"I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, and outside of my sabbatical last year, I have been going non-stop. I literally grew up in this business, as Mike likes to say. And now that I’m grown up, it’s time for a much needed break."-Cliff Bleszinski
For all that he has done for us, beloved gaming icon and celebrated game developer Cliff Bleszinski is finally taking a much deserved break. He started in the industry at the age of 17 and exploded right out of the gate with innovation after innovation. He is partially responsible for unreal engine 3 which powers a large percentage of games that are released today. Cliff will be sorely missed. His mark on gaming is something that can never be forgotten from the outstanding graphics brought forth from the unreal engine to the fast paced mayhem that was unreal tournament and of course no one can forget the phenomenon that is Gears of War. You would be hard pressed to find so much talent and such amazing presence anywhere else in the industry today. Not only did Cliff make great games, he was often the poster boy for them. When Gears of War 2 was announced at E3 Cliff walked out with a Lancer replica, revved the chainsaw, and screamed as though he were a cog taking down one of the vile locusts.
We can only hope that this time off allows Cliff to relax and gear himself back up so he can once again grace us this his incredible talent and enthralling ideas.
Monday, December 17, 2012
The fall of a titan: The Wii U has no place in this world.
The Wii U has absolutely no place in this world. It seems all Nintendo ever does these days is come up with ways to upset myself and its other hardcore fans and I swear to God I am filled with such an overwhelming rage every time someone conjectures that the Wii U is ushering in the next generation of gaming. Well if the Wii U is the next generation of gaming then I just do not want to live in this world any more because all hope for my favorite thing in this world is absolutely lost.
The Wii U is not an improvement on the current generation of gaming, in fact, when compared to the Xbox 360 its performance is not even on par. The only thing the Wii U improves on is Nintendo's last console. As far as I am concerned the Wii should never have existed, they should have gone straight to a system the likes of the Wii U. It is a true successor to the Gamecube capable of actually playing today's games instead of needing a special secondary version of a game to be made so that the system can handle it and then completely destroying the game's mechanics in favor of gimmicky motion controls.
I do have to agree that I find the game pad really cool and innovative but that pales in utter comparison to the fact that Nintendo has pushed itself back once again by releasing their latest console and setting it nearly on par with the current Microsoft and Sony consoles that are outdated at this point and a new, much more powerful version of both consoles will be released soon. I really must wonder why Nintendo makes these decisions. Not to mention that they have completely let down their old hard core fans, such as myself, by neglecting their core franchises in order to make hundreds of casual games that would never become full series and are just absolutely terrible games. It is truly sad to see the once great titan that is Nintendo fall so hard like this, they may be doing well financially but overall they are setting the gaming industry back by refusing to keep up with the technological curve. All in all, the technology that powers the Wii U is the same technology that was introduced seven years ago with the release of the Xbox 360 and what is sad is that this brand new console could not even figure out how to best the seven year old Xbox.
The Wii U is not an improvement on the current generation of gaming, in fact, when compared to the Xbox 360 its performance is not even on par. The only thing the Wii U improves on is Nintendo's last console. As far as I am concerned the Wii should never have existed, they should have gone straight to a system the likes of the Wii U. It is a true successor to the Gamecube capable of actually playing today's games instead of needing a special secondary version of a game to be made so that the system can handle it and then completely destroying the game's mechanics in favor of gimmicky motion controls.
I do have to agree that I find the game pad really cool and innovative but that pales in utter comparison to the fact that Nintendo has pushed itself back once again by releasing their latest console and setting it nearly on par with the current Microsoft and Sony consoles that are outdated at this point and a new, much more powerful version of both consoles will be released soon. I really must wonder why Nintendo makes these decisions. Not to mention that they have completely let down their old hard core fans, such as myself, by neglecting their core franchises in order to make hundreds of casual games that would never become full series and are just absolutely terrible games. It is truly sad to see the once great titan that is Nintendo fall so hard like this, they may be doing well financially but overall they are setting the gaming industry back by refusing to keep up with the technological curve. All in all, the technology that powers the Wii U is the same technology that was introduced seven years ago with the release of the Xbox 360 and what is sad is that this brand new console could not even figure out how to best the seven year old Xbox.
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Review
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King Why'd You Steal Our Garbage or Adventure Time: HIKWYSOG, is another one of those games that is meant only for the fans of the original source material. This being the case I may as well let you know I am a huge Adventure Time fan and I am a huge video game fan and that is why I bought the game. If you are not a fan of both of these things I highly suggest that you do not buy this game. I personally regret paying full price for this game. It is not as though it was bad, it is just that it was severely lacking.
All the charm, comedy, and fantasy of the show is very clearly represented in Hey Ice King. This would probably be present even more so if the game was fully voice acted which I only forgive because I have never seen game dialogue that was funnier than that in this game and I would expect no less from the writers of Adventure Time.
Hey Ice King is very much styled like Zelda 2 as the creator of Adventure Time is a big fan of Zelda just as every person on this planet should be. This being said, this game feels more like a very incomplete alpha version of a Zelda game rather than a finished video game. I could very easily see this game being an experiment before they release a true more dense Adventure Time video game.
The combat is solid but it is in no way varied. You have 3 or 4 different attacks that you can use but they all basically do the same thing so it doesn't really matter of you choose to swing Finn's sword or make Jake punch. The only real way that combat gets varied is through the item system. Finn and Jake pickup tons of different items throughout the game. They are mostly food items that are used for regaining health but some of them are different spells that they have used in the show that beef up speed or attack power. This is a very interesting and a sometimes fun take on combat and I do understand that being a game based on a children's show you cannot expect things to get too complicated but I really had much more faith that the combat would be better than this.
What upsets me most about this game is its length and overall lack of content. It felt as though the game was completely over almost before it started and while I really enjoyed the story and the simple fact that I was walking around OOO as Finn and Jake fighting off monsters, I kind of felt empty inside when I was done, it just was not enough. The question is, should you play Hey Ice King? I would have to say yes any fan of the show should definitely play this game however I do not believe that anyone should pay full price for it.
All the charm, comedy, and fantasy of the show is very clearly represented in Hey Ice King. This would probably be present even more so if the game was fully voice acted which I only forgive because I have never seen game dialogue that was funnier than that in this game and I would expect no less from the writers of Adventure Time.
Hey Ice King is very much styled like Zelda 2 as the creator of Adventure Time is a big fan of Zelda just as every person on this planet should be. This being said, this game feels more like a very incomplete alpha version of a Zelda game rather than a finished video game. I could very easily see this game being an experiment before they release a true more dense Adventure Time video game.
The combat is solid but it is in no way varied. You have 3 or 4 different attacks that you can use but they all basically do the same thing so it doesn't really matter of you choose to swing Finn's sword or make Jake punch. The only real way that combat gets varied is through the item system. Finn and Jake pickup tons of different items throughout the game. They are mostly food items that are used for regaining health but some of them are different spells that they have used in the show that beef up speed or attack power. This is a very interesting and a sometimes fun take on combat and I do understand that being a game based on a children's show you cannot expect things to get too complicated but I really had much more faith that the combat would be better than this.
What upsets me most about this game is its length and overall lack of content. It felt as though the game was completely over almost before it started and while I really enjoyed the story and the simple fact that I was walking around OOO as Finn and Jake fighting off monsters, I kind of felt empty inside when I was done, it just was not enough. The question is, should you play Hey Ice King? I would have to say yes any fan of the show should definitely play this game however I do not believe that anyone should pay full price for it.
Dust: An Elysian Tale Review
You really have to have a lot of respect for Dust. While it is only an arcade game, it is still rather large with many system interacting through out. There is an enthralling combat system, an interesting take on character progression, a fairly well written narrative, a captivating art style, and it was all done by essentially one man. Speaking from my personal experience, I have made video games before ones that are not even 25% as involved and dense as this game is and I know I could not have made those alone and so Dust is quite an accomplishment.
