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.
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.
In a few short weeks, we enter the craziest time of the year—the avalanche known as the fall game releases. The sheer amount of games releasing in the period of one month is unbelievable. Most of them of huge AAA titles, like Halo 5, Black Ops III, Fallout 4, and Star Wars Battlefront, that will easily make a big dent in your wallet. With all these great games permeating store shelves the world over, the temptation of buying them all is definitely there. Unless you have a whole lot of disposable money, you sadly can't afford buying every game outright. For those money conscientious people out there, I'm here with some tips and tricks to help you through this trying time.
Pick and Choose
With new games selling for 70 to 80 dollars a piece, it's just too expensive to be buying every major release nowadays. Add in the nearly 20 hour plus campaigns and/or extensive multiplayer suites of modern titles, there is no way one person can beat each game in time for the next big release. There is too much coming out and not enough time or money to play them all right now. With all that in mind, best to stick with one or two new titles this holiday season and get the most out of them rather than trying to cram them all in.
Use Alternative Funding
Money can be an issue, especially for students and those dealing with debt. While it is important to budget your money in order to afford the necessities of life, the urge to get the latest and greatest game can be hard to overcome. If you need to pick up a game at launch with limited funds, it might be best to look at your backlog and see if there are any games you are willing to part with. Since most retailers nowadays accept games and other pieces of media for trade-in credit, trading in older titles is a viable solution for funding new game purchases.
Forewarning: don't go in expecting to get more than five dollars a game. Video game prices are in constant flux, so a title's trade-in value can change weekly based on factors such as rarity, popularity, or age. Unless a game's rarity or popularity trumps its age, the older the title is, the lower its resell value will be. Also the resell price of yearly releases, especially sports games, plummets once the newest entry hits store shelves. So it's best to trade those titles in before the new game comes out. Plus, keep an eye out for trade promotions because they will get you more money for the games you're looking to trade.
Play the Waiting Game
Good things come for those who wait. This adage is especially true when it comes to video game shopping during the holiday season. If you don't feel like buying a game within the first week of release, it's better to just wait. Sales happen regularly over the course of the last two months of the year. You might just find the game you're thinking of buying for 10 to 20 dollars off (sometimes more on Black Friday or Boxing Day) or somebody may give it to you for Christmas. Holding off your money spending urges might lead to the best rewards during this expensive season.
Early September, I went to Fan Expo Canada for a day. Aside from exploring the massive show floor and buying a few cool items on sale, I spent the majority of my time playing upcoming games. Actually, it was more like standing in line to play said games. Much like last year. there were well over 30 games at Fan Expo for all to play from big AAA titles such as Assassin's Creed: Syndicate to smaller titles like Cuphead. I always go in dreaming to play every game on the show floor, but I can only get in a quarter at best. This year, I played 10 games in total.
This time around I'm changing up the structure of the Fan Expo Gauntlet. Instead of taking two parts to outline every game I played, I'm going to highlight three titles. These are the titles that I got more time to play and can dissect for your pleasure. With how poorly some demos were managed by volunteers, I just couldn't extract enough from them to fill a paragraph. For example, I played Transformers: Devastation for only enough time to say the combat is exactly the same as Bayonetta just with some third-person gunplay thrown in the mix.
Yo-Kai Watch
To my surprise, Nintendo had a lot more games at their booth than the three games advertised (Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and Yoshi's Wooly World). One of the titles available to play on 3DS was the newest sensation out of Japan, Yo-Kai Watch. The demo I played gave me a good impression on the game's combat system, which is pretty different from most JRPGs on the market.
There are no random encounters in Yo-Kai Watch, you literally chase down wild yo-kai by keeping your cursor over them. Once the yo-kai are caught, you engage in combat. Combat consists of spinning a wheel on the touch screen to alternate between the six yo-kai on your team and activating special touch screen specific activities in order to unleash special attacks. Outside of lining up the correct elements to maximize damage and special attacks, normal attacks automatically occur at regular intervals.
For the 15 to 20 minute demo, I found the combat really fun and engaging alternative to the traditional RPG combat systems, but I can see it getting tedious over the course of a 40 hour playthrough if this is all Yo-Kai Watch offers.
Star Wars Battlefront
Ever since EA and DICE released the first slew of information on the new Star Wars Battlefront at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, people have been tirelessly debating over the game's content or lack thereof and its similarities to Battlefield. The gameplay footage revealed at E3 did quite a bit to fan the flames, but there were still some doubters. I will say this: you will have no doubts when you get your hands on the game. My friends and I walked away from the demo at Fan Expo astounded at how amazing it was.
The only mode available to play was Survival. It is Battlefront's version of Horde mode as you and a teammate are tasked with battling through waves upon waves of Imperial forces on Tatooine. The first few waves consist of just Stormtroopers, but as the waves go on, the difficulty goes up at a gradual yet challenging pace by throwing AT-ATs and shocktroopers your way. For somebody who can't hold their own in contemporary shooters, Battlefront made me feel like an all-star. The controls felt perfectly tuned to deal with everything that was being thrown my way. There were a couple waves where I was the last man standing and the tight controls were the only thing that allowed me to pull through.
Although the demo consisted of only one mode, the superb controls and the game's ability to accurately emulate the world of Star Wars has me highly anticipating playing Battlefront later this year.
Star Fox Zero
Most games I played at Fan Expo left me feeling optimistic about their final release. Sadly, I can't say the same for Star Fox Zero. While I will still buy this game early next year, I have a bad feeling that the game is going to alienate a lot of people because of its unique control scheme, much like Kid Icarus: Uprising before it.
