Here I was, waiting for the comic to fully release so I could buy the collection. Now the comic is so popular it got extended and the collection is kind of expensive all things considered. Price and value are different things and expensive for me might be cheap to you, it’s all about perspective I suppose, and I do see great value in this book.
I didn’t play Before The Storm, I have no intentions of playing it either. I’ve been calling it Official Fan Fic which sounds more demeaning than I intend to. I think Deck Nine are a good studio and I am hoping to see what they can do with their own franchise/idea. All this to say I don’t consider Before the Storm canon and to a point, I blame Square Enix for trying to milk Life is Strange. We don’t want a repeat of Telltale Games do we? Between Life is Strange, Before the Storm, Captain Spirit and now Life is Strange 2, it can feel saturated especially since most of these are episodic.
Where do I stand with this comic though? I still don’t consider it canon, BUT! this is as close as it can get, unlike what I felt in Before the Storm. This outcome makes perfect sense. Written by Emma Vieceli I feel like this is a natural transition from the endings in the first game. However, this once again ignores the fact that Max has a family, Chloe isn’t her world. It may feel like it was the same on the first game but we know it wasn’t. We know that she kept in contact with her parents through phone calls and in her “repaired” world she was on her own, not with Chloe, although Chloe was a phone call away as the tornado became a reality.
I do like the pairing of the two, romantic or not I think the love of these two characters for one another feels genuine, but ultimately I think Life is Strange was more about Max’s psychological situation (an internal story) with a super natural presentation. We see this multiple times especially in Dark Room and Polarized. This comic feels like one of the ideas mentioned by the game through its supernatural presentation, was used to link it to this sequel and then internal elements were added, mirroring character traits displayed in the game’s story to make it as coherent as it is. Which works but also limited what it could have been. That being said, this approach was the most pro fan and profitable they could have taken. That sounds like a negative criticism but I honestly don’t mean it that way. I’m sure the people working in this book understood the game to the point where the logical conclusion was to keep what made it special in the first place.
Why am I not covering Life is Strange 2?
They shouldn’t have added a dog, I’m worried they would do something I don’t want with it and that would be horrible. So I’m skipping the whole game, played the first episode, was great until I felt responsible for the dog when the two kids were already enough responsibility. Reminded me of what I always complain people tend to do, no job? no problem, get married and have 3 kids, I’m sure things will work out without a job and the inability to sustain just one person, 4 people is no biggie... ugh. </end rant>
I usually post this at the end of December or early January but since tumblr is going to hell in a couple of weeks, and I don’t think there’s anything I want in games coming this month, here it is.
Just like last year, I’m going to list all the games that came out in 2018 that I played or wanted to play because they were really good, or had a fun factor no other game offered. I thought last year was one of the best years for gaming ever, but wow 2018 utterly destroyed 2017 and anything before it. There are so many good games this year that I might not be able to list all of those that I actually like.
The games that have a Not Yet under Own, are games that I plan to buy at some point, just couldn’t this year. The games that have a NO under Own, are games that I would like to play but I won’t buy. I tried to list them in launch order.
Destiny 2 Forsaken isn't just a good expansion, just like The Taken King in the first game it was responsible for bringing Destiny 2 up to expectations. This is why it is important to not over praise a game, to call the faults it has so they can fix it or at least, keep them in mind for a sequel.
I had seen the cutscenes prior to even owning Destiny 2 on PC, there were two things I knew. First, Nathan Fillion wouldn't be voicing Cayde in the expansion (I noticed it right away) instead Nolan North would be doing the voice, which is strange 'cause he is the voice of your ghost. And that's not even going with the Nathan Drake meta between those two, they seem fated.
I'm not saying Nolan wasn't up to the task, in fact I couldn't think of anyone better to replace Fillion, but just like when Baker replaced Hamill as the voice of the Joker, you can hear its different tonal delivery on top of the voice change, even if it's "minimal". Said replacement removed part of the emotional anchor of Cayde's death, as it took me out of the game to speculate about his death and Fillion not doing the work this time. I know they said something about scheduling issues but you know I don't buy PR bullshit.
