Tactical-o-banana-rama

"I Got a tactic for you.  It's called
a Rocket Propelled Grenade."

Lately Ive been watching clips for Gears Tactics and its gotten me super pumped for it.  There are so many things about it that are just Pro Gamer and just super fun about it.

I love Gears games, the simple fun of running between cover and snapping over to pummel someone with Lancer Rounds before rushing in to curbstomp them.  Even better is the satisfaction of using a Torque Bow and getting a headshot, which is an instant kill on most enemies, but then to penetrate and hit someone else with the explosive bolt is amazing.

For the longest time though I'm thinking to myself that this would make a great tactics game.  The movement between cover, the layouts of all the levels, the different methods of attack each enemy has... it's basically a tactics game in itself.

Gladly someone somewhere has the same mindset.  They've kept the majority of the game the same, giving you the same sort of feeling of overwhelming power and fear on equal measure.

The game is set 10 years before the first Gears game, throwing back to a point where the grubs are really getting a roll and bringing out their bigger and better monstrosities.  Urdak is the boss and he is making things like Brumaks mounted with gigantic machine guns and rocket salvos, and Corpsers with armour plating over their several limbs, both familiar enemies and big pains in the arses.

The interesting things come from their own innovations.  Compared to a game like XCOM, Gears Tactics changes things by dropping the "one shot a turn" for "shoot for each action you have".  Then you have an extra action to go with that which makes your options become exponential, especially if you want to run in for an execution which provides the whole squad an additional action.

Then quality of life improvements are great, particularly the Locust "practically instant turn", where they all kinda move and shoot at the same time, staggering out some actions just so that you can track what's happened and how it affects you.

After that, it sounds like a tonne of fun and I can't wait to get my hands on it once it comes to console.

"My Soldier has no nose."
"How does he smell?"
"Terrible."

Speaking of XCOM, they just announced their own spinoff game: Chimera Squad.

What's funny is that I've been brainstorming a very similar idea over the last few months, having a small cast of characters that the player can follow and fight with over the course of a series of story missions.

I had characters based on different classes, with cameos from all sources.  My favourite character was Damien Santiago, a character based on the survivor of the XCOM: Enemy Unknown Tutorial.  He would appear as a Heavy Soldier who lives out his days on a Resistance base and joins the main characters on their journey.  He would be wearing his old XCOM uniform, worn and torn after years of use, and his old squads Dog Tags sewn into the opposite breast, though he has to recollect the dog tags throughout the game.

He even had his own mission where he has a flashback of Operation Devils Moon, recreating that mission and then expanding it out into a longer term story, telling more of a canon experience of when his boots his the ground and started that fight in Germany, and how his team worked their way through town fending off aliens.

Chimera Squad is a bit more free form like the mainline games, having a more diverse cast of alien hybrid characters, and a gameplay more similar to a police raid than stealth ambush.  Largely the game seems to be a reboot of XCOM: Apocalypse, kinda the direction that they were leaning towards with the Multicultural Cityscape, just with a pared down cast of characters.  Though I thought I heard there was room for a Character Pool, so there may be room for my own characters as well.

A pig and a rock lady start walking out of a restaurant.
They turn to the duck and say "He's got the bill."

Part of my inspiration came from another game, Mutant Year Zero.  A very good game about a post apocalyptic setting where your main characters are Stalkers, soldier-like characters who traverse the local area to scavenge for materials, and cull down threats to the Ark, a society full of people trying to survive.

You play the Mutant Stalkers who learn all sorts of different abilities that the player can take advantage of, from sprouting wings to gain a height advantage, to being able to ram into someone and knocking them flat on their arse for a turn or two while everyone pumps ammunition into them.

The parts I really liked was the stealth mechanic.  You don't move everyone individually turn after turn.  You choose a leader and tell your team of 3 to follow you around the map as you explore, scavenge, and choose a starting point for your ambush.  You pick off enemies with your silenced weapon, and once you feel like you're down to a managable point you can go loud and hose down the boss of the level.  Given the different abilities you earn and the limited number of them that you can equip, you can have great fun just working your way through the game.

"I can't see my face when I'm with you"

The developers created a second game using the same mechanics with a different setting, telling a story about a divided United States and countering a group using highly Augmented Anonymous Soldiers, an aspect that kinda lets the game down.

Everything else about it was really good, using the same combat mechanics as Mutant Year Zero with a few minor tweaks allowing the troopers to be modified to the players preference and creating some good combinations for combat.

But aside from that, the story feels a little flat and your place in it is rather... inconsequential.  You perform all these missions, saving VIP's and Infiltrating outposts all over, while the story kinda happens around you and the consequences of your actions really affecting you.   So if the developers create an expansion for Corruption 2029, I'm hoping they really kick up the gears and focus on their story and motives.

