XCOM 2 - A Pleasant Nightmare

My highest leveled soldier was mind-controlled by a Sectoid and proceeds to kill all of her fellow soldiers, effectively wiping out half of my A-team. With the other half still lying on the med-bay after the previous mission, I am completely and utterly screwed. And it was only the second mission; the first after the tutorial. 

XCOM 2 is hard. And I like it.

XCOM 2 did not change much from its original. Yes, there is graphical improvement across the board and now you control a flying mobile base instead of an underground bunker, but the essence of what makes XCOM such a compelling title is still there in its entirety. If anything, XCOM 2 made everything surrounding the core tactical combat gameplay more compelling than ever. First, the limitations that you have, like limited resources and having to choose which mission to tackle makes more sense. In the original it seems odd that as an international body leading the charge of protecting the earth, you are constantly strapped for cash and can only respond to one mission at a time. In XCOM 2, you are still constantly strapped for cash and can only respond to one event a time; but it makes sense because now you are a secret guerrilla army with a hidden base in the middle of the wilderness instead of an international organization backed by the entirety of the human race. There is also a more compelling narrative here in XCOM 2, although considering the lack of one in the original, better is hardly a complement. But what was in XCOM 2 is good and provides enough context to killing the Alien.

XCOM 2 oozes style and atmosphere. ADVENT exerts total dominance through fear and propaganda mirroring totalitarian regimes of old. Oh, and these are the loading screens. The art direction and world-building in XCOM 2 makes the original look barebones.

The turn-based combat also received a significant overhaul. In essence, it is still the same combat system. Each turn, each of your soldier have 2 action points to spend on either movement or firing their weapons. There are small tweaks like the removal of secondary weapons and reloading no longer ends your turn that changes the pace and flow of combat, but hardly what I would call game-changing. The big change to the gameplay in XCOM 2 as compared to the original is the prevalence of time-based objective. In almost every non-story based missions, you will have a certain number of turns to complete the mission. Exceed the limit, and you fail the mission - or have the squad members still left behind captured by the aliens. This timer forces the players to adopt a more aggressive play style, opting for riskier, but more rewarding plays instead of the the safer but slower options. 

A Ranger preparing to fire on a Viper, a new alien type in XCOM 2. Note the timer on the upper right-hand corner indicating that there's only 8 turns left to complete the mission.

Another huge change to gameplay is the introduction of Concealment. At the start of most missions, your squad is concealed, meaning when you spot a group of enemies, they will not automatically notice you and run to cover. Instead, there are red squares on the ground indicating their "line-of-sight". If your soldier steps into these red squares, the aliens will spot that soldier, run towards cover and your whole squad loses their concealment status. This mechanic allows you to set up ambushes against the unsuspecting aliens. By having the rest of your squad on overwatch (read: shoot anything that moves) and have your last soldier alert the enemy, preferably by lobbing explosives at them, the enemy will run towards cover, trigger all your overwatch, and be filled with bullets. More often than not, this ambush will kill the entire group of aliens or at least severely injure them. Although ambushes and full stealth missions are amazing to pull off, the biggest benefit of concealment is that it keeps the pace up during the early parts of each mission. Before, you will have to creep up across the map, running from cover to cover hoping that you don't attract more than 1 group of enemies at any time. Being able to move up the map with less of a risk of being spotted is an immense help given most missions have a timer attached to them. Overall, concealment is an amazing addition to the game that opens up a whole new stealth-oriented play style.

The blue highlight around the screen indicates that the squad is still in concealment. Once the grenade is lobbed - or run into the red squares - the squad will exit concealment and it's business as usual. Hope those overwatches are in place...

Outside combat, however, XCOM 2 has been significantly altered compared to the original. With adjacency bonus removed and less building space available, the base management aspect of XCOM 2 has been streamlined greatly compared to the original. Instead, in XCOM 2, engineers is the name of the game. Need more power? Assign that engineer to your generator to generate more power. Need more satellite relays? Assign the other engineer to your existing relay to allow for more contacts to be made. The very, very limited number of engineers you get throughout the campaign means that you will need to prioritize where to put your engineers to have your base run at peak efficiency. Inevitably, you will come to a point in your campaign where you realize that you don't have enough engineers for all your facilities. Fortunately, XCOM 2 allows you to get more engineers through mission rewards or in exchange of a few hundred currencies. This more active approach to base management that XCOM 2 takes allows the player to react to an initial bad dice roll that the game gives them, instead of just having to just re-roll and hope that the next one will be better than the last. I find that this change makes the base management aspect more in line to the spirit of XCOM, which is to be able to react to the dice-roll that the game gives you, be it through the use of explosives in combat, or by buying more engineer at the expense of a new armor set.

