A lot of PC players tend to get pretty uppity about the fact that companies are trying to maximize their profits and keep closer control over their games by requiring the use of an exclusive launcher. For the most part, I don’t mind having to open a different executable to play my games, but some recent developments have made me shift my stance a little.
Looking at my desktop I have six different launchers for my various games. Steam, Origin, Uplay, Epic, Xbox, and the latest addition, Rockstar. But that isn’t even half of the available ways to buy and launch my games. It seems like it would be a lot to manage, but it really never presented itself as much of an issue to me. That is, until Red Dead Redemption 2 launched and required authentication through their launcher.
Here’s the series of events that transpires when I try to launch Red Dead Redemption 2, a game I know isn’t going to work properly:
I’ll click the desktop shortcut, only to be met with a fatal error because I had the audacity to try and use said shortcut. I’ll then open up the Rockstar Launcher and log in because it never remembers my credentials. I’ll click the big, “Play on Epic” button that appears, because I bought Red Dead Redemption 2 through the Epic Games Store. The focus shifts to Epic for a moment, then back to Rockstar, then a windows notification asking me if I’m truly certain I want to play the game.
Finally the game will launch, I’ll play for 5 minutes before the frame rate hitching becomes enough of a burden, and quit.
It’s like a 5 minute wind up to play a game that doesn’t work. These are two separate issues admittedly, but its enough to make me rethink this whole “everyone has a launcher business”.
I’m also not saying that Steam should be the de facto launcher and be the only player in town. Every publisher wants control over their product, and wants the biggest slice of profits they can get. Sure Epic is doing an 88/12 split on revenue, but if I bought a game available on the Epic store on the publisher’s storefront, that’s 100% of the take right there. The business behind launchers makes sense.
There are two main categories of launcher in my eyes. The first is the publisher specific ones like Uplay or Origin. Then the second are the storefronts like Steam and Epic. I know those last two make their own games, but the volume of third party games on them warrants the separation. So I decided it would be fun to list off every launcher I can think of, just to give you a visual idea of how many of these damn things there are.
PUBLISHER SPECIFIC
Uplay (Ubisoft)
Origin (EA)
Blizzard.net (Blizzard)
Rockstar (Rockstar)
Xbox Game Pass (Microsoft)
Bethesda (Bethesda)
There’s definitely more of these that I can’t think of at the moment.
STOREFRONTS/ LIBRARIES
Steam (Valve)
Epic Games Store (Epic)
Discord (Discord)
Itch.io (Itch.io)
GOG Galaxy (GOG)
Windows Store (Microsoft)
Twitch (Twitch)
Once again, there are more that I can’t think of at this moment.
But take a moment to consider the fact that there are now several different launchers for organizing your various games spread out across different launchers. Seriously, check out this list.
I’m not complaining about having to use different launchers to play different games. It usually requires me to click a different icon and nothing more. But in the case of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Rockstar, all it seems to have done is add more points of failure to the experience, and that’s my biggest fear with this stuff.
If I buy a game on Steam that needs to authorize through Uplay, but Uplay’s authentication servers are down, that’s a hassle. That’s my biggest issue with all of this. I just want to play my games as obstacle free as I can, but with this endless fragmentation of storefronts and publishers, I think we’re just going to have to get used to these hurdles for a while.
I feel like a broken record every time I mention it, but Bethesda and I don’t have the best relationship, but I’d love for them to put out a game that could change that. That being said, these are the things that Bethesda showcased this year that they showed off.
THE APOLOGY TOUR
The first montage of the conference focused on some of the developers across various Bethesda studios. So many of the lines in this montage felt like they were saying, “Our bad.” Particularly the line, “you keep us in check,” and “you’re not afraid to tell us how you feel.” It was pretty funny.
Todd Howard also stepped out and joked about the “excitement” they’ve experienced this past year. Then he decided to highlight Fallout 76 and the “well deserved criticism” they received from it. I couldn’t tell if this was all drenched in sarcasm or not. Shortly after, they pivoted away from talking about Fallout 76 for a bit.
