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Mass Effect Trilogy Artbook Confirmed For 2021!!!

One of the few stories that has been making headlines as of late concerns the Mass Effect Trilogy from 2012 and how a new art book will available in retail sometime in the near future. The Mass Effect Trilogy was released back ‘12 for game systems such as PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 and included downloadable content based on what version of the game players purchased. Based on what we know the new art book for the Mass Effect Trilogy is expected to appear in retail in February 2021; but the game is currently available for pre-order at Amazon for $29.47. Based on what we know the Art Of the Mass Effect Trilogy is expected to include new concept art for DLC content that appeared in each game. Also, The Art Of The Mass Effect Trilogy: Expanded Edition will most likely have around 90 pages of brand new content which is something that will definitely arouse the interest of long time fans of the series.

While many people are excited about the up Artbook for the Mass Effect Trilogy the question people are asking themselves is whether or not EA will make a remaster version of all three games or not. In fact, there are some who wonder whether or not we will see a Mass Effect 4 in the future. Its common knowledge that the Mass Effect series has been on a hiatus due to the controversy surrounding the ending of Mass Effect 3 since it was considered to be a let down by critics and fans alike. There is no word on whether or not Electronic Arts plans on remastering the Mass Effect Trilogy or possibly coming out with a potential Mass Effect 4 game; the Mass Effect Trilogy Artbook that we are going to get next year is something that is definitely worth checking out.

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Upcoming Games- NFL Madden 21: (2020)

One of the few games that the world is looking forward to seeing is NFL Madden 21 which is scheduled for a release this upcoming month in late August 2020. The PlayStation 4 & Xbox One version of NFL Madden 21 is expected to appear in retailers on August 28th while the PS5 along with the Xbox Series X version of the game are expected to be released during Q4 of 2020. The official release date for the PS5 & XBX versions of the game have yet to be revealed and we are still waiting to learn more about NFL Madden 21 than what we already know. There were many people who were thrilled after seeing the reveal trailer for the game and since then we have learned some basics on what to expect in NFL Madden 21. It has been revealed that new gameplay mechanics will be a huge part of Madden 21 along with modifications to certain features that were present in Madden 20 from ‘19.

The gameplay features that have been the key focus in relation to Madden 21 included ball stick carrier controls, better tackling, enhanced pass rush controls along with more celebration options than what the layers got in Madden 20. Also, Madden 21 will feature a new game mode entitled Rise To Fame which is considered to be a documentary-like career mode as player try to enter the Hall of Fame. Long time fans of the Madden series will be happy to one that X-factor feature will be making a return in Madden 21; along the introduction of new abilities that will provide players with a more satisfying gaming experience. While its also be confirmed that Franchise Mode will be returning in Madden 21 people were initially disappointed by what they saw and demanded a complete overhaul that differs from what we have seen in previous games. Hopefully, patches to the Franchise Mode in NFL Madden 21 will be made in a timely manner and we get a well polished football game by the time it comes out during late August 2020.

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Upcoming Games- NBA 2K21: (2020)

One of the few upcoming games that the world is looking forward to seeing this in Fall 2020 is NBA 2K21. NBA 2K21 will be published by 2K Sports and developed by Visual Concepts and released for multiple game systems including PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch along with mobile devices as well. The Standard version of NBA2K21 will priced around $59.99 for the PS4 & Xbox One. It has also been rumored that the Standard Edition for the PS5 and the Xbox Series X will be priced around $69.99 since they are both next-generation game systems. It has also been revealed that a special edition of NBA2K21 known as Mamba Forever will include the late-great Kobe Bryant and will be available for game consoles for roughly around $100 as well. The Mamba Forever Edition will come with a whole set of features including 10,000 MyTEAM Points, 100,000 Virtual Currency, 60 MyCAREER Skill Boasts, 40 MyTEAM Promo Packs, 30 Gatorade Boasts and more.

As it currently stands we have hardly seen any official gameplay footage for NBA2K21 and many people are wondering what 2K Sports has in store for long time fans of the NBA 2K series. While some are hoping for the return of mini-games from NBA 2K20 that utilized slot-machines, pachinko and roulette wheels in this year’s installment; those were subjected to controversy by critics along with looting. There is no word right now on whether or not those mini games will return in NBA 2K21 but there is no doubt that MyTEAM along with MyCAREER has already been confirmed to return to 2K Sports upcoming basketball game. Depending on what console you purchase NBA 2K21 for players will be able to get the standard version of the game with either Damien Lillard or Zion Williamson pictured on the cover. We are most likely going to learn more details about NBA2K21 along with seeing more footage of the game this upcoming in August 2020.

