Hey, everyone! Welcome to the disabled Gaming reviews awards, commonly known as "the Bloggies" 2020 now, 2020 has been an extremely tough year. With the coronavirus pandemic hurting phrase nations around the world. So, the gaming and film industries have both been hit severely hard, but. In the gaming industry, the new generation of consoles (PS5 and Xbox series X) has been released.
So, now it's time for me to start thinking back over the games, and what's been happening over the previous hardware generation. So, the Bloggies 2020, this time, I am doing throughout the entire hardware generation!
Please enjoy!
If you don't want spoilers, do not read the entire post and tell the embedded video has been played. You have been warned!
REight, to kick things off, we have the Fulgore Award, the highest-scoring modern game of this hardware generation. The nominations for the Fulgore award are as follows
Killer Instinct
One of MFSnake's picks, this game is the reboot of one of the beloved classics from the SNES era, with Microsoft's acquisition of UK-based developer, Rare in 2002, the reboot of killer instinct seems inevitable.
This game is also Microsoft's answer to Streetfighter 5, the game's combo as assist Mechanic evens Out the playing field for a player with mobility impairments. So, if Snake and I were to throw down, none of us would have the advantage, due to my mobility impairment. With the inclusion of cross-platform play between PC and Xbox, systems players can enjoy this game, regardless of which platform they are playing on.
The diverse roster of characters including cameos from other Xbox owned franchises, for example, General RAAM from Gears of War, Rash from Battletoads, to The Arbiter from the Halo series. In its current state, the game and is probably one of my favourite fighting games.
Rocket League
This game and, in particular as an indie gem that has risen to notoriety in this generation of hardware, this game along with other popular online games, like Fortnite, introduced cross-platform play across all systems. This game is currently taking the E-sports scene by storm, as the game has recently signed a partnership with the X games. The developers' partnership with Epic games could mean a new direction of the franchise.N terms of our disability, it seems as though that the developers were not screwing around. The controls can be fully customisable both on PC and console, with numerous colourblind modes to boot.
Forza Horizon 4
What can I say about Microsoft's Forza series that has not been already said? The Horizon series is the best way to play a driving game. The open-world sandbox allows endless exploration of the developer's recreation of the United Kingdom. This game more or less has all.
Cross-platform play between PC and Xbox, Xbox series X enhancements, and persistent online world, with a vast plethora of cars to choose from ranging from classic cars, for example, the Lotus Esprit, which was featured in the spy who loved me, to supercars, the Aston Martin Vulcan he and McLaren Senna, this game has a variety of activities and races with either your friends online, or other AI players to play through this game is pretty dam long.
This season's mechanic adds even more realism to the game itself, for example, one week you are driving around the country roads and the beauty of summer, the next few weeks, you might be driving around the icy roads of winter. You will have two tune your car to adapt to the changing seasons.
Streets of Rage 4
The sequel to the 25-year-old franchise we never saw coming. This game has been described as "God Tier" when I am playing this game, I completely agree with that statement. It still retains the classic charm of the previous entries of the franchise, released on the Sega Mega Drive, with classic brawler mechanics to boot. While adding features which keeps this game relevant in today's market, for example, online play.
The game's soundtrack does not disappoint. Some tracks of which was composed by the original composer, who has developed quite a name for himself in the industry as a whole, the legendary Yuzo Koshiro.
This game also has cross-play between Xbox and PC users, so you'll be able to enjoy this game with your friends regardless of which device you decide to play on. In my honest opinion, this game reboots a legendary franchise in the best possible way!
WINNER- FORZA HORIZON 4
Satoru Iwata Memorial Award
Next up, the retro gaming award. Named after the late president of Nintendo who probably single-handedly revive the video game industry as a whole from the crash of the 80s
Normally, we count the high-scoring, most accessible retro game (PS2 era and back).
