theHunter: Showcase Update

Call of the Showcase!

 theHunter: Call of the Wild (don't worry I get confused to on what part comes first; theHunter or the CotW) has released it's Showcase Update. I enjoy this game but don't follow it closely.  What I wanted to check out with this update were a) the free trophy lodge, b) gear load outs, and c) the change to spook range.  So I jumped in and shot some animals.

Promo image for the new lodge

 I already owned a lodge (which I bought as an add on) so the lodge system was not new to me.  I am glad to see that they've added a free lodge because it's a great part of the game that every player should get a chance at without having to buy extra.  While I don't make my lodge public it is fun to browse through my lodge every time I revisit the game (and this is a regular on my "return to" list).

 I jumped in and checked out the lodge and the free lodge is amazing.  Forget for a moment the trophy slots and just the visuals (see the promo screenshot above) of this lodge are spectacular.  It feels like the quintessential hunting lodge: rustic, wood everywhere, and all the accessories.  I loved it so much I had to grab a trophy from my main lodge and slap it over the fireplace.

My trophy moose in the new lodge

 Next on the list to check out was gear load outs. 

Spend less time prepping and more time hunting with Loadouts

Shorten the time between hunts by saving your favorite configurations of weapons and equipment into different loadouts. You can switch between them at any time by heading to your nearest Cache.

 I will admit my interest was influenced by the drama from New World over gear sets coming in the New World March update.   Combine that with Ashes of Creation recently talking about user interface and gear sets as part of the interface and it seems like gear sets are all the rage in my gaming circle.

 Load outs (yes with a space; what the bleep is the problem with these devs and using spaces properly... the SPACE Hunter.... load SPACE outs) are a great addition to theHunter.  I will admit that I have never sang the praises of the UI in theHunter; getting gear from storage and into your inventory is a nightmare at times.  I can't tell you how many times I've gone into the field without the right ammo, guns, or accessories.  

 Players get 5 load outs to start and 5 more can be unlocked for a total of 10.  This feels like the right number for the way the game is designed.  The average hunter needs load outs for small, medium, and large game animals so 3 was the minimum.  Throw in that most folks like to dabble with bow and then most of us have our "fun" load out (like black powder) and five meets most players at how they play the game.  *cough* New World developers can take note on this front *cough*

 Lastly the spook range changes

 The distances at which animals will spook when hearing gunshots have been adjusted.

 Not a lot of detail to go on.  After reviewing the community feedback it seems like the range is shorter (i.e. less likely to spook).  I nabbed about five harvests when I played earlier and it did seem like nearby members of the same herd were less likely to bolt when you nabbed their friend.  I could not tell if I was spooking them less by my movement but I am also lazy and sprint/4-wheel all over the place.

 Jumping back in and stalking some animals reminded me how much I enjoy this game.  The visuals are great and the hunting balances perfectly between realism and arcade.  I've bought quite a few add-ons now for the game but I feel like I've gotten more than my money's worth from every one.  If you haven't tried the game out I'd highly recommend it!

My Steam Backlog

Me

Time to Play the Backlog?

 Does anyone ever look at the LIBRARY tab of their Steam client and wonder what is all hiding under it?  If it is anything like mine it is a long list of games you've bought and never played (or barely played).  I've been contemplating working through this backlog.

 It is actually a bit crazy when I look and see the size is 150+!  Some of this is sprawl from games I've tried over time, but the majority are games I've bought and quite a few that haven't gotten much attention (some not at all!).

 A quick shuffle through the list and by my count I have not played approximately 40 of the titles!  That is 25% of games I've bought that I've never played.  There is a much longer list of games that have been installed and played but not for any length of time.

 So I am considering reviewing this backlog with a few goals in mind:

• Create a blog post for each game (which may include its expansions)
• If I played the game already it will just be about memories from the game
• If I haven't played the game or didn't play it enough to get a sense for it then I will play the game before posting.  Goal will be at least 1 hour.
  
• Create some videos along the way

 This is also cheat mode for next week when I will be away from posting.  I will queue up a few posts from the backlog.

 Do you play your Steam backlog?  If so; leave a comment!

Having Fun In 2042

Topping the Scoreboard In Battlefield 2042

 I've been enjoying Season 4 of Battlefield 2042.  The game is in a really good spot.  I wanted to take a break from my normal "support" role and play the more aggressive play style with the Assault class and specialists.  I've become a big fan of Zain and landed some great matches; either topping the scoreboard or landing in the top squads.

 While I am more "aggressive" playing assault I am still "support" in my non-existent heart so I spend a lot of time watching flanks for the team.  It is surprising how many kills you can get when you learn the spots where better players flank and just wait for them.  They never expect someone to be waiting for them and I have been able to wipe entire squads.

 Oh and the new sticky grenade is mucho fun.

Look Mom! First place again!

 

Look Mom! The team carried me!

2nd place is the first loser... err wait!

