PvP: A Love / Hate Relationship

You know me: I love competition. I like getting into the thick of it, on the frontlines, so to speak. I love me some good old fashioned competitive multiplayer and, with the added luxury of online modes in practically every single game, there is always somebody to play against. Under certain circumstance, you can make the argument that developers tacking on a multiplayer mode is a bad thing—it could be a distraction after all in the development process, having to spilt resources—but I think that coupling a decent multiplayer experience with an engaging single player will keep a gamer on you product longer, and in general may get you more sales in the long run.

Getting schooled is never fun though haha; and while it happens less often, it does still happen, sort of putting a damper on a player’s mood.

The Game

I've still been playing a fair amount of Destiny, the majority of my time being spent in the multiplayer arena called: The Crucible. Sadly, I've noticed that there is a significant lack of sub-machine guns—being my weapon of choice in most shooters—in Destiny. And since I'm not the biggest fan of the assault rifle, I've been forced to adapt my strategy, instead opting for the single shot scout rifle. Coupling that with a fusion rifle for those close range bouts, I'm pretty set.

The rush you get when playing PvP can't be beat, at least not when you are winning. Nothing tops getting sucker punched by some asshat and still having the skill or the know-how to come out on top—all while screaming profanities at the schmuck who tried to attack you from the back like a coward.

The problem is that online FPS multiplayer isn't about your guns...I mean, it is about your guns but it's more about your map awareness. Investing time into a game might help your aim; might help you to familiarize yourself with a particular type of weapon you like. But overall, it really just helps you learn the maps and that's where games are won and lost. Learning the ins and outs of a certain map, how best to attack a point or the best escape route.

The Pain

You always hear over the internet about people always being pissed off by some pre-pubescent boy mercing them. Having to hear their stupid voice over the mic (thank god we don't have that problem in Destiny). The real thing you're angry about is how much free time this child has to spend on a game you enjoy and how you resent them for it. That's all it is.

Another member of this blog has informed me that the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is actually very enjoyable. I haven't delved into a CoD game since the second Modern Warfare and I would be lying if I said the sci-fi setting didn't intrigue the fuck out of me... Maybe I'll try to sucker some of my friends into buying it with me.

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Evil Resides Within

In the last few years, I’ve kind of had this tradition with a buddy of mine: if we ever find a survival horror game that interests us, we set aside a weekend or two and we play cooperatively, switching every chapter or if one of us hits a roadblock. We’ve done this for Amnesiaand Outlast, and they were both really fun experiences: There’s something about sharing the horror that makes it all the more fun. So when The Evil Within came out it was a no brainer for us. The game had that freaky aesthetic and for once they gave us weapons, which was definitely a leg up over Outlast and Amnesia where all we could do was run and hide.

The game itself is both fun and terrifying. The controls are a little difficult to pick up, as well as a few of the in-game mechanics. Once you get a handle on everything though the game flows a lot better and starts to feel less clunky. The Evil Within shares a lot of similarities with the Resident Evil franchise which makes sense as Shinji Mikami is the creator of Resident Evil and is now the director for The Evil Within. The game shines through mostly in the combat. It’s practically the same except for one major improvement: You can move while aiming, which is leaps and bounds better than its Resident Evil counterpart.

The Evil Within also follows a similar formula to the Resident Evil style of survival horror. They introduce the main antagonist early on and then subsequently introduce bosses that chase you around and terrify you until you happen upon the perfect environment to kill them. Now this same trope is apparent in a lot of survival horror games. The way they approach it differently in The Evil Within is that the whole time you play, you're questioning your own characters sanity because the more you play, the more surreal and strange the locales become. You find yourself teleporting all over the place and you keep warping through mirrors to this weird upgrade hub, which at time feels familiar but also unnerving. They do a great job of never letting a place feel too comfortable for too long which can be a problem in the genre; if you stay somewhere too long, you start to recognize it for what it is. The areas become less creepy and more mundane, so forcing you to adapt to new areas randomly allows you to never really settle into that comfort zone because you’re always being thrown into new locals.

Now I’d like to talk about the upgrade hub. Every so often you find these doors that lead to rooms containing a cracked mirror, you can then warp into the mirror to enter the upgrade hub (as I'm calling it). Now the hub is one floor of a sanitarium, but it’s never quite the same as when you left it and it’s actually one of the most interesting parts of the game. In most games this zone would feel safe and familiar but in fact it’s the opposite. They constantly throw all these weird and scary events at you when you're in there and it’s not jump scares, it’s just these different combinations of unnerving scenery and music making the one place you might call home in the game far from it. It forces you to always be on edge because you have no idea what’s going to be there when you show up.

I haven't beaten The Evil Within yet, so I can't give you my full opinion but from what I've played so far the game has been really good. I won't say it's the scariest game out there but it's worth looking into and I'd recommend it if you're a fan of the genre. If not though, I'd say hold off and wait for a price drop or try another of the multitude of survival horror games out there.

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Dear Destiny

Dear Destiny,

I first saw you in the flesh at Adam’s house; and after the brief moment I had with you, I knew I wanted you. So bad. Without hesitation, I woke up next morning to find you at Best Buy and had to pick you up. I drove home with you by my side and we had hours of fun on our first one-on-one.

It’s been almost a month since we’ve first met, and I still have the same feelings for you as I did when I first met you. We’ve been through quite a bit so far, so much so that I’ve been counting the hours. 72 hours and counting. It’s just that I’m crazy for you and every moment without you feels like forever.

At this point, all I’m doing is grinding. I’m not going to complain about it, grinding has been tons of fun, but I expected more. You told me your story, and I’ve heard it again and again. It wasn’t anything special but you still made me smile when it got down to the action.

