Destructoid Checkpoint: Logan and the Blizzard

We return to our regularly scheduled programming this week, as I am back to ramble some more now that our Gamescom explorations are over. 

This means taking a look at the biggest news of the week and breaking down why things are the way they are.

Things are still not going right for Sony

Sony has been eating Ls recently, although I am sure they feel their long-term strategy is smart and informed, and will pay off in the long run. For us mere gamers, however, it just means the loss of disc options in the future, rising prices, the abandonment of projects before we get to see them, and even the loss of Physint, a future Kojima project that he had been working on with the Japanese giant. 

It seems that Xbox appears to have stepped in to carry Physint forward, but you have to wonder if that will end up as another tragedy, given the news that Sony dropped the project as it is already suffering production and budget issues, and Xbox really loves to walk projects out behind the barn.

That said, let’s talk about Wolverine. Things are not going amazingly for Insomniac’s new game, as its review embargo dropped, revealing a low, by Sony first-part standards, Metacritic score of 78. That’s not a bad score for any game, frankly, but for a flagship title from one of Sony’s best studios, it’s not good.

Wolverine is a popular character, probably the most popular of the X-Men, so you would expect his game to be refined, polished, and pushing the boat out for what it means to experience the world as that character, similar to the Spider-Man games from Insomniac. Instead, reviews hint at a title stuck in a mold that doesn’t quite fit it, something that may have been afraid to step outside of the rigid structures that seem to have overtaken the first-party Sony experiences. 

Wolverine is not my favorite of the X-Men, but like most people of my generation, I have a massive soft spot for him from growing up with the 90s cartoon. That said, nothing about this game really drew me in, and the reviews are really starting to shed light on why.

I now realize that the slavish approach to a “realistic” world just never really sat right with me. I don’t want my Marvel characters to be in the real world; I want them to be in cartoons and video games, and I want them to feel that way. A Devil May Cry game with Wolverine scoring massive combo counters for stylish moves is what I want to experience. 

Let’s leave this era of annoying realism behind and remember that games, superheroes, and the intersection of the two are supposed to be a bit wacky.

How do you like your games? Unspoiled, or completely cooked?

Almost as a PSA, you should know that there has been a leak on Steam, and achievements for a large volume of upcoming games are now out in the wild. The main issue here is that many of these will act as obvious spoilers, especially for established series with ongoing storylines. Keep your head on a swivel, and dodge them where you can. 

This all plays into a larger issue, where the eagerness for any sort of news about upcoming titles leads to a world where a little bit of the magic of gaming is dying.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need for information to be out there so that players can make informed decisions, and hype can sufficiently grow in the run-up to release. I am as much a fan of excitement as the next guy. That said, I also worry that carefully planned reveals to grow that excitement are being ruined, and all for the worst thing in the world. Clout.

Per the source of the leaks, a website called Exophase that uses available information from APIs to display information about games. This was not malicious, but it is certainly a good indicator of how delicate the information ecosystem around games is, and how easy it can be to end up learning things you’d rather not know until you reach that part of a game. 

Personally, I mostly keep myself as informed as possible about games, because that’s my job, but movies, books, and even music, I much prefer to experience them all as a blank slate, devoid of as much outside influence and opinion as possible. 

Blizzcon business

BlizzCon, Blizzard's annual celebration of their various games and worlds, is currently underway, and the announcements have been coming thick and fast. The mission here seems pretty clear, and it is to announce absolutely everything possible because Microsoft wants to look like they are really taking advantage of the various IPs.

To be fair, they appear to have left no stone unturned. 

First up, an animated Diablo series will be coming to Netflix. Netflix is hungry for animated gaming shows after successes like Castlevania and Devil May Cry (yes, the DMC anime was terrible, but it still did well in viewership), and Diablo lends itself well to both animation and that same audience. 

A StarCraft game is on the way, but not StarCraft 3. Instead, we will be getting an open-world StarCraft shooter. The game is targeting a 2030 release date, but I'd wager it will likely get pushed.

Overwatch is getting a new character called Doctrine, who is a very swanky-looking vampire. He will arrive in Season 5, but only if you invite him in.

Diablo gets a couple more announcements: Diablo IV is coming to the Switch 2 on September 15, and Diablo V is confirmed for Spring 2028. 

World of Warcraft also got a bevy of announcements that may confuse anyone not familiar with the game's fractured nature. Regular old World of Warcraft got some teases for a new update, Midnight Eclipse, and a new expansion, The Last Titan. Warcraft III: Reforged has a new campaign out today that you can play, and there is yet another reimagining of a more classic experience called World of Warcraft Forever coming on November 4. 

So, yeah. Looks like Xbox is looking to own all the headlines this weekend.