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.

Year in Review 2014: Game of the Year

Every year, all roads lead to one place—the Game of the Year.  The title gets thrown around a lot throughout a year as gamers and critics voice their pleasure with select games.  But what truly makes a game worthy of being called Game of the Year?  Is it the most unique experience on the market?  Is it the game with the highest aggregate rating on Metacritic?  Is it the title that sold the most units?  Or is it the most popular game released in the last 12 months?  The criteria for what determines someone's Game of the Year differs with the person.  Personally, I determine Game of the Year with a mix of my highest rated games of the year and the strong feelings I experienced while playing each game.  In a cheesy way, my Game of the Year usually elicits a sense of childlike glee from the bowels of my soul.  The one game to do just that in 2014 was Shovel Knight.

Full disclosure, I backed Shovel Knight when developer Yacht Club Games pitched the game on Kickstarter in early 2013.  At the time, it looked like a cool mash-up of classic NES games like DuckTales, Castlevania and Mega Man that I found very appealing.  Also with the game set for release on Wii U, I jumped at the chance to support a game for the then struggling console.  Shovel Knight made its goal and backers waited almost a year and a half before the game was released.  While I was very excited for this throwback to NES games of the past, nothing could have prepared me for the final product.

Despite Shovel Knight borrowing its mechanics and aesthetics from NES era games, it makes these elements feel distinctly its own through a great amount of polish and refinement.  Everything is so finely tuned that with practice and perseverance anybody can learn to play the game with any sort of mastery.  Some of the incredible feats one can perform in escaping death or reaching a hidden area will make any jaw drop.  In addition to Shovel Knight's gameplay and aesthetics, the game packs a great amount of items to collect, feats to accomplish and tons of cheats to experiment with.  For just 15 dollars, Shovel Knight gives enough content to rival games four times its price with even more on the way through free updates.

Although I find no fault with Shovel Knight, that reason alone is not why I chose it for Game of the Year.  It is hard to describe what exactly makes Shovel Knight so special because one aspect of the game doesn't make it stand out.  It is the combination of perfectly tuned mechanics, beautiful retro-inspired graphics, wonderful chiptune soundtrack and respectful reverence for a bygone era which makes Shovel Knight stand above any game released in 2014.  Don't let the cheaper price tag and downloadable distribution method fool you, sometimes the best games come in smallest packages.  In Shovel Knight's case, the Game of the Year came a small affordable package.

Year in Review 2013: Game of the Year

It has taken a long time to get to this point, but we are finally at the very end of Silver Bit's Year in Review 2013.  To end off this month long journey is the most prestigious award of any year, the Game of the Year.  There were many Game of the Year caliber games that released in 2013.  Tomb Raider, Rayman Legends, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Super Mario 3D World were all in top contention for this writer's pick for Game of the Year, but they were all beat out by one game.  Released very early in 2013, this game could not be dethroned as the best video game experience of 2013 in my humble opinion.  I easily dumped well over one hundred hours into this game and could easily dump hundreds more.  This game is Fire Emblem Awakening.

What have I not already said about Fire Emblem Awakening?  While Awakening might not be the 3DS's killer app (that title easily belongs to Pokemon X and Y), it is the greatest game released for the handheld to date.  Fire Emblem Awakening easily combines the past, present and future of the series in one game.  There are tons of nods to older entries in the series even allowing you to battle and recruit characters from past Fire Emblem games.  Awakening takes on the present with key refinements to the core Fire Emblem mechanics to create some of the most superb tactical gameplay found in any game.  The future of the series comes in the drastic improvement of the support system from boosting stats in battle to even marrying other characters (along with the results of the marriage) and the game's incredible StreetPass and SpotPass functionality.  On top of all the great mechanics, there are hundreds of hours of content packed on Awakening's 3DS cartridge from sidequests to extra skirmishes and even more to download from SpotPass or the Nintendo eShop.  Although all the Fire Emblem games are all excellent games in their own right, Fire Emblem Awakening is hands down the greatest game in Nintendo and Intelligent System's storied strategy series and the 2013 Game of the Year.