All this is great, however I’m left feeling worried. Worried because I’ve been seeing you on a daily basis and that the past few weeks have been nothing but grinding. I think I wanted to keep you for the long haul, you know, build a long-term relationship with you, as you had mentioned. However, being with you so much is taking a toll on me, and I would like to have some space.

Please allow for both of us to have a few days off. We can talk about it later.

Yours truly,

A complete loser.

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Crucible Is My Destiny

The long awaited Bungie adoption has arrived, with a loadout that will flood your Halo nostalgia with warm fuzziness. I, for one, played upwards of 12 hours of Destiny on the first day and haven't been this addicted to a game since Halo 3. This unique re-creation of the 'Halo ideal' steers clear of 343 industries' botched COD-style Halo and offers the meat and potatoes of any true franchise fan. This is clearly a Bungie game. For those of like-mind and the individuals that believed Halo 2 and 3 were the height of console gaming, you will truly appreciate the single-player to multiplayer transition. The seamlessness that Bungie/Activision created is a genuinely innovative and revolutionary idea. The concept of bringing in-game single-player 'loot' to a multiplayer setting has yet to be achieved so successfully. Yes, you heard correctly: single-player RPG 'loot' into an arena style FPS PvP.

The most beautiful aspects of this game are the most simple. The idea of summoning a pocket rocket bike in 1.5 seconds changes the entire speed of play, and the wonderfully nostalgic Halo-esque music that begins to drum away in PvE firefights, for instance. It feels like Unreal Tournament mixed with Borderlands and Halo to create some freakishly different, exotic game. To the Halo fans that love the moon boots, they're back. Everyone gets jetpacks (unlike in Reach) so the ninja moves are real and fun as hell. The beauty of this MMORPGFPS is it's ability to diversify multiplayer settings incredibly quickly.

Nonetheless, Destiny has a few daunting features: a soft level cap of 20 leaves it open to quick and shallow criticism. The multiplayer's Titan smash is arguably too powerful and some vehicles need to be nerfed but otherwise the game is well balanced. The AI is moderately intelligent but overall quite predictable yet, it is extremely entertaining to kill nonetheless. The 'worlds' are large but not overwhelmingly awe-inspiring. Nor do they have a sense of endlessness that you would expect from a sandbox title. Regardless, there is a lot to explore with winding sub-level 'dungeons' to keep anyone entertained for extended periods of time.

If Destiny is carried properly onto the competitive platform, it has endless potential. The armour variants offered add countless complexities to multiplayer gameplay. The minute stat boosts offered through a wide variety of armour tweaks individualize play styles tremendously. Every player needs to understand their play style intimately to maximize their gear's efficiency. Destiny has the precision and fluidity of the Halo series but the gear complexities of great RPG. It re-introduced the beautifully simple, yet perfect concept of 'weapons on map': The brilliant idea whereby teams need to fight for control of key areas that spawn 'power weapon ammo'. While this game has the potential to be too far reaching to the point of self-harm, it is by no means a Molyneaux game (Fable 2-3). As long as the publishers release competitive outlets for its more genuine gamer audience, it has a lot of potential. That is, after all, the Halo way.

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Loading Destiny

I sunk my teeth into Destinya bit more this week. Probably put in another 6-7 hours. I was able to beat the "single player" campaign and did some grinding as well, if you can even call what I did grinding. At this point I feel as though I've experienced enough of Destiny to talk about it, although at the same time I've only scratched the surface of the late-game content.

Destiny Awaits

Currently I sit at level 20 which is the soft cap. I say soft cap because you are able to get to a level past 20 but not by any conventional means—you know, with experience. Instead what you have to do is find equipment that has a special attribute on it called light. It is this light that will level you past 20. It's an interesting idea for sure and I don't remember it being used in any other game before. But, it isn't without its faults. Destiny basically forces people to grind for equipment once they hit level 20. I have yet to take part in any real grinding since someone recommended that I focus my efforts in another way. But essentially the way to grind in Destiny is by focusing on kills per minute. Since each enemy has a drop rate for loot and the game ignores an enemy's level, enemies will drop equipment for your level instead—which is awesome by the way—so you can grind anywhere you like, be it against strong or weak enemies.

Now what got recommended to me was to focus on daily and weekly events. Doing these missions is not only more active and entertaining for the player, but I also gain money and I can work towards my bounties, which are these passive missions—like headshot killing 100 enemies, or melee kill 30 enemies without dying—that give you experience and faction points, the latter of which can be used to buy sweet ass equipment for level 20+ characters.

So to get to level 20 I went through the story, which is negligible at best. I can easily say I did not pay much attention to it, and maybe not because it was bad per say, but because it fell into the MMO trope, at least for me. The moment I start playing a game with a friend (or even when I was streaming games) I get too focused on the co-op / talking with people that I hardly ever pay attention to the narrative. The same exact thing happened in Halo. I never played Halo alone and to this day I could not tell you what the story was about other than you gotta go kill aliens before they wipe you out...which spoiler alert: That's more or less the gist of it in Destiny.

The missions are enjoyable at least, and the environments—Earth, the Moon, Venus and Mars—are all unique looking and are host to different enemies and factions. The smaller 2-3 person raids in each zone are like longer missions with big ass bosses at the end. They're pretty cool, but unless you're a higher level, I would suggest going in with 3 people versus 2. The larger 6 man raid is only available to people that are at least level 25, so I have yet to try it, but it's supposed to be fantastic.

