yeehaw gta game where you shoot up and rob people in the wild west. Well shit. I booted up the game, and when I witnessed the opening cutscene, I ALREADY got shivers. It hit me like a truck and made me realize this wasn't just your typical game. The literal second I heard the first soundtrack, Exodus in America, I got goosebumps. Then when I heard the people converse on the train, I immediately got to learn the tone and theme this game is going for. I thought, like I said earlier, this was just gonna be GTA with horses but no. The theme of the game is about the advancement of civilization and what will happen to the old west. I absolutely love it. The characters, althought not "lovable", were absolutely memorable for me. Hell, the cast consists of a conman, a drunk irish, an obviously-soon-to-be dictator, and other crazy fellows. My favorite side characters were Bonnie and Nastas, and tbh I wish the game had more Nastas because he was such a bro. The end of the game was no surprise for me, because avoiding that spoiler is like avoiding the darth vader reveal. It's inevitable if you're familiar with the internet. Still, it never hindered my experience and just made me more worried about John and his family. I kept thinking, "they cant let me go that easily" or "please, I dont want this to end, just let me have a peaceful farming simulator." I still cried in the end and after the credits rolled. The atmosphere and scenery of the game was absolutely breathtaking. As I said, I wasn't expecting much from a game that came out 10 years ago because I already know it kinda looks like shit now, but how the hell does this game look so good?! I know the textures are kinda low res but just ignoring that and just staring at everything on the screen, it looks astonishing. I was really taken aback the first time I've ridden a horse because the horizon was so beautiful. I've spent so much time just riding aimlessly and enjoying the view. The soundtrack just adds so much more to the already amazing experience of the game. The first ride to mexico and the ride back home after dutch was so good I actually shed a tear. Now of course no game is perfect, I also have problems with this game. These problems were pretty much just my personal problems and I know not everyone will feel the same way. First, the controls. I know this is typical rockstar controls but I hate furiously tapping A just to run. It just felt like i'm gonna destroy my controller after a while. Second, aiming. I love the lock-on feature because the game was unplayable for me without it. I only played shooters on PC so I have no idea how to aim on a controller. This is why I absolutely hate the gatling gun missions because I can't aim with a joystick. Third, post-game. I thought that because of the time-skip, the locations will change. But instead everything just stayed the same, literally. With that said I still loved the game so much. It's one of my favorite games now and I'm looking forward to play the second game. I really feel like once I finish RDR2, the last parts of RDR1 will have so much more impact. What about you, how do you feel about RDR? What did you love and hate about this game? Also just asking about the ending. When John Gets shot a thousand times, on my game he also got shot right in the face and lost his hat, and it really looked gruesome and tragic. When I found clips and gameplays, it showed John with his face and hat intact. Was it just a bug for me because I thought what was shown to me was more tragic. I also have a screenshot if anyone wants to see
[Spoilers All] Let's talk messy first playthroughs!
I thought it might be fun for folks to share their disastrous first playthroughs here in a bit of story time. These games can definitely skewer you in the story department if you blaze through the main quest, ignoring companions and not paying attention to consequences. I thought I'd lead the way by talking about my first experience with Dragon Age, which was also my first experience with a real RPG. In 2009 I was 14 and had just gotten an Xbox 360, my first non-nintendo console. The closest I'd ever played to a true RPG was Zelda. But I loved LOTR so I convinced my parents to let me get Origins when it came out, it seemed sufficiently sword-y. I think I saw some TV ads for it. As I said, I had never before played a game like it. The idea that choices mattered was crazy to me, I was used to just pressing A repeatedly in dialogue thanks to Zelda. Young me, freshly Bar-Mitzvah'd and high on manhood, picked a sword and board Cousland and went to town. I don't remember everything that went wrong, but here are some highlights that I somehow still remember, 11 years later:
In Lothering I actually did manage to recruit Leliana and Sten, by sheer luck. Don't worry, this is the only good call I made in the entire game.
In Redcliffe, I refused to do blood magic (Alistair said it was bad and I trusted him), but did not bother to ask if there was another way. I killed Connor.
In Haven, Sten turned on me. After beating him I told him to get lost! I was so surprised at the idea a companion could turn on you (though I would have to get used to it thanks to my incompetent leadership). At 14 I had never heard of nuance, and probably thought it was a flavour of ice cream too complex for my vanilla tastes.
At the Urn of Sacred Ashes, Kolgrim told me Andraste was reborn in a more radiant form than I could ever imagine. Being the perfect age for recruitment into a cult, I never doubted for a moment he was correct and promised to help him. I defiled the Urn of Sacred Ashes. Leliana was hilariously and coincidentally in my party at the time, and I had to kill her. Thankfully I'm pretty sure I had not even once talked to my companions in the party camp, so It didn't affect me very much outside of gameplay.
I executed Zevran without even waking him up. It's true my voice had yet to crack but my morals had apparently cracked a long time ago.
In the circle, I paid absolutely no attention to anything anybody told me after Greagoir. Much like with Kolgrim I trusted the first person I spoke to and nobody else. He told me the circle was a lost cause and I listened only to him, not questioning at all. When I met Cullen I agreed with him and was forced to kill Wynne. I had not paid enough attention to the game to even realize I had a litany of Adralla so naturally Uldred possessed Irving and I recruited the Templars. The Mages were wiped out. Side note: If I recall correctly I had to use the internet to solve the fade. I was barely scraping by in math, there was no way I was capable of surviving such advanced problem-solving.
In Orzammar I met my favourite (at the time) and most loyal companion - Oghren. I actually can't remember who I sided with here, but I know I killed Branka - presumably for no other reason than Caradin spoke to young impressionable me first, and not those gross mushy moral reasons. I'm pretty sure that at 14 I thought Oghren was a comedy maestro and I took him with me everywhere for the rest of the game, not that I had many other choices by now.
