Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! You know when you reach the point in a video game where you find yourself doing something very different from the rest of the game? Well, that’s what hosts David and Holly talk about this week, citing some examples of when games have done it wrong, and when they’ve done better!
Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday!
Before it got showed off at E3, I wasn’t really aware that BioWare was working on a new intellectual property. After all, they just released Mass Effect Andromeda and though we haven’t beaten it, it sounds like it’s open to sequels. Meanwhile, the ending of Dragon Age Inquisition definitely sets them up for Dragon Age 4. So they have two large universes they are continuing on with, which seems like a lot to be working on.
So with those two games being similar sorts of party-based RPGs, just one fantasy and one science fiction, I suppose it makes sense that if you were to be making another game, you would try to step out of that genre a bit. Enter Anthem.
The early reactions to this game compare it to Destiny, although I couldn’t quite tell if it was an MMO or more just multiplayer up to a certain number, a la Borderlands. Unfortunately, I’ll bet it’s not split-screen like Borderlands is, meaning that the odds of Holly and I playing this one are low.
Which is sad, because this game looks great! It further pushes some of the movement elements that we’ve really enjoyed in Andromeda (and which Holly used even more in playing Re-Core). It’s a big open science fiction world. And the loot!…
Basically, it looks like you’re playing Iron Man.
Different suits, different weapon loadouts, class-like functions on them (like the big old tanky one). I mean, even multi-target targeting and shooting missiles out. Very Iron Man. But like, in the, wouldn’t it be fun to be Iron Man sort of way.
If there’s a single player campaign, we might still end up getting this one and playing it that way. If there’s split-screen, we’re absolutely getting this one. If it ends up on our Mac computers, we could play this one. But requiring two X-Box One’s (or PS4’s) for a married couple in a single household? There’s a whole host of games that we can’t play because of the multiple consoles needed. So we’ll see where this one ends up!
Anthem is currently expected late 2018, so plenty of time between now and then (or possible delays) for all these details to sort out.
So after finally finishing Dragon Age: Inquisition I decided that I would play something completely different and started Recore. I am only a little ways into it and so far am loving it. It is nice to play a game that is not mainly about fighting, but also has puzzles to solve and a lot of items to find. It is so great to have something different after the 150 hours of a really intensive game. I am excited to be able to play a game that has a very different pace to it. At the same time the story so far has me incredibly intrigued. Recore is a throwback to games such a Metroid and Zelda, but with a new twist, which is great to see.Continue reading →
So for a variety of reasons, Holly and I just preordered several video games on Amazon the other day. Actually, I should go through those reasons… So one is that the funds from the anti-trust lawsuit about e-books has hit, so we both had Amazon store credit. Second is that we found out that Amazon Prime members get 20% off of preordered or recently new video games. We joined Prime for their “Amazon Mom” subscription service, and it’s been great for basic supplies for Geek Baby. We’ve added a few subscriptions since then… But since we’re already Prime members, why not take advantage of the perks?
The other reasons are more related to the games. I think this year is finally the year that the newest generation of consoles is finally getting good, so we were perhaps still a bit ahead of that curve when we bought last fall… Still, finally, games. Our last big splurge on games was when our local Walmart was going out of business, so we are swimming in more than we have time to play, but we’ve had our eyes on these for a while, so when we saw the Amazon benefits to ordering we gave our wish lists a look.
That, and E3 happened, so there was suddenly new preview material to look at! This helped guide us in our game purchasing decisions. After watching the new stuff, we decided to order three games… and to not order a fourth. Let’s take a look!
Comparative Geeks 