AzureAzule27

Joined 02/23/2012
  Super Member

đź’™

325 Posts

ARK: The Animated Series First Trailer

There's a trailer for ARK: The Animated Series, which is based on ARK: Survival Evolved. One of the most notable aspects of the trailer is the cast, which includes very many recognizable names such as David Tennant, Michelle Yeoh, Russell Crowe, and Karl Urban. Vin Diesel is in the cast as well, but he's actually playing a much larger role in the development of ARK 2 and likely this as well. His likeness is used as one of the main characters, Santiago.

This looks really interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing it. The game's lore is actually hidden throughout the game in Explorer Notes. These are hidden throughout the ARKs and easy to miss out on. You can also see some of the lore when you "ascend," that is beat the boss of the ARK you're on. You can find the Explorer Notes on Fandom here: https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Explorer_Notes You can find all of ARK's cutscenes (including the new ones recently added) on YouTube.

Let me know what you think of this and if you're looking forward to it, too.

Minecraft 1.20 the "unnamed" update
I just watched xisumavoid’s video (embedded) about the new 1.20 updated for Minecraft, as I did not watch Minecraft Live. I don’t think it’s incredibly exciting, but it still is interesting and I like what I saw. I really like xisumavoid’s channel (he has a second one, too) for Minecraft news. I strongly recommend xisumavoid's channel or channels.

The “Sniffer” won the mob vote. According to an article I found via Google, https://www.windowscentral.com/news/live/minecraft-live-2022 , “[t]he Sniffer is an ancient, long-extinct, which players can revive by finding underwater eggs and nurturing them. If the Sniffer is returned to the Overworld, players can use its amazing sense of smell to dig up seeds to long-lost ancient plants.“ This description doesn’t really mean anything for me, but I’m interested in seeing more about it. I didn’t have a preference, but I’m glad we got the Allay (which I still haven’t checked out yet).

Fireflies were announced for the previous Minecraft update and were shown, but didn’t make it into the game. This and some other similar examples lead Mojang to decide to only announce features that were far enough along in their development and thus most likely to be available. I think this is smart, I’m still unhappy that we haven’t gotten those little bags, I need that inventory help! I’m disappointed, too, that fireflies didn’t make it in, they would have been great for ambiance.

One of the things I think that’s cool about this update is that bamboo is becoming a wood type and I think it looks good. The jungle has always been a favorite biome of mine, but that's because that's where we used to get cats (now parrots). Bamboo wood has some of it’s own style, too, including it’s boat, which is a raft.

Camels are being added Desert Villages and I think this is great, too! I’m not fond of the desert biome and I think this certainly adds to it, making it better. Two players can ride them, which can help traversing easier, particularly since one player can shoot mobs. Camels will be bred with cactus, giving it a use finally.

There will be hanging signs, too, which I think helps make signs look better. This is in part due to this update being about self-expression and it’s really cool to see new Minecraft character models included, which feature a good amount of diversity and choice for players, not just Alex and Steve.

Bookshelves will be able to hold actual books, too, and this includes spell books. You can interact with them. I think this will be a great way to store spell books. The Librarian is my MVP when it comes to Villagers and bookshelves are extremely important in the game, IMO, so I’m looking forward to this, too. I’m always on the hunt for Mending ASAP (and I've discovered how to get it easily)!

There will be more about this update coming in a matter of days and beta/preview builds will also become available very soon. The update is expected to come out sometime next year, though.

I think there’s news about other Minecraft games, but my interest in them is minimal, so I’ll let you explore that on your own. Feel free to share what you find here.

Let me know what you think about this update! Are you excited?

Steam Users, Categorize Your Games Into Lists!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/New_Steam_Logo_with_name.jpg/800px-New_Steam_Logo_with_name.jpg?20200129132848
I recently discovered this article on GameSpot, “Four Ways You Can Make Steam Better Right Now,” and I strongly believe it’s worth reading. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/four-ways-you-can-make-steam-better-right-now/1100-6507521/

Steam is my dominant platform choice at the moment. I’m struggling to remember the last time I played a console game. It’s been long time! I have plenty of them lying around, but I’ve been exclusively focused on PC gaming for quite a while now. I’ve come to the conclusion that my console gaming ended with the Wii U.

I know little of current consoles, but I believe they are powerful and expensive. Well, that is except for the Switch, which is the only one I’m interested in. I get very disappointed seeing videos of non-Nintendo games on the Switch. They usually perform and look so much better on PC. However, Nintendo’s always been a favorite of mine and they still make great games I’m sadly missing out on. $300 is a price I’d rather spend on a new PC part, though.

