Operation Backlog Completion 2025
Nov 162022
 

Nintendo released a new story trailer for Fire Emblem Engage today.

The announcement trailer left me a bit confused because of the crossover element, although admittedly I was a bit distracted by the other games announced that day.

This new trailer makes it clearer that there are 12 rings, which summon Emblems, the characters from past Fire Emblem games. The main character is gathering these rings to fight the threat facing the world.

If that means the crossover is limited to 12 characters, I think that will work better for a game like this. There are few enough of them to act as supporting characters without dominating the story. It seems like Emblems can also be corrupted, turning them into evil versions of themselves.

The main character also has amnesia, which might be a bit overused, but I’m curious about where it will go since it seems to hint at something bad.

The designs are a bit odd, but they’re growing on me.

Until now, I’d felt we barely knew anything about Fire Emblem Engage even though it’s coming out in a couple of months. Now I feel I have a much better understanding of what it is. Numerous gameplay clips have also been tweeted by the Japanese Fire Emblem Twitter account.

I’d still like to know more about the hub area and how it will compare to the monastery in Three Houses, but I’m getting interested in Fire Emblem Engage. Speaking of which, I should return to my Three Houses playthrough one of these days…

Fire Emblem Engage is due out on January 20. What are your thoughts on it so far?

Nov 142022
 

The Game Awards 2022 is set for December 8 at 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET, and the nominees have been revealed.

The most exciting thing to me is that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was nominated for Game of the Year!

I didn’t expect it to get such recognition.

(This means I need to hurry up and make progress by then, since I’ve been on Chapter 4 for ages now.)

Xenoblade was also nominated for best music and best RPG.

God of War Ragnarok is another GOTY contender, and I plan to start that soon. Elden Ring is also on the list, which reminds me that I put my playthrough on hold far too long ago and need to get back to that, too. They were both nominated in several other categories, as well.

Final Fantasy XIV has nominations for Best Ongoing Game and Best Community Support, Bayonetta 3 was nominated for Best Action Game (for my Bayonetta 3 thoughts, I have a review coming soon at MonsterVine), Pokémon Legends: Arceus is one of the other Best RPG contenders, and this all makes me feel like I’ve played unusually few Game Awards nominees this year.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XVI is one of the nominees for Most Anticipated, which makes me hopeful that we might get a release date. Recent interviews said we’d have a release date by the end of the year, and the Game Awards seems like a good time to announce it.

That’s what always interests me the most about the Game Awards. While it’s nice to root for games I like to win, the potential for news and announcements is always the most exciting part.

(Here’s hoping for some nice surprises this year.)

What are you hoping for from The Game Awards 2022? Have you played many of the nominees?

Nov 112022
 

A sequel to Control has officially been announced.

Plans to make another Control game were mentioned last year, but now it’s official.

Control 2 is still in its concept stages, so we don’t really know anything about it at this point, except that it will be released for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

One piece of concept art (pictured above) was also shared on the official website, along with a message from the director.

Since it seems like it will be quite a while before Control 2 is ready, that should give me plenty of time to return to the first Control (which I put on hold after a bug forced me to restart from the beginning). Of course, I also hope to play that before Alan Wake II, Remedy’s other big sequel that was announced last year.

What I played of Control before the bug (which has since been patched, but it was too late for me), I enjoyed quite a bit, so I’m happy to see there’s more from this series on the horizon. Are you interested in Control 2?