New Game Plus (November 18-24)
The Game Awards
As we hastily approach the end of the year, technically end of the decade, outlets and sites start revealing the best of the year awards. This week, The Game Awards announced their nominations for 2019. This wasn’t a bad year in gaming as there was plenty to play, it just seemed like there was fewer titles that everyone could rally around. You could argue that last year there was too many obvious choices including Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Spider Man, Celeste, Monster Hunter World and Assassins Creed Odyssey all make a strong case for game of the year.
The nominees for 2019 Game of the Year include Control, Resident Evil 2, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Death Stranding and The Outer Worlds. This is a very diverse group of nominees that deserve a little attention. Personally, one of my favourite games of the year is Resident Evil 2 but the conversation did arise if it should be eligible for game of the year if it’s just a remake. Its a tough call but ultimately I think that if the game does enough to set itself apart from the original then it should be worthy of at least being talked about as a top contender. This wasn’t a re-master similar to the treatment that Resident Evil 1 received about 4 years ago, this was a ground up remake. This is clearly the consensus that the media who vote on the awards came to as Resident Evil 2 walked away with four nominations.
Im also a little surprised to see Super Smash Brothers Ultimate make the list as it came out in December 2018 after the nominations had already been done. The surprise comes from the game still being on enough peoples minds almost a full year later to warrant a vote. There is no denying that it is the definite edition of that game. My hope is that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order remains on enough peoples mind a year from now as review copies weren’t sent early enough for this game to be considered for this years awards.
As for the top nominated games, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding leads the way with nominations in seven catergories. This game seems to have very divided opinions from those who has played it. Some praise the art and thoughtfulness of it and some think it’s a glorified walking simulator that doesn’t create a new genre. The game definitely succeeds as art because what it does do is generate conversation. If you look on the The Game Awards website, the nominations come from a consensus from a vast and varied selection of outlets, so if you were thinking Geoff Keighly was making sure this game got recognized, it seems that he is very neutral when it comes to nominations.
A close second goes to Control from Remedy with six. For a team that had been focusing their AAA development mainly on the Xbox platform with Alan Wake and Quantum Break, it is nice to see this Finnish studio receive this level of recognition they are getting for Control. I was personally not as hot on this game as many were but the atmosphere and story were pretty excellent. I found that some technical issues and a repetitive drawn out gameplay loop held this game back from being better. It would be nice to see this game get a second wind over the holidays with price drops and the buzz it will hopefully get from these nominations. Falling short of an excellent game, Control is still the kind of experimental style that we need in video games, should be played but unfortunately I don’t think it sold too well. It hasn’t made the PSN digital top 20 in any of the months since it was released and the same goes for the NPD charts.
Rounding out the top three is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with nominations in five categories. This was the most accessible FROMSOFTWARE title that has the SoulsBorne DNA since 2009 when they released Demon’s Souls. I really enjoyed the challenge and the pace at which Sekiro was set, but its not one of those games that you can step away from and come back. You will not be able to pick up where you left off due to the difficulty curve the game sets. Unfortunately, I stepped away for a little too long and found it tough to return.
The Game Awards are only a few weeks away, it will be fun to see what games win, what new games get announced and what exclusive looks we get for upcoming titles.
Half Life Alyx
This wasn’t the only story of the week involving Geoff Keighly, as it seems as though over the past couple of years he has been traveling to Valve in Seattle. It’s been since 2004 since we got our last taste of genuine Half Life Content from Valve with the release of Half Life 2. The game did receive a couple post launch episodes in the subsequent years but these were smaller experiences and not a full game. A lot has changed in the gaming landscape since 2004. Online multiplayer like xbox live and PSN were just getting their feet wet and the Xbox 360 and PS3 hadn’t even been announced yet.
This week rumblings began about a Half Life VR announcement happening at The Game Awards. Shortly after, Valve made an announcement that they would be officially unveiling the newest project in the Half Life universe this week. Half Life Alyx, is a single player, full featured, full priced Half Life campaign set in between the events of Half Life 1 and Half Life 2 where you take the role of Alyx Vance. The idea started back in 2016 as tech demos to see what the team could do in the VR space as the technology was emerging and ballooned from there after gamers began asking where bigger, flagship experiences were. The formed a team of around 50 people and went from there but it didn’t begin as a Half Life game, instead it began as making a feature rich experience with high production value. The one thing the team knew, was that it wasn’t going to be mulitplayer due to the smaller install base of VR.
The game is due out in March 2020 and Geoff Keighly will be doing a documentary about the development of this game similar to what he did with the first two titles. Geoff Keighly released a 20 minute video featuring a sit down conversation with 3 members the Half Life Alyx team and some who have been working on the series since the beginning. If you have any interest in the series then you should go check it out on The Game Awards YouTube channel.
