Why Ghost of Tsushima Outshines Recent Assassin’s Creed Releases

And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Gaming Brew, and I'm your host, Brett Ey. Please subscribe to this podcast and all your favorite podcasting apps. The Five Star View will really just help with the rankings and let me know how I'm doing. But this week we're talking about Marvel rivals, the Last of us, part two remastered because I mean, we gotta rere remaster or rere re-release a game that's not even that old. Hell divers two. We also got Lenovo Legion GOs to talk about Wolfenstein the old blood night dive studio announcing a system Shock two remastered, and also game overview FBC Fire break. And then we will be talking about sess creed, shadows, and the reviews and why you probably should be playing another game that actually is. Anyways, let's get on with the show. Mm, that's good. All right, so specifically talking, and it seems like they were at the GDC when they were talking about this, but there was significant interest in an invisible woman once it was out, and it led to about 3000. Increase in Google searches after the announcement of the Fantastic four. The executive produ producer of Marvel rivals know that the spike in searches during a discussion at the GDC, the game is recognized for its chaotic fights and unique hero abilities. Mr. Fantech abilities being particularly highlighted by players. And the other interesting part was that invisible ones. Malkin is an evil alter ego, costume, spark excitement among players, and many have influenced a surge in searches. Also, they have identified a, a bug affecting Penny Parker's minds, making them vulnerable. During gameplay, penny Parker can deploy. Spider Minds are usually vulnerable when. Within her cyber webs, the developer acknowledges the issue quickly and began working on fixes after community feedback. Within just over nine hours, the developer announced the bug was fixed, restoring the minds in vulnerability. So I think Marvel Idols is a great game. I think it's different enough from Overwatch two to compete, but also still differentiate itself from Overwatch two. Since Overwatch two is. Mostly a first person shooter with a few exceptions, and Marvel rivals is a third person shooter with some first person views. So there are differences, but there also are some similarities between it. The main differences is that Marvel rivals is in the Marvel universe, and Overwatch is in its own specific unique universe. The issues with Overwatch is, is that. Changing the format from 5 85 to six V six probably wasn't the best idea for it since the six V six is probably the best mode for these types of hero shooters. And I said this before, prior, but once they actually did that, I said there was gonna be massive, massive reworks from a lot of heroes because a lot of heroes were specific for six V six, so they just added more issues to their own. Plate that they didn't need to fix as much in six V six. So when Marvel arrives, came on the scene, blizzard's like, all right, we're gonna try six V six again. All right, we're gonna do this. All right, we're gonna have perks. Now, this could have been actually been working for a while now, but it, it seems like it pushed them to focus on this stuff even more. So I'm happy that Mar that blizzard is doing this, but almost happy that Marvel rivals is. Doing what it needs to do to remain competitive and interesting at the same time because they still have to a certain extent, destructive environments. They do regenerate after a while. So they do have very interesting things that are very different from Overwatch, which I do appreciate. And Overwatch, I appreciate that they have their own unique characters, their their own unique designs, but they could do without the gender identity and all that stuff, just make great characters. You know, he is moving on to last of us, part two remastered. The rere release of a game that, well, he wasn't that old 'cause he was released in 2024 or 2023. He was released recently in the last five years. It's kind of annoying that they're doing this. I, I understand the original. Last of us, but then they did it like four times too. So it's like kind of like stop, just like stop remastering. Things that are not that old. People don't need that. They need the old games to be remastered. So like legends of the dragoon. Sony, get a hint. That one was good. You should remaster because that was in the PlayStation one. PlayStation two air, and I would like to see remastered of that one, but I digress. It comes out. The last was. Part two, remaster comes out April 3rd, 2025 on pc. It also has new features like Roguelike, survival mode, no return, guitar, free play mode, hours of developer commentary, because that's important apparently, and it aims to enhance the visual experience of locations like Jackson, Wyoming, and Seattle, Washington. The other thing is that they, if you do log into a PSN network, you get specific