They announced some updates for their mobile Elder Scrolls game, but more interestingly was the fact that it’s coming to The Nintendo Switch. I haven’t played much in the way of Blades since it first launched, and while this doesn’t look like the thing to bring me back, it’s nice to see them still supporting the title. As far as I remember, when the game launched, it was filthy with timers and free to play trappings that severely impeded your progress. Hopefully that isn’t the case anymore.
The fact that this portion of the show didn’t start with people just apologizing is unbelievable. But here they were, announcing an update for the game that actually gives people what they want from the game, notably, NPCs and dialogue trees. Arguably, something that should’ve been there from the start.
New rewards and a new main quest were talking points. I did like how they tried to spin this as an intended thing they were going to do all along.
This update comes out this fall, and from June 10-17 there will be a free trial.
Then there was a “one more thing” moment in the form of a new mode. Surprise everyone, they’re putting a battle royale mode in the game. Enjoy that wonderful Fallout gun combat that everyone raves about.
GHOSTWIRE TOKYO
People are vanishing in Tokyo and you need to find out why. That’s the core conceit of Ghostwire Tokyo. The trailer showed people just vanishing in malls, buses, trains, in the streets and so on and so forth, leaving only their clothes behind. The game looks weird and spooky in a good way. They came out and said it isn’t a survival horror game, which has been the main reason I’ve stayed away from Tango’s games, but this might just do it for me.
There weren’t any other details aside from the CG trailer they showed, but I’m interested in seeing what it turns into.
THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE
I wish I liked this game more than I do, but it just didn’t do anything for me. But it seems to be flourishing and continues to grow and gain traction. Good on them.
I should mention at this point, that the crowd has been buck-wild this entire time, shouting at and over the presenters on stage. It’s hilarious, but incredibly disruptive, causing the presenter to pause every time some yells “WOOOO!”
They also teased several upcoming expansions that all have names that I can’t remember. Also the “WOO!” guy has been absolutely exhausting.
Watching the arc of ESO has been interesting. When it launched, I don’t remember it setting the world on fire. But since then, it’s been supported like crazy, and held in pretty high regard as a good example of how to run a live game.
Part of me wants to give the game a shot again, but the rest of me knows that I won’t actually follow through.
A free to play mobile game in the style of a Saturday morning cartoon. A re-imaging of one of Bethesda’s earliest games, this mobile game looks like a combination of Doodle Jump, Ice Climber, and some sort of strategy and tower defense game. I don’t quite know what to make of it. I’ll try it though.
THE ELDER SCROLLS LEGENDS
It’s a card battling game on your phone that they’re adding some stuff to. What do you want from me? This is so far beyond things that I care about, it’s a wonder I even wrote this much about it. You probably already know if you’re into this kind of game. You can download it on your phone, now.
I only know of a few people who are deep into card games, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard one of them mention Elder Scrolls Legends, once. I wish I could say more about the product as a whole, but it’s just so far out of my wheelhouse that anything I said would just be wild speculation.
RAGE 2
Here’s some more content for this year’s most averagest game ever. Before it released, Rage 2 sold itself on a tone of over the top antics and action that wasn’t ever really present in the game. The promise of a wacky apocalypse never was fully realized, and what should have felt like a fun romp through the wasteland, felt more like a decent shooter in a lifeless world.
With that said, considering they’re showing more gameplay related to the wackier aspects of the game, I’m willing to bet that even if this DLC isn’t a response to some of those criticisms, future ones will be.
WOLFENSTEIN
I love that they opened with the phrase, “Nazi scum” and everyone cheered. First they announced a VR rail shooter called Cyberpilot where you sit in a Nazi mech and shoot Nazis like you should.
Then they showed off Wolfenstein: The Young Blood, touting how you can kill Nazis with a friend, offering co-op gameplay for the first time. They really hammered home the killing Nazis point. That’s a good message.
