The mind of our editor is a crazy place and sometimes it needs to be emptied. Thoughts flutter through the empty caverns of his mind that need to be placed on the virtual page. These ramblings are presented without context and perhaps a warning is required. Dive into the brain of the Editor at your own peril.
Editor’s Thoughts – Tantrums, Xboxes and Remakes
Half-Baked Remakes
The HD re-release trend is something that is still going strong. I actually thought it was something that would die down once the latest generation of consoles had a decent library of games behind them but it appears I am wrong. Things seem to have changed a little recently though and it isn’t for the better. In the last 12 months or so there seems to have been a rash of cheap cash in re-releases of games no one asked for. Darksiders 1 & 2, Dead Island and the Prototype games are just some of the examples. All of these games, while solid, were never groundbreaking titles and what makes it worse is that when they were released on the new systems they had a litany of bugs and frame rate issues. I mean how does a game run worse on better hardware? It is mind boggling.
The most recent example of this is the Marvel Ultimate Alliance re-releases. Now these are games I was actually excited to see getting a fresh release but from all reports they are a buggy mess, especially on PC. How can a company, especially one as big as Activision, release a 7-year-old title with game breaking bugs? It is simply not good enough. Thankfully Marvel has stepped in and seems to have put pressure on Activision to fix the issues. Hopefully, Activision has learned their lesson because they are working on a well loved Australian Marsupial with Sony at the moment and if they botch that remake the screams from the community will be deafening.
Xbox S strikes
With the release of the Xbox One S, I think that Microsoft has a real chance to make up some ground in the console sales department. Obviously, there is a huge distance between the Playstation and the Xbox this generation but I think the S is the right move. The Xbox library of exclusives is pretty solid at this point and this new system will certainly be tempting for PS4 owners that are possibly looking at catching up on what they have missed out on so far. The S has also taken a leaf from an old Sony playbook by being a super affordable and from all reports very good Ultra HD Blu-Ray player (much like the PS3 was a cheap Blu-Ray player back in the day) so people with 4k TV’s should be particularly interested. For those already with an Xbox One and who have a normal TV there isn’t much of a reason to upgrade but for everyone else, it could be just the excuse to jump into the world of Xbox
Cheaters chuck a giant tantrum
Blizzard has once again taken the BanHammer of Justice to the Overwatch community, permanently booting players that have been using aimbots and other related cheating software. So what do these cheaters do in response? A well-written appeal on why they should be given access again? A repentant post about how they did the wrong thing? A simple apology to all those gamers out there that have had a worse time with Overwatch because of their behaviour? No of course not, these cretins decided that the best solution to their problem was to DDOS attack Blizzard so no one else could enjoy the game. It is the large-scale equivalent of a child’s tantrum after they have been punished for doing the wrong thing. Frankly, as far as I am concerned, these morons got exactly what they deserved and I applaud Blizzard for their strong approach to cheating. I only wish more companies would take this tact. As for the pouting cheaters and their chants of life being unfair…. Well, I can only hope they take it on the chin and let everyone else continue to enjoy the game.
Knocking titles from the pile.
This last month or so have been pretty darn quiet as far as new releases are concerned and to be honest, it has been wonderful. It has given me a chance to knock about 5-6 titles off my pile of shame that have been bugging me for ages. I finally hacked all of Chicago in Watch Dogs, took 100% control of Victorian London in AC: Syndicate and saved the Galaxy as Ratchet and Clank. The break from new releases is exactly what I needed to simply go back and explore things I had been putting off. That being said I am starting to get the urge for some big new releases and thankfully with No Man’s Sky and Deus Ex this month that urge should be fulfilled. It was nice to have a break but now the hype is once again taking over.