Star Fox Zero has you using the analog sticks to control the Arwing and the motion controls in the Wii U gamepad to aim your weapons. This control set-up works during the on-rail segments. but completely falls apart when you enter all-range mode. The reason for this occurrence comes from the all-range mode's reliance on pinpoint accuracy to dispatch enemies. If you played Splatoon, you would already know that this control scheme is no where near accurate and Star Fox's focus on it feels counter-productive. Transforming into the walker did alleviate some of the targeting problems with particular enemies, but the walker's controls felt rough around the edges as will.
After playing Star Fox Zero, I am happy that Nintendo delayed the game until early 2016 because it gives Nintendo more time to refine the controls for the game. While Star Fox Zero has the potential to breathe new life into this struggling franchise, a polarizing control scheme might just ground the Star Fox team for good.
It's sad to say, but summer is coming to an end. As hard as it may be to get excited to go back to school, fall brings with it an avalanche of new game releases. With the current generation finally running on all cylinders, there will be enough games to keep every gamer satisfied for the next four months. Just counting all the Nintendo games I'm going to pick up on Wii U and 3DS in the next four months is a little shocking. Good thing I have brothers that plan on picking up the multiplatform titles I'm holding out on, such as Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront, so I can play them without dropping nearly 100 dollars on each one. You know, I need to save that money to buy amiibos.
Before we get started with this edition of Bit by Bit, I would like to announce that I'm going to Fan Expo again this year. I will be there Friday with a few friends from school to hang out, buy stuff, play games, and explore the show floor. Just like I did last year, there will be a full rundown of everything yours truly did at the show along with the return of the Fan Expo Gauntlet. So stay tuned for all your Fan Expo goodness from Silver Bit in the coming weeks.
Game of the Month
In recent years, I have grown fond of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and its challenging yet engrossing take on the JRPG genre. Funny enough, the Shin Megami spin-off series Persona that's responsible for the series popularity in the West is one I barely touched. While I own both Persona 3 and 4 on PS3, I never took on the task of playing one until I got Persona 4 Golden for Vita. Now I can't stop!
RPGs are perfect for portable play. You can pick them up to finish some sidequests or grind a few levels in small bursts, or dive into the story and dungeons as a way to spend an afternoon. It may take some time to wrap your head around all of Persona 4's mechanics and everything they entail. Once you get past the learning curve, managing social links, jobs, boosting stats, and preparing for the dungeons is a blast. I have already lost many hours just delving into all the activities you can do outside of the main dungeons.
The combat is no slouch either. It has a similar turn-based structure as most JRPGs, but adds a few new systems to make the combat more engaging. Determining which elements shadows are strong/weak against is the key to success. Couple that with powerful pile-on attacks and shuffle time bonuses, and you have the ingredients for an incredible battle system that will keep you on your toes.
I am only brushing the surface of what Persona 4 Golden has to offer. I strongly urge everybody to pick up a Vita or PlayStation TV to play this phenomenal RPG, or at the very least download the PS2 original off of PSN. I may only be 25 hours into the game, but I fully understand why it's considered one of the best RPGs of the last decade. Persona 4 Golden is that damn good, period!
Most Anticipated Toy of the Month
Rumours about a Shovel Knight amiibo were floating around the interwebs for a couple weeks now, but nothing was ever confirmed. That was until a UK retailer announced its existence ahead of Nintendo and Yacht Club Games' official unveiling at Nintendo's Nindies @ Night event in Seattle.
The Shovel Knight amiibo is being produced entirely by Yacht Club Games, and it unlocks exclusive modes and features for the Wii U and 3DS versions of Shovel Knight. The amiibo's biggest addition to the game is the Wii U exclusive co-op, which allows you to play the entire game with a friend. It will also add special challenge stages, new relics and character stat customization to both versions of Shovel Knight.
As happy as I am to see Shovel Knight get the amiibo treatment, I am even more ecstatic to see what comes from the introduction of official third-party figures into the amiibo line. This partnership truly marks an exciting new direction for the amiibo brand as a whole. Expanding the brand to outside properties may be the olive branch Nintendo needs to attract third-parties back to their systems. Plus, it offers a wonderful platform for indie developers like Yacht Club Games to get exposure on a scale they could of only dreamed of.
I have my fingers crossed for Bit.Trip, Shantae and Mighty No. 9 amiibos.
Video of the Month
It won't be too much longer before Super Mario Maker will be released to the general public. For those people like myself that cannot wait any longer, IGN has put together a series of videos called the IGN Super Mario Maker Editors Challenge to show off all the wonderful levels you can make in the game. These five to ten minute videos release every Monday, Wednesday and Friday leading up to Super Mario Maker's release and they offer great inspiration for those looking forward to creating their own Mario deathtraps. Plus, it's hilarious to watch the Mario insanity people think of and the priceless reactions from those playing.
I've included the first video in the series below, but I highly recommend watching them all. I hope to see many great levels online when Super Mario Maker launches on 11th of September.
E3 is over for another year and I got to say: what a wonderful show. While there some bumps along the way, E3 2015 was one of the best in a long time. During this nearly week long expo, we saw incredible feats of game mastery, pipe dreams become reality and the next generation of gaming finally live up to all the hype.
Although there are some issues the video game industry still faces such as the ever-rising cost of AAA development or the instability of jobs, E3 2015 made us forget about all the negativity and focus on the fundamentals of this art form: fun, imagination and community. All the silly Muppet skits, excessive gum flapping and surreal moments of celebrity interjection cannot compare to the excitement of the Nintendo World Championships, the tears brought on from the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue III reveals, and the blood-pumping gameplay trailers for highly anticipated titles like Star Wars Battlefront, Kingdom Hearts III and The Last Guardian.
