lightgungames - Tumblr blog

[lightgungames]

All Jellycat Birdlings

(Goldfinch, Swallow, Cardinal, Pigeon, Mallard, Blue Jay, Dove, Puffin, Robin, Kingfisher, Woodpecker and Wren)

Ko-fi / Instagram

[lightgungames]

You never know with Bruce.

[lightgungames]

[lightgungames]

Review: Tales From the borderlands.

A wonderful next step in the story of 2K's 'shoot and loot' franchise.

I am of the firm belief that the hardest thing to get right in fiction is a good antagonist. Nothing pulls me away from a story quicker than a villain who is too powerful or too easily dealt with. For an antagonist to work they have to feel like a genuine threat to the protagonists as well as not being powerful enough to destroy them outright. Enter Borderlands 2's main villain Handsome Jack. A charismatic and complex CEO of renowned gun manufacturer Hyperion, who straddles the gap between hilarious and psychotic perfectly. His actions in the second instalment portray a man slowly losing everything he loves, while simultaneously incapable of seeing how his own actions lead to those events. I found him surprisingly sympathetic at points and truly one of the highlights of the game. 

But as Tales from the Borderlands begins in the Hyperion space station Helios with a low ranking executive, Rhys, trying desperately to swindle his way into a promotion, I began to worry.

The antagonist this time around Vasquez (voiced by Patrick Warburton) wasn’t by any stretch of the word uninteresting, he was just a bit of a let-down. We control Rhys as he attempts to argue his way to a promotion with Vasquez in typical Tell-Tale style. A collection of four dialogue choices with the infamous '[insert character} will remember that' appearing occasionally in the top left corner.  

That's pretty much it for gameplay with the exception of the occasional sequence of quick time events. Despite my tendency to dislike these, I found them well integrated into gameplay and at points incredibly fun. Especially at two points in later chapters that, without wishing to spoil, pay perfect homage to both 1980s action films and retro fighting games.

The game is fun, fast paced and genuinely heart-wrenching at points. It is a prefect continuation to the Borderlands story despite being such a dramatic departure from the rest of the series. It's beautiful and it's Tell-Tale game's at their best. I would tell you more, but the game is best experienced as opposed to recited. If you have any interest in Borderland's story play this game, if you don’t probably give it a miss.

So I've written my conclusion there so if you want to avoid spoilers you don’t have to read anymore. If you've already played it, or don’t care about spoilers then continue to read.

Remember when I said I was unsure of how the series would continue without Handsome Jack, turns out I didn’t have to worry. By the end of the first of the five episodes, Rhys has accidentally downloaded a copy of Jack, as an Artificial Intelligence, into his brain.

The constant presence of a Jack nobody else can see, visibly takes its toll on Rhys and ends with arguably one of my favourite scenes in a game ever.

Last chance if you don’t want significant spoilers for the last chapter of the game.

Jack's story ends with Rhys and Jack in his office in the ruins of Helios. Rhys, having thwarted Jacks plans, realises that Jack has control of his cybernetic enhancements. As Jack attempts to kill both himself and Rhys, you are forced to remove your enhancements one by one in surprisingly visceral detail. Watching as Jack pleads for his life in the ruins of the empire he built for himself is a fitting end to a beautifully crafted character.

[lightgungames]

Danger Zones: The worst areas in gaming.

Bioshock Infinite: The Hand of the Prophet.

January is traditionally a time of reflection and as many reflect on the year that has just passed I instead would like to cast my mind back to 2013. It is a beautiful time, filled with joy and a significant lack of political upheaval, but most importantly it features the release of one of the most invigorating games of the last ten years: Bioshock Infinite.  

It is a masterful example of how to blend an fascinating story with solid yet diverse gameplay, the transition from horror to action suiting Bioshock perfectly.  

However, just as Icarus flew too close to the sun, so did Ken Lervine. He was so close to being the director of a damn near perfect game, a game not without its flaws, but one that got as close to perfect as it was going to get.  

Infinite was a true adaptation of the horrific lives of minorities during the early 1900s. It showed their oppression as more than just a subplot and in truth the real reason for the fall of white utopia Colombia, the location in which most of the game takes place.Then, just as you reach the crescendo of this epic, you are met with one of the most boring final fights a game had ever delivered.

On paper it seems to tie up all the elements the game had left undone, Songbird (a mysterious creature that torments you throughout the game), the Vox Populi (an army of the working class from the poorer districts of Colombia) and the Prophet, the games primary antagonist. All these features should make for an impressive conclusion to the story but what the player is rewarded with is a God awful protect the generator minigame.

However, just as Icarus flew too close to the sun, so did Ken Lervine. He was so close to being the director of a damn near perfect game, a game not without its flaws, but one that got as close to perfect as it was going to get.  

