Dragon age companions
Grumpy gamer rants

No, Dragon Age Veilguard is not ‘woke’

Gamers are not in any way a uniform community: I would argue that, like a lot of ‘geek’ pastimes, one of the key characteristics of the gaming community is acceptance of differences. But sometimes I have to wave my fist at elements of the gaming fandom that I just think don’t belong. Today is one of those times.

There is a small group of loud and obnoxious ‘gamers’ who seem to be having a moment lately. These are the toxic cousins to the unpleasant gatekeepers who pose purity tests for anyone who wants to call themselves a fan. I’m talking now about the bigots and haters who don’t want people different than them represented in games. They often shout “Woke!” at any game that tries to be inclusive, and frankly I’m sick and tired of them.

One of their latest targets is an upcoming game called Dragon Age: the Veilguard. The game hasn’t even shipped yet, and a certain group is dumping hatred on it for the fact it doesn’t strictly represent straight white men in the role of ‘hero’. The ‘controversy’ is so loud that a developer often credited with creating the original series, David Gaider, has felt compelled to call the noisy weirdos out. In a world with fewer asshats, he wouldn’t feel a response was necessary.

Kay and Nix
Game reviews

Star Wars Outlaws

I’ve been playing Star Wars Outlaws for the past couple of weeks, just finishing the main quest line last night after about 25 hours or so of play time.

Overall, it is a good albeit somewhat basic journey through some of the ‘darker’ aspects of the Star Wars universe. I would recommend it to anyone who likes Star Wars and the stories that occur in that universe, enjoys a bit of stealth action, and likes some direction to their narrative experience.

The hate and toxicity around Star Wars Outlaws are in my opinion just worthless noise. Kay isn’t ‘woke’ unless you consider ‘normal looking women’ to be ‘woke’. There was, in my experience, no egregious monetization or excess ‘Ubisoft quest marker’ spam. There were few bugs, serviceable AI, enjoyable combat, and good difficulty controls. The game is not ‘genre defining’ and may not be for everyone, but for me it was worth the money spent.

TitleStar Wars Outlaws
DeveloperUbisoft
TypeAction / Stealth RPG
Platform(s)Playstation 5, Xbox Series X / S, Windows; Reviewed on Xbox Series X
Kelly Score ™75 / 100
Review summary

Onward to some details…

image of an aging gamer waiting for upcoming games in 2024
Future games and rumours

Games I’m looking forward to later in 2024

The featured image for this post is AI generated. For some reason ChatGPT insists on giving my image a beard and moustache

I recently posted about the games I’ve been enjoying so far this year. But there are a number of upcoming titles that I sense will replace these on my ‘favourites’ list for 2024.

Lists are fun and fairly easy to write, so here goes: my list of games expected in the next six months or so that I’m looking forward to.

image- my top games of 2024
Game reviews

My top games of 2024 so far

I haven’t posted much recently on the topic of gaming. I should probably give some thought regarding why that is the case. Part of it, I suspect, is that I have thought for quite a while that I should move my gaming-related content onto its own blog like what I did with my motorcycle content and Geek on a Harley. But any more in-depth analysis regarding my relative silence on the gaming front is a topic for a different post.

Console hardware

Measuring my life in gaming devices

I am a gamer, these days primarily of the video / computer game variety. Lately I haven’t felt like writing about gaming on my blog for a variety of reasons.

I do hope to get back to it at some point, and I felt a bit inspired to take a step in that direction by this #blaugust2024 writing prompt from Rieaglenest :

Do you have memories of an old game consoles/device that you have? What games do you usually play on that console? If it’s not specifically a game console, what do you usually do when using the old device?

Game reviews

Elden Ring: not my ‘game of the year’

Elden Ring is a new game from FromSoftware. They are famous for their ‘Souls’ games that established a whole genre of their own: games with gigantic boss enemies and unforgiving combat. Basically, these games were the origin of the ‘git gud’ meme.

Elden Ring is that “Souls-like’ concept writ large. I have proven once again that I don’t like this style of gaming: but once again it taught me some things about why. It isn’t because I’m ‘not good’ or don’t know how to play. I’ve been playing computer games for over 40 years and, although I’m not claiming any great skill, I can work out the basics. Elden Ring just appeals to a very specific player which isn’t me.

The prescription…
Console hardware

Xbox Series X failure

I have had an Xbox since not long after they first came out: back when ‘Xbox’ was the entire name of the console. I’ve been on the Xbox Live service nearly as long: over 16 years.

So it goes somewhat without saying that I wanted to get the latest iteration of the console: the Xbox Series X. Unfortunately the global chip shortage for ‘advanced’ technology components meant that getting one wasn’t so easy. The Xbox Series X was (and still is) very hard to come by: any that appeared online were bought up in seconds, and then offered for sale via Ebay or Amazon ‘resellers’ at several times their retail cost. I fought this battle for about six months in ever-increasing frustration.

My Xbox Series X: before I realized it was defective

I finally got an Xbox Series X in November via the ‘All Access’ program: more on that later. A month later I realized my fancy new console was defective. This is my story.

Game reviews

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Title Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Developer Ubisoft
Type Action RPG
Platform(s) XBox One, PS4, PC (reviewed on XBox)
Kelly Score ™

80/ 100

 

 

I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for a few weeks now.  I think I can form a personal opinion: it is good, excellent in parts, but struggles somewhat under a weight of grinding which seems clearly in service of micro transactions.  Overall, I’m definitely enjoying the game, but I also feel a little bit ‘dirty’… and not because of all the murder.

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