You play as an amnesiac rabbit-wolf named Dust. He wakes up with the sword of arah in his hand and nothing to go on but the fact that the sword has come to him because he has need of its power to fulfill his destiny. I know it sounds very cliched but if you play the game you will see that the story is actually fairly good for an arcade title.
As you move Dust forward you begin to learn about the game's combo based combat system. The game is a 2D side scroller and Dust can dance around the 2D environment with ease. You will find yourself spinning around and flying through the air fairly often. Dust has a few multiple hit combos with successive presses of the X button as well as a counter and a few magic attack from his partner that can be combined with your blade spinning dust storm to make a variety of interesting effects and build higher combos that do greater damage and grant more experience. Speaking of experience, you will level up when you gain enough allowing you to upgrade strength, speed, magic, Dust's partner, or defense. The catch is the lowest skill cannot be four points away from the highest skill which makes leveling up in Dust very interesting. In addition to the leveling system, there is also a crafting system that allows Dust to make various gear items that can raise his stats and provide different skills.
Dust is regrettably not a very challenging game but at the very least there is a lot to be discovered. The map is revealed through exploration and certain items can only be obtained and crafted by exploring the whole map, not to mention there are tons of side quests to take up and there are a number of caged friends to find throughout the game that once freed will grant Dust even more power.
If you are looking for a great arcade game this year, Dust: An Elysian Tale cannot be beat.
You play as an amnesiac rabbit-wolf named Dust. He wakes up with the sword of arah in his hand and nothing to go on but the fact that the sword has come to him because he has need of its power to fulfill his destiny. I know it sounds very cliched but if you play the game you will see that the story is actually fairly good for an arcade title.
As you move Dust forward you begin to learn about the game's combo based combat system. The game is a 2D side scroller and Dust can dance around the 2D environment with ease. You will find yourself spinning around and flying through the air fairly often. Dust has a few multiple hit combos with successive presses of the X button as well as a counter and a few magic attack from his partner that can be combined with your blade spinning dust storm to make a variety of interesting effects and build higher combos that do greater damage and grant more experience. Speaking of experience, you will level up when you gain enough allowing you to upgrade strength, speed, magic, Dust's partner, or defense. The catch is the lowest skill cannot be four points away from the highest skill which makes leveling up in Dust very interesting. In addition to the leveling system, there is also a crafting system that allows Dust to make various gear items that can raise his stats and provide different skills.
Dust is regrettably not a very challenging game but at the very least there is a lot to be discovered. The map is revealed through exploration and certain items can only be obtained and crafted by exploring the whole map, not to mention there are tons of side quests to take up and there are a number of caged friends to find throughout the game that once freed will grant Dust even more power.
If you are looking for a great arcade game this year, Dust: An Elysian Tale cannot be beat.
Dark souls impressions
I let this go for way too long. I admit, I was afraid to try this game, after all, I tore through Demon's Souls but I really did not want to go through the grief and rage all over again all gamers know how difficult that game was and a number of them know how good it was but I just did not know if I could handle the pain of going through a sequel. It was when I saw the trailer for Dark Souls 2 that I decided I was man enough to put the past behind me and give the sequel to the hardest game ever to exist a fair try.
My hands were almost trembling as I navigated the menu trying to pick the best class and gift to start the game with. I knew that my choice here would be absolutely pivotal and either make or break me as played through this game and I would be horribly punished for a bad choice. I choose the warrior class and ventured forth with the master key as my gift praying that I would not regret the choice I had made.
After a few hours with my warrior I began to see that I found Dark Souls more fun than difficult. Do not get me wrong, it is still a very hard game but I could never say the same thing about Demon's Souls. I was actually able to find ways to almost cheat the game by getting incredibly powerful weapons early at the cost of a few souls which would prove to be a pittance compared to what I could then accomplish with my new weapon. I came to the realization that Dark Souls was definitely somewhat easier than Demon's Souls something that I both treasure and abhor. On one hand, I can go more than five minutes of playing the game without punching a hole in my wall from anger. While on the other hand I do not want to see such a respectable series, a true staple of hard core gaming, beginning to pander its players and start to lower its game play standards just to reach out to a larger crowd of people who would not even think about that game two months later.
I have not gotten too far into Dark Souls yet but I cannot wait to see what challenges lie in wait for me. I can only hope that the game does not bend for casual gamers and continues to challenge my skill and make me think while actually being fun to play instead of a nightmare. That is a mark of true master game design and I feel as though Dark Souls can truly show me this.
My hands were almost trembling as I navigated the menu trying to pick the best class and gift to start the game with. I knew that my choice here would be absolutely pivotal and either make or break me as played through this game and I would be horribly punished for a bad choice. I choose the warrior class and ventured forth with the master key as my gift praying that I would not regret the choice I had made.
After a few hours with my warrior I began to see that I found Dark Souls more fun than difficult. Do not get me wrong, it is still a very hard game but I could never say the same thing about Demon's Souls. I was actually able to find ways to almost cheat the game by getting incredibly powerful weapons early at the cost of a few souls which would prove to be a pittance compared to what I could then accomplish with my new weapon. I came to the realization that Dark Souls was definitely somewhat easier than Demon's Souls something that I both treasure and abhor. On one hand, I can go more than five minutes of playing the game without punching a hole in my wall from anger. While on the other hand I do not want to see such a respectable series, a true staple of hard core gaming, beginning to pander its players and start to lower its game play standards just to reach out to a larger crowd of people who would not even think about that game two months later.
I have not gotten too far into Dark Souls yet but I cannot wait to see what challenges lie in wait for me. I can only hope that the game does not bend for casual gamers and continues to challenge my skill and make me think while actually being fun to play instead of a nightmare. That is a mark of true master game design and I feel as though Dark Souls can truly show me this.
Far cry 3 review
Yet another incredible first person game, yet another incredible open world game from Ubisoft, yet another amazing and satisfying sequel. Welcome to Far Cry 3. You are very far away from home, you and your friends were captured by human traffickers, you have no idea how to defend yourself because you have lived a sheltered life via your rich parents, you have no idea where any of your friends are, everyone on this island is some kind of insane and at least half of them are trying to kill you, and the only trust worthy person who could help you, your military trained older brother, has just been shot and killed before your eyes as the two of you escaped captivity. GOOD FUN, LETS GET STARTED.
Far Cry 3 is very much about survival. You hunt various animals, who will hunt you back, in order to upgrade your weapons and weapon carrying capacity. You must explore the island and take back encampments and radio towers in order to liberate the natives and receive help. You will even pick flowers to make syringes that can heal you and give you other physical and mental enhancements. All this combined with the rolling theme of insanity make a very interesting and fun experience.
Your character, Jason Brody, has never really felt right in any job that he has attempted but after the third or fourth time he kills a slave trading pirate he starts to feel right at home and he begins to question his lifestyle as his friends cower in fear of what he his becoming despite the fact that he risks his life to save them. Far Cry 3 tends to ask you what kind of person you are. Is it wrong to become a killer in order to save those dear to you? What must you sacrifice for your happiness? These questions tend to come up throughout the narrative making it incredibly enthralling. In addition to this, Far Cry 3 has some of the best written dialogue I have seen since Assassins Creed 2 which is just as well as the same studio made both games. Of course we all know that a good story does not make a very good video game without good game play well you can rest easy as Far Cry 3 is one of the most fun first person shooters I have ever played.
The shooting mechanics are solid and the dynamic between the different weapons and the way they handle are ever present and force you to use well thought out tactics on every approach. The game tends to reward the player for stealth more than anything else but in the end you are free to tackle every situation in an incredible number of ways. You can release a wild predator from a cage in the middle of a pirate camp and watch it do all the work for you or you can sneak up behind someone and chain a huge knife take down from enemy to enemy as long as you can remain hidden. Of course the good old shoot until every living thing you can see is dead approach is also a viable option and the best part is all of these are fun to do and all of them award you experience to level up your character. Yes there is a leveling system in this game that awards your character some really interesting perks and killing techniques besides being a really cool incentive for progression. In addition to which, every time you level up and choose a skill another tattoo will appear on your arm proving Jason's progress as a warrior.
