Tag Archives: Marvel’s Avengers

Game of the Year 2020: Bottom 5

This year has seen its fair share of great video game experiences worthy of both praise and recommendation, but it’s also seen plenty of stinkers too. Now this list isn’t meant to imply that these games are the worst games of the year, because they simply aren’t. These are just some games that I happened to play this year that I really did not enjoy for one reason or another. A lot of the games in this list either already have or will eventually see significant fixes and updates that can technically fix a game I had issues with, but some of the games on this list are beyond what a bug fix can rectify.

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

Ghost of Tsushima isn’t a bad game, but it definitely left me wanting something more engaging and technically proficient than what I played back when it launched. I wrote about my issues with the game back when it released, focusing on a bevy of story issues and just the mechanical weirdness I had encountered during my truncated play time. I found the camera to be the most formidable foe in the game because I would die more often than not due to its ineptitude.

But that was all back in July. I would imagine that after several months of existence some of the rougher edges of Ghost of Tsushima would have been ironed out through patches and updates, ultimately leaving the game in a much better place. This could very well be the best time to jump back in, especially considering that there’s a new cooperative mode where you and 3 other friends fight demons and stuff. That alone kind of makes me kind of want to boot it back up, but considering I lack any friends who have any interest in doing that, I don’t know that I’ll be able to enjoy that particular aspect of the game.

While that all sounds cool, it doesn’t change the fact that I was deeply underwhelmed by Ghost of Tsushima upon release. Unlike most of the other games on this list however, I do think that with a lot of the technical jank fixed Ghost of Tsushima could be a really fun stealth/action title. It’s one of the few games here that I would actually consider revisiting, and that’s kind of the highest honor one can achieve on this list.

CYBERPUNK 2077

Where do you even start when talking about Cyberpunk 2077? I tried to capture as much as I could in a short post a few weeks back, but there’s so much to take issue with in that just thinking about all of my grievances is exhausting. What I will say is that it’s a buggy mess of a game that falls apart the second you look too closely at anything, boasts a introductory sequence that’s just a real slog, contains an abundance of convoluted and confusing menus, and doesn’t even feel especially fun to play. I don’t see the silver lining around Cyberpunk 2077, and I don’t think I ever will.

From lying about mandated crunch for their employees, lying and misleading investors, getting pulled from the PlayStation store, and having a couple of retailers issue refunds for the game, Cyberpunk 2077 has destroyed the goodwill that CD Projekt Red earned throughout their time working on the Witcher series and the GOG platform. It’s absolutely nuts to see how hard everyone turned on the company for their unfinished and unpolished game in just like two weeks, although it seems entirely justified.

The worst part is that even if the game worked perfectly, I still don’t think it would be very fun. People have told me that the game doesn’t really get going until about 8 hours in, which is an insane requirement for someone to endure in the hopes that they might be interested in a game. Aside from that, I don’t think the combat, driving or conversational stuff is that good, at least from the little of it that I saw. Truth be told, I think Cyberpunk 2077 fails to encourage players to stick it out for 30 or 40 hours of gameplay, and it doesn’t sound like that argument ever really gets made.

WATCH DOGS LEGION

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that I had some issues with Watch Dogs Legion. From its nonexistent story and its horrendous performance on PC, I found that Watch Dogs Legion felt like an afterthought rather than sequel to a very positively received game. Watch Dogs Legion‘s failings are only exacerbated when compared to the previous game in the franchise, Watch Dogs 2, a title that had its fair share of issues but was way more of a cohesive and complete product than this latest release.

I’ll stand by the assertion that the core gameplay mechanics are still solid and rewarding, but outside of that, Watch Dogs Legion offers nothing new or interesting aside from the incredibly lame ability to “recruit anyone” in London to fight alongside you. The mechanic sure sounds nifty, but in practice it’s an incredibly tedious element of the game that I eventually abandoned because you would just get cooler playable characters after completing story missions anyway. The incentive to hunt for NPCs with unique and helpful characteristics and abilities vanishes under the weight of being upstaged by story progression unlocks, and by how monotonous it really is. It also feels so firmly rooted in the traditional “Ubisoft open world formula,” that it’s just a complete bore to progress through.