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Retro Gaming 00’s- Dr Mario 64: (2001)

When it comes down to slightly underrated games for the N64 one of the few titles that some people might think of is Dr Mario 64 from 2001. As many people know the very first Dr Mario came out back in 1990 for the 8-bit NES and was considered to be a critically acclaimed puzzle game at the time. The original Dr Mario game was ported for multiple game systems throughout the 90’s decade including Game Boy and Super Nintendo. The plot for the original Dr Mario game was basic and involved players utilizing colored capsules to kill viruses which was a pretty interesting concept. The plot for Dr Mario 64 from ‘01 was a bit different and also involved one of Mario’s arch-rivals known as Wario. While Wario attempted to steal multivitamins from Mario he eventually fails and ends up forming an alliance with him to deal with mutual enemies. The main antagonists for Dr Mario 64 included Rudy The Clown and Mad Scienstein who end up being the ones who actually steal the multivitamins; leading to players having to battle multiple foes from the Wario Land 3 game which was pretty interesting.

While Dr Mario 64 was a pretty coolest puzzle game it did not sell an enormous amount of copies following its release mainly due to the year that it was released. Dr Mario 64 came out the same year that the Nintendo GameCube was released which was 2001; by this time people had already lost interest in the N64 and were focusing on the PlayStation 2 which was released back November 2000. Puzzle games like Dr Mario 64 were not too common on the N64 between the ‘96-‘01 time period especially since there was more emphasis on 3D gaming with a few exceptions such as Capcom’s Magical Tetris Challenge from ‘98. Dr Mario 64 has to alternate endings depending on how players completed the game which gave it a higher replay value than the NES Prequel from 90’s which was seen a positive to some critics. If Dr Mario 64 came out a few years earlier than it did somewhere between ‘96-‘98 it college have been a slightly bigger attraction than it was in ‘01.

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Retro Gaming 90’s- WWF Warzone: (1998)

Back in the late 90’s WWF WarZone was considered to be one of the top wrestling games for the PS1 following its initial release during the summer of 1998. WWF Warzone was published by Acclaim Sports and developed by Iguana West for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation; it outshined the likes of WCW Nitro which was also released in ‘98 for the PS1 and was considered to be very innovative in terms of gameplay for its time. Even though, WWF Warzone was released in ‘98 the roster for the game was a bit outdate since it heavily reflected that of ‘97; which ended up being one of the few minor issues that people had with the game itself. In general there were more positives than negatives with WWF Warzone because the game had introduced a variety of features that had never been seen in a wrestling title prior to ‘98. WWF Warzone was one of the first wrestling titles to include in-game features such as create-a-wrestler; something that people did not see inWCW games until ‘99 onwards. Also, the single-player Challenge mode which included cinematic cutscenes and wrestlers cutting revenge promos before grudge matches added life to the game itself. Players had the opportunity to win the European, Intercontinental along with the World title throughout Challenge Mode with the game increasing in difficulty over time.

There also a variety of different matches that players had the opportunity to choose from outside of Challenge Mode including Single, Versus, Cage, Hardcore, Tornado and Battle Royal. WWF Warzone presented players with at least sixteen different characters to choose from along including likes of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Undertaker, HHH, The Rock, Mankind and more; while each characters had their own character profiles and attributes that would uniquely distinguish them from one another. WWF Warzone was quite possibly the first wrestling game where characters had 3D entrances alongside their theme music which was a pretty cool feature to see on either the N64 or the PS1 back then. WWF Warzone has received praise from wrestling fans and critics alike following its initial ‘98 release; especially since the game came out during time where the company itself was arguably at its peak during the 90’s decade. There is no doubt the 1998 was a great time to be a fan of pro-wrestling and games like WWF Warzone were among the many reasons why. While the WWF Attitude game from 1999 was considered to be a more superior version of Its prequel in terms of game modes and roster depth Warzone is still regarded by many retro gamers as iconic.

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Did the Final Fantasy series reach its peak in popularity between the late 90’s-mid 00’s?

