Xbox: Assassin’s Creed: Unity & Ubisoft’s Woman Problem

Assassin’s Creed is one of my favorite gaming franchises, which isn’t a surprise to anyone really.  However regular readers of this blog will know that I have been critical of the last couple of installments of the franchise.  Black Flag was a thinly disguised sailing sim with pirates and III suffered from frustrated cape crusader complex.  With each iteration of the franchise the story telling and character development has gotten weaker, thereby weakening the franchise as a whole.  Ubisoft has gotten much better at marketing and selling fans stuff but the gameplay and story has suffered.

Unity is their chance to redeem the franchise but can they pull it off?  That us the question I keep asking myself and the E3 coverage and social media responses left me with more questions than answers.

Set in the French Revolution, Unity has all of the potential to tell an amazing story and return to its roots of Altair and Ezio.  Political intrigue, historical characters, and the fight for freedom set amid the violence and romance of Paris. 

But what is once again missing from a AAA Ubisoft release?  The ability to play as a woman.  I’m sorry but let’s be honest, there is absolutely no excuse that Ubisoft cannot seem to tell a story that has a main character that can be either sex.  There might have to be some dialogue changes based on one gender or the other but those are minor and not hard to do.  The franchise makes more than enough money to justify the expenditure for two voice actors and animating both sexes.  Hell, the franchise would make MORE money if the option to play as a woman existed.

The game is based on alternate history so the argument that “well a woman in that time period wouldn’t have done that” is utter crap.  The co-op play doesn’t even feature the ability to play as a woman.  Maybe Ubisoft doesn’t read the latest studies but forty-five percent (45%) of gamers are women and women purchase forty-six percent (46%) of games sold.  So, women aren’t some small minority of the market and I hate to break it but women in general vote with their wallets.  Women buy and play games were they aren’t included and were they are represented. 

I will give Unity a chance but should Ubisoft fail to deliver a story and gameplay worth of Altair and Ezio then it will be the last installment in the franchise for me.

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Xbox: E3 2014

I flat out ignored E3 this year.  Sure there are a couple of games that I’m looking forward to but overall E3 turns out to be all hype and little substance.  And honestly, I can stand watching those presentations.  They are either boring, start LATE, or feature that oh so annoying Aisha Taylor.

Only games that have my interest and attention from E3 are Dragon Age: Inquisition and Assassin’s Creed: Unity.  But let’s be honest, those games had my attention prior to the conference.  I could care less about Halo 5, Crackdown, anything Nintendo, or space battles.  Oh hell, maybe I’m getting old but I prefer my games to have strong stories and not just be a rehash of the last iteration with new graphics.

I don’t anticipate my view on E3 changing for conferences to come either. 

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Everquest 2: Everquest Worlds Mobile App

 SOE did the smart thing and made a mobile app that covers all Everquest Worlds in one app.  The app is available for Android and Apple users.  I understand why they excluded Windows users, even if it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Carrying on however, I’ve used the app since I have access to an Android device.

It is a very well done app and in one evening sucked me in completely and I drained the phone battery from full to depleted without realizing it.  There are news and video feeds for whatever Everquest franchise you play and they are separated out so you don’t have to wade through Landmark video trying to find one that pertains to Everquest.

I watched the first EQ2 Insider yesterday and will watch the second one today.  I don’t normally watch dev videos either but it managed to keep my interest over the hour even if it were a month old.  The one thing they could do to improve the news/video feed is to put dates on the feed rather than just the newest on top. 

The mini-games in the app are addicting.  I fully admit I got sucked into Mineral Match and Book of Magic.  I won in-game rewards as well, a mount for Everquest and an appearance weapon for EQ2 (pictured below).  The EverGuess game kicked my rear and I’m normally good at those games.  The EQW Trivia mini-game was the clear winner for me.  It proved that my lore-foo is WEAK and needs improving to day the least.  I will be improving that over time, especially since I play EQ2 for the tremendous lore and involved storylines. 

I’ve barely begun to dig into the app but I can say, well done SOE well done. 