Third Times the Charm

New World Devs Flop Flip

 And Nope. Ok Maybe? Just a little bit more.  

 

 There we go!  Third time's the charm!

 Not as good as the original patch note or the second patch note, but better than nothing.

A big loss for the MMORPG community

Ghostcrawler Steps Down

 Unfortunate news; Ghostcrawler is stepping down from Riot Games and thus stepping away from the Riot MMORPG that was in development.  A big loss for the MMORPG community.

 Ghostcrawler, of World of Warcraft fame, was seen as one of the few lead voices in the MMORPG space.  Similar to the "Yoshi P" of Final Fantasy 14 or Steven Sharif of Ashes of Creation: single people that the community puts on a pedestal above all other developers.

 Also Ghostcrawler leading a new MMORPG project for a company that has the resources that Riot Games has was a promising combination.  League of Legends (Riot's flagship) is massive and building an MMO from it's already established world is promising.  Ghostcrawler was icing on the top of the cake.  He made us all feel better about this massive undertaking and it being done right.

 It will be sad to see him gone from Riot and will no doubt cast more doubt on the legitimacy of Riot's MMORPG.  The game was confirmed as in development but never promised it would make it to the finish line.  Ghostcrawler being gone is a strike against it.

Ashes of Creation Monthly Update

Ashes of Screenshots!

 Ashes of Creation's monthly update focused on the user interface (UI) and it featured screenshots!  I used an exclamation point so I must be excited.  Right?  You may want to read on.

  I know, I know!  Ashes of Creation is a work in progress so if I don't want to follow a game in development then I shouldn't follow it.  I shouldn't be here complaining about it either but if you know me then you know I can't help myself.

 The reason I choose to dig into Ashes of Creation is twofold.  One: it is the promised one; the savior of this MMORPG genre that I love so dearly.  Two: it has no issue taking money from people all while saying it doesn't need our money.  If a game developer can take the time to sell calendars for an unreleased game then it can stand up to some criticism about taking its damn sweet time to release a game.

 Ashes is under a glacially slow pace of development.  Years (yes, years) ago you could buy the "indie studio" but Interpid Studios is way past being a small indie game developer.  Ashes makes a lot of promises and yet shows very, very little in their updates which is concerning for a game this long in the pipeline.

 Which brings me to my main gripe: Ashes should be showing us more at this point.  If they can't then this game is so far out in the future we shouldn't be talking about it and the team definitely shouldn't be wasting cycles on calendars or monthly live streams.  

 Look at Pax Dei coming out of left field and generating buzz and showing more in a short intro video than the entirety of six years of Ashes updates.  Pax Dei seems much closer to an alpha than Ashes.  This may seem a poor comparison.  How long has Pax Dei been in development?  This is a fair criticism, but Pax Dei isn't asking for my money and isn't clogging up my feeds with lackluster updates.  If Pax Dei hits the 6 year mark of monthly updates without showing anything close to a finished game then we can revisit it.

 Back to Ashes.  

 As with the recent class updates the UI update this month was a typical lackluster update.  A developer was brought on and talked about their team and their approach. Then some screenshots were shown of different UI components which were followed by yet more screenshots of sample user interface windows which were followed by... more screenshots.  

 I don't think once during the UI update we saw an actual functioning UI overlaying a game being played.  That is concerning.  There is a place for showing the static components of a UI, but the magic of a UI is seeing it and how it interlaces with the underlying game.  How a UI functions is as critical as how it looks.  All we got from this update was how it may look because we didn't actually see it in the game.

 There has been a lot of praise in the Ashes community around this update and how "good" the UI looks.  I am not sure if these folks are playing ancient games or are that detached from current offerings, but the UI screenshots shown were as generic of a UI as I could imagine.  There was nothing to write home about.  If anything I'd of said the UI is a little too artsy; I prefer a utilitarian approach.  The game can be beautiful and awe inspiring, but the UI needs to be functional.

 If it's not clear; I was not impressed.  This adds to the mounting concern I have about Ashes.  Each update is lacking in substance on the promised topic.  We had an entire UI update and didn't see the UI being used.  We heard more about promises of the UI: customization, sizing, and accordions.  Did we see these in action? No.  It is like anything else with Ashes: promises.  Promises that may or may not be delivered.  This was not an update that screams to me that the game is approaching any state of release.

 Let me know how wrong I am by leaving a comment.

 

Ranting at the end of the world: The Last Of Us Episode 8 (Show)

• 
  Original rant: LINK
• Episode 5 rant: LINK
• Episode 6 rant: LINK
• Episode 7 rant: LINK
  

Episode 8: Apocalyptic Bingo!

 Spoilers... duh.

 I don't need the podcast to break down this one.  Congratulations to everyone that had cannibalism on your apocalyptic bingo cards!  Game players knew we would get here but it was a shocking awakening for TV-only viewers.  Episode 8 was an uncomfortable episode to watch, but don't worry Joel is back so we're good.

