My Favorite Tactical Games!

My craving for a good tactical game was reignited with the release of Fire Emblem Treehouses. Intelligent Systems, the folks behind the Fire Emblem franchise, have mastered the art of making tactical games. It just "feels" right to play and it begs the question ... what does it take for a tactical game to be good?

There are many tactical games out there but only a handful of those are actually fun to play. Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, Into The Breach, Civilizations are among my personal favorites and I like them for various reasons as mentioned below:

• Final Fantasy Tactic - The tactical elements feels at home in the Final fantasy universe. The animation is, as you would expect from a SquareEnix game, top notch. Add a cool story line to the mix and you've got a winner!
• Civilization - Want to play a game that you won't be able to put down? This is pretty much the case of all civilization games. There's not really a story line to it but playing helps you learn about important events in our history.
• Into The Breach - Quick picker upper, this is a winner. Every time you play, the map looks different and it takes maybe 10 minutes to win/loose the match. Since this game is also on the Switch; it's the perfect game for those that are on the go.
• Fire Emblem - Tactical game done right. Decision count in this game and it's nice to be able to pair up characters and see their friendship blossom (sometime into relationships). You should play this game in classic more where loosing someone during a skirmish mean that they're gone for the rest of the game.

What is your favorite tactical game?

Stop Making Games for Fans?

Game companies are quick to say that they listen to the fans while making their games but is that really a good thing? Can anyone say that the games that was made for fans was more successful than the one that wasn't?

When a musician tries to make music to please the fans they usually end up pleasing no one. The best example I have for this is with Sum41 that started off as a punk rock band but by the third/fourth album they all but lost their way in an attempt to make music to appeal to whatever was popular at the time (remember their emo album?)

While it's normal for an artist to want to make something that will be loved, that's how they get paid after all, the reality is that if it's not who they are then the listeners will feel it.

Here's the thing about fans; they don't know what they want. One will say that they want more explosions from their games while another will say they want better control... Since you can't please everyone, why not do something that you like and release it to the world as it is. It may not be loved but it will be authentic.

Game Companies To Follow the Community

With Age of Empire 2 making its way to the Xbox, it re-ignited my love for the game I used to play as a kid. What Microsoft did here is something we don't see much of in the gaming industry. They realized, a few years ago, that Age of Empire 2 was still being played by the community and hired a few community molders to work on the HD edition of the game and the Definitive Edition soon afterwards.

The reason why we still see updates for the game is because there's an healthy community that still plays it.

Games should live, or die, based on the community but how often do we see games seemingly loose support either too soon (Splitgate) or too late (Battlefield 2042). If there's a healthy community, then keep supporting the games; if there isn't then stop.

It's annoying to see a game loose support too soon or too late. If we look at the mess that was Battlefield 2042, it doesn't really matter that they managed to bring the game to a playable state as the community as rejected it in favor of earlier entries or other series altogether. If the community hasn't moved on from Battlefield 1 or Battlefield 5 then why not spend additional resources into those games rather than attempting to fix the latest/broken entry?

If you're lucky enough to have made a game that resonates with players then keep investing in it rather than dropping support in favor of a new iteration of the series. If Battlefield 1 still average decent numbers then stick to it! There must be something to this game that players appreciate over the competition and working on a new iteration doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be able to move that community forward. 

Warcraft 3 Reforged - Missed Opportunities

Warcraft 3 Reforged came out on January 28 and while it looks amazing it sucks that they didn't take this opportunity to make improvements to the based game. What improvements? I'm glad you asked!

• Better A.I. - Back when the original Warcraft 3 came out I couldn't play online because I only had a 56k connection. This meant that I spent most of my time playing against computers. After a few rounds against them you come to learn their tricks and it's not really fun anymore. They did a good job with Starcraft 2 A.I. why not have used the opportunity to update the A.I. of Warcraft 3 during the reforging process?
• Story Update - The story evolved quite a bit since World of Warcraft first came out which introduced a bunch of new characters some of which could of made their way to Warcraft 3 in the form of modified story. Think of Garrosh Hellscream, for example, there's no mention of him in the original trilogy (at least that I can remember).
• World of Warcraft Tie In - Wouldn't it be nice to play World of Warcraft and come to a point where you can play a side quest in Warcraft 3 Reforged that is somehow tied in to World of Warcraft?

