The world is a complicated place and every day it seems there is a new crazy situation to deal with. While the major powers in the world jostle to see who comes out on top, I find it very therapeutic to get lost in nights of gaming. This digital landscape is my place to go when I want to be somewhere else. A realm where I can make changes with immediate effect. Where you can rhythmically kick the bad guys in the junk for hours, have a cup of tea and then do it all again. So when some twerp called Timothy Sweeney decided to mess with PC Gaming, I naturally took this as an act of war.
Epic is a very important company as they own and develop one of the very best creation engines in the industry. As Unity is currently trying to self-implode, they are an even more significant cog in the machine. When the Epic Games Store first launched, I was truly on board. Some healthy completion for Steam was never going to be a bad thing. As a mark of support, I purchased Hades (early access). Then the exclusive fuckery started and I immediately boycotted the EGS as I had seen how divisive this practice had been in the console space. This move was an aggressive and frankly selfish way for Tim Sweeney to force his way into PC Gaming. It was even more bewildering as Epic had the connections and resources to build a real store crammed with all the features offered by Valve.
Years later it’s unfortunate that an increasing number of gamers have developed a level of tolerance for these exclusives. The other strategy Epic employ to entice gamers onto their store is throwing free games around, like Jack Nicholson’s Joker pitching wads of cash at folks in the 1989 Batman. Yet despite this ploy to gain traction, the EGS still feels empty and soulless. I’m not sure how Epic feel this experiment is going back a Sweeney HQ, but these transient visitors only seem to be interested in the free games. It baffles me how little Epic has developed the EGS beyond its initial launch format, maybe they know the score and are just happy to keep burning through all that Fortnight cash? This situation does create a very odd and worrying problem which was covered in a recent video from Bellular News, which I will link below.
As Michael explains in this video, we have this frankly insane situation where some games are no longer being developed for gamers. Instead, they are grabbed by Epic as exclusives and dropped into the black hole that is the Epic Games Store. Like some kind of affluent trophy hunter, Sweeney then has these games locked away in his exclusive collection and the only way to see them is on his terms (by downloading his store). ‘But it’s free!’ I have had screamed at me on social media many times, ‘what is the problem with it?’ Well, the short version is that exclusivity fragments PC gaming and creates divisions where once there were none. Also having too many platforms can be, in of itself, an issue for gamers. When Netflix first launched it was unique and so folks didn't see the harm in signing up for that one service. These days everyone has their own platform, HBO, Now TV and Disney to name a few. We could very easily end up with the same situation on PC and the EGS is paving the way for that.
It’s been a relatively quiet few months after the deluge of games earlier in the year and this has been an ideal time to replay some older classics. Of course, we have the new system which has made replaying Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus such a visual treat. Experiencing RTX running in all its glory has been especially enlightening for me, now I can really see the potential in this power-hungry technology. As we have just returned from our family holiday I, unfortunately, missed the release date for Spider-man on PC. This was a game I always promised myself I would review if Sony ever did give PC gamers a chance to play it. Having already played it a few times on console I already knew how much I loved this Spider-Man game, but I’m thrilled to see this PC version really hit a home run. You can check out my review here.
There have, as there always are, a few games slipping off the release radar. Starfield, Hogwarts Legacy and now Forspoken have all seen delays into next year. In terms of the latter, I think this is definitely a good thing as while it looks great, it also could do with some work on optimisation. Like many I was very underwhelmed with the first look at Starfield and based on the last decade with Bethesda I’m not at all surprised, unfortunately. As the dust from GamesCom settles it seems like this year was a real flash in the pan. I wasn't very impressed with the opening night, simply because it was mostly CGI trailers and waffle. I don’t mind the occasional CGI offering for a game we already have a good bead on. However, for a brand new IP, they do very little to tell me about what that game is all about.
So right now my PC is having a week's break after being almost constantly on for three months. As I have probably mentioned a few times now, one of my yearly traditions is to play The Last of Us. I’ve been doing this since it launched on PS3, I just adore the world they created and the characters that inhabit it. As some of you may be aware this week a full remake was released. There are remakes that take huge leaps away from the original vision, like the Final Fantasy 7 effort. Then there are more faithful remakes where the bones stay exactly the same and Part One is definitely of this ilk. Many were upset that gameplay wasn't also brought over from Part 2 but I think they would have changed the original game too much. This is a truly jaw-dropping piece of work by Naughty Dog, with the environments being completely remade to look more in line with The Last of Us Part 2. The facial animations also are now so much more engaging and this does actually show emotional beats not visible before. My only real issue is the price, I do think Sony should have given people who bought the game twice before a discount. This didn't have to be huge, just enough to say thank you for being loyal fans of the IP and platform. Regardless of the price issues, I am absolutely smitten with the remake and am just approaching the last section of Part 2.
So that is it for another spell ladies and gents. As we head into the autumn (the best season) we do have a few notable games on the horizon. Each time a version of Classic WoW has dropped I have played with the idea of levelling a character all the way. As a massive WoW fan back in the glory days of MMO’s I do miss this golden age where this genre was all the rage. I did give Burning Crusade a good stab but ultimately my interest fell away when new games were landing all around me. Wrath of the Lich King was by far my favourite expansion and I would say this will be my last chance to play the game as it was. If I do make the leap it will be ten percent impulse and ninety percent nostalgia. Another blast from the past is the new Monkey Island game, which I will certainly try to get a review code for. Finally, we will see the 1.0 version of the wonderful Grounded, basically the game version of Honey I Shrunk the Kids. I will be reviewing this one for sure.