rewards or skins or unlocks or whatever. So if you wanna do that, you can. Alright, moving on to one of the head guys over at Hill Divers two. He was at the GDC and he was talking about by focusing on core gameplay rather than overwhelming players with features and microtransactions and. How this will lead to an actual successful game. So basically he said that emphasized the importance of fundamental style and features in game development. He argues that many studios prioritize features over the fundamental elements of their games leading to misguided design choices. Used the car metaphor, they'll say the trying to please everybody results in a product that satisfies no one. He critiques the industry tendency to copy successful features from other games without considering the core philosophy of their own titles. This the Success of Hell Divers Two, attributed to its clear vision and cohesive gameplay experience, blending different game styles effectively. His insight advocate for deeper understanding of studio's core values and audience before implementing features. Basically, it's saying that. Get the core that will make it fun. The fun loop, before you add all the extra features in the micro transaction. Because if nobody wants to play your game and nobody's having fun, then you don't actually have a successful game. 'cause no one will play the game. After a while, they'll play it for the first few months. A new game will come out and you, you just wasted $300 million. Kinda like Assassin's Creed, shadows on. Things that weren't needed, and a lot of game developers haven't figured this out yet. They've been prioritizing like gender ideology, diversity and all this stuff, which really isn't the core of anything. It's just superficial nonsense. So figure out what the audience wants, figure out what. What you are and then merge the two. If you cannot merge the two, you're not gonna have a successful game. Remember, you are trying to sell to your audience or convince your audience that the game that you made is a good game, that they should spend their time playing and having fun. If you can't satisfy that message, you will never be successful in game development and. Recent prior knowledge of Dragon Age, the veil card, veil guard, and our veil guard as some people on X have said, and Assassin's Creed shadows shows the lack of understanding your core values and the lack of understanding what the audience deems as fun. So learn from their mistakes and you'll be successful. Alright, moving on to Lenovo Legion. Goss, which is the first handheld to have Steam OS on. It, is available for pre-order and Best Buy if you want to. The baseball is priced at five 50 featuring 16 gigs of Ram 105 hundred 12 gigabytes of SSD. And the 750 model offers 32 gigs of RAM and increased storage as well. Includes a micro SD card slot for expandable storage and. Is powered by the A MD Ryzen Z two Go Chip and A MD radio and graphics in performance comparison with STEAM B is not yet available but also features an eight inch ISP display with 12 uh, 1200 P resolution 120 hertz. Refresh rate larger than the steam decks seven inch LCDE 800 P 68 Hertz and Olad seven point. Four hertz inch with 90 hertz, so it is, it is equipped with two USB ports, a 3.5 millimeter audio jack and steam deck only provides one USB port, which this is fine. I mean, you, I don't know why you need more than one on that device, but sure you can always get a dock or anything like that. And it looks like there is a Windows version that's a lot more expensive, but. Yeah, this looks good. I'm, I'm glad Steam is finally releasing their Steam os to other handhelds. I think it's gonna be a good way of getting loosening the, the choke hold that Windows have or Microsoft has had on just the PC environment for so long. Also, they could eventually actually get it to be able to play on desktops. I may consider switching depending on how much, how many softwares is available. Or I'll just dual boot. Do it that way. So we'll see. But it did say that the Windows version of the, uh, Legion Go s has received poor reviews, pitched at seven $30 with complaints about high cost, and that's the Windows version. So the steam version COS version is going to be cheaper as the base model, but you can still, you can spend more to get 30 gigs of RAM in more internal storage. You also have the micro SD slot, so. It could be an interesting thing. I'm, I'm just glad that it's happened 'cause I'm pretty sure Microsoft's licensee fees probably makes it a lot more expensive and that's why Steam OS might be a better alternative if they have little to no licensing fees on it. It could be a game changer for at least the gaming industry. Maybe a game changer for Linux because like, I understand you, a lot of people are a small portion of the. PC community uses Linux, but it's a very small portion. That's why there's not a lot of compatibility with software because Windows is so dominant in this space. But I always like it when new things come out that will, let's say, bring competition to Microsoft. 