Like Destiny 2, WF is very much a live service game meaning it’s meant to stay active via constant seasonal content and updates as well as regular expansions. These games make their bread either by selling the expansion while the game itself is free, having stuff that can be purchased in the premium shop, seasonal passes—or all three. Oftentimes, all three are utilized since the seasonal pass and seasonal content keeps things alive.

Live Service is a Hard Road to Travel

Most of the time when a game is developed it’s either meant as a one-off story, a potential series-starter, or a sequel but it’s often a contained story that might get DLC before the studio moves on. They’re rarely meant to be live like the multiplayer modes of Call of Duty. Live service is more the realm of MOBAs and MMORPGs which come in as massively online experiences as soon as they’re installed.

As it would go, live services exist within MMO’s metropolitan area without having a residence in the city proper. But the studio has to be able to support it consistently. That means regular seasons every two to six months that have a theme and keep players involved and engage in the game world followed by an expansion.

The expansion serves as a mini-sequel or soft sequel without being a full-on sequel with a number and subtitle. Mind you, Bungie sells expansions for the price of a full game but those come around every year or two but they have the fanbase and the players tend to be enthusiastic even if there are elements they don’t care for much.

That’s ultimately what a developer takes this road wants: a dedicated fanbase for the title. You only get that with rewarding missions and gameplay and an engaging, constantly evolving story. The mix of this concoction varies from game to game and developer to developer but those who apparently hit that perfect mix for them tend to stick around for a long time. Sprinkle in free-to-play and boom!

Much like Warframe.

Warframe is Hanging in There

Again, released in 2013, WF is a sci-fi third-person shooter where you as a recently unfrozen Tenno—humanoid warriors who are one with their bio battle suits—to combat a variety of alien lifeforms. Tennos utilize different kinds of weaponry as they take on galaxy-spanning missions to deal damage and defeat these hostile lifeforms.

Typical sci-fi stuff, really. Like other live service games, a premium store where things and currency can purchased that can be used with any particular in-game mechanic. There’s always a special currency with these types of games—such as platinum in Diablo IV.

The story is just enough that a developer can keep going with the game while throwing in storyline stuff and pushing the main story along every few years. What keeps players engaging with WF is some fun gameplay, decent gameplay, cosmetics and better gear to snag, and a leveling system players can work on.

The goal is to make it challenging and rewarding for the dedicated players and accessible enough for new and returning players. It’s a real tightrope act because if you make things too easy, your diehards are going to be annoyed since their effort for years prior might come off as pointless. However, if things are too difficult or convoluted, that’s a good way to not see return players or retain them.

You simply end up with your diehards who—while loyal—you can never truly satisfy. There will be something they didn’t enjoy and those players are regulars and might be familiar to the team. The loudest and rowdiest tend to have a voice in the core community.

Of course, that all only matters if you’re really involved with the community. If you’re not in the official Discord or on their forums, it doesn’t matter. You’re here to play the game. With that said, Warframe has a dedicated community that keeps the game alive and keeps the devs busy.

There are a few games that should be watched to see how this is done. While WF doesn’t have the live population of Diablo IV or Destiny 2, it has stayed alive for over a decade with a population often in the lower five figures.

Do you play Warframe, Diablo IV, or Destiny 2? What keeps you playing and what would make you take a break from the grind and the loop? As always let us know!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

For those who never experienced it or played the game when it ended on storefronts, Kingdoms of Amalur was an open-world action RPG taking place in fantasy world brimming with magical and ancient dangers, well-crafted lore, and a good amount of quests and side quests to keep you busy.

Following a decent character creation process, the main character’s story begins after challenging Fate and reviving after certain death. There is a brutal conflict going on but the Gnomes are busy conducting research into resurrection and getting their Well of Souls working.

The MC proves to be a success and of great interest to one researcher who accompanies the MC in escaping hostile forces and puts them on the path to finding out more about their new existence. Along the way, the main character experiences many adventures while also lending their power to the difficult forces combating the Tuatha and more regional dangers and threats.

Kingdoms of Amalur Had a Lot Going for It

Honestly, that’s as brief an explanation of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (or Re-Reckoning, the remaster). There’s a lot of stuff going on here. It featured everything that would’ve been standard for an open-world game at this time.