E3 2015 was a show that will reverberate throughout the annals of video game history. To wrap-up this great event, Silver Bit presents a special E3 2015 edition of Bit by Bit.
Winner of E3 2015
With all the stiff competition, I thought it would be a hard decision to pick the winner of E3 2015. Nintendo blew things out of the park with their World Championships and constant Treehouse Live coverage only to falter in the most important area: the Digital Event. Microsoft came out swinging with the announcement of Xbox One backwards compatibility and showing live demos for their biggest titles, but seemed to undermine their momentum by announcing a good number of their Xbox One "exclusives" for PC as well. Both Bethesda and Ubisoft took a step back to let the games do the talking for them yet did little in terms of delivering truly shocking surprises. At the end of the day, all these great performances could not stand up to the unstoppable force that is Sony.
Sony may not have delivered much in terms of bolstering their lineup for 2015, but they did make us forget about it with all the bombshells they dropped. For a solid hour-and-a-half, Sony delivered a steady stream of the most exciting and enticing gameplay trailers and demos at the show. Out of all the great games shown off at Sony's presser, there were three that took it from great to legendary: The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue III. Sony literally made dreams come true by showing them off that fateful Monday night. They also serviced both the old and the new by announcing three of the most wanted games in the past decade and showing off brand new IPs like Horizon: Zero Dawn, No Man's Sky and Dreams.
For the third year in a row, Sony showed that the PS4 is THE system to own this generation. Even though Sony's lineup for 2015 is rather sparse, the incredible wave of good will coming off of their performance at E3 2015 along with some smart partnerships with Activision, EA and Warner Bros. might be enough to solidify the PS4s huge lead on the competition.
Surprise of E3 2015
There isn't much else to say about my pick for the Surprise of E3 2015. In fact, arguments can be made for any of the big three surprises from the Sony press conference. Personally, my pick is Shenmue III because it came out of nowhere. With how much Sega has been suffering in recent years, never in my wildest dreams did I expect Shenmue III to get the funding needed for development. To see Shenmue III caught me off-guard, which left me stunned and a little choked up. The last surprise to affect me that much was the Kid Icarus: Uprising reveal back in 2010.
Trailer of E3 2015
Funny enough, this year's E3 wrap-up has turned into the Sony show. In all honesty, there was great stuff from everybody at the show and I would love to highlight it all, but this wrap-up isn't the place for that. I'm here to highlight the best from E3 2015 and the truth is Sony had the best stuff this year.
Out of everything Sony showed at E3, one title blew me away. That game was Horizon: Zero Dawn. Horizon is Guerrilla Games' brand new property that switches out the first-person shooting of Killzone for a third-person adventure game set in a pre-historic/post-apocalyptic mishmash. Hearing the premise is compelling in of itself, but watching the game in motion is breathtaking. Seeing the female lead move between stalking mechanical dinosaurs and hiding in bushes along with the fluid fight with the robot T-Rex gives the impression that there are many ways to tackle enemies. Watching the trailer over again, Horizon looks like a next generation version of Monster Hunter with fluid combat and mechanical monsters to slay, which has me even more intrigued.
If it was playable on the show floor, Horizon would easily nab the number one spot on my Top Games of E3 2015 list. Unfortunately, all Sony brought to E3 was this awe-inspiring trailer that has me craving for more.
There is no need for a cool intro because I'm just going to get to the point. Sony put on one of the greatest E3 press conferences ever. If you thought their performance two years ago when they stabbed the knife into Microsoft's heart and just kept digging it in was amazing, this show was light years greater than that one. I have never been physically exhausted from watching a press conference due to all the cheering, smiling and hysterical laughing I did throughout the show.
Sony started their presser by re-revealing The Last Guardian for PS4 and didn't slow down until a hour into it. Each game in that hour from the large AAA titles to the small indie titles hit it out of the park. The pace was just rapid fire one after the other with little time to rest, but that breakneck speed made everyone in the audience and watching across the globe experience an unimaginable sense of adrenaline.
Every title at Sony's press conference, except for Call of Duty: Black Ops III and its generic explosion-fest of a demo, had an impressive showing. Even among the masses of great titles, there were a few standouts. Guerilla Games' new IP Horizon: Zero Dawn could of easily closed the show with its unique premise, compelling gameplay and freaking robot dinosaurs! Naughty Dog made the Uncharted 4 delay even more unbearable thanks to a wonderful demo following Drake and Sully's misadventures through a South American town. Media Molecule's game Dreams intrigued with its ability to literally mold anything you want into reality be it a game, film or piece of interactive media.
On top of all that, Sony dropped some mind-blowing surprises that left many jaws gaping, eyes popping and tears flowing. Sony started off with a cool trailer for a brand new Hitman game followed by giving us a charming crossover in World of Final Fantasy. Then the bombs started dropping. Right after the World of Final Fantasy reveal, Sony announced the heavily-requested full remake of Final Fantasy VII, which had people going bonkers. If you didn't think that was enough, Sony made waves upon unveiling Shenmue III's existence. I will be honesty, I choked up when the Shenmue III trailer appeared on the screen; I couldn't believe what I was watching. It was a magical moment to say the least.
Although I have been singing this conferences praises, it did slow down considerably after the first hour. The clear change in pace came from an out-of-place montage that should have gone at the end of the show instead of right in the middle. Seriously, I thought the show was over when they played that montage. Sony did bounce back with some Project Morpheus updates, exclusive packages for Disney Infinity 3.0 and a new gameplay trailer for Star Wars Battlefront. It was almost all for naught when Sony ran into some difficulties connecting controllers for the Uncharted demo, but it was fixed thanks to a timely reset.