However, seeing as this year as a whole generational special, we had to jig things a bit. This year, this award is for the best HD remaster, HD collection or definitive edition. The nominations for the Saturn Iwata Memorial Award are as follows-
Halo: The Master Chief collection
Like I said in my previous review of Halo 4, the master chief collection has been nothing short of a tale of redemption, from rags to riches. Upon his release, the game was extremely buggy, plagued with multiplayer disconnects, games and features missing from the collection and various other gripes. However, in its current state, this is exactly how the collection itself should have launched.
Not only have they created a collection of all six games, including all DLC maps, campaigns and, in Reach's and ODST's case, firefight modes, but they have also bought PC players back into the Halo franchise by porting each and every game of the collection to PC. I have been following 343 industries' process of porting each game from Xbox to PC, reviewing them as and when they release.
To be brutally honest with you guys, I think 343 made an excellent call. Although it took 343 industries the majority of that generation's life cycle to redeem itself, by Jove, it was certainly worth the wait!
With the inclusion of cross-play between PC and Xbox successfully implemented and balanced, the graphical enhancements and optimisations for the Xbox series S and X being launched with the final piece of the puzzle being launched for PC, the entire Halo's experience has been made all the sweeter!
Again as I have said in my review of Halo 4, if you haven't played the Halo games yet, this game is available and downloadable for free as part of your Xbox game pass subscription. You owe it to yourself to do this! (Once again, this statement does not in any way, shape or form include Halo 5!)
FF7,8,9
These games, remade for the Xbox one single-handedly revolutionised the JRPG subgenre thanks to the Streets of Rage 4 developers, DotEmu, we can revisit these classics from the PS1 era on current-gen systems. As I have said during the review of this game, playing through Final Fantasy VII for the first time is somewhat of a rite of passage.
The next two games build on the mechanics of VII, but it doesn't have the charm.
Although all that porting the game itself to the Xbox one was rather shoddy, these games were launching without widescreen support. There can be a little bit of a pain.
Throughout 2020, these games were available on Xbox game pass, so all you have the chance to at least try each and every one of these games as a part of your subscription.
Age of Empires 2: DE
Along with StarCraft, Microsoft's Age of Empires series has been the lifeblood of the RTS sub-genre.
This particular game faded to obscurity back when the game ran into compatibility issues with Windows Vista. However, back in 2013 the game received the HD remastered treatment of various mixes for modern operating systems and Steam Workshop support went to allow players to create mods of their own, then uploading to the workshop itself so that users can download, use and enjoy it. This, along with
online multiplayer wrote this particular game back from the dead.
Last year, this game received the remastered treatment. Again. But, this time the game achieved what is deemed as impossible. They have improved the timeless classic from the 90s by giving the game a coat of 4K paint.
For a very small cost, you will be getting a load of content. 20 years, in fact! This package includes the base game (Age of Kings), the game's first expansion (The Conquerors) the game's third expansion, originally released as an add-on to the HD edition (the forgotten empires), and the HD Edition's two expansions released later on its life-cycle. These are the African Kingdoms and the rise of the Rajas.
On the release of the definitive edition, it had an additional expansion included, the last Kahns. As you can tell, the game is marketed as a definitive edition. It seems as though they weren't joking when they branded this game. If you are relatively new to the RTS genre and is looking for a good game to start with, this game is highly recommended.
Crash N-Sane Trilogy
Another one of MFSnake's picks. The Crash Bandicoot series has been dormant for decades. The last game was released in 2010, Crash Nitro Kart 2, Activision and developer, Vicarious Visions came completely out of nowhere and announced that the entire trilogy of crash bandicoot games was going to be remastered.
The trilogy of games, priding themselves on frustratingly hard, controller breaking levels from the original crash bandicoot to Warped. The game also includes two additional levels, exclusive to the N-Sane Trilogy the controversial stormy ascent (the level was so hard and got cards from the game for a while!) And present tense.
In short, this remaster single-handedly saved one of the most characteristic franchises from the 90s from total obscurity. This year, the fourth entry of the series was released. Aptly dubbed "It's About Time".
So, if you are the type of player who takes the word "difficulty", and uses it as toilet paper, and needs apex of good old-fashioned nostalgia from their childhood, this game is highly recommended!