There really is not too much else that I can say about Far Cry 3 without ruining the story or mystery of the island which is one of the greatest parts of discovering this game. I absolutely recommend Far Cry 3 it is the last great release of this year.
Far Cry 3 is very much about survival. You hunt various animals, who will hunt you back, in order to upgrade your weapons and weapon carrying capacity. You must explore the island and take back encampments and radio towers in order to liberate the natives and receive help. You will even pick flowers to make syringes that can heal you and give you other physical and mental enhancements. All this combined with the rolling theme of insanity make a very interesting and fun experience.
Your character, Jason Brody, has never really felt right in any job that he has attempted but after the third or fourth time he kills a slave trading pirate he starts to feel right at home and he begins to question his lifestyle as his friends cower in fear of what he his becoming despite the fact that he risks his life to save them. Far Cry 3 tends to ask you what kind of person you are. Is it wrong to become a killer in order to save those dear to you? What must you sacrifice for your happiness? These questions tend to come up throughout the narrative making it incredibly enthralling. In addition to this, Far Cry 3 has some of the best written dialogue I have seen since Assassins Creed 2 which is just as well as the same studio made both games. Of course we all know that a good story does not make a very good video game without good game play well you can rest easy as Far Cry 3 is one of the most fun first person shooters I have ever played.
The shooting mechanics are solid and the dynamic between the different weapons and the way they handle are ever present and force you to use well thought out tactics on every approach. The game tends to reward the player for stealth more than anything else but in the end you are free to tackle every situation in an incredible number of ways. You can release a wild predator from a cage in the middle of a pirate camp and watch it do all the work for you or you can sneak up behind someone and chain a huge knife take down from enemy to enemy as long as you can remain hidden. Of course the good old shoot until every living thing you can see is dead approach is also a viable option and the best part is all of these are fun to do and all of them award you experience to level up your character. Yes there is a leveling system in this game that awards your character some really interesting perks and killing techniques besides being a really cool incentive for progression. In addition to which, every time you level up and choose a skill another tattoo will appear on your arm proving Jason's progress as a warrior.
There really is not too much else that I can say about Far Cry 3 without ruining the story or mystery of the island which is one of the greatest parts of discovering this game. I absolutely recommend Far Cry 3 it is the last great release of this year.
Assassins Creed 3 Review
I was so terribly excited for AC3 that my anticipation bordered on, no scratch that, my anticipation of this game did become obsessions which them turned into full blown insanity. I could not stand the wait for this game it was literally killing me on the inside. So you can imagine how chagrin I must be when it did not meet my expectations at all. Don't get me wrong, AC3 is by no stretch of the imagination a bad game, in fact it is an absolutely amazing game, but in the context of what an AC game, how highly I revere them, and the amount of hype that surrounded this title it was just nowhere near as good as it should have been and it is probably safe to say that this game was the biggest disappoint to me in gaming in quite sometime.
As I said before, AC3 is not a bad game, it is easily one of the best games in the series, but it was in far too many areas that Ubisoft completely dropped the ball on this one. Let's begin with this supposed brand new engine that they built, AnvilNext. From early on in this game's development, Ubisoft promised big things from this brand new engine that they built from the ground up. They promised better graphics, which did not happen at all, better environments which, in a way, are there but there are far too many of the same old technical issues with the environments to truly call them better. They said we would see much better character animations which is the only thing I can truly say was delivered but I feel as though the original Anvil engine could have handled a lot of these animations. Now game play has been improved greatly, this is where AC3 shines.
Not only does AC3 have the best traversal and setting that the series has had thus far, running through the trees is absolutely incredible, it has also made some of the best improvements to the combat. First of all, to make Connor sprint and climb you need only hold down one button now freeing up your thumb to control the camera as you move, this is a fix that probably should have been applied 3 or 4 games ago. Combat now yields many more options for awesome kills. Connor has tons of toys to work with and interesting moves that come as a product of the period this is set in. There are tons of soldiers walking around with muskets that Connor can steal and use to run people through with the bayonette or fire off at long range. There are also times when firing lines will form up to take Connor down and if you stun someone you can use them as a human shield and then move up to the men who just fired at you during their long reload period. The counter system has also been changed as you have many more options after a counter now. First of all, Connor does have to be in a counter stance in order to counter, you merely need to press B at the right time after which you have the choice to strike, use your secondary weapon, steal a weapon, throw, or stun. Certain enemies require you to use a combination of these options in order for you to defeat them. Since I have been mentioning Connor so often, I figured now would be a good time to discuss the new assassin.
Unlike the assassins before him, Connor is a horribly written character. You get the feeling he has no idea what he is doing and his choices are terribly unfounded. I find that a lot of my animosity towards Connor is likely a product of his terrible voice acting but even so, the choices he makes throughout the game do not really make sense and the way they write him into history does not really seem to fit most of the time. This is incredibly sad as the story of Assassin's Creed has been one of the greatest things about the series for a long time. Speaking of which, I will not say anything about what happens but I personally hated the ending. I sort of just felt empty and unaccomplished inside at the end, and for a series that I have been playing for the past 7 years that is really not a good thing. AC3 is a great game as all of the AC games are, however, it falls short of the spectacular expectations that so many of us had for it, if only it had been written better.
As I said before, AC3 is not a bad game, it is easily one of the best games in the series, but it was in far too many areas that Ubisoft completely dropped the ball on this one. Let's begin with this supposed brand new engine that they built, AnvilNext. From early on in this game's development, Ubisoft promised big things from this brand new engine that they built from the ground up. They promised better graphics, which did not happen at all, better environments which, in a way, are there but there are far too many of the same old technical issues with the environments to truly call them better. They said we would see much better character animations which is the only thing I can truly say was delivered but I feel as though the original Anvil engine could have handled a lot of these animations. Now game play has been improved greatly, this is where AC3 shines.
Not only does AC3 have the best traversal and setting that the series has had thus far, running through the trees is absolutely incredible, it has also made some of the best improvements to the combat. First of all, to make Connor sprint and climb you need only hold down one button now freeing up your thumb to control the camera as you move, this is a fix that probably should have been applied 3 or 4 games ago. Combat now yields many more options for awesome kills. Connor has tons of toys to work with and interesting moves that come as a product of the period this is set in. There are tons of soldiers walking around with muskets that Connor can steal and use to run people through with the bayonette or fire off at long range. There are also times when firing lines will form up to take Connor down and if you stun someone you can use them as a human shield and then move up to the men who just fired at you during their long reload period. The counter system has also been changed as you have many more options after a counter now. First of all, Connor does have to be in a counter stance in order to counter, you merely need to press B at the right time after which you have the choice to strike, use your secondary weapon, steal a weapon, throw, or stun. Certain enemies require you to use a combination of these options in order for you to defeat them. Since I have been mentioning Connor so often, I figured now would be a good time to discuss the new assassin.
Unlike the assassins before him, Connor is a horribly written character. You get the feeling he has no idea what he is doing and his choices are terribly unfounded. I find that a lot of my animosity towards Connor is likely a product of his terrible voice acting but even so, the choices he makes throughout the game do not really make sense and the way they write him into history does not really seem to fit most of the time. This is incredibly sad as the story of Assassin's Creed has been one of the greatest things about the series for a long time. Speaking of which, I will not say anything about what happens but I personally hated the ending. I sort of just felt empty and unaccomplished inside at the end, and for a series that I have been playing for the past 7 years that is really not a good thing. AC3 is a great game as all of the AC games are, however, it falls short of the spectacular expectations that so many of us had for it, if only it had been written better.
