After 166 hours (not sure how entirely accurate that time is, considering some of it's been idle), I've done pretty much all I can in Ubisoft's latest historical sci-fi murder simulation. Well, there are two treasure maps that are glitched, which I can't clear because one map remains in my inventory even after I collect the treasure, and the other treasure doesn't show up. At the time of this writing, Ubisoft's yet to fix the glitches.
So what did I think of the game? It's actually a pretty exhausting one. I didn't feel this way after the 250+ hours I put in Oblivion or Skyrim. I didn't feel this way after the 150 hours I put in Death Stranding. I sincerely enjoyed every minute of doing every little thing in the most recent single player games that I can remember spending nearly as much time in as Valhalla. But Valhalla itself was simply bloated.
Ubisoft somehow thinks it needs to make each successor's world larger, but the problem with making a game larger is you need to fill it with interesting things. It tries to do this with "Mysteries", world events that pepper the landscape that usually trigger mini quests or battles. Some of them are very interesting, but others are just ho hum. One type of Mystery are the cairns. These are puzzles that require you to stack stones on top of each other balancing them carefully until they reach a certain height. The majority of them aren't very hard, but the harder ones become so tedious due to finicky controls and questionable physics that they become incredibly tedious to clear. My favorite of the Mysteries, though, are the anomalies. These are puzzle platforming segments that require you to reach the top and grab data packets that when complete plays a pretty interesting video. I'm glad I did all those. There are also alpha animals, and random fights with lost drengrs (warriors) that want you to kill them so they can move on to the next life but after a few encounters, they all just blend together.
Then, there are the artifacts. These are usually collectible items such as Roman face masks and tattoo designs. What I really hate about collecting the tattoos is that you'll never see them on your character - unless they're on the face - because you're always wearing armor. So why then are you having me running all over the rooftops of houses chasing down these tattoos flying around in the wind when they're absolutely meaningless? You can find treasure maps, but all these maps yield are decorations for your ship. Customizing my ship and tattoos just didn't seem that meaningful to me.
What really slogs this game down is the immense number of treasure chests the game is pockmarked with. The more valuable ones, the "Wealth" that contain upgrade materials, armor and abilities are usually more interesting to obtain, but the basic chests that contain common crafting materials get really tedious for the OCD gamer like me to rid the map of. Many times, they'll be stashed in houses that have barred doors requiring you to find a way in, or behind locked doors having you find a key somewhere nearby. Some of these basic chests are even more difficult to reach than some of the more important Wealth varieties. I don't even want to guess how much time I spent on getting all those treasure chests.
How I chose to play the game, though, ultimately affected my attitude towards it. I have a bit of OCD when it comes to clearing things off maps and if I could just ignore all the chests, I probably would have enjoyed the game a lot more. The thing is, the main story content of Valhalla is actually pretty good. It's told via an alliance map where you chose which territory you want to pledge in order to establish an alliance with that territory's leader. Each one of these story arcs are well written and varied. You'll be replacing eldermen, solving murders, investigating traitors and even helping two people fall in love. There are also side quests that involve you seeking out a target all the way to Vinland (what North America was called in the Viking ages) that ties something in to Assassin's Creed III, and weird potion-induced dreams where you take on the role of Odin as you deal with Loki and a war between Asgard and Jotunheim.
As I said, I loved all the story content, but most of the time, it felt as if it was taking a backseat to all the side stuff. I think I mentioned this in my previous blog about Valhalla, but the game very rarely reconnects you to the present day world, and that further illustrates that it's all about keeping the player in the Matrix. The game really needed its players to come out more often.
Assassin's Creed games used to be a good balance of historical fiction and modern sci-fi story telling, but it's been losing focus ever since Origins and has gone completely off track with Valhalla because Ubisoft wants the franchise to be an RPG. But it doesn't NEED to be one! The 40-50 hours of story content (rough estimate) should easily be enough to keep any AC fan sated until the next one, but Ubisoft doesn't think so. They tested the waters with Origins trying to make it a live service and they're still doing it Valhalla, so apparently there's a good number of gamers that like the changes. Or maybe they're like me just putting up with the game because we've invested ourselves in the franchise the past 12 or so years and are patiently waiting to see where the story goes next time. I dunno, though. I'm really growing tired with this direction. I would have loved to have at least 100 hours of my life back to spend with my other launch games.
As I'm writing this, I am balls deep in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. I'm loving parts; I'm hating parts. But well into the 80 hour mark (not sure how accurate that is), I've come to the realization that Valhalla doesn't need to be an Assassin's Creed game. In fact, Origins and Odyssey didn't need to be Assassin's Creed games either. Why am I saying this? Because these past three games, Valhalla specifically, have been shifting away from what Assassin's Creed games are all about: stealth action.
The very first Assassin's Creed game in 2007 was a mix of historical and science fiction. It kept things simple in terms of its gameplay. You sneak around, find out who your targets are, kill them and the gameplay gets broken up sporadically by ejecting you from the Animus so you can learn more about what you're doing. As every game that followed, more and more gameplay elements were being introduced, yet the pace was still pretty well structured to keep the game flowing. In Assassin's Creed III, Desmond Miles' storyline came to an end, but Ubisoft didn't want to end the franchise. They kept it going with AC4: Black Flag, and the outside world of the Animus became less important. It was more about absorbing the player in the experience. Some games like Assassin's Creed III: Liberation removed the Animus component entirely.
AC: Unity and Syndicate tried new things such as anomalies which messed with time manipulation putting you in World War segments, yet the core gameplay was still very much Assassin's Creed. It wasn't until Origins that the entirety of the game was completely reinvented. Taking place in ancient Egypt, Origins introduced a wealth of open-world gameplay elements. There was now leveling and even though the game was open to you from the start meaning you could go anywhere you wanted, there were high level areas that you obviously were not meant to enter meaning you had to go run off somewhere to level up and come back. Along with Odyssey, there were also numerous gear dumps and resource collecting meaning you spent a lot of time in the menu breaking down gear and sorting through items. The pace of Assassin's Creed began to suffer thanks to all the distractions.
With Origins, Ubisoft begin to experiment with the idea of incorporating mythical gods in their games. The main character Bayek would encounter Egyptian gods such as Anubis, Sobet and Sekhmet. In Odyssey, main characters Kassandra and Alexios would fight Greek mythical creatures such as minotaurs, cyclops, and even Medusa. In Valhalla, there are side quests that take you completely out of the believable old world of England and whisk you away to realms such as Asgard and Jotunheim where you take on the role of Odin.
These new fantasy elements were incorporated to make Assassin's Creed more of an action-RPG, so much so that they even showed up on some places' Game of the Year awards under the RPG category. Although there's nothing wrong with these fantasy elements themselves, it's my personal opinion that they don't belong in the Assassin's Creed franchise. The main reason why I'm against the fantasy stuff is because it goes against the nature of what the franchise started out to be: science fiction. Everything before Origins, although still science fiction, was grounded in historical fiction, meaning it could be traced back and validated as actually happening within the game's world. But gods are not real. The games try to get away with this by using the ancient alien race Isu as being responsible for creating their appearances, which would explain why mentions of gods show up in historical accounts. None of this was going on before Origins, so doing this with Origins and beyond is no more than the franchise jumping the shark.
