Lara just gets better and better

On November 10, 2015 we were graced with two grand games one of which was the next installment of the Tomb Raider game. Yes you guessed it (and perhaps the title gave it away anyway) I’m talking about the recently released Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Lara Croft from the 2013 reboot returns and this time she seeks new and amazing truths and nothing is simple in this game. Even on Adventurer mode where you can take things a bit easier it’s still difficult with the enemies whether you’re talking about the humans or the animals. I will state (or spoil?) that the bears in the game are incredibly hard to take down as I put over 90+ bullets in him so you better be careful trekking into caves because Yogi ain’t having it. (Should have brought him a picnic basket, shame Lara)

Hey Boo-boo... I forgot the picnic basket again...

  You do get the return of the weapon types from the previous game such as the bow, pistol, rifle and shotgun but this time they give you a choice of 4 types you get from various missions or just picking up the parts as you explore. There are even newer special weapon ammo types as well which I’ll let you have the fun of finding them out. Each variation of the weapon you pick be it pistol, rifle or so on each style has different traits that may be better suited each time you needs to head into a gun fight. There are also various outfits you automatically get as well as acquire on the way through the storyline. Some of which, can come with special bonuses or just look rather nice for you to switch from each time you stop at a camp site.

Now as for the characters they are pretty much in and out most times and you don’t get to learn too much about them at first and they aren’t going to draw you into automatically liking them but this game is about Lara and the way she becomes the Tomb Raider we know and love. This game does a delightful job of doing that by highlighting aspects in Lara’s life that led her to who she becomes.

There is a steady downfall of a few glitches I did encounter such as ‘random teleportation’ and I say this because I was drowning a man underwater and was suddenly; while drowning him, teleported outside and at the edge of a water tower of some sort before falling to my death and having to restart that moment before I died. Another was Lara’s arm at one point was stuck broken backwards and hand to her upper back/shoulder area. That one was not as bad and actually just looked kind of awkward but fixed itself within about a minute or so.

Another downfall to the game is… (Sigh.) the Micro-transactions. Yes the bane of gaming existence returns; revealing its ugly head within a good franchise such as Tomb Raider. Though I hear the people already barking to say ‘but it’s only in Multiplayer’ sure you have a point but the more you buy them the more you tell the game company you want more which could move that micro-transaction crap into the single player area. The issue is they literally FORCE you to buy them if you are one of the achievement hunters as 2 achievements are:

·         Quite the Collector: Collect 150 cards

·         There belong in a Museum: Collect 300 cards

Yes they WANT you to buy them; they are forcing you to pretty much. And so what you get the bronze pack that is not sold for cash but credits you can get within the game, you’re still feeding a biscuit to the dog that took a crap on your rug like he was a good doggie. The downfall of these cards is also that common and uncommon do not even stick around they are one time only use meaning you now have to buy more cards to get them back hopefully. The serious issue with the cards is also that being the gold pack for 60000 credits has more rare/permanently around cards means people will go for those enforcing the game companies to further make and put in micro-transactions.

Back to the game in general, I found the tombs to be a great and much more challenging side addition that made the puzzle solving so much more worth my time and effort. Lara gives only very subtle hints which lead you to have to figure out the rest of the puzzle and figure how you will go about solving it. And aside from the Challenge Tombs I found several fun and kind of creepy crypts that like some strong boxes give you weapon parts to create not upgrades but new weapons entirely. The only issue I had was the gold coins you collect to buy things from this one guy. The total of everything is about over 700-800 coins and most times you’re only picking up 2 coins at a time until you unlock a skill making it so much harder to get everything you want from him.

Though hard to collect the coins, this in turn forces you to carefully look around for coin cashes and small litters of coins in tombs or crypts you enter as well as in small jars which Lara seems to simply smack and they fall over open.

The game features many new and oh so gruesome ways to die which had me cringe in pain for Lara’s sake each time they happened as well as new functions to Lara’s facial expressions. This is due to the fact that you see more emotion and realism within the movements of her mouth, brow, eyes and expressions such as fear, shock, anger and more. The physics for Lara’s hair has even improved to look more realistic and move as it should, she even fixes her ponytail each time she exits water.

When Lara gets into a fight and gets hurt she will look bloody or rolling around in mud and dirty will make her filthy. Exiting water in cold climate areas you will see Lara shiver and almost hug herself to keep warm or she will warm her hands by a fire. With Rise of the Tomb Raider she’s become more lifelike and easier to relate to as we see her grow from a simple survivor to a full on truth seeking, tomb raiding woman of legend.

