Incarnon Geneses I’d Love to See
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/15/23 at 07:37 PM CT
Recently, in their “The Duviri Paradox” update, Canadian-based, Chinese-(partly)-owned developer, Digital Extremes, revitalized the weapon ecosystem in their decade-running Live Service shooter, “Warframe” with the addition of Incarnon Genesis Adapters, which can be earned for a specific subset of ‘old, unused’ weapons in a rotating selection that changes each week. Digital Extremes has tried in the past to revitalize the old, underperforming weapons that make up a huge portion of the “Warframe” arsenal numerous times. First, they release Prime variants of a huge number of weapons, often boosting stats to be a bit less anemic compared to the original… but sometimes changing nothing, even for a terrible weapon. Next, they tried Syndicate variant weapons and Syndicate mods, often with revamped stats, but always with an exclusive, intrinsic effect outside of the weapon’s standard mode of operation. After that, it was the Riven Mod system, by which players could grind …
The Best Warframes for Any Situation
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/09/23 at 05:35 PM CT
Recently, I’ve shared some of the best weapon choices for players looking to break into “Warframe’s” endgame content. Of course, the titular warframes are just as important, and serve as they keystone in a player’s loadout. Each ‘frame comes with 4 unique active abilities plus a passive, with a huge variety available across 53 unique discrete options (most of which also have power-crept Prime variants). Here’s a short list of the top 5 warframes and where they’re the most useful.
1. Khora (Prime)
Khora is a spider/cat-lady themed warframe who can really act as a Swiss army knife for nearly every in-game situation. She can bring two companions into battle, thanks to her passive ability being a unique Kavat named Venari, who, unlike most Kavats (or beast pets in general) can cycle between three different stances to provide offense, defense, or healing, as needed. Aside from the pet-stravaganza, Khora also features extremely useful crow-control abilities, with …
Backlog: The Embiggening – July, 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/02/23 at 12:31 AM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! As July rolls is, there’s still a lot of games being released. Has the start of the Summer Games Drought been pushed back yet again? Let’s dive into the dumpster and see what we can find!
There’s not much shovelware to speak of for July. I kinda stretched it a bit to get to three. There is, of course, a Licensed game by *dry-heave* Disney, called “Disney Illusion Island” (perhaps ‘Delusion Island’ would have been more appropriate). There’s also a Licensed game based on… whatever this is, “Ninja Kidz: Time Masters.” Then there are two episodes in the super-casual non-game, “Coffee Talk.”
Unfortunately, there are three times as many ports, remasters, remakes, and other rehashes than shovelware. Does that make ports the new shovelware? Well, rhetorically, since the trend of more ports than new releases has been going on for the better part of a decade already. Anyway, you know the routine by now: The …
Microsoft Admits What We’ve Known All Along
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/25/23 at 03:33 PM CT
The theatrics and drama revolving around Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King just got a little bit Truthy. In response to Sony’s insistence that losing the third-party support of the conglomerate publisher Microsoft wishes to buy, the Big M pulled out an argument that gamers have always known to be true: Microsoft has lost the Console Wars.
In an apparent attempt to paint itself as “The Little Guy” struggling in last place with a meager 16% of the console market (which, as an unrelated aside, is still 3-4 percentage points higher than he proportion of Negros in the American population), Microsoft actually admitted that Nintendo and Sony completely dominate, leaving the House of Gates to pick at scraps. We’ve known Xbox is a joke since the very beginning, though. While a handful of Xbox fanboys – and Xbox boss, Phil Spencer – continually deflect and avoid the topic when confronted with Xbox’s legacy of gaming failure, nothing can cover up the fact …
More Suggested Picks to Take Your “Warframe” Loadout Over the Top
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/17/23 at 06:19 PM CT
Last year, I gave a short list of my top picks for the best-in-class weapons in each major category in Digital Extremes’ long-running Live Service MMO-Shooter, “Warframe.” Of course, because it’s a Live Service, the game is always getting a stream of patches, balance tweaks, and new content. That means the goalposts are always moving. Unfortunately for fans of big explosions, Digital Extremes went a bit overboard in attempting to nerf last year’s meta-game environment that relied heavily on explosive area-of-effect weapons. Fortunately for readers of this blog, none of my top picks from last year were affected much by the Nerf Mallet – though it was pretty touch-and-go for a week or so, when Digital Extremes also over-nerfed regenerating ammo guns like the Fulmin and Bubonico, before ultimately rolling back those changes.
