Gaming – Page 7 – The Strong Style Smark

My 10 Favourite Generation 8 Pokemon

It’s been just over two weeks now since Pokemon Sword & Shield were released to the world and to put it simply, I had a lot of fun with these games. I want to give it a bit more time before I make any judgement calls on how it fits into my ranking of the generations, but having played through the game twice now I can confidently say that these games were what I wanted them to be and I really like them.

Naturally, when it comes to a new generation of Pokemon, one of the biggest factors that contribute to how much I get out of the game, is the Pokemon themselves. Not counting regional variants, Generation 8 has (so far) given us 81 new Pokemon and there’s a huge variety in all of these new creatures. Naturally, there are going to be a handful of Pokemon that rise to the top and stand out to me as the best of what this generation has to offer, and that’s what I’m discussing today.

SPOILER WARNING

This list will contain story spoilers for Pokemon Sword & Shield and also contains Pokemon that have not been officially revealed or referenced anywhere outside of the games themselves, so if you wish to remain unspoiled then maybe give this one a miss for the time being.

10 – Orbeetle

Maybe it’s because of the altered visual style, but almost every Pokemon Galar has to offer feels very different from that of the previous seven generations. That’s something which isn’t always for the better (see the abominations that are the fossil Pokemon) but Orbeetle is a case where it works to its benefit.

For the longest time, the regional bugs have been lame. Don’t get me wrong, I like Butterfree & Vivilon as much as the next guy, but when it comes to viable team members for the whole game they don’t ever make the cut. Vikavolt from Alola had the chance to turn that around, but it was unfortunately hampered by the fact that it couldn’t evolve until one of the final areas of the game. Orbeetle is a Pokemon that takes the usefulness, strength and cool design of Vikavolt and removes the stupid restriction on its evolution.

The first thing that struck me about Orbeetle is how sleek it looks. Psychic typing isn’t what I would’ve initially guessed for this one, but I think it works with the design. It’s a Pokemon that feels a little off in its design, but kind of in a good way, the fullness of the red is very striking and draws your eyes away from its body, which makes for quite the surprise when you notice it. I personally would’ve liked its body to be a little fuller, but the sharpness of its limbs and intimidation factor on its face is brilliant.

When I first caught Blipbug on Route 2, I wasn’t expecting it to remain in my team for very long, but sure enough, it proved me wrong and Orbeetle stood proudly alongside me when I entered the Hall of Fame.

9 – Runerigious

Sword & Shield played around with the idea of adding evolutions to already existing Pokemon and I love the stuff that came out. Instead of doing what Generation 4 did and adding unnecessary third stages onto Pokemon like Rhydon, it combined the concept of regional variants and new evolutions in fun way that I thought added a new layer to how the world of Pokemon works.

Unlike all of the other Pokemon on this list, I’m yet to have a chance to use Runerigious in any capacity, I just think it’s a really cool looking Pokemon. The way it’s body looks like a series of puzzle pieces is such a cool concept and the simplistic art on its body adds loads to that effect. Something about the red, white & black colour scheme really brings the whole design together to create a creepy feeling Pokemon, which is exactly what you’d expect from any evolution of Yamask.

8 – Dragapult

I mean come on, it fires it’s pre-evolution out of cannons it’s head, how can you not love this thing.

Whenever a new generation of Pokemon comes about, I always worry that the region’s pseudo-legendary is going to be ridiculously over-designed. Hydreigon and Kommo-o are examples of Pokemon that, while cool looking, are a bit much in terms of the elements in their design, so I was very pleased to see that Galar’s pseudo-legendary took a much more minimalist design.

I love the concept of a lizard-like Pokemon with something extra to it and the choice to make it a ghost type and have it hover was probably the best decision the design team could’ve made. Its body seems like that of a normal lizard Pokemon but then you get to the head and realise that it looks more like a glider than a creature, which I know sounds stupid, but it’s something that absolutely works for this design.

The colour choice is perfect too, there aren’t many Pokemon that have a gradient running through its body and there are even fewer that pull it off well, but Dragpult manages it, the darkness of it’s upper-body and head give these creeping feeling of danger and add that important intimidation factor, while the slow lightening of the tone down its tail creates this ghostly presence that makes it an all-round very threatening Pokemon.

7 – Eternatus

When I saw how similar Zacian & Zamazenta were in regards to the basic elements of their design, I was very interested to see what kind of Pokemon would round out the trio, because surely it had to be something wildly different right? Well, I was right, but I didn’t realise just how different it would end up being.

I liked how it kept the red & blue colour scheme of the main duo, but instead cranked the saturation all the way up on the colours, as it’s colour scheme feels very fully. I also really like the very jagged design, the way it looks almost like a skeleton or fossil goes along with its theme of being a creature that’s lived on the earth for 10’s of thousands of years and potentially even longer out in space.

It has this incredible sense of presence about it, despite not actually being all that big and even though it is a little on-the-nose, I enjoy the concept of it being the mighty dragon for the sword and shield to slay. It’s not the perfect legendary by any means, but I think it works as the third member of this trio.

6 – Boltund

Look at that face, that is the face of a good boy.

When Yamper was first revealed, I liked it, but I had no intention to ever put it on my team and for my first playthrough, I didn’t, but when I realised it had an evolution, and that’s evolution look like THIS, I knew I had to have it with me for my second go-round and sure enough, Boltund is best boy.

Yellow and Dark Green aren’t colours that I would’ve thought could work well together, but the placement of them on Boltund’s body makes the yellow more of a framing device for the green that covers the majority of its body, so I think it works.

The design of its face is the exact traditional representation of dogs when it comes to animation and the wideness of its eyes makes it seem like such a happy Pokemon all the time. I can imagine it running around happily, doing all the things you’d expect any other dog to do, only with lightning powers, which is an instant improvement.

5 – Zacian

Ok, I know that screenshot doesn’t have it’s “crowned” stuff, but that’s Pokemon Camp for you.

Even though I’ve ragged on Zacian & Zamazenta for being very similar before, when it came to putting this list together, I realised there were a whole bunch fo key reasons I preferred Zacian over its counterpart.