For this game in an overall sense is outstanding and made a big impact into the Tomb Raider reboot making it stand out more so than the previous two other boots of the same name. Now I wonder if they will have this Lara also have to kill a dinosaur or if they will steer clear of such craziness and make it more truth seeking adventure like as this one with a heavy dose of survivor like in the first game back in 2013. My score for Tomb Raider is a delightful 9.2/10 falling short mostly because of the odd glitches though does any game come out full functional anymore? Maybe; maybe not. Anyway, this is a very nice game to own if you love the franchise or well the 2013 reboot.

WWE 2K16: Pros and Cons

Recently I purchased and played the new installment of the WWE game franchise with the release of WWE 2K16 on Tuesday October 27^th of this year. And what I can say is...

Though better than 2K15; which was the worst WWE game ever made in my opinion, it isn’t quite what I was hoping for. Yes they brought back Diva creations and so on but the divas in general looked bland and not really like their real life counter parts. The Superstars, though nicely modeled still felt more plastic in a visual sense being that they looked like someone dumped them in a pool of oil. I wasn’t aware sweat and a little body oil made someone shine like the metal on Iron Man’s suit. That and I experienced a glitching that caused a game crash only 2-3hrs into the gameplay. That isn’t a good start…

(To avoid this do not go into Others on the head piece the one with the 16 pointer on the top row causes the glitching crash, it looks like a mask that ties around the mouth, avoid that until patches are released to fix it. You cannot place it on your superstar or preview it)

Aside from that I went into the creation area and they brought back arenas and championships but also added a new one of ‘Show’. Upon further look into that aspect I saw it was like making your well show. You pick the logo, location, arena, transition design and more. With this feature I feel people of the WWE community will get to enjoy other players worlds since they do in fact allow you to share globally the superstars, logos, arenas and more online.

Next up I looked into the actual creation system for making your superstars and Divas. Let me start out by saying thank you to 2K for listening because you have a much more vast selection to make superstars and divas. The amount of faces, hair and more is much larger than that of what we were given in WWE 2K15. So 2K certain listened to the backlash from the previous game even enough to give us a preview button to make picking a face faster and easier on us and our consoles.

As for the creation I saw that they put more time and effort into making sure we can put a bit of ourselves into the game. Although I do have to say the new ‘dye’ feature for your superstar/diva’s hair is a bit awkward to use only because it’s painstakingly slow as well as a bit clunky. Reason being that some hairs you don’t want dyed get hit most times making you have to undo perhaps countless times to get anything you want right but otherwise it’s a rather nice new feature that might just take time to get used to. But what I also noticed was the model of your creation was shaking weirdly while you zoom in and dye the hair like he/she was scared. Not sure why it does that honestly.

The grid system is back but it feels a little too loose on movements making the slider piece zip around without any accuracy on its part and for someone who has some OCD like me it’s annoying when anything is off or there isn’t exact symmetry in making my superstar/diva. What I can say about the creation is it felt more like I was molding clay when crafting out a superstar/diva in this game because you can literally take small parts and move them. I would compare it to something of how Sims 4 was.

As for the clothing choices it is about the same from the last year with some minor new ones that aren’t too flashy or anything worth caring about unless you wanna make one of those ‘odd’ CAWS (Create-a-Wrestlers). For me I didn’t much mind the copy paste thing because I could go about remaking superstars I had from the year prior. They also made it easier to put clothing for only entrance or ring which was certainly helpful.

 As the detail is amazing this time around you can truly make your own WWE but they do have a wider array of match types. Nothing big and special; no buried alive or inferno sadly but they brought a larger array in the end. As they said the roster is also the largest but of course you have to unlock most of them. If you pre-ordered like I did you get the Terminator from the first and second movies.

When I tested out the Career mode I realized that of course they did it only for male superstars but nothing for divas. Shame I would have love to dive into the diva drama in the WWE. Anyway, they give you three slots and allow you to import one you already made or you can create a superstar just for that very mode. I won’t explain too much about the mode because I feel that one everyone needs to experience themselves but in my opinion is it better than 2k15’s which was mostly filler matches? Does it return to the roots like the old story modes from years ago?

