TGO Daily | Monday July 26, 2021 | Olympics + Gaming!
In the news: The Olympics gives a nod to video gaming, Orcs Must Die! 3 is coming to consoles and PC, Max Payne turns 20 (now I feel old), and Brandon Reviews: Pokémon Unite.
TGO Daily | Monday July 26, 2021
✏️ From the Author
I can’t express how relieving it is for me to be taking a semester off from classes. That’s a whole area of stress I just don’t need in my life right now, and I just can’t pat myself on the back enough for deciding to skip this semester. The only problem is, I still find myself sometimes waking up in a panic on the weekends thinking I forgot to do my homework!
Being an adult is too stressful sometimes. Can’t we go back to when we were kids and our biggest stress was finding a zit in the morning on your face before you go to school? Wait, I still have that stress as an adult…
Until next time,
Brandon
The Olympics & Video Games
As you probably know, the Olympics have kicked off. What you may not know, is that video gaming is getting a nice nod from the Olympics this time around.
During the Olympian introductions, 19 songs were used from 14 different video games as the countries marched onto the field. Chrono Trigger’s ‘Frog Theme’, Kingdom Hearts ‘Olympus Coliseum’, and Final Fantasy ‘Main Theme’ being only some of the many notable songs utilized.
Google got into the Olympic spirit and created a Google Doodle to rival any of their other previous ones. It’s basically a JRPG! This one combines anime, Japanese folktales, and the Olympics all into one crazy, weirdly fun, bundle. This is Google’s biggest Doodle yet, with seven Olympic-themed mini-games (more to come), side quests, bosses, multiple NPCs, and a leaderboard. The animation is really beautiful (with amazing anime sequence ‘cutscenes’) and the gameplay is fun. I highly recommend you try it! Just go to Google and click the picture above the search bar on mobile or PC.
Brandon’s Thoughts: It’s great to see the music of our industry being front and center as the Olympians walked onto the field. So many beautiful songs created just for games, it really is a sight to behold. You should seriously try out the Google Doodle too! It was very distractingly fun. I started to play it as I wrote this article (you know for, uh, research) and ended up spending 20 minutes playing before going “oh no, my article!” and coming back to finish it.
Orcs Must Die! 3 Comes to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation
Originally released only on Google Stadia, Orcs Must Die! 3 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The developer, Robot Entertainment, confirmed all updates, and the Drastic Steps expansion, are all coming with the latest release.
Orcs Must Die! 3 is a tower-defense game with a character you can also control (kind of gives me Kingdom Rush vibes, but with pretty 3D graphics). It did decent on OpenCritic with 63% of critics recommending it.
From reading reviews from critics and players, if you enjoyed anything else in the Orcs Must Die series or if tower-defense games are right up your alley, then this is worth a try.
Max Payne 20-year Anniversary
The Max Payne series had its 20-year anniversary this weekend and in a most wonderful fashion. Sam Lake (the original face of Max) got together with the voice actor for the character, James McCaffrey, for a special video message.
The game series stands out as iconic for a shooter - famous for its slow-motion bullet time and its unforgettable dialogue. The last game to release in the series was Max Payne 3 back in 2012.
If you’re a fan of the series in any capacity, you should check out the video. It’s a wonderful salute to the series from Remedy (the developers of the first and second game).
💡 Read More
Genshin Impact's first free five-star character is Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn.
It looks like Assassin's Creed Valhalla's upcoming Siege of Paris DLC will release in August. The DLC will release August 5th.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider gets surprise update. The game will now have 4k resolution support and allow 60fps on PS5.
💭Brandon Reviews: Pokémon Unite
This weekend I got to get more hands on with Pokémon Unite, with well over ten hours currently played as I write this. Here are my own first impressions of the game so far.