This time around, we’ve got several new content expansions to consider, specifically the ‘Angels of the Zariman’ questline and the most recent …
“Overwatch 2: Hero Mode” Follows “Fortnite: Save the World” into Oblivion
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/10/23 at 02:51 PM CT
In an unsurprising, yet still disappointing bit of news, Blizzard recently announced that the studio will be ceasing development on the cooperative campaign-based ‘Hero Mode’ of their Arena Shooter sequel, “Overwatch 2.” Instead, “Overwatch 2” will remain an entirely PvP-based game, just like the original “Overwatch,” causing many people to wonder exactly why we needed an “Overwatch 2,” exactly.
Of course, Blizzard has also discontinued service for the original “Overwatch,” making the shift of “Overwatch 2” from ‘something completely different’ to ‘more of the same’ feel even more like a blatant cash-grab and a Nintendo-style ‘reselling our customer base the exact same thing a second time, for full price’ than it already appeared to be.
The reason this news is unsurprising is that, just within the last few years, Epic Games’ “Fortnite” underwent a nearly identical shift in its ultimate goals. While “Fortnite” was originally …
Review Round-Up: Spring 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/03/23 at 10:13 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
Oof! Spring was not kind to me. In spite of playing a mix of big names and smaller Indie/doujin titles, the only one I thoroughly enjoyed was the ‘Mario + Rabbids’ sequel. Here’s hoping I can get on a hot streak of excellent titles again this Summer.
“Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope” – 4.5/5
“Cyberpunk 2077” – 3.5/5
“Torchlight 3” – 2.5/5
“Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault” – 3/5
“Mighty Switch Force Collection” – 2.5/5
“Sakuna: Of Rice & Ruin” – 3.5/5
Chris’ Reviews:
Chris finished his Backlog Ablutions, so that’s two of us who have officially succeeded for the year and no longer have the Sword of Damocles dangling over our heads. Chris also managed to get through another single-player game, and submitted reviews for two co-op titles. Pretty good for someone who has gotten …
Backlog: The Embiggening – June, 2023
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/28/23 at 03:19 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Summer is on its way, and after decades of precedent, gamers everywhere are preparing to dig-in for the annual Summer Games Drought, wherein, despite the largest portion of gaming’s marketing demographic being off of school for 3 months with nothing better to do than spend time and money on new gaming purchases to keep them out of trouble, the Games Industry publishes nothing new or of value. Let’s see if the Drought is going to come-on in-force all at once, or if it will be a bit more gentle this year.
There’s a healthy dose of Shovelware coming in June, with all three major categories represented. In Licensed Swill based on non-game IPs, we’ve got “Aliens: Dark Descent” based on the movie franchise, as well as “AEW: Fight Forever” based on the third-rate pro-wrestling franchise. In Casual Non-Game Swill, there’s quite a variety: “Powerwash Simulator,” “Charade Maniacs,” “Pretty Princess Magical Garden …
GOG’s Customer Friendly Façade is Failing
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/21/23 at 02:32 PM CT
While nowadays I consider myself to be among Steam’s biggest fans, a little over a decade ago, I had heard of the service but never tried it. In fact, my first experience with “modern”-style PC gaming (i.e., PC gaming that actually works) was with GOG, back when they were officially known as Good Old Games.
Over the years I’ve spent blogging about the Games Industry and its countless terrible trends, GOG has always tried to buck the new normal. The company started life as an emphatically DRM-free store that would allow PC Gaming Neckbeards to purchase clean, functional copies of OLD games that would work without fuss on modern operating systems, either through GOG’s official modding of the game files or via pre-packaged emulation in DOSbox. This seemed like a strong basis on which to build a business, but, unfortunately, GOG has largely alienated most game publishers with its DRM-free stance.
Small, independent game developers, however, don’t seem bothered by …
Vaguely Related Review: Bunkers & Badasses – The Tabletop Game
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/14/23 at 04:35 PM CT
When the MeltedJoystick Crew first encountered Gearbox and Nerdvana Games’ D&D knock-off, Bunkers & Badasses, during the “Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep” DLC pack for “Borderlands 2,” we all quickly agreed that it was hilarious and one of the best pieces of ‘Borderlands’ content ever created. That was way back in 2014.
Thus it was with great surprise and delight that I learned of a planned release of a genuine tabletop Bunkers & Badasses game in 2020, and pre-ordered two copies – one for MJ’s most obsessive ‘Borderlands’ fanatic, Chris, and one for myself – of the Deluxe Edition. It was with some surprise and significantly less delight that I learned that the final product would not, in fact, ship in time for our annual Yuletide gift exchange that year. And it was with great irritation and annoyance that I learned that Bunkers & Badasses would not grace us with its presence until the bitter end of 2021.
Thanks to a large combination of factors, we …
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