Halo 4 review
I am just going to come right out and say this, no beating around the bush with this one, Halo 4 is an absolutely amazing, astonishing, and mind blowing accomplishment of gaming. If you did not get it, I love this game. Many people were skeptical of how the new Halo would do without Bungie at the helm but I am here to tell you that 343 industries deserves nothing but praise for what they've done to this classic and much beloved series. The Master Chief returns in a very big way. Floating through space in the half space ship that he escaped the end of Halo 3 in, Cortanna wakes him up as they are gradually crashing into an unknown forerunner planet, not to mention she is kind of losing her mind as she has been active for much longer than an AI ever should and for the past 4 years as she and Chief have been drifting through space she has had nothing to do but think herself to death. Right from the get go as you step out of Chief's cryo chamber you feel that this game has been completely overhauled in the best way.
Never before did I truly feel as though I was this hulking 7 foot wall of nothing but muscles, bravery, and grizzle that is the Master Chief. Every single one of his steps pounded the floor of the space ship you truly felt that with this clanking and shifting body armor on you were this invincible one ton warrior. It was then that, low and behold, the covenant attacked. Why did the covenant attack just as I was starting my new epic journey, well some would say to make it more epic, I say its because they're jerks but it does not much matter because now I had something to shoot, hit and throw grenades at. It was at this point that I had the opportunity to hear the completely re-recorded sounds of the weapons and they sound incredible. The assault rifle no longer spits like a pee shooter it cracks through the air with every shot fired sounding like two huge metal tubes crashing into each other and exploding. It was an absolutely incredible feeling for about two seconds because that was when I died. I am going to mention this right now, Halo 4 is hard, Halo 4 is really hard, really, really, really hard. I played it on heroic and let me tell you those promethean knights are going to destroy you, fair warning.
Moving forward, I found myself on the planet Requiem a beautiful jungle filled planet surrounded by a metal dome in the sky with various Forerunner artifacts covering the ground and sky. I was absolutely blown away by this set piece it was simply beautiful. After a few more run-ins with the covenant I was introduce to Halo's new enemy, the prometheans. I warn you reader do not take the prometheans lightly, they can and will destroy you entirely I promise. While one could call the prometheans and some of their weapons just supped up, repainted version of the covenant, they also have a lot of AI and some interesting abilities that the old familiar enemies have severely been lacking in for quite some time now. The prometheans also have a very interesting past which brings me to the next subject of this review, the story.
The story of Halo 4 is very good but some of the writing could most definitely use work. In fact, this would probably be my biggest gripe about Halo 4, there is a huge lack of context. So many times I would be watching Chief have a conversation with the other NPCs and they would mention something that I had never heard of before yet all of the characters would acknowledge it as something important that they all knew about and then never come back to it again. NO ONE WANTED TO CLUE ME IN, it was so frustrating. It was as though everyone had a secret they were not allowed to tell, some big joke that I was the victim of and I really wanted to know what was going on because they story was very good and relative to the Halo universe it seemed very important. While it probably is an easily fixed issue that does not really take away from the actual game play, this lack of context is actually a really big deal and I can only hope that 343 will reflect on this for Halo 5. With the exception of this issue in writing though, Halo 4 is, as I said before, an absolutely magnificent game and anyone who considers themselves a gamer and owns an Xbox 360 MUST pick up a copy, this is not a choice.
Never before did I truly feel as though I was this hulking 7 foot wall of nothing but muscles, bravery, and grizzle that is the Master Chief. Every single one of his steps pounded the floor of the space ship you truly felt that with this clanking and shifting body armor on you were this invincible one ton warrior. It was then that, low and behold, the covenant attacked. Why did the covenant attack just as I was starting my new epic journey, well some would say to make it more epic, I say its because they're jerks but it does not much matter because now I had something to shoot, hit and throw grenades at. It was at this point that I had the opportunity to hear the completely re-recorded sounds of the weapons and they sound incredible. The assault rifle no longer spits like a pee shooter it cracks through the air with every shot fired sounding like two huge metal tubes crashing into each other and exploding. It was an absolutely incredible feeling for about two seconds because that was when I died. I am going to mention this right now, Halo 4 is hard, Halo 4 is really hard, really, really, really hard. I played it on heroic and let me tell you those promethean knights are going to destroy you, fair warning.
Moving forward, I found myself on the planet Requiem a beautiful jungle filled planet surrounded by a metal dome in the sky with various Forerunner artifacts covering the ground and sky. I was absolutely blown away by this set piece it was simply beautiful. After a few more run-ins with the covenant I was introduce to Halo's new enemy, the prometheans. I warn you reader do not take the prometheans lightly, they can and will destroy you entirely I promise. While one could call the prometheans and some of their weapons just supped up, repainted version of the covenant, they also have a lot of AI and some interesting abilities that the old familiar enemies have severely been lacking in for quite some time now. The prometheans also have a very interesting past which brings me to the next subject of this review, the story.
The story of Halo 4 is very good but some of the writing could most definitely use work. In fact, this would probably be my biggest gripe about Halo 4, there is a huge lack of context. So many times I would be watching Chief have a conversation with the other NPCs and they would mention something that I had never heard of before yet all of the characters would acknowledge it as something important that they all knew about and then never come back to it again. NO ONE WANTED TO CLUE ME IN, it was so frustrating. It was as though everyone had a secret they were not allowed to tell, some big joke that I was the victim of and I really wanted to know what was going on because they story was very good and relative to the Halo universe it seemed very important. While it probably is an easily fixed issue that does not really take away from the actual game play, this lack of context is actually a really big deal and I can only hope that 343 will reflect on this for Halo 5. With the exception of this issue in writing though, Halo 4 is, as I said before, an absolutely magnificent game and anyone who considers themselves a gamer and owns an Xbox 360 MUST pick up a copy, this is not a choice.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a remake of two very old games that were known very well for their length, difficulty, and detail. Fortunately, all of those elements make an astonishingly satisfying return in this very fun and intuitive game. Now, anyone who knows me also knows that I love RPGs but I absolutely abhor turn based games. I find them boring and I feel the need to be right in the action instead of going turn by turn giving each character on the battlefield one slow moving action, it just has absolutely no appeal to me. Despite this, XCOM was able to capture my heart on the game play front. If you wanted me to truly describe what sets XCOM apart at its core combat from all other turn based games, I really could not do it, it is very clearly a turn based game. I suppose there is just something about the difficulty, strategy, and overwhelming tension that you could permanently lose your best soldier with one wrong move or even the support of a full country if this next sniper shot does not hit its mark. I suppose I should explain all this in order to get my point across. You will have a squad of up to 6 specially trained XCOM soldiers all of which can level up to get stronger, be heavily injured and taken out of commission for a few days, or be killed permanently. Like I said, there is a strong attention to detail and RPG elements in this game. When combat begins each of your soldiers will have two actions and their turn will end after you use both of those actions or after you attack. Soldiers can be moved into areas that provide full cover, half cover, or no cover at all which is a terribly unwise choice to make as you have no idea which aliens will appear where even if you are well into a fight. There are various classes, weapon types, and armor types for your soldiers to wear and the way you have them play together will mean life or death for the rest of the world. You definitely do not want to use all rocket launcher loaded soldiers because they do not move very quickly and are not good for support. You also cannot use all snipers because although they are usually accurate and they do a lot of damage, unless you level them up correctly they cannot move and attack on the same turn. It is this really cool dynamic of combat with your classes of soldiers working their skill against a plethora of different aliens that is really alluring in XCOM. However, XCOM's most addictive element does not come in until you have left combat and return to HQ. You are the XCOM commander and as thus it falls on you to make various decisions that will ultimately determine whether we survive this alien invasion or not. You receive a monthly revenue from each country of the world and you must use this revenue to fund the XCOM project by paying for new armors and weapons for your soldiers, satellites to protect your countries and interceptors to protect those satellites. There is so much going on at HQ it can really make your head spin at first. You cannot spend all of your time at HQ though because every time you commission building or researching a new item you must wait for the day counter to go down. As the day counter goes down there is the possibility that you will run into a random alien threat and if you are not prepared to face it before you set the day counter off you may be in some real trouble. In this aspect XCOM shines. I have never seen a game that is so strategic and tense in every single way even when your at your home base you are never safe from the consequences of your own second to second decisions. I would suggest saving often because you are going to want to go back to an old save more than you know, its also a good way to adjust yourself to the game before you take it on seriously. I have friends who have gone thirty hours in and their best soldier was still in the hospital when they had a high alert alien attack and because of that one soldier being out of commission they lost the support of three countries after one mission and then they didn't have enough support money to help the countries they had left. XCOM can be incredibly unforgiving at times but it is almost always fun.
