I did not think I would end up liking this game after the beta came out. I played the beta and utterly loathed it, probably because I was trying to play it like an anime fighter. Once I got my head around the fact that it has the pacing of a Street Fighter rather than a Guilty Gear, I actually found myself having a damn good time with the game. New characters came and went and I kept coming back for more grappler action with Ladiva, easily my favorite grappler in fighting games. At least until an update broke the way she worked, making her near unplayable and leaving me scrambling to find a new main before settling on Percival. The game is great, well balanced, and had some interesting ideas with it’s strange single player gatcha beat ‘em up and it’s one button press specials that kept bringing me and my less fighting game inclined friends back for more. If it hadn’t been for the Ladiva breaking balance change, it would have been much higher on my list.

9. Pixel Puzzle Makeout League

I thought for sure this spot would be Murder By Numbers, another great Picross puzzler, but once I played Pixel Puzzle Makeout League, it soared to my top games of 2020. It does a phenomenal job of building images and using the puzzles to tell a story through easily recognizable images as they built out. Its ending is also one of my favorite things this year and worth the time investment to get there. Seriously though, I implore you to ignore the game’s bad title and play through this absolute gem if only to experience some of the wild places it goes.

8. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing is a series I’ve always tried to connect with and until this one, I failed every time. I thought once again I’d drop it after a week of boredom and go back to Rune Factory or Stardew Valley. Maybe it was the pandemic, or maybe it was being in the right space to enjoy it but this time around I lasted for months. I’m less consistent checking in on my island these days, but for a solid half a year I put in the work and finally found the fun that people have with this series.

7. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

I was really skeptical of Valhalla as the PR campaign went on and on about what were my least favorite parts of Assassin’s Creed in the past. Odyssey was great, but going in hard on the combat system was not its strong point. For the first time in the new series style, the moment to moment combat all felt good. I actually enjoyed running into a place, two broadswords in my hands, swinging wildly and cutting everything in my path down. It was a fantastic time with some great writing and incredibly cool moments that I needed after the complete travesty that was Watch Dogs: Legion.

For those of you who haven’t played it yet, here is a suggestion: when you are asked what gender you want to be, let the Animus choose for you. It’s a choice that actively improves the story they are telling and makes the game better as a whole. Do it, I know you want to play as a female Eivor because she’s a hell of a lot more interesting, but that’s the thing, you will. So let the Animus choose for you. I know you have your preference, I know I did, but trust me when I say that it’s an option worth taking

6. Final Fantasy VII: Remake

Final Fantasy VII: Remake did the impossible for me: it made me interested in what’s coming next after the crew leaves Midgar. It’s weird how the changes they made are straight out of the Father’s Day episode of Doctor Who and yet they have me chomping at the bit for more. Everything about FFVII:R worked for me, from the way they adapted the ATB system to the fantastic characterizations and overall writing. Having just started coming into my own in my queerness, the part that scared me the most, because of its poor handling in the original FFVII, ended up feeling empowering. I love this game through and through, and I really need to sit down again soon to finish off that platinum with my good friend Chadley.

5. Sakura Wars

First, Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan is the greatest theme song in video games, don’t argue with me I will fight you. Second, they didn’t fuck up their child character and make it the most uncomfortable thing in the world. That’s a first for the franchise and it’s the first time that I can go “hey, you should play this game” without the MASSIVE caveat that it’s kinda super creepy with children. They combined my two of my favorite things in the world, Sakura Wars and Dynasty Warriors, and I would much rather play a mediocre Dynasty Warriors than a mediocre strategy game. And, uh… let’s maybe not talk about how much time I spent playing the Koi-Koi Wars Hanafuda mini-game.

4. Hades

I didn’t think I’d care for Hades but enough people I care about loved it, so I jumped in and sucked at it. It took me 74 times to get my first clear, and yet I still kept coming back. I wanted more; more juicy writing, more tight gameplay, and more time for my girlfriend to watch the screen and talk about how much she loves Dusa. This is a game we shared: we spent weeks taking turns, succeeding, failing, doing it together. Hades was a real boon this year, something everyone around me could love and enjoy together as we strove for more and more clears, finally seeing credits and jumping right back in. Hades will always hold a special place in my heart and a permanent place on my Switch.

