Hey everyone, it's that time again. I'll make it a quick one this week because I've got things to do.
I'm sure folks saw the game awards in all its cringy glory, but some fun announcements were also made including one that has me pretty excited. We saw the cinematic preview for Star Wars: Eclipse which was a pretty nice but super vague look at another Star Wars title coming along among many other anticipated bits and bobs. The one that got me most excited was the long asked for, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II. I'm going to moderately nerd out.
The first space marine title came out about ten years ago now and was the perfect melding of brutal third person action and power fantasy played out in what is likely the biggest, most fleshed out, lore heavy universe in the entire gaming sphere, "Warhammer 40,000". Certainly these are not people we actually strive to be as literally every faction in the 40k universe is full of mostly terrible people, but part of what made the first space marine game so good is that the protagonist, Captain Titus of the Ultramines, is sort of a free thinking guy. He is of course completely loyal to his duty and the emperor of mankind but he knows from experience when the rules can be bent a little and when it's okay to fall into the more gray areas when dealing with a situation rather than to go strictly by the book. Unfortunately his youngest apprentice in the game doesn't feel that way noting that even taking off one's helmet in combat is against the "Codex Astartes", the space marine bible if you will. But how would we ever relate to Titus as a human character if he didn't remove his helmet? In any case the youngster eventually reports Captain Titus to the proper authorities leading to his being taken away for questioning by the inquisition at the end of the game because of his contact with chaos energies and his seemingly otherworldly resistance to it's corruption.
Well, it appears that in this coming sequel Titus is back. Not only that but he's been given both a promotion and demotion at the same time. He appears in the cinematic to have been made into a Primaris Marine. I have no idea how that works as even though I sound like a huge 40k nerd right now, I just don't spend any real time looking at this lore. I've never read a single Warhammer novel of any kind and the only tabletop I ever played was a single quick match of Kill Team. Anyway, Titus is a Primaris now and that means he's inherently more powerful than before, though he's also been demoted in rank from Captain to Lieutenant as can be seen by the red and white stripe on his helmet. On top of that, to those who noticed, he also appears to bear a mark of the inquisition on his wrist. This might just be some silly small bit of detail to most people but for those interested in Titus' story and development, it could change his entire dynamic throughout Space Marine II. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
If I had to pick a gripe though, it's that this sequel seems to take place on a world infested by Tyranids. And sure, okay, that's not a bad thing. Tyranid numbers are near infinite and they're a huge threat to everyone, but they're such a common enemy that they've come to feel cliche over the years. I'd love to see a different chaos faction than in first game, ahem, Nurgle... or maybe even the Tau in their big chunky armors. Though I guess we do have the upcoming tactical Chaosgate title fairly soon that will not only allow us the opportunity of playing against Nurgle's plague marines and daemons, but also see players in the role of the incorruptible, Gray Knights. Which is exciting because as cliche as the Tyranids are, the Ultramarines are about as bog standard a space marine chapter as you can get. I think a lot of people would agree with me that the Space Wolves or perhaps even the super crazy Carcharodons would be a kick to get in to.
Okay okay, that's nearly enough out of me. Of course there's no word on a release date yet for this coming act of badassery, but Focus Entertainment and Saber Interactive are the publisher/dev team combo for Space Marine II and they're responsible for my favorite semi-truck driving sim, Snowrunner, so I have a feeling this could be excellent as long as it doesn't get cancelled in the 11th hour. Here's the cinematic in case you've yet to see it. And since I mentioned it at the beginning, here's the very intriguing cinematic for Star Wars: Eclipse
Enjoy your weekend everyone and thanks for suffering through my -not so quick after all- nerd rant.
Now, what in the blazes are we playing?
Yoda: Probably going to be substituting playing for more reading this weekend than anything. Finished up the Silmarillion (Sauron is the Lord of Werewolves aparently lol) gnna continue on my Malazan re-read and started filling in some holes in my classics catelog by starting Robert E Howard's Conan short stories. Which have been very surprising and not what I expected. Also picked up a book called Godblind that I know nothing about but hear cool things. So may start that with a hot cup of tea on a mountain this weekend and just chill :)
Greywolfe: got back into greedfall, so i'll be playing that slowly but surely. and i do mean slowly. those maps are GIANT. [and there's a silly amount of back and forthing in the game.] - i think it'll be a /little/ better once i have no need to uncover all the little ? spots on EVERY map. i'm also playing final fantasy 2. in that game, i'm currently leveling up spells and working my way toward "ultima," the magic that matters for the end. i /generally/ like the pixel remaster of ff2, but HATE the crazy size of the dungeons. [and the "rooms of death" in them. rooms of death are rooms where you think they're going to contain something, but there's nothing and you have to leave the room, ordinarily having some kind of encounter on your way out.] so we'll see how that goes. oh. and lest we forget: the lurking horror. but i'm currently stuck in that game with no idea of what to do next :(
Scrooloose: I've been playing Sniper Elite 4 again and Back 4 Blood because I'm generally against fascist and zombie agendas.
AJ: Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars: Squadrons.