Dishonored Review: Dawn the mask, supernatural steampunk assassin
Dishonored has a very Bioshock-like feel to it. It seems very dark, it is a brand new, never before seen setting, it is first person action with beautiful graphics and a lot of gore, and while we know what the story is about, it seems that many aspects of it are left to be a huge mystery to the player just as Bioshock was. So why even get Dishonored if it seems to be so much like Bioshock? Well I guess that is a valid question, one could just play the two Bioshock games that have already been released, of course the second one is a horrible disgrace for a game compared to the first. I suppose one could also wait for the release of Bioshock: Infinite which, like many others I am incredibly excited for, even though it has been delayed many times and it keeps losing devs. However many people do not realize that Dishonored is truly innovative.
You play supernatural assassin Corvo Atano after being framed for the murder of the empress, Corvo's lover, and watching her daughter the heir to the Dunwall Empire be taken away by her mother's assailants; you wake up behind bars as an odd supernatural deity comes to speak to you. He is the outsider and he leaves with his mark, a sign that you are touched by his power, in order to help you escape. Right from the get go your options in playing this game and how they will effect you unfold. You could kill that first guard and take the keys to the whole jailhouse but his friends will find him and that puts the rest of the area on alert, not only that but it will get out that your escape has caused the death of many innocent guards and people will begin to treat you differently near the end of the game although I thought that could have been handled much better because it really only determined how the very last level of the game played out.
The actual game play in dishonored is an absolute joy. Utilizing Corvo's many powers such as blink, stop time, and possession to interact with the world and its inhabitants never gets old nor do you ever stop finding new ways to combine them. You can stop time as someone is shooting at you, possess them and then walk their body in front of their own bullet, stop possessing them, resume time, and you just made some poor guard shoot himself. The story of dishonored sadly does not hold up to scrutiny as well. I for one was very excited to see how the story played out, I thought that this semi-steam punk world they created was very interesting and I really wanted to know its background as well as that of the outsider, sadly neither of these elements come into play within the story in the long run. All in all Dishonored was a very interesting and very fun experience and it is so nice to see a brand new IP that actually attempts something new and very much so succeeds if nothing else Dishonored should most certainly be commended for that.
You play supernatural assassin Corvo Atano after being framed for the murder of the empress, Corvo's lover, and watching her daughter the heir to the Dunwall Empire be taken away by her mother's assailants; you wake up behind bars as an odd supernatural deity comes to speak to you. He is the outsider and he leaves with his mark, a sign that you are touched by his power, in order to help you escape. Right from the get go your options in playing this game and how they will effect you unfold. You could kill that first guard and take the keys to the whole jailhouse but his friends will find him and that puts the rest of the area on alert, not only that but it will get out that your escape has caused the death of many innocent guards and people will begin to treat you differently near the end of the game although I thought that could have been handled much better because it really only determined how the very last level of the game played out.
The actual game play in dishonored is an absolute joy. Utilizing Corvo's many powers such as blink, stop time, and possession to interact with the world and its inhabitants never gets old nor do you ever stop finding new ways to combine them. You can stop time as someone is shooting at you, possess them and then walk their body in front of their own bullet, stop possessing them, resume time, and you just made some poor guard shoot himself. The story of dishonored sadly does not hold up to scrutiny as well. I for one was very excited to see how the story played out, I thought that this semi-steam punk world they created was very interesting and I really wanted to know its background as well as that of the outsider, sadly neither of these elements come into play within the story in the long run. All in all Dishonored was a very interesting and very fun experience and it is so nice to see a brand new IP that actually attempts something new and very much so succeeds if nothing else Dishonored should most certainly be commended for that.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Games to look out for before the end of 2012
1.Assassin's Creed 3
2 Dishonored
3 Halo 4
4 Adventure time
5 One Piece: Pirate Warriors
This is fairly self explanatory. We all know that the year is coming to an end and we have a bevy of triple AAA titles to look forward to next year but 2012's gaming roster is definitely not dead yet, I mean, Assassin's Creed 3...enough said. So here is what I am most looking for before the end of this year.
NUMBER 5
One Piece: Pirate Warriors
Some of you have seen that my review of Pirate Warriors has already gone up and if you read it you would know that it is definitely something of an esoteric game, that being said this is MY list of most anticipated games and I have been very excited to control a virtual version of the mugiwara pirates in combat for quite some time now. Pirate Warriors allows one to take control of the entire Straw hat crew in some iconic story moments and I cannot wait to finish it and unlock some of the more spectacular attacks and scenarios that the show is well known for.
NUMBER 4
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King why'd you steal our garbage?!
Yes once again you can all see what a child I am as I am looking for a video game that is based on a cartoon, although those of you who are fans of Adventure Time know as well as I do that it is a show that is just as much for people my age as it is for 12-15 year olds as odd as it sounds. The video game takes all the humor and colorful characters and stories that can be found in the show and wraps it around what I have heard is a very Zelda-esque gaming experience. There is 2D side scrolling combat similar to Zelda 2 with different combos that span many interesting actions that Finn and Jake have as well as a full top down over world and a crafting system based on item drops.
NUMBER 3
Halo 4
Alright so at this point in the list I am coming to some games that will be commonly found on the rosters of normal gamers. Halo 4 is something that just about every gamer is looking forward to because of no other reason than it is a new Halo. However, gamers like myself who dig below the surface know that there is more reason to be excited for this particular Halo. At the end of Halo 3, despite its secret endings, many of us were not sure if we would ever hear from Master Chief again it was a hard call to make after Bungie said they did not want to make Halo games anymore. Our minds are now at ease because we know that the Chief is back once again to bring peace to the universe through the power of ultra violence. Not only is the Chief back in this game for a continuation of his story in a brand new area of space, but the game is being made by an entirely new studio and I for one am very excited to see Halo attempted by someone other than Bungie. While many of the original devs of Halo are still on the team, which I submit is actually a really good thing to have, it is still an entirely new studio and hopefully we are going to get some creative new gameplay experiences added to the old Halo formula which I would not say is broken and in need of fixing in anyway but its definitely starved for innovation.
NUMBER 2
Dishonored
Dishonored looks to me like a steam punk Bioshock with some really interesting art direction, a deep story of revenge, and wide open levels where who lives, who dies, and how are left entirely up to the discretion of the player be they a psychotic killing machine or a more compassionate hero on a quest for justice and vengeance. The devs describe you as a "supernatural steampunk assasin" need anyone say anymore?! Trust me, be excited for this game.
NUMBER 1
ASSASSIN'S CREED 3
Before I say anything else...ASSASSIN'S CREED 3. That is it, that's all that anyone needs to say. This game is going to be huge I cannot even believe that we have come this close to its launch at the end of October. Ever since the first Assassin's Creed, I have been in love with this series. The characters, the story, the combat, the movement, control scheme, graphics, there is no aspect of these games where they phone it in ever. Every thing is taken deeply into account and I cannot wait to see what is next for this crazy story. Not to mention that it is the first Assassin's Creed in the last 3 AC games to have a full 3 year development period with a brand new game engine and a development team that is made up of the original Assassin's Creed development veterans. I cannot wait to see how this all comes together, GOTY right here people.
2 Dishonored
3 Halo 4
4 Adventure time
5 One Piece: Pirate Warriors
This is fairly self explanatory. We all know that the year is coming to an end and we have a bevy of triple AAA titles to look forward to next year but 2012's gaming roster is definitely not dead yet, I mean, Assassin's Creed 3...enough said. So here is what I am most looking for before the end of this year.