Firstly, I’m a sucker for swords, especially ones that look like ancient artefacts like the one Zacian holds in its mouth during battle, then you look at the other crowned features like that around its head, and the “wings” sticking out of it’s back and it creates an extremely regal-looking Pokemon, aided by its general expression & posture. On top of that, I think Zacian’s body as a whole looks nice and sleek compared to its counterpart, the ribbons and tail add a nice sense of flow to the design, and the light blue & light red pairs up better than the fuller blue & red on Zamazenta.

As a whole, I would say Zacian fits in more with a trio like the legendary beasts than as a cover legendary, but that doesn’t stop it from being a design that I love the look of.

4 – Thievul

Wow, the Route 1 Pokemon really were something else in this generation.

Before anyone says it, I’m well aware that one of the reasons I probably like this Pokemon so much is how it’s design elements resemble that of Absol’s, but let’s put that to one side. When I found out that this generation was going to be based on the UK, I was sure there would be some sort of urban fox design for a Pokemon, but I didn’t know they’d do this great of a job with it.

What I love most about this design is the colours, the shade of orangy brown is just right to keep the feeling of a fox, without having to go with a brighter orange while the white of it’s chest makes everything around it stand out, all framed nicely by the sparing use of black. I also love the idea of it being a thief, since urban foxes in the UK are known to go rummaging through bins and steal just about anything left out on the streets at night. The “mask” around its eyes is a great indication of this. I would argue the little “cartoon thief” moustache was a bit much, but I still find it cute in a way.

3 – Grookey

One of the things that I was most disappointed about in this generation was the evolutions of the starter Pokemon. I like all three of the basic forms, but when it comes to the 1st and 2nd stages, I can only honestly say that I like one of them and even that one I’m not a massive fan of. I get what they were going for, but I think keeping the final evolutions restricted to a single type was a bad call and put unnecessary restrictions on their designs.

That said, I love Grookey.

It’s just an adorable little monkey that likes to hit things with sticks and in a way, deep down, I think we can all relate to that. Its body is just the right shade of green to give the impression of a cheerful Pokemon, while the brown and yellow are there to break up what is a fairly basic colour scheme and highlight aspects like the tail and ears.

I don’t really have much more to articulate as to why I love this Pokemon, I just think it’s adorable, I can imagine sitting around, playing with it as it cheerfully jumps about the place.

2 – Corviknight

If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written on Pokemon then you’ll know I love the regional birds of each generation (except Pidove, which knows what it did) and I generally hold these Pokemon up to a pretty high standard. So, when this generation’s regional bird was revealed to be a jet-black armoured raven of death with glowing red eyes, it’s safe to say I was pretty satisfied.

This thing looks like an absolute killer and I love it. The armour covers most of the body, but it’s still applied in a way that makes sense, still allowing it’s limbs to be shown, revealing they’re the exact same colour as the armour itself. It was a tad worrying when these games were initially revealed as it seemed like the entire region was going to be based very heavily on Arthurian legend, however it turned out that this was pretty much the only Pokemon that conforms to it, which makes it awesome; even if I did nickname mine “Gisborne” which is the wrong English myth entirely.

1 – Nickit

Take everything I’ve said I love about Thievul and turn the cuteness up to eleven.

When I encountered Nickit on Route 1 during the first few moments of proper gameplay, my heart melted at the sight of this thing and I knew it was staying with me until the end. Everything from its expression to its shape, to its colours, is brilliant and it makes this Pokemon a real work of art as far as I’m concerned.

The more I look at this more detail I notice, like the little tear marks around its eyes and an adorable timid smile that it likely uses to trick the victims of its theft. Then there’s the way that the black highlights on its feet look like little boots to make sure its prints can’t be tracked, alongside the smokelike imprint on the base of its tail from where it’s been dragging it along the ground; not to mention that the tail itself looks like a lovely little pillow.

It’s a Pokemon that ticks pretty much all my boxes of what I love from a Pokemon design: Quadruped; Mostly dark colours with light contrasts; Perfectly fits its theme and just the right mixture of cute and cool, this Pokemon was always going to end up topping this list.

So there you have it! Those are my favourite Pokemon from Generation 8 so far. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this list, please let me know what your favourite new Pokemon are, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back next week as we’re going to be looking back at the best and worst parts of WWE from the past decade!

Every Chapter in Celeste Ranked

2021 UPDATE: Since I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ve decided to start streaming over on twitch.tv/strongstylesmark. At 2PM GMT Tuesdays & Thursdays I’ll be trying out indie games I’ve never played before, and at 6PM GMT on Saturdays, I’ll be playing games I love. I’ll be starting Saturday 16th January, so please come over and give me a follow to be notified when I go live!

I’ve spent a lot of this year getting around to games from the past number of years that passed me by when they originally came out and although I played it for a bit when it first released, it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that I properly sunk my teeth into Celeste. What I discovered was a masterclass in level design and movement mechanics in games, the likes of which I haven’t seen on this quality since N++.

So, I thought what better way to celebrate everything that’s great about Celeste than ranking each chapter and analysing what makes each one tick. This does mean that one chapter is going to have to be last, but I want to make it clear that I think every chapter is masterfully designed, it’s just some rely on gimmicks and features that don’t enthuse me as much as others. Also, I’ll only be taking into account the A and B sides of each level, because I’m not nearly good enough to tackle the C sides yet and also Chapter 9 isn’t being included because I can’t even put a dent in that thing.

And with that, let’s start.

8 – Chapter 3: Celestial Resort

Cycles, cycles, so many cycles.

What puts this level firmly in last is the gimmick because I really find the nature of the Dust Bunnies to be incredibly frustrating. The overall visual design of the level is great and I feel a heavy atmosphere when playing through this level more so than most other levels in the game, but the platforming challenges relied so heavily on setting off at the right time so your jumps and dashes meet up with the cycles that it often became frustrating to find the right time to begin.

That said, it does work from time to time and I think the gimmick as a whole works a lot better in the B-side, where the whole point is that it’s impenetrably difficult when you first encounter it. When the level gives up on the idea that it’s supposed to be a fair challenge and just throws everything it has it ends up working a hell of a lot better, perhaps because I went into the B-side with a very different mindset compared to that of the A-side.

As I said in the intro, this is by no means a bad level but it’s certainly the one that gives me the most negative emotions whenever I revisit it.