With the inclusion of the open-world RPG gameplay elements, there's so many distractions getting the in the way that I've pretty much stopped caring about the Animus. I've even forgotten many times in Valhalla that I could leave the Animus if I wanted to. I've uncovered a lot of the game world and I've only been brought out of it once by the game's story. I need that balance of story telling the old AC games had returned. I don't care about Eivor's dreams of being Odin. I want to know more about my next targets (which pretty much have very little backstory to them), the Isu and the Pieces of Eden. I want to know more about the Animus team guiding me in this world. I want the AC games to be focused again.
But that's not going to happen. Ubisoft was trying all sorts of new things with their recent games, but they honestly should have just started making new IPs altogether if they were going to change them THIS much. I doubt very many people even care about the story anymore. The franchise has really boiled down to nothing more than the constant feedback loop Ubisoft games are known for. Maybe part of me is speaking this way because I'm suffering burnout. I know a few people who gave up on the series a long time ago, but for some reason, I just can't say no to Assassin's Creed games. They're fun games to play that don't require much of your attention so you can watch Netflix at the same time or whatever. But even then, I will be among the first to say that they've worn out their welcome. As I'm currently exploring the realm of Jotunheim, I'm thinking, "Man, imagine a new IP where they can leave the AC story behind and just their own full-blown God of War!" But again, that's not going to happen because Ubisoft knows the brand name sells. I just wish more companies took more chances on new IPs, because Assassin's Creed started out as a new IP 13 years ago.
As if last month didn't already do enough damage to my bank account with both the PS5 and XSX with three games a piece, the launch window is still tempting me to ground my ship ashore like the seductive siren she is. A couple days ago, I decided to order this:
When I first saw this game unveiled as Gods and Monsters, I instantly wrote it off as a Breath of the Wild clone. Not only was the aesthetic nearly identical, there were gameplay mechanics such as puzzles, magic, and climbing that were clearly ripped off from Zelda. I pretty much had no interest in it until just last week when impressions started making the rounds. Everyone pretty much said that the BotW inspiration is undisputable, but it does enough different to stand on its own. I noticed it was on sale at Amazon for 49.99 and it so happens that I had 27 or so dollars in credit, so I applied it and got it for 26 and change. Honestly can't complain. Seems like it will be a perfect 30 dollar game.
Also, I decided to get it for the PS5 instead of the Xbox Series X because I didn't want to put up with downloading the upgrade patch on the Series X and plus, I really enjoy the PS5's controller over the Series X. As for the Switch version... I didn't even consider it. I know this game would have been the perfect game to play on the go, but the issue for me is that I don't really play my Switch much on the go anymore, especially now with COVID, it's just work and home. When I'm home, I'd much rather play a better looking version of this game. I think my days of getting multi-plat versions of a game on the Switch are over.
Then today, I bought two more games:
The Pathless immediately caught my eye in the PS5 unveiling event with its mystical visual style and fluid, inventive locomotion system. As the game grew closer to release, I watched a few more gameplay videos and started falling in love with the music, the exploration and most importantly, the bosses. I got Shadow of the Colossus vibes from it, mixed with just a little Breath of the Wild. It's also going for 49.99, so any launch game in this generation that isn't going for 60 and especially 70 is very welcome.
Speaking of cheaper games, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition clocks in at 39.99 and this is coming from Capcom, a company that could EASILY charge 70 bucks for their games and still sell well. Honestly, I have no business buying this game right now because I'm behind in the series. I have the previous four DMCs (not including Ninja Theory's DmC reboot) but I've only played the first two. I was also thinking of getting it for the XSX but didn't at first because I thought it was a digital only game. Now that I saw there is a physical copy, I sprung for it, but not for the Series X for the same reason I didn't buy Immortals for the Series X. I do not want to put up with the ridiculous download times for the XSX upgrade patches. Microsoft NEEDS to start pressing XSX specific versions, because it's costing them money at least from gamers like me with poor internet.
Anyway, I am going to try very hard to make these my final games for the year. I have got to stop the hemorrhaging for a while and go back to my rule of one game a month. I ended up getting seven last month with three games each for PS5 and XSX and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and now I bought an additional three this month. Ooof...
As I said in my previous blog about my new console impressions, it's been a rocky start, and one of the major problems with this new generation is one of my games still isn't saving. That game is Watch Dogs: Legion. At the time of this writing, there is a support thread at Ubisoft that is 67 pages long with 669 (nice) replies of people who are reporting that their games aren't saving on the Xbox Series X. I've been following this thread just a couple of days after the launch of the XSX only to watch in frustration as our complaints go largely ignored. When a dev finally responded to us, they said they wouldn't have a patch for this until at least early December. Then, there was a major patch released recently that fixed all platforms' saving issues BUT the XSX. Talk about adding insult to injury.
So what exactly is the problem? The problem is that autosaving in Watch Dogs: Legion is tied to Ubisoft's persistent online service called Ubisoft Connect, but the problem is Ubisoft Connect is never connected. If it ever is online, it's not online for very long. I've lost about five hours of progress so far and that was all I needed to lose to not play the game until this gets fixed. I think I stopped playing it on the 11th, so I haven't played it for more than two weeks! Well, actually, I did play it once since then just to test out a theory that was being posted in that thread. It turns out you can play offline, but you have to remember to disconnect the Xbox before starting the game, then quick travel and quit to menu to force the game to save. But, you shouldn't need to do ANY of that, as the game is missing a critical key feature that should be a no-brainer staple of any game in 2020: a manual save.
That's right! In Watch Dogs: Legion for the XSX, you cannot manually save. You either need to be online for the autosave to work, or be offline and jump through hoops to get the system to save. You would think a manual save option would be as simple as including a Start option on the title menu, but apparently not. What makes this situation even more ridiculous is that in the last major patch, they added a manual save option to the PC version, but not the XSX version... which is really just a PC in a console box! Adding to THAT, this is the same company that published Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, a game that not only has a manual save option but also a quick save option which you can access via a scroll wheel so you don't even need to use the menu to save at all. I just don't get why Legion launched without a manual save...
I don't need to explain to you the importance of saving. I also shouldn't need to explain to you the importance of being able to save whenever you want. Yeah, quick resume and sleep modes are nice when you have to step away from your TV for work/school or emergencies, but sometimes you're just tired of the game and you want to play something else. This brings me to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
As far as I know, there's no way to save the game during a mission. I've played Warriors games before, and I know these missions can sometimes be very long, but I also don't want to invest extra time out of my schedule to clear a mission in order to swap it out and play something else. I'm still doing my daily stuff in Animal Crossing before I go to work, which means when I start playing Calamity on my lunch break, I need to make it a point to return to it and finish the current mission I'm on when I come home so I can start up Animal Crossing the next morning. This may not seem like such a big deal, but honestly, it's bothersome when all I want to do is go back to Assassin's Creed: Valhalla or Spider-Man: Miles Morales when I come home. So, Age of Calamity isn't really being played right now.
You know what was a really fun game and incredibly accessible? Skyrim for the Switch. Why? Because I could save whenever I wanted, EVEN in the middle of a battle. Not only was this a great convenience for when I wanted to play something else, it also helped me get through tough spots in the game. It was great that I could save before a dungeon, check it out, get killed, reload and try again, beat an enemy, save again, die and reload, try again and beat another enemy, save and repeat. Yeah, yeah, I know it's called save scumming, but so what? I have very little time to redo sections of games over and over again, and being able to save whenever you want is a godsend. It makes gaming so much more fun, because it eliminates so much time-wasting inconvenience, and there should never be an argument against it.
