Anthem, Part 2 – New World

.Reading time 20 minutes.

If you read part one of my Anthem ramblings from yesterday then–welcome back! If you didn’t and would like to, go do that and I’ll keep this page warm until you get back.

All done? Excellent. Seemed kind of dour, didn’t it? I agree. Except for some general “I have hope” sentiments I don’t think I really gave anyone reasons to be excited. So let’s change that and I think there is no better place to start than the setting.

Unless you’re building a game that functions solely on its mechanics like Dead Cells, Tetris or QWOP then a story is an important fundamental aspect to your title. One that I think Anthem has in spades.

The Anthem of Creation

Whether we acknowledge it or not originality is one of the key hooks in any creative endeavor. Even if the skeleton of it is the same as it’s been for decades the veneer, a lot of the time, is what really counts. As more and more information about Anthem has been released the comparisons to recent and games long past have been steady.

The loot and RPG systems of Diablo.

The shooter mechanics of Destiny, and the loot.

I’m sure there are more than a few passing references to Borderlands.

The movement, combat and, loot of Warframe.

The cosmetic microtransactions of… any number of games.

The Sci-Fi setting of… any number of games, books and, movies.

I mentioned yesterday that as more details about the game have come out I was surprised by how many people were down on it’s aesthetic and story. I won’t deny that in many broad ways Anthem feels familiar, just like a lot of games to their spiritual predecessors. I’ve remarked on numerous occasions that to me Destiny at times feels to me like Bungie is still a bit lovesick for their Halo IP. The Cabal and the Covenant, Master Chief and the Guardians, humanity on the brink. In a lot of broad themes, these games to me have a lot in common beyond just their aesthetics.

But how similar are they? The truthful answer is not at all really, especially once you start getting into the details of the settings where they are significantly different. Each one with a lovingly crafted lore built out into a living, breathing universe that is constantly growing and changing. It’s not an easy undertaking to build something like that from scratch and only bear a passing resemblance to IPs that have come before. Bungie and Bioware both deserve a round of applause for managing to do this multiple times over their history as game developers.

Anthem for all its familiarity feels to me like a fresh universe to explore and that in and of itself means it has cleared one of the biggest hurdles a new IP has. So, let us take a look at what know so far before heading into the Open Demo Weekend.

The World of Anthem

Humanity struggles for survival on the ever-changing world of Anthem

The as-of-yet unnamed planet players will be exploring in Anthem is a world described by Mark Darrah as, “… a world stuck in the middle of its genesis.” As far as I can tell it’s not entirely clear whether or not the planet was being created from scratch or being terraformed from a previously uninhabitable form. The Shapers or Shaper Gods have long since left the world with their work unfinished and the inhabitants of the planet struggling to survive the aftermath. The technology used by the Shapers to harness the Anthem of Creation, energy unique to this universe, were also left behind and still active. Occasionally bursts of energy from these relics will radically alter the landscape and go so far as to mutate the indigenous life. These changes affect everything from their physical appearance to potentially making them more aggressive. We hear several references in trailers to something called The Heart of Rage which may or may not be related to the Anthem itself. This results in a dangerous and ever-changing planet where humanity fights back the chaos from heavily defended enclaves called Forts.

One of these Forts, Tarsis, is where the player begins their journey as a new Freelancer pilot responsible for flying one of the worlds rare Javelin mechs. Javelins are handcrafted suits of armor used by talented pilots to ensure the safety of the remaining human settlements. The story of the Freelancers and their inception actually goes back quite a long way according to the Legion of Dawn trailer. The voiceover talks about a time when humans were slaves to the chaos of the world. That is until one figure, in what we assume was the first Javelin, lead the fight to establish bastions of humanity that still stand today. The technology of the Javelin and this unnamed figures victories lead to the establishment of the Legion of Dawn. Precursors to the modern day Freelancers who still risk their lives to protect and someday reclaim the planet from the constant upheaval threatening to destroy it.

On top of the Shaper Relics and indigenous dangers of the planet, there looms another threat in the form of the Dominion. A faction of humans from the northern reaches lead by a man known only as The Monitor. The goals of the Dominion are simple: survival through strength. They seek to consolidate all of humanity under their banner and claim the Anthem of Creation for themselves. With that done they will be able to make and remake the world at a whim in any fashion they desire. As such the Dominion and The Monitor will be one of the main antagonists through much of the game as the Freelancers stand between them and their search for ultimate power.