7 – Chapter 1: Forsaken City

This almost feels a little unfair, because, for the first proper level in the game, this is the perfect design. The reason I’m dropping it so low is simply that once you’ve got good enough to complete the later levels, this becomes way too easy and pretty boring to replay.

All the other levels have some degree of replayability, even once you’ve completed the game and have far superior skill to what you did when you first started the game, but this is the one level that doesn’t feel fun to replay at all. It’s absolutely necessary though, since if the game threw some of the seemingly impossible scenarios at you straight away most players wouldn’t push forward with the game at all, but it’s at the cost of replayability. Even the B-side, although much more difficult, is still fairly easy when compared to all the other B-side levels in the game.

What I love about Forsaken City though, is the aesthetic of the place. The visuals of this city that are only half-finished and has been left to be reclaimed by nature has an eerie beauty and when paired with the simple music & ambient sound effects, it creates a level that can be quite threatening in its beauty, which is much what I imagine a half-built & abandoned city would feel like in real life.

6 – Chapter 4: Goldern Ridge

FUCKING WIND!

So this is another level where the gimmick is something I’m not particularly a fan of, the difference here though is that the gimmick doesn’t run through the whole level, only the latter half of it. Not to mention as much as I have my annoyances with the wind it’s actually a very clever idea in terms of making a challenging puzzle platformer; at least with the way it’s implemented here.

The reason I’m not particularly fond of it is mostly down to personal taste because of some reason I find this to be one of the most frustrating mechanics in the game. I think the reason for that is because over the course of the game up until this point I’d built up an understand and feel for how Madaline moved, the run speed, jump height and such like so for simple jumps I could rely on instinct to know when was the right moment to jump, dash etc, but the wind changes that.

When there are winds blowing against Madaline her movements no longer correspond with what I’ve got in my head, meaning I have to re-learn everything again to be able to platform accurately. Like I said, it’s a very clever way to implement a challenge into the game, but I struggled for quite a while to go against these instincts that I’d built up and it made for a rather frustrating time while playing through the latter half of this chapter.

5 – Chapter 8: Core

Chapter 8 is extremely different from any other chapter in the game, which is in some ways to its benefit and its other ways not so much.

First, the things I liked. Changing the rules on when Madaline’s boost could recharge for this chapter added a brilliant new layer to everything and allowed the level designers to have much greater control over where you would be able to have your boosts, putting a lot more importance on where they should be used. I also thought the switching between hot and cold was a great gimmick for the level, that allowed for two very different styles of platforming in the same level, sometimes even in the same room and the micing of those two styles is where a large portion of the challenge for the level comes in.

When it comes to the difficulty of this level, I’m of two minds because Chapter 8 is a significant leap in difficulty from Chapter 7. On the one hand, I wasn’t a fan of going from the slight steps up in challenge that the game had presented me with until now to this massive leap I experience and it felt a little unfair. However, given that you need at least 4 crystal hearts to get into this level at all (which involves either solving vague puzzles or completing the B-sides) it means that you’ve got to have a decent level of skill by this point anyway, so if it is an issue, it’s not a very big one.

What I don’t like about Core mostly comes down to the details of the rooms themselves. While the extra limits on boosts create a good challenge, it did get incredibly frustrating at times and there were a couple of rooms that I found I mostly lucked my way through, especially the one room that’s full of the bumpers, which seems like complete random chance if you survive or not. Of course, you could easily chalk down those complaints to me being crap at the game, which isn’t entirely untrue, but these aren’t problems I’d had with any other chapter before this one.

4 – Chapter 2: Old Site

This suffers from several of the same problems as Chapter 1 did, but what makes me like this one so much more is how much fun this level’s gimmick is to mess around with.

There’s something about the way the dream blocks work that makes them so much fun to continuously boost through and the puzzles involving them are easily the most enjoyable to platform through. Here, the relative ease of the chapter seems more to it benefits than its detriment because of how satisfying and fun it can be to platform through, not to mention the B-side for this level is definitely my favourite in the game…apart from the last screen which is the worst.

On top of that, you’ve got the chase section with Badaline and I always love it when platformers put the pressure on you to pull off tricky platforming very quickly, it’s why that bit in Mirror’s Edge with the people chasing you through a wide-open space is the best part of the game. That section, in particular, gives you so much to think about as you’re dashing through the dream blocks trying to get away because while going quick you also have to account for timing of where Badaline’s going to be, not to mention having to work out how to get through the room at all very quickly.

I can’t rank this too highly because of the lower difficulty level, but it has a lot going for it so that I still enjoy going back and giving it a replay.

3 – Chapter 5: Mirror Temple

This chapter is quite unique when it comes to its design. All the other levels are fairly linear, with one room going right into the next, with hidden rooms and secret paths only leading to collectables, however, chapter 5 takes a slightly different approach.

Instead, the main portion of the level is quite sprawling, with several large rooms featuring as the centrepiece to a level full of side rooms each providing their own challenges to get both collectables and keys necessary to progress. This often gave a little breathing room between each of the challenges and overall made for a level that I had a lot more fun exploring because it wasn’t difficult challenge after difficult challenge; not to say that style of level isn’t great of course, but the differences in this level make it a breath of fresh air.

Following that segment, there are the segments where you have to outmanoeuvre the Seekers in what are some pretty fun challenges and very satisfying when you time your jumps correctly to send you flying to your goal. This is of course followed by carrying Theo through the exit to the temple which is once again, a challenge that no other level has anything similar to and it results in quite a challenging segment when it starts to throw everything at you at once.

This level hits on a lot of unique ideas that no other level has to the point where it feels fundamentally different to everything else in the game. It makes for a bit of an oddity of a level, but one that I have quite a fondness for whenever I go back and play it.

2 – Chapter 6: Reflection

The story of Celeste is something I haven’t really touched on up until this point because for the most part, it’s a very small part of the game, however, this chapter is where all of the conflict comes to a head and it makes for a fantastic level to play.

Right at the start, there’s the absolute gut-punch of being shot right back down to the bottom of the mountain, after spending 5 chapters clawing your way up to that point and you have to deal with that annoyance as you claw yourself out of that pit for the first section of the level. The mechanics in this part of the level are fairly minimal and not all that difficult which is fine because it’s not what the main focus of the level, although I do like the feathers, which add a lot to other levels after being introduced here.