Watch Dogs Legion just feels like a complete misfire of game that failed to not only capitalize on what made Watch Dogs 2 so successful, but completely abandoned any attempt at providing a cool story or characters in favor of a stupid mechanic that wears out its welcome after a few hours. If I haven’t made it obvious enough yet, I really did not enjoy Watch Dogs Legion. It’s yet another example of a game that even if it was technically solid, it would still be an absolute slog to play through.

MARVEL’S AVENGERS

Unlike my severe distaste for Watch Dogs Legion, I don’t actively dislike Marvel’s Avengers. In fact, I’m not even that disappointed with the game because I never really had any expectations for it. For as long as I’ve wanted a good, big-budget Avengers game, when the news came out that it would be a live service game I kind of just wrote it off.

The weirdest part is that it’s a pretty decent game, but by being shoehorned into this business model that just didn’t make sense for the license, it just felt overly convoluted and messy. Unlike other games on this list, I can’t really point to one aspect of the game that’s particularly bad. The issue is that there’s nothing particularly good or bad about Marvel’s Avengers aside from being a really weird and oddly dated feeling live game. I would love a great Avengers game, but this isn’t it.

The main issue is that the game is constantly undermined by being a live service product. With an abundance of tiered gear and currencies, Marvel’s Avengers, despite having a decently interesting superhero story, was diluted by being a licensed game that tried to offer a lasting live experience for players without being able to get too wacky with the property. None of your gear was visually represented thanks to Marvel being overly precious about their characters, which led to a bunch of invisible items that just made numbers in the background go up. The whole game just seems like it was designed by committee, which left it feeling bland and forgettable.

SKATER XL

I was so excited for the return of skateboarding games, especially when you had some of them trying to illicit the same warm feelings people got from the Skate series. Skater XL seemed like the game that would bring that pseudo-realistic style of skateboarding game back from the dead, but it was more of a wet fart than anything else.

Skater XL allows you to ride a skateboard and do all sorts of tricks and grinds, albeit in a messier way than expected. The thing that made the Skate series so approachable was the way it made you feel like you were being technically adept while not having to really do that much. All of your tricks were done with the right analog stick and maybe another button for a grab or spin. It was simple but required a level of competency to pull off more advanced tricks and lines.

Skater XL on the other hand ditches that approachability in favor of turning your controller into a game of Twister for your fingers. The controls are overly complex and require you to do unnatural things like steer with the triggers. It never felt intuitive or satisfying because for every successful trick I managed to pull off, there was a trail of blood and viscera behind me that chronicled my failure. Also, there’s not a game in Skater XL. There’s no story or challenges or anything that could qualify as connective tissue. It’s just a level select with some overly convoluted controls at this point.

To be fair though, it’s been a while since I’ve actually checked in with the game, so maybe they’ve incorporated more usable control schemes or some sort of progression system. But I genuinely have no interest in returning to the game after the bad taste it left in my mouth when it launched.

DISHONORABLE MENTION: SHITTY CONSOLE LAUNCHES

That’s right motherfuckers, I took some time off of complaining about this, but by far it’s my least favorite trend of 2020. I have been inducted into a miserable realm of the internet where I’m following people who track the stock of consoles in several different retailers. You might be thinking, “Ari, that sounds insane,” and you’d be absolutely correct in that thought. It’s beyond wild that I’ve had to invite a bevy of Twitter notifications to light up my phone whenever they please just for the opportunity to spend $500. It’s maddening.

Overpriced bundles, terrible website infrastructures, scalpers and bots, all of it is absolutely infuriating on its own, but nothing is more annoying than these Twitter accounts trying to capitalize on this sudden surge in followers by constantly trying to build a community around people who are being fucked over by retailers. I don’t want to watch a live stream of you checking retailer websites so you can announce a stock drop. I get it, you gotta capitalize on whatever little slice of fame you can get, but when all I want is to know when I can be disappointed by Best Buy, getting notifications for YouTube videos, shouting out other people who are tracking the same shit, and the really bad memes, are all things I could do without.

I don’t mean to go so hard at these people who are just trying to help, cause I do appreciate their efforts. But every tweet that isn’t about stock availability is just another reminder that what I am doing is crazy, and it didn’t need to happen. Look, I know that COVID went and fucked up everything this year, especially manufacturing and shipment lines, but despite knowing how constrained stock was going to be, neither Microsoft or Sony did anything about it. Because at the end of the day, seeing an entire company’s stock of their console vanish with seconds is great news for them.