This is the Avenger, your mobile base in XCOM 2. It slightly resembles the helicarrier from Marvel's Avengers with it's four turbines, but I guess they dodged the copyright claim. Also note the 12 smaller squares, much less than the rooms available in the original.

Time management also becomes much more important in XCOM 2. In XCOM 2, you need to spend time to gather the much of your resource. The majority of your Elerium, Alien Alloys, and even your monthly income requires you to spend a few days scanning to obtain them. This makes timing your research and missions much more crucial than before. Also the lose condition in XCOM 2 is time-based. Replacing the panic meter is the Avatar Project, which starts after around 30 in game days from your first mission. To avoid story spoilers, the alien wins once the project is completed. The game allows you to stall the progress of the project by attacking alien facilities. This time limit makes it so that every day you spend scanning for resource brings you closer to losing, which makes it so that timing your research is more important as not having a plasma rifle ready in time for the next mission can mean the difference between succeeding and failing.

The world map in XCOM 2 is much more detailed than the original. The Avatar project progress is indicated on the top, always a reminder that humanity's days are numbered. Also, the 3 days required to obtain your monthly income emphasizes the importance of time-management in XCOM 2.

By this point, I think you would have realized I adore XCOM 2, just as I adored the original. Some say that XCOM is all about the RNG; you win if the dice rolls in your favor and lose if it rolls otherwise. However, RNG is not what XCOM is about. Although it still hurts when your soldier misses those 90% shots, XCOM is about knowing that even if those shots miss and your soldier dies, the loss is within expectation. It is about accepting risk and living with the consequences. Is it worth it to move you soldier out of position to get that 90% shot? Most of the time it is, as a 90% is as good as a dead enemy, but what if it misses? Well, as the saying goes, that's XCOM, baby.

I told you it looks like the helicarrier. All the more amazing as the reveal of the Avenger base was around the release date of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel - Medieval Persona

During a time when good JRPGs are few and far between, Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel brings with it all the right thing that once made the genre great and none of the poor elements that made recent releases so dull and cliched.

Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel is a JRPG developed by Nihon Falcom and brought to the west courtesy of XSEED. It is the sixth game in the Kiseki saga which started with Trails in the Sky back in 2004.

The best parts of Trails of Cold Steel lies with the combat and the story. In Trails of Cold Steel you play as Rein Schwarzer, a member onfa special class within the Thors Military academy housing both nobles and commoners called Class VII. This mixing of commoners and nobles within the same class creates excellent setting makes for a very interesting and engaging story while avoiding many of the cliches and stereotypes that plagues the genre.

The members of Class VII. Left to right: Emma, Gaius, Fie, Laura, Rean, Alisa, Elliot, Jusis, and Machias

If the story is the filling, the solid crust that encase it is the combat mechanics. The combat mechanics is reminiscent of of Hyperdimension Neptunia and Mugen Souls. It is a turn based combat where characters are free to move around in the battle-field. Also, the number of abilities that allows players to manipulate turn orders makes this game surprisingly strategic. Thanks to the well-tuned difficulty, boss battles are extremely tense. Every single move can be the difference between victory and defeat. One downside to the combat is the inability to re-position your character and attack on the same turn making positioning during combat unnecessarily difficult. Overall, the well-balanced nature of the combat and the deep strategic aspect makes it one of the best combat system I've every had the pleasure of experiencing.

Combat Screen showing the turn order and turn bonuses on the left side of the screen

Outside combat however, it plays like most JRPGs. There is a large amount of scripting that happens to move the plot along. Once every few in-game weeks, you will have a free day to engage in activities with other casts and improve your social relationship with them ala Persona, albeit not as deep or extensive. The benefit of the scripted nature of the activities means that the game fully controls the pacing of the story progression and the story is, as we have established, excellent. Although the game did not take full advantage of the high-school setting, what is being offered is good and augments the story perfectly. 

Running through Trista, the small town where the military school is located.

