Upcoming Games I'm Interested In

 Just a quick check in on games I am paying attention to and some summaries with links to more info if you are interested.

Ashes of Creation

 Ashes of Creation is an upcoming open-world fantasy MMORPG with a massive 1200 km² world called Verra. It features a dynamic node system where player actions shape the development of civilizations, from humble villages to vast metropolises. The game blends PvE and PvP elements, with open-world dungeons, professions like fishing, and intense castle sieges in PvP zones like international waters.[2][4]

Citations:
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEVU8EZ6QaU
[2] https://ashes101.com/worldofverra
[3] https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/44414/the-new-player-guide
[4] https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Gameplay
[5] https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Alpha-1

Light No Fire

 Light No Fire is an upcoming open-world survival fantasy game from Hello Games, set on a procedurally generated planet the size of Earth. Players can explore vast landscapes, climb any mountain, sail oceans, and fly on dragons[1][4]. Character creation allows customizing species like rabbits or wolves[1]. It features multiplayer, allowing players to build persistent communities together or go solo[1][4]. While focused on exploration and building, combat is also expected to play a role[1][4]. The intriguing title "Light No Fire" hints at the game's mysterious lore and potential dangers lurking in the shadows[4].

Citations:
[1] https://blog.electronicfirst.com/8-things-we-know-about-light-no-fire/
[2] https://twitter.com/lightnofire?lang=en
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhLOQs_-BBo
[4] https://gamingbolt.com/light-no-fire-what-we-know-so-far
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uug_ckBLcyI

Ghost MMO

 The Ghost MMO is an upcoming fantasy MMORPG being developed by Fantastic Pixel Castle, a new studio founded by veteran developers like Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street (World of Warcraft, League of Legends MMO). It takes place in a shattered world of floating "shards" containing different biomes and environments to explore. The game features a unique shard system - private "Blue Shards" for you and friends to play survival/base-building, and public "Red Shards" for a more traditional MMO experience. With a focus on community, heroic characters, and alt-friendly gameplay with dozens of classes, Ghost aims to modernize the MMO genre while retaining classic RPG combat and social worlds.[1][2][3][4]

Citations:
[1] https://outof.games/news/6746-ghost-a-new-mmorpg-from-ex-wow-and-riot-mmo-devs-fantastic-pixel-castle-studio-announced/
[2] https://esports.gg/news/gaming/ghost-mmo-reveal/
[3] https://fextralife.com/former-wow-and-lol-designer-is-creating-a-new-fantasy-mmo-ghost-heres-why-you-should-be-excited/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMRULKzoTNk
[5] https://www.ign.com/articles/greg-ghostcrawler-street-returns-with-new-mmo-codenamed-ghost

 The Word on the Street podcast, hosted by Scott Johnson and Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, provides monthly insights into the development of Fantastic Pixel Castle's upcoming MMO Ghost, featuring conversations with the team working on various aspects like prototyping, combat design, world-building, and technology.[1]

Citations:
[1] https://www.frogpants.com/street

Combat Champions

 Combat Champions is a fast-paced, first-person shooter video game where players engage in over-the-top stunts and map-altering destruction while capturing key points and outshooting opponents in corporate arenas turned into game show settings.[1][2] Developed by C77 Entertainment, the game features explosive corporate conflicts televised by the Corporate Mediation Alliance, allowing players to drive the crowd wild with their high-stakes, high-reward performances.[1][2]

Citations:
[1] https://kotaku.com/games/combat-champions
[2] https://www.metacritic.com/game/combat-champions/
[5] https://www.combatchampions.com

Day 3,651: Elder Scrolls Online

 With the downtime in New World until the "big announcement" in June I decided to do some game exploration.  At first it was in my Steam backlog but it wasn't long before that MMO itch crept up on me.  At first it was just wanting to be in an open world so the though was survival/crafter but then the desire for multiplayer and if multiplayer why not massive multiplayer.  So  I made the plunge into Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).

 On day one of my adventure I created my character.  I was immediately annoyed by the fact that "heartlessgamer" as a name is already taken so I had to settle with "heartlessgamerr".  I have a sneaking suspicion when I played at launch that I did so under another account and may have self inflicted this (my current ESO account shows my beta access from 10 years ago but not my release purchase).  I guess this technically means this is really day 3,651 of my ESO adventure.

 Moving past the name I rolled up a Redguard Templar.  I am not one to spend too much time tweaking my appearance but found myself moving a good bit of the sliders available to get an old(er) looking bad ass ready to take on the world.

 I clicked create and set off into the tutorial.

 The quests and characters are all voiced which was nice but it wasn't long into the tutorial where it became click through material the same as most MMO quest and NPC fluff.  I have heard there is some great material from John Cleese in the game so that may change my mind on clicking through this.  The click through also may be related to my experience post-tutorial which I'll talk about in a bit.