A few things do bug me about Destiny though. The load times are atrocious, and I really do mean atrocious. This is like first Mass Effect elevator bad. But whatever, it won't kill me. It's a fairly minor point that won't stop anyone from buying or playing the game, but it does get in the way everywhere.

Another thing is the public events. After completing a couple of missions at each location, you get the ability to do a patrol around the map. On patrol, you can pick up inconsequential side missions that don't take too long to complete, and on occasion a public event will occur. A public event is like a mission everyone can take part in together, and they just appear on the map. They usually consist of destroying a large boss character, or defending a point from a barrage of enemies. If you've played any MMO recently, they are all starting to do this. Guild Wars 2 was one of the first games I played with public events in it and it's quite a bit of fun...you know, when there are actually people in the zone helping! The first public event I took part in, there was a ton of people joining in. It was super cool and I had a lot of fun. Every other time one appears on a map, I'm apparently the only person around to do it. It's possible to finish with a gold rating on your own, but holy shit is it hard! One of the reasons for this might be that there is a cap on how many people are in a patrol instance at any given time, and if memory serves, it's not a very large number (8-12 people I think but don't hold me to that). It's just not enough.

Final Thoughts

All-in-all I'm enjoying my time with Destiny. I love playing online with my friends, and I really want to hit level 25 to try out that large scale raid. Tune in for more next week!

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Battleborn, More Like BattleAWESOME

Through the years, gamers are exposed to a slew of game producers who release titles that just may tickle your fancy. Some of these titles infatuate us so much that we find ourselves absolutely obsessed with them. Once the producer of said awesome game follows up with an equally awesome sequel then we come across, what I like to call, the team bias. Team bias is when you will eat up just about everything a production team will spoon feed you because you're convinced that they're the best. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong; in the case of GearBox and Battleborn, you're absolutely right!

Just to get this out of the way, I am all kinds of crazy hyped for this game. Gearbox have left their mark on the world with their fantastic Borderlands series. I've played countless hours of those titles and considering that they're putting the same kind of personality into a MOBA game results in me being more than enthused. That being said, there isn't too much information released yet on Battlebornbut, everything that is sounds incredibly promising. Like I expressed, it's a GearBox original, how can it possibly be bad?

Nevertheless, this week brought forth a couple of video previews allowing us to gaze at the intensity that is Battleborn. When I first heard that it was going to be a MOBA with a first-person perspective, I was really baffled. As a fairly new player to DOTA 2, I figured the whole genre was played the same way but watching it in action, whoa, excellent! It truly looks and feels like borderlands but in a more controlled environments framed by lanes and towers. There's a campaign mode that's available and allows you to play cooperatively, as well as the standard competitive multiplayer. The trailers also allowed us a peak into the narrative. So far, we know that all the stars in the universe have darkened except for one. The different races have retreated from their home worlds and find themselves together on this last planet struggling to survive. Nothing crazy, in fact it's a standard general storyline but considering their record, GearBox is sure to make it entertaining enough.

In contrast, the character information that has been revealed is pretty entertaining. We now know that there are a number of factions that your character originates from. The Peacekeepersare a law-bound people who enforce regulations in a strict manner. The Eldrid are lovers of nature and the natural order of things. The Jennerit Empire are your born-to-war conquerors. The Rogues are simply "factionless" characters and the Last Light Consortium are profiteers who sells arms to all factions. The characters revealed were some of the most unique designs I have seen in a long while. Montana is a giant soldier who wields a Gatling-gun but has an itty-bitty head. Miko is some fungi ninja, who turns out to be of the fairer sex. Marquis, my personal favorite, is quite a dapper android fellow, complete with rifle and monocle. There are tons of other characters to discover and many more that haven't even been revealed yet. Much like the Borderlands games, they present a lively, colorful and wild array of characters. The designs alone intrigued me enough to look into the game further.

Sadly, not much else has been revealed but the gameplay looks solid and with the standard M.O.B.A. setup of having to regain levels every time you play is an interesting mechanic for an fps. We know that there are two sets of trees that allow you to experiment with your characters. We also know that each character has a special move of sorts that is unlocked around level 6 or 7. There also seems to be some objective-based missions but nothing is too clear at the moment. Regardless, I, for one, am incredibly stoked for this game. In any case, what do you all think? Will this be as popular as Borderlands or DOTA? Looking forward to seeing any and all of you online upon launch. Toodles.

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Starting Destiny

This week will serve as an abridge for my upcoming post. I am still currently playing Destiny, although much to my chagrin I have had other obligations that have stilted my play time. Within the first 2 days I had pumped a good 8 hours into the single player (part of that co-op / the 3 man raids) and another few hours into the Crucible which is what they call the PVP arena. Yes this is a lot of play time for 2 days, but now being a week into the game, I have not had much time to put anything else into it.

First things first, Destiny is a huge amount of fun. It's incredibly enjoyable whichever way you decide to play it. Want to run through the game solo? That works. Want to go around doing the campaign with a friend? Even more fun. Want to kill your fellow gamers in a blood bath? Go right ahead. It's all solid and the game really does control just like Halo—which isn't a bad thing considering how much that series is adored.

I would go into a lot more detail, but I feel as though I need to sink my teeth into Destiny a little more to get a full opinion if it. Right now, it's great any which way you decide to play—with or without friends basically—but I want to go through all the campaign content and see what's what. As of this writing, the 6 man raids have yet to open for the public to play, but they will be available shortly. Those 6 man raids are supposed to be "end game" content, and since I have yet to beat the game, I will stop writing and start pumping more time into Destiny! I have a few spare hours this week, so I will definitely put them to good use!