So yeah. Watch Dogs: Legion should have had a manual save option since day one. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity should let you save whenever you want, especially since their missions can run long. The ninth generation of gaming is upon us now, and we're currently experiencing so much technical improvement with faster framerates, higher resolutions, nearly nonexistent load times and improved controllers. The ability to save whenever we want should be among those quality of life improvements.
The Xbox Series S|X and the PlayStation 5 were finally launched last week, and it's been an interesting experience to say the least. From the extraneous anticipation of learning when the things would even be released and what their prices would be to the preorder kerfuffle and retailers only selling launch day stock online due to COVID spikes all leading to outrageous eBay prices, this has not been an easy launch for any of us. Loads of people are still looking for either system, and I am extremely fortunate that I managed to get both a Series X and PS5. This also marks the first time I've ever had launch consoles shipped to me instead of going to the stores to pick them up. It felt so weird. So, I'd like to share some quick impressions of them with you. Also, please keep in mind these impressions are coming from someone who doesn't have a top of the line TV (it is 4K, though). Your experience may vary.
Xbox Series X
If you'd like, here is my unboxing of the Xbox Series X.
So, I need to be completely honest here. I made no plans to buy a Series X because of the lack of exclusives. However, seeing how horrible it was for everyone to even get a PS5 into their shopping carts the day of September 16th, I decided to see if I could get a Series X just to hedge my bets in case my preorder for the PS5 fell through. After spending several days with it, I'm certain I'd have been fine without it.
Now, that's not saying there's anything wrong with the Series X. It's clearly a powerhouse of a machine. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion both look great, and though Dirt 5 looks good, I don't think Codemasters did a thorough job optimizing it. But the major problem that exists for me with the Series X is the Smart Delivery.
Smart Delivery gives the consumer the ability to upgrade an Xbox One game to the Series X version at no additional cost, but it comes with a catch. MS for now is only including the Xbox One versions of games to be shipped, which means you have to download the upgrade patch. I don't have very fast internet, so a massive upgrade for Dirt 5 that weighed in at 73 gigs took me all day to download. No exaggeration. This will dissuade me from buying Xbox Series X versions of cross-platform games, regardless if it runs them better.
Another thing that's disappointed me about the Xbox Series X is the highly touted Quick Resume feature. In theory, it allows you to bounce between a handful of games without losing progress, but I've yet to get this to work. Supposedly, Dirt 5 and Watch Dogs: Legions flat out don't support it at this time, but it's supposed to work for AC:Valhalla and after testing it several times, it just doesn't work.
As for the hardware itself, MS chose to go as simple as they could with the design. It's just a big fat rectangle in my gaming center, very unobtrusive. Many like this design, but I don't find much there to really like. I don't dislike it; I'm just very indifferent about it. I'm also a bit indifferent about the controller as well, as it's nearly identical to the Xbox One controller. The only major differences are a textured feel to the back and triggers, and a smoothed out d-pad. Unfortunately, not even a full two days of playing, my right trigger already began sticking on me. Instead of having to go through the waiting period of having it replaced, I decided to look up a YouTube video and the fix seemed very simple, so I attempted to fix it myself. There's a pad that prevents the trigger from coming into full contact with the rest of the housing, but that pad was glued sloppily and the trigger was picking up glue from every press until it started to stick. I started cleaning it up with alcohol-soaked q-tips and suddenly, the pad itself dislodged, so I removed it completely. When I put it back together, the trigger now makes a clack every time I press it, which is annoying, but at least it doesn't stick anymore.
I am really impressed with how quiet the Xbox Series X is. I don't think I've yet to hear the fan spinning. If it does make noise, I can't hear it over the disc drive spinning. It does put out immense heat, though, and really warms up the wood of the shelf it's sitting on. That's a good thing, though. You want that heat out of the system.
My Xbox Series X Games
We'll start off with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. Ubisoft has doubled down on the RPG elements further distancing itself from what I really loved about the older Assassin's Creed games: straight forward stealth action. Ever since Odyssey, I always groan when I come across a higher level enemy that I'm not supposed to kill. Anyway, I am enjoying it, and the snow is just amazing. It should be, as it's everywhere. You can actually feel the cold. I surprisingly haven't come across any bugs yet. If I did, I didn't notice them. The combat has been reworked and is almost Souls-like as there's parrying and stamina now. I'm also very thankful for the removal of the millions of pieces of equipment you pick up in the game. The upgrade processes for gear and abilities have been revamped as well. I'm looking forward to playing some more.
Dirt 5 I picked up because I was looking for a racer to show off my Series X with, and I guess I should have just stuck with Forza Horizon 4, because honestly Dirt 5 isn't very impressive. There is a lot of detail in the game, and it runs buttery smooth, but I'm not really convinced this is something that can't be done on current hardware. I also am a bit perplexed that the least impressive of the three games I got had the largest upgrade patch. The game itself is a lot of fun with some good variety of racing. Unfortunately, there's sprint car events that I'm just not good at all with, so I'm holding off on it for now.
Oh Ubisoft... Watch Dogs: Legion has a major, MAJOR problem right now. Autosave doesn't work most of the time. I found this out the hard way when I played for about four hours and came back to it later and most of what I did was undone. This is most likely due to the fact that for some reason, the game needs to be connected to Ubisoft Connect to upload saves to the cloud in case you want to play the game on a different platform. The game doesn't even let you save manually, which is a serious mistake. As of this writing, there's a 24 page thread at Ubisoft's forum full of people affected by this. It sucks, because the game really is fun. I'm not that into the recruitment mechanic, though, because I find it pretty generic. At least two people I've come across have the exact same recruiting missions, and most everyone I've played with just don't seem believable from an acting standpoint. I also love the game's ray tracing, and I REALLY want to play more of it but I'm not going to until Ubisoft releases a much-needed patch.
PlayStation 5
Here's my unboxing video if you'd like.
My PS5 didn't arrive until Saturday evening. Although I was starting to get frustrated, I kept reminding myself how lucky I was that I got one. As for the form factor, the PS5 really is something else. It's alien and elegant at the same time and while the Series X prefers to blend in with its nondescript silhouette, the PS5 stands out as an attention grabber. It wants to be noticed with the clear message that the PS5 isn't simply an upgraded machine like the Series X is to the Xbox One X. At the risk of sounding biased, the PS5 is truly a next-gen machine.
Yes, both machines are monsters capable of 8K, 120 FPS, and ray tracing, so disputing power (and the PS5 is just as quiet as the XSX) really all comes down to how well the developers work with the machine. We are seeing diminishing returns when it comes to graphical advancements, so it all boils down to the experience thanks to SSDs for greatly reduced loading times, UIs (the XSX doesn't seem that much different from the Xbone) and most importantly, the controller. The Dual Sense is where the PS5 really pulls ahead of the XSX.
For the first three generations of the PlayStation, they've pretty much kept the same controller layout, but they started evolving it with the PlayStation 4, and they've continued to evolve it so much more with the PlayStation 5. The Dual Sense is literally a game changer. You really do need to feel this controller for yourself to understand just how amazing it is. There's haptic rumble all over the device, and it's so varied in its intensity to a degree I've never felt before. Then, there's the speaker which emits sound effects in conjunction to the vibrations that somehow make them feel even more real. Finally, there's the adaptive triggers which can increase tension to make you feel like you're actually pulling a trigger. My only concern is that I saw how this works, and I'm afraid the parts could be damaged over time by excited use of the controller. We'll just have to see how long they last.