The simple answer is…

It manages itself better than 2K15, because you have more control to know where you stand for a title, overall, if you’re a heel or face and what year you’re in. Of course you start in NXT and have to move up and what I saw mostly was there was some cliché moments but they gave your superstar a voice for when he is interviewed so it felt that they put more into how the matches go and thought into career mode in general. They show relationship standings with other superstars and they even broke the fourth wall a bit which I found nicely placed and funny.

The interviews within the game are a way to build up on your wrestler’s personality so you can be bold and respectful which makes you a face but egotistical and treacherous makes you a heel so you have full control of WHO you become. It’s a nice addition that gives me a sense that it is MY character; MY story. They even give you more story line to gain enemies and so on. So as I said it feels like a career not just a half baked cake covered in butter and not frosting. (aka disgustingly put together)

My overall score for this game is well a 7.9/10 mostly because there is a lot of copy and paste and things that seem to be a patch or tweaking; mostly the glitch I mentioned earlier which crashes your game. Honestly I feel that score is relatively fair.

Note if you want to grab a hold of one of my Divas find my Xbox Gamertag (KDelgadoGG).And there are also a few videos on youtube by yours truly (karley delgado)

Assassin's Creed Syndicate: Better than Unity?

Today, October 23, 2015 we have been graced with the arrival of Ubisoft’s newest installment within the Assassin’s Creed Franchise with the release of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Like most players I was hoping this game would not be a sad repeat of last year’s launch of Unity which was a major flop ranging from glitches, bugs and annoying smaller aspects that some players found irritating. Now as far as Syndicate goes I was not hounded by any game crashing bugs or nasty glitches like I did with Unity, where I was fighting the game to play it.

When playing Syndicate, I felt the button lay out was easier to maneuver and was better for more fluent navigation through the city of London. One feature I found refreshing was actually that you had to initiate the leap of faith instead of jumping off without meaning to from a tall building to a rather hard ground below if it was not in the direction of a hay stack or something. No instead you have to press certain buttons at the same time to do a leap of faith making it easier to avoid the dreaded Leap of Failure. 

What was brought back was the iconic whistle used great for luring enemies closer to use a corner assassination. By pressing down on the D-Pad you can use this feature that was sadly lacking from Unity resulting in you having to wait painstakingly for the enemy to approach or use another approach. Stealth in this game is also boosted to a new level as they give you a sneak option by once again pressing a button. Your chosen assassin will crouch and pull up their hood while moving a bit slower making for more silent footsteps and ease of sneaking up behind and killing targets.

Though what I did realize was that despite Evie Frye being the stealthier of the two, it was fairly easy to be as stealthy most times with her brother Jacob. But as for knife skills; which are a useful stealthy kill, Evie outshines her brother as one knife can take out more health from an enemy when she throws it. As for combat I found that Jacob could land the harder blows as he was much more of a brawler even though Evie herself was very dominate in a fight as she often resorted to using the cane-sword as well as her fists. Though each character has their strengths it seems the other can do the same as well only on a slightly lower level which reveals the reason they balance each other out as a duo.

Another new and very helpful feature I felt was a great addition was the button that appears as an enemy is about to fire a bullet at you. By hitting the button your assassin dodges the bullet (by ducking their head only) and takes no damage because they were supposedly not hit. This makes combat much easier in some aspects as in Unity and other games it was hard to near impossible to block or dodge bullets. In most with the arrival of gunpowder weapons you had to grab an enemy closest to you to have them take the bullet but if they all backed away you’d be hit. Also even if you are running after the bullet was shot at you it felt like it was a heat seeking missile or something because no matter what you’d be hit. This was something I found terribly annoying in previous games.

As for the wide world of London, this city is massive and when compared to Paris is actually quite bigger mostly I feel due to the wider roads and taller buildings. You can travel through the city one of three ways; each more fun than the last. Riding in carriages, within/on trains or once you acquire it; using the rope launcher to zip from one building to another. I actually preferred the rope launcher and on foot exploring a bit more because the fact that the city streets felt a bit over crowded or the trains perhaps took too long for my taste.

No matter your method for travel you will either way notice that the map is the largest in the series from what I have seen in each title I played and to go from one side to the next not only takes time but honestly you shouldn’t enter areas where the Blighters are stronger than you; which brings me to say: Yes there is in fact a leveling system. This was something that was not present in Unity or most previous titles.

In Unity, during my play through I could get the best armor and weapons (that weren’t blocked by multiplayer locks) so long as I had the coin to do so which was easy to do early on. Now in Syndicate you have to be a certain level to use certain weapons. For example if you are a level 8 and see a stronger cape for Evie or belt for Jacob that is level 9 and up only, you will have to level that character(s) up once more before you think to equip the item.