3. Yakuza: Like a Dragon

I’m shocked at how good this game was, as I was so worried by the changes they were making. Would I like this goofy looking new character? Would I be able to get past not having Kiryu and company as my main crew? Would the RPG systems actually work in a game like this? Well, the answer to those questions is it’s probably my favorite RPG since Lost Odyssey and might actually be my favorite Yakuza game. The way the characters interact and naturally grow as friends; the way the minigames and substories fit with Ichiban’s character rather than being a complete contrast to it; . It’s a goofy game with some of my favorite moments this year.

2. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Patches 5.2 – 5.4

No game this year took up my time like Final Fantasy XIV. It was a game I’ve jumped in and out of a lot over the years, but this is the first time I’ve fully bought in and once I did, it’s been one of the most important experiences of my life. I created my character Oulan in December, deciding that this would be the year I would finally finish A Realm Reborn and experience Heavensward, which everyone told me was great. 2 weeks later, I found myself through the entire story, hooked with a whole new group of friends and community that’s been incredible. That’s a big part of why this game, while it’s not my Game of the Year, is the most important game I played this year. It’s given me community, from the old longtime internet friends I’ve joined up with, to streaming alongside Solon. It’s been something that’s kept me going through quarantine, and made it feel like I still had something I could do to interact with friends.

It’s that interaction that has made me who I am today. I’d sit in voice chat, and it didn’t matter what my voice sounded like, people called me she. They referred to me by the gender of my character and it felt so right. It’s why I’m Christine and not Chris and I’ve been so much happier with that realization of myself and I don’t know if it would have happened if not for the family I’ve built around myself in the world of Eorzea. Joining up with friends, realizing myself, and seeing them constantly willing to join up and help me out when I’m dealing with colorblindness issues in bosses. ALL HAIL NOVA RIKO AND THE DORITO OF SAFETY! Please Square Enix, I beg you to make properly implemented colorblind filters because what you have is not enough.

Seriously though, I love the family I’ve made through this game; all of my friends are so important to me and I would not give up the time I’ve spent here for the world. It can be frustrating, maddening even, but it’s been the biggest boost for my mental health and it’s made me who I am today. So here is to all of you, my friends, my family, the people who have kept me going over this last year. This isn’t just a celebration of this game, it’s a celebration of all of you.

1. Nioh 2

I didn’t think any game would be capable of taking my attention away from Final Fantasy XIV once I was fully bought in, then along comes Team Ninja. I’ve been joking for a long time now in calling it “Game of the Generation Nioh 2” every single time I talk about it, and I’m not actually sure anymore if it’s a joke or not. Every little addition they make to the game brings me back in, new equipment, new stages, new weapons, and they all continue to keep my attention and give me the same thrill I got the first time I started as I create character after character for each of the weapons. Hundreds of hours in this game and it still continues to be a thrill, whether it’s the new DLC content or the added difficulties, I can’t stop myself from continuing to live in the incredible world Team Ninja has built.

Even after multiple playthroughs I still find the story incredibly compelling and fun: the boss fights still excite me even though I know most of them by the back of my hand, and every single loot drop gives me that serotonin drip of possible improvement to the look of my character. I love everything about this game, and it feels right to me that the game I see as probably my game of the generation came out in the final year of the console cycle. Now get ready for me to start talking about the game of the new generation of consoles when Nioh ½ Remastered comes out in February.

The post Christine’s Top Ten Games of 2020 appeared first on Gamesline.

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The post VGCC Episode 339: Something About Warhammer appeared first on Gamesline.

As always you can support us on our patreon, and follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, @judgementscythe, and @solonface

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask.