I only have a couple minor gripes with the user experience. One, I really wish the PS5 had a Quick Resume feature for multiple games like the XSX has, but considering it doesn't work for me on the XSX yet, I'm not giving MS a one-up over Sony for that. Two, Sony for some reason changed the way you sleep/turn off the system. You used to just be able to hold down the PS button and the power options would show up, but now you have to tap the PS button, scroll down to the scroll bar and move the cursor over to the power options that way. It's just a weird, nonsensical change that I hope Sony patches.
My PS5 Games
Sorry for the sloppy formatting. It's late and I'm not trying to mess with this anymore.
To start off, let me just give a huge nod to Sony for bringing back the return of the pack-in launch game with Astro's Playroom. It came preinstalled on the PS5 as a tech demo (which can be debated to be more of an actual game) to show off the Dual Sense controller and let me just say, I am in love with this game! It does a phenomenal job demonstrating the haptic feedback by changing frequencies and intensities as you walk over different surfaces. You can actually feel the difference between walking on sand and mud, and even jumping on clouds. It makes awesome use of the adaptive triggers as well, having you pull on a slot machine arm to get a prize. You need to keep pulling down on the trigger until it finally lets go and you pull it all the way. Controller stuff aside, the game's also a nostalgia overload for any PlayStation fan. You'll see different robots dressed up in all sorts of Sony costumes and you'll find collectibles based on PlayStation hardware over the years. I can't wait to play more of it.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales was a no-brainer. I absolutely loved 2018's Spider-Man. Miles Morales feels very similar to that game, but everything from the action to the locomotion has really been refined. I've been playing it in Fidelity mode so I can experience the ray tracing and it really looks nice. To be honest, though, I'm starting to think that ray tracing is really just a "let me stand and look around for a minute" feature. I honestly don't pay attention to reflections when I'm in the heat of the moment. I also love all of the new abilities Miles has and as like most people have said, it really feels like Miles is stronger than Peter. I haven't played much of the story yet. I went right after the challenges the moment they opened up. I need to try to savor this game, though, because I know it's only about 12 hours. But hey, I'm fine with that. For one, it's a 50 dollar game, 20 less than the now standard 70 dollar price tag. For two, I've heard it's more story-focused with less filler, which is always a good thing. I have enough open-world games to keep me busy on the XSX.
As for Demon's Souls, that was an impulse. I loved the original Demon's Souls on the PS3, but I got to be honest. I almost quit that game for good. It took a friend to really convince me to keep going, and I'm glad I did. Again, being honest, I wasn't really looking forward to going through all the hardships again on the PS5, which is why I wasn't going to buy it, but every time I saw a video of it, it just looks so good! And wow, it really is! As can be expected, though, I already got fed up with it, so I'm taking a break, but this stands out to be the PS5's most visually impressive game. Bluepoint is remarkable at remaking games having done a phenomenal job on Shadow of the Colossus, which I actually want to play again on the PS5 to see if there's any improvement. Just as with everything they do, Demon's Souls has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. There is so much attention to detail. Every stone, vine, pool of water, table you smash, lighting and particle effect, it's all very realistic and the game performs silky smooth. I'm really hoping for a Bloodbourne 2 on the PS5, because then we'd really get to see some amazing things. Now... I just need to build back up the gumption to return to it....
Sackboy: A Big Adventure was a game that caught my eye when it was shown at the PS5 reveal back in June. To be honest, I was never a fan of Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet games, but the thing about Sackboy was that it was a single-player focused 3D platformer, and I always love those. It looked really cute, too, so I decided to buy it. So far, I'm not having much fun with it. It's obviously taking inspiration from Yoshi's Crafted World, but it's been pretty bland. Granted, I'm only a couple levels in, so I'm sure it'll pick up, but it just hasn't been making a strong first impression.
Bugsnax is an exception to the rule of only playing games that I own. I'm not a fan of paying for subscriptions just to keep access to "free" games that I download, but the curiosity of this game got the better of me. It's actually rather fun! When I first saw the Bugsnax trailer, the first game that came to mind was Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath where you use critters to capture other critters. It was also a first-person game. Although a completely different game than Stranger's Wrath, Bugsnax does have you using critters to catch other critters. Each bugsnack has its own behavior and you have to figure them out in order to capture them. Most are pretty straightforward so far, as I'm still early in, but I'm sure some will be really puzzling. I also like the game's whimsical charm and goofy bugsnax voices that emit from my controller. If you have PS+, give it a shot.
So Which One Is For Me?
If should be clear to you after reading this where my preference lies. Obviously, I'm enjoying the PS5 far more than the Series X, but that doesn't mean you will. If you can only afford - or only want - one system, how should you decide which one to get? As I said before, the difference in power really is minimal, even though MS swears by its "12 MEGAFLOPS WE ARE THE MOSTEST POWERFULLY CONSOLE EVERY MADEDED!!!!!!" Both systems run their games well regardless of specs. Both load really fast. Both are super quiet. So here's how you decide.
Q: Do I care about exclusives? A: If you answered yes, then it's the PS5 all the way. Sony already has the wonderfully fantastic Astro's Playroom and Demon's Souls remake to enjoy. Yes, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is also on the PS4, but every single game on the XSX is also on the Xbone. MS will eventually start pumping out their own exclusives, but in my opinion, Sony's own exclusives have always been of much higher quality. If you also never owned a PS4, then you have an absolutely amazing catalogue to catch up with including the recent Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima.
Q: Do I care about new experiences? A: If you answered yes, again, PS5 all the way. The Series X is so plainly designed that it's almost an omen of what to experience with the machine overall. The PS5, as controversial as its design may be, lets you know that you're about to experience something entirely new. The UI, although not yet perfect, is actually a refreshing reinvention, while XSX's UI is just a touched up version of Xbone's. Sony may not have multiple game quick resume (again, XSX didn't work for me, so it's a moot point), but it also has a really cool feature with live game help. I used it on Sackboy to find a collectible and if used right, this feature will be a literal game changer. Speaking of game changers, again, it's all about that controller. The XSX's controller is too similar to the previous generation's with no new features. The Dual Sense isn't just a completely redesigned controller aesthetically, but also functionally. You really need to experience the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. It's that big of a deal.
Q: Do I care about value? A: Before I get into this, I just realized I didn't talk about the Series S. With that said, I need to strongly advise not to get a Series S, even though it's 200 dollars cheaper. Unlike the PS5's cheaper digital-only version, the Series S is actually considerably weaker than its 500 dollar big brother. You'll still get up to 120 FPS and ray tracing, but you won't get 4K output. If you can afford it, I strongly recommend you future proof your console and go with the Series X.
As for the Series X, this is where I give MS the nod. I'm not a subscription person, because I don't play that many games at once to warrant paying for a service that gives you access to so many games. I also like to own the games that I play, but if you're not like me, that won't matter and Xbox Game Pass is a fantastic deal. MS also has been getting in the habit of putting some titles on Game Pass the moment they release and if you can't afford new games, then this is the perfect way to play them. The Series S|X's backwards compatibility is also far better than the PS5, which can only play PS4 games, but MS still has a lot of work left to do when it comes to the OG Xbox catalogue. Also, Smart Delivery is a great convenience, but whether or not you get the upgrade for free really comes down to the publisher, so keep that in mind.
