THE LOWS
Fraser Brown: Winners sleep
The true winners of The Game Awards were the people getting a reasonable night’s sleep. I was not one of them. I was ready to be sensible, but just as I was climbing into my lovely warm bed, Twitter erupted and, like a lemming, I jumped in for a few hours.
We got a glimpse of some—hopefully—rad games, there were some good tunes and we even got genuine sincerity in the form of SonicFox’s emotional acceptance speech. There have been far worse shows, but there was also an even weirder dissonance this time around, especially as Rockstar scooped up the awards after the discussion around its working culture came to light. I shouldn’t expect reflection from an award show, I know, but still.
Tom Senior: Fight, for the light, to party
The Black Armory has opened in Destiny 2 and it’s full gorgeous, spectacularly unattainable guns. I haven’t had the time to keep up with Destiny’s power curve for the last month or so, and now I’ve arrived at the latest expansion with a mountain to climb.
It’s giving me dark thoughts. If only I could pay five quid and skip to light level 620, then I could try the new raid and see the cool stuff! No, be quiet! An Activision exec might be watching. Weeks and weeks of nightfalls and heroic strikes to get your level up might seem like a slog, but it just means playing a lot of a cool game you like.
Hmmm, maybe, but I have paid for the expansion and now it feels like I’ll have to do a lot of repetitive work to access it. Maybe Bungie will tweak the light requirements, just a little, to give casuals like me a shot.
Samuel Roberts: The Blackout blackout
Remember that Alien game we thought was going to be revealed during The Game Awards? It never materialised, which is pretty curious. I guess this teaser related to something else. I wasn't desperate for more reveals from The Game Awards, and I guess I'll politely nod to Geoff for rounding up a chunk of news during a traditionally quiet part of the year, but I'm intrigued to know what a new Alien game looks like.
How do you follow the greatest one ever made? Figuring that out must be pretty intimidating.
Chris Livingston: Out of the bag
Kinda tired of writing and thinking about goddamn bags at this point, but things got worse this week for Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition owners. A website error on Bethesda's site allowed customer support tickets to be viewed by other users, and since Power Armor Edition owners had been instructed to upload receipts and other personal information so they could get the bags they should have gotten in the first place, that's what the other customers saw. As many as 65 customers may have had their names, addresses, phone numbers, and partial credit card information shown to other people using Bethesda's support site over a period of about 45 minutes. Buhhhhh.
I think in last weeks Highs & Lows I said the bag situation was an extremely shitty way to treat customers who were willing to spend $200 on an edition of a game they had never played, but while Bethesda did take a step forward to make things right, that step landed firmly—Sideshow Bob style—on a rake. Can't wait to see what happens next! I imagine when the bags finally arrive they'll be full of angry bees who subscribe you to magazines you don't want and then use your toilet without flushing. It wouldn't surprise me at this point.
Tyler Wilde: McBarren
Licensed card deals just don't work in Rocket League. Because the new McLaren DLC car can't disrespect the brand, I'm not allowed to put a decal on it, or change the paint finish, or stick a goldfish on top of it. One can spend hours customizing a Rocket League car to make it garish, or stylish, or ugly, or weird. I don't think cars are as expressive in any other game. So while I like the look of the McLaren 570S's body—I mean, it's a McLaren—there's no way it gets any use. I didn't collect animated skins for them to not be on my car, making it look like an art installation a bored rich person would make.
Steven Messner: Paralyzed by choice
My Christmas vacation is fast approaching and I'm eagerly awaiting days spent in PJs staring out at the frozen hellscape that is Canada this time of year. In anticipation for all that free time, I've been dipping my toes into new games looking for a suitable candidate to become My Christmas Break Game. It's quite the honor being chosen, but this year I feel like I overextended myself and am now emotionally invested in more games than I could reasonably beat in months—let alone two weeks.
Between World of Warcraft's new update, Path of Exile's new league, Stellaris' new expansion, Caves of Qud (which I am hopelessly addicted to right now), Warframe, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Rocket League. I think I bit off more than I can chew. At this point, I'm pretty certain that my lovely holiday is going to turn out to be a Mountain Dew inspired haze as I game away the hours trying to satiate my cravings for each of these games. I just know I'm going to blink and it's going to be January 2nd, the break will be over, and I'll just be left with that crippling emptiness of time off poorly spent.