I did not recruit Shale. I'm pretty sure I had not yet realized I could get the DLC.
I'm pretty sure I sided with Zathrian in the Brecilian forest and doomed the Werewolves. After all, I spoke to Zathrian first and he told me the Werewolves were mindless - why question it?
I lost the Landsmeet vote. Is anybody surprised? I had to fight off Loghain as the malcontent party, and I believe I put Alistair on the throne alone. After all, Eamon spoke to me before Anora so she couldn't be trusted.
Now the fun part. Morrigan comes to me and proposes the dark ritual. My head explodes in a hormonal eruption. I'm actually not making this up, but right before I make this decision my sister, who is 12 at the time comes down to the basement where I'm gaming to print something. In my embarassment at what's happening I immediately refuse Morrigan and she leaves my party forever.
For those keeping track, my crew going into the final battle was Alistair, Oghren, Barkspawn. I literally had nobody to defend the gates. We were all warriors, and I had skipped too much of the game to have any decent loot, and to make matters worse I don't think I knew how to call on my allies. So by Fort Drakon I was out of health poultices, and I actually had to give up on my disastrous first playthrough - I physically could not progress the game. Oh, by the way, now is a good time to mention that I didn't figure out what injury kits were or how they worked in that first playthrough, so by Fort Drakon my guys were all just covered in injuries. It also never occurred to me to have more than one save at any time, so I couldn't just reload before Redcliffe castle and buy potions. I was truly defeated. In my head this is the Darkspawn Chronicles Universe.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that Origins changed the way I played games. In that moment when I realized I should really restart, something clicked and I finally figured out that choices mattered. My family went away for the holidays before I had the chance to start a new game. But while I was away for two weeks, I bought the prima official game guide (the only guide I own), and read it just about cover to cover, ignoring what comes after Fort Drakon. I learned about party composition with healers and damagers and tanks, I learned that companions actually had stuff to say, including their own side quests, I learned that I'd missed about half of the game's content from side quests, I learned that Kolgrim had recruited me into a cult and promised myself not to trust any more lizard people, and I learned that injury kits heal injuries (how did I not make this connection, I was 14 not 8???). I came back from vacation as a glorious Arcane Warrior mage, who saved the day and beat all the Darkspawn. It was glorious, and 11 years later I still play this game about once a year. Can't wait for numba 4. tl;dr: At 14 when I first played I was a trainwreck. Somehow I still remember most of the major events. Edit: doesn’t have to be Origins, this was just my entrance to the series
So I have read a lot of posts on the internet and it appears to be a common issue with the Xbox One X quitting out to the desktop. The weird difference for me is that the game "Control" from Remedy software works fine. I can play for hours at a time without issue, however other games I try either don't get past the main screen or let me join a game, play for a few seconds and then quit to desktop. There are no error messages. It happens from cold, no overheating. I've tried streaming and the same thing happens. I guess the only common factor is Control is a single player game only, the others have multiplayer options. There are no error messages. I have factory formatted, performed the latest updates and downloaded 100GB COD:Warzone to test. The console appears fine in the menus and all the tests you can run from the menu pass fine. I doubt it's a hardware fault - however I have tried to rule out software issues. Can anyone give any pointers of what the next steps are? Games I have tested so far: Control - seems fine, can play for hours without issue The Maw - can play for hours without issue (it's a Xbox 360 title) COD:Warzone - I can join a Battle Royal game, some times I get to the drop zone and can play for a few minutes with a full server and for no reason it quits to the Xbox desktop. Sometimes it quits to the Xbox desktop whilst trying to select a game. Plants Vs Zombies:Neighborhood - can't join a game, sometimes quits at the load screen Tetris - freezes at the title screen, I can tap the menu button and quit the game.
So I have a Lenovo C40-30 all in one (pretty crappy computer i know) and i wanted to upgrade it (i will put an 8gb ram card and an ssd in about a month) , i searched a bit on internet about what my integrated graphics card can do and i learned that it uses a bit of the ram the computer has (correct me if i'm wrong) so i was wondering in the case i upgraded my ram if it would run games better, it can run Xbox 360 games decently (games out before 2012 generally speaking) but i would like to step it up a bit to where I can play latest games too without many problems. The specs: Intel core i5 5200-u Intel HD Graphics 5500 Nvidia GeForce 820a 4gb of ram 2.2 GHz Note: since it's an AIO i can't change my graphics card because it's literally soldered into the motherboard
If you need help or you're New to roms and emulation these are some tips
If u want to ask any questions please DM me First thing first You need an Emulator i suggest RetroArch is a Newbie Friendly good all in one emulator this is a video to how to setup and use ReTrOaRcH OpenEmu FOR MAC USERS THAT WILL NOT USE RETRO ARCH BECAUSE IT'S NOT ENOUGH LOOKING LIKE MAC UI OR THEY HAVE AN OCD OR something like that it's good anyways ( i didn't use it bc i'm not a mac user ) 🕿︎♋︎◻︎◻︎●︎♏︎ ◻︎❒︎□︎♎︎◆︎♍︎⧫︎⬧︎ ♋︎❒︎♏︎ □︎❖︎♏︎❒︎◻︎❒︎♓︎♍︎♏︎♎︎✆︎ and a download Manger Jdownloader ( download the jar version ) A photo to explain what to download (don't download the .exe version it has an adware in it ) and u need java or idm u can trial reset with this For Android i think ADM is the best Tor is a web browser that connect u to a another device that is connected to another device that is connected to the website it helps if u want to a torrent clients (credits to Piracy wiki)
Transmission - Simple and lightweight open-source torrent client
qBittorrent - Open-source torrent client. Has a built-in search feature that searches popular public trackers. Consistently updated
qBittorrent Enhanced - Fork of qBittorrent intended for blocking leeching clients such as Xunlei
PicoTorrent - Simple and lightweight torrent client