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Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

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The post VGCC Episode 320: Cool Ranch Dracula appeared first on Gamesline.

This brings us to Ubisoft Forward, a remarkable example of how not to do a presentation for your entertainment products in The Nightmare Year of 2020. Ubisoft didn’t have a great start, as multiple senior executives were confirmed to have resigned early this morning in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. Ubisoft’s presentation was pre-recorded, and they put up some black text on a white background explaining an excuse for why this “big internal change” wasn’t going to be addressed in the presentation. However, they had a whole host of people streaming themselves playing Trackmania for nearly an entire hour prior to the presentation starting. How hard would it have been to get a spokesperson or someone in a leadership position on the stream, stop the gameplay, and provide that explanation with a human element? The mind turns to all manner of technical, procedural, and schedule limitations that could have prevented something like that, but I’m not about to start making excuses on a company’s behalf, especially after what Ubisoft put front and center for most of the presentation.

https://twitter.com/MikeDiver/status/1282226904855203841

Things started off strong enough with light showcases of promising indie titles like Curious Expedition 2, Spiritfarer, and Surgeon Simulator 2. Nothing surprising or impressive to be sure, but not disappointing either. But none of these games were even acquired by Ubisoft until very late in their development. The first Curious Expedition and Surgeon Simulator games were even self-published.

There was an embarrassing section about Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, which is a show about making a fake video game… which they’ve then decided to turn into a real video game. Fuck it, sure. Then they spent a solid 5 minutes talking about The Division 2 community’s odd fascination with in-game rubber ducks, with a dev talking about the deep lore and storytelling that goes into placing two ducks on a bench kissing. It reminded me of Fallout 4’s easter egg teddy bears which you could find doing things like sitting on a toilet with a newspaper, and as if Ubisoft itself read my mind, they revealed that they have teddy bears in The Division 2 now for players to find.

Trials Rising is bringing back THE GIGATRACK. This was the highlight of Ubisoft Forward as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve never played a Trials game in my life. But when you say your game has THE GIGATRACK, you’ve got my attention, even if you opened up your Trials Rising segment with yet another awkward attempt at making a social distancing joke for a brand.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is adding a potentially cool feature – AI controlled companions for players to use in lieu of human teammates. They are fully customizable, from their attire and weaponry to their gender and skin tone (from what the footage displayed, at least.) It’ll be interesting to see how robust the AI really is once they’re implemented, but I hope it’s enough so that people can make cool custom squads, like fellow site contributor Chris’ desire to make an all-lesbian fireteam.

Now we get to the “real” part of the presentation. Watch Dogs: Legion is a game that should’ve come out in another timeline where a civil uprising at the hands of an overreaching, all-seeing militarized police state doesn’t hit so close to home. Because in this timeline, it comes across as commodifying and co-opting those feelings of revolution for the purposes of profit and entertainment, particularly when the narrator literally quotes Niemöller’s “First they came …” prose during the flashy, not-actual-gameplay sequence. All of the assumed pop and style of civil disobedience in the digital age, with the flair and explosiveness of near-future cyberpunk aesthetics, all commercially packaged and sold to consumers so you can, in the game’s words, “Reclaim Your Future.” Look, I recognize that this game was in development long before current events unfolded, but you can still read the room and acknowledge that maybe now would be a bad time to market this game. If Watch Dogs: Legion existed in that vacuum I mentioned earlier, I’d be interested. But put in the context it actually exists within? I can’t say I’m impressed.

Hyper Scape doesn’t have the same image problem as Watch Dogs: Legion, unless you find “being a de facto Ready Player One battle royale game” to be an image problem. I’ve never been interested in the genre myself, and even though Hyper Scape has some appealing character designs, it’s not enough for me to take the plunge. They showed off a feature wherein Twitch.tv spectators can vote to dynamically change the state of the game at specific points in a match, like lowering the gravity, which seems like it’ll be neat at first but then get old rather quickly. I feel like the iron was hot for battle royale games 3 years ago, but Apex Legends proved me wrong last year, so at the very least I hope Hyper Scape can find some ground to stand on.

