I check in on the blogs regularly and I listen to the NWP podcast here every time it comes out, I just haven't blogged in a really long time. Lately I'm playing Dark Souls 3 for the first time, might try to get Bloodborne soon so I can play that after
2016 sucked, but it was the best year of NWP ever, so that's a silver lining you guys should be proud of. The production quality of the show went way up, and on top of that it was the most entertaining year yet for me. Great guests, topics, specials, and the format changes really worked out well if you look back.
In years past it was a little lonely commenting here, but in 2016 way more people started interacting with the show and now most of the time when I come to bring the wall of text there are like a dozen people that have beat me to it, and that's not even counting all the interaction from social media. I think it's awesome. Segments or formats that get listeners involved is working out pretty well and I hope we do much more in 2017. Whatever ideas you guys get for the show in the new year, whatever turns you on creatively, just go for it. There's a receptive and growing fanbase here just waiting to reach out.
My state of gaming in 2016 was a story of change. I made the switch to PC gaming early in the year with a mid-tier laptop produced in 2015. I fell in love and it's become the new normal for me. It's good that I'm a computer person and the fuss I have to go through doesn't bother me as much. I look for deals on Steam, GoG, and Humble Bundle regularly and I've been able to buy way more games and for way cheaper than I ever found on my 360. I learned how to install mods and alter game files as well. But the thing that perplexed me the most is that I also started playing my FPS games with keyboard and mouse after I experimented with it, which I thought would be impossible at first. I still prefer to play 3rd person games with a controller so I bought an XB1 gamepad that I use, but for first person games I love having keyboard and mouse because the mouse gives me precise control over where I look and it's faster. As a side note, that XB1 controller is super comfortable, the money they put into R&D and the ways they improved the 360 controller design was clearly worth it.
I didn't assimilate to the Borg and join the master race proper though. I played games my whole life on console up till now and I was just fine. In fact, this was the year I bought back into Playstation for the first time since my original PS2 around 14 years ago. Late this year I grabbed a PS4 Pro, which seems like a bad investment for people who have regular PS4's, but it's perfect for somebody like me who hadn't bought into the current generation yet. The Dualshock 4 is super comfortable too. The controller R&D that Microsoft and Sony both did was super fruitful and they delivered us two of the best gamepads ever, perhaps.
So I primarily play on PC with an XB1 controller and my PS4 is a thing on the side that I really wanted to have for exclusives, which sounds weird since there are so few. I don't want to be kept away from Red Dead Redemption 2 (which isn't coming to PC supposedly) and Horizon Zero Dawn. On top of that there's a whole bunch of PS3 remasters and collections that I missed out on but I can now take advantage of on PS4. I already finished The Last of Us Remastered and that was almost single-handedly worth the price of admission. One of the best stories ever, decidedly the best lighting model I've ever seen, and it's full of stealth which is my favorite genre. That was the perfect game to break-in my new PS4 Pro and I got it on sale for $10.
Chrono Crossing 2002
My favorite game of 2002 was Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance for PS2. My love of RPG's can be traced back to Dark Alliance, perhaps earlier with Zelda but most people don't seem to count those. Because I fell in love with this game I was willing to give similar games a chance in the future. I wouldn't have ended up playing Champions of Norrath, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, or Dark Souls if Baldur's Gate hadn't broken me in and showed me how awesome it is to hack enemies to pieces, pick up loot, invest attribute points, and repeat the process on stronger enemies.
I just finished this game for the first time a few days ago. I played the remastered version on my new PS4 Pro and holy crap it's the most beautiful looking game I've ever seen in real-time. I've seen graphics comparison videos and the game looked really good on PS3, but this remaster, on PS4 Pro no less, is really stunning and looks noticeably better. The lighting in this game is the best I've seen, with the only thing coming close being Witcher 3 on PC.
Anyways, I really loved the story and it's been sticking with me ever since. I've been thinking about it every day since I beat it. I really developed a bond with Ellie and thought her character was incredible, and I didn't think Joel was a villian or a hero. He was a interesting character that under normal circumstances was a decent person and a loving single father to Sarah, but the apocalypse eventually brought out the killer survival instincts in him and he became a soldier of sorts capable of killing whenever needed, but with fewer rules of engagement. Joel never seems to take a sociopathic pleasure in killing, but as long as he has some conceit for doing it the killing is clearly easy for him intellectually.
The choice Joel makes at the end of the story is really disturbing and selfish but I found myself sympathizing with getting Ellie out of the hospital. I managed to sneak my way to the operating room only killing one person that was scripted to notice you. I thought killing the doctor with the scalpal was unecessary and Joel was unhinged, but as a player I still wanted to get Ellie out of there and the needs of the many didn't outweigh the needs of the few. Joel's whole journey appeared to be about how much a parent is willing to sacrifice for a child. Joel sacrifices random people to save Ellie, then he moves up to sacrificing friends for Ellie, and ultimately he sacrifices all of humanity just to protect Ellie and let her live out her life. It isn't rational, and the Fireflies clearly had good intentions and a possible vaccine to synthesize from Ellie's death, but it's a primal part of the human condition and those are bonded protective instincts I can relate to. So I don't see Joel as the villian or hero, just a person making a lot of choices, some are extremely selfish, some are selfless and brave, and most are in-between. I had bonded with Ellie so strong that I was also willing to do anything to keep her alive. It didn't feel good killing people that didn't need to die and it didn't feel good lying to Ellie, but somehow it felt necessary. It was very bittersweet. They did a great job creating an interesting character and that's high praise for any story; it's boring having characters that are cut and dry angels or demons.