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Everquest 2: “Gamecation” Screenshots

Well, summer is in full swing here with temperatures over 100° every day for the foreseeable future and thus we decided to spend the last week on a “gamecation” instead of fighting high temperatures and invading hordes of tourists and families attending graduation ceremonies.  Norrath was the destination of choice and we had a blast.  Here are the postcards from our “gamecation”.

Our wee Berserker and Inquisitor characters stopped off to enjoy the beach with a Mystic Merc after returning the undead to their graves in Stormhold.

Beautiful evening in Norrath was caught in the Thundering Steppes.

On a Griffon flight in the Thundering Steppes.  I love the design of the griffons in the game, the look fully capable of killing you if you managed to piss it off.

Here we are on our Paladin/Wizard pair that worked on heritage quests and acquiring AA points over the week.  I really like how the arrow over Valhakar’s head is obvious and easy to see even in a crowd.

The robe dropped in Runnyeye and it was better looking than the boring white I had on s it went in the appearance armor slot.  Even after all these years, the evil eyes creep me out and thus they were valiantly tanked by hubby.

Overall, it was a great week and a great gamecation.  Time to get back to reality and remember there is a world other than Norrath.  Never fear though, Norrath will be visited throughout the week from here on out, all I have to do is decide on a “main” when I’m not paired up with hubby.

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Everquest 2: Welcome Home

So, that happened earlier this week (Monday to be precise) we returned to Everquest II and have had a blast all week.  The yearly All Access pass is simply to good of a deal to pass up, so we bought two.  Hubby has the week off and so we have been playing AA (Alternate Advancement) catch-up on my wizard and his paladin.  No potions, no bonus, just slider set to 100% AA experience and catching up on language quest lines and involved quest chains.

I can honestly say, that while I despise the AA catch-up grind most of my other characters aren’t in as big a hole and thus it won’t be like this when they hit level 59 and only have 132 AA points (or 123 like hubby).  But then again, characters were active before there was AA and thus it was inevitable there would be catch-up.

One thing that would make AA grind easier, would be the ability to mentor down in the field.  I had to blow several opportunities for AA points yesterday because I couldn’t mentor down while on the Draconic language quest line.  Not the end of the world but it certainly would have been nice to mentor down and gain those points in Stormhold.

Also I hate fighting in the lower levels of Solesk’s Eye, those clear pathways over lava (pictured above) made me nauseated.  Hell, I was always afraid I was going to fall over and off.  But that being said, we earned a lot of AA finishing up quests and getting lost trying to find our way to Nagafen’s Lair. 

There we are hanging out in Sanctum of the Scaleborn.  The zone is beautiful and full of decent AA to be had.  I think we are coming back after we finish Clefts of Rujark, where I might add we managed to duo (with the 10-year SK merc and the Inquisitor merc) Rak’jaller (Epic x2 triple up).  It was fun and intense and satisfying when he went down. 

So, even though I moved houses and overwrote my house layout save by a not-enough coffee mistake, we are having fun in EQ2 once again.  It is like coming home.  There have been some serious improvements made (bag/inventory changes are AWESOME) and overall I don’t think we have any complaints.  Not sure if either of us will be boosting to 85 but that possibility does exist.  I’m sure we will decide next month when Heroic Characters go on sale. 

Maintenance will be done shortly, time to clean the house and find coffee before then. 

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MMO Mobile Apps: Where are they?

The ultimate goal of MMO developers and producers is to make the game so engaging that you are willing to pay out your monthly subscription without a second thought.  And yet, they all fail to fully integrate their game into their customers lives.  Where are the mobile apps that let me manage crafting or research while waiting at the dentist office or on the train?

Truth is, we live in a world where mobile is integrated into almost everything we do on a daily basis.  Players are much more likely to be long term invested in a game that let them check goods for sale, research, crew members, etc. when they can do that from the comfort of the office during a boring meeting or while sitting around the airport waiting for a flight. 

Mobile apps shouldn’t be limited to checking out a players item level or what achievements they’ve earned.  Mobile apps should encompass non-combat, non-quest oriented gameplay, like crating in SWTOR or researching in TESO.  Mobile apps should also be available on all three mobile platforms and not just iOS platforms.  There is no logical reason MMO providers should limit their audience base to iOS.