So it really boils down to those three questions. Do you want a first-party or third-party machine? Do you care about controllers and UIs? Do you enjoy subscription services and BC games? This next-generation has been a very weird one. To me, the graphics have taken a backseat to everything else the consoles are doing. I still think the PS5 is going to have the better generation, because MS is always struggling in the first-party department, but that could change. They did pay seven billion dollars for Bethesda, though. I just hope it pays off, but hey, if Elder Scrolls 6 is an Xbox exclusive, I'll be playing my Series X for a long time.
I hope you got lucky and got the system you wanted. If not, I hope you get one really soon. As always, thanks for reading!
NO! Not THAT kind of scalping! Jesus Christ... I'm talking about console scalping. You know, buying up available product before customers who actually want it for themselves can get to it, and then marking up the price astronomically.
That kind of scalping.
The PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series S|X launched today. To the chagrin of everyone still trying to find one, many stores' extra stock was bought just as swiftly as preorder day and found immediately on places such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace. I took a quick glance on eBay and at the time of this writing, we have Xbox Series Xs going on average for 1,100 dollars, the S for 500 dollars (only a 200 dollar mark up really demonstrates the demand for this thing...) and the PlayStation 5 for 1500 for either version. These prices have actually gone up from when I first checked them on their respective preorders. Now that the systems are actually out and in-hand, I'm sure that's what's driving up the prices.
Now, let's go over some discussion points:
Hey, don't blame me. If they weren't stupid enough to buy them for that much, I wouldn't do it.
True. Supply and demand. If people are willing to buy for a certain price, then that's what the market should dictate.
... that this is nothing but victim blaming You are victimizing desperate people who really want these machines for themselves, their loved ones as Christmas gifts, and even tech reviewers and streamers/YouTubers who NEED - not want - these do their jobs. Yes, people who buy into these absurd prices are part of the problem but when you scalp, you are CREATING the problem. Let me repeat: YOU. ARE. CREATING. THE. PROBLEM. Anyone who tries to victim blame the buyers need to seriously step back and do some soul searching, because that kind of rationalizing is seriously disturbing. I mean, do you really justify the drug dealers who created the opioid epidemic because it's nearly impossible for drug addicts to stop buying them? Come on...
Well, it's not illegal. It's capitalism. They can do it, too!
True. What scalpers do with these consoles is perfectly legal. If it weren't, then they wouldn't be able to list them on eBay, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, etc., etc. It's a free market: buy low, sell high. It's capitalism; it's how this country was built.
Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's moral or ethical. One of my favorite sayings is just because it's your right doesn't mean it's right. Saying "well, there's nothing illegal about it" is such a problematic stance to have. Was it legal for Martin Shrkeli to jack up the price of Daraprim from 13.50 to 750? Yes. Should he have done it? Absolutely fucking not, and look what happened to him when he did. He price gouged so hard and garnered so much negative attention, he was investigated and convicted for securities fraud. If I want to use extreme examples, slavery was legal. Killing Jews in Nazi Germany was legal. Not going to continue down that path, but I'm illustrating a point here that just because something's legal doesn't make it OK, and if enough people are bothered by it, they will actually make it illegal. The law is fickle, but unfortunately, I don't see the law stepping in anytime soon regarding scalping.
And yes, other people can do it, too. But why doesn't everyone? Because again, it's a matter of morals and ethics, and the people who don't are the people who have them. A strong moral and ethical fiber is tantamount to a well-performing society. Economic, socionomic, and governmental problems all arise from our leaders' questionable moral and ethical stances. We should all want a stronger society, and that begins with stronger citizens, and we need to always work on our moral and ethical alignments. We have got to start shedding our apathy and indifference and stop rationalizing our actions just because it's "legal" or we really are no better than Martin Shkreli.
They can just wait. No one needs consoles on launch day.
True. They can wait. It's not like MS and Sony stopped making Xboxes and PlayStations. It can even be argued that waiting will ensure MS and Sony have worked out their bugs, of which several reports of defective systems are already making the rounds on the Internet.
Let's just flat out address this one. Who are you to decide when someone should buy something? We're all excited for these new machines, and we should ALL have the equal opportunity to buy these machines. The problem is, we haven't. Scalpers have created artificial demand by buying up stock before people can get to it, and this time around, the problem has been exacerbated by bots to a degree that I've never seen before. People have made plans to spend time with their machines this holiday, and they shouldn't have to wait because some seedy individuals broke the system. Again, there are even people who need these systems to do their jobs, and there are families who don't want crying children at Christmas because Santa couldn't find a console. So I'm definitely sympathetic when it comes to why people get desperate and pay way too much for them on eBay. They're paying more for peace of mind at that point, so maybe try not to be so dismissive of people in those situations by telling them to just wait.
Also, there's the fact that you'll be missing out on the discussion if you're really involved in the gaming community. Demand for theses systems will most likely last for several months, which means your chances of getting one any time soon is slim to none. That means you'll get to watch everyone else play these amazing systems with no opportunity to share your own thoughts and by the time you do finally get it, most everyone will have beaten those games and your opinion will have lost some relevancy. I get that FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is something we shouldn't be struggling with, but I know first-hand how powerful that feeling is and remember, this FOMO is not generated by normal demand. Scalpers have created artificial demand making it harder for everyone.
So what you didn't get a next-gen console? All the games are available on current gen!
True. You're not missing out on any games by not getting the next-gen systems, so if you only care about the games themselves, you shouldn't be fretting.
You will be missing out on the enhancements. Gone are the days where leaps in graphical advances were easily apparent. Now, it's all in the finer details and the user experiences. It's about more consistent framerates and higher resolutions, user interfaces, features such as reduced loading times and quick resume for multiple games. Most importantly, it's about new controllers. Well, the PS5 specifically as there's nothing much new about the Series S|X controller. I know I could easily play Miles Morales on the PS4, but I want to play it on the PS5 and experience this highly touted ray tracing thing, and I want to feel what it's like to play it on the PS5 controller. I've read that you can actually feel the web shooters in the adaptive triggers, and that's just awesome. Hell, Astro's Playroom is all about showing off the new controller, and you can't get that at all on the PS4. So yes, for the most part, you can play all the next-gen games on current consoles, but it's the improved experience that you'll be missing out on.
Well... you're just mad you didn't get one!
My Series X arrived Tuesday, and my PS5 will be here tomorrow.
But let's just say that I didn't get one. I have YOU and your ilk to thank for that. How can negate someone's argument that you're making life harder for them by telling them "Oh, you're just mad," when it was YOU who created the problem in the first place? That takes a special kind of asshole to think like that. And even though I did get both, I'm still mad for the people who didn't. For one, I can empathize and also, as much as I'm ashamed to admit it, I've been there. I paid about 200 dollars extra and about a 100 extra for the 360 and PS3 respectively. Honestly that seems a lot more reasonable than today's standards, but I didn't want to miss out. I legitimately tried to get them launch day. All sold out online, went to stand inline for them at multiple stores, nothing. I had one dude try to sell me his spot in line for 800 dollars....