You have your farming of materials, crafting, a decent-sized skill tree with flexibility for some flexible build crafting, rewarding side quests and encounters that allow you to test and stress your progress and build.

The developer, Big Huge Games had a boatload of ideas and managed to put the majority together and craft their mechanics around them. And it works! Whenever I installed this game, I ended up sinking hours into the quests, building up my Fateless One (the main character who exists beyond Fate which governs the world), and crafting gear and weapons to better utilize those skills.

It’s all stock open-world RPG fare but it’s all put together in a way that works and is actually fun. In addition, you had two creative powerhouses in fantasy and comics with novelist R.A Salvatore and writer/artist Todd McFarlane fleshing out the setting of the Faelands, its lore and inhabitants.

What I found interesting about all of this is that at the time of its release, visually Kingdoms of Amalur looked like nothing too special. There were definitely that looked better crafted graphically but Amalur was far from a horrible-looking game. In some ways it existed between slightly dated and of its time but didn’t come off as a game that would push the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or gaming PCs of the early 2010s.

The World and Scale

Instead you had regions that were colorful, bold, and at times dark and gloomy. You actually felt that your Fateless One was engaged in this large, lengthy quest where you decided how it progressed. Adding to this was the scale of the world. You could look at the map and see what region your were in and which ones were close but traveling through these areas wasn’t exactly a quick jaunt.

You were going to clash with enemies and beasts, you would be distracted by loot and stories, and enticed by exploration. The size of different areas within a region encouraged exploration and after a few encounters, that curiosity in what else could be gained as far as gear and weapons.

I would say this is what really kept me in Amalur: the scale and crafting. Sure, the combat was fine but the possibilities and tiers of crafting material and what could be made had me trying to create the best possible gear for my adventures. The game encouraged that heavily but made it so that if you were into combat, there was plenty of that but you had to explore to be more effective.

Fate of the Kingdom

Ultimately, Kingdoms of Amalur managed to move a million copies but the developer closed due to financial factors as EA had to be repaid for investing a significant amount into the project. Also, the development itself had some issues that seemed to be am indication of how things would shake out for the end product.

Despite the cash sunk into Amalur, there were unfavorable takes into different elements of the game. It was viewed favorably enough to warrant a remaster by Kaiko roughly eight years later. While there is a potential series or even a franchise there, Amalur hasn’t seen much interest or movement in future entries.

Share your thoughts on Kingdoms of Amalur. With the other RPGs of a similar vein out and thriving at that time, did you have expectations of a sequel? Or did you gather that “Too much was out into this game, it was going to get the axe and thrown in the vault”?

Let us know!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

It’s a slower burn but Little King’s Story even eased that to where it was manageable for players not familiar with RTS. The Wii was meant to reel in all kinds of gamers despite experience, genre preference, or free time. Little King’s Story was somewhat different in that RTS aren’t exactly “I’ll play a bit and come back to it later.”

No, like RPGs, simulation games, and strategy games; once you start it up, you’ve pretty much accepted that you’re going lose time in that day. Again, this game dropped in 2009 and was well-received, so where are the sequels?

Where’s Little King’s Story?

LKS was developed by Cing, a defunct indie developer that went under in 2010, just under a year after releasing this title. Most their titles were on the Nintendo DS with a run of roughly seven years. You could say they got a lot done before shuttering.

Their work included games in the Another Code and Hotel Dusk series as well as the DS debut of Monster Rancher. Of their games Little King’s Story and Monster Rancher DS were the two I played the most.

It was an interesting time in gaming with the Nintendo printing money despite having a home console that was underpowered and lacked the expected features of that period, an approach that has continued into the Switch 2. If anything, Cing should’ve made money as well due to its close working relationship with Nintendo starting in 2005.

An issue could’ve been the pace at which Nintendo released games (which is still on the sluggish side) but that’s mainly with its first party games. The company takes its time for Mario and Zelda for quality reasons. Think how long it was between Metroid Prime 3 and the fourth entry release in 2025. In that 19-year period, we saw a number of remasters, spinoffs. Mind you, Prime 4 came out roughly four years after the previous main installment Metroid Dread, which is a solid amount of time between main games in a franchise if there are no other major titles being developed.

