TGO Daily | Monday July 5, 2021 | Old Republic, New Expansion
Star Wars: The Old Republic announces their latest expansion, Doom Eternal is scrapping one mode for a new one, and Super Rare Games has some Super Rare Shorts (but not the kind you'd wear).
TGO Daily | Monday July 5, 2021
✏️From the Author
I hope you had a happy and safe July 4th to the Americans out there, as well as a happy Sidewalk Egg Frying Day!
I’m sure you’re probably wondering what that is… Well, every July 4th Americans celebrate the day the Declaration of Independence was ratified. Sidewalk Egg Frying Day, of course, needs no introduction.
Until next time,
Brandon
Star Wars: The Old Republic Latest Expansion Announced
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be releasing its 8th expansion - Legacy of the Sith. The expansion is slated to release this holiday season.
The update, free to all players, will feature a new storyline that will take players to the planets of Manaan and Elom. It will also feature a new operation and, most interestingly enough, a new gameplay feature called ‘Combat Styles’. With this new mechanic, players will be able to separate their weapons from their class story - meaning Sith Inquisitors could dual-wield lightsabers or a Trooper could use a sniper rifle. Naturally, the level cap will also expand, increasing to level 80. Bioware also announced that they plan to overhaul the character creation experience, as well as making the game a bit more streamlined for returning new/veteran players.
Brandon’s Thoughts: It’s great to see the game still getting supported 10 years in. I actually tried playing it years ago and, even though I love Star Wars and MMOs, for some reason I just couldn’t get into it. Perhaps, with the release of the expansion, this is a good time to give it another try? If you’ve played it before, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Doom Eternal Scrapping Invasion Mode for a New Horde Mode
Id Software has confirmed they’re scrapping the previously planned multiplayer mode, Invasion, in favor for a a single-player mode they’re calling ‘Horde’. Marty Stratton, the game director, stated the reasoning for the change in focus:
“Over this time, we have also seen and heard how many of you enjoy the range of gameplay and combat available in the expansions and master levels. With these factors in mind, we have decided to redirect our focus from Invasion Mode to creating a totally new single-player horde mode. We’re confident this horde mode will offer you more of the diversity and challenge you’re looking for in the game.”
For you Doom Eternal fans, if you’re a little bummed about the loss of the multiplayer idea of Invasion, there is some good news. Id Software also confirmed they’re working on refreshing Battlemode to include, “a more competitive, rank-based structure, a number of gameplay and balance updates and another new map”. This way you can get a new single-player mode experience, along with scratching that multiplayer itch with the refresh of Battlemode. You can expect more information regarding these at QuakeCon in August.
Super Rare Shorts Backing Indie Devs as a Publisher
Super Rare Games has started an initiative to support Indie Devs, calling it Super Rare Shorts. The initiative will see an independent developer’s game fully-funded from development to publishing. The game then will get a limited-release window of six weeks for consumers to purchase a physical copy of it, before it then moves to digital-only purchase on itch.io around six months after physical release.
Super Rare’s ‘head of doing stuff’ (yes, that’s his title), George Perkins, detailed the reasoning that brought the Shorts project to life:
"A lot of games will be worked on for three years and never even recoup the development budget. Along with that, most of them will go completely under the radar of gamers due to the sheer amount of games coming out every week -- as an indie developer, your time in the spotlight is so short that it becomes incredibly difficult to be a commercial success.”
This is definitely a project to follow if you’re into indie games. Do keep in mind, these Shorts won’t be established studio projects. Perkins clarified that, “…we're more looking at the average indie developer who maybe works alone from home and releases free prototypes and jam games onto sites like Itch.io. Or a more veteran dev who has an idea that's not very mass-marketable, so it gets put on the back burner for a more commercially viable, larger scope game."
📰 In Other News
Summer Games Done Quick 2021 has officially started! I highly recommend you check out the schedule and see if there’s a game you’re interested in watching.
If you’ve never watched a speedrun before, you may be surprised by how how fun it is to watch someone just break their way through a game you love.
Personally, there’s several I’m especially looking forward to watching. Super Mario Odyssey will be on at 7:36pm EDT / 11:36pm UTC and it’s always great to watch the precise movements of a Mario speedrun. If you’re excited for the upcoming Metroid Dread, there will also be speedruns of Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes that may help scratch that itch.
🔦 Article Spotlight
Q&A: Evolving the combat design of id Software's Doom Eternal
Gamasutra has a Q&A with Doom Eternal game director Hugo Martin. Martin talks about evolving Eternal as a sequel to set it apart from its predecessor, Doom (2016).
👋 Say Hello!
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Thanks for the read <3