Why did Bethesda add Paid Mods?

Recently, Bethesda, creators of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, launched a new feature: Creation Club. Essentially, they are official mods to Fallout 4 and Skyrim that players pay for through credits. They are created from fans or engineers from Bethesda and actually require Quality Assurance Testing before they are released for players to purchase. They don’t affect the achievements or trophies, unlike fan mods. It will be completely compatible with the game and you’ll receive 100 credits for all users on all systems. There will still be free modding support for all systems as well.

Fans Respond

Obviously, there is fan backlash regarding premium mod supports. They consider the prices too high for essential paid DLC content such as one gun, backpacks, or even armor. The modding community has always been providing free content to improve the gameplay, adding unique features, or even add an additional fan story portion. Bethesda even provided the ability to download free mods on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. To add paid mods will not appeal to anybody considering free mods are actively available and better than the paid versions. To remain good relations with their fans, Bethesda should not release the Creation Club or make them free for all users.

Source:

Bethesda 

Final Fantasy X Assassin’s Creed and the Future of Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy XV: Assassin’s Festival

Announced today, Final Fantasy XV will receive free DLC that fuses its game play with the Assassin’s Creed series. From August 31st to January 31st, 2018 the DLC area will be free. It is actually an alternative reality plot line in Lestallum and entirely different game play mechanics, story, and costumes. From the trailer, Noctis no longer has his Power of Kings and has replaced it with the Power of Assassins…Creed. Stealth, stab, and stuff your enemies in hay piles. You’ll still have the ability to teleport but there is a bigger emphasis on movement with climbing, crossing railways, moving around your enemies, parrying, and chasing after your enemies similar to Assassin’s Creed. The combat will still relatively be the same with you controlling Noctis while fighting with your brothers: Gladious, Ignis, and Prompto. The partnership between Square-Enix and Ubisoft has been planned for 3 years based on Ubisoft’s blog. 

The Future of Final Fantasy XV

Director of Final Fantasy XV, Hajime Tabatha they will not have a sequel of the series. Tabata stated the reason they would not do a sequel:

“The negative of that is there’s a very large open period where you’re not releasing anything. In that period, you get people to move away, and their attachment to the franchise dissipates a little bit.”

The original game took 10 years to finally release with multiple changes of directors, story, game play, art really confused players when a complete version would be released. Taking time to produce a sequel would take serious effort. Instead, Tabata is focusing on filling in the missing plot with the DLC. They still want to maintain a good relationship with fans by continuing to release new content for the game.

“If we had tried to do that as a traditional, full-scale sequel, that would have been very difficult,” the director said, “but it works really well in [keeping] that continued relationship with fans.”

The World of Final Fantasy XV has definitely been expanding since the release in late 2016. Two additional DLC stories for Gladious and Prompto have been released and Ignis‘s story is set to release for Winter 2017. A multiplayer mode was in beta during the month of August and was well received by fans. A new mobile game was release called Final Fantasy XV New Empire was released in July. It’s a generic tower defense mobile game that horribly disappointed fans of the series. Also the advertisements are all over YouTube and are actually quite annoying. Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition is scheduled to release in Fall. It is a mobile militarizes version of FFXV with Chibi Character models and simplified combat. While frame rate looks slow during intense fighting scenes, it looks like a decent game for people who only play mobile games.

Opinion:

I personally liked Final Fantasy XV. It had major plot holes, average gameplay, and a weak third act but I still had a lot of fun. While I’m not interested in the playing the DLC at the moment, but I do love all the main characters. I don’t think Square-Enix should release a sequel because reception for the game is mixed overall rather than positive. The side content is fine except for the mobile game.

Questions:

How do you feel about Final Fantasy XV and the update to the series as time goes on? It is a different experience than the Final Fantasy of the past.

Sources:

Polygon

Chibi Final Fantasy

Fallout 4 GOTY Edition with Pip-Boys!

If you’re a fan of the Fallout series, you’ve always wanted to own a Pip-Boy.  It is a wrist attachment that displays your character’s stats, missions, items, skills, etc. It’s a popular accessory and many people wanted one for cosplay purposes. When Fallout 4 was released, special editions came with a Pip-boy for $119. You could connect your smart phone to it and it would give you access to the Pip-Boy app that would interact with Fallout 4. They sold out incredibly fast and Bethesda even stated they couldn’t produce anymore.

Now Fallout 4 is two years old and its Game of the Year edition is finally being released. It’ll include all the DLCS: Nuka-World, Vault-Tec Workshop, Contraptions Workshop, Far Harbor, Wasteland Workshop, and Automatron. It will also include mod support and Survival Mode which was added to the game before. The GOTY edition will be $60 and will release on September 26th. The game will release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

 

If you are willing to pay extra, you can buy the Pip-Boy edition if you missed it last time. It’ll be $99 with a different casing box than the previous edition. It’ll be the same design and if you have purchased a larger phone since then, it won’t fit into the Pip-Boy. It’ll only be sold in “selected retailers” and will have a limited release.

Opinion:

Personally, I don’t mind special editions. I think having a Pip-Boy is cool and if I was gonna cosplay as a character from the series, I would definitely pick one up. The game is pretty good but its definitely not as good as Fallout: New Vegas or Fallout 3 in my opinion. If you really missed out on the game and wanted to add it to your collection, this is your chance.

Sources: Polygon

Gamespot

 

Persona 5 Anime announced for 2018!

The critically acclaimed Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG), Persona 5, will have an anime adaptation scheduled to release in 2018! Released worldwide earlier this year, the Atlus RPG has received rave reviews from gamers. The animation will be done by A-1 productions whose recent works include Sword Art Online, Aldonoah Zero, Fairy Tail, and Persona 4 Golden: The Animation. Voice actors have all been announced and the teaser trailer is below. No actual footage is shown but I’m a huge fan of the game and series so I am excited about the anime.

Sources: IGN