Andre's Gaming Odds & Ends Issue #2
Issue #2 features Mini-Reviews: (Age of Empires IV, Forza Horizon 5). News & Opinions: (Uncharted movie, FFXIV conduct policy) Lost Ark Beta, Andre's Game Hype Rankings, Gotham Knights, Elden Ring
Welcome to Issue #2 of Andre’s Gaming Odds & Ends!
This is a reminder that anything below that is underlined is a clickable link.
Since this is a monthly/bi-monthly newsletter series, expect a few more than usual embedded media links. This includes both YouTube videos and embedded tweets.
ENJOY!
Video Game News & Opinions
Uncharted Movie Trailer Released
The popular Sony Playstation Uncharted franchise has a movie, Uncharted, set to be released in theatres February 18, 2022. The movie features stars Mark Wahlberg, Tom Holland, and Antonio Banderas, with other cast members resembling characters from the game franchise. I and many others are a bit puzzled by the casting choices of Tom Holland playing Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg playing Sully. Holland looks too young to be playing Drake and Wahlberg looks too young to be playing Sully. Wahlberg would actually be a better casting choice for Nathan Drake. It almost seems like Tom Holland, who also plays Peter Parker in Sony Picture’s Spider-Man franchise, was forced the role by Sony.
The trailer itself isn’t that bad once you set aside the casting choices. It features the memorable cargo plane scene from Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (2011). I would love to see the train hanging off of a cliff scene from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009). The most disappointing part of the trailer is that it doesn’t feature the Uncharted theme song. C’mon Sony! The movie appears to combine elements and characters from all Uncharted games, so it’s going to be very interesting to see how it all meshes together. I will say that this looks better than the Tomb Raider (2018) movie released few years ago. Casting choices aside, it looks like it might be something.
Riot Games Disables /all Chat in League of Legends
Riot games announces disabling of /all chat in matchmade queues:
…While /all chat can be the source of fun social interaction between teams, as well as some good-hearted banter, right now negative interactions outweigh the positives. We'll evaluate the impact of this change through verbal abuse reports and penalty rates, as well as surveys and direct feedback from you all.
/All chat is the only thing being disabled. Enemies will still be able to hear and see your emotes and champ mastery (unless muted), as well as CTRL+1/2/3/4 spam. End of Game chat will still be cross-team. Allies will still be able to coordinate with each other in team chat…
League of Legends is part of a genre of games (MOBA) that has an unfortunately justified bad reputation of being very toxic in player interactions. Besides just not being a fan of the genre itself, the toxicity of those players have been a factor in me not even wanting to waste my time trying it. This doesn’t affect team chat, so toxicity will still be there within teammates. Imagine being a new player trying to learn the game with profanity being typed to you from your own teammates. I’m almost more accepting of toxicity against the other team, because trash talk exists everywhere. Toxicity within teammates is the real issue, and only when that is addressed fully will the game’s reputation get better and more players want to try it.
Final Fantasy XIV Updates Prohibited Activities and Account Penalty Policy
Final Fantasy XIV is a game I recently started playing in July. It’s a MMORPG with many player interactions, so naturally combating bad player behavior should happen. I included this segment in my news because Square Enix has gone above and beyond to give examples of what is or isn’t acceptable behavior within the game. Some of the examples and distinctions are kind of interesting.
Updates to the Prohibited Activities in FINAL FANTASY XIV and Account Penalty Policy:
Advertising offers to help clear content, to help earn loot, etc. via the Party Finder
Examples of violations:
- Selling [duty] clear for 1 million gil.
- Selling [duty] clear and/or offering the associated rewards from [content]. Join for more info/details.Examples of non-violation:
- I'm new, can anyone help me clear [duty]?
- Help me clear [duty] and I'll pay you 1 million gil!
- I'd like to get some items from [duty]. will pay 1 million gil if I can get it.
So another words, selling services NAY, bribery YAY!
I also found this part interesting where they discuss behavior that is prohibited:
In the following example, Player A is excessively criticizing Player B. If Player B is not asking for any advice, Player A cannot force Player B to play a specific way. This type of situation can be determined as an act of excessive criticism.