This isn’t the Half Life announcement that most, if not all fans had been waiting for since episode 2 was released back in 2007. Although, I think after all these years this is the best way to ease back into the Half Life universe. No matter what Valve did with Half Life 3 if they released it today, they would never be able to please everyone. Also for a series that was known for only making games if they felt it pushed the industry forward and innovated, the move to VR surely seems like the perfect fit. Robin Walker, one of the lead designers said “Similar to how the gravity gun was the tentpole in Half Life 2, VR became the tentpole that you can wrap everything around this time”
Many people wonder if the move to VR is going to hurt the series or remove some of the magic that makes the series what it has become known for. David Speyrer, who is working on Half Life Alyx and was also the lead designer on Half Life 2 seems to think the move to the new platform will do the exact opposite “DNA of Half Life and many of the elements seem enhanced by VR. Half Life is about the cadence of story, combat, puzzle, interaction, environment and they all seem enhanced by VR”.
As for Half Life Alyx coming to other platforms, I wouldn’t hold your breath as Dario Casali, designer, said “As much as they would love to be releasing a non VR version, the more the headset and controllers were used, they realized that opportunity would be transferable to a traditional controller. Just speaking about how you interact with doors in the game would be a control mapping nightmare. You can peek the door open and put the gun through the crack or throw a grenade in a shut the door and many others. In order to make it non VR the game would have to be shipped without essential features”
As for the future of the series and if we will see more Half Life soon or if this is it for the next 15 years or will we possibly see a conclusion of the story that was started a long time ago, its worth noting, there is hope. all three game designers that sat down with Geoff Keighly seemed very optimistic about the subject. “Were very excited about building more half life. Its incredibly fun to be back building single player products” said Robin Walker. With the game hopefully shipping in March they are still putting the final touches on the game and before moving on to more games in the series, the team wants to evaluate the reception of Alyx first. “We want to put this out and see how the world reacts to it before we make any concrete plans” said David Speyrer.
Take it with a grain of salt, but Keighly, who has been filiming at Valve for a few years and has played the game from start to end said to the team “You are not just doing a half life VR game. You are not only pushing the VR medium, but the industry forward with some of the stuff you are doing in this game and how you’re blending combat and gameplay and dialogue. Its classic Valve”
Half Life Alyx will be on every full featured VR headset that has proper tracking. It currently isn’t coming to the PSVR, most likely due to the limitations with the move controllers. It would be great if with the release of the PS5 we got an updated VR headset that has better resolution and better hand tracking. Valve has released games on home consoles before so even though those are two big ifs, I am hopeful that Half Life Alyx will make its way to the PS5.
Pokémon
This week Nintendo announced that Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield have been selling extremely well. The two titles have combined to sell over 6 million copies worldwide with 2 million coming from the US alone. This was announced from press releases from Nintendo and the Pokémon company as well as Nintendo’s official Twitter. The achievement now makes Pokémon Sword and Shield the fastest selling Nintendo Switch title so far. Being such an established franchise on top of being the first, all new, mainline Pokémon game on the Switch with the recent release of the Nintendo Switch Lite and you have all the makings of a runaway success.
At the time of reporting, this now puts Sword and Shield as the 8th best selling switch game right behind Super Mario Party, Splatoon 2 and last years Pokémon entry, Lets Go. At its current pace, it does have a very good chance of becoming the highest selling title of recent memory including both the DS and the 3DS. Both of these systems had a Pokémon entry around 17 million. The major difference is that the install base of these two systems is much greater than the Switch, making the Sword and Shields debut even more impressive. Currently the Switch is around 41 million systems sold with the 3DS at 75 million and the DS at a staggering 154 million.
The timing of the release is near perfect with the holiday shopping season about to get fully underway with Black Friday and Christmas. This falls in line with Nintendo’s strategy for the Switch so far which has been a steady stream of first party or exclusive games throughout the year with a few flagship titles during the holidays. In 2018, Nintendo released Super Mario Party, Pokémon Lets Go, and Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. In 2017, during the Switch’s infancy you already had Breath of The Wild, which was released in Spring alongside the system but then you also had Super Mario Odyssey released in late October as the flagship Nintendo holiday title. Every single one of these titles has gone on to sell millions with the lowest on the list being Super Mario Party with 7.5 million.
This news is great for Nintendo and everyone involved but already looking forward, this gets me very excited for next holiday. We already know that Animal Crossing is due out spring 2020, which leaves holiday wide open. Titles that could be big enough to base your holiday marketing push around could be a new Mario, the sequel to Breath of the Wild, Metroid Prime 4 or even Mario Kart 9. If you believe the rumors about a updated Nintendo Switch Pro then pairing a more powerful console with one of these games to show off the new system could be good competition for the next gen offerings from Sony and Microsoft.