I know scalpers don't like getting attacked by honest consumers, but hey... honest consumers don't like getting scalped. And yes, at the end of the day, video games are luxury items. The law won't step in, unless a good is deemed essential like hand sanitizer, soap and TP, but MY GOD! Have you not been paying attention to what's been happening in the world this year? Have you not seen how stupid it's been trying to find things such as TP? Doesn't walking into a store and seeing shelves stripped bare trigger something in you that makes you go, "This is fucked up. People are so greedy. We should do better." Again, those are essentials whereas video games are luxury items, but it's the principle that's the same here. People who buy up way more than they need and flip it for a higher price are greedy. Yeah, yeah, capitalism and all that... but stop justifying that by further creating problems for people. Be a better person.
As far as I'm concerned, if you're a scalper, you're no better than someone who flips hand sanitizer and TP. You're no better than a drug dealer selling oxycontin to a drug addict. You're no better than Martin Shkreli. You're no better than EA, Activision, and all those companies who prey on consumers who have weak will power by feeding them with exploitive microtransactions. You're not a capitalist; you're not an opportunist; you're not an entrepreneur. You're a predator, plain and simple. You're looking to make a quick buck doing way too much mental gymnastics so you can sleep at night. Please, people, try to do better and remember....
You've probably never heard of this mobile game Darkness Rises. In 2018, I broke my previous phone, the Sony Xperia Z3 which I had for four years, so I figured it was time for a new phone. I went with the Samsung Galaxy S9+. Very powerful phone, so I decided to try out some games to see how well it could run them. I saw an ad for Darkness Rises, so I gave it a try.
It was a pretty fun game for what it was. It's an action-RPG where you spam the attack button and use abilities and wait for their cooldowns to expire to use them again. The story levels were bite-size, roughly 30 seconds to a minute, perfect for quick bursts. You could even play them on auto, set it for repeat and put your phone down and let it play itself while your character gathered experience, gold and gear.
It was also one of those games where it had a gem currency that was used for pretty much everything. To its credit, the game was very generous handing them out and also had daily and weekly objectives to earn more along with main quests that rewarded with you with large lump sums. After a while, though, the game began to hit a wall.
You have seven characters you can make, but are encouraged to make and play with as many as you can as they give stat bonuses. The more you play, the more bonuses. Each character has a power level which is determined by attack, defense, HP and other stats. The story and adventure levels have power level checks, and although you can work around higher requirements if you play yourself, evading and using skills at proper times, the auto AI is rather inept and struggles with the normal recommendation.
After a while, it became too hard to clear these stages. In order to get my power level up, I believe past 1 million at the point I first quit in 2018, I had to use gear to enhance my current gear and farm essences to raise my base stats while also continuing to do daily and weekly objectives. Well, it got to be so much work that I found myself playing the game almost the entire time while I was at work (letting it run itself, not physically playing it 8 hours at work). I got tired of it and quit.
This year, I made an insane reading challenge of trying to see how quickly I could read Elmore Leonard's 46 books, and about half way through, I began to doze off a lot and was slowing down. I decided I was going to play Darkness Rises again, because it would be a great way to keep myself awake, checking the phone while the game played itself, and it worked. I managed to read those 46 books in less than two month's time.
A lot happened during those two years I stopped playing. For one, they raised the level cap from 60 to 100 and introduced several new worlds for their story and adventure mode. They also raised the rank of their top tier S gear to S++ and a week after I restarted, they raised the rank again to L, which stands for Lucky, not Legendary, which is what I would have went with. Anyway...
They set up a new event of objectives to get players up to a power level of three million to get them through the first new world, but very quickly after that, the power level requirements spiked exponentially. I found out that by the time you finish the new worlds on their hardest level, your power level requirements are around 30 million. That level of growth is insane and nearly impossible to reach as a returning player who hasn't played for a couple of years. So, how do people close the gap from 3 million to 30 million?
Well, it's all about the Rank L gear. In order to get a piece of Rank L gear, you need to forge two identical Rank S++ pieces that have been grinded up to level 60. Seems reasonable, but it's very hard to obtain Rank S++ gear without dumping a shitload of gems into their loot boxes. Even if you do, it's hard to get the EXACT piece of gear you need. Now here's where the game became ruined for me.
Once you get two identical max level Rank S++ pieces, you can fuse them together at a 30% success rate. That is real low. It takes a lot of time to earn just one. For instance, they have an event every two weeks that if you earn enough points, you're rewarded with one Rank S++ weapon chest, but in order to get enough points, your phone needs to run probably six to eight hours a day. It also costs millions of gold to grind a new piece of S++ to max level, and then five million gold to attempt the fuse, and if you fail, you lose one of the gears you tried to fuse. Yep, destroyed. However, if you don't want to lose that piece of gear, you can always use a Guardstone, which can only be obtained by outright buying it in a bundle for 30 dollars. Or, you can use rate up stones to increase the success rate by one percent per stone, but you can only get them in bundles for 30 dollars, or in Hell, which is their post game content. Yes you can earn rate up stones to help you get your power level up to 30 million... which you're already up at 30 million by the time you access Hell...
Now, get ready for the math. Bundles containing 20 rate stones, and I think 10 million in gold go for 30 dollars. In order to get a 100 percent chance of a successful fusion, you'll need 70 stones and each character has 10 gear slots, meaning you'll need to buy 700 rate up stones. You'll need to buy 35 bundles at 30 bucks, which is 1,050 dollars. Then, you'll need to do that again for six more characters, so if you want a 100 percent success rate for every Rank L fusion in the game for all your characters, you'll have spent 7,350 dollars! That isn't even taking into account having to spend 10 dollars a week for a weekly pass that rewards with you with morph stones just in case you want to try to speed up the process changing the S++ gear you don't need into one you do. I don't even know how much extra that would cost (let's assume it took you a year, so 520 bucks).
7,350 dollars! That's insane, and that's just ONE aspect of the game's premium content. There are loads of costumes to buy as well, and you'll only really get great ones if you buy them in batches of ten with gems, but in order to fuse THOSE, you need to break down a shitload of costume pieces you spent gems to get in order to get fusion materials. I never even bothered to explore that part of the game.
And if you're serious about PvP, only the best leagues have players with power levels upwards of 30 million, and you can be damned sure not a single one has reached that point in the game without spending a few hundred dollars AT LEAST. Either that or they never stopped playing from day one and got really lucky with their pulls. So, I quit again, seeing that naturally achievable goal a very LONG ways away. And remember, if I want to do this the natural way, I need to run my phone 24/7. I don't think I want to continue to run this game and burn my phone out...
But even after quitting again, even while writing this blog, the game is beckoning me back. I know the game is bullshit, but it's the feedback loop that my brain is having a problem with breaking away from. I would get these little rushes of serotonin every time I saw my numbers go up, and I just wanted them to go up and up. It got so bad, I was even trying to rationalize spending the money for successful Rank L fusions. Granted, I wouldn't come close to spending 7,350 dollars even in a few months time, but thinking that I could spend that amount of money even over a year or two's worth time for a shitty ass cellphone game worried the fuck out of me. So, that game is staying off my phone from now on.