You could write this off as me being salty about not being able to get my hands on one of these new funny looking boxes, but it’s been genuinely demoralizing to finally be in a position in my life where I can actually afford to drop half a grand on console, but I just don’t have the chance to. Every logical part of my brain screams at me when I feverishly click on links to retailers because deep down I know that there isn’t really anything to play on these boxes. I also know that eventually I will be able to get my hands on one of these things, but that’s the power of consumerism I suppose. I don’t need this thing, I just really want it. Unfortunately the whole release of these consoles has been a colossal shit-show from top to bottom, which is hands down my least favorite gaming trend of 2020.

This has been day 3 of The Bonus World’s Game of the Year 2020 coverage. Check back tomorrow for our final list about video games from this year.

Blog: Games-tember – 09/02/20

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I cannot believe that it’s already September. This year has simultaneously felt like it’s taken forever and vanished in the blink of an eye. I personally love the fall and can’t wait until this muggy, humid, miserable heat fucks right off for a few months. Along with that shift in weather however, the fall comes bearing oh so many highly anticipated video games along with new consoles that arguably should be delayed. But let’s focus on the games for now with this short list of my most anticipated games of September.

NBA 2K21 – 09/04/20

I wanna just get this one out of the way and get it over with. NBA 2K21 releases in a few days here and I’m all in for it. I don’t expect anything to change too dramatically in this latest entry, considering they never actually update the modes that I play. but in lieu of any real update to the modes I normally play, I end up buying every entry in the series just because I love basketball. NBA 2K21, like its predecessor, will be a game I end up dumping hundreds of hours into over the course of the year. For instance, I’ve put almost 700 hours into NBA 2K20, so I’d say that I can definitely get my moneys worth out of these games. I don’t expect it to be markedly better or worse than previous entries, I’m just a sucker when it comes to basketball games.

*Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 – Vicarious Visions*

TONY HAWK’S PRO SKATER 1+2 – 09/04/20

I genuinely don’t know if I even have dexterity to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater anymore, but you can bet your ass that I’m going to try. Like a lot of people in my age group, the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series holds a special and borderline sacred place in my heart. I can still remember some of the mission specifics and optimal routes from certain levels in past games, and am especially eager to hear that classic soundtrack once more. Cause the only way to listen to Goldfinger’s “Superman” is during a two minute chunk where you’re trying to find a fucking secret tape. I look forward to revisiting these games for the first time in over a decade even if I’m destined to be terrible at them.

MARVEL’S AVENGERS – 09/04/20

I’ll be honest, I did not come away from the beta for Marvel’s Avengers with many positive things to say, but it’s just one of those things where I need to see how it turns out. I like the Avengers as heroes and would love nothing more than to play a good Avengers game that appropriately captures the feeling of working together as a super powered team. Do I think this game is going to capture that feeling or even be good? No, not one bit. But I would love to be pleasantly surprised and proven wrong. I’m definitely going to wait and see how people feel about it before I make a purchasing decision, but I’m still lured in by those big beefy lads and lasses in tights and fun costumes.

SPELUNKY 2 – 09/15/20

Look, I did not, do not, and probably never will understand why people enjoyed Spelunky so much, but I am curious to see how those people receive the long awaited sequel. Spelunky is often called one of the best games in a genre that I don’t enjoy (rogue-likes), so it’s not hard to understand why it was never for me, but I’d like to give it a shot and potentially see what all the fuss is about. Maybe Spelunky 2 will be the game that makes me a believer, or maybe it’ll be a big disappointment for all of the fans of the first game. I guess I’m mostly just trying to mentally prepare myself for when everyone I follow on Twitter starts posting nothing but videos and screenshots of how good they spelunked or whatever you actually do in that game.

BALDUR’S GATE III – 09/30/20

I’m pretty sure I’ve written 2 or 3 different articles about why I’m jazzed about a game that is historically part of a genre of games I usually hate. Like my previous features about Baldur’s Gate III posited, I just really like Dungeons & Dragons 5e and am eager for a way to get that fix on a more than weekly basis. I feel like I’ll also be more comfortable with this Baldur’s Gate III because I already understand the rules and mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons, so the learning curve won’t be as insurmountable. I never would have predicted that I’d be excited for a game like this, let alone consider it one of, if not my most anticipated game to come out this year. I have to temper my expectations however, because Baldur’s Gate III isn’t officially releasing this year, it’s just entering early access.