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So Much Hype

Destiny releases tomorrow and out of some awesome twist of fate, it would appear as if I have the entire day off. I will note however that I did not go out of my way to plan this, but I think the universe is telling me to blow my entire day playing Destiny.

My anticipation for Destiny is pretty immense and to be honest, I'm not sure I can even remember the last time I was this hyped for a game. I was jonesing pretty hard for the release of the PS4, but that is a large event, can you even compare a console release to a game release anyway? I'm not sure it would be fair.

I think if I go back far enough, I was really excited for the release of Kingdom Hearts 2. I was in love with the first one, and from everything I was hearing off the internet, the second one was going to be so much better. Now this was also way back in the PS2 days and thinking about it, was I ever that excited for any PS3 game? I'm not entirely sure I was. There had to be one game, but easily nowhere near the level of excitement I have currently for Destiny.

Maybe the last console generation just sucked, I don't know. We only got one new numbered Final Fantasy, and other JRPGs generally remained stagnant; we also saw an over abundance of shooters released, some even sequentially like a sports game. Sure BioShock was a great series and Assassin's Creed is pretty fun, lest we forget about Skyrimwhich was also amazing. Those games, and many more, of the era were great, but they weren't show stoppers. We need more games like the first Halo to release, and heck even when Final Fantasy X hit everyone was going nuts. What happened to that feeling? Where did it go?

Looking back I think I've played more of my PS4 over the last 10 months than I played my PS3 over the last 3-4 years. Part of that might be the fault of indie games on Steam and my growth as a PC gamer, then there was also that ever-infuriating League of Legends game, but I digress...I can't wait for tomorrow, I just want to play Destiny.

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F3AR: Sibling Rivalry And One Scary Pregnant Woman

Horror games have always been a popular gaming genre but always had a smaller pool of titles than most other choices. In the last few years, the horror genre has exploded with the consistently popular viewing of internet "let's play" videos. I was always really attracted to titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but never went out of my way to play anything else of the sort. Insert Fear 3 here. I picked this title up at a magical and spectacular place known as Wal-Mart for the fantastic price of ten dollars. I must say, a creepy grudge rip-off emblazoned upon the cover and the promise of couch co-op enticed me quicker than a beer fountain made entirely of gold and glory. That being said, I popped the disc into my Playstation 3; my lil' lady and I ventured off upon an adventure of morbid proportions. It was time to slay a howling, pregnant woman and deal with brotherly issues.

I must admit, I have not played the first two Fears, but the game does a great job at retelling you prior events. Pointman, our protagonist, was birthed alongside his brother Fettel by some evil little child-woman. Although both brothers were tested on for a super soldier project of sorts, Fettel gave into his rage and lust for power and sought vengeance. In other words, he's the evil brother, while the quiet Pointman is trying to be a pseudo-hero. Fear 2 seems to have ended with our hero putting a bullet in his brother's head and is now constantly haunted by their neurological link. In Fear 3, the brothers team up to seek out their mother who has raped a soldier and is about to give birth to some evil offspring. The brothers bicker about whether they should consume the child and "become like gods" or simply save the world. It's a strange story and somewhat clichéd, but Fettel's banter was entertaining enough to finish it.

In any case, the story isn't what you're playing the game for, especially if you make a dim-wit move as I did and picked the series up in its third installment. You play this game for the ridiculousness that is offered to you. Similarly to Resident Evil 5, the game allows you to play a horror with the splendour of two-player split-screen. You and your best bud will enjoy eight levels of a bullet-time slow motion skill and self-exploding body possessions. You'll tackle some demonic hordes and a serious number of S.W.A.T like forces. These elements coupled with an excellent ambiance that will have you fill your pants with fecal matter is an equation for success. Despite the graphics not being up to par with most games of the current-gen systems, it really presents you with a stressful mood when playing. You spend most of the game devastating teams of angry men with guns; however, every once in a while, you come across a decapitated corpse and demonic shadows. Toss in a few zombie creatures towards the end-game and you've got chills running down your spine. It definitely beckons you to experience more and more of it.

Incidentally, the game has an interesting system that allows your characters to gain points and rank up. This is applied to your profile through all the game modes. You will also notice that there is a form of competition amongst the campaign that rates both brothers via points acquired by the end of the levels. The ending is determined by which of the brothers is the "favorite son". The title is given at the end of each level and the number of times this has happened is calculated at the end. Both endings are fun and it offers some replay  value or at the very least a second run through the game. Fear 3 also offers an online multiplayer mode, however we couldn't access it due to a lack of a player base. Okay well, maybe we didn't try to hard 'cause the offline co-op was so much fun. Expect yelling and jumping and rude comments. It can get intense and you may need your favorite Michael Bolton tune and a box of tissues after a rage filled fit when you died three times in a row. If you game with your significant other, expect to take all the blame and to present them a box of chocolates with the words "you were right honey" inscribed into each chocolaty morsel.

All in all, the game is pretty decent. Far better than I expected but I'd be lying if I said it was extraordinary. It does have lackluster graphics and it's got the standard FPS controls. A campaign on the short side doesn't work in its favor either. Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable experience and another option for a good time with a friend. A terrifying atmosphere and fun character interactions provide for a decent time-killer. Besides, what other game pits you against an evil pregnant woman who's constantly howling from pain due to contractions. Morbid right? A success in my book, just don't run people over on your way to Wal-Mart. This is Charlie signing-off and thinking that a golden beer fountain ain't a bad idea.

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My Time With FarCry 3

Apparently I’m on some sort of Ubisoft kick this summer as, following my play through with Splinter Cell Conviction, I decided to pick up a used copy of Far Cry 3 for a fairly reasonable price. 

