Writing N' Video Games

Introduction Tom Clancy's The Division was one of the first mainstream looter shooters that grounded the formula in theme, gameplay, and art style (or at least crammed in as much graphical detail as possible to achieve realism).  Finally, we could shoot and loot in New York, not some fantasy world or far-future Russia.  During 2016, the year of its release, The Division was about as successful as most triple-A games that year.  The era was that of mildly broken games released with large day-one patches that only ever fixed some issues.  As of 2019, that problem lingers.  It's better, but it creeps up occasionally.  Still, it gained a large audience that was vocal enough to have the developer, Massive Entertainment, delay production of post-launch content to fix bugs and mechanics that weren't functional.  The procedure went well enough for a sequel to have launched to quite the acclaim for a publisher, Ubisoft, that gets its fair share of online v...

And we're back! On this part we'll be talking about everyone's favorite blue race of aliens and their respective ark. Embrace Eternity Great White Buffalo I think my biggest problem with the Asari in Andromeda is that they aren't properly utilized as a race. Every Asari feels the same, almost as if they're all still in their rambunctious maiden phase. Even the veteran Asari on the ark seem to make costly and short sighted decisions. In a way, I can see a good explanation for this behavior being that only young Asari decided to come on this expedition. Matriarchs wouldn't bother with that type of venture and certainly wouldn't commit to such an impulsive effort with no clear outcome. But the game doesn't offer this explanation. I made this point in my Retrospective: Peebee (and many other Asari) essentially feel like humans with a blue paint job. Her mannerisms are human, the words she uses are based on human concepts, and she has absolutely no ...

Hey guys.. so... I've been misspelling Kett this entire time. That's my bad and totally on me. It's Kett and not Khett. I've fixed it in the faction entry and will be using the correct way from now on. I don't know why I did that or what part of my brain decided to google translate it that way. Big whoops on my part. ... Hike? Second String - Blue 42 Right, so the director has been kidnapped by some random, clearly human, operative in N7 armor. And now, the only people remaining are the second string of leaders on the Nexus. I pondered on the last part whether or not to just get rid of the Nexus leadership from the vanilla game. Much like the game's premise, they're not terrible concepts, it's simply the tone and direction of their scenes that are god awful. Foster Addison is the worst offender, not just because of her meme face but because her dialogue and your ability to respond is handicapped hard. She challenges you with no way to challen...

Geralt of Rivia, witcher, master of the middle path has fallen into a portal and landed in the New World.  What does that mean for Monster Hunter and future crossovers? *Our content usually contains spoilers, but sometimes how the event happens is more fun than the actual events.   Up until The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt mission, Monster Hunter: World's previous crossover content has been armor items attached to modified missions.  Dante, Bayek, Ezio, Aloy, Mega Man (for your Palico), Ryu, and Sakura's armor pieces were obtained through themed missions designed around the characters themselves, mostly.  Dante's set is achieved by fighting red monsters: Anjanath, Odogaron, Rathalos, and Teostra.  Mega Man's Palico set is achieved through fighting two Odogarons, one huge and one the size of a dog.  I don't know what Ryu and Barroths have to do with each other, but that's his monster pair.   The Behemoth from Final Fantasy came to dwell in the E...

Howdy partners. I recently finished Red Dead Redemption 2 and with Ben going back to test the waters with the original game, I figured I come out and share my experience offline and on. My single player experience I'll keep relatively short to avoid spoilers: It was fantastic, here's why. Despite being able to appeal to a wider and receptive audience following GTA V's success and the world's constant infatuation with westerns, RDR2 takes the time to slow things down with mechanics that make you consider your actions. Such mechanics included; weight systems based on how much food you consume, health, stamina, and deadeye (accuracy and slow-mo powers) cores that present passive debuffs if you don't replenish them with items or by resting. Such items can be purchased, looted off dead bodies, or found by rummaging through random homes or shacks. How you obtain certain items, including cash, affect your karma (much like RDR1) which offers in world benefits or co...

Hey everybody reading, small side note before getting back into it today. I recently watched a great video regarding Andromeda's production cycle that I think is more than worth a look for anybody interested. It helps give a lot of context to a lot of the issues and even successes of Andromeda. It's linked just below for anyone curious, I may even go into detail regarding my own thoughts on it in my Retrospective of the game over on our YouTube channel (also linked below). Mass Effect: Andromeda... 1 Year Later Retrospective - Andromeda The More You Know The Scourge of the Heleus Cluster! Argh! So, if you noticed in my last post, I made no mention of the Archon. That's because he's no longer the major antagonist of the narrative. The Khett remain a threat and sub faction but function more like a horde of jobbers (see "losers" in dictionary) that can overwhelm in large numbers and devastate any large groups by infecting populations via either the sco...

Hello? Jeez, this is embarassing. Hey guys, Gabe here. Sorry I haven't updated this blog in while! I've been focusing on our YouTube channel a bit more recently while Ben has been killing it over here! Figured I pick up where I left off and drop some new pieces on different games soon after. Stay tuned! Plot - Greasing The Wheels Alright, now that you've decided whether that tickles your fancy or not, let's move on to where this premise and Andromeda's premise re-converge. The Hyperion ark, filled to bursts with humans, departs much as it does in the opening crawl. They arrive in the Andromeda galaxy or some new cluster in our own galaxy. It really doesn't matter either way, you just have to characterize the original galaxy setting as not caring or not being in a position to contribute. And that's easy; the Council in the last couple games hated exploring and taking new chances. They would've never said yes in approving this risky adventure...