About to begin. Can’t wait to see what awesomeness awaits!
15Jun
Archives
15Jun
Are you ready? I am.
Many of us in the gaming industry have had the occasion to work with or at least chat with Stepto. He’s been an icon in the industry for years.
I’d go on and try to explain what’s up but will instead let you read about it directly at the family’s YouCaring for Stepto site.
Let’s help a fellow gamer and his family out. Thanks!
10Sep
The game Destiny had a midnight release on September 9, 2014. While the game was offered in physical media form, it was also offered as a digital download capable of pre-loading so that you could jump right into the action at 12:01 a.m. on 09/09/14.
I had originally chosen a preorder of a physical title but changed that a digital download so I could have the game already loaded up and so that I could play it on both of my Xbox Ones at the house without having to shuffle a disc around the house. I ordered the game online at my office and clicked on the link on each of my Xbox One consoles and it downloaded and installed well in advance of the 9th.
Having played in both the Alpha on the PS4 and the Beta on the Xbox One, I had a little sense for what was in store in terms of character creation anyway. I was a little concerned at the lack of lore or story background, but having played through a few mission have at least a tiny bit more information in that regard. In my opinion there is still needs to be much more to the story, but I understand a little more now.
After setting up my character I played through a few of the story missions myself. I then shot out some invites and set up a fireteam of 3 players. While I had a good time running around by myself, the game really shined with a fireteam. The missions were more fun, the battles more epic and the experience was just overall more fun.
That said, I wouldn’t have made it through many of the other missions by myself had other random characters not jumped in and helped me destroy some of the bad fallen in my path. One thing I think missing from the game currently is some sort of proximity chat. Even if it isn’t on all the time, there should be an option to chat with a player, even if just to thank them for helping save your ass from a hard battle. Hopefully this is addressed through an update at a later date.
If you’re looking for a bit more background on the game and the different races and subclasses, look over the main website or head on over the Destiny Wiki Page. Quite a bit of info has already been added and I’m sure more will show up as more people move through the game.
Bungie has certainly taken on a huge challenge with Destiny and so far they have delivered. The graphics are beautiful and the battles sometimes frantic (helped along by the music) and almost always challenging. One complaint I’ve heard so far is that the matchmaking in PVP hasn’t quite balanced out. Level 5 characters pitted up against level 20 characters doesn’t seem to make sense. I’m not sure if anything is done to level that out, but that could be an experience killer for quite a few players. I hope this is addressed in the future as well.
Overall if you haven’t had a chance to play Destiny you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. While it may not be for everyone, it will be quite the game for quite a few people. Try it solo and head out in a fireteam and cause some damage. Get out there and Become Legend.
Hopefully most of you caught the live stream or other information that Microsoft has put out there for Gamescon 2014. True to recent form, Microsoft focused their live reports and streams on games, games and more games. You can also check out loads of additional videos and more information and news about upcoming games at Microsoft’s Xbox News Channel.
Of the games highlighted, I’m super excited about Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Quantum Break. AC:Unit looks amazing and if the gameplay is anything like Black Flag (but with multiple players), it is going to be awesome. Quantum Break looks awesome all over. I’ve been waiting for this one since I saw the first trailer so many months ago!
I really liked seeing a push for the ID@Xbox games. There are more than a few of them that look like they are going to be super fun and/or very innovative like Smite and Below.
Evolve has been on my radar for a bit and I’m cautiously optimistic that it will end up being loads of fun to play. If it plays like the original L4D, I think it will be a blast. Comments from people who played during ComiCon, however, was that it was pretty easy to win as the beast. I hope that balances out more or that people learn to play more as a team. I think the forced teamwork aspect of L4D was awesome.
I’m not so sure about Fable Legends. I’ve been excited for just about every Fable game that has been released and unfortunately been let down by most all of them. They are certainly fun to play and I think this one might be as well, but I’m wondering if adding the “play as evil character” might make things simply too complex when some of the issues from prior games weren’t addressed. Let’s hope I’m wrong!
Ori looks very interesting. I’m still not quite sure what to think but it does look very different. I’m keeping my eye on this one.
Sunset Overdrive is getting quite a bit of press. I’m torn. I want to think it will be fun, but it could turn out to be overwhelming and simply a non-stop button mash exercise. I’m thinking this one will either be super fun or a flop. Fingers crossed for a super fun game, but I might wait on this one until more people have a chance to play it and share their thoughts.
Playing all of the Halo games again on the One will be a blast. I have them all, or I guess more appropriate HAD them all and have been trying to get my son to play them. Apparently there are gaps in my library so it will be nice to allow my son to play through them all on the Xbox One.
I did like the comparisons they showed between the old graphics and the new graphics. The new graphics look pretty awesome on the SP maps anyway. When they showed the MP maps I was a bit disappointed. While I appreciated the new textures, etc., perhaps it was my monitor, but it looks like they introduced far too many dark areas. As if they simply cranked up the contrast for some reason. I wasn’t digging it and am hoping that it was simply this uncalibrated monitor I’m currently working on causing that look.
Unrelated to games, Microsoft also released info on upcoming features surrounding social, TV, USB and DLNA support. This will be pretty important as many users posting feedback to Microsoft have been asking for a more robust entertainment solution from the console that has billed itself as such.
So what do you think? Did Microsoft deliver on games information? Are you excited for any of the upcoming games or new features?