I’m kind of a Steam snob, too, in that I want all of my games there. It’s nice having everything in one place, including your list of friends and just one application to run. But, Steam isn’t the only PC platform. There is also the Epic Game Store, GOG Galaxy, UPlay, Blizzard.net, Xbox companion app, and many more. There are many good things about not having everything exclusively centralized, though. One of my favorite things about having other platforms is that I have backups in case Steam ever goes down. I can easily hop over to EGS and play something I also got for free there. I haven’t spent any money on the EGS yet, but my library is huge!

Introducing categorizing your games

I haven’t been paying attention to Steam’s updates and exploring new features, so I enjoyed that this article pointing some out to me. The mention of categorizing the games in my library into lists is what I found to be most important.

Steam is certainly a top platform when it comes to PC gaming. Because of this, many of us have very large libraries, which makes it difficult to find a particular game we’re interested in playing. We can simply look through the list alphabetically, or add them to our “Favorites” list. This didn’t quite go far enough. Now we can organize them much easier into lists.

There are some recommended lists in the article. It’s a good idea to create lists for your level of enthusiasm for a game. So, create a list for the games you’re playing, the ones you want to play, and the ones you don’t want to play. Then, when you’re looking at your library on the left, you can hide the games in these lists, making your search much easier.

I created lists for what I want to “check out sometime,” or “play soon.” I have a list for games I’m waiting for an update. Terraria and The Witcher 3 are now on this list, the latter was supposed to get an HD update this year. I also have a “Windows 11” list for HDR games. My CPU isn’t compatible with Win11 and HDR looks terrible in Win10, so I’m waiting until I get my new PC build done.

One of the most important is my “Unknown/No Interest” list. I think this is something everyone needs. It helps remove a lot of games from my view, making it so much easier to find the games I am looking for more quickly. Free games and bundles are very good at adding to our library, but it’s easy to forget what some of them are. Plus, there are games we lose interest in.

I’ve also created other categories such as “Batman,” “TES,” “iD,” “Fallout,” “Square-Enix,” “Rockstar Games,” and so many more. Spending just a few minutes creating these lists and adding games to them was very much worth it. My library on the left-hand side looks so much better now! I strongly recommend everyone else on Steam to do this.

The article also mentions skins and apps that bring together our different platforms, which I didn’t see as interesting or necessary. I still very much strongly recommend reading the article, if you’re on Steam.

Let me know what you think about this article and the things it mentions. Are there other suggestions or features of Steam you’d like to point out?

Gotham Knights Coming 10/21/22
I recently watched a “Before You Buy” video by GamingBolt for Gotham Knights (embedded). I’ve shared other videos of this series, so it’s definitely a channel I strongly recommend. The video is great, because it goes into some non-spoilery details about the plot and game play. If you enjoyed the Batman Arkham games, you’ll probably enjoy this, too (as I expect to).

I’ve known about Goth Knights for a while now. It’s coming to consoles and PC on 10/21/22. There’s also a Suicide Squad game coming out that looks quite similar. I’m looking forward to both of these games and will probably write something later for the Suicide Squad one.

The premise is that Batman and Commissioner Gordon are dead (or presumed dead). Gotham still needs it’s protector, since The Court of Owls has taken over. So, the Batman family fills in the void. Batgirl, Night Wing, Red Hood, and Robin are the four playable characters.

My familiarity with each character is different. Robin’s the most familiar. It took a long time before I realized there was more than one “Robin.” The Arkham games gave me a great introduction to the other characters, even if only by their real names or other identities. I’m really looking forward to getting to know these characters better. It looks like Batgirl will be the one most like the Batman we’ve been used to playing as since she uses a lot of the same abilities.

According to WB, this is the biggest playable Gotham City yet. All characters have some kind of ability for traversing distance such is gliding, but you’ll need a vehicle to traverse more quickly. Arkham Knight gave us the Batmobile, but Gotham Knights will use the Batcycle.

While traversing the city as Bat Girl, Night Wing, Red Hood, or Robin, the city will only be experiencing night time. It will change to day when you meet with the other characters in the Belfry (the Batcave is not used apparently). It looks like we’ll be seeing the characters as their regular identities when they meet in the Belfry.

This is an ARPG, but you don’t have to play each character to gain experience, since they all do collectively. Each character has their own play styles. They use different weapons and technologies. They traverse differently. They’re very interesting and the video does a great job of showing off each.