On the periphery of this growing conflict, there is also an alien faction which comes from off-world called the Scars. This enigmatic force appears to also seek the technology left behind by the Shapers for their own nefarious ends.


This is only the tip of the iceberg with regards to enemy and allied factions out in the world and even within your home of Fort Tarsis. In classic Bioware fashion, our actions and interactions with each them will shape our version of the story and the world as we play and develop those relationships.

I think that is about as good as I can do for the “in a nutshell” version but suffice it to say for me this was enough to get the wheels spinning. Anthem’s developers have said that while we’ll learn more about the world during the campaign we won’t learn every detail about it nor solve all of its mysteries. Whether or not we’ll eventually learn the truth about the Shapers or their original intentions for this world is a toss up but in my estimation, a well-teased story is as good or better than a fully explained one. After all, there is something to be said about keeping the mystery alive and in this case, my place in the grand scheme of Anthem doesn’t have to sit front and center as long as I can keep flying my javelin.

A Good Mechanic Goes a Long Way

A great story and setting is all well and good but what about the mechanics of the game? This is the part where I really wish I had done some capture during the demo but with the limited amount of time I had to play it was a secondary concern. Fortunately, there are plenty of great content creators out there on YouTube who have more than enough captured footage for you to enjoy if you weren’t able to play last weekend. Even better is that if you want to try it yourself there is an Open Demo starting tomorrow that you can take part in on the PS4, Xbox and PC.

In the interim what I will tell you is that the game feels amazing. I’ve read, listened and watched a lot of reviews in the last few days and much like the aesthetic complaints I’m just not seeing a lot of the criticism being levied at Anthem. That is until you get to the swimming part and I will 100% agree that feels abysmal with a mouse and keyboard. The flying took a little bit of tweaking on M+K to get just right but once I had it dialed in I didn’t want to do anything else. There is absolutely no substitute for the freedom and verticality offered by Anthem in its traversal which is made only better by the sheer mobility in combat.

The mission structure of the game is one aspect that I will say is not my favorite as it sort of breaks up the immersion. As funny as that is to say about a third person shooter. Queueing up in a lobby before loading into a mission or Free-Play is fine but it sort of bypasses the potential magic of suiting up, walking out to the launch platform and jumping. I won’t quibble too much about a load screen being in between a player and their adventure but you can’t argue with the beauty of a seamless transition from one area or activity to the next. In this age of gaming, it would have been nice if Bioware had found a way to ditch the dreaded static load screen for something more immersive. That being said once you are loaded in the world is your oyster with loads being limited to entering into caverns, buildings or other dungeon-like areas. Many places, even underwater, are free to be explored without hesitation.

As the name looter shooter implies guns play a rather large role in Anthem although perhaps not as large a role as we initially assumed. Bioware has stated that the main reason for the lack of a PVP mechanic in the game is they didn’t want the power of characters limited by necessary balance concerns. As such the Javelin’s myriad abilities recharge very quickly ensuring that you are never relying on only your weapons for very long. The ensuing cacophony of explosive elemental effects comboing off one another is truly a sight to behold. The rattle of guns is still a constant soundtrack in combat however and they handle okay. There is a jittery aspect to the machine guns that I don’t care for although I suspect its a conflict between aim assist and M+K control scheme. Shotguns feel and sound incredible, there is a weight to them that is unmistakable and satisfying. Sniper rifles, especially my favorite the Devastator variant, bring long range damage with an explosive kick to the battlefield. Marksman rifles for me felt the best to me during my playthrough although as a Storm main it was always destined to be. Pistols I could take or leave although I didn’t spend as much time with them as I should have.

Gangs all here.

Before this gets too much longer the last thing I want to talk about, in broad terms, are the javelins themselves. The stars of the show. From top to bottom they feel different, look different and play very different. While there are only four base javelin types the weapons, mods, and components you pick up can radically alter how you approach a battle. None of them are relegated to any one role except in the most general sense.

A Storm will never tank a battle or spend much time on the ground, in the thick of things.

A Colossus will not sit back and pick off targets from afar or hover above the battlefield.

An Interceptor will not deal extensive area damage or spend much time in one place, ever.

A Ranger will not… uh, well. Ranger is kind of all-around good at everything so if you don’t like being pigeonholed this is the javelin for you.