Again, all of that is for a first-party game being developed by Nintendo’s own development teams. Cing was an indie developer who happened to have a regular working relationship with Ninty. The fate of Little King’s Story was up in the air.

The Game Ended on a Cliffhanger

With Cing shut down, the rights to LKS fell to Marvelous, which published the game in Japan on the Wii. On paper, that looks fine since Marvelous is still putting out games regularly and working on titles in known properties. They’re active but they have a lot on their plate with their own titles and others.

While LKS is one of their titles and proved to be a popular title, that was in 2009-2010. Gaming has changed a lot since then and a title like Little King’s Story might appear dated or unpredictable in performance compared to its tried and true titles Rune Factory, Story of Seasons, and Senran Kagura as well as handling Monster Hunter Stories, No More Heroes, and Valhalla Knights.

Now, I regularly bring up titles that I’d like to see revived and believe that developers technically have a new franchise in an older one if we haven’t seen anything from that franchise in decades. I’m still waiting on Capcom to drop another Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance. However, LKS like Beat Down has gone too long without anything new or fresh to get a franchise going.

It’s unlikely that a Little King’s Story 2 that continues from the game’s ending is developed and we likely won’t see a reboot. It would take Marvelous having a “what’s old is new again” approach similar to TV and film studios with these sitcom revivals and continuations.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

GTA: London 1969 (1999)

This was a fun expansion of the OG Grand Theft Auto. This was top-down GTA with a late-1960s London setting. Yes, the red double buses, bobbies, and phone booths were there.

Also there were enjoyable missions with dialogue fitting these gangs and firms. Yeah, the missions in GTA and GTA 2 weren’t the most involved—things were still 2D—but there’s just something about 2D open world and that lack of fluid motion.

This early Grand Theft Auto approach will appear again in this list.

GTA: Liberty City Stories (2005)

Originally a PSP release, Liberty City Stories is prequel to Grand Theft Auto III, which was released roughly four years earlier. This story focused on low-rank Leone Family mobster Toni Ciprani. Toni has returned to Liberty City after four years in hiding following a situation where he killed a made man. At time, Ciprani wasn’t a made man and the killing wasn’t cleared—meaning he broke one of the tenets and had to go.

Sure, he could’ve faced his fate but fleeing to Sicily and letting things die down worked as well.

While the game played a lot like Vice City, the story was better than GTA III. This is in part because the protagonist speaks and seems more involved with the world than Claude Speed from III and later San Andreas. Another thing it had going for it is just the approach of playing through a previous time in the Grand Theft Auto 3D universe and seeing how things came to be in present day—the 2000s.

I will admit that the game is pretty skippable but for lore fans, if you can find it on PSP or PS2…maybe give it a play. It’s fun but I wouldn’t say essential.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006)

Another PSP and PS2 release by the studio duo of Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, GTA: Vice City Stories is the stronger of the two Stories games. However, with the 3D universe, that was just the case with games released after GTA III. Each game was an improvement over previous titles because Rockstar utilized mechanics from other games in the franchise.

Vice City Stories is centered around Vic Vance, an army corporal who was dishonorably discharged in a double cross for trafficking drugs. Since the game isn’t available to play now, if you’ve played Vice City, Vic is Lance Vance’s brother who was killed at the beginning of the game.

VCS takes place in 1984, two years before Tommy Vercetti’s arrival in the city and allows the player to experience the rise of the short-lived Vance Crime Family.

Again, this plays like an early-2000s 3D universe Grand Theft Auto title but it had a little something extra that really made this a fun time investment. San Andreas featured a couple of features that allowed the player to experience San Andreas through CJ: clothing stores, dates, cheeks, bars, lowriders, clubs, businesses, and gang wars with claimable territory that weakened the opps’ influence in the city.

While GTA: Vice City featured businesses, it was a simple affair of raiding a gang’s front, taking it over and investing money into it. San Andreas typically had more of a story involved in taking over businesses. In Vice City Stories, we have turf wars in the form of a more involved business system. Not only did players take a front over, they also invested in the upkeep and growth of the business both by dropping money into it and doing related missions. Not only that, these businesses had to be defended from opposing gangs.

This mechanic was something I wished returned in future GTA games and is my favorite part of the game. Aside from that, VCS also featured improved combat, with the hand-to-hand stuff taking heavily from San Andreas’ improved combat.