The Final Fantasy series is considered to be legendary within the world of gaming and it been around since 1987. Despite, the Final Fantasy series being around since the late 00’s it seems like some of the best games within the entire series did not come until the mid 90’s-mid 00’s time period with the release of titles such as Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII , Final Fantasy IX, Final and Fantasy X-X2. While recent games such as Final Fantasy XIV from ‘16 along with Final Fantasy VII: Remake in 2020 being highly successful entries within the series it seems like games such as FFXIII parts 1 & 2 along with XIV did not standout as much between the late 00’s-early 10’s. Its not secret that turn-based RPG’s are not nearly as popular as they once were during the 16-bit era of the 90’s. Also, it seems like action role-playing games are more popular than traditional turn based RPG’s which is the type of gameplay that heavily contributed to the overall appeal of the Final Fantasy series back in the 90’s and early 00’s. The best selling Final Fantasy game ever made was obviously FFVII from ‘97 which sold close to 10 million copies following its release on the PS1.

As far as the PS2 era of gaming is concerned the best selling Final Fantasy game from the 00’s was FFX which reach at least 8.5 million units in sales following its initial release back in 2001. We also had Final Fantasy XII from ‘06 which reached at least 6 million sales ;which was followed by Final Fantasy X-2 from ‘03 which hit roughly over 5 million in sales. The storylines and the characters of the older Final Fantasy games seemed more appealing during a time where turn based RPG’s were increasing in popularity especially since 3D gaming in general was evolving between the mid 90’s-mid 00’s. To say that the Final Fantasy series has reached its peak in popularity is debatable. Many people feel that Square Enix still as more to offer fans of the series aside from high definition remakes of older games within the series. While Square Enix may never produce another Final Fantasy game that will have the level of popularity/success as the likes of FFVII/FFX they can always add more elements to future games within the series that keeps fans interested. Since Square Enix is arguably one of the greatest RPG video game developers of all-time it would not much of a surprise if they eventually develop new games that are popular as some of the older installments within the series during the 90’s and early 00’s.

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Retro Gaming 90’s- WCW Thunder: (1999)

When it comes down to old school wrestling games from the 90’s one of the few titles that some people might remember is the WCW Thunder game from ‘99developed by Inland Productions and published by THQ. The game looked and played similar to that of the WCW Nitro game which also appeared on the PS1 back in back ‘98. However, unlike the WCW Nitro game from ‘98 there were some new characters such as Bret Hart who were in the game; along new match types such as: Cage Match and Battle Royale which added to the appeal of WCW Thunder over its ‘98 predecessor WCW Nitro. The ability for players to utilize weapons during matches along with being able to assign wrestlers to different stables was also seen as a positive in WCW Thunder; despite the game itself receiving mediocre to average reviews in comparison to the 3D WWF games that came out for the PS1. It should also be noted that WCW Thunder was a PS1 exclusive unlike WCW Nitro and it also included pre-recorded television entrances that lasted for a few seconds before each match started. Some of the improvements seen in WCW Thunder showed that the developers put a little more effort into the production of the game despite being a mostly carbon copy of WCW Nitro itself.

WCW Thunder was released in a year where World Championship Wrestling was still popular in terms of television. However, ‘99 was also the same year World Championship Wrestling was starting to go downhill and was beginning to decline in ratings during the Monday Night ratings war against WWF as well. While some might argue that WCW Thunder was a game that may have been overshadowed by the likes of WWF Attitude, WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and WWF Smackdown which also came in ‘99 as well. However, the WWF games that were released in ‘99 were far more superior in gameplay and more successful overall. If a game like WCW Thunder was released anytime between ‘94-‘96 it could have more popular than it was in ‘99. While WCW Thunder seemed decent at best but it was no where as good as WCW: World Tour or WCW/NWO Revenge for the N64 which were considered among the best wrestling games from the 90’s overall.

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Would the MegaMan Zero series have been more successful during the 90’s?

As many people know the MegaMan series is considered to be legendary within the gaming world. The most popular installments within the MegaMan series came between the mid 80’s-mid to late 90’s time period with the release of the first three NES games along with the MMX series which started on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. By the time we got to the 00’s decade the 2D side-scrolling run n gun genre of gaming had declined in popularity. However, hardcore fans of the MegaMan series still enjoyed the MegaMan Zero series which began on the Game Boy Advance back in 2002. While the storylines for the MegaMan Zero games from ‘02-‘07 were impressive and had nostalgic 32-bit gameplay there are many who feel that the series was not quite on the same level as the first three or four MegaMan X games from the 90’s. It makes some people wonder how popular the MegaMan Zero series would have been on consoles such as the SNES especially since the first three games within the series shined significantly on the 16-bit console back in the day.