The cast of supporting characters were amazing and completely brought that world to life in ways that Joel & Ellie couldn't do on their own. Bill and his boyfriend were something I picked up on and I thought they were really compelling. Tess is amazing, and I liked Tommy and his wife. I especially liked Sam and Henry, and I got teary when they both died in one scene. As soon as I saw that Sam had been bitten I knew how the story would play out and we'd almost certainly loose both characters soon, but even once the events transpired and we did loose them both I wasn't prepared for it all. Such a huge punch in the gut. Sam & Henry were like a mirror reflecting a relationship similar to Joel & Ellie, and seeing them both die so easily and tragically drove home how fragile Joel & Ellie's lives would be in that world and how painfully and uncermoniously people can be lost.
I would be interested to see what you all think about this next part, but when Henry shot Sam and watched him die before his eyes I'm sure that had to bring back traumatic memories in Joel of watching Sarah die. In that scene Joel tries to talk Henry down by saying, "This isn't anybody's fault". He could've been defensive and said, "This isn't my fault" since Henry was pointing the gun at Joel at the moment, but instead Joel made sure to say it wasn't the fault of anybody, perhaps foreseeing that Henry was likely to turn the gun on himself. Do you think Joel feels the same way about Sarah's death? After 20 years do you think he eventually confronted all that pain and learned to cope with her death in some fashion? I went through the whole story thinking that Joel has been burying that pain deep down and refusing to acknowledge it, but in that moment his statements could give a brief glimpse into a deeper thought process he's gone through himself and is trying to impart to Henry.
Stage Select
If I could have a new level in one of my favorite games it would be in Halo 2 during the orbital battle around Earth and the player would have the ability to manually jump through space in only his suit, collide with Covenant cruisers, board the bridges to destroy the captains, and eventually kill the capitol ship. In the game Chief flies out an airlock with the bomb on Cairo Station and you see him kill the capitol ship in a cutscene but I'd love to have all of that open space jumping be playable. It would make for incredible spectacle having full control as you look around in mid flight to see a massive fleet battle.
Chrono Crossing 2003
My pick is The Hobbit for Gamecube. This was a licensed adaptation of the novel and it wasn't related in any way to Peter Jackson's LOTR films. It's a children's game with rudimentary third-person action-rpg platforming and stealth. I have a lot of emotional and sentimental attachment to the game because 2003 was the year I read The Hobbit for the first time and fell in love with the adventure. Then a few months later the game came out and it turned out to be really polished, faithful to the source material, colorful with an art style that still holds up better than most games of that year, the soundtrack is good and won some awards, and the gameplay is simple but executed well. Listen to this song and tell me you aren't ready to leave the Shire on an adventure:
A Walk In The Shire - The Hobbit OST
Five years ago I actually wrote an in-depth review and explanation of why I love this game so much. It was the second blog I ever posted on Pixlbit and Nick featured it on the front page and everything. I'm a sappy dope about this game
Glad you're feeling better and the chest cold is gone. Have you seen that clip from Planet Earth 2 going around where the lizard sprints through a bunch of snakes and escapes?
Bioshock 2 is my favorite in that series. I thought the story was really interesting and the combat was the perfect speed for me. Bioshock 1 was a bit too slow and plodding while Infinite was really fast and acrobatic; Bioshock 2's addition of dual wielding and plasmid combinations made things noticeably faster and more action packed without straying as far from Bioshock 1 as Infinite did. I think Minerva's Den had some of the best storytelling moments in the franchise. It's an excellent Bioshock experience you can get through in one sitting, with interesting characters and great pacing. I want to replay it sometime soon. It's a shining example of when DLC is done well.
BTW make sure to try out the cyclone trap plasmid, especially combined with elemental effects, it's insane. You can literally send people flying all over the place, bash them againt ceilings, etc. It's totally goofy and amazing. You can turn whole encounter spaces into pandemonium with liberal application of cyclone trap
I love seeing Beau, he's a crazy bundle of energy and that face is too cute. I love Tomb Raider Anniversary but Croft Manor was a pain in the butt
Chrono Crossing 2004
My favorite game of 2004 is Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. The Third Age is the turn-based RPG that borrows heavily from Final Fantasy X's combat system. Of all the great games that came out this year The Third Age is the only one that I regularly replay at least once every year or so, and it always leaves me feeling like I went on a fantastic adventure. It's worth mentioning that this is one of those RPGs you will finish in around 35 hours, including a bit of grinding, so I think it's the perfect length for an adventure like this. You get to visit a lot of the iconic locations from the LOTR films, fight most of the iconic enemies including giant ones that add some spectacle to the fights, and you will come across major characters from the films who take a brief role in your party for really epic battles (Gandalf helps you fight the Balrog for example, and the skills he can use are epic). The party you build over the course of the game is robust and they all have interesting backstories within the LOTR context, as well as usefull skills in the combat system. There's tons of loot, and you can fully manage the gear and stats of every member of your party, so it definitely doesn't skimp on the role playing aspects. The Third Age is a super solid turn-based RPG and an entertaining 35 hour adventure set firmly in Middle Earth and it's the opposite of a cheap liscensed movie cash-in. It's polished, rewarding to people who enjoy the films, and fun to play. If you still have a Gamecube (where I choose to play it), an Xbox, or PS2, give The Third Age a chance.
Stage Select
One of the things I'm hoping for with the Switch is to have a clean break with the Wii era and leave all those naming conventions, fonts, and everything about it in the past and not try to piggy back on the name recognition. Come up with new names and aesthetics for everything, it's time to bury the Wii, finally