Even with a few hiccups and a generic demo, Sony's E3 2015 press conference will be immortalized for its breakneck pace, mind-blowing surprises and impressive games. While I am disappointed that Sony did nothing to bolster their offerings this holiday season, 2016's lineup will sure make up for it in spades.
Aside from recent releases like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Battlefield: Hardline, EA hasn't had the best few years. Buggy launches, poor customer support and selling certain titles without being feature complete are a few examples of EA's sins over the past few years. Last year's EA press conference didn't make things any better as they put on possibly the worst press conference I ever had the dishonour of watching. There is no way that EA could put on two bad performances in a row, right?
Let us start with the good news, EA's press conference was better than last year's showing. The bad news is that isn't saying much. In all honesty, EA has a great lineup of games under their umbrella; they just can't seem to translate that quality to the stage. When a conference with Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge and Star Wars almost puts you to sleep, there is something wrong.
The reason that EA had problems in translating quality to their stage performance was that they spent too much time telling instead of showing. The actual game demos showed at the conference combined for a run time of maybe 20 minutes. For a 90 minute press conference, that's unacceptable. Also whoever thought splitting EA Sports into four excruciatingly boring and unnecessarily long segments to fill time should be fired along with the person who thought having an interview with soccer legend Pele was a good use of time.
Out of all the bad, there were a couple of diamonds in the rough. Star Wars Battlefront had a phenomenal demo that expertly replicated the scale and grandeur of the Battle for Hoth from Empire Strikes Back. In five minutes, DICE showed first and third-person perspectives, vehicle combat (which includes controlling AT-ATs) and playable hero characters all to a great amount of fanfare. Other than Battlefront, the only other game to truly impress was Unravel, a puzzle platformer with unique mechanics revolving around yarn. While I have a feeling Unravel will be a smaller title in EA's lineup, it has the potential of stacking up their with other great mascot platformers like LittleBigPlanet and Mario.
If it wasn't for Star Wars Battlefront and Unravel, EA's 2015 press conference would have served as a good time for a nap or a bathroom break. EA seems to bark to the heavens that they understand their fans, but they are so out of touch that it's hilarious. Gamers don't watch your E3 press conference to hear about your onslaught of yearly sports games, we want the Battlefronts, Mass Effects, Mirror's Edges and Unravels to be the focus of your show. Until EA understands that fact, they will suffer the same negative reaction year-in and year-out.
On Friday, August 29th, yours truly made the trek down to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the heart of Canada's largest city for this year's Fan Expo Canada. Fan Expo Canada is a multi-day event annually held at the very August. Originally the convention was made to bring together fans of multiple genres, mainly comic books, science fiction, fantasy and film, Fan Expo has gone on to include a vast range of popular media such as video games, anime, manga and horror. Over the years, the convention has grown to fill four whole days with panels, workshops, special screenings, tournaments, meet and greets, after parties, signings and photo ops among a plethora of other attractions. Fan Expo Canada is easily the largest convention in all of Canada as it fills both buildings of the Toronto Convention Centre to capacity.
It has been four long years since I last went to Fan Expo Canada and a whole lot has changed since then. I was astounded on how the convention has grown in size especially video game portion of the convention. Back in 2010, the entire convention was held in the North Building of the Toronto Convention Centre with less than five percent of that space being dedicated to video games. This year, the video game portion of the convention took up a whole quarter of the South Building and a large area of the North Building. The video game industry was more than well represented at Fan Expo 2014 and a lot of the thanks has to go to EB Games Canada and their Gamer Zone. EB Games Canada brought in the likes of Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft, Bethesda, Disney, WB Games and 2K Games to demo some of the most anticipated games coming out in the next year. There were well over 30 games on the show floor to demo including Evolve, Destiny, Far Cry 4, Sunset Overdrive, The Evil Within, Mortal Kombat X and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Personally, I spent the majority of my time in this section playing all the upcoming games I could get my hands on. Considering I went for the one day, I only got to play about a third of the games available, but it was well worth all the kilometres traveled and the time spent waiting in lines. I look forward to sharing my impressions on the demos I played in the coming weeks. So stay tuned.
I did not spend my entire Friday in the video game section of Fan Expo. There were tons of vendors selling video games, comics, art books, t-shirts, framed artwork, action figures, plush toys and anything you can think of. Out of thousands of items available to buy, I picked up two Official Nintendo Legend of Zelda shirts for 40 dollars. A lot of time outside of the games section was spent taking pictures of all the incredible statues set up on the floor such as giant Lego statues of the Shedder and Lord Business, and life-sized models of Prowl from Transfromers G1 and the Batmobile from Batman: Arkham Knight. I also got to watch the very first episode of Star Wars: Rebels, the new Star Wars animated TV show set between Episodes III and IV, in the John Bassett Theatre with tons of excited fans both young and old. It was a completely different experience watching a show with hundreds of other people as you got to hear live reactions from everybody in the audience, not just yourself. While Rebels is geared towards a young audience, I found it to be very enjoyable for Star Wars fans of all ages. It will definitely worth a viewing when it premieres on Disney XD this October.
Last but not least, I got to meet the cast of Reviews on the Run and Electric Playground along with famous video game composer and founder of Video Games Live, Tommy Tallarico. Even though I met most of these gaming celebrities before, I was incredibly starstruck in front of all of them. Some people idolize athletes, film stars or musicians, I idolize people in the video games industry including the developers, journalists and game analysts. While I may have awkwardly stumbled over my words while talking to them, they all made me feel welcomed and appreciated. I would like to thank Victor Lucas, Ben Silverman, Jose Sanchez, Marissa Roberto, Steve Tilley, Raju Mudhar and Tommy Tallarico for making a great Fan Expo even more special for me. It was an excellent day and I cannot wait to go again next year.