'cause I do agree that they need competition. I mean. Windows 10 was great, but Windows 11 is not that good. I'm, I mean, I have to use like Starbucks fences, Starbucks Wind Start 2.0, like a lot of different things just to make it passable because they launched it and it was just wasn't good. And it seems to be when Microsoft's thing, like every other Windows release needs to be not very good. So you appreciate the good ones. The problem is that they didn't. At the end of life, the operating system, everybody's like, but I like this one. Like, I don't like Windows 11, and I don't disagree with you. I said I had to use like three startup softwares just to make it like okay for me to use so. There you have it. Alright. Are you looking for a free game? Because you can get Wolfenstein the Old Blood, which I highly recommend free for Amazon Prime members until April 21st. So you have Amazon Prime you can get for free. This is basically the prequel to the new order. So it's the prequel to the first game of the trilogy of the Wolfenstein by Machine Gun games. It's not. Has nothing to do with Ed's version of it, which is prior to all this, but this one is good. The second one was, was just as good. Third one, no, wasn't good at all, but the, the prequel and the first game were probably the best, so I highly recommend you. You haven't played it. Get it. All right. Moving on to Night Dive Studio has announced System Shock two remaster. It'll be released on June 26th, 2025. It'll be available at PlayStation Xbox Switch, which is surprising. NPC. It was initially announced in 2019 as System Shock two Enhanced Edition. It has been rebranded as System Shock two 25th Anniversary. Master Rema follows success release of System Shock one remake in 2023. Promised enhancement include improved character models, weapon models, textures, and cinematics and animation. Quality of life improvements will feature optimized control, support, updated co-op multiplayer achievements. PC players can expect mod support and up to 144 frames per second. And ultra wide compatibility, the game retains the original store. The story featuring the rogue AI shodan and players navigating the FTL ship of v Braun in 2114. Yes, it is highly recommended. If you look kinda like the more harder I would call it like RPG, like elements with like first person mode in it, it, it's a very good game. It was a very good game when it came out. It was one of the few, it was before Day X, but it was in the vein of a lot of the Warren Specter and Kevin Levine. I think, uh, there were two like high priority ones that went off to be really successful, made these games. They were really good games. They had really good stories, really strong stories, really good combat. It was, it was hard as hell as I remember as a kid, but. It's coming out, and so I highly recommend it. If you haven't gotten the first one and get the first one as well. It just, these games are really, really good and they're really good for a reason, and they're basically like the pinnacle of what gaming can be. Even in the nineties and the early two thousands, all rights and gameplay overviews. So first off, it's FBC Firebreak. It's a three person co-op, first person shooter, set in the controls. Oldest house releasing in summer 2025 players act as volunteer first responders addressing the hiss crisis within the Federal Bureau of Control jobs. The, the game represent missions with unique crises to involve including a job called paper chase set in the the executive sector threat and clearance levels. Players select a threat level to determine combat, difficulty and reward, along with clearance level accessing zones and rewards. Players can choose from three crisis kits, jump kit. Electricity focus with electro kinetic charge Impactor. Fixed kit. Equipped with a wrench or manner splash kit water focus with a crank operated fluid ejector post launch content. The game will be a premium mid price release with free post-launch content for all players, plus optional cosmetic purchases. Long-term support Remedy plans to support FBC FIREBREAK for the long term with concrete plans for future content. And then the availability is PC PS five, Xbox Series X and S Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation plus extra and premium tiers. For pc it's also on Epic and Steam. 'cause I did actually wishlist it 'cause I wasn't sure. 