So that’s what’s on my radar for this month. Despite the large amount of delays that have cropped up this year, there’s still a lot to look forward to. But with the new consoles coming out within the next few months, September might be the last month big games can come out without being in the shadows of Microsoft or Sony’s shiny expensive boxes. Or maybe they’ll delay the consoles like they probably should, but that probably won’t happen.

About That Avengers Beta

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Since their surge in mass popularity during the 2010’s, I’ve been yearning for an Avengers game that would appropriately blend the varied powers of the Earth’s mightiest heroes with actual fun gameplay. Things were looking very promising when Marvel’s Spider-Man released two years ago on the PlayStation 4, but all of those positive feelings slowly drained away as I spent some time with Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers beta.

The beta opens with the San Fransisco demo that’s been shown off before, swapping you between Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and Black Widow throughout various points in the level. In another, better game, swapping between the heroes every few minutes would be a lot of fun, granted it managed to nail that blend of power fantasy with the cohesion of team dynamics that the Avengers are known for. But based on this beta, Marvel’s Avengers doesn’t succeed at either.

From the start, you have to confront the awkward and unresponsive controls. Everything feels delayed, undermining the brawler feel that other superhero games have done well like the Batman Arkham series or even Marvel’s Spider-Man did. Some of the special abilities and heavy attacks pack a good punch, but by and large most of what I played in the beta felt pretty bland in the combat department.

Marvel’s Avengers combat failings stem from its desire to be a live-service game. Enemies have bloated health bars and can take multiple massive green fists to the face because my gear score or whatever wasn’t high enough. I understand that’s just an aspect of how a lot of these games are, but this decision honestly robs Marvel’s Avengers of letting the player feel like a superhero. The Hulk should not be getting taken to task by some generic robots holding shields.

There’s also the issue of the game not explaining a lot of stuff to you, but I acknowledge that this might just be a beta issue and hopefully will be addressed, but there’s a lot in Marvel’s Avengers that I just never understood. For instance, you’ve got a health bar at the top of the screen with a mysterious superhero specific bar underneath it. What this bar is, I don’t know. What I do know is that while I was getting my ass kicked by a swarm of robots, the bar went down. Was that the health bar? If that’s the case, then what’s the other one for? Are all of my special abilities on a cool-down that might get faster with better gear or skill upgrades, or can I do something in game to impact them?

Maybe all of this is explained in the mess of a pause menu they’ve got, where the landfill of gear, crafting materials and currencies live. It’s one of those screens where your eyes just glaze over because of the sheer amount of garbage that’s on it. Luckily, there’s a button you can hit that will just equip the best gear for you, letting you avoid the nightmare of that entire menu.

https://twitter.com/9_volt_/status/1288861025501093888?s=20

What’s upsetting though is how none of your gear has any visual representation whatsoever. There’s plenty of articles of clothing to equip among the Avengers themselves, but none of it actually shows up at all. I actually understand why that isn’t a thing though. Marvel probably isn’t onboard with people making new Iron man armor from welded together scraps you found in a factory or a jungle. They want to “preserve the identity” of the characters or something, and letting you to adjust their appearances to something that isn’t “on brand” is probably a no. Also, I’m positive that buying alternate costumes is the monetization strategy for Marvel’s Avengers.

Ultimately Marvel’s Avengers just feels like a big miss on every front. It’s not a good action game, it doesn’t make you feel powerful, and it seems rife with ways to nickel and dime its player base. I can’t say definitively that it’s a disappointment yet, considering it isn’t actually out. This is a “beta,” and technically everything is subject to change. Sure the full game releases in just a few weeks, but maybe this is an older build of the game. Whether that’s true or this beta is indicative of what you can expect at release however, this was a miserable first impression.

Blog: Big Delay Energy – 01/29/20

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Less than a month into 2020, several high profile games have already been pushed back and delayed. More time to work on a game is generally a good thing, but the finish line for the current generation of consoles is in sight. Not only do these games have to compete with other titles, but new hardware, which makes their delays a little more worrisome.

Before we talk about the games in question, it is important to know that Microsoft has already committed to Xbox One games working with the Xbox Series X, mitigating some of my reservations about migrating player bases. We don’t know what Sony has in store on that front, but I’m willing to bet this is all a moot point because every game on this list is going to get a next generation re-release.