Trails of Cold Steel hits so many of the right notes that makes it a good JRPG, something that is a luxury these days; especially so on the PSVita. It is definitely one of the highlights of the year and by coming so late in the year it did not get as much coverage as it deserved which is a shame.  

I lost faith on my Vita....

The other day, I saw around 8 PSVitas and 2 3DS being displayed on the used console rack of my favourite game shop. There, I asked myself why is it that there are more used Vitas being sold? After pondering for a while, it struck me. The Vita's release lineup is.... for a lack of better word, bad.

The reason was not price. Used Vitas sell for a much lower price at around S$180, compared to the 3DSXL's S$205 price tag. Also, assuming that there are the same number of people selling their 3DS and Vitas, the fact that there are more Vitas than 3DS being sold means that people are not buying the used Vitas. 

As puzzling as it is, it all makes sense if you were to check for the games available for the titles. PSVita had the lowest scoring CoD title in history, a disappointing Resistance title, and its top release, Persona 4 Golden, maintained its reign ever since the console first launched. Sony's support for Vita has also been disturbingly lacking in recent months, with no first party title being announced. Personally, this lack of first party support is what killed it for me. If the creator is not confident of their creation, then how can they expect anyone else to do the same. 

On the other hand, 3DS future release line-up remains strong. In upcoming month alone, there will be two big releases, namely Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask; with Xenoblade Chronicles and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 following in April and May, respectively.  

It's really a shame to see the Vita suffer this slow and painful death. With the continual decline of first party support and the ever strengthening line-up of Nintendo's 3DS, I really don't see the Vita surviving beyond 2016 without a renewed support from Sony. Indies and remasters of older games will provide only a short term uplift to Vita's sales, but will never work in the long-term.

It really is a chicken and egg problem. For publishers to have confidence that they will have enough sales to cover their costs, there needs to be enough people owning the system. However, for people to have confidence that they will derive value from the console, there needs to be titles published for it. Currently, the Vita is on a downward spiral; there are no games being released for the system, causing people are selling their consoles, which further reduces its appeal towards publishers. The only way that I can see Vita escaping the circle would be for Sony to step in with a smash hit that causes the sales to go up drastically, such that the platform becomes appealing again. Without this title, unfortunately, the Vita would have to go the way of the dodo....

The Update

The Update

Happy Holidays! :)

Every now and then, I'll post these update posts just to put the lack of content into perspective. The name is kind of tentative, but I'm working on it! :)

The semester is finally over.... So, expect more posting in the upcoming days. I finished Wolfenstein: The New Order last weekend and I don't really have a good impression of it. The full review should be up in the next few days. Sneak preview: I am not really impressed by the game... :(

Another game that I have put in an unexpectedly large amount of hours into is Aura Kingdom. I have been playing it for 20+ hours and so far, it's great. I'll also probably make another piece on Aura Kingdom, so look forward to it :)

So, two pieces in store to accompany you guys this week. :) 

Review: Bastion - A short and sweet experience

Review: Bastion
A Short and Sweet Experience

If triple-A titles are like an all-you-can-eat buffet which you can eat until your stomachs all explode, Bastion is like a well-cooked meal. Modest in portion, but fulfilling nontheless.

Bastion is an isometric hack and slash developed by Supergiant Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game was originally released on XBLA in July 2011. It was not until its Steam debut in August 2011 did the game receive the commercial success that they deserve.

Plot
The game takes place in Caelondia, a fictional world wrecked by the Calamity. You play as the Kid, suddenly waking up from your sleep in your room that is missing a few too many walls and floor space. The Calamity  swallows the land, transforming the world into pockets of floating islands and the people into stone statues. So, the Kid sets out into the world to uncover the truth about the Calamity and possibly save whatever and whoever is left alive.
 

The main character, Kid, waking up on his bed to a wrecked Caelondia.

In my honest opinion, the plot is quite compelling. I say quite because it gets a tad repetitive. The game requires you, for some reason that I won't spoil, to collect a certain number of shards to restore the titular Bastion. Twice. However, the reasons for doing so are reasonable and after every shard, you do get a nice reward. So, I cannot really penalize the game too harshly. 

The best part about the plot I feel is the ending. It is a great twist on the whole game and when I did pick the "right" choice, I felt good. One can argue that it is just laziness, but I think that the idea being conveyed is a good one and this is about the only way to implement it properly within the game. 