NUMBER 5
One Piece: Pirate Warriors
Some of you have seen that my review of Pirate Warriors has already gone up and if you read it you would know that it is definitely something of an esoteric game, that being said this is MY list of most anticipated games and I have been very excited to control a virtual version of the mugiwara pirates in combat for quite some time now. Pirate Warriors allows one to take control of the entire Straw hat crew in some iconic story moments and I cannot wait to finish it and unlock some of the more spectacular attacks and scenarios that the show is well known for.
NUMBER 4
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King why'd you steal our garbage?!
Yes once again you can all see what a child I am as I am looking for a video game that is based on a cartoon, although those of you who are fans of Adventure Time know as well as I do that it is a show that is just as much for people my age as it is for 12-15 year olds as odd as it sounds. The video game takes all the humor and colorful characters and stories that can be found in the show and wraps it around what I have heard is a very Zelda-esque gaming experience. There is 2D side scrolling combat similar to Zelda 2 with different combos that span many interesting actions that Finn and Jake have as well as a full top down over world and a crafting system based on item drops.
NUMBER 3
Halo 4
Alright so at this point in the list I am coming to some games that will be commonly found on the rosters of normal gamers. Halo 4 is something that just about every gamer is looking forward to because of no other reason than it is a new Halo. However, gamers like myself who dig below the surface know that there is more reason to be excited for this particular Halo. At the end of Halo 3, despite its secret endings, many of us were not sure if we would ever hear from Master Chief again it was a hard call to make after Bungie said they did not want to make Halo games anymore. Our minds are now at ease because we know that the Chief is back once again to bring peace to the universe through the power of ultra violence. Not only is the Chief back in this game for a continuation of his story in a brand new area of space, but the game is being made by an entirely new studio and I for one am very excited to see Halo attempted by someone other than Bungie. While many of the original devs of Halo are still on the team, which I submit is actually a really good thing to have, it is still an entirely new studio and hopefully we are going to get some creative new gameplay experiences added to the old Halo formula which I would not say is broken and in need of fixing in anyway but its definitely starved for innovation.
NUMBER 2
Dishonored
Dishonored looks to me like a steam punk Bioshock with some really interesting art direction, a deep story of revenge, and wide open levels where who lives, who dies, and how are left entirely up to the discretion of the player be they a psychotic killing machine or a more compassionate hero on a quest for justice and vengeance. The devs describe you as a "supernatural steampunk assasin" need anyone say anymore?! Trust me, be excited for this game.
NUMBER 1
ASSASSIN'S CREED 3
Before I say anything else...ASSASSIN'S CREED 3. That is it, that's all that anyone needs to say. This game is going to be huge I cannot even believe that we have come this close to its launch at the end of October. Ever since the first Assassin's Creed, I have been in love with this series. The characters, the story, the combat, the movement, control scheme, graphics, there is no aspect of these games where they phone it in ever. Every thing is taken deeply into account and I cannot wait to see what is next for this crazy story. Not to mention that it is the first Assassin's Creed in the last 3 AC games to have a full 3 year development period with a brand new game engine and a development team that is made up of the original Assassin's Creed development veterans. I cannot wait to see how this all comes together, GOTY right here people.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
One Piece: Pirate Warriors review
Before reading this review, you should know that this game screams FOR THE FANS ONLY, I would not even suggest you try it if you are not a One Piece fan let alone an anime fan. That being said I am a huge One Piece fan. I love it, I love every second of it and I think that everyone else should too so when I heard there was a new One Piece video game coming out and that it was actually coming over to the U.S. I had to have it, it became quite literally a necessity in my life. So now that all of that has been laid out on the table let me tell you what I think about One Piece: Pirate Warriors. While some people believe that this may be Dynasty Warriors painted over with a One Piece skin I am here to say that this is not entirely true, while it is mostly correct there are some distinct differences between Pirate Warriors and Dynasty Warriors. Both are made by the same company and both have you capturing territories and defeated large waves of enemies who are for the most part cannon fodder and significantly weaker than your character across a large battlefield.
Pirate Warriors has a fairly well made combo system. More often than not you can easily get by with just randomly mashing buttons as you can in most Dynasty Warriors games, however, there are many combos that are modeled after some of the Straw Hat's more iconic moves that cause different effects. Gum Gum Gatling, for example will cover a wide area and dish out many hits often pushing enemies back and allowing Luffy to advance but it does not do too much damage. Gum Gum Bazooka however will do a lot of damage and push a smaller number of enemies back in one hit with the added advantage of causing shields and guards to break. Most of these combos are rather large and can get difficult to remember but considering that I used to love games like that and have not seen one in a while this is a welcome addition in my opinion. Another large difference from Dynasty Warriors is that there are many platforming and puzzle sections in the game.
Keeping true to the source material you will often have to use Luffy's rubber abilities and playful mind to get across puzzles and platforming stages. You can use Gum Gum Rocket to launch yourself across a gap, use Luffy's stretchable arms to swing, and use Gum Gum Balloon to bounce off of walls and redirect cannon fire. In addition to this you can activate any crew member in the vicinity as a partner and by inputting the correct combo you can initiate a powerful crew strike where Luffy dishes out his combo and then you are given control of the partnered crew member for a short time. Speaking of crew members, all nine members of the Straw Hat crew are available to play as in this game as well as four other special characters.
You do not often take control of anyone other than Luffy throughout the story but all crew members can be used in alternate modes like online and local multiplayer and Another Log which allows you to replay story missions as other characters.
One of my biggest issues with this game would be the camera control which is rather erratic and inaccurate, when centering, it centers toward the center of the screen not towards where Luffy is facing. You can also target enemies but the camera does not center on them it just centers Luffy's movement around them. When you are facing large numbers of enemies or deadly bosses you need to clearly be able to see where your character is in relation to them so that your attacks fire off in the right direction. Remember that this game is highly based off of Dynasty Warriors so the only real feedback you have that your attack hit when fighting a boss is that their health bar is moving down with the exception that you may startle them with certain attacks every once in a while.
My other huge issue with this game is that it skips a few very important arcs in the series. Jaya, Skypiea, and Thriller Bark are completely skipped as if they never happened and as a hard core fan this does not sit well with me at all. What does cater to my fandom is the few big story moments that are fully laid out in beautiful CG, Luffy's touching moment with Jimbei at the end of the Marineford War still made me bawl as hard as it did when I saw it in the anime. Truth be told, Pirate Warriors is not really such a great game, you can do much better as far as beat em ups go however for fans like me who really have been dying to take control of the Straw Hat crew in a new video game and use their powers and combat abilities, it can be one hell of a fun time.
6.5/10
Pirate Warriors has a fairly well made combo system. More often than not you can easily get by with just randomly mashing buttons as you can in most Dynasty Warriors games, however, there are many combos that are modeled after some of the Straw Hat's more iconic moves that cause different effects. Gum Gum Gatling, for example will cover a wide area and dish out many hits often pushing enemies back and allowing Luffy to advance but it does not do too much damage. Gum Gum Bazooka however will do a lot of damage and push a smaller number of enemies back in one hit with the added advantage of causing shields and guards to break. Most of these combos are rather large and can get difficult to remember but considering that I used to love games like that and have not seen one in a while this is a welcome addition in my opinion. Another large difference from Dynasty Warriors is that there are many platforming and puzzle sections in the game.
Keeping true to the source material you will often have to use Luffy's rubber abilities and playful mind to get across puzzles and platforming stages. You can use Gum Gum Rocket to launch yourself across a gap, use Luffy's stretchable arms to swing, and use Gum Gum Balloon to bounce off of walls and redirect cannon fire. In addition to this you can activate any crew member in the vicinity as a partner and by inputting the correct combo you can initiate a powerful crew strike where Luffy dishes out his combo and then you are given control of the partnered crew member for a short time. Speaking of crew members, all nine members of the Straw Hat crew are available to play as in this game as well as four other special characters.
You do not often take control of anyone other than Luffy throughout the story but all crew members can be used in alternate modes like online and local multiplayer and Another Log which allows you to replay story missions as other characters.