GTA: Chinatown Wars (2009)

This game launched on the popular Nintendo 3DS console. It’s the only game on this list that Rockstar has available for download via app stores. Chinatown Wars uses the GTA and GTA II top-down approach but mixes in some features that weren’t seen in either the 2D or 3D titles.

First, let’s getting a bit into the story. Huang Lee is the nephew of a triad boss living in Liberty City. He is visiting from Hong Kong to hand him a ceremonial sword that belonged to his father. While en route, he is ambushed and the sword stolen.

This results in a lengthy story with some interesting twists and turns along the way. Can’t have a GTA story without some kind of betrayal by perceived allies and/or FIB having the main character by the balls. Maybe Grand Theft Auto VI will break that trope.

Tasked with various jobs to make up for the dishonor of being ambushed, Huang experiences crime the American way. This brings me to a few mechanics I really enjoyed with one being something I wish would return in future titles.

In GTA V, it’s possible to get the cops off of you by making them crash in a chase. Chinatown Wars featured this and while it should’ve been easier because it was top-down, the streets got congested often in this game and could ruin a fun chase. However, the featured did its job well—when players had room to groove.

Another shared feature between the two is hotwiring cars. Being that it was the 3DS and using that stylus was just something developers or Nintendo insisted on, hotwiring in Chinatown Wars could be more involved before players rode off in their in their criminally captured cars.

The featured that impressed me the most and was a feature I loved in GTA-clone Scarface: The World is Yours was the drug trafficking. This was basically Rockstar Games Presents Dope Wars and it was great! Drug prices changed, CCTVs were a problem, suppliers taxed, rivals were salty, drug trucks could be hit—this was the most entertaining part of the game hands down. It was GTA criminal shenanigans and hustling but it was something unique to this game.

Which of the games have you played in the past? Where would you rank them? Are there any gameplay mechanics or characters you’d like to see return?

Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

First, I’d like to mention I ran into some confusion about the actual ownership of EQ. Reports from the time of Sony selling Daybreak made it seem like the new owner of the studio—Enad Global 7—owns EverQuest. However, some of the phrasing makes it sound as though Daybreak is merely continuing the handling and development of the series.

I don’t know, that would kind of explain why EverQuest Next died a dog’s death while EQ fans sat around waiting on updates about development. Not so much Daybreak’s handling of the series but while being involved in a buyout and having several online games in rotation—is developing a whole new game really wise while making money from those active games?

While I wanted EQ Next to be completed and we should’ve been playing a modern EQ like five years ago, there was quite a bit going on at that time. With that said, here are some ways to bring the series out of the early 2000s without getting away from the core, fantasy MMORPG experience.

Just Make the Damn Game, Already

Listen, game development is a very involved process with many moving parts before actual work starts on the game itself—which includes more moving parts! But as I said, a third EQ game really should be experiencing its third to fifth anniversary by now. The game should’ve been finished but instead ended up scrapped. So now we just have the first two games that can only be played on PC.

Now, there was a good developmental reason why work stopped on it. The game as it was seemed to be pretty dated for an MMORPG in the 2010s. By that time, we had World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Ragnorok Online, The Elder Scrolls Online, licensed MMORPGs for Star Wars, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Phantasy Star Online, RuneScape, Albion, Final Fantasy XIV, and Black Desert heading up the Korean MMORPG invasion.

A new EQ would’ve probably had a hard time prying away fans from those series and who knows if the entire existing player base of the original EQ games would’ve come over. I mean, EQ II dropped, players gave it a whirl and most still preferred the first. Personally, I liked the second more but MMOs tend to hold their bases firmly until they’re left with the hardcore fans.

Yeah, it sounds simple as hell but…just make the game and send it.

Make EverQuest Available on Console

Gaming PCs have become somewhat more affordable now and the EQ games can be played on a lower-end rig because they’re older games. A new EQ probably won’t have that same accessibility and the EQ name doesn’t have the relevance to move folks to buy a new gaming PC. Mind you, even in the 2000s games like EQ and World of Warcraft weren’t relevant. WoW stuck around long enough and had the backing of Blizzard to where it became a popular game on Twitch in the early 2010s and on Justin.tv in the late 2000s.

