animegamesandbrains-blog

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Star Wars Battlefront 2

So, I’ve seen a lot on the internet about how crap Star Wars Battlefront 2 is. I have to say, I disagree with what they’re saying. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a great game but the reasons for it being a bad game are very different to the reasons everyone is constantly giving.  The micro-transactions seem to be what everyone hates the game for. I don’t understand why though because games have had these for a year or two now. I’m pretty sure they came from games like Farmville and other crappy facebook games where you had to wait for the game to carry out your actions or pay money to speed it up to a normal playable pace. Other modern games to have micro-transactions are Shadow of War, which got a tiny bit of flack for it, and Overwatch, which people have no issue with whatsoever. EA has always had a bad reputation within the gaming community and I suspect this is the real reason people are so up in arms about them including micro-transactions. Also, they said they wouldn’t charge for any DLC, which everyone was happy about, and so perhaps people feel betrayed since there is still part of the game that asks for payments. Honestly though, after they reduced the cost of unlocking heroes I felt like this wasn’t that big a deal. Since you can’t unlock epic or legendary star cards through the loot boxes people wouldn’t be able to pay to win.  The real issues I found with the game were in the game-play and customization options themselves.  For each class you had only 4 weapons to choose from, except that you had to complete challenges like “Kill 500 people” with the starting guns before it would let you unlock them. I think after you unlocked them you had to craft them using materials as well! (I don’t actually know because I got a refund before I hit 50 kills with any particular class).  As for each class’s abilities you had about 9 to choose from. The basic ones and their upgraded star card versions or the alternate star card versions. Each of which you had to unlock by pure luck or by spending crafting resources to buy the basic version. Technically you can upgrade star cards using those same crafting resources but you have to get to at least rank 10 before you can do that. I played for almost a week (assume at least 6 hours each day online) and I didn’t get to rank 10. So it’s a real grind to get to the level where you can actually upgrade cards, especially since you have to make do with the crappy level 1 cards you can craft or the few upgraded cards you get by chance in the loot boxes.  The first game was far better when it came to customization. You could design your character however you wanted without having to pick specific classes to base them on. In the old game, for example, you could have two types of grenades equipped at once. Maybe one tactical grenade and one aggressive grenade for flexibility or maybe you wanted to go all attack or all support. In this game you’re either stuck with aggressive grenades as an assault trooper or supportive flash grenades as an officer. There’s just not as much room for customization.  I also found that the game wasn’t as intuitive as the first game. I don’t know if it was aim assist or if they just didn’t have as much spread on the guns but it seems like in the new game it’s largely down to luck whether your shots hit who you’re aiming at or not. (I suppose it’s more like being a real storm trooper that way, hahahaha). Also, maybe I’m just terrible at shooters but it seems like the more skilled players can murder your from miles away with one shot while I struggled to kill a guy with his back turned to me five meters away! I don’t know if I just didn’t unlock the good weapons for any of the classes or if I’m genuinely just crap but either way the old game felt much more fair. I was able to play that without dying spontaneously and even managed to get a decent score on most games. Maybe the new game is geared more toward hardcore players who know how to fire in perfect bursts so that all their shots hit, but for me that just makes it less fun.  Don’t get me started on the heroes... I never got to play as a hero in a proper online match. They cost a ridiculous amount of points. In a lot of games only two or three people hit the 6000-8000 point mark. So only they could play as they proper heroes. Us skill-less plebs had to made do with occasionally getting a rocket trooper.  The one area the game really improved on and that I really enjoyed was the star ship battles. In the first game the keyboard and mouse controls were awful! It was like it just wouldn’t respond. In the new game it feels intuitive, responsive and accurate. It really made you feel like you could be as skilled as the pilots you saw in the movies, weaving through space stations, turning sharp corners to lose tailing enemies, or doing the same to catch fleeing enemies. It was really quite an excellent experience and I considered keeping the game just for that game mode.  It wasn’t without it’s issues, I’ll admit. The empire ships, for example, weren’t as good as the rebel alliances. Their interceptors felt slow and less powerful compared to the S-Type and the tie fighters were just as slow as the X-wings but the x-wings had the repair abilities while the tie fighter had a very poor speed boost ability. I was very rarely saved by the speed boost ability and I couldn’t pick out a moment when I saw someone else use it. It was noticeable on the S-Type, the rebel ship that had the speed boost but it was just useless on the empire ships.  The hero ships were far less expensive this time round too. With a cost of about 2000-3000 you almost always had someone piloting them and often got a chance to pilot them yourself. They were fairly weak though. Especially the millennium falcon. It had a massive health pool but it was just awfully slow and really difficult to maneuver. One or two enemies would just start tailing you and you’d die after about 20-30 seconds of trying to get away unless you were lucky enough for a teammate to come and pick them off. Don’t even get me started on how useless that same speed-boost ability I mentioned earlier is on the falcon...  The main campaign was good. A bit too easy if you ask me. I played it on the highest difficulty but only died about 5 times in the whole game. The final boss in the fighter is way OP, but that being said, if you avoid his first volley and get behind him then he’s easy to kill after that.  Anyway, that’s my review. Over all a 4/10. The space battles get an 8/10, the story gets a 7/10 and everything else gets 2/10.

[animegamesandbrains-blog]

Does anyone else remember the awesome soundtrack from Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter?  It was really good. One of my favourites. 

[animegamesandbrains-blog]

Death Parade!

What an excellent anime! It’s fairly short at just 12 episodes but it really gets through a lot in that time.  It involves themes of judgement, justice and empathy. Centering around a bar located in the afterlife the story follows the bartender who’s job is to judge the souls that arrive in the bar by putting them under duress and discovering what they’re really like at their core. This is done through twisted childrens games where the participants believe the loser will be killed. Almost all the patrons arrive in pairs and their deaths are linked in some way. The patrons remember nothing when they arrive but as each episode goes on their memories return and we start to put together a story of what their lives were like. Eventually they realize they’re dead, how they died and the significance of the other patron that arrived with them in their death.  There are lots of feels to enjoy and the writers keep you guessing right up to the final reveal of how the patrons are judged. The artwork is quite amazing too. The bar looks awesome and there are a few other settings that look really good too.  All in all, I would highly recommend this anime! :D