It’s been a snow filled week here at Seattle University, and with everyone snowed in and fighting over bread and local produce at the Cave and at QFC, it seems like a perfect time to talk about the happenings over the past week in the video game industry. We’ve had surprise launches, and continuing developments regarding previous controversies, so it’s time to delve in.
The Good
Seemingly out of the blue, a new BR (Battle Royale) game has blown into the market. Developed by Respawn Entertainment of Titanfall fame, the game has taken the gaming world by storm. At a time where most games tend to be advertised for months, or even years (looking at you, Red Dead Redemption 2), for a game to be announced and released the next day is unprecedented. For a game like that to be good? Even more unlikely. Within only 8 hours, Apex Legends had a million unique players, and within this week, over 10 million players have tried it out. Apex Legends is an FPS BR game, but the difference between this game and PUBG, or Fortnite lies within the characters. Players can choose “Legends” similar to classes in other titles. These character classes come with unique abilities and unique appearances. The objective remains similar to the others. Fight within a massive map and be the last one standing. While some critics have stated that the Battle Royale genre is tiring out, and audiences will soon move on to another hot topic, Apex Legends seems to have proved them wrong. The game was released on February 4th , 2019 on all consoles as well as PC, and is free to play.
Another excellent release that happened a few days ago was the very, very, very cute adventure game Astroneer. The game was technically released on December 16th , 2016, but that was an early access version. The full launch finally arrived only a few days ago, on February 6th , and with it came a slew of updates and quality-of-life changes. Essentially a space Minecraft, players (You can play solo, or up to 4 fellow explorers) take control of astronauts who navigate planets with the goals of… doing whatever they want to them. Be it colonizing them, making massive structures, mining resources, or just traipsing around like lunatics, you can do it. There’re no checkboxes, no goals, no narrative. Just you, your tools, and your imagination. Astroneer is currently on Xbox One, and on PC.
The Not So Good
It seems we can’t get away from Metro. The debacle over Metro has finally reached the publishers, who have released a statement. This comes after a widely criticized post from a developer at 4A Games, who said that if PC players tried to boycott the Metro series, the next game would definitely not release on the PC. In an already fragile situation, the developer escalated frustration to a fever pitch. The response from publishers hoped to cool some tensions, and at the very least acknowledge that people are angry. The game is still garnering quite a bit of hype from casual audiences, who are either unaware, don’t exactly care about the recent change, or use consoles. Either way, it’s a shame that what looks like an excellent game is suffering a lot of bad PR that are sure to hamper sales and attention. Metro: Exodus releases the day after Valentines Day, on February 15th , 2019.
Who’s Next?
There’s plenty of games to look out for as the seasons begin to change, and the snow begins to thaw out.
Mortal Kombat 11 is on its way to stores across the world, showcasing even more spine-ripping and back-breaking gameplay. Like all of the previous games, Mortal Kombat 11 is a fighting game on a two-dimensional plane, with very brutal movement and combat with blood and gore shown without any form of censorship. Developers NetherRealm Studios have continued to add more aspects to the game, with the introduction of a new mechanic called the “Krushing Blow”, which adds a bit more flair, and a hell of a lot more blood to an already very in-depth game. With the introduction of a few new characters, and the return of some fan favorites like Kabal, and Baraka, Mortal Kombat 11 looks to punch its way to the top of the fighting game leaderboard. The game looks to release worldwide on April 23 rd , 2019 on all consoles, with a switch version releasing in Europe on May 10 th , 2019.
For the fans of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, there’s a new game coming soon that is guaranteed to make you smash the keyboard or controller once again in frustration. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a new IP from FromSoftware, a third-person action-adventure game. Unlike the Dark Should series, the game is heavily revolved around single killing blows rather than whittling massive bosses down. (there are still bosses to whittle down though) Taking place in late 17th century Japan, the players take control of a ninja, armed with a prosthetic arm and a deadly katana as they get revenge on the Samurai who severed his arm.
Again, these are only a few games that I’ve noticed on my radar so far, simply because I’ve noticed their trailers surfing around on the internet. Crackdown 3, Rage 2 are just a few other games to look out for as we progress towards the rest of year. For now, stay out of the cold, stay safe, and never eat yellow snow.
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