The focus of this level, however – and the reason I’ve placed it this high – is the “fight” with Badaline. Mechanically it’s a masterwork, the layout of the rooms give you so many opportunities and chances to make ground and Badline’s attacks are balanced in the perfect way to make it just the right level of challenge, I always have so much fun when I’m playing through it. Outside of the mechanics of the game, however, there’s so much emotional significance to it. If you weren’t aware, Celeste’s story is about living with mental health problems, specifically anxiety and depression, and that side of Madaline’s personality that she’s been trying to bury for so long is exactly what Badaline represents.

This chapter is when Madaline tries to get rid of her for good, thinking she’s doing the right thing and helping them both out, only for Badaline to completely freak. It forces Madaline to understand that fear Badaline feels after Madaline has spent her entire life ignoring her or trying to get rid of her and she’s so hurt that she refuses to listen when Madaline realises she was wrong. The “boss fight” isn’t much of a right, in reality, it’s simply you quite literally trying to reach Badaline as she tries to stop you getting close and that’s just a brilliant metaphor for how coming to grips with your own mental health problems can feel.

The whole concept of it was an absolute genius stroke of game design and it’s still just as fun and challenging as every other stage in the game to boot.

1 – Chapter 7: The Summit

I dunno what it is, but something about the opening card to that level alongside the music fills me with more determination than I’ve ever felt in my life.

This chapter is the culmination of all the trials and tribulations you’ve been through in your journey to climb the mountain, the highs and lows, all of them pay off in this level as you start from the very bottom and go all the way to the top to complete your quest. Going into this level I was so pumped to finally finish it and the way the music started me off it honestly made me feel like nothing could stop me and I had so much fun on this final ascent.

We caught a glimpse of it at the end of chapter 6, but here we see the two boosts used to their full potential as the genius level design pours into every room of the level, creating some incredibly challenging, but very rewarding puzzles. By this point in the game, you will have developed quite a large array of skills and this level makes sure to put it all to the test.

This chapter quite literally takes through all of the previous stages with brand new rooms containing each of the level’s gimmicks and it’s such a joy to return to each level, only now with the difficulty cranked up a notch. This feels like a true final exam for the game because you have to actually recall every skill you’ve used throughout the game in order to get through each of the previous stages, only for it to throw a whole bunch of new stuff at you.

The final segment where you climb the very peak of the mountain is easily what secured this level as first place in my mind. First off there are the flags, as I mentioned before I already felt determined coming into this level, but having the numbered flags as you reach the top was a stroke of genius to push those feelings into overdrive. I’d completed the exact same mental transformation that Madaline went through in the story, my attitude was no longer “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this” it was now, “I can do this and I WILL do this” and I didn’t even notice that until after the fact, but it was such a beautiful moment.

On top off that there’s the fact that the platforming challenges in that final segment are easily the best in the game, I ran through some of them first try on luck and instinct alone, while others had me ramming my head into them over and over again (flag 9 to 8, you know what you did). When I finished most other chapters in the games I felt a sense of relief, but when I finished summit I stood triumphant, I had fought this mountain head-on and I came out the victor, it felt like a true achievement…then I played the B-sides…and then the C-sides…and then Chapter 9…I can never win.

And that’s my list! Thank you very much for reading this, please let me know what your favourite chapters of Celeste were either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo! Finally, make sure to come back the same time next week where I will be ranking every championship currently in WWE!

Games I’m Looking Forward to In Q4 of 2019

As we move into the 4th quarter of the year, the season comes around where we get all of the big releases in the space of about a week, which is either very exciting or very inconvenient depending on your perspective. Unfortunately, this year’s line up seems a little more underwhelming, with many of the big AAA releases like Watchdogs Legion and Cyberpunk 2077 opting to go with a spring 2020 release date instead.

That said, there a still a bunch of potentially great games still to come as we look to end of 2019 and I thought it’d be a nice idea to highlight the host of games that are set to release before the year is out, to help remind people to not look ahead to next spring too soon.

8th October – Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince

Developer: Frozenbyte
Publisher: Modus Games
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows, Linux

I haven’t had much of a chance to talk about the Trine series in this blog yet, but it’s one of the few series I think could be fairly described as ‘underrated’ in the eyes of the general gaming populous.

If I had to describe the Trine games in a single word, that word would be “vibrant”. The fairytale-style seeps into every pour of the game, making it ooze this charm that I just can’t look away from. The colour pallet is absolutely beautiful, with vibrant blues, greens and purples creating this incredibly serene atmosphere, although it’s not afraid to effectively use reds, oranges and even browns effectively when it wants to change that atmosphere.

The puzzle-platforming mechanics are a little basic, but that’s overshadowed by the surprisingly fun nature of the combat. It’s not a million miles a minute like much 2D sidescrolling combat, but instead, everything in the world interacts with each other in unexpected ways to create some hilarious outcomes when you spawn a box in a space where it looks like you shouldn’t be able to.

Trine 3 took the series into the realm of 3D and while it wasn’t as fun as the first two games in the franchise, it still captured that sense of charm that drew me into the series in the first place. Form what we’ve seen so far Trine 4 seems to have mostly gone back to the 2D style of game and it’s looked to have expanded its puzzle-platforming mechanics to open up a load of new opportunities for fun to be had, so if you’re a fan of the genre, or even just uniquely pretty games, this will be one for you.

11th October – Tracks: The Train Set Game

Developer: Whoop Group
Publisher: Excalibur Publishing
Platforms: Windows

So here’s a game specifically made for me and people like me.

The concept of the game is very simple: You remember the wooden Brio train sets that you’d have loads of as a kid if you liked trains? And you remember how you always wanted to build massive crazy tracks but never could? Well, this game lets you do exactly that to your heart’s content.

I played this in Early Access early last year and it’s amazing. This game will let you build any track you could possibly imagine with all the different types of pieces that used to be available (and a couple that weren’t). You can build these track on a blank canvas, or you can use a living room or bedroom to weave your tracks through.