So with all of those caveats, here are the big delays in question along with the effect it will have on the product as a whole… I assume.

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE

First on the list is a game that I honestly could not care less about, but the gaming audience at large loves, Final Fantasy VII. It got bumped from a March 3rd release date, to April 10th.

In the grand scheme of things, this one isn’t so bad. People have waited a hilariously long time for this game to come out that I don’t think another month is too much to ask. It doesn’t matter anyway consider no matter what happens, people are still going to complain about the changes that were made.

This delay is far enough away from the launch of the next consoles that sales won’t be impacted at all.

MARVEL’S AVENGERS

So here is where we get into the more concerning delays. Marvel’s Avengers is an already strange product, marrying single player and cooperative third-person action with a live service model. I’m not saying it can’t work, but it’s a weird fit for a long awaited Avengers game.

Regardless, the game was pushed from May to September 4th of this year. We can assume that the next consoles will come out around November meaning that this live service game has roughly 2 months or less of capturing an audience.

Now yes, I understand that not everyone is going to buy a console the second it’s released, and yes I understand that Xbox is doing their “all games work on both consoles” thing, but with it releasing so close to a new console launch, there’s no way that Marvel’s Avengers doesn’t either get re-released on the new consoles, or just get delayed and released as a launch title.

I’m so curious about this game, and every time I hear more about it I get more and more concerned. Hopefully someone who gets paid to make these decisions has a plan, but from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look great for Marvel’s Avengers.

CYBERPUNK 2077

There’s no possible way that Cyberpunk 2077 can possibly live up to the hype, but I’m still hopeful. Originally slated for April 16th, Cyberpunk 2077 is listed for a September 17th release date.

While it isn’t a live service game like Marvel’s Avengers is, Cyberpunk 2077 is a massive, open-world action-RPG that’s going to take some time to get through if The Witcher 3 is any indication. This one isn’t so much as me being worried that the new consoles are going to eat Cyberpunk‘s lunch, but more me just wanting it to be a next generation title at this point.

In fact, I kind of wish Cyberpunk was planned as a next generation title in the first place. Everything that they’ve shown looks beautiful and ambitious, and I worry that the hardware it’ll be running on won’t hold up its end of the bargain. Maybe an Xbox One X or PS4 Pro will handle it better, but for those of us with launch hardware, I’m not convinced that we’re going to get a technically solid experience.

With all that said though, I’m sure that this game is going to get some sort of “game of the year” version with all the DLC or whatever after a year or so into the next console cycle. Cyberpunk 2077 is gonna be just fine.

DYING LIGHT 2

Now this one is concerning because it went from having an ambiguous “spring 2020,” release date, to not having one at all. Dying Light 2 was pitched as a highly ambitious game, particularly in the storytelling department, promising players vastly branching paths with difficult decisions that have actual impact on the story and world. It sounds great, but it also sounds like something that could be oversold very easily.

More to the point, without a window of time to expect Dying Light 2, it’s easy to assume the worst for the game, but I don’t think it’s on the verge on complete cancellation or anything like that. What I do think is that the pitch and scope of the game vastly overshadowed what the team at Techland can actually deliver. That isn’t an indictment of them as a studio, it’s just me pointing out that the initial pitch was lofty to begin with.

Do I think this game is doomed? No. Do I think that it’s going to be scaled back? Yes. Do I think it’ll be a next generation game? 100 percent. Am I any less excited to play it? Nope.

Full disclosure; this was written over a week ago, so I’m sure 15 other games got delayed since then. I welcome all delays, but if Nintendo bumps Animal Crossing back once more, I will riot.

Blog: Early & Confirmed for 2020 – 12/11/19

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Next year is going to be a big year for video games, with a lot of hotly anticipated games due to release in the run up to the next generation of consoles. New consoles are nice and all, but what about the 11 months between now and their release? There are a ton of games slated for next year, but I’ve selected a handful of the ones with confirmed release dates to talk about.

That being said, there’s a lot of games that don’t have concrete dates that I’m excited for, but decided to not put on this list. Anyway, here’s 6 games confirmed for the first half of 2020 that I’m personally excited for.

DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT – JANUARY 17th

Look y’all, Dragon Ball Z fever is back and people all over the world are charging up energy blasts and screaming at each other for hours on end. After 2018’s Dragon Ball Fighter Z released, I feel like I’ve heard more about Dragon Ball as a franchise than ever before. I guess with its swell in popularity, the decision to make a game based off of the most iconic arcs in the series was an easy call.