If you haven’t heard of the game, it’s a free-to-play MOBA (essentially League of Legends/DOTA with Pokémon) developed by Tencent. The game revolves around 5v5 battles on a map where each team tries to outscore the other to win. You play as varied Pokémon with different roles to aid the team, such as a ranged glass cannon like Pikachu or a disruptor support like Mr. Mime. You get points from defeating enemy players and NPC Pokémon around the map, then actually score by depositing your points in the enemies goal - most points by the end wins.
Here’s what I like so far:
What really shines for me are the gameplay and the varied Pokémon. I find I want to play so many of the different Pokémon and they all feel like they can be strong.
The gameplay is fun, engaging, and makes for quick matches - the longest a match can be is 10 minutes, so even if you’re getting stomped you’re not stuck in a game for too long if your team won’t surrender. I’ve played as a tank in top lane, an attacker in top and bottom, and in the ‘jungle’ (middle lane). All roles feel like they belong and have their purpose.
I’ve played roughly half the roster so far and I can say that all of the Pokémon feel so true to themselves. The moves, the look, the movement - it all culminates in a really great Pokémon experience, while also feeling unique and fresh.
Here’s what I’m not liking so far:
What else to expect in a free-to-play game other than microtransactions (mtx)? While many of the mtx are cosmetics (which I’m okay with in F2P games), there are some that can give you an edge - mainly the ability to buy a certain currency to upgrade your held items. Upgrading your held items increases various stats, which can make you stronger than your counterparts. So far I haven’t encountered any of this imbalance yet, but on the subreddit people say you start to experience it more in higher ranked play.
While all the Pokémon I’ve played so far can feel strong, there are certainly ones who feel like they’re stronger than others. This doesn’t come as too much a surprise, as there’s always heroes in MOBAs that are higher tier, but nonetheless it can make for a dampening experience when you’re getting melted by someone.
The menu’s can be horribly laggy as well. It makes me wonder if the game is better optimized for phones (the game will release in September for mobile). Selecting a Pokémon pre-game is where you feel the lag the most. If your Pokémon is 5 tiles to the right, you sometimes end up hitting right 10+ times on your controller just to get over to it. Thankfully, once in-game, I haven’t experienced the same kind of issues.
Closing thoughts:
Overall, I’m having a whole lot of fun with the game and will absolutely continue to keep playing it. It feels like getting to play League of Legends without the toxicity (thanks to the lack of any chat beyond a ping chat). I’ll probably end up grabbing the battle pass as well, as it has some really cute cosmetics that I’m all about - like a Pikachu hoodie!
There are some problems with the game, but I hope patches will come that will help balance out the Pokémon some more and fix the menu lagging. I could do without the the microtransactions, but the sad fact is it’s practically guaranteed in games like this more often than not.
Now here’s the best part of writing my own review segment - I get to do those little final paragraphs that wrap everything up! Ahhh, it’s so exciting! Okay, okay, here we go:
Pokémon Unite excels for me exactly where you want a game to excel - in its gameplay. The Pokémon feel true-to-form and really bring out the Trainer you dreamed about being when you were a kid (or when you’re almost 30, let’s be honest). While there are issues with menu lag, balancing leaving some Pokémon stronger than others, and microtransactions existing, it’s not in enough capacity to deter me from playing the game more or even putting money into it for a battle pass. Whether I’m shielding my team as a Snorlax, kicking flaming soccer balls as a Cinderace, or spamming my buttons as Eldegoss trying to heal everyone, I know this game has me hooked - and I’m totally okay with that.
👋 Say Hello!
That’s a wrap on today’s news! If you’re enjoying the newsletter, give the signup link to a friend!
This newsletter is a companion/alternative to a mini-podcast produced by Adrian (a ridiculously amazing human). You can find the podcast on:
- Amazon Alexa devices
- Multiple podcast hosts (that is also the archive of all episodes).
- Google Home - try, “Hey Google, play ‘The Gaming Observer’”!
You can reach Brandon (that’s me!) by simply replying to this email, joining the below Discord, or on my Twitter!
Want to interact with an amazing group of people who love gaming? Join us on the Discord community! It’s truly an awesome place.
Thanks for the read <3