Short of these clear divisions of labor, you can outfit your javelins to fit a wide variety of playstyles even if they may seem to run contrary to the javelins stated role. With only PvE content to consider it opens up the way for more experimentation with potentially sub-optimal builds. At the end of the day, the way you enjoy playing will trump the statistically optimal choice. With a group of three other javelins, their combined firepower and some skillful play I think we’ll find most if not all styles of play are viable in Anthem.

Anthem in its current state is far from a perfect game but as I said before it has enormous potential and that is what excites me the most about it.
Attentive readers will notice that I didn’t talk about the microtransaction scheme that will be in the game which is a fair criticism. The main reason I don’t want to is that the community already got what it wanted from Bioware and EA in regards to real money purchases. Cosmetic only. The supposed pricing debacle is something we can discuss after launch when it is set in stone but for now, the game is releasing with exactly what we said we wanted. They listened, we won to get out the ticker tape and let’s throw that parade.

With the fixes to come in the released game and the technical difficulties (hopefully) ironed out for the Open Demo starting today I think Anthem is finally a game that we can be honestly excited for. It’s here, it’s real and thus far it isn’t all of our worst fears from EA‘s corporate meddling to Bioware’s rocky reputation combined. We chided them for a long time that this game was shaping up, and indeed intended, to be their apology and redemption tour and it seems we were right.

Eventual success or failure aside I think we can confidently say that Anthem is the game Bioware set out to make. They offered transparency to the fans and listened to their feedback over the last couple years to improve on their vision. In a few weeks, the world will get a chance to vote with their wallets on the final product.

I don’t know about you but I can’t really ask for more than that.

  • Anthony

P.S. Bioware also announced that all story-based DLC for this game will be free going forward because they don’t want to split up the player base.

Anthem, Part 1 – Rocks and Shoals

.Reading time 11 minutes.

Everyone has had a lot to say about this game since that very first E3 tease all the way back in 2014 and before we really get started let’s take a second to revisit that.

Bioware teases brand new IP at E3 2014.

It may sound a little mean but, I always find it funny when we get these produced pieces set to hopeful music about the grand future waiting for us just around the corner. That being said regardless of how many times I see them from developers I love they never cease to get me excited for what’s coming. Bioware has had something of a rough few years what with Mass Effect: Andromeda being an unmitigated disaster and Star Wars: The Old Republic being… a long story. EA, the publisher for Bioware’s games, has not been free of controversy either over the last handful of years. Their most notable, but far from only, debacle being Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and the famous “…sense of pride and accomplishment…” quote. You really have to marvel at a PR statement that is so bad to be that soundly rebuffed by an entire demographic let alone the specific community it was targeting.

Three years, a lot of bumps and roadblocks later brings us to E3 2017 and the official trailer and gameplay reveal of Bioware’s new IP, Anthem.

E3 2017 reveal.

Mmph, that dialogue. Never ceases to remind me of the face creasing power of a mouthful of Warheads but without the reward of actually having candy. That aside it was hard to not instantly be pulled in by the impressive visuals, gameplay, and hints at a fully realized sci-fi world from Bioware. There is little point in lying about the fact that I was hooked immediately in spite of the deluge of cautionary, “Yeah, but it’s EA.” cries from every corner. EA and Bioware’s latest string of foibles was still fresh on everyone’s mind and there was no getting around that. Things were relatively quiet through 2017 with little details trickling out here or there but 2018 was an entirely different story. Bioware went on the offensive with a steady run of live-streamed content for transparency with a rightly skeptical community.

As I watched the live-streams and read the myriad coverage of the game’s progression towards release I was constantly surprised by the number of comments calling it bland, boring or generic looking. I could see some arguments being made in reference to the lack of story information since without it all you have is the game mechanics themselves to hold your interest. People need to know their reason for suiting up and flying around your world blowing up bizarre creatures. The Matrix wasn’t sold to people on its revolutionary slow-motion technique alone but rather the story which was bolstered by the cinematography.

Even granted that we had heard some intriguing tidbits that had me engrossed.

The anthem of creation?

Shaper storms?

Fort Tarsis being one of the last bastions of humanity?

What made the world this way? What world are we even on?

New IPs while often a very dangerous proposition for even established studios have the benefit of being wholly unknown, a new frontier to explore and learn about. For me, Anthem had painted the perfect picture to draw me in with just enough information to get me asking questions but not enough to answer them.

On the mechanical side, the game is very familiar having been compared to everything from the very top-of-mind Destiny, who dropped all pretense on the matter, all the way to Diablo. Even if you’re playing these games for the story ultimately you’re still playing them for the loot because it is an inescapable part of their gameplay and progression.