Gameplay
In my opinion, the most important thing about a hack and slash is the gameplay. I played mostly with a pad because I feel that the orthogonal movement allowed by the mouse and keyboard to be too restrictive for such a game. Originally released on the XBox 360, the game works wonderfully with my DualShock 3. Control was tight and polished, an incredible feat for a debut title from a relatively small team of developers.

The User Interface is very nicely laid, keeping the screen clean and clear for the action.

Combat is also nicely varied. The weapons in the game are divided into two main groups: melee and ranged weapons. The weapons handle very differently, keeping combat interesting and dynamic. The sword is a fast and high DPS weapon that can chew down monsters very quickly, but has a very short range. In contrast, the spear is much slower, but has about 2-3 times the range of the sword. On top of the traditional bows, guns, spears, swords, and hammers, there are also mortars, sniper rifles, and a form of bazooka called the Calamity Cannons. 

Into each mission, the game allows you to bring two different weapons and one special skill associated with one of the weapons. And that is the only limitation to the weapon selection. You can bring two melee weapon or two ranged weapons without problem. The game will even give a short commentary on the weapon combination that you chose. Weapons and skills can be changed in armories that can be found in the Bastion and some of the maps the game has. The flexibility offered by this mechanic, combined with the weapon variety, allows you to find a combination that suit your playing style. 

The weapon select screen showing the two weapons and one special skill equipped

As you progress through the game, you can unlock upgrades for the Bastion in the form of buildings. The buildings each have different functions, such as the Workshop allowing you to upgrade weapons and a shrine which applies handicaps to the player in exchange for increased experience and rewards. These buildings allow for an unprecedented degree of customization.

The different buildings that is housed within the Bastion. 

Bastion is a short game. According to Steam, I completed Bastion in only 4 hours. However, if Bastion has been a longer, it would have been much too padded and it would feel like a drag to continue. In truth, right up until perhaps the last 2 levels, Bastion still introduces new weapons. This amount of weapon variety that Bastion has is perhaps its biggest drawback. Despite the variety, once you find a combination that works for you, you will most likely use that combination until the end. As a result, after that point the gameplay stagnates, making combat feel rather dull. It also does not help that there is very limited enemy variety.  

The game also have replayability in spades. On top of New Game plus and a well implemented Horde Mode in an arena called "Who Knows Where," Bastion offers the Shrine. The Shrine is a building that is part of the upgrade system mentiond before. The function of the shrine is to apply handicaps or special skills to enemies in exchange for increased experience and rewards. By activating certain idols, players can have the enemy move and attack faster, drop grenades when they die, and have regenerating health. This feature will also be taken into account when your score is calculated and posted on the online leaderboard. This effectively turns this story-driven action RPG into an Arcadey action game that boasts a score attack mode. 

Sound
What moved Bastion from Great to Awesome is the sound design. If there was ever a game that is worth buying because of the narrator, this is it. The fact that this paragraph can belong to both the gameplay and sound section is the main reason why Bastion is so good. See, the narration goes in response to your action in game. Although they are undoubtly scripted, if you crush too many ornaments that line the paths, the narration will comment on how you are an angsty person who loves to crush random ornaments that line the path. The narration itself is read by a voice so fitting that it will be the only voice you remember from the game months after you complete it. Seamlessly weaving narration to gameplay is one of the best aspects of the game and I love it. 

The four main characters of Bastion. Look out for their character image songs~ :)

The background music is also fantastic, if not lacking a characteristic. On its own, they are fantastically composed, but since the same few tunes are played over and over again for different levels, they get a little bit repetitive. In contrast, the tunes that are dedicated to each of the main characters are heart-rendingly beautiful. This is perhaps the only few games that I recommend getting the OST as they are truly beautiful to listen to.

Graphics
Bastion opted for a more cartoonish art style, which is downright gorgeous. Environments are nicely varried, from lush jungles to frozen wasteland to ruined cities. Bastion is an artistic masterpiece and it is still a beauty to behold. 

Being an isometric game, Bastion does not suffer much from low texture resolution. The textures appear crisp and detailed, further augmenting the beautiful art style. Although lacking the breath-taking vistas of Assassin's Creed or the painstaking detail of the Witcher series, Bastion brings to the table a certain charm through its art style. Bastion is a beautiful game.