Ray-tracing is making it’s way to PC. The video points out that there’s no word yet on when or if this will make it to the consoles (PC superiority!). I’m excited about this since I now have an EVGA 12G RTX 2060 XC. While my EVGA GTX 1660 Ti XC Gaming can do ray-tracing, I wasn’t able to get a true and smooth experience until I recently upgraded (and I still want an RTX 3070!). (Random note: EVGA is breaking up with NVIDIA and it's sad, but sometimes you just have to get out of a toxic relationship. Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/evga-terminates-relationship-with-nvidia-leaves-gpu-business/1100-6507619/)

I’m also seeing HDR as a feature on many of these new games and this is a technology I’ve only begun to have access to with the new monitor I got in December. However, apparently Windows 10 has a horrible application of this, so I’ve never really seen HDR for what it’s truly supposed to be. For that reason, I’ve decided it’s time to upgrade to Windows 11, since my i7-8700 isn’t compatible. It’s going to take me some time, so this is probably one of the games on my already created list of games to wait for until I have my new Windows 11 PC (my new build after 3 years).

Let me know what you think about this. Is it something you’re excited about, too? Are you going to be getting it when it comes out?

Official site: https://www.gothamknightsgame.com/en-us

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Arrives 12/13/22
“Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion will bring the PSP adventure to Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on December 13.” (Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-reunion-confirmed-for-december-13-launch/1100-6507433/)

I got really obsessed with Final Fantasy when I went to college 22 years ago. While FF8 is my favorite, FF7 seems to be the fan favorite with good reason. It’s continued to receive a lot of attention long after it’s original release on the PlayStation (that’s PS1).

I haven’t played FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE, yet, but it seems to be popular. However, I’ve enjoyed many of the other games associated with FF7. The PlayStation Portable was one of my favorite handhelds. I’ve always had the Nintendo ones and I did have a Sega Game Gear, but I got my PSP about 12 years ago and I really enjoyed it. Just thinking about it makes me want to play it again.

One of the things I loved most about the PSP was that there are many FF games for it. I got all of them, or at least almost all. Crisis Core was a favorites of mine. It’s a bit of a prequel. Looking at FF7 Remake, the games look similar to me, even though I’ve only played CC.

I think I enjoyed everything about this game and I’m really looking forward to playing it again on PC. The trailer I just saw looks beautiful!

Let me know if you’re into this and if you’re going to be grabbing it.

Pre-orders: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-reunion-preorders-are-live-at-amazon/1100-6504989/

Marvel Strike Force Getting Hulked Out
Because of this year’s D23 expo (https://d23.com/), I found out about Marvel Strike Force. An announcement was made that, “the free-to-play turn-based mobile game, is getting an influx of Hulk content very soon.”

The game is currently out and installed on my phone, but I haven’t tried it yet and I know pretty much nothing about it. I’ve never owned an expensive cellphone and I hate them anyway. I haven’t played many cellphone games in part because mine haven’t been compatible with many things. I was a “mobile” gamer long before cellphones had gaming functionality. My Gameboy was my first Nintendo product and remained my primary gaming device for a long time. I eventually got into consoles and the PlayStation Portable (which I loved), but all of that ended with the PS3 and Wii U. Now you can easily call me a PC snob.

However, since I’ve been “Marvel-ously” obsessed, this news is quite appealing. I’ll check it out eventually. I’ll get back to you if I do and have thoughts to share.

Let me know if you know anything about this and what you think about it or if it's something you’re interested in.

News Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/all-the-hulks-are-coming-to-marvel-strike-force/1100-6507329/

Marvel Snap Coming to PC and mobile 10/18/22
At this year’s D23 expo (https://d23.com/), a new game called Marvel Snap was announced for PC and mobile. You can pre-register on the website (https://www.marvelsnap.com/pre-register) or within the Apple store and Google Play. It’s coming to PC, too, but I wasn’t able to find a link for it, so I visited Google Play on my phone.

Marvel Snap is the debut from Second Dinner, which is an indie studio composed of Blizzard veterans who worked on Hearthstone. It doesn’t sound like a Marvel variant (keyword there if you’re following the MCU). It’s hard to describe what I’ve just read and I think the best thing to do is to point you towards the links below to read for yourself. You’ll probably understand it better than I do.

I got into CCGs w/ Magic the Gathering and the Star Trek: Next Generation CCG. I still have cards from both. My son has a nice collection from the Pokemon CCG. My problem with Hearthstone is simply that I do not enjoy PVP. I’d rather play against an AI. I did enjoy it to a point and I do believe it’s a good and popular game, but there was little for a single lone player to do when I played, so I stopped.

I’ve never had a great phone nor have I had a ridiculously expensive iPhone nor have I had the interest in them. So, I’ve never really gotten into mobile gaming when it applies to cell phones. I hate cellphones, most especially due to stupid touch screens. I’m only glad now that there’s a Windows Phone Link app that lets me use my PC to text and call. Texting is far superior with a full keyboard to type on!