It's that feedback loop Darkness Rises applies that we see so many other cellphone games - and even console games now - employ that predicates itself on addictive personalities. Remember, I have one of those personalities as I struggled to quit both FFXI and FFXIV. To my credit, not every cellphone game can grab me. I quit Mario Kart Tour after two weeks, largely in part to them resetting my progress with every new circuit they swapped out. Fire Emblem Heroes took me a while to quit, and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp didn't stick with me for more than a couple of months. In comparison to those last couple games, I quit Darkness Rises much quicker, but the pull to stay on was FAR stronger. I even reinstalled Darkness Rises a couple times before a finally quit.
I just can't justify that kind of fuckery anymore. Sure, it started out generous, but the asking price for those damn fusions is just beyond insulting. What's sad is that there are people who won't think twice and snap those bundles up whenever they need them. I don't get it... I don't understand how people spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on a cellphone game, but balk when a cellphone game dares to charge you a one time price of five or ten bucks... These aren't games; they're trappings, and it's why I will never take the cellphone game industry seriously.
I know I haven't done a blog in a while. In fact, the last blog I did was talk about The Last of Us II, and that was about three months ago. Sorry about that. I decided to get back into reading, and I've been hitting it pretty hardcore the past several weeks. I've done so much gaming during the COVID stay at home time that I've neglected my reading, so now I'm overcorrecting. What am I reading? Elmore Leonard. For some reason, I thought it'd be fun to read all his 40+ books before the PS5/Xbox Series X launch arrives, which we'll talk about later. I've got less than 10 books to go, so I'm almost done. Anyway....
Sorry, I was looking for an image for Super Mario 3D All*Stars and this for some reason popped up and I thought it was too funny not to share. :P
So, let's begin by talking about Super Mario 3D All*Stars (yes, they used a star instead of the dash, but everyone else is using a hyphen. I'm being different!). First of all, let's discuss the banner. Do you see something missing on the far right? Like something should go there? I mean, what could it possibly be? Hmm.. I dunno, maybe Super Mario Galaxy 2? But before I go on, let me just preface this rant. I understand these three games are classics (Super Mario Sunshine is debatable) and we should be happy to have them on the Switch, but I've never been the one to just take whatever Nintendo manages to throw at me and say, "Thank you sir, may I have another!" I expect more from Nintendo. Always have. So yeah, I expected to see Super Mario Galaxy 2 in the collection when the first one was there. I mean.. you don't do a Super Mario All-Stars collection without Super Mario 3 when you already have the first two on there, right?
So yeah, it's a HUGE omission, but omissions aside, I'm also not really happy with what is there. I mean, you'll never take away just how good those games are (again Sunshine is debatable), but it's Mario's 35th Anniversary for crying out loud! We only got slightly enhanced visuals, which is fine because Super Mario Galaxy still holds up very well to this day considering what hardware was actually running it. But, we didn't even get an option to do widescreen for Super Mario 64 and the 4:3 aspect ratio of the game doesn't even touch the top and bottom of the screen! As far as Super Mario Sunshine is concerned, debug cubes were left in the game! I mean, how do you fuck that up? This illustrates just how lazy this port was. Nintendo is using previously emulated versions of these games, slapped them together on a cart and charged us 60 bucks for this. No manual, no art book, no physical soundtrack, no sleeve or even lithographic cover. This is not indicative of a 35th anniversary collection.
Let's also talk about the strange limited release of this game. I get physical games have limited runs all the time. One such site, Limited Run Games, even makes that their specialty. But this isn't a title that should have a limited run. This is a major title from a major publisher. Whatever the case, Super Mario 3D All*Stars is only available until March of next year, but to further exacerbate the situation, even the digital version is limited, also becoming unavailable after March. Why? At first, I wasn't even planning to buy the game, as I already own the original Mario 64 and DS version. Sunshine I never cared much for, and Galaxy still holds memories fairly well. But when I heard that preorders were already listing on eBay in upwards of 150 dollars, I got scared and jumped on it. For some reason, I didn't want to miss out on this game, and I realized this is what Nintendo wanted to do. They wanted to exploit their fans with FOMO, and it worked. Suddenly, we don't care that much anymore about the lack of effort put in the collection. Now, we are ever so thankful that Nintendo graced our Switches with this half-assed collection. I feel ashamed that I ordered a copy. But, I did. It's actually in my closet right now, unsealed, and will most likely remain that way where it likely accrue in value and not get unearthed again until the day I move.
But you know what, let me just give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt and say that COVID impacted their plans for the game. Maybe they intended to put SMG2 on there, but couldn't set up the right virtual meetings in time to get it done. Maybe they intended to have more packaging to it, but manufacturing became an issue and they decided they didn't want to miss the anniversary and just went with it. If that is the case, it's understandable but at least give us SMG2 as DLC and patch out the debug cubes in SMS.
Now, let's talk about the PS5 and Xbox Series X. *takes a deep breath*
As rough as COVID has been on us this year, I thank my lucky stars that I was able to land preorders for BOTH systems.
We all know what went wrong. Sony was supposed to announce that preorders would go live on the morning of Thursday, September 17th, but Wal-Mart had other plans. Shortly after the PlayStation showcase the previous Wednesday, Wal-Mart decided to go ahead with the preorders and they were instantly snatched up. Other retailers eventually followed suit, and a backdoor link to Amazon's preorder page was leaked on Twitter, so PS5s were already sold out on Amazon before preorders even went live.
That Wednesday afternoon before I even knew they were up everywhere, I decided to check BestBuy.com and HOLY SHIT, they were up! I immediately tried to order one, but as with millions of other people, I was met with refreshing errors and out of stock notices. Minutes after, I got the email from Best Buy that preorders were live, but it was already too late. At least to their credit, Best Buy was the only retailer I subscribed to for notifications that sent me one. So while I was fighting with Best Buy, I was checking all the other places. Target? Sold out. Wal-Mart, didn't even have the listings up (which later was because they were already sold out so they didn't bother to have the pages up anymore). Amazon wasn't live yet, and GameStop was hit so hard, they were giving everyone a "You've been blocked" splash page.
I was having the best luck with Best Buy so far, as it was the only site that I was actually able to get a PS5 in my cart, so I stuck with them. They'd kick the PS5 back out of my cart. I'd refresh, they'd have the preorder button still up, so I put it back in, try to check out, get stuck at the Place Your Order stage, lose the item from my cart again and then keep this dance going until one in the morning. I even took my phone with me during my hour long walk doing nothing but hitting that "Place Order" button. Anyway, I was laying in bed with my phone out, still hitting that damn button, and it turned 1 AM. I gave myself five more taps and if I didn't get, it'd just chalk up the loss. On the very last tap before I decided I was finally going to sleep, it went through! Could not believe my luck! In fact, I was so energized by this that I had trouble sleeping for the rest of the night.
As for games I preordered for the PlayStation 5, I of course had to get Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I went with the basic 50 dollar version, though, because I thought it was a bit scummy of Sony to charge an extra 20 for a remaster of 2018's Spider-Man. Then, I had to get Sackboy: A Big Adventure because I've always wanted a single-player focused 3D platformer from the Little Big Planet universe. It looks great, and I can't wait to play it! Then, I spent a few days going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to get Demon's Souls. I loved Demon's Souls on the PS3, but god dammit that game was hard! I really wasn't looking forward to playing the game again because of numerous areas I'd dread revisiting, but after watching some videos of the remake, it just looks too good to pass up. Plus, there were some really cool environments in the original that I would love to see again with the power of the PS5. And well, it's being done by Bluepoint who did an amazing job with Shadow of the Colossus, so you know it's going to be quality.