All this being said, why am I here today talking about Anthem? This past weekend I was able to play in the VIP Demo/Beta and I’d like to chat about that experience. Especially given that there is an open demo weekend coming up where everyone, including folks without pre-orders, will be able to try out the game.

We may as well get the obvious stuff out of the way; the technical problems. The demo was a bit of a mess as Friday started out with the servers being largely unavailable to players because of a somewhat humorous design error. In an effort to make sure people could get in without manually having to retry over and over the game was accidentally designed to DDoS itself. Understandably most folks didn’t find this very funny as they had paid by way of pre-orders to have access to the game over the weekend. Eventually, they got it figured out but this was only the first in a series of issues the game would encounter. To make a long list short we’ll do it like this –

  • Stuttering/Lagging/Rubberbanding during play.
  • Infinite Load – Loading progress would stop at 95% and never progress. Seemed to be linked to folks using WiFi.
  • Second Javelin unlocks at level 12 – Many players once achieving level 12 were unable to unlock their second Javelin. The game also seemed to have trouble accurately tracking XP gains and levels in general.
  • Item stat errors both visually and mechanically.
  • Graphical errors along with enemies spawning and despawning randomly even while engaged in combat.
  • Immobile NPCs where their AIs seemed to be bugged.
  • “Connection Error” dialogue box would pop up frequently during play and could only be dismissed by clicking. This would interrupt your control inputs so you would simply stop moving and acting. The error didn’t actually disconnect you from the game.
  • Console players, by and large, being unable to log in and even play for huge chunks of time over the weekend. Partially caused by issues trying to link their Origin and console accounts for access to the demo.

I’m sure there are more I’m forgetting but those were the ones that either happened to me, people I was playing with or were simply the most prominent over the weekend. In the wake of this, I have seen lots of conjecture about the readiness of the game and how much can Bioware really fix in the weeks leading up to release. Not entirely an unreasonable point but it is important to remember that this was a six-week-old build of the game. I’m not offering this as a way to excuse the problems during the demo but simply to point out how much work has undoubtedly been done in those six weeks. Not to mention will be done in the four until release. All things being equal I would have preferred a demo with no problems or just fewer but we’ve all collectively done enough of these that this shouldn’t be too shocking.

A summary of the demo weekend from Bioware’s Head of Live Service, Chad Robertson.

Going from controlled closed alphas to even a pseudo-public demo will cause a lot of unexpected issues to crop up which is just an unfortunate reality. This statement certainly won’t quell the “I canceled my pre-order!” crowd nor should it, that is their recourse for a rocky demo. It isn’t money lost for the consumer because they got the experience they paid for, one that told them their money would be best spent elsewhere. It saddens me to see a product like Anthem, with so much potential, take it in the teeth like that on a demo but that is the risk they take.

For me, personally, the demo rocky as it was had the complete opposite effect on me. Call me a sucker or a shill but I’ve tried to never judge games too harshly based on demos, betas or alphas. Developers take huge risks in letting us see games early and in potentially broken states. They count on players keeping an open mind and sometimes seeing the potential in what they are trying to do rather than the current reality.

Even four weeks out, one troubled demo weekend down and one more rapidly approaching I still can’t help but see the potential in Anthem.

Thanks for reading part one and I’ll be back with part two tomorrow. Until then have a great day and happy gaming.

  • Anthony

The First Friday

.Reading time 19 minutes.

I want to take a little time today and talk about what stood out to me over the course of last year. 2018 by any measure in the game industry was packed to the gills with products worthy of your time. As such it can be hard for any person with limited free time and budget to pick the winners. Some years you may as well run it as a random drawing because of the sheer amount of options.

For me this was 2018 in a nutshell.

Favorite Title of 2018

Wait, you mean like just one? What idiot came up with that?

Oh right, this is my blog. Lets try that again.

Favorites of 2018

We’ll dispense with the choices that should surprise no one at all. 

God of War, Spider-Man, and Red Dead Redemption II are the titles that you’ll find on pretty much every list out there, including mine. This is for good reason as all three were stunning examples of games done right and while I, and many other people, can find nitpicky reasons to tear them down a peg. Why bother? I’m not a stranger to or wholly against nitpicky analysis of things for fun but in this case it feels to me like just searching for an excuse to not give something it’s full kudos.

These games were great, plain and simple. They are more than worth the time and money to experience if their type of game is your thing and to be honest, even if it isn’t I think they could win you over in the end.