With the talk of weapons in Syndicate I should mention that there is of course the large variety. Returning with the customization level of Unity you will be able to pick from your choice of brass knuckles, cane-swords, and more. This level of customization also goes into that of the outfits for the twin assassins, Jacob and Evie. Though unlike Unity, you will unlock most new weapons and outfit pieces by simply going through the story or unlocking them through side activities. This in my opinion is much better than being forced to play Multiplayer or join a ‘club’ to gain new gear. You can also find some weapons in certain chests throughout the city, or conquering certain areas.

This new system makes it a certain need to explore London by simply killing Blighters, doing side missions or partaking in activities that are spotted throughout the city. Another good part about the level system is the fact that from leveling up you gain the skill points needed to upgrade Jacob/Evie or the Rooks. Where as in the previous title you had to complete missions entirely or find the hidden ones in the Multiplayer to even get all skills. The fact that now it bases off the level system makes it far easier to upgrade the characters and gang leading to the Assassins and gang members becoming an unstoppable force.

Be warned though, levels mean everything in this game. If you’re a level one I strongly suggest not entering higher level areas because at such a lower level the enemies are nearly invincible if you face them head-on and if you don’t well they spot you seemingly easier too. And don’t think you can simply run to the roofs and feel completely safe. They can still chase you while some even climb just as well as you do.

Another form of ‘leveling’ in the game is called Loyalty and this stems from those like Henry or Clara’s Loyalty to you meaning if you want to level their loyalty you will have to complete missions based on their beliefs. With Clara, it’s the Child liberation missions while with Henry it mostly falls to the elimination of Templars. So there may be many stipulations to gaining better gear it all comes together within the game giving everything you do meaning.

The skill trees within Syndicate span out into three sections for Combat, Stealth and Ecosystem. These are the main parts mostly used for leveling up your assassins Evie and Jacob.

As each name suggest the section of course boosts combat, stealth and ecosystem. With the first two being relatively self-explanatory the third is a bit different. The Ecosystem section ranges mostly upon gain more supplies and money or lower prices on certain goods or shops. The Ecosystem section is very useful for gaining more money and needed supplies you may require such as bullets, throwing knives and more.

There is even a section used specifically for upgrading your gang. Yes you heard right, you can make your gang stronger and once at their highest level you can literally send in the rooks to clean house while you sit back and watch like a true badass master Assassin. The gang upgrades are also sectioned out into three parts: Ringleader, Insider, and Swindler.

Make your gang the strongest of the city

Within the Ringleader section, I saw that the meaning behind it was to level the Rooks or allow them to aid you better. You can gain even your own band of snipers called Watchers, the big guys called of course Brutes or finally the Enforcers who are best used for long range weapons that may be needed in fights.  You’ll be able to sabotage carriages, reduce Blighter health, or even ruin Blighter weapons like their blades or firearms. Next is the Insider section, which this part is best useful for bribing the police, scaring your enemies with the simple mention of the name ‘Frye’, gain you little rooks or children insiders, more hanging barrels and dynamite, buy medicines, and more.

And finally we come to the final section: Swindler. This gang upgrading section is best suitable for upgrading and/or gaining things like Discounts, Black market deals, cheaper gang upgrades, new heists, ways to gain more money, increasing the rate of income, business investments, and business activities that further increase your income. Each section of the Gang upgrades are also crafting needed so keep that in mind as you upgrade your gang.

Crafting makes a return and requires you explore London

Crafting makes a well needed return in Syndicate where you can craft pouches for medicine and more with supplies you found in chests around the city as well as some weapons are needed to be crafted. This; like the leveling system will make you want to explore London for not only XP, and skill points but materials required to make certain items. I always felt that crafting gave the Assassin’s creed games a bit more purpose to aspects like hunting that had been introduced into AC III and Black Flag. Though it is not anything outstandingly major I was glad to see that it made a nice comeback within this newest installment which makes me have a better purpose of why I need to explore the city.

