Horizon Steel Frontiers & Steam Drops Some Hardware

 

Hello! No real um, theme again, just some random leftover things from my wish list and thoughts on a few recent game related news bits. Horizon released a video of a Monster Hunter like, Steam showed off a bunch of crap so let’s just start.

            Something I randomly was thinking about was Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat is brutal but it’s the only fighting game that’s like that but it’s also so dark and, and, brown you know? Gears of War brown. I was thinking if there was another fighter like MK but maybe more colorful. I was thinking something like MK crossed with Windjammers. Unapologetically (whoa, I spelt that right on the first try) 90s, over the top, peppy announcers. After Lego Party I want more games to have announcers, Ultimate Alliance had a little bit of an announcer when you would get combos going. I guess other fighters have some announcers, BlazBlue had some for “counters” and stuff. I just think it would be kind of funny having these cheerleader type announcers shouting and cheering for breaking characters bones and ripping out spinal cords.

            I saw something about Ubisoft complaining about soft sales, blaming gamers for not buying their games or something. To me these companies are spending too much money on making their games bigger and bigger hoping that if they pack it full of tiny optional things to do along with the main story that that will make more people want to play or buy the game and I just don’t think that’s the case. You look at Assassin’s Creed Shadows, I don’t think people have the attention spans for these big types of games anymore. How do I word this? So Yahtzee had made a video about optional content in games, what is considered optional? What’s considered the end of a story of a game? I’m the worst person when it comes to these sorts of questions because I can see both sides being right. In his opinion it sounded like he wants the end of the storyline to be the hardest challenge and that the side stuff is completely optional but I think I’m in the other school of thought. I think the side stuff should be harder, it should be there for people that want more from the game. Like if I really like a game I will go out of my way to do the side content, DLC, what have you. Expedition 33; I did the main story, it was fun, it was good but that’s not quite the end. There’s more to do after, more to the story if you chose to dig. I attempted some of the other challenges, I found Verso’s friend at the bottom of Renoir’s Drafts, I tried a couple times but gave up. Silksong; I fought the boss of Act 2, the game says you’ve completed the game but I knew there was more, I knew there was an Act 3. I went online, ran around, trying to do all the other requirements to unlock Act 3, it was like trying to figure out how to get the last skull in Halo 3. I would do things that the internet said “after you do these things you can get to Act 3” only to fight the boss again and still nothing. I finally do all the prerequisites get to the first boss of Act 3 and he’s a pain in the ass. After going through the trouble to unlock Act 3 I just lost interest in trying to fight this centipede. So, content is good but stuffing the game with a bunch of copy/paste busy worked throughout the game map isn’t the way to do it.

            They actually showed off a trailer for a new game in the Horizon world that seems to be a Monster Hunter like called Steel Frontiers. It’s not on PS5, only PC and mobile and I’m not sure how I feel about that right now. Is it going to be more like Monster Hunter but happens to be able to play on the phone or is it going to be more like a mobile game and make you feel like you have to play it all the time? Monster Hunter does have a mobile game coming, sounds like it’s going to be a gatcha system of some sort and I do like Zenless Zone Zero for instance. I really do like the combat but it’s just all the other mobile game stuffed in there I don’t care for. Everyday you have to talk to EVERYONE, open the video store, go get a scratch ticket from the dog, look at ALL these exclamation points everywhere… It just makes you feel like you HAVE to play it (by design I’m sure) to be able to unlock something you want to unlock or just to keep up with the content whereas I just want to play the actual game part. Blue Archive is kind of like that too, I would get on every night to try and do the dailies and do whatever event was going on but I don’t want to do that. So we’ll have to wait and see. I hope you can pick what tribe your character is from and then when you play with others they are just as douche-baggy and racist as they are in the main games. Maybe “competitive” is a better word. I just think it would be funny to have these hunters egging each other on. “Took you long enough, Nora.” “I took out three other machines before I got here, can you say that Carja?” But it does look cool, typical Monster Hunter stuff but also dodging lasers and missiles. It would be cool if some of the weapons you get from some of these machines have random bonuses or whatever to use the machines abilities so maybe every third swing of the weapon shoots out a wave of fire or you can launch a barrage of missiles. Something different. Have a frost/fire Bellowback dual blades, you know I love my dual elemental weapons. So this Horizon Monster Hunter hybrid bears the question, what is Xbox and Certain Affinity doing? Certain Affinity is the dev group supposedly behind Xbox’s MonHun-like under the codename Project Suerte but it hasn’t been heard from in YEARS. Nothing about ol’ Philly canceling it either. Every now and then tweet at Certain Affinity asking for an update. Will Steel Frontiers push Microsoft to get this game out or will it cause them to hit the panic button again and cancel the game?

            Steam recently showed off a bunch of new hardware they are planning to release early next year I think I saw. They got a new controller coming out, a new Steam Machine and a new VR headset. I’m really interested in the controller. I like that it’s charger just seems to connect magnetically. The Steam Machine is interesting too. Like, I kind of want it to hook it up to my TV for some games but I do already have a Steam Deck and a dock for that but it obviously can’t play the more graphically intense games. I don’t know how people get things like Cyberpunk 2077 to run well and look good on the Deck, I can’t. But it would be nice to play some things on a TV. I’d like to play Monster Hunter on the TV sometimes. I know, it’s stupid, I’ve got a PlayStation, I’ve got my PC, a Steam Deck, I COULD play Monster Hunter on the PlayStation but my friends have it on PC, sure there’s crossplay now but then I’d have to pay for the online service. I don’t know, I have no self-control… The VR set looks cool too, finally getting away from all the wires, still don’t think I’m ready for VR. (As I was walking my dog I was remembering that you can stream games from your PC to the Steam Deck so I gave it a go when I got home. Much like the Xbox app streaming there’s a little bit of a lag. Maybe it’d have less lag if I use an Ethernet cord it would help but that would take some rearranging. I don’t know if I want to do that.)

            So, eh, whatever. What are your thoughts on Horizon Steel Frontiers? How do you think the mobile aspect of it will play out? What about the Steam reveals? Anything catch your eye? Anything you plan on getting? Would you like a more colorful, ridiculous version of Mortal Kombat? Let me know your opinions down below and I’ll get back to you when I can! Bye-bye!

            @AztecSauce