I’ve never played any other Far Cry game, but I remember hearing good things about Far Cry 3 when the game first came out. After getting through the always fun patch updates I hit the loading screen and was prompted twice to activate a UPlay account...which was kind of annoying; but the game started fairly quickly after that.

The game’s opening cinematic is pretty decent: it’s basically a montage of a bunch of footage from a vacation trip a bunch of friends are on, all to the tune of Paper Planes by M.I.A. I always like it when games have a popular song in their opening credits. Borderlands rocked pretty hard with Cage the Elephant’s “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” and Call of Duty: Black Ops had a great scene featuring "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones.

As the opening cinematic concludes, it’s revealed to you that all the videos have been playing on a phone and they’re being watched by one of the characters. The phone is being held up by this mad man who’s got you (Jason) and another character (Grant) locked up in a makeshift bamboo cell. At this point I’m already praying that I get to destroy this man by the end of the game. After he leaves, Grant wiggles his way out of his shackles and frees Jason. Grant gets you to lure the guard over so he can take him out. It’s implied that Grant has some military training and you’re just a regular guy because Grant beats the guard to death and you freak out. After all that, the gameplay starts.

When I first heard about Far Cry 3 I thought it was a shoot ‘em up style shooter, but the core gameplay appears to lean more heavily on stealth. The first mission has you and Grant sneaking through this haggard compound trying to find your other friends. A few tutorials are introduced during the opening gameplay sequence, such as the “detection meter”. This meter allows you to monitor how aware the enemies are of your presence.  

I was really pleased with the fact that the game teaches you the mechanics as you play. Nothing drives me crazier than having to sit through an hour of mindless tutorials before actually getting to play the game. I’m looking at you Titanfall. After sneaking through this pirate compound you’re discovered by the jackass from the cage and he full-out murders Grant (who turns out to be your brother). This game starts going full blown Hollywood action/adventure movie in a hurry. I’ll try not to focus too much on the story to avoid spoilers (event though the game was released in December 2012) so I’ll try and stick to the gameplay from here on out.

After Grant gets shot in the face, you end up getting rescued and brought to a small village where you can buy weapons.  You’re prompted to buy a 1911 handgun and go to a radio tower. These radio towers have apparently been hooked up with some sort of signal scrambler and the shopkeeper wants you to disable it. By disabling these scramblers you start to reveal more of the map. Once you interact with a scrambler you’re shown a short clip of a bunch of different nearby points of interest. For example:  a lootable crate in the distance, a small shack with a nearby jeep and other random spots. After you’re done with the tower you’re introduced to the hunting and gathering mechanics in this game. By gathering different animal pelts and miscellaneous herbs you can craft different things for your character.

I really wasn’t expecting so many RPG-like mechanics from this game. Far Cry 3 feels a lot like a big blend of Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed and Red Dead Redemption. They’ve managed to blend a lot of my favorite game genres into one solid game. I had tons of fun exploring the island and running into little side quests here and there. If you’re somewhat of an achievement hunter this game is definitely for you. I tend to rush through my games and I rarely pick them up again after to try and get 100% but if you’re into that sort of thing there’s a tremendous amount of extra thing to do after you’ve completed the story.

The game isn’t perfect though. No game really is. Some of the animations for the hunting/gathering parts of the game get really annoying after a while. I found myself not wanting to put the effort in to craft all the items because of this. To craft the final weapon sling you need to harvest shark skin……No way….noooooope.  I never actually ended up killing a shark because I wasn’t sure how underwater combat would work and I got lazy.  Also, some major parts in the story are resolved in a very unsatisfying and anti-climactic way. I’m used to the end of my shooters to have some epic end scene where I get to exact my revenge on the pain in the ass antagonist. This was seriously lacking for me in the end of the game.

Overall, Far Cry 3 is a great experience; and I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to grab a AAA-calibre game for bargain bin pricing. You have the option of blowing through this game fairly fast or taking your time with all the side quests, achievements and collectables. I beat the game in roughly 12-15 hours but there is a guaranteed 25+ hours of gameplay for those with a greater attention span. I highly recommend this game to any RPG/FPS fans or just Ubisoft fans in general. Thanks for reading.

Later days.

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Zombocalypse Part II

If you've read my blogs before it shouldn't surprise you that I'm a big fan of zombie games, movies and pretty much anything else zombies. So it shouldn't surprise you this week that I'm talking about another zombie game: Dead Nation. Now for those who don't know, Dead Nation is a top down duel-stick shooter for the Playstation 3 and 4. It was also part of the "Welcome Back" pack that Sony put out after the network outage that knocked the PSN down for almost a month—compromising 77 million accounts—which is how I and a lot of other players found themselves in possession of this game (along with Little Big Planet).

All that aside this game is awesome and a ton of fun when played cooperatively. You play the game as either Scarlette or Jake, or both if you're in the co-op mode. You start out by leaving your shelter in search of food and supplies. The zombie apocalypse is well underway at this point and you two are immune to the viral infection which has claimed and zombified the majority of the world's population. After finding a radio and communicating with a scientist from some shadowy corporation (umbrella corp knock off) you learn that the scientist can develop a cure using your DNA and a tissue sample from patient zero, a man called Douglas Bane (fun fact the word "bane" means destroyer or murderer. Get it? Cause he's patient zero; it's symbolism people), and this is all set up so that they can use all your favourite zombie movie locals and tropes without them seemingly thrown in for no reason and it is glorious.

