Hello gang. What the dang heck is going out there in your various and respective hoods? It's WRUP time and well, gee golly let's look directly at some things with our dual ocular scanners. That's eyeballs for you out there not up with the modern eyeball slang.
I've been hearing nothing but good things about Star Wars Outlaws. Well, almost nothing but good things. I personally lost most of my interest once I saw that people would have to pay extra for an optional mission that created a lot of FOMO with folks who wanted to do some work for the Hutts in game. This title still intrigues me a bit, I'll admit it, but I'll wait on it a while. In any case, people I've talked to personally have told me the game play is really great and well worth checking out. Like, the most Star Wars feeling IP since since Episode 4 and it's not stuffed to the gills with light saber duels and Jedi force powers. There's just this one little thing - If you paid extra money to be able to play Outlaws a few days earlier than those plebs who just bought a base version of the game (those filthy casuals. Suckers, am I right?) you may have been recently informed by Ubisoft that you needed to start a new save file or your game will most likely be broken. This only seems to affect the PS5 release of the game for some reason.
In a quote given to Games Radar -- "On August 27, our teams identified an issue where some PS5 players were playing on a previous version of the game. We quickly deployed an update and informed affected players to ensure their game was updated to the latest version (1.000.002) and advised that they begin a new save to avoid additional issues and progression blockers. We've followed up with affected PS5 players today to inform them we have provided them an in-game Trailblazer trinket as well as 100 Ubisoft Connect Units (to redeem for in-game rewards, for example) to make their return to the Outer Rim a little more special."
Oh thank god you've all been given with a trinket and a pittance of store credit. That should make up for wasting at least an extra $40.00 to play early. Whew, I was worried for a second that Ubisoft might not properly compensate players and make them feel special.
Here's the rest of the information from Games Radar about this issue that's definitely no big deal at all and shouldn't make you angry at Ubisoft. Not at all, no, especially if you spent extra money on a game that's already $70.00. These things happen. I mean, thanks to the goodness of Ubisofts benevolent heart now you can get yourself a... hat in game, or something? I don't know. It's fine.
Black Myth Wukong is all up in our westward journeys and I will absolutely say that it looks amazing. Less "souls like" more "witcher like" and based on Chinese culture, it's actually China's first triple A release. I haven't picked it up yet because my next game will be Space Marine 2 on the 9th of September (I'm not paying to play early) but I would really like to get Black Myth and jump into that delicious anthropomorphized monkey combat goodness. Hopefully those of you playing now are having a great time, but make sure you follow the rules for publicly discussing the game. If you're a streamer or influencer you probably got the info sheet listing which talking points wouldn't be acceptable and it's a doozy:
Do NOT insult other influencers or players.
Do NOT use any offensive language/humor.
Do NOT include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse.
Do NOT use trigger words such as ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘Covid-19’.
Do NOT discuss content related to China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc.
Of course some of these make perfect sense. Don't be an a-hole bro, is more or less what you can take away. However, don't talk about Covid, or feminist propaganda? Not super sure about those. And be sure not to talk about the Chinese govnt at all. I guess that last one shouldn't surprise me, really. There's a lot to say about this and here's a piece from The Guardian highlighting issues. I especially like the stream title mentioned in the article "Covid-19 Isolation Taiwan (Is A Real Country) Feminism Propaganda" You sir are a king.
Okay, that's enough of me being sardonic for today, everyone. I do hope you all have a great weekend. I'm going grocery shopping! Hell yeah.
What are we playing?
AJ: I recently picked up a sealed copy of Vectorman for the Sega Genesis, as well as an Analogue Pocket and Game Gear adapter, so I will likely be occupying my time with those over the long Labor Day Weekend.
Greywolfe: i've been playing shandalar - the microprose version of magic: the gathering for the last few weeks. i'm on the ramp-up to the end of the game at this point: got most of the cards i want and am seeking out the last couple of life points so i can get into the dungeons and then beat the castles and beat the end-boss. other than that, just more balatro. i'm trying for one of the more tricky achievements - mainly because i don't feel like "ascending" at this point [playing the more difficult versions of the game.] - it's just been a fantastic little find and more-than-likely my game of the year for 2024.
Scrooloose: I'm still tooling around in No Man's Sky for now. I might also check out Cygni All Guns Blazing, it was a free SHMUP on Epic a little while back and it looks like a ton of fun.