As with previous entries, the gun play looks really good and exciting. Hopefully this time around I don’t have to hit a button to pick up every single piece of ammo and armor I find on the ground, but I know you actually will.
I’m not sure what this game is about, but it looks like two people trapped in a place that has them stuck in an endless loop where they kill each other over and over. I have no idea what you do or how it plays, but the concept is cool. They promise that there is endless possibility in the way you approach missions and objectives, but without any gameplay, it’s all speculative.
ORION
I don’t quite understand what it is, but Orion is said to be a middleware solution for streaming platforms like Project X-Cloud and Stadia. They say it’s going to lower latency and decrease bandwidth cost for these streaming services. I don’t understand what the hell it actually is, but apparently it’ll help these big companies do better? Who knows. This was the weirdest portion of the show.
DOOM ETERNAL
Hell man, what do you want me to say about Doom Eternal? It looks rad and just as satisfying as the last one. They showed off a lot of different traversal options that play into platforming, but there was also a lot of killing stuff drizzled on top for good measure.
What made Doom (2016) so good was the fact that it was all about aggression. You couldn’t play conservatively, you had to be on the attack constantly. It was what made that game so special. It made you unlearn what you had learned about FPS games where taking cover and waiting for an opening, and just going at enemies at all times. The more aggressive you were, the more health and ammo you were rewarded with. It was a refreshing take on the FPS that I really enjoyed.
From what I can gather, Doom Eternal is adding a lot of combat variety in the form of status effects, like setting dudes on fire, will result in different kinds of resources popping out of their lifeless husks.
Oh, also they’re doing the Halo 3 thing where the collectors edition comes with a Doom helmet. But you can actually wear this one.
Then they announced a mode for Doom Eternal called Battlemode. In this mode, 1 fully kitted out Doom slayer will go up against 2 player controlled demons, who can summon other demons and go head to head with the human player. It’s an asymmetrical multiplayer mode that looks interesting, but there wasn’t much in the way of actual information.
And then it ended. Without a musical number, without a “one more thing” moment, it just ended. The conference was interesting, with some light surprises sprinkled throughout, but all of the new stuff they showed lacked any context or actual information, that it was hard to get amped for these things.
In less than two weeks time we’ll be waist deep in the bog that is E3 once again. There are plenty of conversations that we could have about the obsolescence of the conference itself, but for the time being, I just want to scrounge together a sort of wish list for the event. With several companies not attending, including Sony, and the knowledge of a new console generation right around the corner, this year is probably going to be fairly lite in terms of big announcements.
I could probably just write the word “games” over and over, but I just want to hit on like one or two things from each conference that I’d like to see.
MICROSOFT
Microsoft is kicking off E3 with their conference, in what I think could be the most interesting conference of the entire show. It’s no secret that the Xbox One didn’t set the world on fire and was easily overtaken by the PlayStation 4 in terms of market share. Since their rocky launch, they’ve tried to right the ship since then by taking a very pro-consumer stance with their ‘Play Anywhere’ initiative, which allows for Xbox exclusives to be playable on Windows, their push to make online games allow players on any console to play with each other, and my personal favorite, the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which brings accessibility to a whole new level.
I’m genuinely excited to see what the next generation looks like under this new era of Xbox, but till then, I’m gonna just list some stuff I would love to see out of them this year.
FABLE 4
For my money, if Fable 4 came out and incorporated a large world, devoid of loading screens, with the fun yet admittedly shallow combat from Fable 2, I’d be happy. The Fable franchise has always traded on cheeky humor and robust world building, but I think it would be nice if we could make good on some of those promises that Peter Molyneux made back before the first Fable came out, and include more of those clockwork systems that make the world feel more alive.
HALO INFINITE
Look, I don’t know what they’re planning with Halo Infinite, but regardless of if it’s the conclusion to the story we’ve all wanted or a big pile of garbage, I just want to know. Just let me play this game and move on with my life. It’s not like I’ve been waiting a terribly long time, but I think I’m just so exhausted with Halo, that I just want it to be over with. If it was good, that’d be great, but even if it isn’t, I just need to know.