One of my biggest issues with this game would be the camera control which is rather erratic and inaccurate, when centering, it centers toward the center of the screen not towards where Luffy is facing. You can also target enemies but the camera does not center on them it just centers Luffy's movement around them. When you are facing large numbers of enemies or deadly bosses you need to clearly be able to see where your character is in relation to them so that your attacks fire off in the right direction. Remember that this game is highly based off of Dynasty Warriors so the only real feedback you have that your attack hit when fighting a boss is that their health bar is moving down with the exception that you may startle them with certain attacks every once in a while.
My other huge issue with this game is that it skips a few very important arcs in the series. Jaya, Skypiea, and Thriller Bark are completely skipped as if they never happened and as a hard core fan this does not sit well with me at all. What does cater to my fandom is the few big story moments that are fully laid out in beautiful CG, Luffy's touching moment with Jimbei at the end of the Marineford War still made me bawl as hard as it did when I saw it in the anime. Truth be told, Pirate Warriors is not really such a great game, you can do much better as far as beat em ups go however for fans like me who really have been dying to take control of the Straw Hat crew in a new video game and use their powers and combat abilities, it can be one hell of a fun time.
6.5/10
Friday, September 28, 2012
Borderlands 2 Review
We all remember the grind of Borderlands 1, it was a never ending stream of new loot to compare and switch between, skill points and strength to look forward to with each level, and a large sprawling new world complete with hilarious psychotics, cannibals, shotgun midgets, and of course skags. Somewhere along the lines though, we got tired of having no new missions to complete and once we were fully leveled and had found that one gun that could kill any enemy with a single shot if felt as though there was no reason to play Borderlands and it drifted off as we would sell it back to Gamestop in order to get money for our next big adventure. However, it would not be long before we began to miss the colors, the humor, the overly engaging blend of rpg and fps that no other game had ever dare attempted and now its back.
Yes thankfully we can now return to Pandora and its 85 gazillion guns are at our fingertips. Borderlands 2 features 4 all new vault hunters and a brand new story that actually takes off of the train wreck that was the story of the first game. The opening of the first vault spread eridium throughout Pandora and it quickly became a hot commodity. A man named Handsome Jack saw this as a great opportunity for the Hyperion corporation, one of the major gun manufacturers from the original game, to swoop in and bring order to the lawless planet in order to mine the eridium and gain power and wealth. Now Jack has become the new president of Hyperion and he has found a second vault on Pandora and he invites vault hunters to come help him open it so he can just kill them as soon as they get there ensuring that he has no competition. If you cannot tell already, the story is much, much better in the sequel. I was honestly impressed with it this time around. Not only were they able to salvage the gigantic, mind-numbingly bland story of the first game, but they expanded on it bringing back all of the characters from the original game, including all 4 original vault hunters, and crafted a story of revenge, heroism, tragedy, love, loss, and reflection over good and evil. Of course all the gore, crude humor, and murder remain perfectly intact so do not fret.
The 4 classes have been completely revamped with new abilities and vastly different skill trees that cater to a myriad of play styles and skill levels. There is Salvador the gunzerker who can activate his gunzerking skill in order to duel wield any two guns in the game while he regenerates health and ammo and screams bloody murder much like Brick did when activating his berzerker skill. Salvador is very much a tank/dps class, that is how I utilized his skills anyway. His three skill trees focus on tanking, shrugging off damage and regenerating health. Switching weapons, giving bonuses for constantly using different weapons and weapon types, and continuous fire. A gunzerker needs to never stop firing and if at all possible never stop gunzerking you will probably get the most dps out of this skill tree but not you will essentially be a glass cannon. The commando, Axton, is a lot like Roland in that he is entirely dps and his action skill deploys a sabre turret that I am happy to say is much more useful than Roland's was. All of Axton's skill trees are incredibly useful focusing on powering up the turret for support, powering up Axton's overall damage and magazine size, or strengthening Axton's survivability and being able to get out two sabre turrets equipped with shields. Now I have yet to try the other two characters but Maya and Zero both seem to be ranged support. Zero's action skill makes a decoy of himself that aggros enemies and Maya can grab an enemy in a stasis bubble that does continuous damage and often offers buffs to the team.
The classes and story are not the only things that have been revamped. The multiplayer has been given some upgrades as well. You can still do the classic four player co op and work through the story as a team however the enemy level scale will depend on the level of the host character but having more people in your party makes the game more difficult and rare loot drops more often. Story points can be skipped or re done for more advanced players who do not wish to replay them or for those who do. Weapon and skill menus have a sleeker and more interesting layout that does not take up the whole screen during co op and allowing all players to check their menus or compare weapons at the same time. There is now a full system for trading money and equipment instead of just dropping things on the ground and hoping you do not lose them before the person you are trading with has a chance to pick them up. You can even bet a bunch of money or equipment on the outcome of a duel between you and another player however the arenas have been removed to put more focus on co op play. I am still looking for a good team to take down the gigantic and imposing raid boss Terramorphous if anyone would be interested.
Of course being that this is Borderlands, there needs to be tons and tons of different guns and enemy types and Gearbox did not disappoint. If you can believe it there are actually more guns and enemy types in this game than there were in the first and that is really saying something. I think the first game actually had a around 17 million different guns and it won the Guinness world record for most guns in a video game ever. The guns. grenades and enemies are much more interesting this time around. Each manufacturer adds a new and unique effect to their guns such as gaining accuracy with hyperion weapons and throwing the gun like a grenade to reload it with tediore weapons. The differing abilities between weapons and their elemental effects are much more prevalent and no two weapons are even slightly alike. You can even inspect the millions of impressive 3d gun models in full detail now which as an animator, I found was a very nice feature.
All in all, Borderlands 2 has completely brought back the chaos and the comedy in an even bigger way and I loved every second of it. I cannot wait to start my second play through as the gunzerker and I know that this time around I will be playing through as every character because they are all just way too interesting to ignore. If you like shooters, rpgs, pretty and unique graphical styles, or completely hilarious and over the top experiences that are increasingly hard to come by, you cannot afford to miss Borderlands 2.
9/10
Yes thankfully we can now return to Pandora and its 85 gazillion guns are at our fingertips. Borderlands 2 features 4 all new vault hunters and a brand new story that actually takes off of the train wreck that was the story of the first game. The opening of the first vault spread eridium throughout Pandora and it quickly became a hot commodity. A man named Handsome Jack saw this as a great opportunity for the Hyperion corporation, one of the major gun manufacturers from the original game, to swoop in and bring order to the lawless planet in order to mine the eridium and gain power and wealth. Now Jack has become the new president of Hyperion and he has found a second vault on Pandora and he invites vault hunters to come help him open it so he can just kill them as soon as they get there ensuring that he has no competition. If you cannot tell already, the story is much, much better in the sequel. I was honestly impressed with it this time around. Not only were they able to salvage the gigantic, mind-numbingly bland story of the first game, but they expanded on it bringing back all of the characters from the original game, including all 4 original vault hunters, and crafted a story of revenge, heroism, tragedy, love, loss, and reflection over good and evil. Of course all the gore, crude humor, and murder remain perfectly intact so do not fret.
The 4 classes have been completely revamped with new abilities and vastly different skill trees that cater to a myriad of play styles and skill levels. There is Salvador the gunzerker who can activate his gunzerking skill in order to duel wield any two guns in the game while he regenerates health and ammo and screams bloody murder much like Brick did when activating his berzerker skill. Salvador is very much a tank/dps class, that is how I utilized his skills anyway. His three skill trees focus on tanking, shrugging off damage and regenerating health. Switching weapons, giving bonuses for constantly using different weapons and weapon types, and continuous fire. A gunzerker needs to never stop firing and if at all possible never stop gunzerking you will probably get the most dps out of this skill tree but not you will essentially be a glass cannon. The commando, Axton, is a lot like Roland in that he is entirely dps and his action skill deploys a sabre turret that I am happy to say is much more useful than Roland's was. All of Axton's skill trees are incredibly useful focusing on powering up the turret for support, powering up Axton's overall damage and magazine size, or strengthening Axton's survivability and being able to get out two sabre turrets equipped with shields. Now I have yet to try the other two characters but Maya and Zero both seem to be ranged support. Zero's action skill makes a decoy of himself that aggros enemies and Maya can grab an enemy in a stasis bubble that does continuous damage and often offers buffs to the team.
