{"id":53643,"date":"2022-01-18T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=53643"},"modified":"2022-01-19T01:19:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T06:19:28","slug":"this-week-i-played-january-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=53643","title":{"rendered":"This Week I Played… (January 2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before we talk about the games I’m playing, let’s talk about what I’m going<\/strong> to be playing: Last week Chris and I wrapped up our series on Batman: Arkham Origins<\/a>. In that final entry, I put up a poll asking people what we should cover next. Here are the results:<\/p>\n

Resident Evil 5 (2009)<\/a> – 331 (Winner)
\nA Way Out (2018)<\/a> – 351
\nHalo 2 (2004)<\/a> – 389
\nGears of War: Ultimate Edition (2006)<\/a> – 436<\/p>\n

How it worked: Everyone was able to give a score to each game, from 1 to 4. 1 indicates high interest, 4 indicates lack of interest. So lower<\/strong> numbers are better. Each score was independent of the others, so you were free to vote however you like. You could rank the four games, or you could bomb a game you hated by giving everything else a 1. Or you could give 1 to the game you cared about and give everything else a 4. It’s fine.<\/p>\n

This was interesting because it was basically a race between A Way Out<\/em> and Resident Evil 5<\/em>. Those games pulled away from the others very early in the process, but were always within 2 points of each other when I checked the scores on the first day. <\/p>\n

Then sometime in day 2, RE5 began to pull ahead. I don’t know why, but there you go.<\/p>\n

My only worry here is that I’m sort of infamously incompatible<\/a> with Capcom’s particular style<\/a> of B movie-horror-comedy-action-spy-thriller-farce-adventure-shooter. The Batman series was already pretty negative, and I don’t want these streams to be defined by unrelenting negativity. I’m going to try to go in with an upbeat attitude and make sure we have a good time. If it doesn’t work, I’ll blame all of you for voting for it. <\/p>\n

I love democracy.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I think we’re going to launch the series next week on January 25th. Keep an eye on Chris’ Twitch channel<\/a> for more. <\/p>\n

Now here’s what I’ve been playing…
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The Crew 2<\/h3>\n

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I first heard about The Crew 2<\/em> during the Ubisoft presentation at E3 2018. Like I said at the time<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[The first Crew game] has about the most ludicrous pitch for an Online Game I\u2019ve ever heard: It\u2019s a linear story-based online game. You play as Alex Taylor. So does everyone else. All the other players you race against are also playing through the non-branching, cutcene-driven \u201cAlex Taylor gets revenge on the bad guys\u201d story.<\/p>\n

This is it. This is the worst possible blend of single-player and multiplayer. It has the disadvantages of both and the advantages of neither. A relentlessly generic protagonist with a cliche plot told entirely through cutscenes that you must be online to experience, in a shared world where you have no means of self-expression. And just to make it as intolerable as possible, the linear story is atrocious.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I realize I spend a lot of time complaining about stories on this site, and so maybe it seems like this is another case of a game being too schlock-y for my tastes. But the original Crew wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill videogame story. It was weapons-grade cringe<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This was completely baffling, since the game very obviously didn’t need a story. The hook with The Crew<\/em> games is that they offer you this massive open world where you can drive around a scaled-down version of the USA. You can visit approximations of major cities like NY, Miami, LA, and Chicago, and you can explore the hundreds of square miles of open roads and small towns between them. You can switch freely between street racing, circuit racing, drifting, off-roading, and a bunch of other types of motorized travel. <\/p>\n

That’s a great pitch for a game! That’s everything you need to have fun. The Gran Turismo series turns 25 this year<\/a>, and that series remains a venerable system-seller. I’ve never heard anyone suggest that the game would be improved by adding a story mode. But that’s what The Crew is like. It’s this wonderfully complete racing game, inexplicably attached to a Uwe Boll-level “movie”.<\/p>\n

The sound design is atrocious. The "characters" always sound like they're reading the script to you on National Public Radio. This is really disorienting in scenes where they're supposedly talking to you over the radio or at the starting line of a race where everyone is revving their engines.<\/div>
The sound design is atrocious. The "characters" always sound like they're reading the script to you on National Public Radio. This is really disorienting in scenes where they're supposedly talking to you over the radio or at the starting line of a race where everyone is revving their engines.<\/div><\/p>\n

The Crew 2<\/em> mercifully dials back on the story and is therefore a far more appealing package. In fact, this game has a lot to offer fans of motorized mayhem. This time around they’ve added boats, planes, motorcycles, and hovercraft, so you have even more ways to explore this enormous map. You can also choose your avatar this time around. While the selection isn’t great, it does save you from playing the same dudebro douchelord that boomer gaming executives think we all like. You can now fiddle with your gender and race a little bit. It’s nice, just don’t go in expecting some Saints Row<\/em> style custom protagonist.<\/p>\n

Me? I got through it by styling myself into a knockoff of The Stig<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ubisoft is doing everything they can to make this hobby a miserable chore. <\/div>
Ubisoft is doing everything they can to make this hobby a miserable chore. <\/div><\/p>\n

The bad parts of the game are all things it inherits as an Ubisoft title. The UPlay-driven always-online nonsense. Some sort of “Season Pass” bullshit where they try to sell you the rest of the game in eternally recurring payments. Downright embarrassing attempts at being hip and connecting with “the youths” by casting your protagonist as some sort of view-chasing “influencer”, like you’re Dominic Toretto by way of Logan Paul. A lot of completely needless talking and stilted introductions with people who don’t matter and have nothing to offer the experience. <\/p>\n

Despite my complaining, I actually had fun with this one. I even landed a couple of “best” scores on some air racing circuits.Best in what domain? My Steam friends list? All PC players? All NA players? Global players? The game doesn’t say.<\/span> I love this huge map and the large variety of gameplay styles. But I spent most of my time with the game fantasizing about the even better<\/strong> game this could have been without some dimwit Ubisoft septuagenarian poisoning the design with Ubisoft’s special brand of “magic”.<\/p>\n

Deep Rock Galactic<\/h3>\n