Maybe, just maybe, game developers are waking up to  the fact that they can only benefit from inclusion of mobile apps into their core game structure.  Right now, I would love to be crafting on my SWTOR characters while catching some early morning sun but …

Never mind Corso is done crafting, here’s hoping I learn that reverse engineering schematic!

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Xbox: Shadow of Mordor

Weapons & Runes

Game just keeps looking more and more interesting to me, wonder if it will be worth it?  Hubby has yet to be truly happy with a  single XboxOne game purchase, same would have been true on the PS4.   Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor releases on 7 October 2014.

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Gaming & Sexism

Plate bikinis in World of Warcraft are but one example of blatant sexism in the gaming community.  Another would be the hate that is spewed when a female speaks during multiplayer matches on a console game.  There are more examples of sexism in games than I can reasonably relate, however does this blatant sexism require special treatment for the female of the species?

No, quite simply it does not.  I’m a woman and I have the power to decide what gaming companies get the benefit of my money.  Money is the only currency that matters to developers and publishers of games for computers and consoles alike.  So long as the myth persists that men are the overwhelming majority of the gaming population, and it is a myth, then the money will follow the gender.

Women hold the power here, not men.  Don’t like how a game portrays women in the game?  Take your money elsewhere and support a game that treats both sexes equally.  Money talks and where the money trend goes, so will gaming follow.

It isn’t complicated.  All these cries and whines demanding that women get special treatment or that men play nice because there are women present is degrading.  All players, men and women alike, should treat other players as if they were sitting in the same room and were held accountable for their actions by a real living, breathing human when the mouse and controllers are set aside for the day.  Doesn’t matter what sex you are, what your sexual orientation is, or what color your skin is, no player deserves special treatment because of these things. 

Make your dollars spent mean something and then you will see a change in the industry.  Don’t like a community, then leave and find a better community.  Play with like minded people and make the world a better place.  I’m sorry but if you stay and pay to play a game that offends you then you are part of the problem and whining isn’t a solution.

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Elder Scrolls Online: First Month of Launch

Elder Scrolls Online released a month ago and while the game is stunningly beautiful, did it live up to my expectations of perfection once I started playing the game on a daily basis?  Complicated question with a short answer, not really.

Don’t misunderstand, I love the game.  I love the depth of character immersion and questing.  I love that I can get lost and uncover quests I would have otherwise missed and that not every NPC is young, fit, and wrinkle free. 

What I’m not loving is the inventory management nightmare and the horribly unbalanced gains in crafting.  It makes no sense that provisioning (cooking) can be leveled to the maximum before a player reaches level fifteen but any other skill you are lucky if you make it to level ten.  Enchanting is the worst of all the skills with the least available raw materials out in the world.  It levels slower than a glacier moves and deconstructing every glyph you craft for a slightly larger miniscule gain is frustrating and irrational.

Inventory management is a mini-game all it’s own.  I don’t mind the high costs associated with increasing bag and bank space.  I would prefer it if I got more space for my gold however.  What truly irritates me to no end is that each and every time I open my bank it is sorted automatically from Z to A and not A to Z.  This one thing makes me grind my teeth every time I open the bank.  I love that there is shared storage, what I don’t love is that there is no individual storage.  Having to create characters just to hold crafting goods, maps, pets, etc. is poor game design.

The director’s letter just released did not give me hope.  There is no mention of housing, not one.  Housing is an integral part of every Elder Scrolls game since Morrowind.  Housing had the potential to solve inventory issues for a lot of players.  Instead, they are working on horse racing?  Really?  Horse racing is a quality of life improvement?  I could care less that other players will now have the ability to kill guards and NPC’s.  All that is going to lead to is an unplayable world where quest givers can be killed by the bored to irritate others.

So now the question becomes, do we renew our subscriptions and give Zenimax and Bethesda the benefit of the doubt?  Or, do we rationally cut our losses now and wait for the bots and gold spam to lessen while the game loses players at an incredible rate?  I’m on the fence.  Part of me desperately wants to play ESO and love it and lose myself in the world but the other part of me is extremely tired of reporting gold farmers, dealing with botters, shuffling inventory, and crafting skills.