As a final verdict of my play through with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate I say it’s a certain step up from Unity but not exactly at the level of AC II just yet. As a score I would give this game an 8/10 but keep in mind I would have given Unity a 3 to 5/10. Ubisoft certainly learned from their mistakes with Unity and improved their game this year. The only thing I say that holds Syndicate back is the minor annoyances, the bad or odd ending (depending upon how you see it) or the larger one, which is the Micro-transactions; though optional they are still annoying to see being put in games.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

September 1, 2015 marks the launch of the much anticipated video game Metal Gear Solid V; yet another installment to the Metal Gear series. First off I want to say that the graphics are perfect, so absolutely perfect I can see pores and wrinkles on faces as if they were real. Now when you start the game it does feel to move a bit slow but it introduces what happened. You wake from a coma after nine years and are told by a doctor you were in an explosion gaining at least 108 foreign bodies including shrapnel as well as human bone shards and teeth. As you learn what happened; being brought up to speed on what you missed in your coma the game does an amazing detailed why of making you feel and think as everything unfolds in front of you. You also get to pick the name and birthdate, I feel this was about what you would have put on the dog tags and giving it a sense of this is my game; my play through.

When the game starts picking up in pace, you’re informed your enemies are pretty much seeking you out to ensure you are dead. They have you pick out how you look; giving you an even better sense of it’s my style. The doctor shows you how you first off look saying he must change your features to hide you from your enemies and so the customization begins.

And guess what? It was a Kojima trolling. HA! GOTCHA!

Now what happens after that I really don’t or better yet won’t spoil for you. All I will say is it was amazingly epic and worth you experiencing for yourself.

I will move back to commenting about the graphics. It not only makes faces look real but fires, objects within the area and more look like I could reach out and touch them. Textures we’re all present; what was cloth looked like cloth, and what was meant to be leather looked exactly like such material. Even facial hair looked real and moved like hair would instead of being ‘stuck’ to the player’s head or face. Interaction with objects in the area react like they would in real life and even sounds are spot on during the play through. The text or subtitles during dialogue doesn’t make me squint to read what they are say but I also can hear the voices loud and clear enough not to feel the need to read the subtitles which made me feel the creators had us in mind. They wanted the game to play smooth, play at an audible level and be appealing to the eyes.

During the first moments of you taking control, you get a sense of frustrating helplessness as you are dragging yourself along the floor. You know you can’t defend yourself when you can’t even stand yet making you feel this heaviness of ‘I need to hurry’ or you feel the guy leading the way could have perhaps helped you up to your feet instead of just walking ahead of you motioning and saying to follow. Though frustrating and being helpless you continue to follow watching as you try to get up but fail at near every attempt you make. Yet soon enough after a few freaky events you find you can’t go the way you planned and must detour with a now what appears to be broken arm or dislocated. Good luck.

Once you’re to your feet though, you’re not out of the woods. You stagger; that feeling you can’t do anything yet is still present and still going to force you to feel you have to hurry or that you wish the coma effects would go away already. You keep following the man as the hospital burns and the presents of smoke is drifting just above you. Every detail captured in great perfection making you keep feeling it’s very alive and real. You could almost put yourself in the character’s shoes.  Sure enough suspense it greatly present which could make even you playing the game have a racing pulse. Feel and hear your pulse in your ears yet?

As you continue on and gain a weapon now you start to feel less like playing cat and mouse and more like Snake ready to strike. The one leading you around also gives you minor tutorial mentions saying to hold down the aim button and hit the attack button to fire. It is easy to figure the entire hospital prologue is the entire tutorial section hidden as an actual level. The only thing that gives it away is the pop ups that say what buttons to push to do certain actions like heal serious injuries, crawl, crouch, and so on. In my opinion this has to be the best tutorial introduction in a game I have seen to this day. It doesn’t feel like you’re a grunt in training but makes you feel like they are just updating you on what buttons to push. This gives the prologue level a huge purpose not only to introducing you (Or reintroducing, if you played all the other games) but also to putting a big point into the plot of the game itself.

At the end of each episode you get a score chart that depicts your play rating as well as any bonuses, what the episode play rank is and what your Code name is. There is also a heroism scale that depending on how you did increases. Now something I noticed was how the camera moves. At certain points it looks and acts like someone else (Perhaps the player) is following around with a camera capturing everything and thus makes the camera move away from the characters to focus on other places then move back. With a camera moving like that during cut scenes it makes me feel like I’m playing a game and movie hybrid which gives the game a sense of uniqueness and sets it apart from other games I’ve reviewed this year.