The game is pretty simple but still a fun top down shooter. You use the analogs to aim and move and the only way to describe it is that it feels good. The controls are solid: they never feel inaccurate or sloppy, unless you're freaking out or panicking that is...But in those occasions, in a real crisis, you would be panicking so it really adds a layer of depth to the game and makes it more enjoyable. Now as I said before the game supports co-op and I honestly wouldn't recommend playing it any other way. The game is pretty tough at points and the co-op helps. And who doesn't like playing with a friend or random stranger over the Internet?

The real meat of the game comes from the weapons and zombies and there's a wide variety of both; some you'd expect and some that are pretty new and inventive. When it comes to the zombies you have your average run of the mill fodder zombies and a slew of "special" infected zombies that were white or blue collar workers turned while on the job, whose uniform now grant them special abilities and effects. Then there's the evolved class—people changed into badass monstrosities by the virus—which are called Bombies, Leapers and Cutters, all of which are pretty self explanatory and tough as balls to take down. The weapons are probably the best part of the game. You start off with a limited number but as you progress through the stages you unlock more and more guns along with flares, grenades, molotovs and mines, each with have their own upgrade paths. And you'll need them all to help deal with the hordes upon hordes of undead the game throws at you.

This game took me completely by surprise. I got it on a whim and it blew me away. I was not expecting the amount of time and effort I would pump into this game and it is definitely an underrated title on the PSN store. If you're looking for a game with a good story, solid gameplay and tons of replay value, look no further.

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TBT - Space Kids, Their Dog And A Whole Lot Of Ants

I'm willing to bet that most of you knew what game this article would be talking about simply by reading the title. For those of you too young to know, read on to discover a gem lost in time.

In 1999, Rare released a game that would rock the N64's sense of distinctive games—a concept that has yet to be revisited since. That exceptional game was Jet Force Gemini. Looking back now, Jet Force Gemini was one of the most original games conceptually and I'm glad that it had received a fair amount of media coverage.

So what is Jet Force Gemini? The game initiates with a small cinematic that presents you the three protagonists. Juno, a young angry sort of child who's drinking space coffee, Vela, his blue-haired twin sister who doesn't seem to be doing much and lastly, their dog Lupus, who's sporting a trendy space suit with a blaster strapped to his back.  I know exactly what you're thinking: "What the shit?", but it gets better. So if two estranged kids and their gun wielding dog was not weird enough, their ship is attacked by eight-foot tall ants. Yes, giant, blue, gun trotting, ants.  Grammatically, that last phrase may have single handily killed the English language, but that's okay because we're talking about GIANT ALIEN ANTS. Take a moment to ponder on that. Breathe in the extremely awesome revelation I just handed to you on your computer monitor.  Somebody over at Rare paid attention to his strange childhood habit of stomping on ants and turned it into a video game, brilliant!

Furthermore, the game presented me with my earliest recollection of choice in terms of the character you play as, other than fighting games of course. It was your standard third person shooter with some platforming that rewarded you with an interesting storyline and hours of bug-blasting fun. You unlocked several different weapons such as your standard machine gun and the cluster bomb. You dealt with endless amounts of rehashed enemy types. You had your standard blue ant which was the equivalent of any typical grunt but the game covered all their bases in terms of enemies. The green ant was a sniper, red ants did something I can no longer recall, big purple beetles were your heavies and there were even zombie ants. Pause, say that with me.

Zombie......ants.....

In addition, your mission of being a three-man pesticide squad had the ultimate goal to eradicate Mizar, a big mother of a bug. Along the way, you made pit stops on different worlds to save some uncanny Ewok looking bear creatures. I do not recall what the incentive was when you saved these cuddly senseless creatures but I do know that I did not get them all. So there's your replay value right there, go find all the bloody Carebears who've gone into hiding. Nevertheless, it was fun and there was something refreshing about retrieving sentient beings opposed to a gold star or similar objects. That being said, let's sum up all the incredible features: responsive third-person gameplay, lots of guns and unlockables, decent storyline, '90s charm, Carebears, the dog equivalent to the T-800, world to world bug genocide and zombie ants. I realize that you gamers are pondering "Charlie, this sounds amazing, how can it get any better?". Well I'll tell you what makes this even better, Multiplayer!

That is right my friends, multiplayer is large and in charge. Growing up, my father never really gamed alongside me. When he purchased this game for me, he couldn't help but watch me play. It was so unique that he figured what the heck and decided to play the multiplayer. Let me tell you, it was a blast. The multiplayer was excellent because it really used the game's strength to its favor.  With an established responsive gameplay (the game felt good to play), the designers created large square MP terrains with different vertical fields. The level that comes to mind is the abandoned town. There's a series of buildings that you can climb to different levels to either escape, ambush, snipe and troll your opposing player. Not to mention that you can play as all the bloody bugs in the game. The green ant was my favorite while my father always picked the reddish beetle. I remember hours of carnage as we enacted this exo-skeletal civil war.

To summarize: kill the ants, become the ants, kill each other. In all honesty, it was an incredibly enjoyable game and truly endearing to me. My father never played any other game with me since then. If it attracted him to it then it is safe to say that there is something special about it and if you had the opportunity to play it then take the time to reminisce a bit. If you never had the chance to indulge yourself in this fictional world then just remember one thing:  zombie ants.