I haven’t played it in a while as I want to be surprised by the new stuff that’s been added at launch, but when I last played there was a whole host of scenery that you could add all around the tracks, so you could build a little town for your train to go around. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! The pièce de résistance is the fact that you can actually get in the train and drive your train around the tracks you’ve made…I KNOW RIGHT?!

I’m well aware many of you are reading this thinking I’m weird, but the three people who had the same childhood I did are over the moon right now.

22nd October – WWE 2K20

Developer: Visual Concepts
Publisher: 2K Games
Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows

For many years I was the kind of person that never understood why people bought a new sports game every year when they all seemed exactly the same from the perspective of an outside observer. However, having been a WWE fan for a good number of years now and buying the new game every single year, I totally understand the appeal.

Of course, I didn’t see the point in buying a new FIFA every year, I don’t like football. I do however like wrestling and as someone who plays the WWE games for at least 150 hours every year (usually more), the value is absolutely there for me to put down $60 every time a new one comes out.

That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little concerned about this year’s game.

For those who are unaware, for the 6 WWE games released under the 2K umbrella so far, Yukes has been a part of the development team and this year they weren’t, leaving Visual Concepts to develop the game on their own and that fact combined with how marketing has been behaving in the build-up to launch has me concerned. By this time last year, we had a full roster reveal and multiple press events where tonnes of gameplay was shown, but right now we’ve got absolutely none of that.

Don’t get me wrong as long as the game isn’t totally broken I’ll still buy it because I’m a sucker for the series and I don’t care who knows it, but I’m definitely going to wait for reviews to be sure until I put my money down on it.

25th October – The Outer Worlds

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher: Private Division
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows

So far the games I’ve talked about are ones that I’m confident that I’m going to enjoy, either because they’re part of a franchise I love, or I’ve already played some of it prior to launch. The Outer Worlds, however, is slightly different because I really want to play it, but I’m not yet sure if I’ll enjoy it.

While I’m sure I’ll get lectures from people about this statement, but the game looks to be fairly similar to Fallout in terms of its main mechanics. This is to be expected as Obsidian’s biggest release before now was Fallout: New Vegas, so stick with what you know, so it’s a game I really want to try, but it’s not guaranteed to be a hit with me. I feel this way because of my relationship with Fallout 4 (the only one in the franchise I’ve played (I KNOW, shut up)) because when I played it at launch I didn’t enjoy it at all and over a number of years I would try over and over again to get into this and it wasn’t until early this summer that I finally cracked it and started enjoying it.

My hopes with this one is that it’s like Fallout, but not TOO much like Fallout, the gameplay that’s been shown up until now looks solid, but I always find it hard to gauge whether the feel of a game fits me by watching someone else playing it, so I’ll be very interested to see what I think of this one when it releases.

5th November – Planet Zoo

Developer: Frontier Developments
Publisher: Frontier Developments
Platforms: Windows

A few years ago Frontier Developments did something magical, they went to the farthest corners the Earth, searched through miles and miles of terrain until they found the withered and dying body of the theme park building genre and somehow breathed more life into it than it had ever had before. Planet Coaster is quite simply the best theme park building game ever made (no, that isn’t up for debate) and Planet Zoo looks to do exactly the same thing to the Zoo Tycoon genre that Planet Coaster was to theme park builders.

Of course, the focus is in a slightly different place with Planet Zoo as it’s all well and good making a zoo look pretty (which I absolutely will), but none of it matters if all of your animals are underfed. This game promises to put the focus in the caring and welfare of the animals you hold in your zoo, with some in depth-looking systems that mean you’ll have to adhere to all of the top-level standards that real zoos have to. Not that it’s going to stop me from throwing two of every animal into one pen and seeing who survives but that’s on me, not the game.

If the recent beta release that people have been able to get their hands on is any indication, Planet Zoo will live up to the hype that stands before it and I believe it will be a game that is just as beloved as Planet Coaster.

8th November – Death Stranding

Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: Playstation 4

I just want to know what it actually is.

I think I got the rough gist of what the “basic” premise is from the explanation we received at Gamescom earlier this year, but I’m still not entirely clear. It’s also really not obvious what the gameplay is like since so far we’ve seen our protagonist have several conversations, fall off a cliff and…mark his territory.

As such, I honestly can’t speculate on whether or not I think I’ll enjoy this. If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say I’ll think it’s fairly mediocre, but what do I know? This could be the greatest game ever made, it could be utter trash, I don’t think anyone anywhere in the world has any idea, including Hideo Kojima.

I’m anticipating this release more to see what the reaction is from the general gaming populous when it finally comes out, not so much to play it myself. It’s definitely a game I’m keeping an eye on, but I’m going to be waiting for the reviews to come out before I consider buying it for myself.

15th November: Pokemon Sword/Shield

Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo & The Pokemon Company
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

If I need to explain this one to you then you’re obviously not paying enough attention.

In short: I like Pokemon…a lot.

I tend to judge Pokemon games on their own scale where I compare them to each other because for me they exist above other franchises. A Pokemon game can be full of obvious flaws an annoyances, but I’ll still enjoy it because it’s Pokemon and honestly, I like it that way, I like being happy.

Unfortunately, it’s very hard to tell where each game will fit on that scale before playing it. Case in point: Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I honestly didn’t think I’d enjoy those games all that much, it didn’t look to me like they added much to the Alola region and they’d be quickly forgotten, but boy was I wrong about that and they are easily among my favourites in the franchise.

So far out of everything I’ve seen, I like most of it. I know the fact that the national dex won’t be in the game is a sticking point for many people, but I personally don’t mind too much as long as the game we get is good fun. The whole camping set up looks like it’ll have a lot more depth than Amie and Refresh did before it and I’m gonna dedicate my life to finding all the curry recipes if it kills me.

Out of the new Pokemon that have been revealed so far, I like the look of all but one and I’m overjoyed that we’re not only getting more regional variant but brand new evolutions for old Pokemon too; any game that gives Farfetch’d an evolution is good by me.

And that’s it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, please let me know what games you’re looking forward to the most either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo! Finally, make sure to come back on Saturday as my coverage for WWE’s Hell in a Cell begins!

My Favourite Game For Every Year I’ve Lived

As of 3:45AM this morning, I am a 20-year-old. I know most of you probably just groaned at how young that is and I’m sorry…sort of.