second you need sources to download roms these are the best sites + some tips sites : ziperto No intro romset ( you can download it directly without a torrent you CAN FROM HERE ) (If you don't want to download the whole romset for the system press view content ) AlvRo's Collection Vimm's Lair The Eye GamesTorrents ( of course if u can torrent ) MEGA-ROM N(itro)blog THE MEGATHREAD RomsUniverse MOBAsuite IDK?? A WIKI FOR ROMpacks????? The Old Megathread idk why u need it A guy who uploaded some roms but he didn't get attention ROMstorge ( idk how to use this site ) Roms WIKI Downloadgameps3 Edgeemu EmulatorGames ( the name is baaaaaaaad ) ROMsDownload WoW Roms cdROMance Startgame ( wtf is this name ) Retrostic ROMulation If u Want to Check if the site is safe go to here and comment ur site url Emulator Files at Gametechwiki - BIOS files, menu files, etc ( credits to piracy wiki ) Small ROMpacks Redump(http) Tips : Tip #1 : If you're in a country that hate piracy like USA or Germany ( i think Germany have dmca or something ?? idk ) etc. stay away from torrent and Use vpn or Tor when u visit sites and use https hosts to download ( download Https Everywhere extension and enable encrypt all sites eligible option by pressing on the icon of https everywhere ) even if your browser included with it . because it will warn you if the site is http... And if ur using a phone download firefox and install it Firefox for phones supports add-ons and it's available in it + ublock origin is available too and dark reader it save ur eyes Tip #2 : FBI will not raid your house ( because fbi will not waste there time on you ) Tip #3 : your ISP can still see the site that u visit even if it HTTPS + they can see the site u download from and the size of the file but they can't see the name of the file Tip #4 : install an adblock i suggest Ublock Origin Tip #5 : install a pop-up blocker if you have a chromium based browser like Brave, Chrome, New Edge etc. i suggest this ( if you know a better one please give me the link ) poperblocker Tip #6 The MegaThread is your OTHER BEST FRIEND if you want an rom head to the megathread and press ctrl + F and search ;) Tip #7 DON'T DO NOT OPEN ANY ANY ANY .MSI .EXE/.DMG/.DEB or ANY OTHER FILE THAT you CAN OPEN WITHOUT AN EMULATOR THE FILE IT'S 2000% A VIRUS ( EXCEPT WHEN you DOWNLOAD RETRO ARCH [ or any other emulator OF COURSE ] ) AND DON'T OPEN .BAT FILES ( except if they are the 3ds decrypting tool or if they are from a TRUSTED PLACE ) IT CAN DELETE SYSTEM32 FILE AND IT'S ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FILES IN WINDOWS. Tip #8 Emulating is Legal but Downloading ROMs is ILEGAL ( OF COURSE IF you're LIVING IN A COUNTRY THAT DMCA IS A HOLY THING ) ;-) Tip #9 If you're suspicious of a file u can scan it on VirusTotal or Hybird Analysis ( you need to upload the file because it will open it on a vm in there sever ). Tip #10 I recommend using a controller if you have a xbox controller just connect it to your pc and you're good to go BUT if you have a dualshock controller (ps controller ) use DS4 Windows ( if you have a windows pc ) ( I Know it's the fork bc the og creator stopped working on it in 2016 or somthing like that ) or any other controller . Tip #11 If you download a rom and it came in .rar .zip .7z .r001( if the rom came with multiple files like .r001 .r002 .r003... you need to extract just a one file) etc. you can use 7-ZIP or Winrar ( don't worry 40 days trial doesn't end ). Tip #12 if the rom came in this order rom.rar.exe don't think to open it and if you hide the extension file from showing from the file name it will show like rom.rar but it's actually a .exe or .dmg etc. Tip #13 if you have a linux pc or a mac that doesn't mean you will not get infected even Temple OS have malwares ( if you don't what's a malware is [Malware is any software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network. A wide variety of malware types exist, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, rogue software, scareware, Backdoors, Rootkits, and Remote Access Tools (R.a.t) etc.]). Tip #14 if ur tired of link shorters and etc. use universal Bypass Tip #15 Some good emulators : Dolphin - a wii and gamecube emulator ( check the compatibility list to check if the game work ) Citra - 3DS emulator ( check the compatibility list to check if the game work ) BSNES HD beta - if u want to play snes games on HD PCSX2 - the best ps2 emulator EPSXE - a little bit old but it's good (ps1) DON'T use zsnes ( a guy on the comments said that ) RPCS3 - PS3 ( check the compatibility list to check if the game work ) Xenia - Xbox 360 ( check the compatibility list to check if the game work ) Cemu - WiiU Emulator ( check the compatibility list to check if the game work ) a Decryptor for 3ds games if citra won't open the rom HERE DeSmuME (OLD) - DS ( if u have a good ds emulator give me the link pls ) Project64 - N64 DOSBox - DOS emulator ( check the compatibility list to check if the game work ) mGBA - Game Boy Advance emulator THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO EMULATORS FOR XBOX ONE. ANY YOUTUBE VIDEOS CLAIMING TO OFFER THEM ARESCAMS IF U HAVE any other emulator pls link it in the comments <3 Tip #16 Romsmania CoolRoms etc. are NOT SAFE if you have any other tips share it =)
I just inadvertently passed my (2020) 24 in 12 goal already... So I reviewed them all! PART 3: The Fire Fades [LONG][Spoiler Free]
Hello again, this is my third year in review for 2020. Strap in for some quick reviews of a LOT of games. Do check out part 1 and part 2 if you'd like. These, alongside this post, makes up my complete year in review. I appreciate any feedback or comments, even if you vehemently disagree with me I'm happy to discuss the games I've played. I was hoping to post this on new years day but I forgot to prepare it in time. Whoops! One thing that I discovered this year that I want to share is that I've changed the way I view backlogs. In short: If a game gives me no joy whatsoever after giving it a fair shot, I will consider putting it back on the shelf and marking it as "collection" and thus no longer part of the backlog of games. This has had a very positive effect on my attitude towards my backlog. I no longer stress over having a big one, I consider it a big collection I can explore and try out what I want from. Conversely, if I replay and old game I will mark it as "replay" and I won't consider it as a game I've completed in 2020. I've included them in the reviews for fun. Henceforth the games are in order of completion and begin around 4 months ago. The rest of my 2020 completions are in the previous posts mentioned above. I barely touch multiplayer games that aren't 1 on 1 fighting games, so if a game has a multiplayer component and isn't a fighting game I can almost guarantee I haven't touched