Sonic Mania
The highest-rated sonic game in 15 years. Sonic Mania is the celebration of both old and new. This game is exactly how a Sonic game should feel like and play like. For example, my favourite character in video games.
Tails have been somewhat excluded in the past few decades. For example, the last time Tails was a fully playable character was Sonic Adventure 2, most games since then, he only appeared in cut scenes. Owing to the fact that he is in the top three most popular Sonic characters, I think he deserved to be playable in future games.
This game on the other hand has tails added to the roster as a fully playable character. The Encore DLC adds to characters that have been completely missing since the Saturn era, Ray the Flying Squirrel, and Mighty the Armadillo, the game features levels from various games from the classic 2-D entries of the series, for example, Stardust speedway zone from sonic CD.
Although the game's plot is liked to the mediocre Sonic Forces, this game is highly recommended for finds old, and new to the sonic franchise
WINNER- Halo: MCC
Phil Spencer Award
A one-off, new category which is named after the current head of Xbox. When this generation began, the majority of the gaming community frowned upon, even disregarded the notion of backwards compatibility the ability to play the games that you paid for, therefore legally own from the previous generation on modern hardware.
The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer took to the stage during a Microsoft press conference, back in 2020, he said the following statement "and we weren't sure it was possible today, I'm pleased to announce Xbox one upward compatibility." This opened the floodgates for Xbox 360 games, later original Xbox games to be playable on your Xbox One. All of a sudden, we, as videogame players started to believe in the notion that and the newly released games console should be able to play games for the previous iterations of that particular system. As you can probably tell, this award is for the best game that was released from backwards compatibility on Xbox one, or previous generation games ported to PC. The nominations for the Phil Spencer award are as follows
Star Wars: Battlefront 2
The Star Wars Battlefront games are one of the best series of Star Wars games available. Although, in recent years EA has been abusing the franchise with lucrative micro-transactions and progression tied to randomized loot boxes, which has attracted attention from numerous governments of the world, and the mass media.
However, fear not, my friends! You can dig out your old copy of the original Star Wars battlefront two, made by pandemic Studios, for the original Xbox, which is probably setting their own your shelf, gathering dust, pop the disc in your Xbox, and enjoy probably the best Star Wars game on the market all thanks to GOG (for PC users) and Xbox backwards compatibility.
This game is exactly what is Star Wars game should look like, and play like the all-out war on a truly galactic scale.
What sets aside from EA's failed reboot of the franchise, is galactic conquest mode. As the name suggests, you take control of one of the factions that are active in the first six films of the saga and conquer the galaxy planet by planet. This game also features a diverse roster of both heroes and villains to players from Gen grievous, to Darth Vader, to Han Solo to the legendary Luke Skywalker.
In terms of the multiplayer, you cant play online on the backwards compatible, Xbox version due to the Xbox live servers being shut down. However, you can still play with other players the system i.e LAN.
The PC version, on the other hand, the servers are still active thanks to GOG. Seriously. Go buy it!
GTAV
The Grand Theft Auto series has been dubbed the juggernaut of the gaming industry as a whole (even the controversial Grand Theft Auto V which has been ported to 3 generations of systems, in my opinion, needlessly!).
If you would like to revisit the all-time classic game from the 360 era (and go Bowling with Romnan!) It Is Backwards Compatible on Xbox. Also, This game, along with the Two Expansions (the Lost and Dammed, and The Ballad of Gay Tony) is also available on Steam. With the controversial games for Windows live DRM removed more on than a minute!).
The base game's story is extremely interesting and, and exciting as it shows an accurate portrayal of an an eastern European immigrant entering the country illegally for a fresh start, and to pursue the American dream. An epic tale of betrayal, exploitation (and bowling!)
In terms of the multiplayer elements, the Xbox servers are still up, so you can enjoy exploring Liberty City, a portrayal of New York City at entirely your own pace, with friends on Xbox Live.
The PC version, on the other hand, has the multiplayer element of the game cut out completely, this was due to Microsoft's controversial games for Windows live service which, was hated by the majority of players who used Windows Vista.