I do know that right now, as the game stands it is beautiful, immersive, and frustrating.  I can’t imagine it will be that much better on the consoles either.  Speaking of consoles, not a word of a beta is mentioned in the producer’s letter and not a hint of if they will hit their target release date of June.  My guess is that it will be pushed back.  And honestly, the game is either going to be much better on the console or so frustrating controllers will be flung across rooms globally.

I’ll confess, I haven’t logged into ESO in almost a week.  We have been playing SWTOR and enjoy ourselves.  I will log into ESO this week but probably more out of guilt than a desire to report gold farmers, botters, and to juggle inventory.  I love the beauty and questing but that experience is marred by the negatives for me at the moment.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Continuing Adventures, Treek, & More

My Consular is currently on Hoth, the cold and icy Hoth of the  movies.  Hoth is very large and very spread out and beautiful in the way that only extremely cold winters can be.  Being a content and happy desert dweller, I can admire the icy, blue beauty that is Hoth without bringing back awful memories of winter.

I’m finding the quests on Hoth interesting and engaging.  But then again, I love all of the unique races you discover within the universe of Star Wars.

She has helped the above Ortolans save their geothermic power plant from the Empire and is off to stop a madman she has already killed once.  Her biggest “issue” these days, is reviving Qyzen from the floor after a battle, despite the fact that she’s split her tree points up for some heals to keep him alive.  So, given his apparent love of dirt naps, hubby and I both purchased the Treek mercenary contract from the Cartel Market yesterday.

Treek has been available for a while but I was too stingy in spending cartel coins to acquire her services.  I was an idiot!  The initial meeting with her makes me laugh every time and I admit it, I love Ewoks and always have.  So, once you get her and get her gear up to speed (she comes pre-equipped with Adaptive Armor appropriate for level nine) I took her into battle.    She not only holds aggro, she HEALS herself during battle.  Yep, that’s right, she heals and tanks which leaves you free to dispatch enemies as quickly as you like.

Now, I’m not going to lie I kill quicker (at least on my Sentinel) when I bring Kira along but I tend to take more damage and spend more time recovering after a battle.  Also, Treek gains no affection from conversations while out questing so I have found myself swapping her out with other companions for the affection gain whenever possible.  Treek only gains affection from gifts and completing her companion missions. 

And lastly, look what arrived this morning after maintenance!  My characters are happy and T7 will have a friend to hang out with!

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Catching Up on the Larger World of Assassin’s Creed

Despite the frustrating and non-Assassin based gameplay of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, the franchise remains one of my favorites.  This is in large part because of the incredibly complex and rich story telling Ubisoft released with the Ezio trilogy.  There is a confirmed new game release for the Xbox One and the PS4 entitled, Assassin’s Creed: Unity and I have high hopes that given it’s setting in the era of the French Revolution there will be no sailing missions.  (Dear God help me if there are because I cannot promise not to hurl my controller in frustration across the room!)

The French Revolution awaits us all

This morning I decided to catch up with the world of Assassin’s Creed outside the games and jumped right into the AC Initiates database.  Initiates is a site run by Ubisoft still in Alpha release, despite being available for months.  A couple of side notes/observations about Initiates it is incredibly frustrating that the site isn’t accessible on mobile devices (not even so-called mobile devices that do not have cellular access) and it defeats the purpose of having missions related to Assassin Creed games that are heavily played on consoles but in order to get credit for those missions the gamer needs to interrupt game play to leave the room and seek out a non-mobile device.

Gripes over, despite the grumbles about the site Initiates has a wonderful amount of detail relating to the main characters of the game.  I loved reading about young Haytham long before we meet him in Assassin’s Creed III or the invention backstory of Benjamin Hornigold.  But most interesting is the dossier on Gavin Banks current Master of the Assassin Brotherhood.  The details and relation of the game to real life events we are privy to every day.  A great example is the Tunguska blast in Siberia and the Apple of Eden.  Old favorites from the Ezio trilogy are alive and well on the Initiates site and are still active.  It is incredibly satisfy to get a glimpse of Rebecca and Shawn outside the games and enjoy the intrigue and humor in brief snippets.

