True Reviews, Updates and Common Sense Opinions
In the past, I would be writing this post to give you tips and tricks on how to prepare for the grind of leveling your first character in Destiny 2’s upcoming expansion. Seeing how I’ve done that in the past and ended up either running out of content (or at least feeling like I did), I have a different suggestion for you this time around.
Continue reading “How to prepare for Destiny 2: Beyond Light (Bungie ViDoc)”
This first impression is based on the story mode, not online multiplayer.
Continue reading “One Punch man: A Hero Nobody Knows | First Impressions (Review)”
Gamespot uploaded this trailer for the new legend, Revenant. He’ll be released in February 2020 with Apex Legends Season 4.
Continue reading “Revenant is the Scariest Legend in Apex Legends | Assimilation Trailer”
I played some amazing and highly entertaining games this year. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Destiny franchise and I follow Destiny 2 very closely on this site. However, I wanted to put together a list of games that I thoroughly enjoyed in addition to my main game.
The following list contains games that I completed full reviews on. In case you missed them, give the links included in the post a click and take a look. I have reviewed more games than this on the site, but not all of them made the list.
Continue reading “Favorite Playthroughs of 2019 (Game List)”
River City Girls is reminiscent of games like Fighting Force and Streets of Rage and firmly finds its place in the River City world. It’s a beat-em-up video game where you fight through levels completing mini objectives while pursuing the main objective.
In this case, your main objective is to recover your boyfriend who is presumed to be kidnapped from school. During your hang out session with your friend in detention, you get word that both of your boyfriends were taken. The plan is to break out of detention, punch your way out of the school and embark on an adventure to save your boyfriend’s lives.
You play as either Kyoko or Misako. I chose to play as Kyoko (she doesn’t even go to the school she is trying to escape from). As you’re breaking out of detention the principle puts out an APB out for you and makes all the high school students (excepts the ones who are just standing around for some reason) attack you to stop you from leaving.
I won’t spoil the full story of the game, but you eventually get out of the school and make it to the place where your clues lead you only to find out it’s a dead-end. Plus, your relationship with those boys is not what it seems. Which is hilarious because there is a foreshadowing of that at the beginning of the game.
Cool features:
This video game plays like earlier games where you have to constantly pick up items to heal yourself. For instance, an apple or a salad replenishes your health. Leveling up also gives you a full health bar.
You can also recruit NPC’s to briefly help you while you are engaged in a fight. They complete one attack and then go back into your pocket dimension until they are needed again. If they get knocked down more than 3 times they are no longer available to help and you have to find someone else. You can only recruit the NPC if they beg you to. This sometimes happens if they are the last man standing during your fight.
This is a two-player game, but I played solo. The narrative still moves forward as though two people are playing though. Your partner goes through dialogue and drops hints or blatant direction to help you progress in the game.
Combat/ Boss Fight:
You can pretty much get through the levels without knowing many combos, so feel free to button mash. Knowing the combos, of course, will help defeat easy mobs quicker. Plus, my favorite heavy move in this game is Kyoko’s dab. It’s cheaky, but I loved it. You play about 5 1/2 hours to find a dead-end, but the end boss fight is the most challenging part of the game with multiple layers. The boss has sword attacks, clone decoys of herself, and fire cyclones attacks that take down your health very fast. This fight is all about patience and combos. It was my favorite fight in the game.
Bonus:
Once you beat the game, you unlock your boyfriends as playable characters to rerun the story.
I enjoyed this game a lot. Although I didn’t take part in the co-op feature, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. I played on PS4, but this game is available on Steam, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The soundtrack is fun and honestly, I like these types of games so I went through it again. I think you’ll have a good time with this game if you give it a try.
Remnant: From the Ashes is a gruesome game. The enemies are well designed. The scenery is very well done. Dark and dreary spaces and the minions are 100 percent creepy. I was caught off guard several times by the little minions and yelped as a result. I’m pretty sure I left my mates ears ringing a few times.