Player A: B, you're doing this part wrong.
Player B: I understand, I'll try harder.
Player A: You understand the mechanics? Want me to teach you?
Player B: I do understand, I'm OK. Thank you.
Player A: You sure you understand? You keep on screwing up. You should do [something] on [something].
Player B: I understand, I'm sorry.
Player A: You sure? If you don't know let me know, ok? B, you're screwing up so many times, you're really dragging this out for us.
Player B: I'm sorry.Making statements intended to belittle someone, such as "you can't do [something], maybe this is just not possible for you?" If a report has been filed and the prohibited activity is confirmed, a penalty will be issued.
It is prohibited for groups of players to target and ridicule a specific player. If a report has been filed and the prohibited activity is confirmed, a penalty will be issued.
I don’t want to quote everything, but this is just a slice of specificity that Square Enix provided for players in this conduct update. Final Fantasy XIV has one of the friendliest gaming communities in existence, now you can see why. Being nice to others is actually built into the game and encouraged. It’s even better that a company goes out of its way to provide real examples of what is or isn’t acceptable.
BlizzCon 2022 Cancelled
Blizzard Entertainment’s annual convention, Blizzcon, is cancelled in 2022.
This is a quote from their official statement, “Reimagining BlizzCon”:
…Any BlizzCon event takes every single one of us to make happen, an entire-company effort, fueled by our desire to share what we create with the community we care about so much. At this time, we feel the energy it would take to put on a show like this is best directed towards supporting our teams and progressing development of our games and experiences.
Additionally, we would also like to take the time to reimagine what a BlizzCon event of the future could look like. The first BlizzCon was held 16 years ago, and so much has changed in the time since—most notably, the multiple ways in which players and communities can come together and feel like they are a part of something bigger. Whatever the event looks like in the future, we also need to ensure that it feels as safe, welcoming, and inclusive as possible. We’re committed to continual communication with our players, and we see BlizzCon playing a big role in that going forward. We’re excited about what we’ll do with the event when we revisit it in the future...
Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon is usually a big event, especially considering they develop the franchises of World of WarCraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. It’s hard to believe that the recent sexual harassment allegations and lawsuit (first reported by Bloomberg) didn’t have a thing to do with this decision, but they are not specifically mentioned in the entire statement, only mildly alluded to at best. Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, is also accused of knowing about the sexual-misconduct allegations and not doing anything about it, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Also included in the scathing WSJ report is that he threatened to kill his assistant in a voicemail 16 years ago.
All of these allegations within the past year have made Blizzard games a tough sell for gamers and content creators. Should we boycott all Activision Blizzard games? On one hand you don’t want to line the pockets of this disgusting company, but what about buying the game to support the developers who put in a lot of hard work and who are the ultimate victims here? This is the conundrum, but I lean slightly towards the latter. I didn’t include all the allegation links in this segment because the Blizzard situation has unraveled so bad that there is almost a new allegation coming out every week.
Forza Horizon 5 Has Largest Xbox Game Launch Day and Biggest First Week
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, tweeted that Forza Horizon 5 had the largest Xbox launch day ever. Forza Horizon 5 had a launch 3x higher than Forza Horizon 4 with 4.5+ million players. I was one of them!
Even better, the game peaked to over 10 million players in the first week. I’m assuming this is cumulative and not concurrent, otherwise I’m sure they would have stated that. Regardless, that’s a major milestone for Xbox, and when you read my Forza Horizon 5 mini-review below you’ll see why this game has gained so much traction.
Events & Showcases
Playstation State of Play - October 27, 2021
Playstation’s October 27th State of Play was not quite as eventful as the previous one, but it did feature some games that I found interesting. Deathverse Let it Die (Spring 2022) is a multiplayer melee survival game that I thought was somewhat interesting, especially the visual style. Although I’m always leery about these multiplayer games due to player base retention. We Are OFK (2022) is a music biopic game that had a somewhat funny trailer, but the visuals and voice acting stood out the most. I’m glad it will also be coming to PC. Star Ocean The Divine Force (2022) is another game I found intriguing with big boss battles. I’ve never played this JRPG franchise, but I always hear good things about it. Little Devil Inside (2022) was the headliner, and I’m the most interested in this one than anything else shown. The storytelling, graphics, and combat in this look like a unique blend that I know I will want to play when it releases.