That's neither here or there.  I'm talking inspiration here.  And with all these really good, really entertaining tactics games roaming about, I'm hoping that a certain other company with a video game based from their tabletop game actually take some notes and start making their own Video Game RPG.

I'm talking Iron Kingdoms here, guys.  I know they have a Warmachine Tactics Video game, but to see a story drawn out from that RPG with all that gorgeous art and styling, it'd be fantastic, especially with a Cameo or two here and there.

As it stands though, I'm very excited to see Gears Tactics and XCOM: Chimera Squad to come to consoles.  They're coming to PC at the end of the month but likely going to Console by the end of the year, and that's what I'm really keen on.  The only question is how long can I wait before I start watching playthroughs and spoiling the game for myself?

Can't wait, won't wait, probably ruining it for myself.

My Year(s) in Video Games

Well lets deal with the obvious.  I haven't posted here in what feels like an age.  Last post I made was about how I was excited about the Notorious High Tier Assassin Sorscha was being made into a new Warcaster matching my Favourite Theme of Steam Powered Heavy Armour Soldiers.

Sadly I've kinda fallen out of love with Warmachine through my lack of play and interest, feeling very "back in my day, we had fun with our game" about it since I really began lurking and watching from the sidelines, and wishing I could play the Iron Kingdoms RPG instead, mostly because I got a Humble Bundle Deal that got me about 99% of the RPG books for a song.

From that I made a bunch of cool characters, all with little back stories and parties they've formed together, loose motives for their future so that any DM's have something to fuel their own narrative.  Yes I realise that means I should DM my own campaign, but I have every excuse in the book that puts me off of that.

I actually thought about doing a Play By Mail campaign with people, but I just get myself overwhelmed by trying to find some definitive answers from the internet.  I've gotten very Anti-internet for a while and now my Facebook feed is pretty much just a continuing roll of memes and tags.

So I fill in my own time with Video Games, and the last few years have been pretty hit and miss for video games.

Like Xcom 2: War of the Chosen, a fantastic expansion to the game.  It added a bunch of new stuff, like new classes and enemies, new gameplay options, new maps, even a whole new enemy type which is more hassle than they're really worth, but hey you can't get everything right.  Especially when it comes to getting a port fully working.

For ages though I've had a want to make an Xcom Campaign, something more focused on an individual party and having a bunch of encounters based on the different mission types you'd normally encounter in the Grand Strategy games, just more in depth with characters and strategy.

The more I think of it though, the cooler I think it would be as a proper video game taking inspirations from a bunch of games, starting with Xcom: Apocalypse which is focused around a singular Megacity, to Nier Automata, which seems like a far stretch but bear with me, the inspiration comes from the gameplay mechanics which changes style as you go.

For example, one minute you could be fighting in a 3D open arena with enemies coming from all around, to a classic 2D platformer style as you progress through to other map regions.  So from that, I would like to take inspiration from other turn based games and implement them into minor missions or encounters.

The more I think about it though the more I realise I kinda would use features of Mutant Year Zero, a game I really enjoyed, as short lived as it was.  If I were to nitpick it, the tedium of silent takeouts was a little grating, but still it was fun.  It could have been a little more than what it was.

When two world collide
and really support each other

Speaking of games that were more than what was expected: DOOM.  Jesus Christ that was a good game.  The speed, the fun, the exhilaration, the ripping and tearing.  The sequel is coming out in a months time and I'm excited for it even though it looks extremely arcade like in its play.  Lots of double jumping, swing bars, and wall climbing.  I saw a Youtube Card of someones review with the words "Best Mario Game Not Made By Nintendo", which feels conflicting, but hey I'm still keen.

Speaking of Nintendo, Jenny got me a Switch Lite.  It's more or less like a Playstation Portable but bigger and lighter.  I still want to get a grip case for it, maybe something that extends its battery life as well, but that has to wait until I get back to work again before I make any more.

In the meantime I have a handful of games that came with the Xmas present.  Jenny had asked around and got me The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Civilization VI, Sonic Team Racing, Mario and Sonic Olympics, and Nickelodeon Kart Racing.  The two biggest ones I wanted to play though were Breath of the Wild and Civ6.

Civilization is a game I haven't really played much in my life until this point.  I had Civ 2 or 3 when I was in high school, my mum got it as a group package with Sim City 2000 and The Settlers 2: Veni, Vidi, Vici.  I faffed around with it a lot, but never really sat down with it to understand the rules.  I gave Civ a fair crack of the whip, but on top of the rather awkward UI on the small screen I still don't really know what it is I'm accomplishing.  I do need to spend more time with it though.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a very different kettle of fish.  I'm far from finished on it, having only accomplished one of the four mechanical beasts that help in the fight of Calamity Ganon and largely only explored the bottom half of the map between getting my arse served by a new high level monster that I happen to snag the attention of.  It's a good game, don't get me wrong, but I think once I get that grip case I will have a better time fighting thanks to more flexibility in my hands.