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It's Zee Germans

Holy shit...I turned my PS4 on for the first time in about a month. This wasn't from a lack of enthusiasm, but because there just isn't enough time in the day—that and sleep is way too appealing sometimes. In any case, I've recently found some time to game. I picked up Watch Dogs when it came out a month ago, and I had every intention to play it this weekend, but instead I bought Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Over the last number of weeks I've heard a number of things and did quite a bit of thinking. If you remember me talking about Wolfenstein a little while back, my main gripe with picking it up was that it was an arcade shooter without any online multiplayer. When I originally saw it a number of months ago, it looked really cool and that is again what I've been hearing lately after its release. Then I thought about games like Bioshock, where you play it for the story and the atmosphere—the second one even had online multiplayer and no one cared about it—so all that mixed together pushed me over the edge and I picked it up.

Wolfenstein starts off with a bang: you and your squadron are raiding a Nazi stronghold in an attempt to kill a very influential general, and then the story goes off in an area I didn't expect (I did not read up on the story before picking it up). Personally I really enjoy when people use an alternate history sort of scenario. A number of games have used this sort of tool in their stories and settings before— Homefront and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty come to mind—and if done right it can be a lot of fun. I won't delve too far into the story, but I do urge you to check it out if alternate history is your thing, as there is some solid stuff here.

When it comes to the gameplay, you're really just getting an arcade shooter; but the controls are tight, so no worries there. They have a flexible cover system in the game: basically you hide behind stuff (so none of that "hit a button and glue yourself to a wall"). Once in cover, you can hold down a button and it allows you to lean in any direction you want. It works very well. You can also dual wield any weapon, even the knives, but I'm not sure why you would ever need to...it does looks cool though.

Style wise, you can go in guns-a-blazing or you can take a more stealthy approach. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty, so for the most part I try to take a stealthy route. The system works pretty well and gives you a number of options to take enemies out—stab them, throw a knife at them, even use a silent pistol—the game even gives you some bonuses for doing your killing the silent way. The bonus is pretty much map information, which is cool. The rationale is when you stealth kill someone, you interrogate and get information out of them (this is all inferred mind you but who cares).

All-in-all I'm having a lot of fun with Wolfenstein and I'm pretty glad I didn't let the lack of multiplayer deter me from investing some time and money into it. I'm not too far in (chapter 4) and I don't really know how long it's supposed to be. However, if you're a fan of shooters and like alternate history/killing some Nazis, I would recommend giving it a chance as it's a lot of fun.

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Games As Trailers: Why We Don't Care About The Games We Play

Having just finished watching a great deal of impressively rendered and emotive trailers from this past E3, I found myself thinking about which stood out. Moreover, I began to wonder why so many trailers evoke feelings of excitement that often differ from the feelings I get when actually playing games.

The Division…Between Feeling and Acting

In an opinion piece written last week over at Polygon, the author explored several ideas linked to his love of video game trailers, and concluded by relating them to what video games themselves often aspire to be: beautiful, succinctly meaningful, and leaving lasting impressions on us by providing players with motif for their action.  

 

Much of his core argument I feel is especially relevant in light of E3 this year, which was mostly just an enormous teaser for fans in the way of cinematic trailers. Among them, I found myself particularly drawn to The Division 2014 Official Story trailer.  

The trailer itself is likely what the developers are hoping players will do in-game: mainly to band together to fend off against other human and AI-controlled gangs, and to be conscious of the game’s environment(s) while emotionally investing yourself in its world. More importantly though, the trailer managed to convey sympathy towards its characters, and helped me to gain a better perspective on what the game itself may eventually feel like when being played.

More likely, the game itself will never come close to capturing this sense of purpose quite as much as the trailer has already accomplished. And this thought can be depressing. But I take solace in acknowledging that other games have managed to blend trailer and gameplay effectively. One particular example is Asura’s Wrath.

You Mad Bro?

Asura’s Wrath is eccentric and Japanese, as well as uncompromising in all the right ways. The game’s story focuses on Asura, a Buddhist demigod who seeks revenge on the other pantheon of Buddhist demigods who betrayed him.

The core experience centers on essentially watching a six-hour story unfold, while occasionally fighting waves of enemies in a mindless brawler fashion and, more frequently, performing quick time events to progress cutscenes. And while most explanations of the game do it no justice, Asura’s Wrath itself succeeds at combining action and motive, similarly to how many other games and their cinematic trailer counterparts succeed in doing so separately.

Asura Wrath’s holistic approach is more successful, in large part because of how often it relinquishes control away from the player. Much of the game is watched rather than played, with player input serving to accentuate periods of particular anger or frustration. It works quite well, and I’m happy to say that developers CyberConnect2 managed to construct a largely novel experience that manages to convey anger and hate without compromising their vision.

Final Thoughts

I recognize that most games could simply not exist in the same state that Asura’s Wrath has managed to, and I am glad for it: being actively in control of a game’s character(s) is often more satisfying than passively flicking left on the d-pad to have Asura do something.

At the same time, however, there is something to be said about how video games often fail to convey emotional motivations for acting in-game. Maybe this current generation of games will help bridge the gap created more effectively than previous console generations have. Until then however, I will gladly go back to watching the Division trailer.

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It's Fate...err Destiny

I’m not sure how many people got into the Alpha for Destinybut I would like to share my first impressions so far. FYI: I have not paid attention to this game prior to the alpha, and I also suck at First Person Shooters.

That being said, I’ve played a small portion of the game’s campaign, which lets you choose between 3 classes: Titan, Hunter and Warlock. From what I can tell, Titan is your regular jack-of-all-trades kinda guy, Hunter is more of a sniper and Warlock places emphasis on magic.

I chose Warlock, since it reminded me of Mass Effect and how I’d rather have an extra weapon at hand (like biotic powers). So far, I’ve enjoyed this class and the gun selection seems pretty good.

