2017 in Review- Gaming

It's been...rough. I will not mince words, 2017 has NOT been a good year. And I mean in general. Still, it pays to look back at 2017 and see the good, the bad, and the just plain UGLY. Let's begin...

The Good:

1. The release of Horizon: Zero Dawn for the Playstation 4. It is a bloody fantastic game, I love the main character, and overall this game is guaranteed to become a staple for Playstation gamers. This is a game for people who crave action, immersive worlds, beautiful graphics, and all this with a female lead? YES SIR! I want this game to start a FRANCHISE!
2. Cuphead was released in 2017 to rave reviews from the people who matter: the gamers. Highly anticipated, this beautiful masterpiece of a game has quickly become a gaming darling for its combination of old school cartoon graphics with old school run-and-gun gameplay. Nevermind what the critics said, this game is here to STAY! You know you've done good when a game gets HUNDREDS of fanarts made within MINUTES of launching!
3. You know, I'll just go ahead and say it: 2017 has been GREAT to Nintendo. With the release of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo continues to prove that their position as one of Gaming's Greats is well earned and deserving of respect. Not even a year old, the Switch has had a wide variety of guaranteed classics released for it, including (but not at all limited to) Super Mario Oddyssey, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and many many more. Plus the news that the Switch will house the next mainline Pokemon game GUARANTEES the system's success. After the slump that was the WiiU, Nintendo is BACK!

The Bad

1. Although it's been predicted since 2016, 2017 was the year Battleborn drew its last breath. Once Gearbox announced there would be no more updates to the game, it became clear that Battleborn was as good as dead. As of this writing, there is no more hope for the game, and we may find its servers closed down for good in the coming future.
2. Remember when Mass Effect was considered one of gaming's great franchises? It was widely respected by both the consumers as well as the professional critics. Well, those days are behind us, it seems. Mass Effect: Andromeda has become something of a disappointment to the gaming community with its buggy gameplay as well as its HORRID character graphics. Not design, GRAPHICS. You know you've fucked up when the gaming community is forced to make mods just to make your characters PLEASANT TO LOOK AT!
3. Yeah, I'm getting pretty self serving and rather Meta about this, buuuut...this blog has seen its least amount of activity in the year 2017. This is because, with my move to China, I found myself utterly lacking in time and energy to blog about anything. The move has been rough, but I am still unsatisfied with how everything turned out. I look back at 2017 and I think I wrote maybe like two entries I can re-read again and think "Yup, this is good." I'm hoping for 2018 to be better for me.

The Ugly

1. I know it's a minority, but it's rather disheartening to see people actually complain about a video game that makes the Nazis turn out to be bad guys. The (minor) backlash against Wolfenstein 2 can not be called an embarassment; it's a TRAVESTY. Nazis. Are. Bad. People. Nazis are people who don't care for minorities and are 100% willing to turn this world into a mass grave just to be rid of them. To complain about a game that says "Nazis are bad" is, at the ABSOLUTE LEAST, disgustingly pathetic.
2. I'll not mince words, because you know this is coming: the PewDiePie scandals. Disappointing, disgusting, and overall heartbreaking. What else can be said that hasn't already been said? Felix Kjelberg is, or was, a beloved figure for teens, kids, and gamers. I...have no more words...
3. (Added January 3rd, 2018) The controversy regarding loot boxes and in game currency bought with real life currency. It is no secret that the grand majority of gamers find both to be disgusting, ESPECIALLY in games frequently played by younger children. As an uncle to an 11 year old gamer, this hits close to home. The exploitative nature of these games is horrifically disgusting, and any and every gamer with so much as a SHRED of decency in their body will oppose these disgusting practices, ESPECIALLY loot boxes!