Regardless, I thought I’d do something a little interesting today and look back through every year that I have been alive on this Earth and talk about what my favourite game from that year was and why. Of course, a lot of these games I didn’t play in the year they came out because I wasn’t that clever of a 2-month-old, but I’ve looked through as many lists as I can of games that came out in each year and picked my favourite from my current day perspective.

So let’s take a look through the years and see what greets us.

1999 – Rollercoaster Tycoon

I’ve had quite the on-again, off-again relationships with theme park builders. There have been games like RCT 3 that sparked my love for the franchise, then shit like RCT 4 & World completely tore that love down with some horrible systems until being happily revived a number of years ago thanks to Planet Coaster’s released, but the one game that’s always been undeniably great is the original Rollercoaster Tycoon.

For one thing, it was an incredibly impressive achievement in programming. The game was written in x86 assembly language, which is about as close to the base level of programming that you can get without directly inputting 1s and 0s. What that meant is that the game could be filled with ludicrous amounts of detail in almost every nook and cranny of the game. You could have thousands of guest wandering around the park all with their own thoughts and decisions to make about what they enjoyed and what they didn’t about the park, combining this with the bright visual design made for a game that felt so very alive and far beyond its time.

2000 – The Sims

What’s interesting about The Sims is how the fact that it was designed as a totally different game ended being to its benefit. For those that are unaware, The Sims started life as an architecture simulator, with the focus being around modern home design, The Sims themselves were just background decoration to make the game feel more alive, but as development progressed it became clear that actually there was a lot more fun to be had out of managing their lives.

What this meant is that both sides of the game were given such an immense level of care and attention poured into them that it created a style of game that has genuinely never been able to be replicated, there are no “Simslike” games, just The Sims and that’s because the perfect storm that brought this game into being could never realistically happen again.

2001 – Sonic Adventure 2

It’s fairly common knowledge that 3D Sonic games are far inferior to their 2D counterparts, but for my money, this was the best version of the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog formula.

It was a game that understood what was fun about Sonic games and focused in heavily on them, in combination with the fact that the development had largely learnt their lessons from the failings of the original. While the Knuckles/Rouge stages got a bit repetitive, the other two types of stages created a fast-paced and joyous adventure, with a plot that was at the very least competently written, which is more than can be said for most other Sonic games.

Ultimately there’s a reason that many Sonic fans are still clamouring for another entry in the Sonic Adventure series and that’s because this game understood what Sonic should feel like in 3D and left a lasting impression on those that played it.

2002 – The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

When I fell in love with Skyrim not long after it’s release, it was only natural that I look back through the franchise to see if there was anything worthwhile. I wasn’t overly enthralled by Oblivion, but eventually, I decided to give Morrowind a whirl and it thoroughly captured my attention.

It’s a very different game to Skyrim, but that just made it all the more intriguing because I hadn’t (and still haven’t) played an RPG quite like it. It’s a lot more hands-off than most RPGs I’ve played and that honestly meant that I became more involved in the world as a result out of necessity. Those ideas the game introduced me to, such as not being given a quest marker for everything and being left alone to solve things on my own are mentalities that I’ve since taken into RPGs since then and I absolutely love it now when a game takes a step back and says “go on, work it out”.

While there are plenty of areas that I think modern game design has completely eclipsed it in, this game fundamentally changed the way I play open-world games, which is no small feat.

2003 – Beyond Good & Evil

It’s not very often that the culture of the location where the development studio is housed comes across so heavily in a game that isn’t about that culture, but it’s what gives Beyond Good & Evil so much of its unique charm, which is exactly what makes this game so special.

Everything from the visual design to the writing is oozing with this wonderful sense of charm that makes the game an absolute joy to experience as well as play. The game didn’t really innovate anything groundbreaking when it came to gameplay mechanics, but instead took in features from several other game genres and applied them to make a very unique feeling game that could easily be described as both an action-adventure and RPG game.

With a sequel on the horizon, it’s great to take a look back at its roots and realise that there hasn’t been anything quite like this game since it’s release and there probably never will be.

2004 – N

Although later entries into the franchise would expand greatly upon this formula, it’s hard to deny that the original N was a mainstay of free internet gaming for a very long time.

There had been other games before this that ramped up the difficulty of the platforming genre to levels such as this, but it had never been done this cleanly and intelligently. Most times before this when platformers were this difficult, it’s because they were arcade machines, designed to eat away at all of your spare change, but this was an entirely free game. It was clear from the moment you booted it up that this game was made by people with an extensive understanding of what makes a good platformer and they were able to apply that knowledge to create the best kind of difficult platforming game.

The single screened nature, the simplistic but effective hazards and extremely satisfying movement boiled down one of the old genres in gaming history to its absolute essence and created a game based solely focused around that and could easily act as an archetype for the rest of the genre.

2005 – Black & White 2

Most of the games I’ve mentioned so far are accepted by the general gaming community as great games, this, however, this is a game for me.

Black & White 2 didn’t do anything special or groundbreaking and there’s nothing in it that hadn’t already been done in other games. However, what it did do, is manage to include everything I love about the real-time strategy genre and ball it all up in a single experience. Generally, I’ve always preferred turn-based to real-time when it comes to strategies, but this game feels like it was specifically tailored to my tastes in the genre.

I get so much joy out of building my cities in this game because it’s such a simplistic yet joyous system. I find it so much fun to plot out every inch of my city, placing a sea of foundations and watching my villagers slowly build up the city. You throw on top of that the catharsis in seeing a giant army storm your city, only to be completely wiped out when you drop a massive rock on them and allowing me to train a 10 storey tall cow to play with my people and hip thrust enemy catapults to death.

I don’t expect anyone else to like Black & White 2 anywhere near as much as me, but I’m quite happy to sit in the corner and play on my own with this wonderous toy built specifically for me.

2006 – Hitman: Blood Money

One of the things that has always made the Hitman franchise so much fun is it’s total lack of fear when it comes to going out there where it comes to its ideas for level design. There are plenty of games based around going in and assassinating targets, but it’s the level design that makes Hitman stand head and shoulders above the rest and Blood Money is far and away when that was at it’s best.