I’ve spent a month and a half of this year replaying all of the Assassin’s Creed games. I got all the way up to Assassin’s Creed: Rogue and then stopped, which was the point I had jumped off the franchise after the infamous launch of Assassin’s Creed: Unity. I do plan on diving back into Unity, as well as playing through the three games released after it that I’ve never touched, but I can’t say I’m all that thrilled about Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. We sure are getting a lot of viking and viking-adjacent games lately. I wonder how many C-suite executives took months-long holiday trips to Scandinavia, came back to the office, and said “we need to make a viking game holy shit.” That’s pure conjecture on my part, but at any rate Valhalla seems fine. It doesn’t look recognizably “AssCreed” in the way I know, but the games have moved far beyond the humble beginnings of Assassin’s Creed I, so that’s to be expected. They confirmed that you can attack with two shields, which seems to have its own moveset, so that’s promising. Playing as a shieldmaiden with two shields? Sign me up.

Ubisoft Forward ended with Far Cry 6, which was leaked earlier this week. Again, it feels like they failed to read the room on this one as they rolled a scene of Giancarlo Esposito’s character, dictator Antón Castillo, walking and monologuing to his son, who spends the entire scene holding a live grenade in his hands which Castillo gave him just before pulling out the firing pin. Images of rebellion, protestors attacking and being attacked by riot cops, signs denouncing fascism, and graffitied tanks and buildings flash as Castillo grooms his son to become the next El Presidente. It’s a tense scene, punctuated by Esposito’s great performance, but it’s undermined by the context surrounding it. These images aren’t just ones we see from fictional Carribean islands for our game where you shoot a bunch of bad guys – we’ve seen and continue to see them from cities across the world.

"Someday you will be El Presidente… they will hate you Diego. Everything you say, do, believe… will be wrong."

Witness Giancarlo Esposito's chilling performance in the official announcement trailer for Far Cry 6. #UbiForward pic.twitter.com/j6P4JUiFpy

— IGN (@IGN) July 12, 2020

Far Cry 6 doesn’t glorify these scenes like Watch Dogs: Legion; there is nothing but tension and strife here. However, it’s still leveraging them for a product, and it still paints them with a colorful vignette to turn them into a spectacle. This, in a time and context where people are struggling and fighting and mobilizing for themselves and each other, makes the whole thing seem backwards, not forwards.

Neither of these big games were created as a response to the ongoing struggles for civil rights seen today. They are products of hundreds of people who have worked for months and months. I don’t blame the development teams who couldn’t possibly have foreseen what a complete shitshow this year would be. I blame whoever decided that now was the right time to showcase these particular games in the manner they were shown in Ubisoft Forward. Observed in a vacuum, they would be intriguing, engaging, and exciting. Taken in context, they make Ubisoft look vacuous.

The post Ubisoft “Forward” appeared first on Gamesline.

Microsoft just finished up their first event in the Summer of Keighly and boy, there was some stuff that was interesting… I guess? It was a good half hour of content followed by some decent interviews that sold me on some games and took away some of my excitement for others. But I guess that’s what you get when you look at games with a mass market PR focus. They had games with guns, games with cars, a lot of really bad logo designs, and a Batman fake out that turned out to be a mediocre looking vampire game. There is a lot to go over so let’s just jump right into it.

Microsoft opened the show with a game from FYQD Studio that’s being published by Playism called Bright Memory Infinite, where as a still, its logo reads really poorly and my brain is calling it Bright Infinite Memory because while I was taking notes I looked up to just see the final logo rather than the infinite fade in. It seems to be the Stardew Valley of Shooty Pew Pews in that it really seems to be trying to be every video game in one with what looks like some pretty decent parkour gunplay, sword fighting Spartans, and even combat driving. It was A LOT and to find out that it’s being made by one person in FYQD was interesting and really hammers the nail in on that Stardew Valley comparison. I’m wondering just how this is all going to work when it comes out as it left me more excited than most of the trailers they showed, because it actually felt more like real gameplay than a lot of what was shown. It looked clunky, visually muddy, and messy as hell and that’s more interesting to me that seeing that fully polished slice we usually get. It’s weird being interested in a time travel shooter that ends with a driving segment in a (Not) Delorean than I feel like I should be and the more I think about this one the more interested I become.