That being said, what other games did I love in 2018?

Developed by Motion Twin

My relationship with the RogueLike/RogueLite genre of games has always been a bit contentious. I want to like them a lot more than I oftentimes do however Dead Cells seemed immune to my fickle ways.

Thinking on it I haven’t been able to nail down precisely why and have come to the conclusion that the game in its entirety is the reason. Tight, responsive controls with engaging, fast paced combat underscored by a darkly atmospheric soundtrack leaves little room for disappointment. On top of that the variety of gameplay styles supported by the available weapons, perks, upgrades and items give the built in replayability even more variety. All of this is tied together in a vibrant art and animation style that you can’t help but admire.

Even with the time I put in prior to the full release I still can’t say that I have completed Dead Cells. However in rare fashion for me with these types of games the tug remains to go back and dive back in.

Developed by Fatshark

Warhammer as a franchise carries with it a seriously incredible amount of history regardless of whether you are talking about the Fantasy or 40k iterations. Whole YouTube channels, wiki resources and books have been dedicated over the years to cataloging and making sense of it all for people new to the lore. Vermintide II along with being a heart-pounding action game of running battles and skin-of-your-teeth survival scenarios is packed with tidbits of this lore. There is something that is fabulously appealing to me about media that is, rightly, confident enough in its story and setting to eschew the need for extended exposition to explain how and why a thing is happening.

Vermintide II thrusts you and your three companions, be they AI or fleshbags, into various save-the-day scenarios in which there is no time when you are not on the verge of being overrun. In the brief moments of respite that you have you can heal up and seek out items to either assist you in combat or increase the difficulty for additional rewards.

Each of the five classes in the game are embodied by one of five characters–

  • Sienna Fuegonasus – Battle Wizard
  • Markus Kruber – Mercenary
  • Kerillian – Waystalker
  • Victor Saltzpyre – Witch Hunter Captain

and my personal favorite –

  • Bardin Goreksson – Ranger Veteran

Truth be told all five are a blast to play for different reasons and each one has several different subclasses each with their own flavor of play for you to further augment.

At the end of the day you could water down Vermintide II to its core loop of completing (grinding) missions for rewards and better gear as you could with many games. Ultimately though it does a great disservice to the voice acting, writing, music and aesthetic design that build the tense and exciting environments in which you fight through. No matter how many times I’ve battled through a level the adrenaline rush of surviving a big fight or barely making it through to a portal with all grimoires in hand has never dulled. After that breath of relief you’re always ready to go again and test yourself against the skaven hordes or hulking armored chaos warriors.

Just writing this makes me want to reinstall it and start playing again. The question is who else I can drag down with me in the process.

Developed by Harebrained Studios

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a fatal weakness for giant robots piloted by puny humans. It’s the ultimate overcompensation and I still don’t care, forget your dually-axelled truck-nut adorned Ford Super Duty and give me a Cataphract CTF-1X loaded for bear. Give me the ridiculous weapons of Macross or the imposing frames of Gundam or Evangelion.

Do you have any idea how jealous I am that people on the bullet train in Japan get to see this?

Credit to The National

Battletech really scratched the itch I had for a turn-based strategy game and since playing it has thoroughly reignited my passion for the genre and also reminded me of the pain of things like X-Com. That may sound bad but it really isn’t, X-Com is as much a game you can love as it is one that makes you want to pull your hair out. Battletech excels in the more granular aspects of the RTS where things like Starcraft prefer to gloss over. The specific loadout, pilot and strategic placement of a mech in a given moment can drastically alter the course of a battle. Environmental concerns like cover, rivers, mountains, trees all add more complications to how you choose to approach a situation.

Outside of just the combat the granularity carries over into the campaign mode of the game where your existence is dependent on more than just clicking Next Mission. As a mercenary commander you’ve got to figure out the most effective way to pay the bills that keep you and your cadre alive and effective on missions. The outcomes of the missions you take on are not the binary victory of defeat you may be used to instead you have the option of retreating and earning a Bad or Good Faith Withdrawal. If you succeed in killing one enemy and completing a single objective before your retreat you’ll still receive partial payment for the attempt. This allows the player an opportunity to look at a tough fight and decide if financially its worth it to try and win or do what they can and get out before it goes south.

On the technical side the environments, animations and unit textures were all beautifully done using Unity. Whether you are zoomed out for a wide overview of the battlefield or zoomed in over the shoulder of a mech the game is stunning. Sound and music I thoroughly enjoyed although admittedly I’m a sucker for this particular mixture of synth rock, soaring orchestral pieces and the occasional chorus.