The thing is WoW kept pushing and adapting to changes in consumer spending around gaming. It’s at the point where Blizzard can run ads for whatever update or return DLC they have planned. The same can’t be said for EQ. To draw in more fans, if Daybreak finally makes a new EverQuest, it might be wise to put it consoles as well since players will get a console as it’s ready for gaming out of the box and doesn’t require significant maintenance. It’s an accessible gaming device.

If the hypothetical new game is PC-only, then at least dust off EverQuest Online Adventures and put it in the PSN as free-to-play and have transactions. At the minimum, EQ should have a presence on PlayStation and at most it should be console in general—in 2024.

OK, No EQ on Console? Can We At Least Get Champions of Norrarh?

This is like the bare minimum. Champions of Norrath was a fun game on PlayStation2 and my introduction to action RPGs in the vein of Diablo—you know, ARPGs where the inventory has grids and your loot and gear has to get in where it fit in. Sure, we have modern Diablo, Path of Exile (goodness, that skill tree), and Last Epoch and I don’t see CoN being a competitor to those three but it could be revived as a live service game, sure.

I don’t even mean make a new game or anything, just update it to work as a live service game and update it regularly. Of course, there was only so much content in the game since it was on PS2, do Daybreak would be better off just making a new Champions of Norrath from scratch.

Who knows, maybe that’s an easier way to get to a return of any kind of EverQuest. I mean, the lore and gameplay is already there and players do rock with this kind of ARPG. They will buy the battle passes, season passes, and expansions. You just have to give them something that is flames.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Honestly, a lot of the titles Tripwire worked on didn’t catch my eye until I played Chivalry 2 and was caught up in this feudal version of the Battlefield games. Even that wasn’t enough to make me say “Let’s really look in their catalog and see if there’s any bangers.” So there Maneater sat for years until the summer of 2024.

Checking Out Maneater

Now, I enjoy nature and survival shows. My favorites were always Wild America, Meerkat Manor, and Survivorman. Listen, “Never Loud” Les Stroud could make a campfire with roughly anything you leave with him. One thing about that show: he’s going to make a fire and his first dwelling will always be poorly suited for the weather.

Anyway, those shows didn’t feature sharks and I was never the biggest fan of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. My favorite sea animal? The narwhal and the octopus but I don’t believe either of those two have such bad press that a cable network made a week around them. I’m just saying, folks.

So, I dropped back onto the PSN looking for an RPG to pair with Destiny 2: The Final Shape when I see Maneater in the listings. That was a shocker because I never expected the game to be an RPG. Curious about what kind it was, I checked out the summary and peeped a few screenshots. Well, graphically it was on par with what you’d expect of a game of the period. I wouldn’t say it was outdated at all but it didn’t exactly wow me either.

Of course, I’ve never been a big “Games need good graphics to be a good game guy” more games have looked pretty and been trash to mid at best compared to games that didn’t look the greatest or was appeared dated only to have a good story and gameplay. You’d think that shouldn’t happen but studios put a lot of time and money into games that don’t live up to expectations.

In short, Maneater didn’’t look awful. The gameplay didn’t appear too interesting but two terms drew me in: “open world” and “skills”. If it had said “skill tree” my hesitation would’ve turn into a need to play this just to see how it was done. Instead, I simply installed it to play when I wasn’t on go time in Destiny 2.

Hands-On in the Bayou with a Bull Shark

I finally sat down to play what was supposed to be a bit of Maneater but turned into several hours. The game’s story unfolds via the eponymous Maneaters vs. Sharkhunters reality TV show, based on any number of blue-collar adventure reality TV shows the Discovery Channel and the History Channel got busy with. Your antagonist is a Cajun shark hunter Scaly Pete.

Part of Pete’s motivation to kill sharks is the feud his father had with one of the sea predators. The shark that kicks off your adventure is the mother of the protagonist which is caught by Scaly Pete and killed. Surviving after biting off the hunter’s hand, your shark’s adventure begins in the fictional Fawtick Bayou.

Your objective in the game is to grow the bull shark pup into a powerful hunter and terror in the open-world aquatic environment surrounding the bayou. I’ll say the map is a good size, the tutorial wasn’t too lengthy and actually got you into the man-eating part pretty early. Surprisingly, the combat mechanics were pretty damn good as far as attacking while defense required some practice.