But back to Sony being scummy, do you remember when Sony said they would give us plenty of notice when preorders went live? You can technically say it wasn't Sony's fault but Wal-Mart's for selling early, BUT, Sony could have announced the September 17th date a week beforehand like MS did with theirs, so yeah... Sony still carries a bulk of the blame. What's also scummy about Sony is when they said they were moving way from the PS4 and were going to focus on PS5, so Miles Morales and Horizon: The Forbidden West would be PS5 exclusives. I was actually commending them for that decision, because exclusives help move consoles and give a reason for a new console existing, but then they backpedaled and announced that they'd be cross-generation and release for the PS4 as well. It's almost like they KNEW PS5s were going to be so hard to find, they didn't want to take a serious hit to their wallet with Miles only selling two million copies because there are only three million PS5s out in the wild.
As for the Xbox Series X, everyone had hopes that preorders would go a bit more smoothly as MS announced a preorder date of September 22nd, 9 AM MDT, and retailers looked to be holding to that date. Only one problem for me, though. They went live the moment I had to clock in at work, but I had a plan. Due to COVID, we don't have that many people in our building, so I wasn't worried about dicking around on the computer. I'd clock in a bit early, open up my browsers to all the major retailers, and start refreshing a couple minutes before 9. Just as I got the last browser open, there was a ring at the door and I completely forgot that one of our higher ups was vising us that day. SHIT!
So, I hop off the computer swearing under my breath, let her in, "HI! So nice to see you again! How've you been?" All that good stuff. She actually walked past my computer to go straight out to the floor and look around. Thank God, I had some time. Alright, here we go! Get an email from GameStop, "Xbox Series X preorders are now live!" Ok, they're a bit early, but ok. Click on the GS tab, they got a "You're in line. Please don't refresh" splash page up. Ok cool, they're doing something to manage the traffic. Check Best Buy and Amazon, not live yet. Target's up, so I try to preorder, I get stuck trying to confirm my address. I go to Wal-Mart, get one in my cart, try to check out, and they say they're out of stock! At 9:02, they're out of stock! So I'm thinking this isn't right, and just keep trying. I can get it in the cart, check out, told out of stock, but I can get it in the cart again.
While I'm in the middle of doing this, my higher up comes back in the workroom and is now asking questions about how our workflow's been going due to COVID. She's also asking if there's anything she can help with, and here I am stuck at Wal-Mart with my credit card out on the desk trying to check this fucking thing out. She's now noticed what I'm doing, but hasn't said anything and well, I decided to just explain and she's cool about it. Really awesome lady. And then after being told out of stock five times, it FINALLY goes through, and then she congratulates me! I love my job! I really, really do!
That was a huge relief, a massive weight off my chest. Then I got to hear the sad stories of people who went through the same loops of not being able to get their orders through, very similar to what happened to the PS5. Refresh loops, out of stock notices, people patiently waiting in line at GameStop, not refreshing because the splash page told them not to, only for the site to crash saying "Oops, something went wrong! Refresh page." Best Buy apparently didn't even go live until an hour later, and I don't even know when Amazon put theirs up. Just a nightmare. Seems nothing was learned from the PS5 disaster. I did have a friend who got extremely lucky because after I posted that I got one, he said he was trying for a couple hours and got nothing, but I replied to him that they're going up in waves and to just keep trying and then like magic, he tried again and instantly got one.
As for games, I got Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, which I actually had preordered months ago on sale for 50, but because of Xbox Series X's Smart Delivery, I'll get the next gen upgrade at no additional cost. I'm really warming up to what MS is doing this generation and only hope that Sony follows suit quickly. I don't think the 70 dollar price tag will last long. I also preordered Dirt 5 and Watch Dogs: Legion and I had 36 dollars in Rewards points, so I got the last two games for 82 bucks. Not bad.
But man... We've got to find a better way to handle these preorders. For starters, a major issue was MS and Sony not making enough to meet demand. To be honest, that's an almost impossible order to fill, because how do you supply several million consoles to everyone who wants one on day one? Even though Sony and MS reportedly are making more consoles than previous gen, it still wasn't enough. A solution to that would be to postpone the launch in order to manufacture more units as COVID has impacted plants' efficiency. I know both MS and Sony don't want to miss that holiday money, but Nintendo has proven with the Switch that you don't need to launch during the holidays to be successful. I mean, come on. Who's not going to buy the new Xbox or PlayStation when they drop, regardless of what time of year?
One major problem to solve is what to do about the bots and scalpers. Considering just how far internet technology has advanced the past two decades, you'd think someone would have a program to install to their sites that could detect these bots. Maybe it's as simple as seeing someone refreshing 10 times a second, and then block their access for five minutes. As for scalpers, I don't think anything can be done to stop a person from buying consoles from multiple stores with multiple cards using family and friends in order to use multiple phone numbers and addresses.
That's going to be the hardest thing to address. You're going to need to fight basic human and corporate greed. eBay knows it's a shitty thing to do to take a highly anticipated machine out of the hands of people who want them and then sell it back to them for more than twice the price, but eBay wants a cut of that flip. Auctioning predicates itself upon people's desperation of needing things far more than they want them and until you make laws to fight back against capitalism, this will always be a thing. I mean, when assholes started flipping hand sanitizer, Clorox Wipes and fucking toilet paper, eBay and Amazon started shutting that shit down because they're necessities; people NEED them. People don't need video games. They'll always be looked at as luxury items.
Oh, and then we have the physical GameStop stores to contend with. Some stores got a handful of systems and some even got as few as TWO units to sell. Can you imagine standing in a line of a hundred people at GameStop only for the clerk to come out and announce they only have TWO to sell? If that isn't infuriating enough... Get a load of this.
Imagine going to your local GameStop early enough that you were line to actually get a PS5 or Xbox Series X (You know what I just realized? I never even mentioned Xbox Series S... and I'm not going to because why?) but you missed out because the store leader bought five of them and is currently selling them on eBay. I mean, seriously. FUCK GameStop. (Although I would have bought one from their site if only it worked).
And then in breaking news:
Rapper Travis Scott appears to already have a PS5. Well, isn't that just nice. To be perfectly honest, I'm not mad. I'm just, again, thankful that I managed to land a preorder. As Rich says in the video, celebrities getting free things is nothing new. I remember before the 360 launched, one reason why that machine was so scarce was because MS kept putting them in celebrities' goodie bags. But even though this is old hat, it still is frustrating. The richer you are, the more free stuff you're given? I get why. Companies want free advertising. But does Sony and MS really NEED free advertising, though? Isn't there already enough hype in regards to these systems? They don't need to give anyone free consoles to promote. They need to give more consoles to people who actually have the money to buy them. To hammer the point home:
They don't need to give anyone free consoles to promote. They need to give more consoles to people who actually have the money to buy them.
Oh yeah, Microsoft bought Bethesda! But, this blog has already gone on long enough. Thank for you reading if you got this far. I will say, though, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what MS does with them. I'm really hoping Elder Scrolls 6 will be Xbox console exclusive. I know there's a crowd that wants to do away with exclusives altogether, but I've always believed in console identity, but that's a topic for a different blog. Again, thanks for reading, and I'll try not to wait so long until the next blog. I for sure will have blogs up for the PS5 and Xbox Series X when they release, possibly even unboxing videos if I get them in time, so watch for them.
