Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard After the Gameplay Reveal

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jun 142024
 

When Dragon Age: The Veilguard was shown as part of the Xbox Games Showcase, I was not exactly thrilled.

In fact, I was pretty worried.

I’ve been worried about the next Dragon Age game for a while now, between the years of getting tiny teasers with no actual footage shown and all the people who have left BioWare since it’s been in development. I’m not crazy about the name change from “Dreadwolf” to “The Veilguard,” either.

(Also, I keep calling it Dragon Age: Veilguard by mistake since that sounds smoother to me.)

So when it finally got a full trailer, and the tone just didn’t feel like Dragon Age at all, the only thing I had left to cling to was the hope that it was just a bad trailer.

At least I didn’t have long to wonder. On Tuesday, they followed up the trailer with a 20-minute gameplay reveal.

Note: due to the nature of Veilguard’s story, the footage spoils a major reveal from Dragon Age Inquisition’s DLC.

The combat looks a bit more faster-paced even though in Inquisition, with a skill wheel to pull up for special abilities and no way to directly control party members. According to the official blog post about the gameplay reveal, the combat has “tactical depth” not shown in the video.

But what had bothered me the most in that trailer was the tone, and the tone in the gameplay reveal feels much more suitable for Dragon Age.

So this essentially restored me to my “nervous, yet cautiously optimistic” mindset.

Now, in an interview with IGN, BioWare confirmed that Veilguard is “a mission-based game,” with curated areas that do sometimes open up for “alternate branching paths, mysterious, secrets, optional content.”

One of my biggest criticisms when I played Inquisition was that it felt to me like the open world areas were entirely separate from the main quest. This sounds like it should avoid that. I’m hoping that its mission-based approach won’t go in the opposite direction and make it too linear, because I’d like to have a good amount of exploration along the way.

My other criticisms of Inquisition were related to the story, and that’s impossible to judge this early.

Once, a new Dragon Age game would have been one of my most hotly-anticipated titles. Now I’m just holding my breath hoping it doesn’t disappoint. At least my initial worries from the trailer have been calmed. But what do you think of what we’ve seen so far from Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

Not-E3 2024 Part 6: Miscellaneous Highlights

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 122024
 

Table of Contents

Guerilla Collective
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Direct
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox Games Showcase
PC Gaming Show
Ubisoft Forward
Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous Highlights

It doesn’t look like the Nintendo Direct will be held this week after all, so despite waiting a day or two just in case they announced it, I’ve decided to move onto the miscellaneous highlights from other showcase held throughout the “E3” period this year.

Basically, there were some additional showcases that I didn’t cover like the others (although in retrospect, I probably should have) but still watched to pick out some highlights.

For example, the Day of the Devs showcase held after Summer Game Fest had a couple interesting games, such as the GBA-inspired slice-of-life game Petal Runner and a psychological thriller called Karma: The Dark World.

Then one of the best announcements for me came in the Future of Play Direct, which showed a trailer for 3D metroidvania Abyss x Zero.

It looks really great, so I’m looking forward to that.

Nova Hearts looks interesting, as does A Date With Death. They also showed an interesting cat game called Copycat, although the story premise makes me worry it will be depressing. Slay the Princess: Pristine Cut also caught my attention.

Next, there was the Latin American Games Showcase. The games shown there include Game Boy inspired action-adventure game Glory Hunters and an adorable hidden object game called Hidden in My Paradise.

Runa & the Chaikuru Legacy also looks like it could be great.

Another game shown was a horror game called Curilemu, which looks pretty cool, and a point-and-click detective game called The Midnight Crimes.

Digital Exorcist looks pretty neat, and Mariachi Legends has such a great visual style that it stood out to me as well.

Now after that showcase, there was a Women-Led Games Showcase, and that gave us yet another detective game to add to the list (another animal detective game, at that), Albert Wilde: Quantum P.I.

So at the start of this Not-E3 season, I looked over all the scheduled conferences and picked the ones I saw as the “major” showcases to cover, while the rest would be saved for the miscellaneous post. In retrospect, I probably should have included the Latin American Games Showcase as one of the main ones, since it had more highlights than half the shows we covered!

(Oh, and Visions of Mana got a release date of August 29 along with a new trailer. Why that wasn’t included in one of the showcases, I can’t imagine, since it would have been a great addition.)

The Nintendo Direct is rumored for next week, so I’m eagerly looking forward to that. In the meantime, did any of these games stand out to you? Let me know in the comments!

Not-E3 2024 Part 5: PC Gaming and Ubisoft Forward Highlights

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 102024
 

Table of Contents

Guerilla Collective
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Direct
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox Games Showcase
PC Gaming Show
Ubisoft Forward

PC Gaming Show

After the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, the PC Gaming show was held in the evening. I’ll be covering highlights for this one, since only a few games stood out to me across the two-hour show.

Wander Stars is a turn-based RPG in which you use words to fight, a unique enough idea that I’m intrigued.

Steel Seed had an interesting trailer, but it didn’t show enough for me to get an idea of what it was about. Meanwhile, the musical-based puzzle game Tempopo looks like it could be fun.

Action RPG Last Moon looks like it has potential, and every time I see another trailer for Demonschool, I get a little more interested in it. The rhythm-adventure game Unbeatable also looks interesting.

There was another trailer for Cat Quest III, too, and it’s adorable. That’s a series I definitely want to try.

Meanwhile, the latest trailer for Still Wakes the Deep looked interesting enough that I’m tempted to give it a chance after all. If it was from any other developer, I’d probably be talking about how I want to play it. It’s just that it’s from The Chinese Room, who previously made Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, neither of which I was exactly crazy about. I haven’t played any of their games after those. Will this be the one I finally take a chance on?

The fantasy farming yokai game Tales of Seikyu also got a new trailer here. It was in one of the other recent showcases, and I have to admit it looks intriguing even though I’m not the biggest farming game fan.

All in all, the show didn’t have a lot of great announcements for me, but there were still some nice games shown.

Ubisoft Forward

Finally, our last showcase of Not-E3 2024 so far was Ubisoft Forward this afternoon. A pre-show began half an hour before the main show, but since its goal was to deliver updates on live service games, I didn’t watch.

I’m not the biggest Ubisoft fan, so once again I’m only going to cover the highlights. They began with an extended look at Star Wars Outlaws, and while I don’t think I’ll play it, I have to admit it looks good.

They also gave updates on the Prince of Persia series! Now as they were discussing DLC for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and new content for The Rogue Prince of Persia, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were going to mention the Sands of Time remake at all or if it’s effectively dead.

And they did! It’s not dead after all! …It’s now planned for 2026 and got a short teaser trailer that showed basically nothing, so it really sounds like they must have restarted the whole thing.

A considerable portion of time was also given to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Assassin’s Creed is one of those series where I find some aspects of it interesting but doubt I’d enjoy playing it, so I’ve never given them a try.

And that brings us to the end of Not-E3 2024, for now at least. I was hoping the Nintendo Direct would be tomorrow, but it looks like it won’t be. Of all the showcases so far, which have you enjoyed the most?

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