Categories: Video Games

Damn It.

Verse | Posted April 11, 2025 | Video Games

Not long ago I wrote a complaint post about The Elder Scrolls Online. I have had an on and off love affair for over 10 years with the game now. Having played so long, there are areas I have explored every inch of, and yet somehow there remains a lot still that I have not seen. That last part has allure that always keeps me in the loop of what is going on with the game. I may complain about Crown Crates and animation canceling, but I haven’t put over a thousand hours into the game because I hate it. In my eyes, The Elder Scrolls Online is a fantastic game that sometimes gets in its own way.

There is no doubt that content is winding down a little compared to the old release schedule. My guess is this is part of more and more resources being diverted to the companies other secret MMO. That is why I was so surprised to learn about the upcoming subclassing and a sort-of-answer to the long wanted furnishing storage issue. I am also having a ~~gripe~~ constructive criticism from my last post answered, they plan to add a way for people to voluntarily make overworld content more difficult. Most importantly of all though, as a strictly argonian player, it looks like half of the new zone is going to be argonian heavy. Damn it, ya got me.

ESO is reinstalled, my addons are all up to date, and my plans for the future include checking out what this content looks like. However, I am not going to buy the new “Content Pass” just yet. My plan is to keep playing some of the adventures I already have, that I haven’t yet completed, and to watch.

However, I also have a lot of other gaming wishes but not a large desire to game a lot this year. I will see how that shakes out, as I am passionate about experiencing new (to me) things.

Verse | Posted March 20, 2025 | Video Games

I find it odd to be writing about The Elder Scrolls Online after having not played it for some months. It sticks in my mind though, as the game feels like home in a lot of ways. I love the world and how the controls feel as you move around it. I even enjoy the questing at times, despite how simplistic the characterization can often be. Mostly though, it is just a vibe and I will probably be back sooner rather than later.

That all being said, there is some heavy salt to it for me as well. Update 45 has just released and while there are some nice changes, like finally making the map readable and boosting mounts, it feels also like an affirmation that I see things differently.

Broken Combat

Light and heavy attack weaving is not fun, if only as a consequence of animation canceling. Mixing in light attacks between other, more grand abilities, is a neat thing!

However, animation canceling to do so is very very not-fun. What is worse, is this was not originally an intended aspect of combat. Zenimax Online Studios has just decided to leave it in for over ten years, and build the game around it. So now you get this silly thing where your characters grand spell-slinging gestures get stopped as soon as it starts. This is all so that we can break another aspect of the game that I will talk about next.

Verse | Posted January 11, 2025 | Board Games, Video Games

Twelve years ago I watched Adam Sessler talk about the necessity of throwing away all of his physical game cases. He had a phrase that stuck with me ever since, the “fetishization of minutia.” Sessler spoke of how games emphasizing special editions and unique DLC take away from the cultural conversations around games. Ultimately, he expressed that he felt everyone was being manipulated and missing the experience of just playing our games and not focusing on hypersensitivities.

I’m no saint speaking from a podium of purity. A couple of years ago, I was begrudgingly all in on the predatory Crown Store in The Elder Scrolls Online. I was played and felt awful for having participated in a part of what is an otherwise lovely game. I am not unsympathetic to appreciating the desire or hyper focus on wanting something. I have a shelf of unopened board games that knows this too well.

Verse | Posted January 6, 2025 | Video Games

Authors Note on January 16th, 2025: It appears there is life. The game has gotten a sizable number of fixes applied to it and raft structures have made an appearance. I’m going to leave the rest of the post as is for posterity. I will add that I have softened on the game after this. I do think communicating more updates were coming would have helped.

Original Post:

The original game, The Forest, gave me a ton of positive memories. Steam says I played it just shy of 60 hours, and I can say that I thought it felt like more because I was sucked in for a while. The game exuded horror and the survival elements felt like an ingrained challenge. Last year Realeo got me a copy of Sons of the Forest as a gift, but I wanted to wait until early access was over. Well it is over, sort of.

Sons of the Forest does not feel like the game I was hoping for next. I’m only about 15 hours in so far, but it is extremely apparent that the game is incomplete. With the last small hotfix coming 200 days ago, I do not think the game is going to see any more attention and that is a shame. The bones are still the same game, to a fault. However, balance and lack of growth hold Sons of the Forest back.