'cause Remedy has been more exclusive with Epic, but I don't think it's actually helped them whatsoever. So they may. Gone back to that, be like, no, that it's good. Looks interesting. Looks in a similar vein of left for dead, but not really left for dead 'cause it's in their own universe. We'll see how well this actually does, but I mean, what I saw was interesting with the post-it notes and apparently it will stick on you and it was chaos. It looked like chaotic fun to be honest with you, but we'll see how well it actually does. All right. Moving on to Sesson Creed, shadow reviews. So apparently the gaming media press loves it. They say it's the best. It is back to form. It's all these things that aren't really actually true because there's Okay sex scenes in there because that actually makes a lot of sense. In that time. There is some bugs and. They actually had to do a day one pass to make sure that you wouldn't desecrate the Japanese shrines it. It just seemed like a mess. It seemed like parkour wasn't great. It seems like combat was not very good as well. Now, from the graphics and design team and design like the historical things, they did a fantastic job. From what I looked at, it looks great. It looks amazing. The problem is the story does not look good. The character models do not look good. The. Gay stuff. Why is it in there? Like what point are you proving like, I don't really understand these points anymore, it's just, it's a nauseating thing where I'm like, well, I guess I'm not buying that. And Steam DB is not looking at it favorably. I know some of the press has been like, oh look, it beat out. It's on par with this. When Assassin's Creed, van Halla, Valhalla came out on Steam. The problem is that the steam numbers are misleading, and the article is misleading because Assassin Creep Valhalla came out a couple years later than when it actually officially launched because it was only on you play that you could actually play most of these games. So I don't really understand that argument. And then PC Gamer came out and was like, oh, well I don't think U stuff will ever play, will ever make a great RPG game? And I'm like, yeah, Uhhuh, it's not that good. Here's my thing, go get Ghost to Tashima and get that in instead. A lot better. One character. You don't have to, you don't have to worry about the other one. He does basically both of what the two characters from Assassin's Creed does, treats Japanese culture with respect. Unlike assassin screed, the, it's a Japanese dude. The story's more interesting of him trying to navigate Samurai culture with trying to save Japan. So Samurai culture is basically like, don't be an assassin. Don't kill, I guess, un kill with honor. So basically don't be stealth, like always be out in the open and kill a bunch of people and he. Kind of doesn't do that because he wants to save his country and he wants to be smart about how to fight the Mongols. So it's a very interesting game that I like because it, it treats it with reverence and respect and it's also just really, really good and it does a better job. Of an Assassin's Creed game in Japan. Then Assassin's Creed Shadow does, and it came out way before it too. Now, ghost of Utah, we, we won't discuss that because I'm not really quite sure if that's actually gonna be good or not, but at least this one is actually really good. Guys have a multi-player mode. It's, it's all right. But the main player component of it is way better, like miles ahead, better, like just get that game. I. You will not be disappointed if you get Ghost of Tima because it's just a really good game. I think I've completed it like three or four times. It's amazing. It's kind of up there with me, like, which, which are three and shadows of Mordor, shadows of war, and it, it doesn't. Have any of that weird stuff in there, surprisingly, but it also came out, it was also in development before all the weird stuff was more prevalent. So that's why it's actually a good game because they actually understood their core values and understood the core mechanics of a game that people would actually find fun. So that would be my recommendation. Don't get. Assassin, creed, shadows, and probably until like it's at least on a 50% discount, or it does the Dragon Age vegar and gives you for free on PlayStation, which still nobody played, but that's where we're at, where we have to pick and choose. Now, I'd rather play Adam fall over Assassins Creed Shadows, which this is actually the first Assassin Creed game I haven't actually gotten and played. So if you still wanna play it. More power to you, but I just don't see the point of it anymore. And Esof is not in the best financial state right now either, so they're probably gonna go under it. So en enjoy probably the last few games of Esof, 'cause I don't see them surviving this at all anyways. What do you think? Do you think I am crazy about all this? Or do you think. This Assassin Creek child is gonna be one of the best games ever. Let me know in the comments below, but. Thank you for listening to Digital Coffee Gaming Brew. I really do appreciate it, and as always, please subscribe to this podcast and leave a five star railroad. Just help with the rankings, let me know how I'm doing and join me next week as I talk about what's going on in the gaming industry. Alright guys, stay safe. Get to play in the games you wanna play, even if it's the sessions, screen shadows, or whatever else you, you enjoy and see you next week.