Despite, the Game Boy Advance being a more successful game system than the SNES reaching over 81 million units in sales within nine years; the SNES was a more iconic game system in general which arguably had better 2D graphics and sprites overall. Also, games such as Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire from ‘02-‘03 ended up becoming the main attraction for the Game Boy Advance by reaching over 16 million copies in sales considering how big the series was in general at the time. On top of that we got to see high profile Mario & Zelda titles on the Game Boy Advance during the 00’s along with the beginning of the Sonic Advance series. There is no question that the MegaMan Zero series could have been every bit as popular as the first three or four MMX games during the 90’s especially since 3D gaming was still at a base level before it started to evolve dramatically during the 00’s.

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Retro Gaming 00’s- Crash Nitro Kart: (2003)

One of the few racing games from the early 00’s that was definitely overshadowed within it genre was Crash Nitro Kart. For those do not know Crash Nitro Kart was published by Universal Interactive and developed by Vicarious Visions and appeared on multiple game systems including the PS2, Xbox and GameCube back in the early 00’s. Crash Nitro Kart was considered to be a sequel to the Crash Team Racing game from ‘99 while being the ninth Crash Bandicoot game within the entire series. Crash Nitro Kart contained over 20 playable characters including Crash, Coco and Crunch Bandicoot and introduces a few new characters such as Fake Crash along with N-Trance as well. Crash Nitro Kart also saw the return of Doctor Neo Cortex who was the main villain in the very first Crash Bandicoot game from ‘96. We also saw the return of Nitrous Oxide the main villain from Team Crash Racing in Crash Nitro Kart as a leader of his own group known as “Team Oxide”. The game has a rather interesting plot that saw the main villain Emperor Velo XXVII abduct Crash & Neo-Cortex’s group while forcing them to compete in a racing tournament.

The possibility of Earth’s destruction plays a role in both Crash and Doctor Neo-Cortex’s group agreeing to participated the race with the winning team receiving freedom from the Galactic Emperor Velo XXVII. The story for Crash Nitro Kart has alternate endings depending on which team won which added to the game’s overall replay value. As cool as Crash Team Racing was back in ’99 many would argue the Crash Nitro Kart was a more superior game despite not being on the same level in terms of popularity. Crash Nitro Kart was challenging and the gameplay was highly enjoyable since it felt like Naughty Dog’s version of a 3D Mario Kart game. But unlike many Mario Kart games we have seen in the past Crash Nitro Kart has an actual storyline which in some ways makes it better than some Nintendo’s past racing titles within the Mario series.

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Forza Motorsport 8 Coming Soon for Xbox Series X!!!

As far as upcoming releases are concerned one of the many games that the world is looking forward to seeing is that of Forza Motorsport 8. As many people know Forza Motorsport 7 was released back in 2017 and it was quite possibly one of the best racing games that the world had seen within the 10’s decade. As far as Forza Motorsport 8 is concerned it’s been revealed that the Unreal Engine 4 will be utilized for this upcoming racing title which was information reported by XboxMag.net back in June 2020. Based on what we know the Unreal Engine 4 will provide players with better off-road racing. It has also been rumored that the race capacity could be expanded upon with at least 53 vehicles at a time. Seeing how Forza Motorsport 7 appeared on Microsoft Windows back in 2017 its quite possibly that the same thing will happen in late 2020.

The holiday season of 2020 is when the Xbox Series X is expected to be released worldwide in competition with Sony’s PS5. Seeing Forza Motorsport 8 released around the holiday season would definitely draw people’s interest especially considering the fact that there are rumors of Gran Turismo 7 appearing on the PlayStation 5 in late 2020 as well. In addition, to having a new game engine Forza Motorsport 8 is expected to include new in game features including a new modeling/suspension system along with the inclusion of a tire pressure model. Also, the addition of a new atmosphere pressure system will definitely had more realism to Forza Motorsport 8 as Microsoft & Turn 10 Studios look to focus more on simulation in this game than its ’17 predecessor. Hopefully, we will get an official release date for Forza Motorsport 8 as we get closer to Fall 2020 while learning more details about the game itself.