From the opening, you are treated to another flight-start but without the emotional investment delivered. Much like the first game, you collect resources and build a base of sorts, but this time you have an AI companion. Kelvin is this adorable fellow who you communicate to via written exchanges that are often ignored. You see, Kelvin has a singular brain cell. I won’t say too much more, but Kelvin is not the only friend you can meet but there are no more brain cells and so it is shared amongst them.

Verse | Posted December 5, 2024 | Video Games

A lot of live service games have closed lately, games meant to be developed perpetually in a bid to find a golden cash cow. Less games have succeeded at this than have though, and it takes us to where we are today.

You can cite Concord, XDefiant or SEGA killing HYENAS, their most expensive game to date, before even launching it. The failure of these games to grab hold in the intended way is indisputable. What is missing from consideration is where games are today.

Verse | Posted October 9, 2024 | Video Games

I spent countless hours playing Diablo 2 and its expansion, and it probably only barely edges out Starcraft for hours played. My introduction to role playing games was the first Diablo (On the Playstation!) and NoX (a Westwood game) and Diablo 2 thereafter. Both gave me a lot of good memories, but Westwood died after NoX and Blizzard also had Starcraft. I was passionate about Blizzard from this point. When World of Warcraft came out, I jumped from Star Wars Galaxies to WoW and never looked back. I was smitten once again. WoW felt like it took the ideas of what I wanted from role playing games and made everything bigger and more realized.

NoX by Westwood. “My introduction to role playing games was the first Diablo (On the Playstation!) and NoX (a Westwood game) and Diablo 2 thereafter.”

However, on reflection and while listening to Kyle Bosman and Jason Schreier talk about Blizzard and WoW, I realize the world of Azeroth was probably what ruined them for me. Despite years of love, and subsequent love-hate, I think the path Blizzard walked for World of Warcraft changed the company from one that made games regularly to one that only focuses on, and before the phrase really existed, live service games. I remember when Starcraft Ghost was canceled and then I just stopped hearing about Blizzard working on new games. I did jump into and play Overwatch thoroughly but even that eventually had its doors closed and got replaced with Overwatch 2, with extra emphasis on forever-money.

Realeo | Posted October 6, 2024 | Video Games

If you’re Millennial or Gen-Z, or a parent to someone who is, you may know of an aardvark with glasses named Arthur (and I only know how to spell aardvark because it was a part of the spelling bee in one of the episodes). The show addressed issues of sibling rivalry, night terrors, classism, feelings of regret, and a whole host of other things that people face every day. My friend and I discussed it a few years ago and we wondered if it would have been the same if the characters were human children instead of aardvarks, bulldogs, bunnies, and rats. We agreed the show wouldn’t be the same if the children were people.

Consider Stardew Valley vs Animal Crossing. Do the animals add to the charm of Animal Crossing? They seem to have very different audiences and the question remains: is it the species of the characters that makes a difference?

Verse | Posted July 11, 2024 | Video Games

I recently picked up Parkitect with my good friend, Realeo, what also has a couple of posts here. The game is everything you want from a park simulator with the thing you didn’t know you did: multiplayer. Building alongside a person-person who is just as clueless as you are about how things work is a joy. It also works well as a quiet group activity at times when your both sweating through figuring out how to finish a ride or why people are not buying your bubble tea. I recently got into diving into the numbers, clicking on each ride and looking at the statistics, and this has led me to a discovery. Spiral Slides are for suckers.

Spiral slides are these cool lighthouse looking rides, where a visitor queues up for the chance to climb to the top and slide down in a spiral to much pixelated joy. But this is no happy lighthouse as it appears. It is a sad lighthouse. It is Nickel Creeks’s Lighthouse. The only thing being dashed against the rocks here though are profits.

Damn It.

Looking for a Challenge, Found a Disappointment

Broken Combat

The Narcissism of Small Differences: The Distractions in Games

I Waited to Play Sons of the Forest

Live Service Games Keep Shutting Down, Why Won’t They Learn?

Realized Thoughts on Falling Out of Love with Blizzard

The Morals of an Alley Cat

Spiral Slides are for Suckers