The best thing is that the controls weren’t overly involved. They didn’t have you doing anything particularly complicated to do what should be simple actions. Leveling up the shark took some work but the process itself is simple. The game has a couple of systems to keep the player involved and tinkering with the shark’s trait which I find very interesting.

My fascination with Maneater comes from putting to the theme with this game style and coming up with something that works and is playable—and I love stumbling across games like this.

Have you played Maneater? If so what were your impressions of the game? Also, what a game that you weren’t interested in at first that got your attention when you gave it a try? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Legend of the River King Made Fishing Games Extremely Fun

Prior to playing this, I’d played a few other fishing games such as Sega Bass Fishing but that was more of an arcade-style game. It wasn’t even a fishing sim—which I would later play and found them enjoyable enough. However, it wasn’t something I was going to finish.

Legend of the River King had the appeal of being a Natsume game off the bat. I was playing Harvest Moon 64, a hard game to find at the time when I saw Legend of the River King GBC being mentioned along with Harvest Moon GB 2. I was planning to play that HM game but LRK was intriguing.

Getting into it, I found that it had a sliver of story—just enough to get you started on your adventure. Honestly, Harvest Moon was similar because after a while, the reason for you being there to take over the farm doesn’t really matter and it’s mentioned every now and then.

It drives you to straighten up the farm but its not an ongoing story for the game. That was the same case in Legend of the River King. You just have to retrieve a legendary fish to prevent natural disasters on this island—if I’m remembering correctly—but it won’t be easy at all.

You’ll make a lot of progress in the game with money and you have to catch fish to sell. As the game advances, you run into more methods to make money. The next one is in combat—which is somewhat odd that something that isn’t fishing-related made this one of the most enjoyable fishing games.

Before moving into the next method, the combat in this game is simple and works. Players just have to stop the moving fish on an enemy—usually wildlife—or their weak spot. That’s it! It’s the combat and leveling that move this game into RPG territory.

I mean, otherwise it would’ve been a slog of a fishing game. There’s also diving, a very profitable way to make money and deep-sea fishing. Once you get the hang of the fishing and combat mechanics, this game is pretty self-explanatory.

It’s also a game that came before the lengthy tutorials we find in-game now, so you’re diving right into the mess right after the brief opening. Then again, the mechanics in this game aren’t complex at all. If you’ve visited a store and upgraded your gear in any game, you’ll know to upgrade your stuff here as well.

Worth a Reboot?

The situation with Natsume Inc and Marvelous Inc saw a bit of a licensing situation over the Harvest Moon title resulting in two game franchises. The Legend of the River King series continued into the Nintendo DS era but following Legend of the River King 2, the combat was taken out and it became just a fishing game.

The PlayStation 2 entry was fine but I maintain that LRK2 on the Game Boy Color was the best in the franchise. If anything, I think a reboot going back to the GBC games would be great otherwise let it remain dormant. It’s just not worth it for a light fishing game with no conflict or leveling elements to me. If the combat is gone, perhaps it should be more of a fishing sim.

Have you played any of the Legend of the River King games? If so, did they stand out to you? Is it a game where you could see a reboot happening? Let us know!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

The thing about that is that combat plays a role in Stardew Valley but it isn’t the main thing. It can drive some stuff in the game but you can still enjoy your experiences without being super hardcore in the mines. Hell, the farm is your priority, honestly.

Started Valley Draws Inspiration from Other Great Unique Games

Stardew Valley is inspired by the Story of Seasons franchise—which pretty much came out of the Harvest Moon franchise. SDV takes the pixel approach of the early Harvest Moon games which were purely farming and slice-of-life and mixes it with Rune Factory and Story of Seasons’ mix of farming and adventure.

There is a very small pool of games in this vein. Throw in Graveyard Keeper and the mobile title Harvest Town. Some fans and veterans of this genre might include Animal Crossing in there but these games always had more depth to them. I know I’ve invested hours into Stardew Valley across PC, Android and PlayStation 4.

It’s a game that keeps you engaged when you make progress and can invest more in your farm or take the time to adventure and fish. There’s a little something for everyone without being intense or forcing the player into a grind.

I’ve always found this game and American Truck Simulator to be incredibly chill and a bit of a stress reliever from the more involved and intense games I play. Even in relation to other RPGs, the element of just farming and managing your resources is a break from say Dragon Quest or Diablo.