With only a few hours invested in the game, I had a pretty good time with my friends. I appreciated the shared loot component with your group mates. Most specifically because if I’m going to play a game where resources are scarce, we might as well be able to share in the profits.
I chose a Hunter class because the idea of staying away from the enemies as much as possible and providing support for my team appealed to me. The Hunter class can mark targets that have a perk that could give a critical hit on enemies to help with your fight. My two teammates we ex-cultists.
A few things stood out to me during my play session. Searching for gear and stocking your traits is important. You need to like puzzle solving. You need to play to your strengths and work with strategy. So if your team likes high concentration games, this is good for you.
The mini-bosses that we came across are mobile, hard-hitting bullet sponges. So as I mentioned, a strategy is important because these bosses do not stand in one place. As a result, my team wiped a few times, but that’s a part of the fun.
Lastly, I did play long enough to get a feel, though I didn’t invest an entire day into the game. But, in the time that my group played, we did not run into the same boss twice. That’s a very refreshing experience. I know I need to invest more time to get the full scope of the game and I’m still learning the best way to play, but my first impressions are positive. As I play further I look forward to sharing things that I find out.
Remnant: From the Ashes is available now on PC, Xbox One and PS4 developed by Gunfire Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment.
I joined a group of my friends in the beta test for Black Desert. At the time of this writing, the beta is coming to a close. It’s a Fantasy MMO RPG adventure game. The initial release was in 2014 but the PS4 release is coming out on August 22, 2019.
So what about this game?
If you are a fan of Skyrim, World of Warcraft and other games like that, you will enjoy yourself. I played with a party of four people and we laughed the entire time and enjoyed leveling up.
My favorite aspect of the game is the amount of customization. I chose to be a sorceress, I made her hair blue and her skin bronze. She’s amazing.
I went to YouTube to find out a little about the classes available and as I unlocked her move set, I really started to get into the game-play. The combat is fluid, hard-hitting, and pretty to look at.
Yes, I said pretty.
In my group my friends played, Ranger, Wizard, and Bezerker. They all seemed to be having just as much fun as me.
Any Drawbacks?
There are some drawbacks. The biggest peeve in this game is the boss fights. You have to disband your party to fight them.
Every other instance, like grinding quest steps and gaining experience points you can play with friends. But as soon as the quest step requires you to defeat a boss, you need to disband your group and defeat it solo.
This could be a beta thing, but then again, the game has been out on PC and Xbox for a while and I was told that the situation is the same.
Action?
When the action is high energy and you are constantly fighting mobs, Black Desert is a joy. However, there are low points when you are traveling from village to village talking to different people just to complete quest steps. It’s a bit monotonous.
I understand it the RPG way, but that doesn’t make it any less dull.
There was also a point in our game-play that we tried to tame a horse. We tried for 45 minutes and failed. But it was fun trying. We ended up buying our horses from the stable keep for $15000 currency. I also realized you can fish in this game, but I didn’t get to try. I just watched a player for a little while. However, I did end up getting my fishing license after killing a boss. I’m sure there are a lot of activities to try within the game.
Overall, this game is fun to play with friends. I never played alone, so I can not tell you how the solo experience is. I’m told there is a strict RPG community that you can join if you are into that. I’m interested in trying that out once the game launches. But other than that, I had a lot of fun playing with my friends and enjoying this game.
Black Desert releases on PS4 on August 22, 2019.
We are just over a week removed from the release of Wolfenstein: Youngblood. It comes from a storied franchise that a lot of people love, you may be of those people. During E3 2019, Bethesda made a big deal about the release of this game with its huge selling point being the cooperative feature.
The co-op feature made me excited because I like to play with my friends. Sure, I’m able to enjoy a linear story by myself, but playing with friends is always a plus. That’s why I appreciated the co-op mode and eagerly wanted to experience it.
Story:
Playing the story mode was fine. It had its moments of excitement and once you’re leveled up enough you can put together some cool strategies to take down your enemies and have fun running rough shot on your enemies as well.