NEW CONSOLE
I swear, if this next console isn’t just called the Xbox Two, I’m gonna lose my shit. Although in all fairness, it would be absolutely hilarious if they just called this thing like “XCUBE” or “ULTRABOX.” I don’t know that I’m ready for a new console generation, but I don’t really have a choice in the matter. Regardless, I’d like some functionality stuff to be talked about. Are we doing a disc drive? Do all the Xbox One games work? How about the accessories like controllers? How big of a deal is streaming? Just some cool bullet points would be great.
BETHESDA
Look, I don’t like Bethesda games that much. They’ve all felt janky to me in one way or another, and I never got into any of the settings they played around in. I’m not a big post-apocalypse guy, and even less of a high fantasy fella, so I’ve basically eliminated most of their modern lineup. That said…
STARFIELD
What I wouldn’t give for any information about this game. I know that this is behind Elder Scrolls IV in the queue, and almost certainly wont be on this current generation of consoles, but a man can dream.
I’m just looking for something that can vaguely fill that Mass Effect sized hole in my heart. While I hate that Bethesda stands the best chance at this moment, I have to stay hopeful that a good sci-fi action RPG that let’s me shoot aliens or bone down with them is somewhere on the horizon.
AN APOLOGY
Imagine it; Todd Howard walks on stage with his head hung low. He steps up to the lone microphone on the stage with a single house light shining upon it. Andrew W.K. is notably not there, or if he is, he’s singing a dramatic and somber version of one of his party songs. Todd clears his throat and speaks into the mic with tears in his eyes. “We fucked up, y’all. We really goobered it up on this one. Fallout 76? Yeah, we did a bad on that.” Then he eats a canvas bag that says Fallout 76 on it, and melts into a puddle.
UBISOFT
Man, I really like the turn that Ubisoft has had this generation. They’ve stuck with their games in a way that very few developers do, and cultivate these lively communities around their games. For Honor, Rainbow Six Siege, The Division 2, and Ghost Recon Wildlands just to name a few. I’m pretty stoked to see what they do this year.
I will forever ask for another one of these. I love Splinter Cell, with Splinter Cell Chaos Theory being one of my favorite games of all time, it’s been upsetting to see Ubisoft shove Sam Fisher and his cool goggles into a closet. I want another one of these games. I thought Blacklist was cool, but it didn’t scratch the itch I needed it to. I’m ready to see Sam Fisher snap necks and hang from the ceiling like he did in the old days.
WATCH DOGS 3
If I can’t have Splinter Cell, give me this instead. The lack of an Assassin’s Creed this year along with a ton of rumors about the next Watch Dogs taking place in London, all lend credence to the almost inevitable announcement of Watch Dogs 3. The rumor of it being set in London makes me even happier, considering one of the biggest issues with Watch Dogs 2, was how flippantly your character went from graffiti enthusiast, to armed assassin. Setting the game in a place without guns adds to the likelihood that more focus will be put on the puzzle aspects of the game, rather than the shooty shooty killing part of it. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Watch Dogs 2, but I think they did themselves a disservice by letting you use shotguns and pistols.
THE OTHER STUFF
Ubisoft is really good about the, “one more thing” part of E3. They announce some big sequels, along with some really intriguing new franchises. I’d like a progress update on Beyond Good & Evil 2, maybe see what other Nintendo collaborations they have up their sleeves, or even see them tackle some more sports in a follow up to Steep. Ubisoft has my attention most of the time, except for that boat game they announced. I don’t give a damn about their pirate thing.
SQUARE ENIX
I… I don’t really know. I guess people really wanna see that Final Fantasy 7 remake, but I just could not give less of a shit. I genuinely do not know what to even ask for here. I’m looking at their Wikipedia page, and maybe like, 5 games are jumping out at me.
