Bi-Weekly Round-up: Fallout, Cloud, Hearthstone, and a Big Isaac Secret

Binding of Isaac Creator Creates Extensive Real Life Unlocks (article)

Well, as stated in my previous Round-up, the firestorm over possible “timegated” content in the recently released Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth turns out to be a farce.  Not only that, but the actual unlocks created a firestorm of conspiracy theory and required real life treasure hunting to fully unlock the game.

The linked article is actually an image with the full explanation of exactly what all happened.  However, I’ll give you reader a TL;DR version.  As background, the Isaac community was in an uproar because they thought the “secret” in the new game was simply to wait 109 hours and everything unlocked – that wasn’t even close. Here’s the steps to unlock the secret Keeper in Isaac:

1. Keys were given out by the creator Edmund – they were pixel scrolls.  One user found that pixels in writing were actually a clue, and converted into ASCII revealed a word “Lerbeil”
2. That word turned out to be a URL for imgur, which in turn revealed an image of The Lost (character in the game) along with 8 shadows in the background.
3. Edmund tweeted a photo that had a movie poster for the movie “The Lost Boys” while also answering another tweet, hinting at the song “People Are Strange” which plays during the movie.  At the beginning of the movie, the intro shows the Santa Cruz Boardwalk with wanted posters.
4. One person then physically went to the Santa Cruz boardwalk and found an Isaac wanted poster under a trashcan.  The poster then contained several clues that revealed a phone number.
5. Upon calling the phone number, a strange voice recited several lines, with a couple words repeated in reverse.  The voicemail changed hours later with similar structured message.
6. Eventually, one user took the first letter of each word the voicemail had said, converted into numbers based on its alphabet location, and then found that it was a longitude/latitude location.
7. The location was in California, and Edmund alluded to needing to dig under loose change.  Several Redditors headed out to the location and dug up a statue of Greed (ingame character) while a mysterious figure drove off when they finally got it (presumed to be one of the developers).
8. The Greed statue revealed a Twitter handle and password, to which many users logged on, thus “giving Isaac a voice,” an earlier clue given by Edmund.  At that moment, Steam updated the game with the final unlock.

So yeah.  Not only was the content not timegated, but there was an extensive secret, requiring the whole community to band together to finally fully unlock the game.  The whole ordeal was thrilling to see unfold and many still speculate that there is more to be uncovered…

Cloud Debuts On Super Smash; Possible FF7 Rumors (article)

Cloud Strife, the giant-sword-wielding leader in Final Fantasy 7, a Playstation exclusive, is making his way onto Nintendo WiiU via DLC for Super Smash Brothers.  This is exciting as a new character for the game, but more exciting for what it MIGHT mean.

Square and Square Enix made the move from Final Fantasy on Nintendo with 6 to fully committing to the Playstation with the debut of FF7.  Why, now, would the FF7 hero finally make his way to the Nintendo family?  Well, maybe because its paving the way for something bigger.

The rumor is this:

1. Cloud has never been on the system, and Super Smash is the gateway for bringing people to certain series (ie. Earthbound, Fire Emblem)
2. Nintendo needs a breakout announcement to introduce the NX
3. Therefore, bringing the FF7 Remake to Ninentdo’s NX would give it instant appeal

Time will only tell if this is just a one-off fan service gesture, or the sign of bigger things to come.

Fallout 4 Takes The World By Storm (article)

Unless you have been cryogenically frozen (like the main protagonist…) you’ve heard that Fallout 4 officially released last week.  I intentionally held off on purchasing it until the first weekend so that I could start with some longer play sessions.  So far, its been pretty awesome.

Sales figures put Fallout 4 over 12 million copies sold as of last Friday.  Wow.  That’s about $750 million in sales.  For comparison, the Call of Duty Black Ops juggernaut hauled in $550 million while Halo 5 garnered $400 million.  It will be interesting to see if Grand Theft Auto 5’s 52 million units sold (as of May this year) can be toppled.  Granted, GTA5 was crossgen.

Despite the high sales volume, there has been some outcry (as partially detailed in my Fallout 4 Review List) concerning the bugs, glitches, and general “jankiness” of the game.  More specifically, reviewers and consumers alike are not pleased with the low frame rate (in some areas), quest givers glitching, and even crashes.  The divide creates those who proclaim “thats just Bethesda quirkiness” and the other side decrying “these are the same bugs from Oblivion, its gone too far.”  While both sides have a point, for me, the game still fills that unique void of incredible exploration and detail.  I’m sure if I ran into some bugs I’d be upset, but I deliberately went with the PC version to be able to console command and/or mod my way around those issues.  I will admit, when a game has glitches it does make the player weary and afraid that perhaps something will happen that may lock or otherwise erase significant progress.

Either way, people are going to keep buying the game to the detriment of other releases such as Legacy of the Void and Tomb Raider.  Time for me to get back to the wasteland now…

Hearthstone Receives a New Adventure (article)

At BlizzCon, Blizzard revealed a new adventure, which is quite literally an Adventure.  Not only that, but the first and second wings are already available!  Talk about turnaround!

Given its freshness, the new cards effect on the metagame has yet to be seen.  However, the inclusion of Reno Jackson, a legendary that rewards decks with singleton copies of every card, has deck builders brewing.  Also of significant interest is the “Discover” mechanic, which has ignited debate over whether its better or worse than drawing a random card from your deck.