Still, I was invested, I'm pretty sure I killed every baron with a sword strike as the last hit. You know what they say about blades vs guns when killing. Cayde was part of the reason I bought Destiny 1. Cayde's personality made it fun, especially since I main a Hunter, so he was my go to Vanguard for my gear. I spent a lot of time with him and then when The Taken King came out we had to get his stealth drive and stuff. So he was kind of the mentor which is what I tried to get across in the video.
Forsaken comes with the other two DLCs (Curse of Osiris and Warmind) and both were regarded as trash. Compared to the first two DLCs in Destiny 1, they are a huge improvement, but at least Curse of Osiris is kind of disappointing. Story wise it's fine, interesting even but gameplay wise, you'll be backtracking way too much. Warmind is a lot better and Anastasia is more interesting than Osiris, but honestly, you wouldn't be buying Forsaken for those expansions, so they would be bonus especially if you get it on sale.
Do I recommend it? Of course I do, I'm not into FPS but Bungie knows how to make shooting work in a way that makes you feel skilled. The bow is damn fun to use and the Sunshot hand cannon exotic you get through a main quest is the best way to clear mobs.
Apologies the video doesn't look as good as the game, I can run it at higher settings with few performance hiccups but it does take more resources from my system, so I lowered them a bit 'cause it looks great anyway. Also 'cause I couldn't figure out how to make the video in 60fps like the gameplay, the recorded video is 60 but the render is 30 so it looks weird at times.
It has a few slight spoilers but nothing that you couldn't figure out/predict was going to happen anyways. And without the proper context, it still wouldn't spoil story elements.
Thank you for your time.
EDIT
I had to change the video in certain areas I wasn’t happy with. To watch the original take click here
I wish this game hadn’t being tied down by Assassin’s Creed. It is so much fun I could only imagine how far it would have gotten if you didn’t have Layla’s crappy story. I mean, I don’t know who Layla is as a character and she’s been in two games already, and her ending in Odyssey makes NO SENSE.
I would have added more examples of Kassandra’s arrogance but those are too fun for me to spoil.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is pretty much my favorite Ubisoft game to date. My previous favorite was Watchdogs 2.
Love those expressions, disappointment, anger, surprise and confidence. Such a fun game and Melissanthi Mahut‘s work as Kassandra was amazing. Hope to hear her again as both Kassandra and other characters.
I’m not finished playing this game but there’s a lot going on and I feel I have to talk about it. I’m going to preface this by saying I usually like Ubisoft games. A few are more engaging than others and clearly Assassin’s Creed is their biggest franchise. I played the first 2, started Black Flag but got bored (sorry, I know people love it but of all the Creed games, BF is the least Assassin’s Creed of the bunch) didn’t care for Rogue, played Liberation HD, didn’t like Arno enough to buy Unity, loved the Frye twins and Syndicate by extension, Bayek is my favorite male Assassin while Evie is my favorite playable Assassin. Which brings me to Odyssey, an RPG that has Assassin’s Creed elements but pretty much kills what AC was about.
This is going to be a long post, I will be talking about multiple Ubisoft games but the core of this post is Odyssey. If you want to know what I think right now, I recommend it but don’t ignore the fact that this and DMC V are testing the waters to add more microransactions in games that are pricey already (the full ACO isn’t $60, games aren’t $60 anymore, Spiderman PS4 is $80)
Odyssey continues the story of Layla Hassan, but it’s not the focus of the game, barely was even the focus in Origins. There are a lot of similarities in both games. Huge map, lots of “events” you can participate in, strongholds, side quests, loot but above everything else, the combat is the one thing that is pretty much the same. Sure you no longer have a shield nor a hidden blade, but you won’t miss them. This game is done by the same people that worked on Syndicate and it shows. This team is more focused on fun than story telling. Not that the story is bad but more like the story works towards the same fun goal. I obviously chose to play as Kassandra and I can’t help but get some Korra vibes from her (not just those arms) I’m enjoying everything in the game so far but I’m barely lvl 19 which brings me to the controversy.