They probably aren’t doing another Tomb Raider just yet, Thief and Sleeping Dogs are basically dead at this point, and they just released Just Cause 4 last year. Aside from Life is Strange, they’ve really got nothing I want. Although according to their Wikipedia page, that untitled Avengers project is still a thing, and I haven’t played a good superhero game in a very long time.
Aside from that, I can’t really think of anything I want from them. Surprise me, Square Enix. Surprise me.
NINTENDO
Alright, here’s the situation: Nintendo already announced two games that I’m very excited for, and a bunch of others that mean relatively little to me. I have no doubt that something will catch my attention during their Nintendo Direct, but here’s what I’d like.
MARIO 2 STYLE IN MARIO MAKER 2
Like, just fucking do it Miyamoto. Do the thing we all want for once, and put the game in the other game. Mario Maker 2 looks fantastic, and seems to be fixing a lot of the shortcomings of it’s predecessor, so just fucking do the damn thing.
ANYTHING ABOUT ANIMAL CROSSING
Please?
MARIO RPG
I know I’ll never get a sequel to Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo, but how about another Paper Mario game? We’ve done enough of those Mario & Luigi games that were fine, but hit me with the big one. Give me another Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door or something. You did the Mario and Rabbids thing, and that surprisingly worked out pretty well. So just do this thing for me, okay?
CONTINUE TO NEVER GIVE WALUIGI ANYTHING
Fuck Waluigi.
That’s what I’ve got so far, maybe next week I’ll look into some of the companies that aren’t doing conferences, and grossly speculate about what they could make, if they had to listen to me.
I’ve never been a fan of the Bethesda styled RPG. They always felt cumbersome and clunky in a way that I just couldn’t get into. Despite having known this for over a decade, I still do a thing every year that defies my internal logic in an attempt to have fun. I started playing Skyrim once more. But this time, I’ve done something different.
See, there’s this video series that I very much enjoy called Monster Factory. It’s the brainchild of the McElroy brothers, known for their various podcasts and work at Polygon.com. They take character creators in games and make the most horrific being that they can using the tools at their disposal. I really like it, but that’s not why it’s important to my latest Skyrim endeavors.
In an episode of The Monster Factory, they take on Skyrim and do their dark magic to the avatar they’re creating. But once they finished making their monster, they played in the world as it. They abused the console commands to give them incredible speed, unfathomable power, and the ability to punch people so hard that anyone near them dies as well. It was the first time I’d seen Skyrim being played that made me want to do the same.
At first I thought this would sound weird, and while maybe it does, I also did this exact same thing in The Witcher 3 and had a fantastic time because of it. So, being the adult I am, I set out to emulate a thing that I saw on the internet. And you know what? I’m having a fucking blast. All it took was me breaking the game to enjoy it; who would’ve guessed?
After this photo was taken, I sent this fool to the moon.
Contrary to how I felt about The Witcher 3, I don’t give two shits about the story in Skyrim. Thalmor? Don’t give a shit. Dragons? That sucks. Dragonborn? Nah, I got console commands. And harnessing the awesome power of the console commands has allowed me to give birth to the unstoppable Punch Wizard.
You see, the Punch Wizard has the ability to launch giants into orbit with a single punch, bring down a dragon with a single shout, and cast a spell that literally kills everyone around me for 15 minutes. Learned a lesson about that last one in the worst possible way. My apologies to the people of Whiterun.
The Punch Wizard is an agent of chaos who not only wields the power to destroy life, but can bring the fallen back to life by typing the word, “resurrect” into the console. He is truly an ambivalent god among mortals, never casting judgement, only spells. And that is why I write this blog, to honor my lord and savior, the Punch Wizard.
We’re not mad at Wal Mart for leaking RAGE 2, we’re just disappointed.
RAGE 2
They brought out Andrew WK for this. There was no gameplay or trailer at first, just Andrew WK and his band playing the trailer song. Then the stream kept cutting to these people who were mildly disapproving of his music. After the one song concert, two directors on RAGE 2 came out and decided to actually show the game. But not before the longest five minutes of awkward conversation ever.
