REVENGE OF THE GAMERS

A NEW CHALLENGER HAS ARRIVED TO 2023

This Weeks News

Ubisoft Starts the Year Off Bad

Ubisoft, the huge French gaming company, has been reported to be shutting down 3 projects and delaying Skull and Bones yet again. Additionally, this week workers have formed a union due to the CEO,Yves Guillemot, sending out a mass email to employees basically saying “Can you please work harder so the company doesn’t go under”. The union is demanding a 10% pay increase as well as a 4-day work week. This now brings Ubisoft to 7 cancellations and another bad work environment situation. Assassin’s Creed games seem to be this company’s saving grace honestly. Assassins Creed: Mirage is set to come out in March and I’m hoping it does well because its failure would enforce the idea that the company cannot recover and its main solution would be to either dissolve and separate or sell. Let’s see… what games does Ubisoft have that could potentially save them: Assassins Creed: Mirage, Red, Hexe, Skull, and Bones (not likely), The Division Heartland, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, Beyond Good and Evil 2 (I hope), Prince of Persia Remake (which is probably dead), Splinter cell Remake, an untitled Star Wars game, and XDefiant (looks decent). These are all the games that I personally think could really push this company back to a solid standing if they’re all taken care of properly. I don’t want to see this company doing bad because I love when they deliver GOOD experiences whether it be with the same worn-out formula or if it’s something fresh/unique. This year will spell a lot of things out for them.

Another Battlepass…

Who wants to play Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ??? Me. I do. But what I don’t want, is a good game with sound fundamentals that capitalizes on FOMO to get players to engage daily. If that’s your thing, that’s cool but I like all games and I hate when a game makes me feel bad or left out for choosing to divvy up my time to experience other works of art (I’m looking at you Destiny 2). Earlier this week an image of Suicide Squad was leaked and there was a section of the main menu that reads “Battle Pass”. This was confirmed to be real but the story has developed and as of today, the battle pass will be limited to cosmetics only (claimed). I hope the cosmetics-only claim is true and that’s really all I have to say regarding this topic with this game in particular. I don’t like the games as a service model for certain games. Since its introduction to the industry, the live service model has become a plague (In my eyes). Destiny 2, Final Fantasy 14, Apex Legends, and Warframe are a really good live-service games. Then you have the other side: Fallout 76, Marvels: The Avengers, Anthem, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, and Babylons fall. A few of the aforementioned games could have done way better as single-player experiences, especially The Avengers. Suicide Squad looks like a fun game and I bet it is but I will wait until about a month after it’s release to see where it’s headed and decide if it’s a train I want to hop on.

Sony’s Ready for 2023

Tuesday, Sony put out a trailer showcasing games coming this year and I’m filled with anticipation, to say the least. A few games said “Coming To PS5 Only” which had some people (including me) a little confused/worried. I recently got a PS5 after having a PS4 for a while so playing the assumed exclusive games wouldn’t be a problem regardless, but I do prefer to play multi-plat games on XSX. Suicide Squad, Dead Space, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor all had this tag. Later that day it was clarified among fans and confused people alike that this meant the games in question would not be going to PS4. After reading this I felt so dumb and laughed about it honestly. But this leads me to my next topic. I thought Sony stopped producing PS4s.

I saw this photo on Twitter earlier and it made me laugh to think about the performance of MW2 on a PS4. If you played it at launch then you know the bugs and breaks this game had on PC, XSX/S and PS5 so I can only imagine how it would fare on this last gen console. Also can we stop calling PS5 and XSX/S “next gen”, they came out in 2020 so I think we’re reaching the “current gen” title for these amazing pieces of hardware.

Microsoft Makes a Tough Call

Microsoft announced that it would be laying off 10,000 people with the objective of cutting company costs and in preparation for the oncoming economic hardship. This is always a sad thing to see in any major company. First and foremost, I hope everyone who has been laid off can find new jobs and stable environments to recover and support their lives. This year seems to be a trial for many and I hope everyone makes it through

During this process, 343 was hit among the other subsidiaries with Joeseph Staten leaving 343 and returning to the Xbox publishing division. 343 was also taken off of the Halo franchise as its head developer and is now taking the role of a support studio. Former employees have stated that the game was doomed from the start and that the leadership for the project was poor. This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard this about some Xbox studios with bad leadership and from the looks of it, I doubt it’ll be the last. I do not know what this means for Halo: Infinite moving forward and for the franchise as a whole but I do have some “wants” for the future. Firstly, I want the Halo: Infinite multiplayer experience to get all the support it needs to flourish the way the industry expected it to. I love that game’s multiplayer and I wish it had more updates and fixes to maximize its enjoyability. Second, I would like for the franchise to (HOT TAKE INCOMING !!!!!!) give us a new face to root for maybe a game or two. Whether it be a spin-off title or a shift to a different character leading up to/during the events of Infinite. I kind of want the grizzled Master Chief to be put on ice for a little while. I think between the show getting lukewarm reviews, the fanbase ripping the story/execution of the show apart, and (In my personal opinion) the middling story of Infinite, I think he needs to be put back into cryo for a bit. I would love to see another character take the stage similar to Noble 6 in Reach or The Rookie in ODST. I think they tried to do this with 5 but the way it was carried out wasn’t necessarily the best which lead to the result we saw. This is all conjecture at the end of the day and to be honest, no one knows what really happened with Infinite besides the people who worked on it. I hope Halo can once again recover from the state it’s in. I love Halo.

