TGO Daily | Tuesday September 14, 2021 |
TGO Daily | Monday September 13, 2021
✏️ From the Author
Today, it’s all about Deathloop. It reviewed super well, and I’m excited to see how it holds up to Arkane’s other games. They’ve been doing a great job cutting out a corner of the industry for themselves, and they’ve got major brand value now.
As observed by the Axios Gaming Newsletter (another tremendous newsletter, which would be a great sub in tandem with this newsletter since we don’t always cover the same content), Microsoft is on a hot streak now. They’ve traditionally not been major competitors in terms of first-party exclusives, but the recent releases of games like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Psychonauts 2 is a big deal for them.
Cheers! Until tomorrow,
- Adrian
📰In The News
Deathloop Review Roundup
Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Prey) is releasing their newest title Deathloop today. The game challenges the player to escape a time loop by assassinating eight targets before time runs out. While mostly a single-player game, it can also be played mutliplayer with someone else taking the role of a rival assassin trying to interfere with the player’s plans (otherwise, it’s an AI).
Many high-profile news outlets reviewed this game with a perfect score, per OpenCritic:
After reading reviews of all scores, it’s difficult to do a true pro/con list like we typically do for roundups. The game has so many moving parts that most critics spent all their time explaining how the game works. Most of the time, they summarized with “all of this is good, and work together well.” Here’s some things to know:
Despite being in a timeloop, there isn’t pressure to move quickly. There are four sectioned times of day which can be advanced when ready.
While you lose most of your equipment and abilities between loops, you retain knowledge. The game is all about learning enemy information so that you can assassinate them all in a single day.
Much like Arkane’s other titles, stealth and guns-blazing are both options for combat.
While the game appears mechanics-heavy, it has plenty of narrative. Plot and character design were highly praised among critics.
Here’s a great summary from Alex Donaldson of VG247:
“Taken as a single-player experience, Deathloop feels complete and incredibly well-rounded. The extra injection of optional multiplayer action is a fabulous cherry on top. Basically, Deathloop is everything I wanted it to be. It’s confident both as a successor to many of the ideas of Dishonored while also expressly its own thing, with a tone and sense of style I absolutely adore. It’s one of my favourite games of the year - and one we’ll surely be talking about for months to come.”
Deathloop releases today on PC and as a timed PlayStation 5 exclusive (despite Bethesda now being owned by Microsoft), for $60 USD.
Darkest Dungeon II
Darkest Dungeon II will be releasing into Early Access on the Epic Games Store on October 26th.
The game was first announced in October 2021, and we haven’t heard much since then. The teaser featured the game’s characters as 3D models though, which seems to indicate an advancement in art style.
The first Darkest Dungeon is worthy of your attention. It’s a turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler, and it’s…quite difficult. Enemies are ruthless, and characters routinely die or become weakened from psychological stress. Heck of a good time though, with a legendary narrator. It’s $4 USD on Steam this week, which is absurd for the amount of content you get.
Switch EU Price Cuts
The Nintendo Switch has had its prices slashed in the EU and UK this week.
It originally sold for €330 in the EU, now down to €270. It also took a £20 cut in the UK, now down to £260. To compare, the Switch Lite is currently available for €200 / £200, and the upcoming OLED model will sell for €350 / £310.
Here’s Nintendo’s statement to VGC:
“More than four and a half years after its first release, Nintendo Switch continues to have strong sales momentum in Europe. After carefully weighing up a variety of factors, including currency exchange rates in Europe and the upcoming launch of Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, we decided that now was the appropriate time to change the European trade price of Nintendo Switch.”
No word yet on North American pricing changes.
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