The Brotherhood is rebuilding in the present day world.  Abstergo may be far more in the public eye but the present day Brotherhood is rebuilding cells world wide.  It was fascinating to read who leads the Japanese cell and the activities that were going on in Russia.  It is nice to read about women in the Initiates database and surveillance reports because women are still missing from the actual games.  There is also a mini-game called Lost Memories which allows users to find memories around the world.

Adding to the already rich world of published material related to the world of Assassin’s Creed, there is a new book scheduled to release November 4, 2014 entitled Assassin’s Creed Unity: Abstergo Industries Employee Handbook by Christie Golden who also wrote Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag: Blackbeard: The Lost Journal.  I’m far more interested in the Handbook than the Blackbeard’s book.

  Access the Animus is an Italian fan site which summarizes the various extraneous materials published for the franchise.  If you don’t have time to read the various novels and comics, and trust the review of someone else, then Access the Animus is a great place to catch-up and learn about the other Assassin’s roaming the planet in various times and places.

So, if you are in need of an Assassin’s Creed fix before the release of Unity then it is worth checking out both Initiates and Access.  Little snippets of a glimpse of what is happening between the Assassin’s and Templars is certainly one way of filing the void between the release of major titles.

 

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Xbox One: Dragon Age: Inquisition

October 7th I can be found safely curled up in my sofa lost in the latest adventure from Thedas.  Dragon Age: Inquisition finally has a release date and I am ready for what looks to be a significant improvement from Dragon Age II.  It looks to be a promising Fall for Xbox One games, although Inquisition is also releasing on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, PS4 and PC.  Id the videos, screenshots and gameplay footage can be trusted, then Bioware looks to be well on their way to saving the Dragon Age franchise.

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LOTRO: April’s Producer’s Letter

Lord of the Rings Online can be an incredibly beautiful game and it always seems to suck me in when my subscription runs out.  We resub (and bought two new expansions) and once again LOTRO goes and does something foolish and I regret the “investment” we made not to be nickel and dimed to death.  Look, $200 a year isn’t going to kill us but it is more a sign of faith in the future.  This year however, LOTRO has finally managed to kill my interest in the game completely.

They just released the Producer’s Letter for April and in it, they once again break yet another promise to the player base.  There will be no update to housing this year despite it’s repeated promises that the update was coming.  However, there will be a new class which I am sure will be heavily monetized and poorly implemented.

The competition is too good for a seven year old game to be fooling around with crap like a new class and broken promises to an already frustrated and fleeing population.  Realms are empty, trying to play on a new realm means losing real world money tied to the old realm, housing is a joke, the game play can be incredibly boring, and gorgeous screenshots aren’t enough to keep players logging in.  If you want to retain a player base, don’t nickel and dime them (ESPECIALLY players that subscribe to your game), don’t break promises, don’t have secret player councils, and don’t have you corporate heads buried so far in the sand you don’t even realize you have serious competition.

My twitter feed alone shows long time players leaving LOTRO for games like Landmark and Elder Scrolls Online.  The team at LOTRO seems oblivious to the fact that players are finding new games to play and sink real world money into, I’m being kind.  I actually believe that the LOTRO team is intentionally burying it’s head in the sand and break promises and ignoring the flight of customers so that they feel “justified” in closing the game down in the next six to eighteen months.  I know that we won’t be buying any more expansions and that we definitely will not be paying for two yearly subscriptions this year.

Rant over, opinion spoken and now I’m off to write for my ESO character blog and get in some ESO playtime before exploring the awesome changes to Wildstar in the upcoming beta weekend.

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Is WOW the old and dying dinosaur on the block?

World of Warcraft announced its technical Alpha for the Warlords of Draenor late last week, hours before The Elder Scrolls Online officially launched. Anyways, Hubby and I got around to talking about WOW yesterday afternoon. Neither of us is even remotely interested in WOW for different reasons. But what we were discussing was whether or not WOW was even relevant to gaming any more. We are both of the opinion that the answer is no and below is why we’ve come to that conclusion.