A lot has been said about XP boosters being part of the microtransactions, with a lot of people justifying them because (according to them) they never felt a need for them while playing the game. This is a repeat of Overwatch’s loot boxes, with people justifying it ‘cause “it’s just cosmetics” and “all future content will be free” which are both lies. Overwatch main reward, especially on events, are the damn skins. I wouldn’t even play the boring thing if not ‘cause I liked the characters so I want to get certain skins for them. Which by itself I admit is stupid considering it’s a first person game, other than Brigitte and Reinhardt nobody has a 3rd person view. I could bash Overwatch all day but this isn’t about them and again, I’d like to keep this page somewhat positive.
I bought Origins around December of last year, I instantly got engaged in the story. Abubakar Salim’s performance as Bayek is one of the best I’ve seen in gaming. Sure the character was well written, but it’d have been for nothing without someone able to deliver those lines and powerful reactions. You felt the struggle in Bayek’s head thanks to this. However, the urgency of the main story was halted by “gaming things”. Just like Fallout 4, you start with this urgent matter but the game then wants you to do all this side stuff because you don’t have the level to continue. I understand gating in games, but lately it was designed within the story, level gating can never be designed into the story unless you have a predetermined leveling system. Meaning that you don’t have to clear a zone in order to get the level required for the next one. Sadly in Origins after I got to lvl 20 - 25 I hit a wall. The main one being their Far Cry gear system in which I had to hunt certain animals to be able to upgrade my character’s stats. As if the level gate wasn’t annoying enough I had to hunt. I shelved the game for months and only the hype built for Odyssey got me to finish the game.
They made it grindy and annoying, the gameplay and story were working against each other. Origins gets a lot of praises but in reality, it’s not a good game. It’s a bad game design with good graphics, gameplay and story that don’t work well together (like that other game I mentioned in this post) The story tried to marry the gameplay, letting you know that months had passed between events, but again I feel like it didn’t work. For that to work, the side content should contribute to your main quest in some way, even if it’s some small piece of information. Hunting animals and taking over strongholds didn’t do anything towards that goal. Strongholds are a constant fun activity in open world games, but there’s a lot you can do with them that they never touch. Why is that location important, why is it being guarded and what are they guarding. Who is the head of the group and how they got to be the leader? So many small things that could have been done.
Odyssey learned from that, not all side quests add to your main goal but a lot of them do. Also Kassandra’s story doesn’t start with an urgent task, her past didn’t define her either. Kassandra is by no means a blank slate, she’s a sassy mercenary, you get to pick her motivation (money, justice, both) Odyssey feels a lot more like Watchdogs 2. With a fun main character but sadly Ubisoft failed to bring the crew to go along with it. Personally I think it’s crucial to any main character to have a crew/group of people they can go back to. There are a few characters in Odyssey you feel a level of attachment to, but not where it should be as these games are trying to copy The Witcher 3 rather than Watchdogs 2. The difference is in Witcher 3 it works ‘cause it’s the 3rd game with those characters, there’s already an attachment involved.
Speaking of borrowing from other games, they also added an investigation system that is similar to the one in Syndicate (which was borrowed from Batman) and another that is similar to Ghost Recon Wildlands. I understand why Ubisoft wanted to have an RPG, it works really well with their open world formula, but I wish they hadn’t used Assassin’s Creed, Watchdogs is far more suitable for it considering you could be perceived by the public as a menace or a hero, based on what you do in the game. (or at least that’s what they tried to do in the first one, the second one DEDSEC’s story is predetermined) This new formula ruins the pacing for those that want to experience the main story, but I feel it’s done on purpose to sell boosters which I’m quite disappointed about.
Like I said, I like Ubisoft games, I like The Division, Assassin’s Creed, Watchdogs, Ghost Recon and even had fun in For Honor
but I hope they don’t go the EA way with the microtransactions. They are terrible in For Honor with their loot boxes. They can’t justify them when their games are so expensive, hell For Honor even added a $15 starter version ‘cause they can sell you microtransactions for far more than the full retail price.