I've obviously only begun to re-experience Warcraft 3 Reforged and so far it's good. Beside a major graphical overall, as well as some quality of life changes and the fact that it's an online only game now, it's still the same Warcraft 3 of old.

Get the Epic Store

I talked about the epic store already. If you haven't done so already then now is time to get access to the store. Why? Because every freaking second day you get a free game from it! What's not to like? Batman, Darksider, Tabs are among the best that I manage to nab in the last few months and I paid 0 dollars for it.

Sure the store still isn't offering the same kind of excellent experience as steam is currently offering but steam isn't giving away a free game every second week.

Check it out here!

Should Privacy Policies and Agreements be Available Before Purchase?

It's not uncommon nowadays to have to go through license agreements and privacy policies before the game can even load but what if you don't agree with the information that you read?

By the time you get to the information, you've already purchased the game and installed it to your device. Then you're asked to review the documentation and if you don't agree to them you can opt to not play the game... but how to you refund the game at that point? Shouldn't those agreements be readily made available upon the purchase of the product rather than after purchased?

If you buy a car, the you have to review/sign documents BEFORE you leave with it. Why are video games different?

Rainbow Six Quarantine (Extraction) - Just another Zombie/Alien Game?

Left 4 Dead came out in 2008 and seems to have brought with it an era of amazing zombie based games. We have COD zombies, Dead Island, State of Decay, World War Z, Zombie Army series, Dying Light... just to name a few. Do we really need another zombie/Alien game with a Rainbow Six twist to it?

Ubisoft sure is doing weird things with the Rainbow Six franchise as of late. What was once a counter terrorist based game is now a shooter with rainbow colored guns and soon to introduce zombies (or aliens).

Rainbow Six Extraction (formally called Quarantine) was originally released in Rainbow Six Seige as a special event and I guess it was popular enough to warrant a separate release. I had an "Okay" time with the game back then but it hadn't really scratch that zombie itch for me. I still felt like Dying Light, or COD zombies, offered a better experienced than that this.

We're a few months away from release, we'll get to try the game and see how good it really is. I mean, it could be cool to use Rainbow Six gadgets to bring down zombies even though it's not really something I ever thought of doing within the Rainbow Six universe. I sure miss the days of having to plan out the most effective ways to bring down terrorists. Whether or not this will be a hit for Ubisoft remains to be seen but it's possible that it will appeal to the new generation of gamers more so than the old timers like myself. I hope we'll get to see a demo sometime soon.

Note: I'm using Aliens/Zombies interchangeably here as essentially both type of games typically offer the same kind of gameplay. Whether you shoot a mindless horde of zombies, or a horde of aliens, ... it's essentially the same gimmick.

Fighting Games Distribution Needs to Change

One of the biggest problem I see with fighting games is that there's a new version of them coming out every X amount of years and developers are trying to extend the support of them via overly overpriced DLCs. While adding DLCs character is a good way to breath new life to an older game, it only goes so far before the player base move on to something else.

The revolution needed here is already widely popular with other genre. If we look at Rocket League, for example, we can imediately see that the system that they have in place is sustainable longer term as they've been around for a long time already.

What the fighting genre needs is to switch to a free to play approach with accessible battle pass mechanics that would introduce a new character, new cosmetics, and the like through a leveling system each seasons.

Picture this: You downloaded Street Fighter 6 for free, you have access to 10 characters and have the ability to unlock another one this season via a battle pass. You can, if you want, just play with the 10 characters or shell out the 20$ for the battle pass.

The amazing thing about giving something away for free is that it's easier to build a community around it and things like battle passes allows it to be sustainable longer term. For players, knowing that the game will be around for a longer period is good because it means that he won't need to re-learn mechanics with a new game.

Riot games, and other companies, are already in the process of releasing fighting games that follows this approach. It remains to be seen whether it'll be a success or not.

I Don't Own Anything from Codemasters

Codemasters is mostly known nowadays for their racing games and being acquired by E.A. but there was a time when they were making other genres of games of which I owned 2. One was called "Dance Factory", on PS2, which promised something like generating dance moves from any CDs (think Dance Dance Revolution but with any music CD) - this never worked properly. 