So intricate, yet still managed to be simple.

Conclusion
Like I've said at the beginning of the review, Bastion is like a good and fulfilling meal. After the credits roll, I was left not wanting more Bastion. On one hand, I was left satisfied with the story and had my fill of the combat. On the other hand, I don't want to have more of that dull repetitive combat. Don't get me wrong, there is quite a high skill ceiling to the combat, but the lack of enemy variety really killed it for me. 

All in all, I think you should know by now that I love Bastion. At $15, you really get more that your money's worth in this game, especially since if you can stomach the combat system, this game has a ridiculous amount of replay value. If not, Bastion is so often discounted during sales that you should have no problem finding it at less than $5. At that price, you really cannot go wrong with Bastion. This should be in everyone's library and if it's not, get it now.

Bulletstorm Review - Crackin' Jokes, Kickin' Ass

Bulletstorm Review 
Crackin' Jokes, Kickin' Ass

A very underrated game. This game was supposed to get a sequel, but EA canned the project because the original failed to meet sales target. This story is no masterpiece and the music is not mindblowing. If any, they are painfully average. However, what this game does best is with the shooting and oh boy, wasn't it fun.

Story
Bulletstorm follows the story of Grayson Hunt, a spec ops that went rogue after discovering that he is being used by his superior. One fine day, he saw the Ulysses, a battleship that belongs to General Sarrano, his superior. Blinded by revenge, and alcohol, he proceeded to shoot down Ulysses at the cost of his jet fighter. Both of them went down on this planet inhabited by mutants and savages. So our story begin with Grayson and his comrade-turned-cyborg Ishi trying to find a way to escape the planet's surface.

The setting is certainly a refreshing change from the yearly release of Battlefield and CoD. It has a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic feel to it. Something like Fallout, but much MUCH less serious.

The plot itself is a big cliche. A rogue soldier trying to get back on his evil superior. The twists are expected and it even gets a tad draggy at times. If you are looking for an excellent story, you won't get it here. However, the writing however is extremely well done. The chemistry between Bulletstorm's three main characters is very well fleshed out. Firstly, we have Ishi Sato, a makeshift cyborg with personality issues who is a serious and straight-faced guy. Then we have Trishka, a young military commander who is a vengeful tomboy. And lastly, we have Grayson who acts as the comic relief with his brainless, smash-em-all mentality.  Thought you've had enough? Towards the end of the game, another cast member joined the group, the antagonist General Sarrano who is a general that I swear uttered about half of the dirty words present in the entire game.

Yes, there are the cliched one-liners and it gets old after a while. However, the conversations are genuinely funny. I had a number of good 'wtf' moments and that usually is a good sign of a well-written game.

The campaign itself is quite short. Steam clocked me at 5 hours, but I personally think it was closer to about 7-8 hours. Also, the game did get a little draggy towards the end when the enemy gets EXTREMELY bullet spongy. So, if you are expecting a 40+ hour long campaign, the campaign will disappoint you.

Gameplay
This game is a first person shooting game and a fine one at that. The shooting was extremely satisfying with a wide variety of weapons, each with an alternate firing mode. On top of an excellent shooting mechanic, there is also the Energy Leash.

Pulling off multiple skillshots is extremely satisfying

The Energy Leash is a leash (duh.) that allows you to pull enemies from a distance towards you. It can pass through objects and hook to enemies that are within range even if they are not within you line of sight. To compliment the leash, you have your Boots that you can use to kick people away from you. Using this two tools, you can then perform Skillshots, which are basically fancy ways of killing enemies. There are various Skillshots, varying from the basic ones like headshots, to kicking enemies to spikes, cactus, ponds, live wires, grinders, power generators, you name it. If it looks dangerous, chances are you can kick enemies there to kill them. These Skillshots then grant you points and you use these points to purchase supplies and upgrade your guns (read: more ammo).

There are a few weaknesses to the game unfortunately. For starters, this game has no weapon customization system, so you cannot upgrade your gun. This becomes a problem towards the end, the assault rifle becomes extremely weak and is only usable because of the large magazine size. This is compounded by the fact that you cannot swap out your assault rifle with another weapon. And did I mention, this game only allows for THREE weapons? It's a shame considering the weapons are all interesting. In the end, I opted for the standard Sniper, Assault Rifle, and Shotgun for most of the game.