Infinite was a true adaptation of the horrific lives of minorities during the early 1900s. It showed their oppression as more than just a subplot and in truth the real reason for the fall of white utopia Colombia, the location in which most of the game takes place.Then, just as you reach the crescendo of this epic, you are met with one of the most boring final fights a game had ever delivered.

On paper it seems to tie up all the elements the game had left undone, Songbird (a mysterious creature that torments you throughout the game), the Vox Populi (an army of the working class from the poorer districts of Colombia) and the Prophet, the games primary antagonist. All these features should make for an impressive conclusion to the story but what the player is rewarded with is a God awful protect the generator minigame.  

As the Vox Populi swoop in on dozens of carbon copy airships, the only way Booker Dewitt can stop them is by looking at them and holding E after an arbitrary amount of time. In between this, the player must fight off never-ending waves of basic enemies, with the occasional spattering of mechanised patriots.  

See, that's another part of the game that was brilliant, the mechanised patriots were amazing, these muscular, almost deified versions of the founding father's walking around with machine guns were the perfect blend of sinister and bizarre. However, in this fight all they really give you is more hassle and added faff to this already long final battle. 

To make matters worse the generator you have to protect might as well be made of Papier-mâché and dog spit considering the relative ease your opponents have in destroying it.  

Unlike the previous articles in this series, I'm not angry about this as much as I am disappointed. This one section has a tendency to sour (better word choice for sour) the remaining story of the game for me, which is especially heart breaking when you consider just how amazing the end of the this game really is.  

This is by no means a statement that you shouldn't play the game. In fact, I actively encourage you to pick it up and play it through at least once. But as you do, remember what's lurking at the games end: a crass, poorly designed, travesty that nearly destroyed one of the greatest games in the last ten years.

[lightgungames]

Danger Zones: The worst areas in gaming.

Hellfire Peninsula

Slight disclaimer, I love World of Warcraft, I find the story occasionally really interesting and enjoy raiding from time to time. However, it is my personal belief that Burning Crusade is some of the worst game-play WOW has ever had. I'm certain that back when it was initially released, it was the best thing ever and some of the raids had interesting enemies and character design, but that doesn’t change the poor questing experience. Nothing embodies this more than Burning Crusade's first zone Hellfire Peninsula. A poorly made, physically repulsive area. I understand that for some fans this area is oozing in nostalgia for Dark Portal gank squads and the first steps into a new, lore filled world. But to be honest I hated this zone from my first play through and it definitely hasn’t gotten better with age. It's just so RED, EVERYTHING IS RED. Red orcs, red rocks, red sky and whatever isn't red is green. On top of this as soon as you step through the Dark Portal you are met with an encroaching horde of demonic warriors, but don’t worry there's an army of NPC's to fight them off, no need for the player to get involved in this game. And if you do accidentally get caught in this battlefield  be prepared to be instantly rolled.

Down to the crux of the matter, the quests. There's not enough of them, they're sporadic and poorly made with quest markers often leading you to the wrong location. And yes I know that if I read every word of the quest I'll figure out the actual location but for God's sake, I'd relied on the quest markers up till now why would I suddenly change my style of play. Furthermore STOP INTEGRATING PVP INTO QUESTS BLIZZARD, you want people to do PvP give them a PvP area don’t just fling it slap dash into the middle of an existing area, its lazy, plain and simple.

Don’t get me wrong though I do like parts of The Burning Crusade, it introduced my favorite raid ever, Karazhan with its dorky opera and stupid chess event. It even had some alright dungeons, except the slave pens, screw the slave pens if I have to watch that stupid marsh creature climb out of the swimming pool at the end of the dungeon one more time I'm gonna have an aneurysm. But apart from the slave pens, dungeons like Hellfire ramparts and the blood furnace were a great introduction into the new tone of the expansion. Also this expansion introduced my all-time favorite race in WoW the Arakkoa I love these little bird fellas with they're strange voices and their dodgy religious practices.

To be honest what I said at the start was a little harsh, it's not the embodiment of everything wrong with WoW it's just a very good example of it.

[lightgungames]

Danger Zones: The worst areas in gaming.

The Grid

Welcome to my new series Danger Zones: an exploration of gaming's worst areas, a series where we will explore some of my personal hated areas across gaming and what makes them so terrible. So to start I though I'd begin with a personal bugbear of mine, The Grid. Now I am an avid fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, I grew up with these games and have followed them avidly my entire life. So in the series most recent instalment dream drop distance the plethora of new Disney worlds to explore including my personal favourite Disney film The hunchback of Notre Dame.

But lurking in the game, not far from that beautiful French cathedral, is one of the most boring, poorly designed and down right frustrating areas in Kingdom Heart's history. The Grid.