The other game, of which I don't remember the name, was something like No Man Sky where you could travel to a handful of planets, land on them, and explore with vehicles or by walking while shooting down enemies FPS style. This game sounded like an amazing game that I never could play because it could only be played on AMD graphic cards (something that wasn't advertised on the box)

Both of these games were purchased in the early 2000s at a time when I didn't have much money to put towards games and I was burnt both time by this company hence why I vowed never to buy one of their games again. Fast forward 20 years and I still haven't bought any more games from this company.

Codemasters can be seen as a triple A company to some but I will always remember them as a company that makes gimmicky games that sound amazing but ultimately doesn't deliver. I did try some of their racing games on Gamepass and they're definitely competent racing games that I've enjoyed but not to the point of buying them separately from the Gamepass service.

Minecraft Dungeons Lags on the Switch

Last week, I got my hands on the Xbox One version of the new Minecraft Dungeons game and I had mixed feelings about it. This week I decided to get it on Switch in order to be able to try it out with a friend and while there's no noticable graphical downgrade there is, however, a noticeable lag to the game. It's not bad enough to render the game unplayable but it is there none the less - especially on handheld mode.

Last week, I compared Minecraft Dungeons to Diablo 3 since they are both recent ARPG. I also have Diablo 3 on the switch and i've never experienced any lag while playing this game. Is Minecraft Dungeon poorly optimized compared to Diablo 3?

If you are planning on getting the game then I would recommend getting it for the other consoles and/or PC unless you are okay with having some lags while playing the game on the switch.

Deep Rock Galactic Should have Sold More

According to Gamasutra.com, Deep Rock Galactic sold roughly 2 million copies as of January, 2021 which, while impressive, is still quite low considering just how crazy good the game is. Don't believe me? Just look at the steam reviews!

What is Deep Rock Galactic? The folks at Ghost Ship Games created an entirely new genre here that has a flair of roguelike elements with Perks and FPS added into the mix. The goal of the game is mostly to mine precious minerals that are deep underground while trying to stay alive as both the environment and underground monsters are trying to kill you. It's fun in single player mode but truly shines in 4 player coops.

One of the coolest thing the Ghost Ship Games crew are doing is purring it a crazy amount of post-launch support. I hadn't played in a few months and was pleasantly surprised at seeing the new missions, gears and the quality of life improvements. As a side note, release 35 will include mod support for the steam version of the game.

The game is on Gamepass but even if it wasn't - you should buy and play this game.

Destiny 2 is such a Grind!

I'm not an avid Destiny 2 player but I do have a look at the game every time there's a new expansion. Since Beyond the Light came out, I thought I would pick it up and see what changed. New world, few new mechanics but same old grind and boy is there ever any grind.

I get it, most games have some grind but Destiny 2 IS grind with a world and a few other mechanics thrown in. It's fun in short bursts, at least to me, but it's a game that gets tiresome real quick. I, somehow, think that the new expansions will change the mechanics enough that the grind won't be as tedious but little has been done related to this.

Obviously, Destiny 2 is still a massively popular game - I've seen people level 300+ after only a few short weeks into the new seasons... it's just a game that wasn't really designed for me which sucks because I would love to love this game.

3 Reasons Why I Prefer Need For Speed (2015) over Heat

As I mentioned last week, I have been playing a lot of Need For Speed Heat lately and recently decide to hop back in Need For Speed (2015) to complete the last few campaign mission... what a rush that was! There are 3 things that I prefer about Need For Speed (2015) over Heat. Those are:

1. Controls - The "Double" tap, on gas, for drift in Heat just isn't for me. As a manual driver, I double/triple/quadruple quite frequently as a force of habit. Sometimes, I just want to slow down without pressing the breaks but when I press the gas again the "Heat" game recognize this as the drift command and I end up all over the place. The controls in Need For Speed (2015) are just perfect - mainly because you don't need to double tap for drifts. You either downshift or press the hand break (in manual) or press the breaks while driving automatic. It's intuitive and fun this way.
2. Drifts Race - Heat is a real letdown when it comes to drifts race. You can only do them by yourself which means that you can't play them with your friends. Not only could you do drifts with your friends, in Need For Speed (2015), they also had included all sorts of different drifts (Time limit, drift train...).
3. Point System - Ghost introduced a point system in Need For Speed (2015) that hasn't made it in following games. The purpose of the point system was to determined the type of racer you were (Speed, Outlaw, Style...). To accumulate points, you had to race a certain way or do missions specific to the type. The main reason why I love this system so much is because your highest scores were attached to the race for your friends to see and beat. Since I played Need For Speed (2015) almost entirely with my cousin, it was nice to see his score, and try to beat it, for each of the events - it's a bit more interesting than to simply try to beat a "best time".

