A new week and new news. It's a case of the good, the bad and the ugly but not in that order.
We'll start with the bad.
NBA 2K21 was released recently, and as one might expect from a modern sports game, it comes with all the lootboxes one could want. However, 2K Games managed to really give the nasty taste of the lootbox a new twist. The lootboxes, or in this case card packs, contain random players with varying stats. One of the most sought after player in this case was James Harden and the player base, eager to gain an advantage over the competition forked over a lot of money as soon as they could for a chance to get Harden. The twist? For the first 23 minutes after release, Harden wasn't even in the packs! False advertising? Outright fraud? You decide.
This story broke on Reddit, and the story spread quickly, but since 2K hasn't (to my knowledge) commented I can't be 100% sure it happened. However I really wouldn't be surprised. Either way it's another sobering reason to avoid lootboxes and pay-2-win.
Time for the ugly.
The highly anticipated Playstation 5 is just around the corner, with a release date of November 12th. A much lauded feature is backwards compatibility for all but a small handful of games, which means you can play older PS4 titles on the new system and even port over your saves. The issue of backwards compatibility is one that has been hotly debated in the console world going back a long time and players are pleased about the PS5's ability to do so.
For those not in the know, back in 2014, Konami released P.T. or Playable Teaser to hype up their upcoming Silent Hills game by veteran game director Hideo Kojima and movie director Guillermo del Toro. Sadly, the game was canceled after Konami and Kojima had a bitter falling out, and Konami decided to focus mainly on Pachinko machines.
The P.T. however remained available for a time, and it was incredibly popular. Polygon recently ported P.T. to their review copy of the PS5 and found that it worked perfectly. Then apparently Konami got wind of this and removed it from the list of games that can be ported to the PS5. Sony has confirmed that this decision came from Konami and not from them.
Whether this is due to some petty desire for vengeance against Kojima, or general pettiness in general no one knows, but since new copies of P.T. can't be downloaded, it seems weird to bother limiting access to the fairly small group of players who still has it. Now there is a rumor of a rumor that a new Silent Hill game is in the works, which could explain the decision, but with Konami's recent track record, I doubt it. Whatever the reason may be, it's an ugly thing to do.
Now for the good. Hopefully.
Bioware has finally announced the long awaited remaster of their incredible sci-fi masterpiece, the Mass Effect trilogy. The remaster will include the entire trilogy, all DLC and extra promotional items, all available in modern resolutions. Good news, if they do it right. After all, not all remasters are created equal. Earlier this year, Blizzard released their catastrophic remaster of Warcraft 3 Reforged, which quickly became known as Warcraft 3 Refunded.
I have high hopes for this, I love the original Mass Effect games, and if Bioware sits down and does the work it can become a best seller. If they rely on “Bioware magic” like with Anthem, it will be garbage, and dead before arrival.
They also announced that a new Mass Effect game is in the works, but seeing as what they did with Mass Effect Andromeda, this is very much a question mark, might be good, might be worth skipping. Time will tell. Either way, they still have to finish and ship Dragon Age 4, so this game is far away.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time, have a great week and stay safe!
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