The Queue: It’s the most wonderful time of the year
@CoryjTaylor
I love the fall season. The leaves are changing colors, the air is crisper so I can actually wear one of my several sweaters without overheating, and Halloween spooks are popping up all over the place. It’s my favorite holiday, and I love that it’s right around the corner. I also love that the Headless Horseman will be back soon. I’m a sucker for a fun rhyme, and he’s full of them!
While I try and figure out what I dress up as for Halloween, it’s time for — the Queue.
So who has given New World a try? I didn’t play the Beta so now I have to decide if its worth $40.
I played in the beta, and it’s a fine game. It feels like a more multiplayer version of Skyrim to a degree, or at least controlling it felt Skyrim-esque. The action combat felt interesting, and I did like the weapon level-up system. I do wish that it had gone a little more on the wild side with character creation and enemy varieties. But there’s nothing saying that an eventual expansion pack down the line won’t have more options. I bet that if I had more time in my week right now I would be happily chopping down trees and working to buy a house on that weird island.
Plus $40 isn’t that much for a MMO with no subscription fee.
Q4tQ: what games are you most looking forward to right now? (Because there are always more games coming up.)
There are so many games!
Off the top of my head Halo: Infinite and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland are both shooters that I’m really looking forward to. I’m interested to see if Halo can bring this Cortana trilogy into a satisfying ending. But I’ll probably be fine as long as I get to control a tank and use it to blow things up. Meanwhile, I’m excited to see how different Tiny Tina’s will end up being from Borderlands. The early sizzle reels are pretty much a more fantasy Borderlands, which I’m not upset about, but I wonder if they’ve tinkered under the hood mechanically to give it some variety. Other games that I’m looking forward are Rawmen and Bear and Breakfast. But those are a little further out.
I was going to leave it at that, but right as I was finishing the Queue a friend of mine sent me a link to this upcoming Warhammer 40k game and I’m always down to play another XCOM style shooter. I’m really digging the art style, and I like the idea of bashing a column over onto my enemies to squish them. Plus, it’s being written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, and he’s a fantastic 40k author!
Q4tQ: Should there be an official Warhammer40k version of Overwatch?
That’d be rad. There are so many characters that would make for an interesting Hero Shooter like Overwatch that I wouldn’t say no. Even if it would be weird to see an Ork Warboss tanking and being healed by a Blood Raven Apothecary.
It’s almost surprising that there isn’t one being worked on. There are so many WH40k games of varying quality in the pipeline, that you’d think there would be a Hero Shooter.
Q4tQ Which video game consoles do you currently have hooked up?
Currently attached to my tv are a Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4, and an Xbox Series X. Of those that are connected I only use the Series X, and I’m not even really sure why the Xbox One is still on the shelf. I haven’t turned on the PS4 since I finished Control and Horizon Zero Dawn earlier this spring.
Q4tQ: Aside from all the other structural changes that need to happen as a higher priority, do you think WoW’s content cadence would be served by the team hiring a sub-team to make expansion-agnostic patch content to be used in case of ’emergency’ with delays?
I remember hearing about Isle of Quel’danas mostly being conceived of and put out as filler between the planned end of TBC and the launch of Wrath. Maybe it would be better for the MMO if they had a team make non-expansion related mini-patches focused around alternate sources of current-tier gear (that can be adjusted as needed), gear catch-up, but primarily cosmetics and sideways progression, and let the main team focus on the expansion’s story and content.
IE instead of having to tie something like the Timeless Isle or Korthia or Mechagon into an expansion itself they develop them with a secondary team and keep them in the back pocket, as it were, to be brought out as a filler patch at whatever point of an expansion is looking like a content drought is gonna happen. That way we can get the stuff that doesn’t quite fit the overall narrative without some silly excuse as to why we’re suddenly going there – just have it be a localised, agnostic piece of its own story adjacent to the expansion rather than having to tie it in.
It’s a good idea in theory. Who doesn’t want more content? I’ll always say yes if they offered us more things to do.
But I don’t know what size of team you’d need to deliver one zones worth of content every expansion. I don’t think that there’d be enough of a content drought to justify releasing the extra area in anything other than the final patch, COVID delays notwithstanding. So wouldn’t those devs be better used contributing to current/future mainline expansion stuff?
We’ve also seen how easy it can be for additions to cause unintended ripples through older Warcraft content, having a team of people ready to plop down a new island in a “break glass in case of drought” situation might have some weird effects. Like when Burning Crusade Timewalking let people level from 50-60 in about two hours. Or if one of the new pieces of gear is suddenly the most meta thing ever and breaks every Arena match and Mythic+ because it lets you sidestep one of the gear rules of the expansion.
Today’s Anna Earworm™: Season of the Witch
Have a great Monday everyone! Leave Anna lots of questions, and go and don’t forget to buy Halloween candy before all the good stuff is gone!
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