Passing on the Season Pass

It's surprising that the concept of downloadable content (DLC) has been around for 10 years now. Starting with the launch titles for the Xbox 360, DLC has become a major part of the industry as it gives the player more things to do in the game and keeps them from trading it in for something else. This need to keep gamers from trading in their old games has forced every major AAA title nowadays to have a plan for DLC or risk fading away into obscurity. With the industry's dependence on DLC, packaging all the DLC together in one purchase called a season pass has become a standard practice for every game big and small. What first started as a great deal has more commonly become a money gouging strategy by publishers.

The two most recent season pass offenders are Star Wars: Battlefront and Rainbow Six: Siege.

It has become common knowledge that Battlefront has great gameplay, but DICE clearly skimped out when it came to the content. Looking to make up for the short-sight, or what I like to call, "We need to get this game out now, better add this stuff later," DICE has provided 20 weapons, 16 maps, four playable heroes and villains, four new game modes, and an exclusive emote that players can buy in a season pass. The content seems reasonable until you look at its 70 dollar price tag. Seriously, 70 dollars! What does EA think they will achieve? They're scaring people away, rather than enticing them to pay for extra content. EA may be arrogant enough to believe severely overpricing their season passes is an acceptable practice, but it will come back to haunt them when gamers skip on the initial release of their games to wait for the inevitable Game of the Year version.

If you though Battlefront's season pass is bad, well the season pass for Rainbow Six: Siege is on a new level of exploitation. Spending 30 dollars on this season pass nets you seven day early access and instant unlock of eight new operators (which you can unlock free of charge by playing the game), weapon skins, 600 credits for additional in-game purchases, five per cent Renown boost, and two more challenges a day. I can't think of a worse way to spend 30 dollars. Outside of the minor boosts and cosmetic additions, everything contained in this season pass can be unlocked through regular play, meaning this pass only exists to gouge money out of Rainbow Six fans. Is Siege a AAA title or a freemium game, Ubisoft? Because how you treating it with this abomination of a season pass and the addition of unnecessary microtransactions are telling me otherwise.

Not all season passes are bad. Witcher III's expansion pass and the Mario Kart 8 DLC bundle price are two examples of great season passes. Just most of the recent offerings have been giving this option to buying DLC in bulk a bad name. Making new content for a game, no matter its size, can be costly especially with the ever-rising price of video game development, but that doesn't give publishers justification to gouge money out of the consumer that already pays close to 100 dollars for one title. Instead of enticing more people to buy more content for their games, these underhanded practices are good ways to keep people from buying DLC altogether.

Bit by Bit: October 2015

Sometimes, you can't think of anything interesting to write as a lead for an article. This is one of those times.

I've been trying to put together this edition of Bit by Bit for a couple weeks now, but I blank every time I sit down to write an introduction. A lot happened during October; sadly I can't seem to find a way to put it into a cohesive thought. Maybe that's how the working life goes: everything just blurs together.

Well, enough of my introspective look at introductions. Let's get to what you read Bit by Bit for: the video games!

Game of the Month
If a game's quality was solely based on its graphics, Yoshi's Woolly World would easily be one of the best titles of 2015. Good thing it plays just as well as it looks. Yoshi's Woolly World is the closest Mario's dinosaur companion has come to reaching the quality of its first solo outing in Super Mario World 2.

Although Yoshi games have never been known for their challenging gameplay, Woolly World challenges the player in different way. Each level has tons of collectibles for you to find and the process of tracking down everything in one run can be very difficult. The great thing about the collectibles are the rewards. Collecting all the wonder wool in a level gives you a brand new Yoshi to play with. Also collecting all the flowers in a world opens up a secret level, which are easily the most difficult levels in the game.

Speaking of Woolly World's levels, the level design in the game is superb. From directing a Monty Mole through a maze of traps to transforming into various vehicles, each level in Woolly World has a different hook to keep you engaged. It also helps that the controls feel spot-on. They are easy enough to learn for beginners, but offer enough depth and nuance that seasoned players can pull off some great feats of platforming.