that mode. --- Half-Life 2: Episode 2 [REPLAY]: Played it carrying the Garden Gnome into the rocket just to have done it. It’s more Half-Life 2, which is already great. So yeah. It’s fantastic. Play the whole saga if you haven’t. It’s still mindblowing. (Hate the cliffhanger though…) The Council Episodes 1-5: Good grief this is wonky. The story and the characters are fascinating, but it’s SO badly needed to be presented in a completely different way. It’s positively tearing at the seams. If it were presented as a traditional point and click adventure with a more conistent graphics style and had the ridiculous voice acting excised, an actual ending put in and the pointless “meandering about” cut right down, it would be good, if not great. The energy system for SAYING VOICE LINES needs to die in a ditch. The “Jesus puzzle” was satisfying but was ruined by the bad graphics. Battlefield 1 War Stories: Fantastic graphics can’t make me not realize that none of the character beats or emotions are earned. Given that each story takes place over an extremely short amount of time no developments feel real in any capacity. I’m all for multiple tighter and shorter campaigns but it’s almost ridiculous how rushed everything feels. I’ve nothing against the moment to moment gameplay though. It’s pretty robust and as I mentioned, the whole thing just looks and sounds fantastic. Quickfire reviews for each chapter: Tanks for the Memories: Good beginning but boring tank combat. Liked the characters and the general idea of the plot. Still felt rushed and the on-foot parts were somewhat flaily. Flight Simulator: Good characters and set pieces. Very good flight controls on a controller. Pretty great overall. Incredible views in the last level. Italian Genesis Evangelion: Woeful tonal whiplash with the narrator against what the character is doing in the game. Ended before it began. Fighting tanks on foot is no fun. Turkish Delight: Great – GREAT - idea for a plot and the characters are loveable in every way. But the rushed nature of the plot once again completely screws it over. Should’ve taken place over months, not hours. Good shotgun though if I ever were to play the multiplayer (never happening) I’d use that one. Desert Bus: What an absolute travesty to end on. The psychic enemies that can deduce your location from literally anywhere and fighting vehicles on foot STILL ISN’T FUN. Also, one more thing. Having a stealth section that relies on you sneaking and backstabbing enemies DOES NOT WORK when half the enemies cannot be killed by melee attacks. This is gameplay cycle 101 and it fails on every level. What an atrocious act to end on. The final boss should be considered a war crime. Tron: Evolution: Ah yes, the infamous movie-game mid-quel tie-in. It’s basically all right, but very loose and wonky. The acting is pretty on-point but the whole thing ends up feeling like a huge missed opportunity. The plot, while not hard to follow feels all over the place, which can be fine but here it’s pretty mediocre. Good on them for acknowledging Steven Lisberger as “The Father of Tron” in the credits though. That was pretty cool. Sonic Generations: I don’t really like Sonic, old or new, but I like the IDEA of a really fast platformer, so I dug up my PS3 copy and started over from scratch. Overall, it’s pretty dang good. I can’t really comment on the story because… I mean look at the ting. But the music was excellent, and I never despised any of the levels except for racing Shadow the Hedgehog (groan) for emeralds or the final boss which can, and should, AND INDEED DID, die in a fire. Mega Man X2: More of the same but still super-tight. Weapons are fun to utilize, and I like the level of strategy in visiting and re-visiting levels to grab upgrades. Some of the non-Maverick bosses are kind of a mess. Mustachio Tumblebotman can succumb to something horrible. Prey (2006): Now this one’s a ball of fleshy fun. I originally bought it in 2009 and got stuck on the dead end about 1/3 thru the game. I reloaded my save and cross referenced a longplay to see that I was supposed to backtrack. Overall the plot is fairly standard but the cultural elements feel original and interesting. The weapons are just great and the resurrection mechanic effectively excising all time wasted on repeating sections or save scumming is fantastic. Boy that ID tech engine is meaty. F.E.A.R.: This is NOT as good as it probably used to be. The gameplay might be fun but the 3 different enemies (guy, big guy, robot) and three different environments (building, shabby building and lab) makes this a repetitive slog that I cannot recommend to anyone anymore. Yes, the slo-mo is fun, but even something like Timeshift proves that can be done without sacrificing interesting environments. The frustration of re-treading the same floors over and over and over is ridiculous. It is also not scary whatsoever, but that might be me being desensitized by years of pop culture horror. There’s another huge reason I didn’t enjoy this at all though, which is the lack of subtitles. It is very annoying to not understand what’s being said due to the bad audio mix and no visual accessibility options. I did like the end stinger even if it’s a little derivative of a certain movie. X-men Origins: Wolverine: This was a blast. Mechanics and leveling is fast and fun, gameplay feels tight and predictable and the acting is… appealing. It’s got a bad case of ludonarrative dissonance though as the sheer amount of enemies being thrown at you gets almost traumatic after a while. This makes it rather awkward when Logan gets completely disillusioned by a single person getting a little roughed up after he’s torn through an entire country of armed goons. Boss battles are wonky, but I mid-maxed my damage so they more or less ended before they began. No subtitles here either. What was the deal with the Xbox 360 generation and lacklustre accessibility options…? Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z: *Insert clip of Krusty the Clown with cigarette saying “What the hell was that!?”* The Bureau: XCOM Declassified: A pretty nifty prequel to Enemy Unknown and so on. The gameplay is fun, and the story and characters are great. I didn’t feel a great motivation to DO a lot of the missions though. I just sort of blasted through it. But it’s not the game’s fault that I was impatient and just wanted to see the ending after a while. I can pretty safely recommend it to fans of XCOM and third person shooters were it not for the fact that the environments are extremely dull. The ones that are actual US locations are great, but they’re soon replaced by generic alien machine interiors. I didn’t experience any major (or minor for that matter) bugs or glitches though, so that’s a plus. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: What an absolute masterpiece this is. From the first time you enter each area and hearing the music to accidentally stumbling upon the secret ultra boss and STILL kicking its bum. The recycled castle is a bit cheap but it’s still such a blast to plow through with the overpowered weapons that I don’t care. Love the B-acting too, just great from start to finish. GRIS: Gorgous little indie gem that everybody should play. The only criticism I could possibly level at it would be that the underwater and upside down gimmicks aren’t AS fun as the other ones throughout the game but that’s just nitpicking. Play it!! It’s perfectly short too, I love these sort of 2-5 hour indie masterpieces! Dust: An Elysian Tale: I’m not exactly huge anthropomorphic animal character enthusiast, but I don't really mind them either. Thus, I've tried to judge this as a standalone metroidvania. It’s a fairly good one, save for the floaty combat straddling the balance between being a little “too” floaty and occasionally introducing enemies with such ridiculously long health bars that all the fun gets sucked out. No pun intended. The upgrades are a little meh with late game powers like “climbing vines” and “slightly more powerful missiles”. Overall thought I’d say it’s still worth a playthrough in 2021. I sort of lost grip on the story after a while, but that was never really the point of a Metroidvania anyway, so who cares. God of War 3 Remastered: Probably unsurprising that I’d consider this the best GoW save for the fourth one on PS4. I love how it doesn’t hold back because it knows it’s the finale. It just gives and gives and doesn’t waste time. Only bit I didn’t care for were some of the longer environmental puzzles but even those were better than those in the previous iterations. Good soundtrack, meaty sound effects and shouty voice acting. What's there not to love. Layers of Fear: The gimmick of the rooms shifting around wears thin after a while and the scare factor dies down quite fiercely. The “puzzle” in the office was a bit clever and had some of the more interesting visuals up to that point. Got the bad ending, which I actually liked a lot so that’s something. Overall, meeeeeeeeh, I think. I'm actually not sure. The frame rate on the Xbox One was probably the scariest thing in the game. Devil May Cry 5: I'm not a DMC veteran having only played 4 and "DMC" and of course this. I absolute loved everything that involved running around and slashing up enemies with big weapons. I liked "V" as a character but fighting using his animal friends was a battle unto itself. I'm not a fan. I love all the characters, the story and the music though so I 100% recommend it. I also realized halfway through that I'd accidentally stuck the game on the lowest difficulty which was WAY too easy. I restarted on demon hunter and didn't regret it at all. Great stuff. Saints Row 4: Re-Elected: This would've been a LOT more impressive if I had played it when it was new. the story and bosses were extremely underwhelming but the overall superhero gameplay is soooo satisfying. It would've been even better if I hadn't already played other better games like the Arkham games and Marvel's Spider-Man. Still, I found it fun enough to collect a lot of the powers and actually did all the loyalty missions to get the best ending so it must've done something right. Lot of good and fun guns, but some of the late game weapons felt somewhat feeble in comparison to my more upgraded sidearms which was a bit of a letdown. This is basically nitpicking though. Final Fantasy VII: Boy, this is a mixed bag. On one hand you got a fantastic character story about identity, belief and loss with an environmental message and a commentary on how the ends can or can't justify the means. An excellent battle system with the materia letting you customize your character build down to the individual roles and spells. And finally a huge world with interesting characters and cultures that are a joy to discover and explore. On the other hand you have blobby play-doh figures with less polygons than I can count on one hand, huge hand drawn backgrounds that make said polygons stick out painfully and no less than four different art styles for the characters depending on whether your in the overworld, a battle, a cutscene or an FMV, completely destroying any sense of proper scale or immersion. It's still, at the end of the day, really, really, really good. And it did actually give me the feeling I've sought for so long. The sense that whenever I was outside or doing other things, I kept thinking "Just a few more hours now, and I can get back into FF7." Is it the best game ever made? Probably not. Is it an experience I'll never forget? Absolutely! Do I despise the Fort Condor tower defense game more than any other minigame in existence? Indubitably! Final Fantasy X HD: Given VII and X's status as a lot of people's favorite Final Fantasies, the comparison between them is inevitable. I believe FFVII is a better game overall, but there are aspects in X for me to consider it a more fun experience. The game overall feels a lot more consistent both in art style and animation, which is to be expected due to the higher production value and better technology. The battle system itself is a lot more refined with the act system being both easy to comprehend and deep enough to not be boring. Blitzball is a travesty of a minigame, but unobtrusive enough to ignore after the first match, even if the whole world revolves around it. I did find one match of Blitzball more fun than the constant barrage of minigames in VII. It's also important to note that I have a fairly high tolerance for "annoying characters" that the internet likes to rag on. I overall find the party in X, Tidus included, to be fairly inoffensive. I did encounter a rather annoying difficulty spike in the latter fourth of the game and I had to do some "Trio of 9999" trickery to actually finish the finale, but that's not a massive issue. I was just happy to have options. AWARDS TIME! (In no particular order) Total games completed in 2020: 67 Games of the Year: Doom Eternal, Disco Elysium and Ghost of Tsushima Worst games of the year: Dragon Age Inquisition, The Council and Mass Effect Andromeda Best music: Final Fantasy X HD, Pyre and Castlevania Symphony of the Night Best indie game: Pyre, GRIS and Stick it to the Man Best DLC: Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den Most conflicted I've been about a game: Final Fantasy VII Well that does it for this year. Good luck on all your XXin12's and remember: If it doesn't bring joy, no matter how much you try, put it on the shelf and find something else! Cya.