Now I haven’t added much in terms of upgrades to my character, but there’s a decent amount of customization for your character’s face and whatnot (not like it really matters though). Moreover, you can purchase new upgrades with “Glimmer”—the in-game currency. You get this by completing missions in the campaign or in multiplayer.

Dr. Manhattan?

My campaign experience so far has been limited. I played the first 2 missions and then moved on to multiplayer.

I played some “Capture the Flag” and luckily, my team won. The lobby system is nice and quick, reminiscent of all Call of Duty games, which is a good thing. Like the Halo franchise, Bungie has included vehicles to speed transport up. I find this helpful in single player more so than multiplayer, but nonetheless, well done.

So far, Destiny seems to be great fun, especially in its Alpha release. I found no bugs, but then again I haven’t played all that much. It’s got some good FPS qualities and a big fanbase for a new IP, so I can definitely see some staying power in this game. I myself am rusty at First Person Shooters, but I may pick this one up given my positive experience so far.

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The Calm Before The Storm

I'm in a sort of a lull at the moment, which was bound to happen sooner or later. Being an early adopter of the PS4, there eventually just isn't any games to play, Brandon even talked about it a couple of weeks ago...on the bright side at least I've actually beaten the games I bought, which is a little unprecedented for me.

If you want to compare launch window games (the window being the first 6 months within a console’s release) of the PS4 with the PS3, well the considerable edge goes right to the PS4. I can't even remember what I played on the PS3 outside of Virtua Fighter 5, Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm...oh and Gundam: Cross Fire (haha, gotta get one of those Gundam games in there). Meanwhile on the PS4 I've already beaten games like: Knack, Thief, Assassin's Creed IV, inFamous and Tomb Raider. On top of those games, there were indie titles like Outlast, Resogun—which reminds me, I played a ton of Super Stardust on the PS3—and Don't Starve. That isn't all though. Games I didn't beat yet include the likes of Killzone and Battlefield 4.

Suffice to say the launch of the PS4 was pretty satisfying for me. The only problem now is that it's May and nothing gets released around now. I was looking at the upcoming releases for the next month or so and its slim pickings.

MayWe Have Games?

Here are a few of the more notable games releasing in the coming weeks:

A new Wolfenstein game is releasing on the 20th of May, and it does actually look pretty fun, but then I noticed it has no multiplayer...who in their right mind releases an arcade first person shooter(FPS) with no multiplayer? I don't care so much when 3rd person shooters come out with no multiplayer (they tend to be more story-driven then FPS's anyway), but Tomb Raider still had multiplayer, even if it was a load of crap. Some may argue that removing the multiplayer and focusing on the single player is the way to go, and in some cases yes, but I just can't see it in an FPS. Maybe developers have hard wired it out of me, but unless this game is like 15-20 hours, I can't really justify paying $60-70 for it when I don't have the added luxury of a multiplayer mode to extend my stay—even if it was crap, I could still sink 5-10 hours into it. I'll probably pick it up cheap next year sometime.

Also releasing on the 20th, Transistor is probably the most note worthy game coming out in this dismal time period. Developed by Supergiant Games, who are of Bastion fame, Transistor is easily the most buzz-worthy indie title to be coming to the PS4 since the console’s release, at least in my opinion. Simply put, Transistor is an action-RPG, with 2D graphics that look fantastic. And if the soundtrack follows what was heard in the launch trailer, it's going to be a hit. At the moment, Supergiant Games has a proven track record (I'm sure they can continue it).

Watch Dogs is actually releasing on the 27th of May, which easily has the biggest budget this month, but I feel as though the hype train has left the station with this one. I can't really put my finger on it, but last year this game had tons of momentum. Then it got delayed as a launch title and poof, haven't really heard much. I'll still pick it up, but I'm not really sure what to expect.

Last up, Square-Enix is publishing this really weird/interesting action-adventure mystery game on June 3rd. It's called Murdered: Soul Suspect. In it, you control Detective Ronan O'Connor who gets brutally killed right off the bat. Ronan then returns as a ghost and now you must help him try to solve his own murder so he may continue his journey to the afterlife. To be honest, I'm going off a gut feeling here. I've looked at a trailer or two, not sure what the gameplay is like either, but it sounds interesting and is different to say the least. I'll probably pick it up barring it gets horrendous reviews—it very well could considering the people behind Dark Void are developing it.

In E3 We Trust

The only real saving grace about this time period is that E3 is just around the corner! In a mere three weeks time, we will be like kids in a candy store...or at least the fat kids salivating on the windows outside.

I can't wait to see what the press conferences bring this year. Sony and Microsoft always go toe to toe and it's pretty entertaining to see how the internet reacts to it all. If either of them can get Rockstar to divulge something on stage, everyone will go nuts. Nintendo doesn't really join in on E3 anymore; at least not over the last few years. Instead what they opt to do is host their own little event where they pretty much do the same thing...apparently E3 was too expensive and loud for them. Whatever, as long as we get to hear about some new games, who cares how they do it! They just better actually bring something to the table *cough* Pokemon RPG on the Wii U, or at least something interesting for that damn console. I hate having to feign interest in it all the time, just give me something to care about!

I won't really make any predictions per say, but what I really want is to hear about the new Kingdom Hearts game, and Final Fantasy XV from Square-Enix. I've always been a huge fan of Square's games, and both of these games are being made by the same development team, which I love, so I have high hopes!

Outside of that, there are still an excess of games I want to get some news on: Star Wars Battlefront 3, Tom Clancy's The Divison, that Sci Fi Call of Duty game, Destiny, Halo 5 and Sony even has that new virtual reality head set to show off. The build up to E3 is usually unbearably long and I don't see it being any shorter this year.

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