Disney Quick Hits…
Not too often, but occasionally there will be a bunch of news and things I want to write about that while not worth a blog post on their own, can be combined into one post that covers everything, and a lot of things have happened in the past couple weeks worth a paragraph or so, so let’s talk about them…
Marvel’s Avengers actually has several things of quick note: Firstly, the controversial microtransactions that let you buy XP boosts and fragments have been removed. I already wrote at length about how I thought this wasn’t necessarily a pure money grab but in light of things like the rebalancing of experience to make gaining levels take longer it was a bad look for a game that specifically made a big show about specifically not doing this exact thing, so I’m glad it was quickly removed and there’s not really a whole lot else to say there.
Secondly, Square Enix has kinda thrown developer Crystal Dynamics under the bus just a little bit for Marvel’s Avengers critical and financial performance, claiming they were a wrong fit for the project. Sure, that’s completely valid but they certainly weren’t the ones to make the decision to make an Avengers game that was very poorly explained and marketed and arguably not what most wanted out of an Avengers game in the first place. And I say this as someone who has spent hundreds of hours playing Marvel’s Avengers. Most probably wanted something much more along the lines of the recent Guardians of the Galaxy which has been very well-received.
Finally, November 30th will be a pretty huge update for Marvel’s Avengers with Spider-Man finally coming to the game along with a bunch of significant changes including the first raid, a new level cap, and a bunch of other stuff. Unfortunately, I am leaving for a Disneyland trip very early in the morning the day this stuff all hits and won't really be able to dig into until I’m back from vacation. I kinda worry about the fact that Spider-Man seems to be locked behind achieving objectives when every other hero has just had a few hours worth of story DLC to play through. Also is this the last significant update for the troubled game or is more content in the pipeline? I’ll write more when I’ve had time to experience it all myself.
Speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy, I recently finished the game, and yeah it was mostly a blast to play through. I’ve noticed it will be on sale at some places on Black Friday for $35 or possibly even less, I can’t recommend it enough at that price. I may play through it again at some point though, like most games where you have choices that appear to really matter, the decisions you make throughout the game don’t alter anything significantly except for a cutscene or two and some fights being easier, so I don’t think you need to do a second playthrough just to see how different choices play out.
Disney Classics Game Collection. It’s a very cool collection. It’s supposed to be made even cooler by new games, the Super Nintendo version of Aladdin and several versions of the Jungle Book game. These were supposed to be released as both a new edition of the full game and DLC for the original release on November 9th. It is now November 13th and it’s just been radio silence from both Digital Eclipse and Nighthawk Interactive with no versions or DLC available. Not much else to say except it’s kind of disappointing that this has clearly hit a snag and the companies involved haven’t even said anything. Guess we’ll see if they even release a statement or it just drops sometime soon.
Amy Henning and Skydance Studios are making a Marvel game. We don’t know what Marvel game. It wasn’t announced what Marvel game but we may have an idea now. Filmmaker Kevin Smith is very good friends with Marc Bernardin, who also works at Skydance. Kevin Smith has a podcast which Marc Bernardin has previously been a co-host of and is still a frequent guest. Bernardin was on a recent episode and while he wouldn’t outright say what property the game would be based on they allowed people to guess, and Smith claimed that some people got it right though he wouldn’t confirm which…
So it’s apparently likely either an Ant-Man or Fantastic Four game. I’d love to see a good Fantastic Four game frankly, but if we are going for a more narrative, Uncharted-style adventure which is Henning’s thing, that definitely seems to lean more towards Ant-Man. Honestly, it’s just good to see Marvel game branching out beyond the biggest names and doing lots of cool different things with the characters.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is out for Nintendo Switch! I don’t think I’ll be doing a full review of this, but I’ve played a couple of hours so far, and it’s a really good port. It’s not going to be the best-looking option, you’ll want to play it on PC or at least an Xbox One X for that. And it’s not like the game hasn’t previously been available on a portable platform, it’s been available on iOS and Android for a long while and I can at least speak to the iPad version being pretty solid.
Really the main reason you’d want the Switch version is that both the Xbox and mobile versions feel a little off with the controls. With the Xbox, it still has the inputs for the original Xbox version so it can be kind of confusing which button I’m supposed to be pressing. The mobile versions are similar in that the game works fine but is just not optimized to be played on a mobile platform. This version is remapped so everything corresponds correctly and feels right. So if you want to play what is still the best Star Wars game ever made on the go, the Nintendo Switch version is definitely the optimal one.
Finally, Midnight Suns has been delayed. Significantly, going from March of next year to a vague “late 2022” date. Obviously, it’s best that it be delayed and be good rather than rushed out the door, but honestly this kind of puts a crimp in how I was scheduling a hiatus. I had very much planned to take a break at the latest near the end of December and then get back into it in March when Midnight Suns was supposed to drop. Definitely still taking a break starting in late December, but honestly without something significant to break the hiatus, maybe I come back from it a little sooner, maybe a little later, we’ll see…
Ok that covers all the pretty significant things over the last couple of weeks. November is a busy month for most people and I’m no exception, I will probably try and get at least one more post in before I go on vacation but if not there might not be another post before early December, so hopefully see a ya real soon!