I’ve heard complaints that the enemies can be bullet sponge-like. And to that, I pose a question. Aren’t a lot of enemies in games these days? I just figured you and your partner were supposed to work together to take down the boss.
But that’s just me.
What I can say is that artificial intelligence is not the best. If you get unlucky enough to need to play with the computer as your sister, she will make your experience infinitely harder due to her lack of common sense.
Welcome to hard mode folks!
Let’s shake that off for a moment. The story itself was cool. You are playing as one of B.J Blazkowicz’s daughters. The goal is to find him because he disappeared in the ’80s. You travel to France to find him and end up working with the Resistance because Nazis are in control there.
Surprise, dad is still alive and there’s a lot of stuff going down that you knew nothing about (that I won’t spoil) and you find out there’s a multi-verse (that I will spoil). You figure out who is causing the trouble, stop them and then plan to push back against the big baddies of the world.
Pretty straight forward.
I will say this, Jess and Soph are not funny. They make jokes that adolescent boys would make and it’s not entertaining. That’s my biggest gripe with this game. I can’t relate to the main characters. I found myself cringing every time they laughed. I felt bad about it, but I have to be honest. I didn’t jive with those characters at all.
Thoughts:
Overall, I don’t think this game is as bad as a lot of people are saying it is. But, I’m pretty sure with the addition of microtransactions, the opinion of this game has drastically dropped in the gaming community. Microtransactions will always be a sour point no matter what game they are in.
I suggest you do what I do. Disregard the microtransactions and just play the game. Now, if the game becomes so wrapped up in in-game purchases that there is no way around it, then run the other way. But, if you can enjoy the game to some level without it, please do.
This is an average game. Unfortunately, it will be remembered much worse than it is due to corporate decisions, but hey that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Sometimes when I log on to Netflix or any streaming service for that matter, I can get overwhelmed by making choice on what I want to watch. I’m not that old, but I am old enough to remember when the TV Guide channel had a set list of what was coming on that night.
And if you didn’t like it, maybe you’d read a book.
When I log on to my platform of choice now, unless I already know what I’m looking for, I need a magic 8-ball to tell me what to watch.
There are so many options and that’s great. But can somebody break things up for me?
I’m focusing on Netflix right now because I remember when the service offered Max.
Get the Max with Netflix!
There are so many options on Netflix. How am I supposed to find things when I don’t know what I’m in the mood for?
When I had my PlayStation 3, Max would always help me out.
Picture yourself on a lazy night. You want to relax so you turn on Netflix and prepare for a night of entertainment. But then, you see 18 different categories, a bunch of suggestions for shows or movies you’ve already seen, and stuff that you’re not even interested in.
Then you click on Max, artificial intelligence embedded in Netflix and ready to help make your life simpler. You hear a cute little jingle, he asks you a few questions and BOOM, you’re watching a Korean drama that you didn’t know existed and you’re having a great time!
That’s why Netflix should bring back Max! There are so many choices and those suggestion categories do not help, but Max can. My experience with Max always positive and helped pinpoint a show or movie that I give a try without having to surf for an hour before starting to watch something.
So Netflix, feel free to bring Max back at any time.
In case you were not aware, Borderlands 2: The Handsome Collection is free if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription or the Xbox Game Pass. It’s also free on Steam. During E3 last week, Gearbox announced a free DLC to get players pumped for the next installment in the Borderlands franchise.
It’s called Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary. Seeing how all of this content is free right now, I decided to jump in and check it out.
First, I do have one confession. I needed to use the newcomer boost to get to level 30. I wanted to play the new content, and even though grinding power levels is a wonderful pass time, I chose the most effective route to get to the new stuff. So thank you Gearbox for the option.
Don’t judge me.
Once I got into the game, I was very impressed. The gun-play feels so good and your character feels very powerful. Plus, some of the commentaries by the NPC’s made me absolutely belly laugh at times. Whoever wrote the script much be hilarious in real life.
Story:
In the campaign, Lilith and the rest of the Crimson Raiders are discussing what their next steps are going to be. They currently have no commander and their ship, Sanctuary, is falling apart.