In all honesty, Yoshi's Woolly World is one of the best platformers of the year and yet another great title for the Wii U. Don't let the cute exterior fool you, Woolly World isn't a game just for children. It offers entertainment and challenge for all ages.

Most Anticipated Movie of the Month
I may be the only person on the planet that isn't excited for any of the huge AAA titles coming out this holiday season. I will admit that Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront look phenomenal, but I don't need to pick them up for myself right away. That's what siblings are for, right?

But when it comes to movies, I am stuck on the Star Wars Episode VII hype train with no way of getting off. Everything Disney and Lucasfilm has shown for The Force Awakens looks absolutely incredible without giving away too many plot details. I haven't been this excited for a movie in a long time.

Just watch the final trailer! It was worth enduring a few painful minutes of Monday Night Football to see live.

Video of the Month
Kids born in the '90s may remember the slew of cartoon shows based on your favourite video game characters. Mario, Sonic, Earthworm Jim and Mega Man are just a few of the video game cartoons that people may have watched during the '90s. One cartoon I remember was Donkey Kong Country, a CG-animated show based off of Nintendo's tie-wearing gorilla, which aired on Teletoon here in Canada. All I can remember about the show is its catchy theme song, but a show with a catchy theme must be good. Right? Right?!

No, Donkey Kong Country is, for lack of a better term, bat-shit crazy and not in a good way. While I may not be able to remember the finer details of the show's insanity, ProJared's newest video does a great job of capturing Donkey Kong Country in all its glory. Watch the video to see DK at his worst.

First Byte: Yo-Kai Watch

Back in 1998, a small portable called Pokemon hit the gaming scene and ignited a phenomenon. Who knew catching, trading, and fighting adorable pocket monsters would become and stay popular among children and young adults for over 15 years? Many titles have tried their hand at usurping Pokemon off of its throne, but most have failed. Well, until recently.

Yo-Kai Watch, a multimedia franchise similar to Pokemon just replace monsters with ghosts, has blown up in Japan. Created by the well-respected Japanese game developer Level-5, Yo-Kai Watch has gone on the spawn games, toys, manga, anime, other forms of merchandise. Considering Yo-Kai Watch is such a hit in their home country of Japan, Nintendo and Level-5 are looking to recreate that success here in North America with the simultaneous launch of the toys, anime, and game.

To entice gamers to pick up the Yo-Kai Watch game upon release, Nintendo has a demo up on the eShop for all to enjoy. Funny enough, it had the adverse effect on me.

The demo gives the player one quest to complete: defeat three mischievous yo-kai and report back to the quest giver. Spoiler alert: turns out the quest giver is a yo-kai as well, and it's up to you to beat it or fight until the demo ending cutscene triggers. Outside of the quest, you are given a small section of Springdale to explore where you can talk to NPCs, find and fight wild yo-kai, and pick up random items (even though the demo doesn't allow you to use them).

Coming out of Fan Expo, I had a few reservations with Yo-Kai Watch, but was mostly pleased with the 10 minutes I played. The game has some unique systems in place when it comes to tracking down and fighting wild yo-kai that differentiate it from Pokemon, although not enough to stop comparisons from being made. After playing through the demo twice now, Yo-Kai Watch feels too shallow for my liking. While it may be easy to get into the game, there isn't anything beyond the surface. Simply, it lacks depth.

My problems with Yo-Kai Watch's lack of depth stems from its combat. Fights take place in real time, which means you have no direct control over what your party does. You only have control over switching your party mid-battle, who they target, and whether to unleash a special move or cure an afflicted party member. Using special moves and curing party members triggers one of three touch screen minigames: tapping the screen, rubbing the screen, or tracing lines. Thanks to the touch controls and minigames, I spent the majority of fights staring bottom screen. There were times I wouldn't even notice that a battle ended until I was booted back to the overworld.

This lack of agency during battles soured my impression of Yo-Kai Watch as a whole. I'm not going to spend 20 to 40 hours with a game, especially a RPG, if it's combat is this shallow. I might be wrong and Yo-Kai Watch adds plenty of depth the farther you get in the game, but I'm not spending 50 dollars just to find that out.