While I’m sure this is happening for a wider spectrum of games as well, there are two in particular that are grabbing my attention at the moment. Perhaps as no great shock — they’re the two that were of interest to me during Gamescom as well. Namely, Monster Hunter Wilds and Crimson Desert.
Everything I see about Monster Hunter Wilds continues to excite, but… Well, perhaps let’s start then with the other one.
Crimson Desert
I would hesitate to say my expectations for the game have completely turned ‘negative’, but certainly they have been tempered downward somewhat — and perhaps this isn’t an entirely bad thing.
Something I started to notice even from the boss footage released during GamesCom — every encounter seems to be a small-ish arena, which is exited through a portal/transport point.
Uh-oh.
Now- I thought perhaps this was down to demo limitations, or a means of restricting the demo experience to just the vertical slices the developers intended to show off. And hey, that still might be it… But:
In particular, I’m referencing from the ‘Open World Action Adventure Game’ chapter that starts around 5m 24s through to the end.
The genre (and scope) changes over time from MMORPG, to Open World RPG, to Open World Action Adventure where even ‘quests are still up for debate’ gives me very real concern that the earlier trailers — even the ones as recently as 2023 — are no longer representative of the game that’ll be put into our hands.
All that’s certain right now is that it’s probably a ways off this game being ready for release. It’s unlikely we’ll see it in 2025 — and if we do, oof, maybe that’s… not a great thing.
I’m still very interested, but certainly, hype levels have been diminished!
Which then comes into direct contrast with…
Monster Hunter Wilds
Crimson Desert has a bit more niche coverage it seems out of the Gamescom event, but not so for Wilds. There is a lot out there, with some content creators covering specific weapons (like Bow and Longsword, still two high-ranked potentials for what I’ll play in Wilds as main weapons).
Just… everything I see (with the possible exception of the new hp/stamina UI) is so, so good.
I noticed, and really like, that landing hits on wounds seems to give you monster parts as well. Sure, it’s a bit ‘streamlined’ from previous entries where a similar action might’ve dropped a ‘shiny’ for manual pick-up, but this sort of streamlining I personally have no objection to. (Although… Just rewatched the Longsword video linked above — there are some golden shinies on the ground at certain points as well… So… hm!)
This was posted during Blaugust 2024, the annual blogging event hosted by Belghast. Blaugust is an event aiming to welcome new blogger blood into the fold and revitalise those who’ve been at it a little longer.
The Blaugust Discord is still available to join in, year-round!
Those poor monsters. :)
Complete aside. Those are two YouTube channels I used to watch a lot and somehow lost track of so thanks for putting them back on my radar!
Haha, you’re most welcome! There has been some drama around FextraLife and (I think) in particular how they manipulate their stats with wiki embeds of their streams etc… But… Still very useful!
Force Gaming however I think is great. He went through a period of absence probably some years ago now, but has been pretty consistent since coming back.
Took me until tonight to get around to watching the whole Force Gaming video and I may just have to give Monster Hunter another try when Wilds comes out. It is looking pretty darned good. Thanks again for sharing the video!
Oooh, never thought I’d see the day! Be super cool to discuss with ya if you do decide to give it a shot and are able to stick with it.
I do anticipate fully that there will still be the phases of the combat where (some) monsters will try limp away to recuperate. Although also, most times when this happens, you can choose to capture rather than kill if you have come prepared for that.