You know the deal – new month, new games. I’m not wanting to draw out this intro as, honestly, writing about these feels like a bit of a chore but it’s sometimes nice to get to address something about these games that may (or may not be) mentioned in the Microsoft video, and this month we have something major that sticks out to me.
That being said, let’s begin.
Starting off we have for the Xbox One The Technomancer and Outcast: Second Contact.
Oh boy, The Technomancer looks like every other gritty action adventure game made over the past 15+ years! You know, honestly the basic idea should intrigue me — I like those “magic and technology are one” kind of worlds (which this pretty much is to me, based on the video) but I just can’t get excited — I’m burned out on these kinds of things. Maybe it being an action RPG will help it, but maybe not. Sorry, not much else to say, it looks cool but still like much of the same.
Next up is Outcast: Second Contact. Apparently a remake of a game which is credited here to have “started the open world action adventure genre.” Uh, okay, sorry but I’ve never heard of it so I’ll have to just take your word for that. I’ll say this much, it looks brighter than The Technomancer, but this too may very well end of being much of the same. Maybe not, but if it’s the game that “started” a genre that pretty well means it’s going to be just like every other game that, well, came along later and copied its style, for better or for worse.
On the Xbox 360 we have Star Wars Battlefront II and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2.
Oh boy.. another Star Wars game for the Xbox! As in, the original Xbox (since everyone has to constantly muddy the waters with add on names and qualifiers for consoles.) Just what we needed, but hey, this one’s a good game in the opinion of damn near everyone who’s played it! Awesome.
Except for one thing, and this is the focus I wanted to make in this article — at 1:23 seconds in the narrator, “Major Nelson” says “Enjoy multiple online game play modes.” This is impossible. The original Xbox Live service was shut down on April 15th, 2010, and no original Xbox games , be they played on the original console, the Xbox One or the Xbox 360, can be played online anymore. Period. (Yes, I know about Xlink Kai. No, that’s not the same thing.) It’s a long thing to explain but the fact is simply that — no online play for Star Wars Battlefront II.
NOTE: This was edited and removed from the video on April 2nd, 2019. The above upload is the “new” version. The old version will be added to the end of the article.
Beyond that flub, though, woohoo, a top notch Star Wars game. Excellent!
Lastly, we have Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2.
Meh.
Seriously, I just plain don’t care. That simple. Not even going to sugar coat it. I just. Don’t. Care.
And that’s it — all in all, I’m just kind of meh to this selection. Battlefront II is the best this time around, certainly, but with it all said and done this list just doesn’t strike me as special.
Normally I’m optimistic about these games, but, well, not this month.
More to come, as always.
Update: Here is the “old” version of the video, “online” modes line intact.