In the midst of their confusion, Colonel Hector attacks Sanctuary with his Pandora soldiers. He commandeers the ship and steals the vault key.
During the attack, Colonel Hector floods Sanctuary with gas causing people to turn into “Vine Freaks”. Lilith can’t even teleport into the area because it’s so overcome with gas. This prompts her to lean on you, a Vault Hunter, to help get back control of Sanctuary.
You go through your mission complete a set of tasks to help Lilith get back onboard the Sanctuary.
Here’s a broad overview of what you are tasked to do:
Thoughts (some spoilers):
Overall I had a good experience. With this being my first real experience in the Borderlands world, I liked it. I’m familiar with the post-apocalyptic vibes so getting into the gameplay wasn’t too jarring.
Again, the writing was great to me. I thought most of the lines from Vaughn, Cassius, and some from Hector were hilarious. Tannis made me laugh the most during my play session.
While explaining how the gas is causing humans to mutate, Tannis compares the human mutation to plant mutation. Basically calling us dumb, she says, “Gas makes plant go Big Big and do the ouch”.
Did you laugh? Maybe I’m simply pleased. Maybe you had to be there.
At the end of the story, your player character does face off with Hector. It’s an interesting encounter. He infects himself and grows vines. You have to shoot some pus bulbs off those vines to make him vulnerable.
My only hesitation to be fully satisfied with the end of the story is the very end.
Instead of your player character being the one to give the final blow to Colonel Hector, a cut-scene starts and Lilith takes over.
I get it because the story is about her becoming commander so it makes sense. However, I’m used to getting rid of the big bad so a cut-scene didn’t do it for me.
That being said, it was a good cut-scene.
Cut-scene spoilers:
Lilith destroys the Sanctuary to kill Infected Hector because his vines grew deep down into the ship. Everything explodes. Tannis reveals that the ship was probably going to blow up anyway. And no one is really bothered by the demise of the ship. The Crimson Raiders are just glad Lilith is cool.
Lilith sends the remaining Crimson Raiders out into the world to find vaults, while she stays because to rebuild, recruit new members, and look for the vault map that she believes is still intact in the area despite the explosion.
And that’s how we enter Borderlands 3. I’m actually excited for a fresh start going into the next saga of Borderlands. It comes out on September 13, 2019.
A lot of anticipated games were shown at E3. And it’s expected for people to be excited about them. But, beyond the critically acclaimed franchises, there were some gems announced as well. I’ve listed a few games that have piqued my interest beyond the main titles that have been showcased.
Twelve Minutes:
Twelve Minutes was shown off at the Microsoft Xbox E3 conference. It has such an intriguing concept. You have 12 minutes to figure out how to not die while you’re stuck in a time loop. The trailer gives off this psycho-thriller vibe. While trying to figure out how to change the events predetermined in the game, I expect to have an intense experience filled with absolute concentration and frustration.
Another exciting thought about Twelve Minutes surrounds the distractions and roadblocks in the game. How will the game respond when the player almost figures out a way out of the loop?
Developer: Luis Antonio /Publisher: Annapurna Interactive / Platforms: Xbox One, PC
GhostWire: Tokyo
The GhostWire: Tokyo trailer debuted at the Bethesda E3 Conference. It was actually one of the most interesting upcoming games mentioned during the conference. It had a brand new feel without any preconceived hype. Planting its feet firmly in the horror genre, GhostWire: Tokyo looks like it will rival The Evil Within which was created by the same developer.
Players will roam a ghostly version of Tokyo after mysterious happenings force you to uncover the reason and purge the city of evil. This sounds like a great opportunity for those of us who faithful play Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and even Parasite Eve.
Developer: Tango Gameworks /Publisher: Bethesda
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein: Youngblood has the potential to be the best Wolfenstein of the franchise. Why? Because you are able to play in online co-op with a partner. It’s the first Wolfenstein with co-op. If this set up works well, I can’t see co-op not being an option in future Wolfenstein titles.