Also, although there are plenty of quick time events in this game and there is a turret segment in the game. Although I personally feel that they are well done segments and does not impede in the way of gameplay, I still feel it needs to be at least mentioned.

Fortunately, there are an overwhelming amount of positives to the gameplay.

Firstly, the Skillshots never gets old. There are only so many environmental skillshots opportunities (cactus, steel poles, and live wires), but they are so very well placed that every battle turns from just a mindless spray and pray, to a somewhat thinking game. Positioning and timing is key in surviving battles, especially towards the end where the enemy gets so bullet spongy that your assault rifle feels like it's just tickling them. Dashing, kicking and leashing quickly replaces aiming and shooting and it actually feels good. It's hectic and when you perform the big combo kills by using the explosive barrels, it's extremely satisfying.

This never gets old

The weapon variety also goes a long way to alleviate the monotony and weakness of the default assault rifle. Each weapon handles and feels differently. The Sniper has a remote controlled bullet, the Flailgun shoots remotely detonated grenade, the Penetrator shoots rocket powered drills, etc. They are ridiculously fun weapon to use and each have their own usage. Unfortunate as it may be that you can only equip 2 plus the assault rifle, they are still fun to use and there are plenty of Droppods where you can change your loadout.

Graphics
This game was released in 2011 and I think the visuals are gorgeous. The backdrops and the environments are as good as modern titles. There are plenty of open vistas and they are jaw droppingly good (it helps that they give you points for looking at them).

It is only a skybox, but it is a very good skybox.

Texture quality too was good for a game that was also released on consoles. Environment looks sharp and detailed. The developers of Bulletstorm is capable of creating a world that people could have once called paradise, even if most of them are just sets and props that are just pretty to look at, but are not actually accessible

Performance-wise, being quite an old game, it works very well on my i5-4670 and GTX760. Constant 60+ fps and no noticeable bugs.

Sound
Not much comment here. Probably the weakest aspect of the game and that is a huge compliment to the game. Voice acting is also not too bad. Overall, a decent sounding game leaving little to be desired.

Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed my time with BulletStorm. They almost overstayed their welcome, especially with the later enemies becoming extremely bullet sponges. However, I cannot help but feel that they are specifically designed so that you have to rely on the Skillshots in order to win, which is a good thing in my opinion. 

This is an extremely underrated game and more credit should be given to it. It has been on sale several times already, and if you do see it on sale, buy it. 

On Ubisoft's recent update on AC:U
and some small updates

It has been quite a busy week at school, so sorry for the lack of articles. I'm still waiting for the Assassin's Creed patches to roll out before resuming my game so, don't hold out for it. Anyway, if you liked AssCreed, you've probably bought it. If not, then you might want to look at AC4:Black Flag first, or AC2. Both of those games are not much worse, if not better, than Assassin's Creed: Unity.

As for reviews, I'm trying to play Far Cry 4 as fast as possible. I've liberated about half the Radio Towers, so I think I'll soon make a review of it. So far, the gameplay is solid. It was solid in Far Cry 3, and it's just as solid in Far Cry 4. However, my problem is with the story. I'll go in detail later in the full article, so look forward to it.

Today, I just want to talk a little bit about Ubisoft, especially the letter from their CEO that was released this week, link below. Paraphrasing, the CEO basically apologized for the blunder that they made in AC:Unity and is giving it their all to fix the game. They are offering the DLC Dead Kings for free to everyone who owns AC:Unity and a free Ubisoft game for Season Pass holders. 

Some people said that this is merely a move made as damage control and are pretty dismissive about it. The comments section on that letter is evident enough in my opinion. However, I am willing to give them a second chance given how much value the choice of games hold. Far Cry 4, Rayman Legends, and AC:Black Flag are solid titles, not to mention that The Crew is also there (although the lack of review copies for The Crew is not a very good sign) and they are basically giving them away for free to people who bought the Season Pass.

So, I think we should give them another shot next year. I don't have high hopes for The Crew due to recent circumstances surrounding the game, but knowing that they cannot possibly make drastic changes in two weeks following the outcry caused by the AC:Unity, I cannot really blame them either. It should all come down to their next big title releases and really hope, for Ubisoft's sake, that they are well designed and polished to a mirror-shine.

Just my two cents~

Link: http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-gb/news/news_detail.aspx?c=tcm:154-186654-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32