Each new level is not only considered episodes but goes by chapters. As I stated before the prologue is not only the piece to start the game off but a tutorial getting you ready for the next chapters that follow afterwards. During the prologue only other characters spoke until the beginning of Chapter one then we hear Big Boss (Aka Punished Snake, Snake—eh you get the picture) utter one word before being told the events of the world while he was in the coma. Soon the last arm you have gets replaced from the hook which is hard to maneuver and use to looking to have a hand of some sort. A hand you do see in the introduction scene before you wake up. If you played other games and so on you knew how he lost that hand already, plus the prologue also explains a bit.

After being outfitted with a new hand, you venture to go find a friend. This is where you really start the game and not just the prologue tutorial, but you will want to keep what you learned in mind as you play the game. For returning players you’ll have no trouble but new players will have it a bit harder or perhaps not at all. It mostly depends upon what type of gamer you are.

Anyway if I was to give this game a rating from a scale of 1 to 10, I’d have to score it at a 10. Everything works so well together, audio is spot on and voices fit the characters very well. If you’re a fan of Metal Gear I highly recommend getting this game and enjoying it for everything it has to offer. Even if you’re not a fan I suggest getting it and opening up your gaming favorites because this is a game you don’t or better yet, shouldn’t miss out on.

WWE 2k16: What it needs to make a comeback

Last year I regretted spending 65$ on WWE 2K15 because it was a god awful piece of shit. There was so much missing from it that it was a shell of the former games to a point I'd take THQ and their glitchy crap compared to what 2K did. Now I get yes it was their first time having full take over of the game but still after you do years of sports title games shouldn't you consider asking gamers what parts they loved and putting that in a game?

What was 2K15 missing?

• Divas in Create-a-Superstar
• More match types
• More creation selections
• Hair
• clothing
• eye types
• the teeth
• skin texture
• tattoos
• etc..
• better sliders to create the superstars.
• Limited Entrances in Advance/Easy
• Some only available in Easy and not in Advanced
• No create a move
• No create an arena
• no create a title
• Create a story mode

What could they improve on? Well most of what I put up there but they should also include:

• A Career mode with less filler matches
• Stop forcing me to put up my title every week
• Put more substance to the story not bits and pieces
• More in depth Universe mode
• Everything felt repetitive; there was nothing new
• Let us create a superstar that can talk not be mute
• expand upon the creation choices that aren't just mostly the 'no design' outfits of established super stars.
• More hair selections
• Perhaps give us the options more often to make multi-color blended hair
• More tattoo choices that aren't copy and paste, aren't superstars; be original
• A better way to mold our superstars and divas to make them unique
• I felt like my superstars all looked a like and bad thing was they do
• Give us more options for music and entrances; don't limit them to easy or advance alone

You see the thing with the WWE games is what made them sell most times was not just the story modes or career modes, it was the fact we could make a superstar or Diva to represent ourselves; put a piece of ourselves into the game and craft that wrestler, show them off and have fun with friends. When you limit us in everything than stick a half baked product like that on the shelf, we lose faith in your creativity. WWE is about making your dreams a reality and what 2K gave us in 2K15 was shit on a disc. I played it for two days at most and haven't played it since. I prefer playing the 2014 an older versions over that, at least those games had the option of great creativity and allowed me to make the Divas I have made for years in each game making and evolving them over a long period of time but once I heard 2K15 was without Divas I had to put the Darkhart sisters on hold. 

2K please listen to your fans, we're losing faith in the WWE games as they get worse and worse. THQ did better work than you and they had glitchy and bugged games. That's bad if a bankrupted and no longer in business company can downright out do you in something you do now. Step it up and give us what we want don't THINK we want something. Ask us, listen and learn. It's the only way you'll keep the WWE games above the rush waters.

Batman Arkham Knight *Possible Spoilers*

What can I say? I'm a huge fan of Batman though really I'm a mega fan of Catwoman and Poison Ivy; anyway recently I got my hands on the delightfully and well anticipated Batman: Arkham Knight and yes my review does appear a bit late but what can you do when you are so into a game your hands near become glued to the controller?

So I will avoid as many spoilers as I can but just in case I can't control myself I'll be slapping a spoiler warning label on this bad boy.

Now to start out I loved the Arkham Asylum and City games but I was a little disappointed with Origins but what I did love was how Arkham Knight stuck to the same controls as City. The graphics certainly got boosted to an outstanding visual that is beauty in every form. The city appeared as gloomy as you'd expect it to be after the evacuation of over 6.3 million Gotham residents. The city was alive with it's famous dark themes and even had some retro look to it with the almost like 1950s posters and other pieces about the city.