A honorable mention, that didn't make it to this list because I'm probably the only one thinking this way, is the real actors aspect of Need For Speed (2015). It was corny at times but I still preferred it over 3D rendered models. When the game was over, it almost felt like I was saying goodbye to friends.

If you haven't picked Heat, or Need For Speed (2015) up, you should. They're a lot of things to love about both games.

My Love Hate Relationship with Card Games

When I was younger, my friends and I would play Magic the Gatherings, Pokemon, Yo-gi-ho and other card games. While I enjoyed, thoroughly, each of those card games I always hated the fact that you could potentially spend an unlimited amount of money on them.

In recent years, we've seen controversy with video games and loot boxes but those that have played card games before are all too familiar with the concept. A card pack, after all, is a loot box since you never know what you'll get and the real good cards are rare which mean you have to buy more packs for the chance to get them.

I remember fondly the time when my best friend got a first generation Charizard. I had spent all of my allowance to try to get one and he goes in, with one pack, and gets it - I was so jealous!

As time went on, and my friends move all over the world, I started playing card games on PC but quickly found that most of them were using a similar mechanics with the only difference being that everything was now digital. Most of those card games will say that you don't need to spend money on them but the grind required is often such that it encourages people to spend real money on digital packs.

So what's the solution here?

During the latest Steam sale, I came across a game call "Slay the Spire" which is a mix of RPG/Card game and unlike most card games out there it doesn't require you to spend anything after the initial purchase because there's no DLC to be found. The game is roguelike, which mean you can pretty much play it for ever, and is fantastic. You should try it.

I'm In a Card Playing Mood!

 I've been in a card playing mood for the last few weeks now but I've stopped myself from buying cards from games that forces me to buy many in order to get any good at it. 

In the early 2000s, I was into magic and attended a few tournaments in my local community. I did pretty poorly in all of them simply because the other players were a bit older, with jobs, and were spending all of their money on the game... there was no way that I could compete with my monthly allowance worth of cards.

Still, I joined these tournaments because I enjoyed the community and I still do in a lot of ways. I miss that community but I don't miss the price to pay in order to be good within it. 

When Wizard announced Magic the Gathering X Forgotten Realms coming at the end of July I really thought this would be the set that would lure me back into magic but then I remember how it was last time I played and decided I needed an alternative...

"Trading Card Games" have been designed with the philosophy that you need to "pay to win". This isn't a concept that people like in video games but seems to be widely accepted from within the TCG community. 

I'm no longer a fan of this philosophy...

So what do you do when you like playing card games but don't like investing too much energy/time into getting the right cards? Well you look for alternatives and the following 2 seems to be the most promising...

• Keyforge - I've mentioned this game last week and I hope it catches on because there's something truly beautiful here. Sure, some decks are better than others but there are far greater chances of having decks at the same level than decks that are vastly superior. It's awesome to be able to sit down with someone knowing that the game that we're about to play will be with decks that are similar in strength while still having vastly different strategies.
• Ashes Reborn - I found out about the original Ashes only after it was discontinued and I was really annoyed that it had been canned since it seemed to have been a great game to play. When I found out about Ashes Reborn, I immediately seized that chance to play and I wasn't disappointed. Similar to Keyforge, you don't need to buy millions of individual cards to build decks and the mechanics put a lot of emphasis on strategy rather than simply build an army and attack.

My hope is that these games will resonate with the community and we'll be able to play these for years to come.

Is The Supra in Forza Horizon 4?

As most of you know already, the Toyotas were not part of the Forza Motorsport 7 party meaning that nobody could get their hands on the beloved Supra. Now that Forza Horizon 4 is just around the corner, people are wondering if Toyota is going to be part of it.