2013 was not a year Electronic Arts wants to remember. Everything under the sun seemed to go wrong for the gaming giant in 2013 starting with the mess that was SimCity and concluding with the severe online problems of Battlefield 4. Hoping to turn their fortunes around, EA should bring out all the stops with their conference this year. In a few short moments, you will hear if EA can turn around their fortunes from their unlucky 2013 or continue their downward spiral.
Well EA's misfortunes continue with easily their worst performance at E3 to date. Words cannot describe how mindbogglingly bad EA's conference was. Things seemed to be going in the right direction with Andrew Wilson's description of the structure for the conference which would see first looks at projects early in development along with demos for soon to be released games. Sadly, none of the initial promise led to anything worthwhile. EA showed footage and images so far in advance for games such as the next Mass Effect, BioWare's new IP, Star Wars Battlefront and Criterion's extreme racing game that it did nothing to build hype or excitement. Everything just fell flat and EA could never build any sort of excitement or momentum. The most boring moments of EA's conference came from the onslaught of EA Sports titles. It may be nice for some to see hyper realistic graphics that they will never see in the actual game but that is misleading advertising not quality marketing. EA use to be able to move through the sports presentation at a smooth clip, but it just went on forever this year. The only sports game that appeared to be remotely fun was the new EA Sports PGA Tour that looks to mix traditional golf courses with crazy fantasy courses however that one trailer could do nothing to save this show. If the monotonous sports game presentation was not enough, the Battlefield Hardline main event just emphasized how mind numbing this press conference was. Nothing in the full multiplayer reveal of Hardline stood out. It was exactly the same as every other Battlefield multiplayer demo EA has done at previous E3s just with instant grappling hooks and zip lines. Nevertheless like everything else on this show, Battlefield Hardline was nothing impressive as it felt very derivative in its design and execution.
E3 has seen no shortage of bad press conferences. EA's offerings this year rank among the worst to ever grace this stage. Bringing the audience into the developer's studios and seeing upcoming projects in progress was a neat idea, but the execution did nothing to elicit any sense of joy or excitement. Barely anytime was spent on the games that people wanted to see like Star Wars Battlefront, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mirror's Edge. All-in-all, EA's E3 2014 Press Conference was a complete waste of sixty minutes and never worth revisiting again.
One of the few constants at E3 has been Electronic Arts. There conferences have been consistently watchable as they have provided a lot of good information on the great amounts of projects they publish. As we head face first into the next generation of consoles, will EA soar to brand new heights or continue to falter?
To answer that question right off the bat, EA will continue their abysmal year after such a weak conference. There was a good number of quality games on display just EA only spent fifteen to twenty minutes of their conference covering them. Right at the beginning, EA blew off the door with an incredible trailer for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare that parodied EA's own Battlefield trailers. Following the trailer, EA gave us an incredible demo for Garden Warfare that easily convinced me of PopCap's newest venture with the Plants vs. Zombies series. There was the announcement of Peggle 2, but nobody seemed to care because what follow was easily the surprise of EA's conference. That surprise was... wait for it... Star Wars Battlefront! Eight years following the release of Battlefront 2, we are finally getting a sequel to one of the best Star Wars games out there. Also the multiplayer shooter specialists at DICE are handling the next Battlefront so it should be good. Disappointing enough after the Battlefront reveal, EA's conference took a turn for the worse. There were still some good stuff in this conference such as Dragon Age Inquisition, Battlefield 4 multiplayer and another reveal that we will get to in a bit, but not enough to keep the absolutely horrible from sucking the life from this conference. The horrible started when EA moved onto Need For Speed. The new Need For Speed Rivals looked interesting, but felt too derivative of the past Criterion Need For Speed games. Then EA decided to make a venture into the realm of movies by showing us a trailer for the Need For Speed movie (we all know how this movie will turn out). EA's time in Hollywood was not the lowest point of the conference that honour goes to EA Sports, which drove this conference straight into the ground and kept on digging deeper. From random rapping to nonsensical celebrity appearances to Dana White repeating the same sentence over and over again, EA made a complete and utter joke of their entire sports division. None of the gameplay shown for these sports games looked anything close to the target video that EA put on a pedestal at the Xbox One reveal. Even with all the crap EA put us through, there was a light shining at the end of the dark tunnel. That light was the long awaited reveal of Mirror's Edge 2. The short trailer was enough to send gamers home happy. Just not enough to save a conference that was already six feet under.
EA's press conference started out great, but it was all downhill after the Battlefront reveal. EA tried to bring the conference back to life multiple times but no avail. There were a few good moments, nothing that could make me personally recommend watching past the first 15 minutes of the conference.
It has been a busy last couple weeks with things picking up on the job
front that I have not got around to writing as
much. With completing Darksiders II last
week and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon this
past week, I am hoping to get a few more reviews up in the coming weeks. I also have a review of BioShock Infinite that
I am still working on to put up. It
should be a busy couple of weeks of working at my jobs, writing reviews and playing a
bunch of games. Before we get onto the
meat and potatoes of this week’s Bit by Bit, let we wish everybody a May the 4th
be with you. Now let us get on with the show.