Indie Game Live Expo - November 6, 2021
The above video of the Indie Live Expo Winter 2021 is over six hours long featuring over 500 games! I made the decision to watch some of it, but I didn’t want to watch all six hours during this busy gaming season at the end of the year. I did however discover some games shown there, and I featured them in some of my recent Indie Game Discovery Roundups. I will skim and scour the rest of this before 2022 so I don’t miss any indie game gems next year. Don’t worry, you don’t have to watch the whole thing either, I got ya covered!
Xbox Anniversary Celebration - November 6, 2021
This was a really good showcase celebrating 20 years of Xbox. It featured footage of old press conferences and gamers buying the original Xbox at launch. A few major announcements came from this celebration. The first one was that Halo Infinite multiplayer was being released early. It’s also significant because Halo Infinite multiplayer mode is free-to-play. The other major announcement is a live action Halo series premiering on Paramount+ in 2022. I'm not familiar with the Halo franchise lore, but I’m intrigued to see how this turns out. Paramount+ is probably the streaming platform I would want to subscribe to the least, so we’ll see.
Mini-Reviews
Age of Empires IV (Campaign) (PC)
Age of Empires IV, developed by Relic Entertainment, is the long awaited fourth installment in the franchise. Age of Empires III came out fifteen years ago to negative reception, but AoE4 had many fans of the franchise skeptical of what it might bring, myself included. I was mostly looking forward to the campaign mode, and so far I haven’t been disappointed. The campaigns at launch are The Normans, The Hundred Years War, The Mongol Empire, and The Rise of Moscow. I’m still working my way through the campaigns, but I’ve played enough of it to give my assessment.
The campaign mode is extremely well done with good narration, but the presentation is where the game shines with maps showing where historical battles took place and the mapping out of royal heirs to make hierarchies easier to understand. The actual video presentation of battles with real-life modern footage of locations with computer generated armies to show the pathing of armies and battle locations are part of each mission. After completing missions you unlock special demonstration videos of historians demonstrating and explaining things like how a trebuchet works, how castles are built, how mail armor is created, and much more. They are playable videos that can be skipped and accessed whenever you want.
I spent all of my time playing the campaign mode, but the multiplayer mode also exists. I haven’t hit every civilization in campaign mode yet, but the overall game features the launch civilizations of the English, French, Chinese, Mongols, Delhi Sultanate, Abbasid Dynasty, Holy Roman Empire, and the Rus. Every civilization has unique advantages. My biggest issue entering the full release was the zoom level of the game. It took a little while for me to get used to because the zoom level is closer than Age of Empires II, but after a while it felt natural. I’m still not a huge of fan of the resources being shown in the bottom left because it’s a little harder to see in the flow of the game.
The environments in the game look amazing and when a battle breaks out the modern visuals really shine. Battles in AoE4 are fun to watch, which is part of the reason why I’ve spent some time watching players online via Twitch. One of the cooler things in this game is that you can put units like archers on your castle walls.
I’m not finished with the campaign yet and will definitely dive into multiplayer before January to get my feet wet. The campaign alone already makes this one of my favorite games of the year, and anyone that enjoys learning history will really like this. It’s on Xbox Game Pass, so try it out!
Age of Empires IV on Steam
Age of Empires IV Official Gameplay Trailer
Forza Horizon 5 (PC)
Forza Horizon 5, developed by Playground Games, is a game franchise I’ve been familiar with for years, but never felt compelled to play. Now that I have a good computer plus Xbox Game Pass I felt like giving this a shot. Forza Horizon is an open world racing game with many activities to do. I’m not huge into the competitive racing games, so I wanted to try this out in a more relaxing solo experience to understand the game. This is also a game that I would never buy, but since I have Xbox Game Pass I decided to play it.