Another reason why this game is on the list is due to the release date. It comes out on July 26, so it’s an option for some summertime entertainment.
Developer: Arkane Studios, MachineGames /Publisher: Bethesda / Platform: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation
Death Loop
Death Loop seems cool. It’s two assassins going head to head to see who can get the kill first. The premise of the game is that you are at a constant loop to kill the other assassins while evading other enemies as well. I may have missed this in the presentation, but the trailer does not mention if this is a co-op experience. If it had a co-op mode, that would most likely be the highlight of the game.
Develper: Arkane Lyon, Studios / Publisher: Bethesda / Platform:
My Friend Pedro
My Friend Pedro is the most unorthodox game that I’ve seen so far in E3. Not only did Devolver Digital have the most memorable showcase, but this game developed by DeadToast Entertainment also stood out among everything else. It reminded me of Super Hot. If you recall Super Hot, you’ll remember its a game where you can slow down time to shoot your enemies. Well, this game reminded me of that, but on a train with parkour.
Developer: DeadToast Entertainment / Publisher: Devolver Digital / Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Which games stuck out to you?
I started playing Rage 2 two weeks ago. I wrote my initial thoughts piece about it the same week it came out. I posted my thoughts just as I reached the leveling part of the game for your Dagger faction in order to progress in the story.
My initial opinions of Rage 2 were positive. You can read the entire rundown about the beginning of the campaign in my previous blog – I’m playing Rage 2 and… (review).
Update:
The grind of leveling up the faction allies was fine. It’s what you can expect. The level requirement to continue forward with the main story was level five for Lily, Marshall, Kvasir, and Loosum.
After you reach level five with all of the Dagger allies, you can continue with the main campaign. You end up fighting with General Cross, the leader of the Authority before the final boss encounter.
Boss Fight:
It’s a complete fake out. It seems like you are in the final boss fight, but it’s actually the fight before the final fight.
Cross is a bullet sponge at first, but then a cool mechanic kicks in where you need to destroy his tech to stop his immunity.
Quick Tip:
In between killing the enemy mobs and shooting at Cross, you need to shoot the tech hanging from the machine.
That allows you to go straight for Cross. However, he was baiting us all along. He was only buying time while he prepared his new clone body.
Do you know what this situation reminds me of? The Sixth Day. Not plot-wise, but the way Cross keeps cloning himself to make himself “better” and transferring his memories into a different host in order to take over the world. That reminds me of the ending of The Sixth Day.
Cross ends up getting away in his new clone body, but we acquire his old head as a DNA sample to help Dr. Kvasir. Kvasir makes the Nanotrite serum to stop Cross from being able to clone himself.
The Authority Stronghold and Final Boss:
The final mission of Rage 2 involves infiltrating the Authority stronghold and killing General Cross. That’s the main goal. There are two parts to the break-in. The first part involves driving and the second involves going through mobs of enemies in a mini maze on the way to Cross.
This part felt a little unnecessarily prolonged, but I understand why it was there.
When you finally get to General Cross, he activates his gigantic body ogre beast extension. There are three phases to the fight. The mechanics mirror the same actions that you use to kill the regular ogres throughout the game.
Phases:
Be mindful:
After you finish the encounter, a cut-scene makes our player character stab Cross in the eye with the Nanotrite Virus and it infects us as well.
Lily comes to save us and it seems like the player character is probably going to die from the virus.
Roll credits
Dr. Kvaris is able to save us somehow. We wake up to all of the Dagger allies telling us there’s still work to be done and then we are inserted back into the open world to finish up side-missions and level up factions.
Final thoughts:
General Cross’ entire plan was to wipe out humans and replace them with clones. Our mission was to stop the creation of said clones and kill Cross because he killed Lily’s mother. In the process, I think we saved the world too.
That’s a pretty straight forward goal.
You have the option of keeping the game going after you finish the main campaign. And if you are like me and only did the minimum leveling for your Dagger allies so that you can move on with the story, you have plenty left to do.