Game of the Week
Even though I played enough of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon this past week to beat the game, my
Game of the Week goes to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth for the Nintendo DS. I have been looking for Ace Attorney
Investigations for a long time now. I
did not get the chance to pick this game up when it first released back in 2010
and it has been next to impossible to find used. So when I came across a new copy of Ace
Attorney Investigations for 30 dollars at my local Microplay, I could not pass
it up. It was a 30 dollars well spent as
I have finally completed my Ace Attorney collection for DS (aside from the
currently Japanese only Investigations 2) and Ace Attorney Investigations may
be the most unique entry in the series.
Currently, I have spent close to three hours with the game. From my time with Investigations, I can say
it is a very good and also different entry in the Ace Attorney series. Aside from playing as Phoenix Wright’s rival
Miles Edgeworth, the game uses a much different perspective than your normal
adventure game. You actually control
Miles Edgeworth as you investigate crime scenes, collect evidence and piece
together more evidence using the Logic system.
Not everything you can interact with yields evidence, some things yield
little logic notes that Miles must connect using the Logic system in order to
progress. In Investigations, you never
step foot in a courtroom. All the
gameplay takes place at the crime scene as you piece together the crime through
interacting with the environment and talking to suspects in a similar
cross-examination system to the other Ace Attorney games. These observations come from playing through
the very first case in the game. There
is still much more to experience and I look forward to playing more Ace Attorney
Investigations: Miles Edgeworth in the near future.
Most Anticipated Game of the Week
Apart from the slew of information Nintendo has been
providing gamers on upcoming releases for Wii U and 3DS, there is one game
Nintendo has said little to nothing aout these last few months. That game is The Wonderful 101, the first
game developed through Nintendo’s new partnership with the incredible Platinum
Games. Everything shown so far looks amazing. I am just itching for Nintendo to give us an
actual release date because I am planning on asking my family to get it along
with Pikmin 3 for my birthday. So
hopefully we get some sort of confirmation soon because it is suppose to be out
sometime this Summer.
Video of the Week
While I am loving my time with the Rayman Legends Challenge
App, it still hurts that I along with many other Wii U owners could have had this game two months ago
if it was not for Ubisoft. Earlier this
week, Ubisoft released a new trailer for Rayman Legends to help make the
suffering more manageable or aggravate fans by putting salt in the wound (you be
the judge). Nevertheless, this trailer is
pretty awesome as it showcases another one of the excellent music stages that
will be included in Legends. Most people
will notice the tune found in this level even with it being performed by a mariachi band.
It looks like when the big retail releases start coming in force at the end of the summer, the downloadable games start to trickle. That is not a big problem consider what released this week. Valve has brought the return of the king of competitive shooters in Counter-Strike. Easily keeping the attention of many gamers for the weeks, months and possibly years to come. There are still a lot of people that play the original Counter-Strike and that game is over a decade old. Another noteworthy downloadable release this week is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II has finally released for Steam. As a big fan of the original Knights of the Old Republic, I have personally been waiting for this game to be released on Steam for the last few years and very excited to pick it up in the near future. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II is available on Steam for 10 dollars if anybody is interested in picking it up.
After 12 long years, Valve has made a full-on sequel to their ever-popular Half-Life mod, Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is an online first-person shooter that focuses on skillful team-based gameplay. Each match allows players to play either a Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist. The goal of a round is to either complete the designated objective or eliminating the opposing team. In each round, the player is given one life. If you die, you must wait until the next round to respawn. Between rounds, players are able to purchase weapons and equipment using the money earned during the round. You earn money by completing objectives and killing enemies and you lose money by killing a teammate or hostage (accident or not). Global Offensive features new game modes, new maps and new weapons and equipment for players to indulge in. Along with all the new stuff packed in Global Offensive, Valve has added updated versions of classic Counter-Strike maps, game modes, weapons and equipment such as de_dust. If you want to join in huge multi-player experience that is Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike is available on Steam, XBLA and PSN for 15 dollars or 1200 Microsoft Points.
Just two months removed from the events of E3 2012, magazines are still covering all the big news from the huge conference. While the July issues of each magazine covered most of the games showed off to the press before E3, the August issues are usually when each magazine breaks down everything at E3. Giving their grades for each of the Big Three, ranking the games at this year's event and giving away their Best of E3 awards. For those of us that cannot see every single thing at E3 due to publishers and developers keeping certain games and demos behind closed doors, these issues of each video game magazine serves as our one stop shop for everything that we may have missed at E3.
Being the annual E3 issue, every article excluding the reviews and Game Over sections are all about E3 2012. From Game Informer's annual breakdown of the Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo's showings at E3 to the humongous cover story, which includes previews of Game Informer's Top 50 Games at E3 2012, you are in for some of the most comprehensive coverage of E3 found in any magazine. For collector's Issue 232 of Game Informer has six different covers. Each cover showcases a game highlighted in the E3 Hot 50 cover story. They are all pretty cool, but my personal favourites are the Castlevania, Resident Evil 6 and Splinter Cell Blacklist covers. The bulk of the issue is dedicated to the cover story which is more or less an expanded previews section and that is not a bad thing. I am baffled at how Game Informer picked some of the games on this Top 50 Games of E3 list such as Gears of War: Judgment and Star Wars 1313 when they had little to nothing to show at E3 this year, but everybody is entitled to their opinion. Honestly I do not really see the purpose of even making this a Top 50 when each writer is essentially writing a preview and not selling why a certain game is at a certain spot on the list. For the sheer amount and quality of the content in this cover story, it is a must-read for any gamer. Just forget about the numbering because it does not mean much of anything. This issue of Game Informer also includes interviews with some big names in the industry, an in-depth analysis of Square Enix's Agni's Philosophy tech demo, a rundown of the most interesting downloadable games and Action MMOs of E3 2012, an in-depth interview with Jason Rubin on his new role at THQ and his plans for the future of the struggling company, reviews and a retrospective look at the first game Rod Fergusson, the director of production at Epic Games, ever worked on.