It had no hesitation at all when it came to creating some crazy themes for levels and designing them to perfection. Every corner brings in such interesting visuals and absolute genius understands of how it would work to play. The game will take you to such weird places as the Heaven and Hell club and Las Vegas casinos, which makes a level on a fairly ordinary suburb stand out amongst the crowd, despite having a fairly mundane setting.

In addition to that, it’s a game that properly understood the Hitman formula and nailed the puzzle-solving element of working how what’s the best way to assassinate targets, while still leaving plenty of the quirky fun there for players to enjoy.

2007 – Portal

A game has to be something special to remain at the forefront of the gaming consciousness for so damn long.

Back when Valve was a video game company that still made video games, it seemed like they would never be able to make lightning strike twice after the overwhelming success of Half-Life 2 and I doubt Valve even expected Portal to be such a success given how they tacked it onto the Orange Box as a side attraction to Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, however no-one should ever underestimate the pure genius of Kim Swift and those that worked with her at Valve.

Truly a puzzle game like no other, Portal took all of the lessons of level design that we’d learnt over the years and decided to apply them to a puzzle game about using rips in reality to gets from one side of the room to the other. Once the puzzle mechanics and pure design elements were nailed down to a T, all of that iconic Valve charm was injected in to make one of the cleanest games ever.

Portal has become one of the cornerstones of “nerd culture” online, but behind all of it is a game that truly broke ground in the puzzle genre and provided the audience with something it would genuinely never forget.

2008 – Pokemon Platinum

The best Pokemon game. Also my first Pokemon game.

As anyone who’s ever interacted with me in real life will tell you, it’s almost impossible to imagine me without Pokemon in my life, when it comes to gaming franchises there is simply none I like as much. T-Shirts, over 100 figurines, posters, artwork, a pendant I wear almost daily and even the header image for this very blog. All of it is thanks to this game.

Pokemon is part of what got me through some tough times, always serving to cheer me up when I was feeling crappy, but also just as important during the highs, being responsible for some of my happiest gaming moments. It was the ideas and the formula that this game introduced me to that ingrained in me the beginnings of an unbreakable adoration for the franchise that burns all the brighter to this day.

2009 – Minecraft

Ok, so I’m cheating a bit here and going with the Alpha release, not the 2011 official release, but my birthday, my list, my rules.

What really is there to say about Minecraft? You know what it is, you don’t need me to tell you. Regardless of its cultural significance, or it’s the ability to make ALL THE MONEY, it means a lot to me personally. When I found Minecraft was when I started to form many of my online habits that I keep to this day. It was the first time I got into Youtube as my main platform of video entertainment (yes, even more than TV) and it was also the first time I got involved with an online community.

No matter what friends I had or what kind of things they liked, it was very easy to set a mini server up and play Minecraft together. It’s far and away my most played game of all time and honestly to try and explain what makes it so great would be to do it a disservice. Quite honestly, I think the fact that ten years down the line, it’s still just as – if not more – popular as ever tells you all you need to know.

2010 – Sid Meier’s Civilization V

As mentioned earlier, turn-based strategies are my favourite kind of strategy game and I’ve not had more fun with one than I’ve had with Civ 5.

I’m well aware that plenty of people have problems with Civilization, but it’s just the right balance of complexity and user-friendly so that it’s not super basic and boring if you play it frequently, but is also not too difficult to learn if you’re someone who liked TBS games. I’ve spent countless hours playing Civ games with various people, weaving great tapestries of war and peace.

I have very fond memories of winning games by playing both of my opponents against each other at every opportunity and double-crossing both of them at the last second and just as vivid memories of being betrayed countless times leaving me in total ruin. The length of games means you get fully invested in everything you’re doing and it can create some extremely memorable moments as you play through all of history.

2011 – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I tried to generally keep this list to one game per franchise, but there was no way I could avoid talking about Skyrim, which took everything I love about RPGs and rolled it into one.

There are plenty of valid complaints out there with Bethesda’s melee combat system, but I find it incredibly enjoyable and it allows for great variety when it comes to play styles. Second, only to Minecraft in terms of playtime, I’ve done the same quests and dungeons countless times in Skyrim and I honestly never get tired of it because of the sheer number of ways I can play through everything.

Every place you went to in Skyrim felt like a part of a living, breathing world and the more I learnt about what was going on, the more I wanted to get involved and make a difference. The visual design is also something unmatched in the genre as far as I’m concerned, Skyrim has such a beautiful sense of culture to it no matter where you look and not real-world culture either, it’s own culture that the game itself has cultivated through its world design.

Last year’s announcement of The Elder Scrolls VI is honestly the most excited I’ve been about something in quite a while and that’s entirely thanks to how much Skyrim dragged me into its world and desperately made me want more.

2012 – FTL: Faster Than Light

There are certain games that you just can’t put away, no matter how much you try to separate yourself from it you constantly come back for more and cannot ever really get it out of your head, FTL is one of those games.

The idea of a longer roguelike is something that’s not often explored, but FTL proved exactly why that idea can work. With each playthrough lasting roughly an hour, it allowed you to form a bond with your crew and truely power up your ship as you dashed across the galaxy blowing up everything that stood in your way and occasionally helping someone out. More importantly, it made the final boss damn near impossible, proving that you need true mastery of all the game’s systems in order to defeat it, so much so that in the 7 years I’ve been playing this game I’ve only beat it (without cheating) once.

Even when I finally beat it though, I still had that desire to come back because no two playthroughs of the game ever look the same. With 28 different ships and hundreds of different weapons, augments, drones and even crew species, you’re never going to be able to “solve” FTL which is exactly what makes it so hard to put away and what makes it the best the roguelike genre has to offer.

2013 – Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Boats, boats, boats, I really like boats.

I’ve generally always been a fan of the Assassin’s Creed formula, I get quite a lot out of sneaking around with more streamlined stealth system and the ability to climb just about anything made for great fun and extremely compelling gameplay. What AC4 does is ask the question “What if we did that, but pirates?” and that was a very good question to ask indeed.