The classes and story are not the only things that have been revamped. The multiplayer has been given some upgrades as well. You can still do the classic four player co op and work through the story as a team however the enemy level scale will depend on the level of the host character but having more people in your party makes the game more difficult and rare loot drops more often. Story points can be skipped or re done for more advanced players who do not wish to replay them or for those who do. Weapon and skill menus have a sleeker and more interesting layout that does not take up the whole screen during co op and allowing all players to check their menus or compare weapons at the same time. There is now a full system for trading money and equipment instead of just dropping things on the ground and hoping you do not lose them before the person you are trading with has a chance to pick them up. You can even bet a bunch of money or equipment on the outcome of a duel between you and another player however the arenas have been removed to put more focus on co op play. I am still looking for a good team to take down the gigantic and imposing raid boss Terramorphous if anyone would be interested.
Of course being that this is Borderlands, there needs to be tons and tons of different guns and enemy types and Gearbox did not disappoint. If you can believe it there are actually more guns and enemy types in this game than there were in the first and that is really saying something. I think the first game actually had a around 17 million different guns and it won the Guinness world record for most guns in a video game ever. The guns. grenades and enemies are much more interesting this time around. Each manufacturer adds a new and unique effect to their guns such as gaining accuracy with hyperion weapons and throwing the gun like a grenade to reload it with tediore weapons. The differing abilities between weapons and their elemental effects are much more prevalent and no two weapons are even slightly alike. You can even inspect the millions of impressive 3d gun models in full detail now which as an animator, I found was a very nice feature.
All in all, Borderlands 2 has completely brought back the chaos and the comedy in an even bigger way and I loved every second of it. I cannot wait to start my second play through as the gunzerker and I know that this time around I will be playing through as every character because they are all just way too interesting to ignore. If you like shooters, rpgs, pretty and unique graphical styles, or completely hilarious and over the top experiences that are increasingly hard to come by, you cannot afford to miss Borderlands 2.
9/10
About Games-a-blazin
For anyone who would care to know, my name is Geoffrey Epstein, if you have not already figured that out, and I am the sole writer of this blog. I am a gamer, a prospective game designer, a writer, an otaku, a full on "nerdist" some might say and in this blog I am going to give you my take on many of the goings on within the games industry. This will include previews and reviews of many of the games that I play, considering I tend to play just about all of them that is going to mean a lot of previews and reviews.
Friday, September 14, 2012
I BET YOU WANT A FIREFALL BETA KEY!
I was recently sent an invitation to the closed beta for
Firefall which is an open world MMO, RPG, 3rd/1st person
shooter. It feels and looks a lot like borderlands with the exception that it
is in MMO form. The weapons are not as playful nor are the abilities and every
ability thus far seems more like last minute support than an effective plan of
attack of course I have not gotten very far into my leveling tree. Speaking of
which, leveling is very interesting in that all classes are available to you at
all times when you play one you rack up XP for that class and can buy another
upgrade when you have enough. The upgrades, a lot like the abilities, do not
seem very useful thus far but I am still at the bottom of the tree so I am sure
they will get better. I really like that every character and every class are
given some type of jump jet with the exception of rpg abilities, it is a cool
way to throw a twist into what would be yet another bland shooter, however,
even though I say that I am starting to get a good sense of how the different
classes mesh together in both PVE and PVP. I was digging for resources which attracted
the attention of many enemy AIs and as an assault class I had a good DPS with
close ranged combat and an effective AOE weapon, my mobility was high but my
health and defense was not so I could not hold off many enemies on my own for
too long without dying. As I was fighting two engineers landed on the mountain
behind me and started laying down turret drones which aggroed many of the
enemies allowing me to fly up to that mountain and defend the engineers by
firing into the crowd of enemies with my AOE gun. This experience really gave
me a nice feel for how the game is supposed to work out and all in all I had a
lot of fun with it.
It has been quite some time since I came back to Firefall so I decided to take another little romp about this tiny and desperately lacking world that Red Five studios would dare to call an MMO. Since there was seemingly nothing left for my character to do other than kill the same couple of bug like enemies that I had already killed one hundred times over I decided to check out the PVP aspect of Firefall as it seemed like a large part of the game and the developers had poured quite a bit of love into it. Obviously, you play with your own character and can switch their class or "battleframe" at any point during the match like many other multiplayer shooters. I decided to start with my acrobatic, mid-ranged health, assault class armed with a low damage smg and a shotgun like weapon that fires off a ball of energy that then causes a wide area of splash damage. The smg was almost completely useless and the shotgun was almost impossible to aim especially as everyone was flying around with their thrusters because the shotgun does not fire straight, it lobs up and dips down. The only real advantage of the assault class was the high damage of the shotgun, when it hit, and its high mobility. I decided to change into a class that more suited my style, the dreadnaught. The dreadnaught is the tank class. Slow moving, medium dps, high health and defense. You see I like to play shooters as though I were rambo, I run straight into the fray of bullets and fire to my heart's content and you need a class with some serious defense to be successful with that strategy. While I had quite a deal more fun using the dreadnaught, the main minigun that he carries took way too long to charge up and his special skills that deploy a very small shield to trap enemies and protect you from ranged attacks or take an immobile stance that improves accuracy and fire rate but limits visibility were not very useful at all with everyone moving around so fast. Still for all of my criticism I can definitely see that they have something of an interesting shooter coming together. Player movement and aiming is very fluid but it has no heft to it. When you fire a shotgun in Gears of War you can almost feel the kick of the gun and the ripping of flesh as the shells tear through it, but in Firefall, I see the bullets flying but I don't feel like I am firing them. I am not expecting this to be as good of a shooter as Gears but I think the definitely need to change some character animatics.
It has been quite some time since I came back to Firefall so I decided to take another little romp about this tiny and desperately lacking world that Red Five studios would dare to call an MMO. Since there was seemingly nothing left for my character to do other than kill the same couple of bug like enemies that I had already killed one hundred times over I decided to check out the PVP aspect of Firefall as it seemed like a large part of the game and the developers had poured quite a bit of love into it. Obviously, you play with your own character and can switch their class or "battleframe" at any point during the match like many other multiplayer shooters. I decided to start with my acrobatic, mid-ranged health, assault class armed with a low damage smg and a shotgun like weapon that fires off a ball of energy that then causes a wide area of splash damage. The smg was almost completely useless and the shotgun was almost impossible to aim especially as everyone was flying around with their thrusters because the shotgun does not fire straight, it lobs up and dips down. The only real advantage of the assault class was the high damage of the shotgun, when it hit, and its high mobility. I decided to change into a class that more suited my style, the dreadnaught. The dreadnaught is the tank class. Slow moving, medium dps, high health and defense. You see I like to play shooters as though I were rambo, I run straight into the fray of bullets and fire to my heart's content and you need a class with some serious defense to be successful with that strategy. While I had quite a deal more fun using the dreadnaught, the main minigun that he carries took way too long to charge up and his special skills that deploy a very small shield to trap enemies and protect you from ranged attacks or take an immobile stance that improves accuracy and fire rate but limits visibility were not very useful at all with everyone moving around so fast. Still for all of my criticism I can definitely see that they have something of an interesting shooter coming together. Player movement and aiming is very fluid but it has no heft to it. When you fire a shotgun in Gears of War you can almost feel the kick of the gun and the ripping of flesh as the shells tear through it, but in Firefall, I see the bullets flying but I don't feel like I am firing them. I am not expecting this to be as good of a shooter as Gears but I think the definitely need to change some character animatics.
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