If you have been living under a rock for the past two months and completely missed out E3 2012, Issue 232 of Game Informer is your one stop shop on all the big announcements and up-to-date game previews. The sheer amount of content crammed into these 116 pages is incredible. Definitely an issue of Game Informer that any gamer should go out of their way to read.
Star Wars has a long and storied history with video games from the original Star Wars arcade cabinet to the recently released Star Wars: The Old Republic. This piece of music I am sharing with you all today is one of my favourite pieces from the vast orchestrated tracks from Star Wars' vast soundtrack. It was most likely in a game as it is one of the big themes for the Star Wars movies. While the prequel trilogy left a lot to be desired for Star Wars fans, it still had the incredible musical prowess of John Williams producing the score for them. One of the best pieces of music to debut in the prequel trilogy is Duel of the Fates.
For those who remember the incredible three-way lightsaber battle between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul at the end of The Phantom Menace, Duel of the Fates was the music that was playing throughout the scene. John Williams' masterpiece made this scene even more epic than it really was. As the track goes on, the more intense it gets. The choir sings at the top of their lungs and notes are held longer. It brings everything to a grand climax in a rather disappointing movie. While I cannot pinpoint the exact game or games that Duel of the Fates has been in, it would be nice to find this piece of music in any upcoming Star Wars games or even an episode in The Clone Wars, an incredible show that any Star Wars fan should get over their hate of the prequel trilogy to watch.
E3 2012 had a very bumpy start with a disappointing conference from Microsoft. As the second conference of the big show, it was Electronic Arts turn to show us their next wave of big games releasing this Fall and early 2013.
Each year EA's Press Conference is one of the most focused out of the bunch. They get straight to the point and they do not deviate. This year much like the last two years before, EA showcased 10 games from 10 different developers under the EA banner. They were all concise and to the point. It made the conference go by fast and barely drag. The only thing wrong with EA's conference was that nothing stood out. No game they showcased really made an impact in my opinion. It all kind of all blended together. Dead Space 3 seemed to have an identity crisis as it was more third-person shooter than survival horror. Madden NFL 13 and FIFA 13 were both a boring list of new features. Star Wars: The Old Republic had some cool news such as going free-to-play up to level 15. Medal of Honor: Warfighter was a decent demo of another generic FPS. Battlefield 3's answer to Call of Duty Elite was revealed in Battlefield 3 Premium, which was less than impressive. The only things I found really interesting was Need for Speed: Most Wanted demo, which proves why Criterion should only be working on the Need for Speed series and EA's new partnership with UFC (funny how Dana White jumps to the company he said he would never work with when THQ hits hard times). Also Crysis 3 did have a good little demo to give a satisfying end to the conference. I believe there were a few missed opportunities such as unveiling the first story-based DLC for Mass Effect 3, giving first gameplay of Overstrike or even unveiling whatever Respawn Entertainment is working on (Riccitiello pointed out both Zampella and West in the crowd, why not reveal something?).
Overall, EA's E3 2012 Press Conference was just okay. All their games had a good showing and the focus, which Microsoft lacked, was definitely there, but not much that was shown stood out of the humongous crowd of shooters and sports games.
This past month or so I have had a steady of stream of magazines to read. Whenever I would finish reading one, another would show up in the mail. It was very nice as I always had something to read and keep me occupied. Also when I do not have anything in particular to read, I get kind of stir crazy. While I wait on the newest issues of EGM and Nintendo Power, I read Issue 230 of Game Informer, which I just finished a few days ago. Without any further ado, here are my thoughts on this issue.
The Elder Scrolls series graces the cover of Game Informer once again as Bethesda and Zenimax Online announce The Elder Scrolls Online in Issue 230 of Game Informer. While I am not a fan of the Elder Scrolls series and MMOs, this cover story was fairly enjoyable and very informative. It goes into full detail how Bethesda and Zenimax Online are going to tackle the MMO genre while keeping Elder Scrolls' identify in tack. I do think how Bethesda and Zenimax are handling the story with the multiple heroes, player choice and the PvP endgame is all very interesting and great hooks. I still need to see and read more before I am convinced that The Elder Scrolls Online can compete with the likes of World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic and the upcoming Guild Wars II. While not as good the Halo 4 cover story from last issue, The Elder Scrolls Online cover story is an enjoyable read nonetheless. Honestly, I was more impressed with all the articles in Issue 230's Connect section like the evolution of the ESA, the current state of adventure games, the many different ways game makers are making money in this day and age and interviews with the curator of the Smithsonian's Video Game Exhibit and the filmmakers behind Indie Game: The Movie. They were all amazing articles that kept me engaged and glued to the page as they dived right into some of the biggest trends and stories in the video game industry today. Issue 230 is also packed with the brim with previews from big blockbuster games like the Amazing Spider Man and Resident Evil 6 all the way to some great games under the radar of most gamers like Epic Mikey: Power of Illusion and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. The review section this issue is fairly small, but looks at the biggest games from this spring such as Fez, Dragon's Dogma, Prototype 2 and Kinect Star Wars.
As a whole, Issue 230 of Game Informer is a great issue. While the cover story on The Elder Scrolls Online is a must read for all fans of The Elder Scrolls series, it is still an enjoyable read for the average reader. The best content is found in the Connect and Preview sections of Issue 230 and make this issue of Game Informer a must-read for all gamers.