The characters themselves move in natural fashion; from Batman's tough guy walk to the way the ladies sashay their hips. The first one of the villains you meet face to face is Poison Ivy and the design they gave her was perfect to her look. Honestly I thought the other look with her hair nearly jutting straight back like she was in some wind tunnel too long looked a bit awkward and funny but with this style she looked much more 'humanoid-plant' and not hurricane victim. Each voice actor played their parts beautifully in capturing the character's mood and position. When you're driving with Poison Ivy as your passenger since the bat mobile is a bit hard to steer, in my opinion, she comes out even questioning who taught Batman how to drive.

Scarecrow himself as we've seen in trailers and now the game looks so creepy now that it certainly fits his scare and fear persona to a point in the beginning when you have that fear scene it made my heat beat fast. And aside from Poison Ivy or Scarecrow the other characters had beautiful upgrades to their look making them appear like I could bump into them on the street they appeared so realistic. The skin had texture, the rain made Batman's suit wet and shiny from the water... there is so much I could go on forever.

Now what I did love most was the integration of the batmobile, and it was very useful too from using it as a fast driving means to get around on the streets to turning that puppy into a badass tank. But with all honesty I'm not too great a driver and at least the driving was not as bad as something like in Watch_Dogs. Don't even get me started on that game... Anyway, as I mentioned before the combat system was just like the Arkham City game which I still have and love. but because they stuck to that it made it far easier for me to get used to the buttons again because they were the same.

With the enemies one I believe is new was the ones who charge at you to tackle you to the ground. They are fairly easy to dodge; just watch for the red warning mark over their head and get out the way. Yet Batman brings in the devastating and brutal attacks we know him to have and I believe I get why the game had to be kicked to an M rating. There is a part where the Batmobile is used and shoots 3 men with bullets. Yes Batman actually killed three men with his car. (I thought he was against bullets and guns or killing people... hmm).

The game is fairly open world and gives you side quests like the others but organized them in a wheel to make it easier to pick from even showing a graphic about what your objective mission is. From Murder mysteries, hostage rescues, and more are there to let you move away from the main story and explore the open world of Gotham City. (Tip: to gain upgrades to your gear try doing some of the training so you become a master of that weapon and gain some points). Of course speaking of quests you also get a loaded arsenal of weapons from different batarangs to the exploding gel, and later a certain upgrade I thought was really nice but I'll avoid spoiling that for you aside from you get it about 3-5 missions into the game. The suit upgrade even leads to new amazing take downs and helps you deal heavier damage while taking less from normal hits. (Didn't seem changed with the bullets really).

The Batman Arkham game is living up to the hype of it, except for the PC launch, which was crashing and bugged so bad that Steam and the company took the game down. I honestly felt bad for the PC players who had to endure such an annoying hassle with the game and if they didn't also have it for console they were stuck to wait until it was fixed up, but the game on the consoles was playing smoothly and it felt like the fact recent PC versions of any game are coming out almost unplayable at times indicates that more work is going into certain aspects or platforms but the same attention to detail is being overlooked.

Either way if you have an Xbox One or Playstation 4, I recommend picking up the game. If you have a PC or are a pure PC gamer then waiting until everything is fixed then buying it would be best so you don't deal with the hassle the launch players had. I give the Arkham Knight game a 9.1/10 now this is because the upgrades at times and certain aspects felt unchanged or they felt in someway a touch clunky or awkward. Yet the game is a good buy if you're a big fan of the series.

[Game Over]

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review

On May 19^th, a wonderful and very exciting game was released. Donning two swords, one of Silver and the other made of Steel your quest as a Witcher begins once again but this time you’re at first hunting down your first lover and technically canon lover, Yennefer of Vengerberg. Now one thing I do wish to start off with is a shout out thank you to CD Projekt Red for the lovely DLCs they are bringing out for free. I personally loved the Alternate Outfit for Yen, very detailed and elegant.

One thing I certainly enjoyed about the Witcher was that once I was set to my own devices I was running around doing small contracts, jobs and just killing monsters to get look; some good, some bad. The graphics are actually very good, though still not as splendid as on the PC version I’m sure but the game plays very well and luckily I did not run into a bug that some others were dealing with on the Xbox and PC versions where they couldn’t save.