It’s not a perfect title but if you’ve been craving a solid futuristic wargame then this should be right up your alley.

Developed by 11 Bit Studios

I’m actually going to start this off by recommending a different game developed by the same studio called This War of Mine. It’s almost the micro version of the macro-style of Frostpunk. Where This War of Mine makes you care for each individual, Frostpunk aims to force you to look at the bigger picture and ultimately see those in your charge as resources. Like any other resources in this game they must be spent for the good of what little is left of humanity and it’s survival.

You know the situation is dire when the games Law system allows you to do everything from instituting Child Labor to potentially using the dead as fertilizer to increase the efficiency of your hothouses to stave off famine in your city. Suffice it to say that in this frozen hellscape there are tough choices to be made and they’ll fall squarely on your shoulders as the architect of this new civilization.

While the overall feel is an RTS where the enemy is nature, both human and otherwise, the gameplay is almost that of a Roguelike. You will most likely fail quite a lot and while you cannot carry over resources to your new game you can take your knowledge with you. Over time you’ll refine your strategy to ensure a society that is as stable as you can possibly manage for as long as you can manage against the cold and misery.

In this vein there is an honorable mention that came out about a month after Frostpunk called Surviving Mars. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to play it but if you like your survival city builders with a decidedly more sci-fi twist there is, of course, a game for that.

Developed by Wizards of the Coast

It’s been a long and honestly rocky road getting to the release, or open beta rather, of Magic the Gathering Arena but as a long time player I am so thankful we have finally arrived. With all due respect to Stainless Games and the hard work they put into the Duels of the Planeswalkers series of games. Even with respect to WoTC themselves with Magic Online and Magic Duels, Arena is what the game has been destined to be for some time now.

That being said it isn’t perfect as right now it basically only supports the Standard format which is comprised of the four most recent sets of cards to be released. If you’re a fan of eternal formats which allow far more card variety or things like Legacy or Vintage then this still isn’t quite the game for you. For now however Arena has shown, as much to WoTC as their customers, that they are capable of designing a game that actually looks and plays like it was made within the last five years.

If you are someone who knows of MTG and has been wary of trying out the physical version because it can seem intimidating then Arena is the perfect entry point. It is free-to-play and comes with a sleek New Player Experience to walk you through the basics of the game before letting you poke around for yourself. While there is some ongoing debate about the economy of the game I do think your average casual player can find enjoyment earning the free starter decks and building their collection. Gold rewards come fairly quickly with the completion of daily and weekly goals and Gems, the paid currency, are largely unneeded unless you want to participate in competitive or draft events. Players also have the opportunity to earn Wildcards which can be turned into any card of the equivalent rarity i.e. common, uncommon, rare, mythic. These wildcards are generally found as random rewards in packs that you open either by purchasing them or earning them through quest milestones each week.

Overall Arena shows great potential to grow beyond what it is now and WoTC seems determined to get this one right for the long run which is excellent news for players. It means that they are willing to listen to feedback and adjust as they go to ensure that when the game “releases” as the full non-beta version. So far this has lead to several community driven decisions to improve quality of life and player rewards since the open beta started last September. WoTC has also set its sights of positioning Arena as an e-sport platform for MTG which again shows a level of dedication to the success of this product that had been sorely lacking from offerings like Magic Duels.

With the longevity seemingly guaranteed for the foreseeable future I think it is as good a time as any for people who have been on the fence about giving the game a try to jump in and see what all the fuss is about.

Where did the time go?

Well heck, that ended up being much longer than I anticipated when I started this, not to mention I took longer to gather my thoughts. It also ended up being entirely about video games and not much else which is sort of disappointing given that there were quite a few other things I found last year to enjoy. I think I want to do a second part of this which I will hopefully have time to work on over the weekend but I also want to get back to my regular articles so perhaps we’ll pick this up next Friday.

We’ll see how the weekend goes. I’m not sure what days I’ll be posting on from week to week but for now two per feels about the right pace so I’ll start there.

Hopefully you enjoyed this and it wasn’t too rambly as I didn’t take the usual amount of time to write it, throw it out and then write it three or four more times. I promise I’ll try to not do that too often going forward.

I hope you’ve had a wonderful first week to the New Year and if you’re so inclined why don’t you let me know what games you enjoyed last year and why, I’d love to know.

For now thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon.

  • Anthony