2012 looks to add some big competition to World of Warcraft's reign over the MMORPG genre in the first full year of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the release of the highly anticipated Guild Wars 2 from NCSoft. One MMO that has fell to the sidelines, so much that this writer among other gamers did not even know that it will be releasing tomorrow. The game in question is Bluehole Studios' TERA (short for The Exiled Realm of Arborea).
After a divine world between Gods and mortals, the realm of Arborea has been left in ruin as a new metallic treat emerges from the underworld. This threat is known as the Metallic race, Argons and there sole purpose is to destroy the realm of Arborea for good. The remaining seven races, the Amani, the Barakas, the Castanics, the Elins, the High Elves, the Humans and the Poporis, must band together to stop the Argons and save their world. TERA is a lot like many other MMORPG as it includes features such as questing, crafting and player-versus-player action (PvP for short), but it has many features to make it standout from other MMORPGs on the market. TERA's biggest feature is its' fast-paced real-time battle system that has players targeting enemies with a crosshairs rather than clicking or tabbing each enemy individually. Players also must actively dodge attacks than rely on a hidden dice roll to determine it for them. This battle system immerses the player more as you feel more engaged than repeatedly clicking on one enemy until it is dead. TERA offers a few different ways to control your character from the keyboard and mouse combo to a USB controller. In order to deter gold farming, Bluehole Studios worked with CCP Games, the maker of the popular EVE Online, to create a currency called Chronoscrolls that can be purchased for real money or in-game gold.
As I am not a huge PC gamer or fan of MMOs, TERA does not really excite me personally. For huge PC gamers and MMO fans, TERA looks to offer all the depth of a traditional MMORPG with the instant gratification of real-time combat and control. It would have been nice if TERA got some much needed publicity as it will most likely pass by the radars of many gamers due to the lack thereof. It almost passed right by me.
The Kinect has been a great success for Microsoft. Capitalizing on the success of the Wii and motion gaming, Microsoft suckered a lot of casual gamers into their motion-sensing camera. Other than the Dance Central games, Child of Eden and a few other games, there has been next to nothing made for the Kinect that has justified it's over-priced 150 dollar price tag. Championed by Microsoft as the Kinect's killer app, Star Wars Kinect looks to get Kinect owners to dust off their camera and fulfill motion gaming's ultimate fantasy, swinging a lightsaber with a flick of your wrist.
The main hook of Star Wars Kinect is using your body to control the various characters and vehicles from the Star Wars universe. You can also use your voice to issue additional commands. The game mainly takes place during the events of Episodes I through III, but there is one level that takes place during the events of Episode V. In the game, players will be able to face the infamous Sith Lord, Darth Vader in a one-on-one lightsaber duel. Star Wars Kinect is broken up into five campaigns. These campaigns are Jedi Destiny (use your lightsaber and the force to take on the evil forces of the Sith), Rancor Rampage (control a Rancor to destroy various environments), Pod Racing (self explanatory), Galactic Dance Off (a Dance Central rip-off) and Duels of Fate (fight in one-on-one lightsaber duels).
From what I have seen on Star Wars Kinect, it would make any self-respecting Star Wars fan weep. It is a stupid mini-game collection targeted towards younger kids yet it is rated T for Teen (think about for a few moments). Since it was initially showed off at E3 2010, it has been the laughing stock of the game industry and some gamers will realize why tomorrow. I can see younger kids enamored with Star Wars looking past the game's many debaucheries of this legendary universe (just look at the gameplay for the Galactic Dance-Off). I honestly cannot see any self-respecting gamer playing this game for longer than a minute before quitting in a fit of rage. At least the only good thing that may come from Star Wars Kinect is that amazing Star Wars Xbox 360, which also releases tomorrow.
After I finished On the Download, I realized that I forgot one big game that came out yesterday. It was the biggest massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG for short) since World of Warcraft released in 2004, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I am deeply sorry to all the Star Wars and BioWare fans who might have been anticipating my preview. So let us take a closer look at the newest Star Wars RPG from BioWare.
Back in 2003, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic set the gaming world on fire as it was the best Star Wars game to date. After a straightforward sequel made by Obsidian, the developers behind Neverwinter Nights 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, BioWare has once again took the reins of the Knights of the Republic franchise. Instead of making KOTOR 3, BioWare decided to make The Old Republic, which is said to have enough content to fill KOTOR 3, 4 and 5. As BioWare's most ambitious project to date, The Old Republic's biggest selling point is its rich story, something that is rare in the MMO space. Players can choose between eight classes separated by two main factions, The Galactic Republic and Sith Empire (each faction contains four classes). Each class has a distinct backstory and branching storyline, which depends on the choices the player makes throughout the game. In The Old Republic, faction does not determine if you are good or bad, your choices do. So you can be a Republic trooper that likes to indulge in the Dark Side or a benevolent Sith Warrior. It all depends on what you, the player, decide to take your character. The world of The Old Republic is huge as it contains many planets such as Coruscant, Taris, Tatooine and Hoth for players to travel in their ships. As The Old Republic is a massively-multiplayer game, you can group up with other players to take on Flashpoints, a special word BioWare is using for group-only missions. If you rather play alone, BioWare offers AI-controlled companions to fill out your party for these missions or accompany you throughout the game.
For Star Wars, BioWare and even MMO fans, Star Wars: The Old Republic should be one great game to pick up this holiday season. As a big Star Wars and BioWare fan myself, I am tempted to try The Old Republic out, but I am not a fan of MMOs. I have never been a fan of paying a subscription to play any game. Also as a huge fan of the original Knights of the Old Republic and single-player games, all I really want to play is KOTOR 3, not a MMO. So for all you playing right now, hope you are enjoying it, but the game is not for me. May the Force be with you.