While we are on the subject of Nintendo I've been watching a series called Game Makers Toolkit.  My mate Andy pointed me in Mark Browns direction while we were talking about certain games and their mechanics.  Mr Brown had covered the subject quite well and since then I have the occasional playthrough of all his available Youtube videos (Sorry Mark, I can't spare the dosh for your Patreon) while I play a game or sleep.  He's very soothing.

But the ones that really stood out were the series on Metroid.  I have never played a Metroid game in my life.  I think there was a period where I was using a Gameboy emulator and I may have tried to start off one of the Metroid games available but never stuck with it.  His retrospective series gave me a really good insight into the games and piqued my interest into Hollow Knight.

Hollow Knight is about a small Bug Soldier exploring an ancient kingdom called Hollownest.  You explore this hive of networked environments, meeting insects and grubs, defeating rabid bosses, and discovering secrets and history of this fascinating and magical world.  I'm 77% of the way through according to the little meter in the corner of my inventory screen so I have plenty more to find and achieve.

My favourite part of the Remaster

The style of the game has me fascinated though.  The closest I can say that I've played to this is Wonder Boy: The Dragons Trap, which has a beautiful Remaster that threw me back to my Master System days so easily that when I turned on the Retro Visuals I almost thought it was a gag.  That was the closest I came to a Metroidvania game though, and I kinda want to get into more of that style of game now that I've dabbled into it.

Speaking of Re-something games, there was Sonic Mania.  Everyone and their Mother knows that I love Sonic the Hedgehog.  He's my favourite.  I want to get a Tattoo of the Sonic and Knuckles logo on my shoulder because Sonic 3 and Knuckles is my favourite game of all time.  I wouldn't be able to tell you how many hours I've sunk into it, but I know I've deleted and restarted all of those save slots until they were all 100% several times over.

Sonic Mania was really fun though.  I wasn't a big fan of some of the newer Zones, some of them stuck out as being out of place, but its still a really fun game.  I haven't been able to sit myself down to max out everything yet but I want to get a Genesis Controller for my Playstation just so I can really get back into how I used to play, which weirdly had my right hand turned over so I'm using my digits instead of my thumb to jump.

My other favourite game that came out was Borderlands 3.  A good game overall, but sadly their antagonists weren't particularly encapsulating, especially when they were following one of the best arseholes to kill off at the end of his story, Handsome Jack.

I keep seeing people on Reddit going "Bring back Handsome Jack!" which is depressing because that's really just beating a dead horse.  I love Handsome Jack, he's a great bastard to hate, and there are a few references to him, particularly in one side mission that really brings to light how malicious he can be, but he's done.  He has died in all but a Gun that plays voice clips of him.

The new Antagonists are nowhere near as hard hitting.  I said in an old post, that I'm going to redo an elaborate on one day, that there was a turning point.  That you have him playing in your ear and you don't really take him seriously until you reach a real turning point, and suddenly you have it in your heart that you need to take him down.  You need to go after him and really kill him off.

You can't go wrong with a Robot Beast Tamer

That doesn't really happen in 3.  It could be because they stumbled upon playing the same card as they did with Handsome Jack in 2, or because they just aren't that impressive, there just isn't that turning point in the story where you're motivated to stop them.

Thankfully they still have DLC coming out.  The first was a fun tribute to Handsome Jack's Stunt Double and Moxxi where you raid a Casino.  Good value.  The next one is going to be really fun as well, but I have no idea what that'll be.

Another game that really changed things up is Gears of War 5.  Or Gears 5, as they are want to go with now.  Largely, the game is still the same.  Cover based shooting and encroaching against Mutants that emerge from the ground, occasionally with a Gigantic Monster to accompany them.  But what I liked about it was the change from just straight mission after mission to a semi-open world setting, travelling on a Kite Sled between notable locations and regions that lead into missions.  Something a bit more freeform in play.

Which can be bad, such as the case of Wolfenstein Youngblood.  That was not a good game.  A lot of ideas going for it, but just so poorly executed.  A lot of cool stuff for it, the levels are pretty, the combat is fun, the super powers are always a fun addition, but... god everything else was as shallow as a Kiddy Pool.

John Carmack, one of the big Doom Guys, said "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important."  Well that's all well and good, but if you really treat it like that you get this game, where you have so little direction for your players to go that you flounder what you want them to do and encounter.

So that's what I mean by hit and miss.  There's been really good games and there have been really bad games.  I'm keen on what 2020 has to offer for games, but there's still the matter of all the games i"m yet to play.  Like Prey, Outer Worlds, and Dishonoured: Death of the Outsider.  And I haven't even finished talking about all the games I've played, really, but hey, I gotta stop this at some point.

Insert Token Self Deprecating Meme