Metal Gear 2+3 HD
One of MFSnake's choices. The metal gear solid series has been the grandfather of the stealth game subgenre, during the 360 era, KONAMI has been porting certain bestsellers from the PS2 catalogue to Xbox 360. One of these collections (Silent Hill) could have been much better.
But, the metal gear collection was the polar opposite. This collection also includes the Xbox 360 port of Peace Walker. With this collection, you can revisit two of the most timeless classics from the PS2 library. Metal Gear Solid two: Sons of liberty and, Metal Gear Solid 3: snake eater. All of which, in glorious HD!
Metal gear solid 2: Sons of liberty is split into two chapters. The Tanker Section, where our protagonist Solid Snake Has to infiltrate a tanker in the Hudson River to expose the existence of a new Metal Gear, which leads onto the Plant which newcomer, Raiden has to infiltrate a barrier preventing an oil slick of the Manhattan Coast, "Big Shell" to neutralise a terrorist group planning to destroy the facility, rescue the president, and prevent massive environmental disaster.
In metal gear solid three: snake eater puts you in the shoes of Naked Snake who hast to the USSR to rescue a defecting Soviet weapons scientist, and to prove the USAinnocence after a nuclear attack.
two
This collection is exactly what Spencer's vision for backwards compatibility on Xbox one was about. Revisiting a classic game from your childhood by making these games playable on modern-day systems.
The game stealth mechanics are very good and (hopefully won't have to use them!) The shooting mechanics is also very easy to use. If you are PS2 diehard looking for nostalgia when playing your beloved system, this game is highly recommended.
USF4
Like it or not, the Streetfighter series is the lifeblood of the fighting game genre. This game brought fighting games in general back into focus when it released for the 360, back in 2008. This game ended an 11-year hiatus of the series.
This game is debatably the best entry of the series as a whole. With a host of returning characters, like Chun Li, Ryu, and Ken Masters, mixed in with new characters, like Rufus, El Fuerte and Gokuen(not to be confused with Akuma), which was Ken and Ryu's master.
Streetfighter 4 introduced numerous mechanics such as Focus Attacks, and EX special moves.
Even though that's Streetfighter V is currently released for the PlayStation four, and PC, snubbing the Xbox, Streetfighter four still holds up to this day.
WINNER-GTAIV
Wooden Spoon Award
Now, with the three big awards out of the way, it is time for the DGR equivalent of the Magaluf walk of shame (I would rather you guys have googled that rather than be explaining it to you!)
Let's start off with the award named after negative trophy for any country's rugby team who went through the six Nations tournament without winning a single match, the wooden spoon award represents the worst and accessible game of this hardware generation. The nominations for the wooden spoon award are as follows
Star Wars Battlefront (EA Reboot)
Gee, guys talking about from rags to riches! This particular game is the classic, cut and dry case of a big mega-corporation of the gaming industry butchering a very well-known and beloved franchise.
For decades we have been screaming out for a full-blown sequel to pandemic Studios'mega-hit, Star Wars battlefront. When the Electronic Arts acquired the rights to Star Wars, following the collapse of Star Wars games developer, LucasArts we sensed a disturbance in the force. First of all, it was elsewhere, elusive.
But, when this game launched back in 2015, it was like a car crash in slow motion. First off, players who purchase the Ultimate Edition gain access to Han Solo's blaster. This was more powerful than any other weapon in the game. To me, this clearly a pay to win (we'll get to that later!) Also, the number of features that was missing from the game, single-player campaigns, space battles (I mean, what is the point of playing a Star Wars game without space battles, anyway!) And most importantly, in my opinion, a galactic conquest mode.
But, I was tempted to put this game in the Et Tu Brute Award. Here's why. There is one feature in quite a lot of game which our deal breakers for players with mobility impairments. Can you guess what that is?
A Legacy stick layout
To all of you who aren't familiar with what this is, a legacy stick layout was originally introduced by the N64 classic Goldeneye. The layout itself allows the player to move and turn with a single stick. This allows a mobility-impaired player to play this game.