First, WOW is flat out an old game that is being left behind by the competition. It isn’t fully voice acted, the quests are simple and repetitive, and game play mechanics are bloated and aged. Combat is basically pressing the same combination of buttons over and over again. There is no active dodging for instance. You can just stand there and whack on a creature while doing your nails and watching a movie. The game doesn’t actively require player engagement to avoid death.

 

Second, WOW doesn’t seem to understand that the gaming audience is no longer just young men. It is now a much broader audience of both sexes of all ages. BlizzCon 2013 was the nail in the coffin for me, comments like “It’s a boy’s trip” from Chris Metzen was the straw that broke the camel’s back. If I’m going to play a subscription game, then it isn’t going to a company that devalues women and refuses to include women in their games as anything more than objects of sexual fantasy.

Third, the competition is just so much better in every way. TESO has strong women characters everywhere, active dodging mechanics, and it requires players to think and manage how they play. Wildstar is just flat out funny, once again active dodging mechanics, and unique systems like Path. Landmark, while we haven’t played it nor have any interest in doing so, has a strong legion of fans that enjoy building and creating in the Everquest environment. And those are just three games off the top of my head that are better.

Fourth, WOW just takes too damn long between updates or expansions. Subscribers and fans play the same content over and over and over again for months on end. The endless gear grind progression style is boring. Why stay on the treadmill of the same content when the competition has a large variety of end game content and not just raids. Adventure zones, two-person content, and group content immediately spring to mind. Why would you run the same raid content week after week for months on end with no new content on the horizon when the competition releases content patches ranging from every two weeks to once a month.

WOW has its die-hard fans that want nothing more than to see the competition fail. I get that, I get that I won’t be changing any of their minds. No one single game will be the proverbial “WOW killer” but the competition taken together will kill WOW. Well, the competition and the “boy’s club” that is the team of WOW management. I don’t begrudge those players their fun and enjoyment. The hubby and I won’t be going back ever again.

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Elder Scrolls Online: So, Did it Meet Expectations?

Surpassed every expectation I had from beta, which was high.  I’ve run across one bug so far and it is on a side quest.  I’ve reported it and will come back to complete the quest later.  The game sucks me in, literally time flies by and next thing I know it is time to cook dinner and I wonder where the day went. 

The game reminds me so much of Oblivion that I forget there are other players in the game.  I am wandering around exploring and gathering raw materials for crafting.  I haven’t reached level ten yet on any character, in part because I’m having so much trouble deciding who to play.  The choices are endless and a small change here or there can completely alter game play. 

There are a couple of minor improvements I think they need to work into the game in the first update.  One is a pet inventory system.  Right now I have four pets and that is four bank slots consumed.  Another is for account bound consumables like treasure maps, I had to park one of my characters as a mule simply to hold treasure maps.  They are bank space intensive and clumsily implemented.  Don’t get me wrong, the loot from those pre-order treasure maps is great but having it clutter up bank space indefinitely isn’t great.  Or better yet, give me housing with a trunk and I won’t mind one iota the amount of space the treasure maps consume!

The world is alive and vibrant.  NPCs clearly have lives of their own and while friendly they aren’t intrusive.  The world feels like Oblivion to me, minus all the creepy Oblivion gates of course.  I have discovered more chests and lore books from just wandering around then I would have had I not done so.  The music is amazing and adds so much to the atmosphere.

The Elder Scrolls Online isn’t going to be a game for everyone.  Respec’s are expensive (which I am more than fine with), leveling isn’t lightening fast thru PvE, crafting isn’t make 100 of this and walk away, and grinding mobs is the slowest way to level.  But if you are looking for that kind of game, I can’t imagine you would be interested in TESO to begin with.  However, if you want immersive gameplay with gorgeous scenery, then TESO has more than accomplished that and much, much more.  The launch has been incredibly smooth and incredibly well done and the entire team at Bethesda and Zenimax Online deserve a much needed round of applause.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go make a cup of coffee and head back into TESO.

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