Oh hell yes, Codemasters are back and getting DiRTy and I am 100% here for it. I have always loved the DiRT franchise and getting a real look at DiRT 5 was a blast from the past. It looks like the usual great DiRT game and when they went into some more detail after the show it got me really excited. I am down for more games bringing back split screen gameplay and hey, 4 player split screen racing is something that would be huge if I still had my old roommates. If you’ve played a DiRT game before you know what you are getting into here and I’m really excited for it. But, if you’ll allow me to get sarcastic for a second they made a massive deal about Nolan North being the games campaign protagonist and Troy Baker being in there and OH MY GOD HOW EXCITING WE’VE NEVER SEEN THIS AMAZING THING BEFORE! TROY BAKER AND NOLAN NORTH IN A VIDEO GAME AMAZING WOW!  ok, my eyes have rolled far enough back into my head at this point so let’s just move on to the next game.

Oh god no eyes please stop rolling, please, it’s getting dangerous to roll this far back. Say hello to Scorn, developed by Ebb Software and published by Humble. It’s the Geigerest Geiger to ever Geiger and I’m not sure if I’m into what they are showing. Maybe some gameplay would help but at this point it’s just a really excessively horny cinematic that tells me nothing. The trailer started with me going oh look, it’s Prometheus, cool that seems like it could be an interesting world to explore and then instantly gets into the super phallic white goo dripping everything. I really need to see more because if they are just doing Geiger to do Geiger I really can’t find myself caring. I wish I could but what they showed took me from interested to complete indifference by the end of whatever this PornHub Aliens game is going to be.

Speaking of horny, we’re looking at what looks like a love story between a woman and her spaceship in Chorvs? Chorus? I’m confused, graphic design continues to be a passion in some of these logo designs.  Deep Silver and Fishlabs bring us something that looks like a pretty solid space combat game. Something I’m always down for and I love what I’m looking at and if this is going to make me love a spaceship the same way I love my Titan BT, I’m so down for it. But space combat is always hit-or-miss for me and I’m hoping this one ends up being a hit.

MADDEN BREAK!

Anyway Madden is coming and if you buy it on the regular Xbox One by December you can get it on the Series X for free until March. Thanks Patrick Mahomes. I couldn’t care less.

Oh wait nevermind, I actually can care less. Say hello to Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs and Paradox Interactive. You might be fooled into thinking it was a Batman trailer at the start with all those giant Joker smiles but no, it’s an incredibly mediocre looking game based on an incredibly mediocre tabletop game. (I HAVE OPINIONS) Seriously though that trailer was so tryhard edgy I thought it was a 90’s Image Comic. I have nothing positive to say about this, I actually enjoyed the original Bloodlines but this did nothing to sell me on this new game and actively turned me off to it. Then again it’s V:tM which has always been pretty much exactly that and I’ve lost my tolerance for people trying to sell me on things with “Look how edgy we are” marketing. Between this and Scorn we got a lot of that with this presentation.

Finally, something I’m interested in again. It’s Call of the Sea, a 1930’s-style adventure game from Out of the Blue and Raw Fury. I’m a pretty big proponent of adventure games these days as good chill experiences with good storytelling. Solon described this as we were watching as Journey meets the Shape of Water but really it’s far more Firewatch than Journey. Anyway, I really hope this game has someone get horny for a fish-man to keep up the theme of having a lot of sexual tension in this presentation. Honestly this looks pretty damned interesting and I’m excited to see what it actually is, especially since I might actually be controlling a fishperson sometimes.