 I will have to admit that the show got the pacing and tension-building right in this episode (a top critique of mine for past episodes).  This episode had a solid reveal going from a "something's not right here" to "oh sh!t!" in a slow, dreadful series of events.  It is unfortunate it had to feature a miraculous recovery by Joel that required viewers to suspend disbelief yet again in a show that does nothing but expect viewers to suspend disbelief.

 Also I am not sure if this is what the show was going for, but in an episode starting out with bible reading isn't it cliche our savior Joel rises from the dead.  Anyone that thought Joel was ever in any danger (or Ellie for that matter) has never played a video game with side quests.

 I do want to harp on the "sense of danger".  As uncomfortable as this episode was to watch it was more from the creep factor than it was from any sense that something bad would happen to our main characters Joel and Ellie.  Like a video game its just a case of finishing the side quest to get on with the main story.

 Can we dispense with the cannibalism as well please? It is uncomfortable to watch and detracted from an otherwise great tension builder of the creepy preacher targeting a young girl.  We could have gotten all of the drama of this episode without taking the cannibalism.

 Anyways, Joel is back to a full healthbar so on to new adventures.

Pax Dei

New MMO on the block

Pax Dei is generating a lot of buzz, and in my opinion, it should serve as a warning to games like Ashes of Creation. The first trailer offers a glimpse of combat and the user interface, all from the perspective of the in-game engine. If games like Ashes don't launch soon, titles like Pax Dei may swoop in and steal their audience. The first look of Pax Dei is pretty impressive, and it has convinced me to join the queue for alpha access.

 Not only were the visuals striking, which is to be expected with the Unreal Engine, but I felt like shots were taken at games like Ashes that have been hesitant to show combat and user interface as both were featured in the Pax Dei release trailer.  Granted it is not in depth but it gives me hope the game is further along than just being a set of ideas.

 Also impressive in the video was the support for cross platform.  They showed the game on a tablet which is exciting.  I don't do much gaming on mobile platforms but that is because most games don't offer it as a supported option; the more I see games like this support it the closer I get to jumping into gaming on something other than my big rig.

 I didn't know this game was out there working its way towards an alpha, but after the trailer and some of the interview videos I am firmly in the camp of "excited to see what comes next".  Again, I got the sense Pax Dei is closer to reality than games that suck up a lot of community buzz currently and the MMO market is ripe for some disruption.

Ranting at the end of the world: The Last Of Us Episode 7 (Show + Podcast)

• 
  Original rant: LINK
• Episode 5 rant: LINK
• Episode 6 rant: LINK

Last of us? Or the last of flashbacks!?

 Spoilers... duh.

 Flashback episode! You know; because the show was over when we found Tommy last episode so we needed something to make more episodes out of.

 One of my main issues with the show is the representation of the world "20 years later" and this episode did nothing to quiet the screaming in my head.  These folks are awfully lucky that everything just keeps on working 20 years later.  Just throw the switch and every light, arcade cabinet, and whatever buzzes to life.  There is no chance over the 20 something years since the world collapsed that any of the items in a mall would have been scavenged.

 One major issue I have with the show is its lack of ability to build tension. Although I will admit that the mall was a pretty cool setting, we knew something related to the infected would happen since the show is too formulaic to let the infected not ruin the moment. However, the show fails to put the pieces together in any sort of dramatic way.

 Similar to Episode 5, the big showdown at the end of the episode gets minimal setup, and when a single infected interrupts, it feels like nothing more than a reason to ruin the moment. In the game, as I gathered from the podcast for this episode, there are multiple fighting sequences in the mall. These fighting scenes give weight between "scenes" and help build tension.

 In the show we get a quick cut of an infected coming to life (which is baffling; in prior episode these static mushroomed infected are NOT a concern at all) and a couple doom-y camera pans, but otherwise there is not much more going on here than a trip to the mall until a rustling is heard.

 In the show the more the infected show up the more it makes me as a viewer laugh at "what the heck is this infection?  People are really scared of this?".  Again, these mushroom sprouted dead bodies were of no concern just a couple episodes ago but now are coming back to life.  How hard was it to just have an infected stuck in a closet that they opened?  Give us a jump scare after making us feel safe all episode.  We didn't need a poorly "whats that noise" character moment when we knew what the noise was.

 What about Joel?  Sorry, almost forgot we left the last episode on a cliff hanger in the present timeline.  Glad the episode sorted that out and that he will be OK after a gnarly stitch job by Ellie.  I am sure Joel will be back to normal next week. This game, err show, really does love the cliche "video game solutions" whether a flashback scene or a magical cure all solution scavenged nearby.

Some Fun in 2042

Some fun in Battlefield 2042 Season 4

 Patch 4.0 is out and Season 4 is here.  A couple screenshots from last night's session.

LOOK MOM!!!! I'm in first place!

I'll pick you up when you are down (seriously it's what I love to do!)