I had low expectations, but never have I been more pulled into a game. If you’re wondering why I haven’t completed the Age of Empires IV campaign yet, blame this! Forza Horizon 5 is so addicting because of the huge amount of races that you can get involved in. Every Forza Horizon game is set in a certain part of the world, and this one is set in Mexico. Due to having a good computer and monitor, I can really take in this beautiful driving experience. Hypothetically, you don’t even have to join a single race and can instead opt to just drive around and enjoy the scenery. There is sort of a campaign where you get points that unlock new races and parts of the map to drive in that also makes the game addicting.
Most of the models of cars that you know are basically in the game. You can customize the colors, upgrade your car, and level up individual cars to have better attributes to your liking. The best part of Forza Horizon 5 to me is the accessibility that lets any player play how they want with settings to tune to your skill level of driving. Your driving skills like drifting or maintaining high speeds can generate your skill bar and experience points for you to level up a car, but the accessibility settings that can make it easier to drive just provide less experience points. It’s ultimately up to you how difficult you want it to be.
As someone playing this kind of experience for the first time, I decided to tweak things to make it feel like a more arcade driving experience. Every time you level up your account you get wheelspins where you randomly either get a car or in-game credits to use for upgrades or perusing the auction house to buy cars other players are selling. Cars have rarities and when you get epic or rare cars like I have, it’s amazing! This is the ultimate car collecting game because it tracks each car you collect. There is a screen that tracks each car by manufacturer with rewards once you’ve possessed a certain amount of cars of a particular kind.
I’ve already poured hours into this game and I can’t wait to play more. No doubt one of my favorite games of the year. I was randomly gifted by another player a nice Corvette. plus I obtained a nice and incredibly fast Ferrari that is fun to race with. The race variety will keep me coming back to play more, especially the long races in the countryside with trees and dirt roads. There is so much left for me to do, but so little time for now. Forza Horizon 5 is definitely a game you need to try out if you have Xbox Game Pass.
Forza Horizon 5 on Steam
Forza Horizon 5 Official Launch Trailer
Beta Report
Lost Ark Closed Beta (PC)
Lost Ark is the isometric Korean ARPG MMORPG that has been released for many years, but in 2022 a North American version will finally be released with English translations. I was lucky enough to get a closed beta invite and I don’t regret my experience at all. Due to the fact that this was a closed beta I didn’t want to waste too much of my time, but just enough to get a decent taste of the user interface, gameplay, and storytelling of this MMO experience.
The normal combat attacks feel like Diablo, but the skills usage feel closer to a standard MMO like World of Warcraft, something I did not quite expect. The beta started everyone at level 10 with lots of extra goodies and potions, something I’m not sure how to feel about since that wont be a normal experience when the game officially releases. I played as a Paladin, which is tanky and has a lot of holy magic. The skill system leveling is probably the most interesting because you level up specific skills and it manipulates the skill in different ways to make it stronger with more damage or change how a skill operates. Skills seem to have both a PvE and PvP version. The general consensus from the Lost Ark community is that all the classes are very balanced, so not to worry what class to pick or skills you choose to upgrade.
Lost Ark has a lot of different game mechanics and systems that aren’t really introduced quite as cleanly and crisply, at least in the beta. There were a lot of menus and different things in the game that were just there and not explained. It may just be the beta version, but this is something that I hope the release version of Lost Ark cleans up. That being said, the user interface isn’t horrible, the different menu options just need more explaining for new players like myself.
The storytelling is probably the biggest positive standout of Lost Ark for me. The voice acting and cinematics make this an incredibly rich experience. The questing and dungeon experiences I had were all solo-able, which is what the main game will be aside from the beta. Survival in the game seems to be dependent on your character movement by moving in and out of damage circles in order to stay alive. Playing as a Paladin, I never felt like I was about to die, but the beta did give a lot of extra items to players to run through content.
The worst thing about Lost Ark is that the publisher is Amazon Games, but the best thing is that it will be free-to-play. Thank goodness! I personally prefer to not give money to Amazon if I can avoid it. There are microtransactions in the game, but the jury is still out about whether the game is pay-to-win or not. We’ll see.
