I often look at games at a cost vs time as part of my assessment of whether or not I should buy them. I look at role playing games in particular when making this decision. The Shadowrun series is one in particular that has always taken my interest, I played the first game in this rebooted series and it was ok; a cool aesthetic, decent combat and a good identity. Since that first game, though, the developers have really hit their stride and have realised what the fans want, and what they themselves are good at.
Since that opening we have had two games; Dragonfall, which I own, and Hong Kong which have steadily improved and are now easy games to recommend to anyone who is a fan of RPGs and owns a PC that is half decent. Strong writing, great aesthetic and a whole lot of fun to play.

Gaming is an extremely unique medium – not only in terms of its player base, the type of things it produces, but also in the way that gaming fans and companies talk about sales. We devour every single piece of information for every title, every console to fuel our own ideas about what “should” do well and what we think should sell poorly. It is a most unusual thing; since we should probably all be celebrating the entire medium – but people become, rightly, invested in things that they put their money into.

If I spend $400 on an Xbox One, for example, I might like to see it sell well – then I know more people will be online to play with me and more companies will look to bring their games to the machine. If I buy a game that I like it’s cost me $60 – if it does poorly my chances of seeing a sequel are lowered dramatically. Seeing all this information fall through does fuel the fanboy wars, but there are many other reasons we find that data so interesting.

File this one under “weird stuff that I was never sure would get made” – in fact I might go even further and say “who saw this coming?” Dragon Quest is a series familiar to many; a traditional Japanese role playing game – perhaps the most traditional of them all – where you and a band of intrepid adventurers travel the world and conquer evil in a light hearted way – in typically gorgeous environments with a wonderful soundtrack to boot.

Dragon Quest Heroes, though, is a game with only a few things in common with that. It has the graphics, has the music but the gameplay is totally different. The game has more in common with Dynasty Warriors than anything else as you hack and slash your way through hundreds of monsters from the Dragon Quest universe and… not much else? Still – the game is enormous fun and complete nonsense – the perfect match.

One thing that gamers love to do is argue with each other. About their favourite games, their favourite consoles and what is “best.” Usually that descends into what sells more – and even then people manage to find a lot of wiggle room to try and back up their console of choice. The NPD is an American only sales tracking system that, once a month, releases data about the top selling games and consoles of the month. In this generation, especially, people have a vested interest in the Playstation vs Xbox debate.
Worldwide there’s no contest – the Playstation has massively outsold the Xbox and it will probably stay that way for this generation. In America it’s slightly closer, and people often put raised stock in the US market since that’s where they live and most American’s don’t take notice of other regions, let alone know much about them.

When Dragon Age Inquisition came out people flocked to it like flies to shit. They talked of how it was one of the finest RPGs we’d ever seen, with some of the most amazing graphics and stories ever told. Yet here are, a few months later, and the cracks started to appear. People started to poke holes in it and to finally see some of the flaws the game had been carrying since the start.

However there was an unheralded part of Dragon Age Inquisition that many overlooked and ignored around the time of review. It has a multiplayer component. The multiplayer takes place parallel to the story and pits teams of four players against the undead armies of the world. You progress through beautiful areas and collect loot, unlock characters and tackle enormous bosses along the way. It’s a great addition and something that has kept people coming back to Dragon Age even 6 months after they realised the single player game was dogshit.