 The world navigation involved a lot of segmented world slices separated by doors and minor loading pieces.  This was annoying but I assumed was part of the tutorial.  I expected a more open world experience out of the gate.  Unfortunately the segmented approach followed in to the main game so was off putting to not have a more seamless open world.

 With that said I am a bit lost in the main world.  I have lots of quests but find it hard to figure out what to do and not until late in my first day did I figure out how to see main vs side quests in the UI.  Wandering the world is pretty generic.  Enemies are very easy to defeat and there is no indication of difficulty anywhere that I can find.  My research says that PvE is easy and with "One Tamriel" there is level scaling, but seems like there should still be some challenge to expect.

 I've also gotten a bunch of "oh you should buy X" from players I've run into.  X being some content pack for the game that you have to buy and there is a lot of possible Xs to buy.  The store is a bit overwhelming in ESO.  I am sure it will make more sense as I progress but if a $19.99 box price (even though I got it for free) doesn't give me enough of a good starting experience then I am not likely buying X.

 Lastly I want to touch on combat.  It is the same "floaty" combat that I remember from playing in beta and launch.  I hate to say it but New World combat has spoiled me so it is very, very hard for me to go to older MMOs that have much less fluid combat.  This isn't to say New World's is perfect but it feels so much better than ESO.  Maybe it gets better later on in ESO?  Maybe PvP is better?

 I will keep trudging along in ESO for a bit here, but do have vacation and trips coming up so it may be forgotten depending on New World's big announcement in June.  But if the announcement for New World is just "thing coming later this year" then maybe I'll make it further in ESO.

Monday Screenshots: Into Elder Scrolls Online

 I finished out the tutorial in Elder Scrolls Online and "heartlessgamerr" (grr!!!) is off into the main world.

Returning to Elder Scrolls Online 10 years later

 True story: I was going to the Steam store to look at Valheim when Steam decided to recommend Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) to me.  Being the type that is easily distracted I clicked into ESO instead of Valheim.  I had thought ESO was "free" to get started with but when I got to the page I realized it had a $19.99 starting price tag.  That reminded me that I had received a copy of ESO for free in the Epic game store so I hit download.

 Before I could get started I had to get my account in order with Zenimax which reminded me just over 10 years ago I was playing in the beta for ESO!  How time flies!

 

 When I had played the beta and then launch I bounced off the game quickly.  So quickly that it didn't even make a blog post (that I can find anyways).  My recollection of my experience was that combat felt floaty and like you were ice skating; the rest of the game didn't stick with me at the time.  I also assume at the time I wasn't as open to moving away from tab target combat as I would be now.  My memory also tells me there were technical issues but its been a bit!  

 Also not game related but my oldest son was young at this time and when we were learning what it meant to be parents of a child on the autism spectrum so my blogging had really hit a minimum at this point and it was hard to invest significant time in any specific game let alone the dedication most MMOs of that time required.

 So am I going to actually play ESO again? Maybe.  Timing seems right as New World is at a stand still until the June announcement and I doubt the announcement dovetails with anything new to play (we have 40+ days left in Season 5).  I've already been playing other games unless my playing partner is online in New World.

 However, I am gone on vacation for a week and then a lengthy trip to Northern Tier for scouts so I'll be mostly offline myself for the rest of May and June/July.  But I think I'm going to get started... if I can get past analysis paralysis of "what character to start and play".

 

Wayfinder Offline

Wayfinder Echoes will take Wayfinder OFFLINE

 

 Big news from Wayfinder: they are moving the game to a single-player offline game with the option for online co-op multiplayer.

"Wayfinder will be removing all online requirements and will be a single-player game with optional 3-player co-op. No queues, no login, no accounts. You can choose to play solo on your Steam Deck while on the go or engage in peer-to-peer co-op with friends from your home PC. We realize this is a big shift, but a necessary one to guarantee that the game is around forever. This also means that all progress will not be carried forward due to saves being local and not on a server. This major change will be the basis for what we’re calling Wayfinder's Echoes Update."

 Additionally they are moving away from micro-transactions: No in-game microtransactions or in-game purchases, just one price. 

 Kudos to the team pulling this lever after all of the back and forth they've gone through with losing their publisher and what has been a very rough early access period.  I think this is the right direction for the game. Under the circumstances moving to a single player approach makes it reasonable for them to deliver an actual game.  Plus they keep the multi-player aspect that made sense for the game; the co-op dungeon crawling.

 As should be expected this means a lot within the game will change and they allude to every part of the game being changed due to this redesign.  Ironically if you read through the paragraph on what changed it boils down to: nothing is gated behind a live service model anymore so have fun unlocking and collecting it all!  What a breath of fresh air to hear from a developer.

 When do we get to play?  May 31st soft launch for founders and then launches in various other forms through the end of year.  Their roadmap is below.

Wayfinder 2024 Roadmap