Category: Video Games

Secret World Legends’ Steam Launch today, Whispering Tide Event starts tomorrow.

If you have Steam, Secret World Legends is integrated into it. However, if you already have an existing Patron account for Secret World Legends, don’t link it yet.  They’re having integration issues tonight.

As for Whispering Tide: I’ve been looking forward to doing this one for a while.  When I started playing The Secret World, they had just begun to wrap up that particular event, and I missed it.  I’ve wanted to play it ever since.  Gonna be fun!

Secret World Legends comes to Steam on 07/31/2017.

Secret World Legends is free-to-play, but you’ll want to subscribe. You’ll be able to play and win the game without spending a dime, mind you – but having a monthly membership gives enough benefits to be worth it, assuming of course that you like conspiracy-horror shared game with fiendishly complicated investigation missions and a cheerful willingness to throw everything into the mix.  And I do mean everything.

Here is the SWL fact sheet for navigating the Steam launch.  You may want to take a look at it.  The process might be a little… complicated.

Tweet of the Day, Kingdom Hearts 3 Seems Even More Surreal In Japanese edition.

I’ve never played Kingdom Hearts, because I’m a PC gamer and this series is usually just on Playstations.  But Kingdom Hearts 3 is pretty surreal-looking. And fun!  It doesn’t look fun enough for me to shell out four hundred bucks for a gaming platform that I won’t use, but it looks like fun.

Out on December 27th.

Huh. They’re doing the first ten hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda for free.

All platforms. It’s enough to get you fiddling around with the first planet (EOS) in Mass Effect: Andromeda.  I swear to God, though: I wish that Bioware would either defecate, or get off the pot.  There are, in fact, two big cliffhangers in-game, so there are obvious hooks for DLC; but the game stumbled badly in getting out the door*.  So it’s justifiable to pull the plug on the game.  But if they’re going to do that, then they should cut their losses and stop fiddling with it.  Develop it or don’t develop it as they please, but they should please choose one.

Moe Lane

*Which is, ultimately, a mistake of management.  Oh, the developers clearly didn’t do their jobs — but it was management’s to make sure that the job got done anyway, and Bioware’s suits fornicated the canine on that action item pretty danged thoroughly. Some things you just can’t wing and a prayer.

Quote of the Day, How Do You Get Video Game XP For A Media Character? edition.

So, they were asking Mike Pondsmith about Cyberpunk 2077, and he’s not telling them anything much. But there’s this nugget of info: “His tabletop features unconventional classes like journalist, rockstar, executive, and others. The interviewer asked whether those will actually be in Cyberpunk 2077 and Mike Pondsmith replied positively.”  …Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it. Some of those classes don’t really translate well in an action RPG.

Still. It’s Cyberpunk 2077 info.  Better than nothing, right?

Of two minds on this Black The Fall video game trailer.

On the one hand: the aesthetic for Black the Fall works for me, not least because it’s pretty matter-of-fact about how nasty Communism is* and why it should be fled whenever possible.  on the other hand, I don’t care for that particular kind of gameplay.  But that’s a personal aesthetic choice for me, and should not be factored into your purchasing decisions.  And, on the gripping hand: it’s apparently very close to that of Inside’s.  Which I’ve actually never heard of before, because, after all, I don’t play these kinds of games.

Out on Steam now. Continue reading Of two minds on this Black The Fall video game trailer.

So, been getting into Secret World Legends.

It certainly feels harder to get through the later boards now, but that may simply be because my old Secret World primary character was, by the end, a silent avatar of power who dispensed life with the left hand and death with the right*.  Which is to say: Assault Rifle/Elementalism leech healer with top-rank purple gear and two full ability wheels.  It may be a while before I’m back to that level of awesomeness.

Generally, I’d say that combat is easier, but I still do miss that ability wheel.  I also miss the auxiliary weapons, although that’s mostly for the cool factor.  Secret World Legends doesn’t feel any less friendly, though, which is probably the single most important thing to me at this point: I liked the community, I missed it, and while we’re still trying to get everything settled in the general attitude seems to have successfully transplanted itself.

So check it out. Free to play — and it seems to be reasonably free to play, too.  Although I’m not sure how it feels to people who don’t subscribe to the game. I have a lifetime membership grandfathered in, so I’m maybe not a really reliable judge here.

Moe Lane

*I’m left-handed.

Mass Effect: Andromeda removes Denuvo DRM in latest patch.

This is like old-style Kremlinology.  What does it mean, man?  Denuvo was on Mass Effect: Andromeda to prevent piracy, of course.  Does its going away mean that there won’t be single-player DLC, because Bioware no longer cares about the property? Or does it mean there will be DLC, because removing Denuvo allegedly improves performance and Bioware expects that people will be coming back to play the game soon?  It’s all very obscure.

I know, I know. I should not expect any single-player DLC for MEA.  I should actively expect that MEA will never have single-player DLC.  But I want to fight my way through to save the quarian Ark, tanjit. I enjoy doing things like that.