You’d think “Oh, I have to manage resources and money? Sounds involved.” It’s actually pretty simple. If you grow it, you can sell it. If you want more for something, you’ll have to invest what you made in stuff to improve the quality. The crafting aspect does add a little more involvement and resource management but I also found that to be direct.

Getting used to the farming, foraging and mining will see you with what you need for what you want to make soon enough. Building relationships adds some story and goals to your character’s life as well! Perhaps it’s that mix of simplicity, progress, goals, and freedom that results in me sinking so much time into the game.

Well that and having stats that can be followed, bonuses, and crafting. As you know, I love crafting. It’s also what saw me sink time into Harvest Moon games. If you play on a PC, you have the extra freedom of utilizing mods to really customize the game in different ways but playing on console is also a very enjoyable experience each time.

The Senses

Stardew Valley has a clean pixel art style that takes me back to playing Harvest Moon on a ZSNES emulator in the early 2000s. It’s very nostalgic if you started playing games in the early 1990s and I’m all for the retro stuff, obviously. I tend to play games with the music muted but even the music reminds me of the early Harvest Moon games.

It’s a great presentation and honestly, it’s my preferred look for this type of game. Story of Seasons, Rune Factory, and the post-Harvest Moon console games took the 3D route but I always enjoyed 2D HM more—even if HM64 and Rune Factory really blew me away on my first playthroughs.

At the moment, ConcernedApe is working on Haunted Chocolatier which seems like it will be in a similar vein but centered around a confectionary shop. However, something on the side in Stardew Valley such as the fishing or mining are worthy of their own titles. Hell, the Harvest Moon series kind of spanned the Legend of River King series and fishing was never so adventurous.

If you’ve played SDV, what was your experience with it? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

I’m certain that I’m not even halfway through the main storyline but I tend to get into all of the side adventures and random clashes as opposed to focusing on the main story. That is until I hit some sort of progress wall that requires me to advance the main story.

So, the more recent AC titles released since AC III really catch my attention. They’re similar to the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises in that you’ve got a lot of freedom to explore the world without there being this linear narrative that either keeps you on track or pulls you back to the story.

Mind you, when I first played these two—two of the four AC games I’ve actually finished—I was all in on the freedom of the open world. Mind you, this was late 2000s open world. Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls III offered a lot to do outside of the main tasks although FO3 would eventually reel you in unless you had the DLC.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes place during the Viking invasion of England in the late 9^th century. It’s surprising that there wasn’t a deluge of titles inspired by Scandinavian folklore and history following the success of Skyrim. Sure, there were a couple of titles but I figured it would be like the zombie wave in games where there was either a zombie survival game or a zombie horde mode deal.

The Assassin’s Creed franchise really did its thing with Valhalla and the invasion setting featuring a great period story that advances the overall story of the Brotherhood vs Templars. However, the story wasn’t the thing that kept me playing.

The Skill Tree and Abilities Are Where Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Really Shines

I’m a sucker for a skill tree. This feature in addition to some good crafting and an interesting open world will have me lost in a game for days and maybe weeks. A game with all three in abundance tends to become my go-to game when I just want to explore and get into some combat or side quests. I’d say AC Valhalla makes a good attempt at that title.

The crafting is decent enough, you have to provide ingots to advance gear to the next tier at the blacksmith but upgrades are left to you and generally require that you have the materials on hand. AC Valhalla is very much a stealth-action title which leans heavily into the RPG elements but not to the extent of featuring a crafting or blacksmith skill tree.

No, the skill tree in this game is based around combat, stealth, and survivability. It’s a simple enough focus but it stretches in multiple directions among the Raven, Bear, and Wolf constellations. These constellations are linked to your gear which—aside from your starting gear—bears the emblem of one of these animals.

Points spent on any of the constellations improve gear worn by the main character Eivor. However, the Bear skill tree only impacts gear with the Bear on it and not all gear and so on. I’ve been going a Raven-Wolf route after initially spreading the points out and I’m enjoying my adventures in Viking-torn England a ton.