Time for Bets !!!

The next part isn’t necessarily news but there are some games coming out that I have my eye on and I want to guess what scores they’re gonna get: 

  • Monster Hunter Rise to XBX/PS5: 8.5/10 (already out)
  • P3 P4 remasters to modern consoles: 9/10 (already out)
  • Atomic Heart: 7/10
  • Wanted Dead: 7.5/10
  • Like A Dragon Ishin: 9/10
  • Deadspace Remake: 8/10
  • Fire Emblem Engage: 9/10 (already out)
  • RE4 Remake: 8/10
  • Wo Long Fallen Dynasty: 7/10
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: 8/10
  • Forspoken: 6/10

Addressing the Elephant in the Room

  • Short sort of life update:

There was another unannounced hiatus on my part. Last year got pretty hectic pretty fast so the focus was elsewhere which kind of put me in a gaming rut to say the very least. This year there’ll be very little difference in terms of things going on but I’d like to think I have my priorities somewhat straight. The rut is over and I’m back in full force and gaming pretty hard. 

  • New games I’ve bought:

Man, where do I even start? I bought a PS5 and that’s been really nice so I got a few of the essentials. All of the Uncharted games, Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, FF7 Remake, The Order: 1886, and a few others. I just recently got the Skywalker Saga, Spyro Trilogy and some other ones that I can’t seem to think of right now. 

  • Games I’ve been playing:

I traveled home for the holidays and while there, I played and finished Warhammer 40k: Space marine in light of the second one being announced. Upon return I played and beat High on Life (which was a blast even though now I feel bad for liking it), Halo Infinite, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Now I’m playing Cyberpunk 2077, Chained Echoes, Infernax, and Gungrave Gore. I can’t guarantee they’re all getting the same amount of attention but I’m enjoying my time with each of them for what they are. Like I said earlier, I’m back and gaming at full capability. 

  • New Goals for this year regarding gaming and gaming media:

This year I want to stay consistent with this blog. I really enjoy writing for it and think It can become something fruitful. Also I just really love games and any chance to discuss them even if nobody is reading, I’ll take it. I’d also like to grow my presence on Twitter to draw in more traffic and potentially start a youtube/podcast to go along with the blog.  

A Quick 2022 Recap

  • Best games:
    • Elden Ring
    • GOW: Ragnorok
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 3
    • Final Fantasy Crisis Core
    • High on Life
  • Worst Games:
    • Saints Row
    • Pokemon S/V
    • The Last Oricru
    • Tiny Tinas Wonderland
    • I don’t have a 5th
  • VGA results and announcements:

I missed the coverage on VGA 2022 but I just want to say that I really enjoyed it. They showed some games that I wanted to see more of and even a couple that I didnt expect. Also, I think most of the games got the awards they deserved. Overall I give it an 8/10 (Christopher Judge gave an amazing speech it was just kinda long thats all).

2023 Hopes and Dreams

This year is packed with great prospects releasing. Here’s my most anticipated list:

  • Tales of Symphonia Remaster
  • Atomic Heart
  • Like a Dragon: Ishin
  • Destiny 2 Lightfall
  • Wo Long Fallen Dynasty
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
  • RE4 Remake
  • Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
  • Diablo IV
  • Final Fantasy 16
  • What I expect from all major gaming companies

This year will be another “ground work” year I think. There’s still a lot of deals to be done and a lot of game shows that need to be had before I can tell. I do expect the ABK x Microsoft deal to compete regardless of the trouble its receiving right now and I wouldnt be surprised if Sony went and gobbled up Square Enix. I also hope Ubisoft delivers good projects as well as makes some realistic commitments to get their mojo back this year. Embarcer Group has a huge amount of IP that they could make moves with. I want another Tomb Raider and Deus Ex from their devs asap so an announcement would be amazing. Nintendo really needs to announce the Switch’s successor because it’s technology is severely lacking compared to its competition (this doesnt mean it’s doing bad which we all know). EA really has the potential to have a stellar year. I hope they can deliver on upcoming games like Dead Space, Wild Hearts and Star Wars. Those titles coupled with a few high tier announcements could add up to an A+ year for the company.

Thanks For Reading This Weeks Post. Same Time And Place Next Week

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