AC4 has all the regular hallmarks of an Assassin’s Creed game, but those mostly took a back seat to the boat-based combat which was absolutely fantastic. The number of weapons at your disposal meant there were plenty of different ways to tackle any situation and you had to be very careful going into almost any encounter. Once you were in the heat of battle though, it was an absolute blast. I had so much fun circling around the Man O’Wars unloading cannon fire into them before quickly moving out of range of their cannons, before turning my attention to the frigate that’s just decided to get involved and dropping some explosive barrels behind me to get the pesky tiny boat off of my tail.

AC4 nailed the feel of being in charge of a ship and having to deal with everything at once, making for an extremely fast-pace and adrenaline fuel experience that is yet to be matched in the genre.

2014 – Towerfall Ascension

Once again, cheating a little bit here since Towerfall technically released in 2013, but it was only on the Ouya and yes, I forgot that existed too. So I’m going with the 2014 release of the game on the consoles people actually owned.

I’ve always been of the view that games should focus primarily on being fun before anything else and there isn’t a single game in existence that provides me with as much fun as Towerfall. I played Towerfall with friends on an almost daily basis last year and it honestly never got old, because rounds will never ever go the same way. You can have down to the wire epic fights that are super tense and it’s joyous, but you can also do a series on incredibly stupid movements and die instantly and that’s just as hilarious.

The singleplayer is also brilliantly designed, Matt Thornson and his team seem to have a perfect understand of how to make a game difficult, but keep it fair and that’s entirely clear in Towerfall’s singleplayer because every level will slowly build on your knowledge of the game until you get to a point where you can tear through them no problem at all.

Towerfall is a game that I honestly think I will never get tired of and will introduce to all of my friends at any opportunity because there’s so much fun to be had.

2015 – Rocket League

Very much not a game I expected to enjoy when I first heard about it, but there’s something about the chaos of Rocket League that drew me in and kept me there for quite a long time.

As I mentioned, it’s the chaos that took the game above the level of a regular “quirky sport” game. It filled the casual game feel that I love where you can have equal amounts of fun by playing totally casually and just messing about and playing seriously and trying to pull off skilful manoeuvres and understand how to actually make the ball go in the direction you intended it to.

Football is very much a sport that I just don’t get but when playing Rocket League I found myself easily getting lost in the moment and slipping into the role of a yelling football hooligan, beating my own drum and rubbing I in my opponent’s face, even though it was almost definitely luck that I scored. Once again it was a game that seeped into that pure joy of sitting on a sofa with friends and having a blast playing an easy to learn game that gets such joy out of me.

2016 – XCOM 2

While Civilization creates great feels of ruling empires and controlling armies, you can’t form the kind of bonds that you do with your soldiers in the XCOM games.

For one thing, as far as I’m concerned no game does turn-based strategy better. XCOM presents you with so many different abilities and playstyles that all mesh so seamlessly with each other that it doesn’t take much effort to get into a mindset where you can evaluate everything at your disposal and come up with a clear and coherent strategy for how you’re going to play out every turn. No strategy game has forced me to develop a unique way of assessing situations and devising plans before or since XCOM, which is was elevates it above standard TBS gameplay.

What makes the experience of playing XCOM so special though, is the level of customization and personality you’re able to give your soldiers. Thanks to a couple of additions from mods (which the dev team made very easily accessible on PC) I was able to give all fo my soldiers unique looks and in my mind that gave them personalities. I become attached to all of my soldiers in XCOM and it ends up massively raising the stakes because if you lose a soldier, that can be devastating to both the mission and your game as a whole.

You come away from XCOM with genuine war stories about that time where a last-ditch attempt, 5% chance shot hit and saved everyone from certain death, or situations that when the opposite way and that’s the kind of extension beyond the game that very few other games can provide me with.

2017 – NieR: Automata

I honestly don’t even know where to begin with NieR: Automata.

I’ve never before had a game that weighs on my mind so much a week after finishing it. That was what I found with NieR: Automata, is that I just couldn’t put it away in my mind, partly because it was easily one of the best hack and slash experiences I’ve ever played but also because of the story is told and the number of layers that there were to everything it touched upon.

There’s no way I could ever do the story justice in as few words as I’m going to use here, but what this game presented to me, is something that’s really stuck with me since finishing it and I’m not even entirely sure what that something is. It’s not only the content of the story but the method in which it chooses to tell it, almost from the very beginning, all of the pieces of the puzzle are there for you, but the game is so clever at obscuring how they fit together until it’s ready to show you that every revelation seems like such a big hit; not to mention, it takes some balls in the modern era to make a game that you have to complete twice to get to the second half of the game.

I’ve had so much time to process NieR: Automata now, I’ve watched a bunch of video essays and the like on its themes and story and I just still can’t remove it from my mind and that is truly the mark of a special game.

2018 – Octopath Traveler

Let’s face it, what really is left for me to say about this game.

I’ve done a full review, talked about my favourite music and each of the characters so comprehensively by this point that I honestly don’t think there’s anything new for me to say about why I love Octopath Traveler so damn much.

It took a deep and fun turn-based combat system and placed in a world completely full to the brim with life. The visuals, the sounds the characters and their stories, everything in the game was focused on making the game pull you all the way into what it had to offer. I’ve played through it two complete times now and both times were just as fun as each other despite both being around 70 hours long.

Octopath Traveler has such a clean mix of every element of a game and does all of them to such a high level of quality that I just find it impossible to stop talking about it.

2019 (so far) – Descenders

That’s the way to go about it Ryan, make a list talking about all the games you’ve loved through the years and end it on one that’s not even remotely similar to any of them. Good going.

There’s never been a game before that since discovering it, I’ve played almost every single day I’ve been able to for at least half an hour; I even have to take a couple of weeks away from Minecraft every once in a while, but not Descenders. Ever since I discovered it on early access in February 2018, I just can’t put it down.

The way it treats movement is so damn smooth and damn near flawless that I totally forgive some of it’s rougher edges. As I stated in my review late last week, the smoothness and flow create a sense of pure enjoyment that no other game can give me. Plenty of games have tried their hand as extreme biking and they all have their appeals, but none nailed that feeling of satisfying movement quite like Descenders, which is why it’s currently my favourite game to release this year.

And that’s the list! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, let me know your thoughts either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo! Make sure to come back here this Saturday for the next entry in my Doctor Who Reviews!