A silly rant, but ever since I was a kid, I had to buy my own game consoles
I know this is going to come off as sounding dumb, or a stupid thing to be upset about, but it's really been bothering me lately and I'm not sure why. Every game console I've ever gotten, I had to buy myself. My parents would never buy me one. Not for birthday, not for Christmas, anything. They would get me other things of course, other toys, bikes, ect. But I never got to have that super exciting Christmas day surprise of a game console. Like I said, it's a dumb thing to be upset about. But growing up, we weren't poor, we didn't ever have to go without something because of money troubles. We were middle class. I know my parents could have afforded it. Many of my friends who were less wealthy got them all the time. My dad always had a computer, and we always had good internet. I had to go to friends houses to play n64. My good friend had a PS2 and we played Tony Hawk all the time. But I never had them for myself. My first new console I bought, by myself, was a gamecube. It had been out for a bit already, and it came with an extra controller and metroid for about $100. I eventually bought a PS2 used off eBay so I could play guitar hero. My cousin had one and it was so cool and I wanted it so bad. I had friends with gameboys and I would always try and watch them play on their tiny screen. They would bring them to group gatherings. On boy scout trips, but I didn't have one. At one time, there was a special edition green Gameboy advanced SP with DK country at target. My dad bought 5-10 of them, to sell online. I had to buy my own, and I got a regular silver one at best buy, because I could get a warranty on it if I dropped it and broke it. I never had pokemon games when I was younger. When the DS came out, I didn't get one untill there was the DS lite, and I bought it together with my brother to share. We got our first pokemon game, Diamond, and I loved it. I eventually bought my own DS to play by myself a year or so later. All my friends were super into Halo (as most kids were) but we never got an Xbox. I usually just watched people play because I didn't have it, so was never good at it. My first xbox was a 360, without the wifi ability, that I bought used to play Skyrim. At this point I had already moved out of the house. Since then I've bought a used PS3, which I used until the audio started glitching. An xbox one s, a switch, and a few 3DS. I've always been into games, but only casually, as I never got the newest games or systems to play with other people, so I've mostly stuck to single player, or just casually played other ones. It's a dumb thing to be upset about. And it's not like I can't afford a new system. I could go buy one and several games right now if I wanted to. I'm not begging for one, and I'm not trying to get one. I've just always been a bit bothered when I see all these people that are surprised with a new console. The spoiled kids. The poor kids. The good kids. The bad kids. All of them always got what they wanted. And my family, even though I know they could have, never did. It's not like I'm ungrateful for the things my family DID get me. They have definitely gotten me some great things before, and they were always good parents. Anyway, that's the end of my little rant.
Road to 400 Light Level In 2020 For Those Who Are Still Struggling [Easiest Method]
Hey guys! I know it's over 6 years late (10/09/2020), but seeing more and more people buying, joining or coming back to Destiny1, It's clear that the fan base is still very active, and it's such a fantastic game! However, I felt like I needed to make a post about something that has upset me for the longest time... Something I've been challenged with in accomplishing... That something was getting up my guardian's light to 400... which is really easy for a lot of people, and harder for others... So I sat down, did my research, watched a ton of videos and looked up different methods all over the internet, saw what worked and what didn't, even taking Bungie's rumored statistics about drop rates, cooldown's, etc into consideration. I am happy to say that I have come up with a method that is super consistent and easy, and I will explain it as detailed as I can get! (Disclaimer: No Raids or Crucible matches are required but they do help. DLCs Are Required, because max level without DLCs is 34 and the light cap I think is around 170. Also, if this exact method already exists, I'm happy to give full credit to them, but I haven't found or heard anything about this method, or else it would've made my whole leveling experience so much easier, and making this whole post go so much more smoothly because I could've just perfected their method! My entire method of hitting 400 is efficient and convenient, mostly because everyone you need to talk to is at the Tower!) [Edit: Some out of date credit given to Cooldude9210] Step 1) First off, you gotta hit level 40! "Duh..." Do all those pesky story missions, replay boss missions, Use the "Spark of Light" level 40 boost, do whatever you gotta do to hit level 40! That's your main goal. If you are level 40; Congratulations, keep reading! lol... Step 2) GRIND THE HELL out of Blue (Rare), Purple (Legendary) and Yellow (Exotic) engrams. The best method of getting engrams I've experienced is hoping onto Venus Patrol, going to Ishtar Cliffs, and getting on top of the high ledge next to a Vex gate. Once there, you jump straight up, which triggers a Fallen spawn area inside a little cave next to some water. Dreg, Vandals, Shanks and Servitors will spawn in and run out of the cave in 2 randomized sets. Stay up there, kill these enemies, then jump straight up again to reset the spawn and repeat. Kill them with any accurate weapon of choice and they will drop Green (Uncommon), Blue (rare) and Purple (legendary) engrams. This is also a great way to grind House Banners for glimmer from the Cryptarch, Ammo Drops to save your Ammo Synthesis and completing any Bounties you may have. (There are other Engram Farming videos floating around so go ahead and pick one YOU prefer! But this is my favorite) ...As for Yellow (exotic) engrams; you will need to purchase "Three of Coins" (3oC) for seven "Strange Coins" each, from Xur on the weekends. Buy as many as you can. I'm not gonna get too in depth of obtaining strange coins, but the easiest way of obtaining them is from level 28 Prison of Elders and rewards