Weekly News Wrap-Up: February 6th Edition

Now that we are out of January and it looks like the GameStop stock market debacle has calmed down, announcements of upcoming games and expanded content in current games are what dominated gaming news this week. Along with that, there appears to be a “growing” fascination with one of the new characters introduced in the upcoming Resident Evil Village game to the point that developers are recognizing it. And it looks like Xbox owners will finally have a high quality Major League Baseball game to play this year. Let’s get to it.

MASS EFFECT LEGENDARY EDITION TRAILER RELEASED

This spring, the anticipated Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be released, offering gamers a chance to re-experience the space role-playing trilogy saga again or for the first time in remastered form. The series is considered by many to be BioWare’s greatest creation, although some Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age supporters may disagree with that sentiment. But the series really did an outstanding job of building a vast universe with fantastic characters, lots of choices that actually carry weight, an incredible story, and very solid action gameplay.

As with any remaster, there will be differences between the newer version and the original. Some of the additions include a universal character creation system where your created character is used across all three games seamlessly, upgraded visuals, and several gameplay related tweaks. Unfortunately, the multiplayer modes of Mass Effect 3 will not make it to the remastered version. There may be other omissions from the original versions from what I’ve been reading so if you’re looking for this remastered edition of the trilogy to remain faithful to everything from the originals, it’s not going to happen. Keep that the mind if you plan on purchasing the package when it is released. Mass Effect Legendary Edition will launch on May 14 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game will be upgradable to the newer Playstation and Xbox consoles.

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CAPCOM REVEALS INFO ON NEW “TALL” RESIDENT EVIL FEMALE CHARACTER

From the moment that information on the new Resident Evil Village was released and then gamers had the chance to play the demo, one character has garnered a significant amount of attention worldwide. Resident Evil Village antagonist Lady Alicina Dimitrescu is fascinating gamers worldwide as the newest Resident Evil entry takes place inside of her castle. Due to the way that she is portrayed in the game, many have been speculating just how tall she is.

Resident Evil Village Art Director Tomonori Takano confirmed that with her hat and heels include that Dimitrescu measures 9 1/2 feet tall. That makes for a very towering and intimidating presence. It will be interesting to see how the full game plays out and how it is received when it is released in early May. I’ve never been one to play the Resident Evil games myself, but I do appreciate its story and history that now spans more than two decades.

A decade from now, I am intrigued to see if the intrigue of Lady Dimitrescu still remains to the extent that Resident Evil fans still regard Dr. X. and Nemesis. Or is this just a passing fad once time has passed and the newness of Lady Dimitrescu’s character has worn off.

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XBOX PLAYERS CAN FINALLY PLAY MLB THE SHOW

Xbox owners who love baseball can finally rejoice. A Major League Baseball game other than RBI Baseball is coming your way this year after several years without a true MLB sim option. For the first time ever on April 20, MLB The Show will be available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S owners with MLB The Show 21. This is huge and amazing news as MLB 2K13 on the Xbox 360 was the last legitimate baseball video game sim for Xbox players.

I have felt terrible for Xbox gamers for years because of the lack of a solid baseball title. MLB The Show, which is developed by San Diego Studio and published by Sony, has been a Playstation exclusive throughout its history. In my opinion, MLB The Show is the best modern sports video game franchise as its attention to detail and love of the sport can easily be seen in its offerings. I put it ahead of the Madden NFL, FIFA, NHL, and NBA 2K franchises without hesitation. Hopefully Xbox owners will support this move with their purchases so they can continue getting a great baseball game going forward.

Personally, I believe that most of the sports games need to be overhauled. The model of coming out with a game every year has led to a lot of repetitiveness and regression within sports games. Many times, the games are nothing more than roster updates with other little things sprinkled in to give the illusion that you’re playing a new game each year. That’s why I stopped buying sports games regularly and actually prefer the older sports games for the most part. That being said, if you have never played MLB The Show or it has been a few years since you’ve last played, it could be worth checking out.

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EA COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS MAKING A COMEBACK

It looks like the wait for a new official college football video game is soon to come to an end. This week, Electronic Arts announced the return of college football to its ranks as the name of the series will be called EA Sports College Football. The last time EA published a college football game was NCAA Football 14 on the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. Due to a class-action lawsuit by college athletes over the use of their likenesses in the prior college football games, EA decided to cancel the series in 2013. As a result, NCAA Football 14 became a collector’s item among gamers. Players updated the rosters in order to keep the game current, which helped to maintain its value.

There are really no details to expand on as of now as this week was mainly about the announcement that EA is going to be publishing college football games again. The NCAA Football series was a beloved franchise for sports gamers. Personally, I believed that the gameplay in many cases was better than the Madden NFL games and the Dynasty mode had much more longevity and replayability than Madden’s Franchise mode. While there is a part of me that is happy with EA’s announcement, I am concerned at how the actual final product will turn out once College Football is actually released.

I’m not a fan of EA’s current direction with the Madden NFL series. For me and what I expect from video game football simulations, there are currently too many flaws with the core gameplay of Madden that need to be addressed before I consider purchasing an EA football product again. Until I see that take place, I’m just fine continuing to play NCAA Football 14 on my Xbox 360. With that, at least I already know I’m getting a great football game with a gaming community that will continually update rosters to make the game feel current.

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BE CAREFUL WITH CYBERPUNK 2077 MODS

It doesn’t seem like CD Projekt Red can catch a break. The company’s once stellar reputation has suffered in recent months due to the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The game was riddled with bugs to the point of being unplayable for many gamers and was generally not in a releasable state. Cyberpunk 2077 should not have been released in 2020. There have been lawsuits and even fallout internally within the company as a result. Now the company has recognized that using mods on Cyberpunk 2077 can possibly put your computer at risk due to a hacking exploit that was recently discovered by the modding community. YongYea’s video above provides some good information on the current issue.

First off, I want to credit CD Projekt Red for even making modding tools for Cyberpunk 2077 available to the gaming community in the first place. Not every developer does this. Overall, I believe the company has been gamer friendly and has sought to do right by gamers over the years, especially with The Witcher series. It’s unfortunate that the misstep of releasing a game before it is properly finished has backfired in such a huge way. But it was a HUGE misstep.

In the meantime, I would follow the organization’s advice and refrain from using mods for the game until the issue is fixed. As of the writing of this post, CD Projekt Red has posted a “Hotfix 1.12” that is intended to help address the hacking vulnerability. But the description of the update is very vague and leads me to believe that there still is more for the company to address regarding this issue. So I would not use mods for the game at this point.

-TVGA
admin@videogamersadvocate.com