Speaking of graphics, the fact that the creators took the time to even put environmental changes, wind blowing physics and other aspects makes me appreciate the time and effort they put into it. I for one enjoyed the Qwent Card game, literally I was addicted and began running all over trying to win every card or just buy them. In Qwent the first card you get is Yennefer, she’s the first hero card you get and then you have others like Triss, Geralt, Ciri, and more coming into the mix. Being I’m a strategy type player, I found this game to be a perfect way to relax after killing a contract monster. Sure perhaps some thought it was a waste of time but it was merely an escape put in to get away from hacking off limbs or slicing bandits in two.

I felt it was nice to have returning characters though some I wished didn’t because my previous thoughts on them lingered heavily from Witcher 2. Speaking of previous games one thing I realized was the outstanding graphic scale that made it from bland and a bit boxy in from the first game to being detailed to a point the brows moved, expressions weighted heavily as a factor in this game and despite them saying Witchers don’t have emotions it’s clear to see Geralt still has some humanity in his bones.

Now for a long time I heard people saying the game felt padded and focused too much on ‘Find Ciri’, well perhaps that is true but that’s why you have all the side activities so not to get bored. You wanna branch from the story? Go ahead because some if not all side missions will somehow tie in, like when you’re playing the mission the main one to find Ciri’s trail you have no direct place to go to or follow you pretty much are set to just go explore and find what you want to not immediately be told you must go here, you have no choice. No that mission gives you a choice by letting you see the expansive world before being locked into a mission. 

The Massive map shows how much there is to do in the Witcher.

There is a lot to do here but one thing I couldn’t get off the top of my head was why was leveling up so difficult? The side quests gave me little to near no experience points so it took me forever to get to level 21 which I’m on when I was currently writing this, but I’m getting level 30 missions and armors shoved into my lap unable to use them until I get to a certain level. Oh what a lovely crossbow! Oops that’s level 35 weapon and you’re only level 16, guess you better save that coin and run around like mad to get to that level chap. The leveling system felt entirely more of a burden than anything hindering me from using the better weapons and armor, took forever to get ability points (or were they skill points).

Which the creators had tried to be solved with those ‘Places of Power’; yes let me kneel before a rock for one skill point. And another thing: Why was it so difficult to find certain herbs among the wild that forced me to have to buy it from an expensive herbalist? I wanted to make a potion that required some rarely found herb then had to go pay like 200 coin for it. I felt like I was being cheated there because I wanted coins for a few other things and yes one was the Qwent Cards but the other was to ensure I could always repair my weapons or get new ones, craft armor and swords yet when I’m forced to spend money on an herb which should be found in the wild it makes me scratch my head a bit.

Just saying: Sorceresses Cat fight over Geralt...

But in the end I felt the story was very well done, also another thing I didn’t get. Geralt falls two feet from the ground and loses like a chuck of health, a monster hit him? Tiny dent of health gone; what has Monster hunting made Geralt intolerable to tripping? I feel much safer with a Witcher looking like Peter Griffin with a scuffed knee. I also certainly wanted more Ciri time and felt her parts were a bit short for my liking but they were a nice cut away from Geralt and we got to experience her travels from being chased by the Wild Hunt, and how her bloodline is really not a blessing but a big curse because everyone except Geralt and his friends treat her like nothing more than a weapon or piece of treasure. Perhaps if she had more parts in the game we’d really get the understanding of how her travels made her feel.

From playing this game I certainly say it outshines other RPGs I’ve played recently to a point I’ll probably be playing this over and over until either my Xbox One dies or the CD itself bursts into flames. Though I did appreciate that CD Projekt Red gave us the sound track, map and stickers though the stickers were cheaply made and the wolf image came off in the first hour of me having it. Yikes. I thought the map they gave was very colorful and a delight to put on my wall but what topped it off was the letter each player who bought the game got from them thanking us for buying it and they have every right to thank the people who buy their games because without us they wouldn’t have jobs.

There’s no micro transaction bullcrap, which in my opinion was an outstanding bonus because it’s become some trend with other companies. Yet every game has its issues, and with all honesty being the game was that massive in scale I was expecting a lot of glitches and bugs but really I got none and it played smoothly for me. If I were to rate it I’d say a 9/10 only because the story needed more Ciri to make me understand her side better. I felt a little blocked from her. We see her as a kid then poof, young woman on the run. I didn’t feel very much connected to her until she found Geralt. But I won’t spoil anything for you, go out and get the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt then enjoy killing monsters, romancing hot Sorceresses, and exploring a big open world.