Lost Ark is set to be released in 2022 with a placeholder date of March 31, 2022. I can’t wait to play this!
Lost Ark on Steam
Lost Ark: Gameplay Announce Trailer (NA and EU)
Trailer Impressions
Elden Ring
Elden Ring - Gameplay Preview
Elden Ring is a game that has been teased and hyped for the last several years. FromSoftware is known for creating the Souls games, plus games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019) and Bloodborne (2015). I’ve never taken the time to complete any of these games, but this Elden Ring gameplay preview has me more interested than I thought I would be. One of the hype factors for Elden Ring is that George R.R. Martin created the lore for the game. Other than that fact, the above preview is the first in-depth gameplay we’ve been shown. The major standout for Elden Ring compared to other FromSoftware games is the existence of a map and the fact that you’re riding a mount that can jump high. The world also looks a lot more colorful than previous FromSoftware games. Elden Ring is a game I was planning to skip, but this gameplay preview has changed my mind. I’m kind of excited to try this now.
Release Date: February 24, 2022 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One)
Elden Ring on Steam
Gotham Knights
Gotham Knights - Official Court of Owls Story Trailer
Gotham Knights is a game that was announced years ago, but not until recently have we seen more updated trailers of the game. The above story trailer is very well done and gives a good taste of the voice acting in the game. In Gotham Knights you can play as Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, and Red Hood. The big factor in this game is that it’s co-op, so imagine playing this story with two or three friends. It’s been a long time since the last good Batman game, so I’m really hoping Gotham Knights is good and the co-op is well implemented.
Release Date: 2022 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One)
Gotham Knights on Steam
Andre’s Video Game Hype Rankings (November 2021)
I came up with the concept of Game Hype Rankings as a way to create an evolving wishlist, but also to measure how excitement for games can change over time. There are always examples of games that announce certain features and end up removing them. thus lowering interest in that game.
The list below will be updated every month with released games being removed and replaced as every month passes by. (The links in the list are to the game’s Steam store pages unless not available.)
In Issue #1 of Gaming Odds & Ends I went through each game and briefly mentioned why they are on the list. From now on I will only discuss the new additions. Age of Empires IV and Legend of Tianding were removed because they were released.
#3 Elden Ring
Elden Ring is added to my hype rankings at #3 because the new gameplay preview that I discussed above got me really interested. The new features of having a map and mount, plus the more colorful environment is enough to grab my attention. Many people in the gaming world were already hyped for this, but for me I needed to see something compelling or different to get me to buy into the hype. I’m in.
#7 Lost Ark (NA)
Lost Ark is back on the menu! I had this on my hype rankings earlier in the year, but bumped it off because of few updates on the game’s status. Now that I’ve played the closed beta, I’m really excited to play this when it releases free-to-play. It’s at #7 because the release date is still somewhat vague, as I believe March 31st is a placeholder. Additionally, I need to see systems improvements like I discussed above. I’m also somewhat unsure about the microtransactions impact on the experience.
Upcoming Content
SPECIAL ISSUE THIS WEEK:
Andre’s Black Friday/Holiday Shopping Gaming Recommendations
I will go back into my GameReviewPad vault and provide Steam links to games that I enjoyed in the past.
The Steam Autumn sale starts today until next week. This shopping guide will be good for both the autumn sale and winter sale at the end of December.
What to Expect in Issue #9 of Andre’s Indie Game Chosen Ones:
(Issue #9 will be pushed back a week to December 3rd/4th with the special issue take its place.)
Indie Game Discovery Roundup (5 Games)
Kickstarter Spotlight
Trailer Impressions
Thanks for reading! Andre’s Gaming Odds & Ends newsletter will likely be published in sporadic intervals because I don’t want to send it unless I have enough to talk about. This newsletter will likely go through changes over time to reflect how many opinions I want to give.
New reader?
Check out the About section for a full breakdown of what to expect in each newsletter type.
Introducing Andre’s GameReviewPad: What to Expect is an overview of my approach to covering video games.