It's not clear why the Toyotas were not part of the FM7 lineup in the first place but it's not uncommon to see a car company pull the plug on these kinds of partnerships. Volkswagen, for example, was not part of Forza Horizon 3.

As of August 24, it looks like the guys at Windows Central have the most up to date and extensive list of vehicles that will be part of the game at launch but... there's no Supra. This isn't an official list, however, so we can only hope that Top10 will give us the word on the Supra situation.

Forza Horizon 4 will be out on October 2, 2018. Vroum!

**Update September 10, 2018**
Sadly, the Suprah didn't make the list. See forzamotorsport.net for the full list of cars that will be available at launch.

Do you like to Win Races?

 Many, if not all, modern racing games comes with a host of accessibility features designed to make the experience more approachable. Some people need these in order to play while others use them in order to simply get that jolt of dopamine every time they win. My question to you today is: Do you play to win or do you play because you want to race? In other words, do you go easy on yourself by using these accessibility features (assuming you don't have a disability that requires them) or do you go through the pain to actually get better in the game?

I've been a virtual racer for most of my life using a controller and recently got my hands on a racing wheel which I thought would be an easy transition - it wasn't. Over the years, using the controller, I had learned to forgo accessibility settings and use the hardest of difficulties for the A.I. but with introduction of the wheel I started looking at those accessibility features again thinking to myself that I needed to climb that ladder again. 

Then it kind of hit me: I was looking at the accessibility features because I cared more about winning than actually racing. I didn't want to go through the "pain" of loosing every race until I got good.

Videos games have helped create scenarios where players constantly win because it's been proven that people prefer to win than loose. We're more likely to play games if we feel like we're progressing/winning than if we're loosing. We feel that we're not making any progress when we loose when infact we learn just as much from it, from a skill perspective, than winning it easy. 

It's frustrating to loose the races that I used to win easily at, as the wheel is adding a dimension I'm not used to, but I don't want to make it easier on myself anymore.

Do We Need Commentators in eSport?

eSports seems to have taken the route of traditional sports as far as commentators goes but some competitive game type could do without them.

If you take fighting games, for example, there's too much occurring in each second of gameplay for any commentator to be able to properly comment on. It's frustrating to me watching old EVO gameplay and just earing commentators saying non sense about what's going on in the 2-3 min round. Commentators are not needed here.

It make sense to have commentators for things like Racing games where the action is a little bit slowed as there's not that much differences, from a commentator's perspective, with real racing.

Have you Tried Rivals of Aether?

My biggest problem with Super Smash Brothers is that it's geared towards the casual crowd and those that want to play it a bit more seriously have to find ways to work around the casual nature of the game. Rivals of Aether, on the other hand, doesn't have any mechanics that relies on luck which means that you, more often than not, win or loose based on your skills.

While this is the game's biggest strength, it's also it's biggest weakness as it makes the game far less approachable which is partly responsible for the, somewhat, empty online lobbies. If you just started, and you do find someone to play with online, you will loose. Most people can only loose a few times in a row before calling it quits and that's a shame because this is a game that deserves far more attention than it currently receives online.

After playing this game for a while, I find it difficult to go back to Super Smash Brothers partly because I've spent the better part of 20 years with that series but also because it doesn't feel as responsive as Rivals of Aether.

Rivals of Aether is available on Xbox, Switch & Steam but the Steam version is by far the best version as it also includes the workshop which includes a lot of amazing content that expands the game in such a way that only a community of fan can.

Fans of Super Smash Brothers should give Rivals of Aether a try.

I Hate Limited Time Events

If you played any games in the last 5 years then you're likely familiar with the limited time events. Those events which, like the name implies, are only available for a limited time. They often come with a reward that can only be unlocked during said event.

The reason why I hate those limited time events is because I don't usually buy a game at full price - I wait a year or 2 and by that time the price has dropped.
More than 5 years ago, this wasn't really a big deal. You just picked up the game and played but now it means that you essentially missed out on those events.

It's a good way for game companies to make people buy their games at full price on release days but it suck for the poor, or financially minded, people among us. Sadly, this just seems to be the way the industry is going.