Enter, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, an action RPG where you’ll play as the worlds worst father himself, Goku, in what seems like the first few sagas on Dragon Ball Z. It looks like the more classic Dragon Ball 3D fighting games with some RPG and exploration elements sprinkled on for good measure. On paper, it all sounds really cool.

Out of the few games on this short list, this one is easily the one I’m most cautious about. I don’t think it will be a bad game, but I do think it’ll be incredibly polarizing for people like myself who only really enjoyed Dragon Ball Fighter Z, which is a 2D fighting game, and never really played the 3D fighters.

ORI & THE WILL OF THE WISPS – FEBRUARY 11th

When I think back to my time with Ori & the Blind Forest, I can’t help but remember its beauty in both presentation and story and its good, but not great, platforming gameplay. It wasn’t a bad game by any stretch, but more of a less refined experience than I was looking for. Some of the exploration based stuff felt a little tedious and not worth the hassle.

A few years have passed however, and the sequel is on the horizon. I’m excited to see what Ori & the Will of the Wisps brings to the table both in terms of new features and refinements to the existing platforming and Metroidvania formula of its predecessor. Ori & the Blind Forest was a great foundation that a proper sequel could really build off of in some exciting and interesting ways. Here’s hoping.

ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS – MARCH 20th

I’m not a big gardener, or interior decorator, people person or the general outdoorsy type. In fact, if I was in a real life Animal Crossing scenario, I might physically and mentally break down. That being said, I’m beyond excited to do all of those things I usually hate in the latest game in the storied Animal Crossing series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Just look at how dang adorable this game is. It looks like its turning up the complexity of its mechanics ever so slightly with basic crafting mechanics, which I’m normally not a fan of, but it seems like a good way to increase the playtime in a game that’s basically a short, daily checklist. Crafting seems like a decent way to artificially pad out how much time you can spend in a given session, making you have to consider the condition of your tools and make more of them to progress.

Like I said, Animal Crossing as a concept should be something I hate, but its just so darn cute and relaxing that I can’t help but be smitten by it.

CYBERPUNK 2077 – APRIL 16th

Remember all that cutesy baloney I was spouting in the last blurb? Well forget all that, cause Cyberpunk 2077 is coming out shortly after Animal Crossing: New Horizons and it’s gonna be so extreme that I’m preparing now by funneling cans of Mountain Dew into my face as we speak.

I can’t wait to dive into a hyper connected, cyberpunk dystopia and chop it up with my main man Keanu Reeves. We’re gonna drive our cyber car to the cyber store to buy cyber arms that have cyber guns in them, and it’s gonna all have a cool synth-wave vibe to it that’s absolutely my aesthetic.

I don’t know why I took such an aggressive stance with this description, Cyberpunk 2077 to my knowledge, hasn’t had any Doritos or Mountain Dew integrations announced for it… yet.

All jokes aside, the game looks like its right up my alley on all fronts. My only trepidation is the fact that it looks like it’s gonna be a hefty game, and I don’t know that I have the time in my life anymore to dedicate to a game like that. As much as I want a big, cyberpunk themed RPG in my life, it might be an overwhelming prospect. We’ll see though.

MARVEL’S AVENGERS – MAY 15th

Man, this game doesn’t look great, but I can still hold out hope that we’re getting a good Avengers game in the near future.

Everything about the online structure and live service nature of Marvel’s Avengers scares me just a little bit. While I would’ve preferred a more traditional single player experience with the option to group up with my pals in a cooperative campaign, I won’t balk at an Avengers game without giving it a fair shake.

The story seems interesting enough, the gameplay looks fun enough, but part of me is worried that the live service stuff is going to compromise a lot of the positive things this game has going for it. Fingers crossed.

THE LAST OF US PART II – MAY 29th

I don’t know if I can handle another 20 hours of being repeatedly punched in the emotion glands of my body the way that The Last of Us did back in 2013. Actually scratch that, I think I can handle it, but I just don’t know if I have the patience for more zombie stuff anymore.

I stand by the assertion that the worst parts of The Last of Us were the parts where the zombies were involved. I get that the story revolved around curing the virus and how people survived in that world, but every single time a clicker was on screen I just wanted it to be over.