I don’t even know what The Ascent from Neon Giant and Curve Digital is. It looks like a top down shooter, it looks like a Diablo, do we call it a top down shlooter? I want to punch myself in the head just for typing that last sentence but it looks like it could be a pretty cool co-op experience. Once again, though, the trailer leans way too hard into some try-hard edgy stuff but y’know, if I can be a lady alien with a giant mech suit taking down corporations I’m down for that.

Speaking of edgy stories, it’s The Medium from Bloober Team and holy crap, I am so down for this. A shifting world from regular dilapidated buildings to a supernatural one with music from Akira Yamaoka? LET ME SAY THAT LAST PART AGAIN: THE MUSIC IS FROM AKIRA YAMAOKA! Ya’ll, this is just a new Silent Hill and I am screaming with excitement. Bloober Team has made some really good horror games in the past along with The Blair Witch game which had some promising ideas but didn’t quite hit the highs of their previous games in Observer and Layers of Fear. I have a lot of hope for this one and I can’t wait to see more.

Now we get to shift into anime with Scarlet Nexus from Bandai-Namco which we all thought was Code Vein 2 for most of the trailer. What a weird ride that was, thinking it was a sequel or an expansion to another game. It’s from former members of the Tales of team so I continue to have no idea what this is. Is it going to be an action RPG? A character action game? A Soulslike? Who cares? It looks anime as hell, that’s just about all I need to be somewhat interested in a Bamco project of this style. It’s weird how even though they have a set style where their games bleed into each other with looking kind of samey, I’m still excited for more now that they’ve really gotten into more varying game styles with their anime bullshit.

I guess that was enough anime because now it’s time for Systemic Reaction’s Second Extinction. I guess we’re reclaiming earth from the dinosaurs in a co-op game that looks like a fantastically mediocre experience. It looks like a blend of Turok and one of those Left 4 Dead like games just without one person being able to control cool dinosaurs. Tell me when I can play as a cool dino and I’ll be interested, until then this is another one for the meh pile.

And now we are to the highlight of the presentation. The Xbox once again has a great JRPG we can play that isn’t Lost Odyssey. That’s right, Yakuza: Like A Dragon from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and SEGA is coming to Xbox and Windows 10 and I could not be more excited. I have no idea what Yakuza even is with the shift to JRPG combat but I am so excited to hop back into that franchise and find out. I also love that they have finally mastered how to sell these games, by showing off both the serious parts and the fact that it’s goofy as hell. Bless you RGG for this franchise. You can summon crabs and apparently have a magic bat so please give me the game now.

We close with Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla from Ubisoft and well, remember how excited I was talking about it on last week’s podcast? A lot of my enthusiasm is right out the window as well, it seems like it’s going to be all England all the time. I’m still excited for it because I loved Odyssey but this feels so … watered down for the show. I know it’s a PR presentation and they are trying to sell the game to the mass market but I don’t care about “Living my viking dream” or whatever bullshit you are trying to sell me like that. I want to hear actual details about the settlement building, poetry slam battles and whatever. Ubisoft, your reveal trailer was showing the contrast between what the Saxons were saying and what the Vikings were doing. With this you’re just shouting YEAH EXTREME RAIDING AND SACKING OF VILLAGES YEAH EXTREME PILLAGING! I care so much less when you try to sell me with some tryhard edgelord garbage where you continue to only show the dude version of the main character even though the special edition seems to come with a statue of the woman version of the MC.

Wow, what a disappointing way to end this thing. I shouldn’t be surprised considering how much EXTREME TRYHARD EDGELORD permeated this whole thing. There is a lot that I’ll have to see more of before I can actually bring myself to care beyond annoyance, but there were some definite bright spots and things I’m really excited for and the fact that a good chunk of these games I can buy on my PC and have for when I finally decide to buy a Series X is nice. What do ya’ll think? Are you ready for that Series X? Or are you going to continue to wait it out with your regular Xbox and PC?

The post Let’s Take a Look at that Inside Xbox appeared first on Gamesline.

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Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

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