Right, let's talk about more about this. Legacy stick layout was available on launch but, when using this vital tool for a mobility-impaired player, it took a player around 30 seconds for her or her to complete a 180° turn. This puts mobility-impaired players at a marked the disadvantage as a highly competitive setting, in this case, an FPS game.
What really rubbed salt into an open wound was the fact that it took them just under one month to fix the problem. What was also released at the same time as the Battle of Jakuu DLC.
Halo 5
Ahh, 343Industries how could you screw up this badly? As you can probably tell by my alias on both blogger and YouTube you know that I am a big follower of the Halo series. If we have played I Halo game from Bungie, we should know exactly what a decent Halo game looks like, plays like, feels like. Unfortunately, Halo 5 has little to none of these factors.
First off, let's talk about the story. The advertising campaign of this game, leading up to launch day was, without a shadow of a doubt the biggest farce in the gaming industry. The majority of events shown in the adverts leading up to launch did not happen. Also, the story's centre around Spartan Locke was a big slap in the face to the Halo community.
Next up, multiplayer. Multiplayer and Halo game is like a wedding without a DJ. You can't have one without the other. Halo 5's multiplayer was not even close to what multiplayer in a Halo game should be. The new mechanics for example Spartan Slam feels unnecessary. The game's Warzone mode was its saving grace. However, power weapons and vehicles which are available to players during a war zone match are tied to loot boxes, if you are following this channel and blog, you should know my stance towards this kind of mechanic. Seriously, this game almost killed the Halo franchise as a whole.
Hunt Down the Freeman
This game is a classic example on how not to make a half-life game. This game was extremely buggy. And still is. You can progress through points in certain levels unless you enable the "no clip" command, which is technically cheating. There is quite a lot of recycled assets used in this game from the crowbar collective's Black Mesa, the voice actors could not even pronounce the research facility that kicked off the events of the series. And the story is pretty laughable. This game is not nicknamed "hunt down the refund" and "the seven-hour chore" for nothing. Enough said
Sonic Forces
After Sonic Mania, the highest-rated video game in 15 years this game has you lot to live up to. Unfortunately, this game is not what a sonic game should feel like and play like.
The game itself highlights some of the worst aspects of the sonic fandom. Instead of playing our speedy, blue protagonist, you create your own Sonic character. The story is pretty much, like from a fanfiction. Once again, Tails was put on the backburner, and unplayable.
The mechanics of this game feels unnecessary. In a standard sonic game, you are given a certain amount of lives. When those lives hit this zero, game over. However, in this game, the character can die around 25 times, and still be able to complete the level. Playing this game feels more repetitive than any other Sonic game I played. No, Sega. Just No
WINNER- SONIC FORCES
|Et Tu Brute Award
So, here we are with our last category of the year and special. This particular award category names and shames the biggest backstabbers of the gaming industry. Grab yourself a nice comfy seat, grab the popcorn as I go through the biggest backstabbers of this gaming generation
KONAMI- MGSV Made by Hide-...oh wait (Pachinko edition)
Before this drama started, Japanese developer KONAMI was a household name in the gaming industry. They had a lot of titles and franchises in the portfolio. Metal Gear Solid was one of those franchises
But, during the development of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain something very wrong happened with the company. The very few people know exactly what was going on, but Kojima's name was removed from promotional material, even the box art of The Phantom Pain. The corporate politics was also made even clearer when Kojijma was blocked from attending The Game Awards to receive an award that the phantom pain had won.
After the whole debacle ended Konami decided to kill off a playable teaser of an unannounced silent hill reboot, codeveloped with Kojima. After the split, the playable teaser was "removed from every storefront of the game itself was listed in.