It was much more interesting and fun to square off against the horrible humans that inhabited the world instead of having to sneak around these one-shotting zombies, hoping I had enough shivs to dispatch those who would inevitably see me.

I’m excited to see the next chapter in terms of the gameplay innovations, story telling and presentation, but I’m less excited about fighting more zombies.

So that’s just a few cherry-picked releases from early next year that have confirmed release dates on them that I’m interested in. There are still a ton of games that are confirmed for 2020 that don’t have dates that I’m curious about, but we’ll get to those eventually.

E3 2019: Square Enix

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Final Fantasy. Yeah, I get it it, a lot of people are jazzed about that remake coming next March, but how about that Avengers project huh? I’m definitely not writing this before the actual presentation, inevitably setting myself up for disappointment or anything. But yeah, this is probably going to be the shortest of the E3 write-ups I do, unless Square Enix brings the heat in other, non-Final Fantasy forms.

Let’s take a look!

FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE

A lot of people are really into this game, like, to a scary degree. I never fell in love with Final Fantasy 7, or any JRPG in general, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t interested in trying this version out. FF7 is one of the weird blank spots in my gaming history, and while most of the fans have made talking about it insufferable, I’d still like to try this game out in some aspect.

It looks like they changed the combat up for this remake, leaning into real time combat much more while also allowing for a sort of Dragon Age styled tactical mode where time slows to a halt, allowing you to pick from a list of advanced attacks.

If I could play this game like a more traditional action game, I think I’d be more willing to try it out. But I don’t know that this is what fans of Final Fantasy 7 are looking for as far as this remake. Or maybe they’ll eat it up without any issues. Doubtful, but maybe fans will be cool about this for once.

The remake is slated to come out early next year, March 3rd, 2020.

A BUNCH OF ANIME GAMES

We got a bunch of trailers for other JRPG remasters and ports, alongside Dragon Quest Builders 2 and a remaster of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Some of the stuff shown looked cool, but nothing that really did much of anything for me.

CIRCUIT SUPERSTARS

A top down, R.C. Pro Am style game with a layer of tuning and strategy was shown off, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit interested. Since the Burnout series… burnt out, I haven’t really been playing much of any racing games, but this one looks like something I’d check out.

DYING LIGHT 2

Shout out to Dying Light for using a Metric song in their trailer, it makes me want this game even more. Unfortunately, the trailer didn’t do much in the way of new footage, but it did come with a nebulous, spring 2020 release date.

OUTRIDERS

A new shooter from People Can Fly, they didn’t show off too much of Outriders, but from what little I did see, it looks like a third person shooter where you’ll create a character, all with this weird, post-apocalyptic yet demonic looking aesthetic. A lot of weird demonic looking beasts were shown off, but not much else. They’ll say more about this winter.

MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS

In what might be the most confusing and nebulous announcement of all of E3, Marvel’s The Avengers, specifically the presentation about out was one of the most confounding things I’ve ever seen. They aren’t following the MCU, rather, building their own version of the Avengers canon to work with.

The story has the Avengers fucking up and getting outlawed and fighting back from that, I suppose. People in the crowd kept shouting at this point.

After a while of saying absolutely nothing, they got around to announcing playable characters, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Black Widow. Take that Hawkeye.

Then we cut to a weird sit down with the voice actors behind the 5 playable characters which was an… interesting choice. I wish they would’ve talked about this in maybe a developer diary video that wasn’t on an E3 stage, but whatever. I would’ve genuinely preferred seeing more gameplay, we got some more cut scenes which is better than nothing.

After a short cut scene, we got more people walking out on stage and talking about the game. No pay to win and no loot boxes were listed as talking points, which means cosmetics are definitely in the mix.

Notably absent was any gameplay. I have no idea how the game works or plays or anything. It was this weird feeling of them hiding the gameplay from us or something, I don’t think that’s the case, but that was the vibe they put off.

Oddly enough, they’re showing off actual gameplay at their booth, but felt the need to not show anything about that on their stage. I just wish they didn’t withhold so much information about the game, and felt the need to be more coy about it.

Whatever Marvel’s The Avengers ends up being, is out on May 15th, 2020.

And that’s that. A conference filled with a bunch of games that weren’t for me, and the ones that did pique my interest, were oddly vague. This show felt like a real love letter to fans of Square games from the past, with a bunch of remasters and remakes being announced. Good on them, now please tell me more about Marvel’s The Avengers.