for completing bounties. I wouldn't recommend buying exotics from Xur because they're not light level based, meaning if you're 399 light, and all you need it boots, and he has an exotic legging engram, those exotics should be 150 to 350 light... You'll get an exotic, but it'll be a waste of strange coins! Personally, I've NEVER had an Exotic engram drop from a boss without using a 3oC but I think someone else has before. I would just start a mission that has a boss fight, pop ONE 3oC before the boss, and luck will play it's part. I would suggest avoiding using more than one 3oC; And yes, I know it is a stackable effect, however, I've never had an Exotic drop using two 3oC. And I believe the 3oC are just being wasted if you're popping three at a time, but use as many as you want. If you HAVE the DLCs, there are significantly more bosses that you can grind. The Dreadnaught Patrol has a secret Hive boss inside the Cabal ship. Pop a 3oC and kill it! (you can find this boss method all over the internet for more details) Did you get an Exotic? Yes? Great job! Did you get an Exotic? No? Maybe next time... Either way, you'll need to wait 30 minutes before killing a boss again because 3oC has a secret cooldown of 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the boss. Longer battles with bosses boasts faster cooldown, compared to bosses that I can tap once with the GoldenGun + Celestial Nighthawk. (Example: Oryx has a lower cooldown time compared to Sepiks) Heads Up!! Don't hunt down the same boss over and over again, as it actually decreases your chances of Exotics dropping each time! Get around and dabble with other bosses! Easier ones and harder ones! And take your time getting those exotics; -because you kinda have to! Step 3) After you start getting all of those shiny little engrams, Save them, Save them, Save them!!! Stash them in your vault and put them on your other characters until you have no more room!!! Hoard them! You'll be tempted to open those exotics, just wait, you will! You'll want to have at least 9 engrams in all 8 slots (Helmet, Arms, Chest, Legs, Class item, Primary, Special, Heavy) Here is some quick maths: (9 engrams × 8 slots = 72 engrams per character × 3 characters = 216 engrams + however many engrams you're putting into your vault (vault max: 216 engrams)) Your vault is able to fit 108 Weapons and 108 Armor, totalling your potential amount to be 432 engrams max! In my case, I saved up 380+ engrams. Bottom line: Save Them! Step 4) ONLY OPEN THEM UP ONE BY ONE!!! I can't stress that part enough! (Only Open 1 Heavy , 1 Special, 1 Primary, 1 Helmet, 1 Gauntlet, 1 Chest, 1 Legging, 1 Class item) Start with Blue (rare) engrams first until you hit 385, then Purple (legendary) until you hit 390, and then Yellow (exotic) till you hit 400. *Read notes below about engram light caps Step 5) EQUIP Everything that is a HIGHER Light Level or Defense than whatever you currently have equipped! (Example: If your helmet is 320, open a Blue engram! Got a 325 helmet? PUT IT ON!!!) Did you like your current helmet? Save it for later in your vault to combine it with the highest light helmet at the end!! Step 6) If you just didn't quite hit 400, you should repeat steps 2, 3, 4 and 5 until your light is 400! It's gonna take work! That's why it's called a Grind! And it'll feel so great once you hit 400! Step 7) If you're still struggling like I did ...(All my gear was 400 except for my ghost and artifact, I couldn't find a either with 400, mine was 397)... You can also hit up your respective Vanguard guides, a Faction of your choice (Dead Orbit for me), the Cryptarch for engrams, or Eris Morn, and receive rewards from them for leveling up or Donating resources to them via "Material Exchange" **you'll earn rewards such as Ghosts, Artifacts, class items, armor, weapons, etc... Chroma Rewards and/or Weapons Rewards are always my go-to because they give me my guaranteed items plus, they actually have a higher chance of getting the "possible items" portion than Armor Rewards! Press Y on xbox or Triangle on PS4 to view the contents of the Rewards before selecting! Heads-up! I get all my Artifacts from Eris Morn, so if your Artifact level is slacking, I advise you to level it up with Eris by increasing your Crota's Bane Reputation! However, if getting Crota's Bane Reputation is extremely difficult for you, I would recommend Zavala's weekly bounties as an alternative. The rewards could contain a random class, light based Artifact that you can just combine with your current one. (Side-note: only Purple (legendary) and Yellow (exotics) can be combined with a higher piece gear in case you weren't aware!) (NOTE 1: Blue (Rare) engrams max out at 385, Purple (Legendary) engrams max out at 390, Yellow (Exotic) engrams max out at 400. Refer to note 3) (NOTE 2: If your helmet is 388 Defense, Do Not open a Blue (Rare) engram because they max out at 385 so you won't get anything higher than 385 and it might be a waste of an engram... HOWEVER, Blue (Rare) engrams have a low chance of dropping Purple (Legendary) gear, and Purple (Legendary) engrams have an even lower chance of dropping Yellow (Exotic) gear!) (NOTE 3: The only time a Blue (rare) or Purple (legendary) piece of equipment is over it's "cap" is if it's a Rewarded Item or if it has been combined with a greater piece of gear. Example: At 399 light, Faction or Vanguard items will reward 400 Rare and/or Legendary gear, succeeding their 385 and 390 caps because they are rewards, not engrams!) (NOTE 4: Try to keep ALL your gear at the same level when opening engrams. If most of your gear is at 360 but a few things are at 350 or below, focus on that gear! Your light level, being the combined average of all your gear, will be less than 360 until you get that gear up! Example: If all your gear is at 320 but your arms are at 315, open an Arm Engram! It'll push it either closer to 320, or above! Remember: Your light level is the combined average of all your gear!) (NOTE 5: When buying engrams from the Cryptarch, watch your Legendary Marks(LMs). The most you can carry is 200 and if you're dismantling legendary gear, you're collecting LMs. But if you've collected 200 LMs, further dismantling more legendary gear will only waste those LMs. Instead, buy an engram or two from the Cryptarch, perhaps a piece you need to focus on and increase, then continue to dismantle more legendary equipment for more LMs!) (NOTE 6: It is most