The boosts to stealth damage, weapon damage as well as the skills that can be unlocked in these skill trees really make how I like to attack situations—a mix of up close brute force and ranged stealth—exciting. It also pushes me to respec points and try something different or try out different weapon types. You start with the bearded axe and I’ve gotten very comfortable with it but there are a lot of other weapons in the world and even some mythical ones.

Again, this is an open world game with a lot to do. I’m not even getting into raiding or how Ubisoft really embraced sea combat being a part of the franchise that players love. The developers handling this franchise just get better with navigation and varied combat with each title.

Of course, I still have to check out AC Mirage which I’ve heard is a return to core AC but as it stands with Valhalla—on just the skill tree alone and what can be done with it—I’d say check it out if you haven’t yet or give it a revisit when you’re browsing your backlog.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Let’s look at the three pros of the game that I’ve noticed in playing with fellow writer, Tardell Swift. Note, I’m in my third character playthrough using a trickster again. My second playthrough was with the devastator.

Class-based Replay is Encouraged in Outriders

The game has four classes to choose from: technomancer, pyromancer, devastator, and trickster. I’ve yet to play with the technomancer and pyromancer even though they’re more range-oriented classes who are effective at a long range. I’m big on stealthy, melee-oriented, damage-dealing classes in games. Maybe they can fight at longer range if necessary but melee and damage-dealers are meant to be in the action.

I’m sure I’ll play with them eventually but as mentioned my focus has been on tricksters and devastators. After playing with the devastator—which is a tank, basically—I had the confidence to really give the trickster a try from scratch.

Yeah, I still had a trickster but when you learn more about builds and allocating points, you kind of want to do it again from scratch. You know, do it right from the start. In my current third playthrough, I’m building my character around certain gear attributes and focusing more on using anomaly power than pure firepower and it’s making for a trickster that is different from my original.

On that note, I also have more experience and confidence in combat so I’m playing differently.

Mods, Mods, and More Mods!

The mods system in this game is amazing. It’s not unusual for someone to eventually use all the mods only for these mods to seem new in different playthroughs. That’s because some mods are better suited for certain class builds. Whatever direction you’re taking your Outrider, there’s a mod for that and a skill combination for it.

The first tier of mods are all related to your class’ anomaly skills while the second tier contains utility perks. Your bullets can inflict elemental or anomaly damage, drain more health, give you defensive abilities, and improve survivability in firefights. The third tier is a mix of improved versions of the first two tiers and what you want to get to.

Those mods tend to drop in legendary—yellow—tier gear. Mods are found on gear which can be dismantled to obtain the mod which can then be applied to other gear while crafting. Also worth noting is that each piece of gear either bolsters your armor or firepower and come with three random stats that will improve—or harm—your character’s stats.

So, if your class is meant to fight close range and gets health back from close-range kills, a piece of gear that improves long-range might not be that useful. However, you’re free to use any stat combination you wish. You just have to develop a play style you’re comfortable with.

It’s a dope system.

Loot Galore

One thing that hurt Outriders is that it can be viewed as a third-person version of Destiny 2, a particularly popular looter shooter. Loot plays a major role in Outriders as it all factors into your character’s survivability and combat effectiveness. Gear always contains attribute bonuses and mods that will improve your Outrider and their skills.

So, heading to the market to get better hear, finding loot in sh** boxes or as drops from enemies is always a joy—until you actually get to look at it and it has a stat combination and figure “Ehh, I can scrap this.” Scrapping gear not only gives you mods but also resources for crafting. So, it’s a good idea to scrap purple- tier and above gear you don’t need and sell off everything blue tier and below.

Something to note about crafting: in the case of purple-tier gear, you have slots for two mods. If you modify one slot, the other will be locked. It’s a bit restrictive but it forces the player to commit to the weapon for a period—although better gear will always drop.

On that note, it’s best to really look at the gear to see if it’s worth scrapping or wearing to replace your present gear. Often you’d have gear that has been working for you and you just set about improving it. You might play in a way that you can sacrifice improved armor just to keep a piece of gear that has the perfect combo of mods and stats.

With that said, yellow-tier gear comes with three slots and two are locked if you modify one. It makes crafting more important and strategic in nature since you have to really think about improvements. As a result, it’s not unusual to be based a camp for an extended period while others get their crafting in.

If you’ve played Outriders or currently play, what are your three pros from the game? Let us know in the comments.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.