The game itself looks pretty neat. The first big bullet point was “If you see it, you can drive it”, which was an odd thing for them to lead with. But it looked like Avalanche expanded on the car combat stuff from the Mad Max game they put out a few years back. The gun play looked frantic and fast paced will some cool abilities on display.
The whole thing has an aesthetic and are leaning into it super hard. It’s over-the-top in a way that I’m definitely into. It’ll be available in Spring 2018.
DOOM Eternal
The sequel to the amazing 2016 Doom reboot arrives with an odd name, but it’s more Doom, so I’m in. No additional information was given, but we were told at Quakecon this year we would see more of it. From the look of things though, I’d say that hell has come to Earth, and we’re pretty fucked.
Fallout 76
Todd Howard walked out and did a few minutes of his rehearsed standup routine about E3. He killed that room. Then they decided to make a joke about porting Skyrim to the Amazon Alexa. I thought it was very well done. Keegan Michael Key was in it, and he was very funny.
But then it was time for Fallout 76. Set in the hills of West Virginia, you are among the first to tame this land. That’s more or less what he said. At this point I’ve seen a version of this Fallout 76 trailer 3 times. This trailer in particular was the exact same one they showed at the Microsoft event earlier today.
Finally we’ve arrived at gameplay. The staples of Fallout are on display, there’s a Pip-Boy, a floating robot, a vault and you leaving it. After boasting the graphical fidelity of their world, they went to off to highlight some new enemies and nightmare creatures you’ll fight on your journey.
At this point they dropped the multiplayer bombshell and announced that it is “entirely online.” They address some questions right off the bat. Of course you can go it solo and experience the story and world on your own. Then they emphasized that it is an open world survival game that wont have massive player counts to help it feel like you’re still in an apocalypse. You keep your progress and dying doesn’t cost you anything significant which is good news.
We now see some cooperative gameplay mostly of people shooting stuff, but also emoting at each other and playing instruments together. Oh also you can build shit. Yeah, they blew out that building system from Fallout 4 so you can build a base camp and customize it with all the atomic garbage your heart desires. You and your friends can build settlements which various creatures can come and fuck up from time to time should they please. After killing said creatures, you can pop into a photo mode together and memorialize the moment forever.
Oh, also, there’s just fucking nuclear missile sites you can go to and activate. You’ll have to clear out a silo, collect various nuclear codes, and then you can launch a whole nuke at some other players if you want.
Now that we’ve got the gameplay out of the way. They announced a beta that at the moment of writing this, I don’t know if you can actually sign up for because as you’d expect, the site isn’t handling the entire load of the internet too well. And now for a weird pivot to the cool ways you can pay for this game. You can buy yourself a version of this game that comes with a glow in the dark map and a power suit helmet you can wear if you really feel like it.
Fallout 76 comes out this year on November 14th, 2018.
The Elder Scrolls Blades
What happens if you take the Elder Scrolls and put it on a phone with Infinity Blade style Combat? You get what looks like a fairly robust Elder Scrolls game that you can take with you. Battery devouring aside, it genuinely looks impressive for what it is. I almost typed out that I wasn’t sure who would play this game, but then I remembered it’s an Elder Scrolls game and the internet exists. With a full story, a variety of modes and some social elements that remind me of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, this looks like a neat game. It’s free to play, but you can pre-order it for reasons.
Starfield
“And one more thing…” The classic E3 moment lives on with a teaser of the first new property Bethesda has created in 25 years, called Starfield. It was just a video clip of a planet, so who knows what that is. But it’ll be a while till we find out. My guess is it’s gonna be a Bethesda RPG, but in space. Bold prediction, I know.
The Elder Scrolls VI
“And one more other thing…” They showed a large mass of land with the text “The Elder Scrolls VI” and received a standing ovation. “We’re working on it, so please shut the hell up already.” TES VI is slated for release after Starfield, so who’s to say if it will even be on the current generation of consoles and hardware.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61392591/vlcsnap_01660.0.png)
The Bonus World 