I’m Marvel-ously obsessed (Dad joke, check!), so I’ll probably at least check this out for a bit. Let me know what you think about this and if it’s something you’re interested in.

Sources:

Announcement: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/marvel-snap-releasing-on-pc-and-mobile-october-18/1100-6507228/

In-depth interview with Ben Brode: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-marvel-snap-puts-a-new-spin-on-the-card-game-formula/1100-6503598/

Everything New in Terraria 1.4.4!
Greetings Terrarians! Terraria's State of the Game for August is up and it brings some great new about the "Labor of Love" update. First, what is it? Well, this came about when a few years ago Terraria won the "Labor of Love" award on Steam. This was a category in one of the "Game of the Year" polls they do. The "Labor of Love" category was for games that have been out for a while, but continue to receive new content. So, it was decided to give an update to version 1.4.4.

I know, right, we thought we saw the last content update for Terraria that gave us Journey mode. But we're always delightfully surprised (except with the cancellation of Terraria: Otherworld). So, when is this update coming? Well the date hasn't been announced yet, but that announcement is coming soon (and I wouldn't be surprised to see it in next month's SotG). The code is now "frozen," which means it will get no more additional content. It will get bug fixes and balance changes and such, of course. But the code has been released for the other developers (like for consoles). It is intended that this version will be released at the same time for all platforms.

So what's in this update? Well, for that I give to you ChippyGaming's video on "Everything New in Terraria 1.4.4" (embedded) and I strongly recommend you go watch it!

You can read the "State of the Game" for August here: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-state-of-the-game-august-2022.114276/

Let me know what you think of this! Are you ready to jump back into Terraria? I am! I haven't played since our server for Journey mode. I'd love to do that again! I've had the game installed, being aware of this update coming, so that I'll know right away when Steam downloads the update. Especially thanks to ChippyGaming's video, I think I'm going to dive right in ASAP!

Orders For Terraria Graphic Novels Are Open Now!
One of our favorite games, Terraria, now has a graphic novel series and orders are open now! You can begin ordering them at 50 Amp Productions website. You can order the first one here: https://www.50ampproductions.com/collections/comic-issue-01 You may notice that there are tiers. You can get the graphic novel itself for pretty much $5 or you can spend $50 and get a whole bunch of goodies!

Here's a good tidbit from the news report: "Overall, the plan is to roll out Issues 1-4 (Book One) over the next few months, followed by a full Book One release to book sellers/retailers as well as available online some time in Q1 2023. Book One will contain all of the first four issues along with a few other goodies (still TBD, but think concept art and other "making of" work, stuff like that). All orders can be placed on the 50 Amp Productions Website - click the cover above to check it out!" You can find more details here: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-graphic-novel-book-one-issue-one-orders-now-open.114075/

Speaking of Terraria news, I've been aware of the "Labor of Love Update" and I want to make sure our community is, too. It seems to be nearing completion. ChippyGaming has described some of the new features and changes as being "game changing." He's really good at being up to date with Terraria news. You can check out his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChippyGaming

News of the update is often seen in the "State of the Game" posts. You can see the latest one for July here: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-state-of-the-game-july-2022.113499/

Are you interested in the graphic novel series? I am, but I think I'd like to wait to get "Book One." What do you think about all this? Are you planning to pick this up? Also, have you been keeping up w/ the Labor of Love news? Are you going to jump back in the game to check it out?

Tactics Ogre Gets Reborn on November 11th
I just found this piece of news, which I fell in love with once I saw the YouTube video (embedded). I haven’t played any Tactics Ogre game, but I believe they are popular. According to the article, “Tactics Ogre: Reborn is based on 2011's Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on the PSP, which itself was a port of the original 1995 release for Super Nintendo.” If you know more about these games, please feel free to let me know what you think of them!

The reason I fell in love with the video was because it looks just like the Final Fantasy Tactics games I’ve loved so very much. I got introduced to Final Fantasy in college (I will forever love FF8 the most). FF Tactics was something I really enjoyed on the Playstation. I got FF Tactics Advance when it came out along with my first Gameboy Advance SP. Later, I got to play FFTA2 and what came to the PSP. I really loved those games, so I don’t think I can pass up the chance to play this new similar game in November.

Let me know if you’re interested in this! Are you familiar with the games I’ve mentioned? Are you planning to pick this up? I’ve already added it to my wish list and I think I’ll get at release.

Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/tactics-ogre-reborn-officially-revealed-by-square-enix-coming-november-11/1100-6506152/