The final knife in Kojima's back was when the company continued to develop a new game for the series. The game is Metal Gear Survive. It flopped. Spectacularly... Now, the franchises in Konami's portfolio are now only Pachinko machines, with the exception of pro-evolution soccer
EA-Star Wars Battlefront 2 - Attack of the Lootboxes (Ultimate Team Edition)
Loot boxes are the absolute cancer of the videogame industry as a whole. This mechanic has basically simulated gambling. You pay X amount of money for X amount of boxes. The contents of these boxes are completely randomised. As I have said this is, anyway, simulated gambling. EA officially crossed the line when being involved in a franchise from a production company focused on family-friendly films. Disney. When the second entry of EA's rebooted Star Wars Battlefront franchise, character progression was tied to these randomised loot boxes. Apparently, it took 40 hours of grounding in the game to unlock Darth Vader. You know just as well as I do, Darth Vader is one of the biggest, most recognisable characters in the Star Wars franchise.
Therefore, you were forced into buying these randomised loot boxes. What really grinds my gears about the whole issue was that EA was, basically introducing simulated gambling in video games to children. This puts them at risk of gaining and gambling addiction from a very early age.
The controversial practice is not only in Star Wars ~Battlefront, it's series of sports games FIFA has these practically shoved in your face. The only way to gain decent players in ultimate team is to buy packs, which are basically the exact same thing as that is found in Battlefront 2, and has been doing this for years. And to think, EA could sink no lower...
Epic Games- R.I.P UT & Gears (Making Room for Fortnite)
Right, before I start this, for the record, I think Fortnite is not the worst game in existence. There are worse games the Town with No Name, and the highly controversial Sonic 06. But, it is entirely another thing when one of gaming's biggest franchises has been killed off suddenly to make room for this game.
If you have been following my blog, you will know that out of all the games that is on the market, Unreal Tournament was one of the games I hold the dearest. I remember playing this game before my accident, during my stay in hospital, even to this day!
In 2017, Epic Games announced that a new entry of the series, after years of hiatus, was in development in collaboration with the community. As you can probably tell, I was hyped. I am a pre-alpha tester of this game, and I could tell you something, right now, it is amazing. But, along came a spider, Who sat down beside her. That spider was, of course, Fortnite. Due to the high profitability of the game, Epic decided to can development completely, in 2018. Well done Epic. Telling off a series of games that you are famous for to replaced with.....that! In its current state, the game feels far from finished!
and don't get me started on how PC gaming distribution has been split in half when Epic decided to stab valve in the back by creating their own online store, and during developers with exclusivity deals!
Sega- Sonic Mania( 2 weeks delayed, for PC users, for the implementation of Deneuvo!)
As I have said earlier in this post or video, if you're watching this on YouTube, sonic mania is the highest rated Sonic game in 15 years.
It was slated for release on all platforms, including PC, on 15 August 2017. It was every sonic player's dream come true..... But along came a spider, Who sat down beside her.
In this case, the spider is the game's controversial publisher, Sega, the company announced, during a gameplay lifestream, days before the scheduled release date, the PC port of the game was delayed for two weeks. Every PC Gamer, including myself, smells a rat. That rat was Deneuvo.
To all of you who are unfamiliar what Deneuvo is, Deneuvo is a highly restrictive piece of anti-tamper software, basically DRM. This is a bad thing because the implementation of this increases the file size of the game that you're protecting dramatically.
Also, the game that you have paid money for therefore should legally own requires verification online in order to check if the game itself has been modified in any way. Therefore, no Internet connection, you can't play the game that you paid for! Also, due to be constant encryption and decryption of data, games that use Deuvo is reported to be responsible for solid-state drives (SSD's) failing.
To be the final knife on our backs, it is a legal requirement for game developers to specify whether or not additional software or DRM is contained in the game that you are selling, if so you have to specify which one. Upon Mania's launch, Sega failed to adhere to this legal requirement.
So, if you are to have bought sonic mania on its delayed date of launch (by the way, the console versions of Mania released on schedule!) You are unknowingly downloading a piece of software that would still remain in your hard drive, even after the game itself is being uninstalled, commonly known as "widow software".
At time of posting, Sega has officially announced that they have removed Deneuvo from Mania, decreasing its file size from 1.5 GB to only 740 MB
WINNER-EA'S LOOT BOXES!!
This concludes the generational special of the Bloggies, see you guys in the next review
SpartanCommander1990 out!
Roll out, Spartan Company!
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