Overall, yes Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a very fun game, worth buying if you’re into looter RPGs, just don’t contribute to their microtransactions, this is a full retail price game, not a free to play or even a $15 one with microtransactions to cover the rest, there’s no excuse for XP boosters unless they are purposely holding your progression back.
EDIT:
I finished the game, got the three endings (I’m not talking alternate endings, there are 3 stories going at the same time and you get an ending for each) and have done most of the side quests, there are places I haven’t been to yet. I love this game, it’s not perfect and a lot of things it does have been done better ages ago. But in the best year in gaming so far (2018 has had amazing games) this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most.
The level cap is 50 just like in Origins (currently, there are rumors they will remove the cap and I hope that’s not true) so now to compare when I got to beat the main story, I finished Origins at lvl 35, I was close to 40 when I finished Kassandra’s main story in Odyssey. That being said, Origins required a lot more grinding to get there, while Odyssey’s main and connected side quests provided enough XP to get you to at least lvl 30 without grinding. It gets harder to level after that, I actually finished the last story at lvl 49, finishing it got me to 50. Of course this being a gear based RPG, level isn’t as important as gear stats and skills so keep that in mind when you read non RPG fans talk negatively about being unable to beat enemies that are higher level.
Visually, it is a huge improvement over the first game/season. Characters and story feel so very Life is Strange which, believe it or not, was one of my biggest worries when the sequel was announced. There’s always that chance where a sequel is either more of the same (in a bad way) or more like a fan fic than an actual sequel (Before the Storm) Granted, what I think of Before the Storm is just my opinion and I hope Deck Nine works on their own stuff because they clearly have the skill.
I started with the graphics because the first game came out in 2015, while it used the Unreal Engine it was Unreal 3, not 4. I have a particular love towards Unreal Engine 4 that comes from playing Paragon for so long. Seeing how good it makes the game (and how smooth it runs) and the lighting on an already atmospheric game it’s just AhMeiZing!
I feel a bigger attachment to Max than I do with the Diaz brothers ‘cause I have more personality traits with her than them. That being said, Sean drawing and a “minority” (eotb) are two things I truly relate to. Of course I’m into it, the story and characters. But it’s also giving me vibes of Brothers: Tales of Two Sons and worst yet, Grave of the Fireflies. On top of that they added Mushroom and I just can’t take this. I’ll probably wait for the whole thing to be over and make sure certain things DON’T happen.
After what happened to us last year, I’m no longer the same person, I’m not ready for this game or anything along those lines. Detroit was different ‘cause David Cage crafts good endings as part of the options so I knew I could get a good ending before jumping into it. Granted, my focus playing the game was to keep the character as I saw them, Marcus the leader and an example, Kara the protector and Connor the lost sheep looking for purpose.
I’ll talk more about episode 1 after some time has passed, so I don’t accidentally spoil anything. I want to talk about the new “mechanics” which are very creative, as well as certain characters and moments.
Thanks for reading, hope you’re enjoying the game.
Hi guys, Chris Olsen, project Director on Somerville. I thought I’d drop a little bit more info about the inner workings, so I thought no better a start than character.
It was always my intention that character performance be a pillar of the game no matter the camera distance and for this as a baseline we needed readable silhouettes.
Some great early concepts from Gareth Davies. Carving out as much negative space as possible coupled with costume accents for joints to bring out readable body dynamics.
When I first started this project years ago Eric Chahi/Delphine Software’s “Another World” and “Flashback” represented the perfect character reference for me.
Readable, minimal. I could spot those sprites 20ft from my screen. However as we progressed and my need to get the camera in close, grew - We knew we had to address our characters faces.
Our rigging/modelling/assets aficionado Mads took to iterating our models. Tackling the challenge of appeal when the character isn’t a million miles away from the screen.
Damon, our principle animator was in charge of establishing a core personality and anim style. Mads built some handy features into the rig, including smear frame controls to distort our models.
Then I get to take all this lovely work and bring it into Unity to play with physics props, lighting and shaders.
We still have a ways to go on our cast but it’s in the right direction now and all those fancy things I briefed the crew we “needed” are now standard features.
Thank you for your time :)
Video Games Art & Entertainment @joh-gaming - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