efficient to have at least 2 Exotics per slot. Use the Rare engrams to get your light to 385 easily then use Legendary engrams to climb to 390. Use Rewards from factions or Vanguard to climb as high as you can from 390, then top off your light with exotics! If you're out of engrams and you haven't hit 400, consult step 7!) I cleared my vault and scrapped things I didn't need. I saved up engrams and stored them on all 3 of my characters (Titan, Hunter, Warlock) and stored the rest in the vault. I took my Light Level of my Hunter from 210 to 400, warlock from 222 to 400, and Titan from 208 to 400, each character took about 25 minutes of opening up engrams and equipping those items. Grinding all my engrams took about 2, almost 3 weeks of playing for a few hours at a time. I saved somewhere around 380 engrams containing: 29 Exotic engrams, 72 Legendary engrams, and the rest were Rare engrams. Once you have 1 character with 400 light, you could easily just send the extra 400 armor over to your other characters via the vault, and get them to 400 quicker by combining the low gear with the transfered 400 gear! I took my Titan to 400 light the quickest using this method and taking all the extra 400 gear from my Hunter and Warlock and sending it over for my Titan. I didn't think to do this with my Warlock unfortunately so I was stuck leveling him up the same way I did my Hunter. But as long as you have one 400 light character, this method can be applied to both of your extra characters. Once your characters have leveled up their lights, dismantle anything you don't want and store what you want to keep into the vault! Then open ALL of your engrams in no particular order to celebrate! Dismantle what you want, keep what you want! (I dismantled everything besides exotics in the end) This guide is customizable in your favor with You choosing what bosses to kill, what faction you use, how many engrams you decide to save, where to farm them, how many characters you wanna level up and more! All in all, I really hope this guide was helpful at getting your Guardian's light level to 400 OR getting it even closer! I've never seen this done by anyone, and everyone I recommend this method to ends up loving the outcome! It's very rewarding in the end seeing Your light level at 400 and knowing You leveled up to 40, You got the engrams, You got to experience opening them and You took Your character(s) light to 400! My only problem with having three characters maxed out at 400, is figuring out what to do now! It was recommended that I shared this method somewhere so here it is! If you have any questions or comments, my Xbox GT is at the bottom! :) Thank You to All! <3
FLYTE xoxo
(that's my gt) [All post edits is me fixing typos, adding community corrections or suggestions and whatever else needs to be adjusted]
can i play 360 games on xbox one without internet video
Microsoft’s Xbox One can now play a limited number of Xbox 360 games. But it’s not as simple as inserting any old disc and starting it up. Only some games will work, and the Xbox One runs them in an emulator. I just got an XBox 360 Slim console and as I turn it on, I'm setting up everything (what language I want, etc.) However, it's asking me for internet connection when I try to recover my gamertag. Is it possible to play games WITHOUT internet? Like just inserting the disc into the console and play it. Please help. Updating games, apps, and your Xbox console; However, the page also specifies that: You must be online when you set up Xbox One for the first time. Without an internet connection, you can’t finish setup. After your Xbox has updated and you’ve added your profile, you can go offline. On the page I linked you can find help on how to set up The browser that is built into both the Xbox One and Playstation 4 now lets you play games directly through the web as long as it supports the systems controller thanks to HTML5. Each console has its own specific website that can be accessed at any time and each are being constantly updated with new games; the only restriction is whether the developer takes advantage of the controller as anyon Gamers Without Internet Can Stick With Xbox 360, Says Microsoft “We have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity; it's called Xbox 360.” By Luke Reilly. Updated Microsoft Says If You Don't Have Internet: Get Xbox 360, Not Xbox One. By Jane McEntegart 12 June 2013. Xbox 360 is an offline device for offline people. Comments (110) Since confirming that the You can access your digital 360 games from Xbox One's "My Games and Apps" menu, and play your disc-based games by simply putting them in your Xbox One. You can easily transfer your Xbox 360 saves Playing Xbox One Games Without the Internet. Begin by installing every Xbox game you’d like to play without the Internet. It doesn’t matter if the game came on a disc or you purchased it from For Xbox One on the Xbox One, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "When playing 360 games on Xbox one, can you play offline?" - Page 2. Play a digital Xbox 360 game on Xbox One. Compatible games may be either digital (without a physical media to insert) or disc-based. If your game is a digital title, turn on the Xbox One and navigate to the “My Games” section of your home screen.
can i play 360 games on xbox one without internet top
How to play Games Offline on your XBOX ONE - YouTube
This is a screen capture of the basic steps required to set your XBox 360 in the UK. This is a screen capture of the basic steps required to set your XBox 360 in the UK. I'm always active on TWITTER : https://twitter.com/FrostedGaming1 ((((( - MY SETUP PARTS I HIGHLY RECOMMEND-)))))-TRASH CAN- WalMart Lol-WHITE KEYCA... How to play Games Offline on your XBOX ONE♥ Follow Me Here ♥ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tcubegaming/ ♥ Facebook - fb.me/tcubegaming My Setup ... I hope you like my video and I hope I can get a 1,000 like for . This video is helpful if you have slow internet and are installing a game off a disc, or just don't want to use the internet while installing off a disc. I h... This video shows you how you can play Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One!Don't forget to Like and Subscribe!Want more storage on your Xbox? Here some affiliate ... Hunter from Gaming By Gamers shows you how to download and play some of the xbox 360 games that are available to preview players on the xbox one! Following s...