The gun play feels great in Rage 2. It’s fast-paced and the combat is the best part. It’s a pretty solid and entertaining game.
Back in April, Bioware delayed its roadmap for Anthem in order to do some housekeeping on the base game. Yesterday, EA announced that there will be an update to the game that will improve the base game and pave the way for Anthem’s major update, Cataclysm.
IGN posted a quote from EA community manager BW_Darokaz…
“This update contains some under the hood content you won’t see right away, but is setting things up for a future update, the Cataclysm.” – PATCH NOTES
Today, we had our first look at the update Cataclysm. It didn’t jump start any hype, at least not from what I read during the live stream chat. Viewers seemed underwhelmed and it makes a lot of sense.
What’s New?
During the live stream, we learned that the Cataclysm will be an 8-week event. Two of those weeks will be a Pre-Event. After the Cataclysm arrives it will be a 6-week drip feed.
Ben Irving and Jesse Anderson confirmed new gear and weapons but they aren’t coming until basically the end of the Cataclysm event.
Why would I want to wait for 8 weeks to get new loot that I’ve been starving for since the game released?
Something that did sound interesting was the War Chests. By playing the Cataclysm event, you will earn currency that you’ll pay to a new vendor in the social space. You’ll open up the War Chests and that is how you get your loot.
They also mentioned 3 new missions, a new arena called the Cataclysm, a scoring system for the arena activity and leader boards to keep track of your progress versus other players. However, the leader board is another addition that will come later after the Cataclysm update.
Plus, they spoke more about the Public Test Server (PTS) for PC ONLY more than the actual update.
Caution!
So the PTS will allow PC players to test this Cataclysm update before it goes live. So Bioware and EA are pretty much opening a yet another beta in 1 week to test of the community before releasing the actual content to the players who paid $60 for the game when it released.
I can understand trying to test the player base before you release your content. However, at this point, the community is starved. Wouldn’t anything be better than nothing?
They basically talked for 30 minutes about the PTS more than the actual update and that is scary. There is still no date for the actual Cataclysm release.
A promise of more loot dropping, a leader board competition, new weapons, new rewards and not have an actual release date for it gives you something to think about as a player.
The most important thing should be getting the content that was promised released to your player base. All of your player base, not just PC.
What about your console player base?
I guess the release date for the Cataclysm will be based on the positive or negative feedback that Bioware receives during their testing ground.
Anthem Opinion – Opinion: Scared out of buying Anthem(click here).
I have a question for you. If Bungie creates a horde-like unlimited mode in Destiny 2 would you…
I’m only asking because B and C are the most common things that I have run into while playing the Revelry Event. Not that there is anything wrong with speed running. It’s fun to test your fireteams limits. But, I have been getting mixed reviews.
I’ve played the Verdant Forest and my main objective was to optimize my clearing power while moving as fast as possible. But, I had a jarring experience with a teammate on Tuesday.
I logged in and hopped in a fireteam with my group. After running through 40 levels we ran out of time and warped to the 5 bosses. We went back to the tower, picked up bounties from Eva Levante and my friend literally says, “I’m tired of this mode already, let’s run strikes.”
Why can’t we have nice things?
You want to stop playing the new content and go back to playing the vanilla content that you complained about when there was no new content, and now that you have that new content you find old content better?
He wanted to stop because he didn’t want to grind for “no reason”.
It just started on Tuesday and trust me if it was bad, I wouldn’t lie about it. But, even if it’s not mobs and mobs of enemies attacking you in the re-imagined Infinite Forest, it’s still an activity with new triumphs attached.R
I recently wrote about Destiny being in a good place. I still believe that.
Opinion: Destiny 2 is in a great place
The content is literally 2 days old at the time of this writing and I just wish we could enjoy the content without the salt. Destiny 2 still has so many other activities to do. Plus, a new exotic to grind for. Why dog out the content? It’s meant to be an add-on to the other options available. Plus, it’s a free update and the Verdant (infinite) Forest is pretty close to an unlimited horde mode.
I am hoping for a genuine response. How do you feel about the Revelry Event?