Based on the sub-par 2010 film, Tron Legacy this zone does to Kingdom Hearts what it did to the Tron franchise. It drags it, kicking and screaming into a dark gritty realism that absolutely nobody asked for. Just as the original Tron film, was slightly odd but nevertheless pretty fun, the Space Paranoids in Kingdom Hearts 2 introduced Tron to a generation that otherwise may never have heard of it. The light cycle section in the Space Paranoids was a fun little minigame and presented a significant challenge for my first few runs through the game. The areas were nicely designed, with minimal backtracking and some interesting mechanics based on freezing your opponents with viruses. Meanwhile The Grid is literally one of the ugliest parts of the game. While most of the rest of Kingdom Hearts 3D had very beautiful worlds, which made the contrasts of the bold whites and blacks in the final area all the more poignant, the Grid is an ugly mesh of dark blues, blacks and neon whites. This makes it almost impossible to see the similarly colored treasure chests and makes the non-natives of the world stand out.

The characters of Sora and Riku who are very well animated and have their own bright charm do not fit into the world of Tron Legacy. Similarly with the area based on the Pirates of the Caribbean in Kingdom Hearts 2 the hyper realistic animation of the original characters of the world look absolutely ridiculous when they're placed next to a gigantic glowing praying mantis.

I'm going to take a break from criticizing the ugliness of the world for a second, to instead focus on the god awful level design. As with most areas in Dream Drop Distance, The Grid is slightly more open then previous levels in the series, but while areas such as Pranksters Paradise seek to use the larger areas and interesting movement mechanics to create a sense of bigness, the Grid uses cramped, claustrophobic environments with the illusion of greatness. But when this world reaches its darkest, most disgusting nadir, is the solar sailor. 3 rows of identical white boxes with confusing entrance schemes that lead to identical rooms which in turn leads to even greater confusion if you're trying to hunt down missing chests. On top of that, no matter which side of the solar sailor you enter from, you'll always proceed through it in the same direction leading to even more confusion, frustration and just plain boredom.

The Grid is a mediocre area that embodies all the flaws of arguably one of the weakest games in the kingdom hearts series. 

[lightgungames]

New Series: Danger Zones

I’d like to announce a new series I’m working on called Danger Zones. Danger Zones is an exploration of the worst zones in gaming, explaining why they’re so bad, why they stand out and how they could be better.

[lightgungames]

Review: Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel

A short but sweet revisiting of one of the most loved areas of Dark Souls. First things first this review is going to have minor spoilers about locations, enemies and items within the expansion avoiding specific details of any major elements of the expansion and its content.

I absolutely adore the Dark Souls series, specifically its third installment. I love its minimalist approach to storytelling and its tough but fair gameplay style. Each game brought something different to the series; the first installment, heralded as the best by many players, had a more compact and maze like world and level design with emphasis on gradual improvement. The second focused more on weapon and zone diversity, attempting to give every play what they specifically wanted and occasionally falling short because of it. The third, and apparently final, installment to the series aimed to connect most of its story together, creating a more condensed and believable game world than any of the previous installments. I found the whole game to be challenging but not ridiculously so, distancing itself from some of the more frustrating parts of the first two games.

The first of two expansions, Ashes of Ariandel seeks to continue the overall themes of the core game while tying up some loose ends within the story. Upon entering the painted world, you are met by a stunning winter landscape that is genuinely fun to look at and investigate. The majority of this first section is comprised of two groups of enemies, the first being the Followers.

These basic infantrymen are the kinds of enemies I love to fight in Dark Souls, simple to take on one to one and a challenge in groups, forcing the player to become accustomed to their unique weaponry and fighting style

The second challenge you're likely to face is a large collection of wolves. The wolves in this expansion are kind of mediocre and probably one of the weakest points for me. They tend to overwhelm you with little threat and are just plain boring. Fights with them do occasionally surprise but it’s few and far between.

But, without a doubt, the strongest point in this expansion is the Millwood Knights. These Nordic adversaries pose a significant challenge to the player when you first bump into them and even fighting more than one can quickly get out of hand. To tackle these burly Vikings you must be patient and cunning or risk losing the upper hand.

The setting for this expansion is genuinely beautiful, I know I mentioned it before but really, I played most of it with my HUD off just so I could take in the sights as much as possible. In an attempt to minimize spoilers, I'm going to be vague about the later portions of the DLC starting with its two bosses.

The first boss is surprisingly easy to miss and not really worth the challenging path to arrive at his arena. His boss fight is shockingly easy, with very little in the way of interesting mechanics, basically a glorified NPC fight and in all honestly an actual NPC fight within the late portion of the expansion is a much more entertaining sequence then this boss fight. However, the weapon this boss drops is incredibly fun to use, allowing an alternative combat approach for dexterity builds.

The second boss fight is my favorite in the game so far. Interesting mechanics, formidable threats and most importantly reasonable damage. I'm going to be honest this boss is significantly better than the Nameless King to me and its all because of the damage it deals. Unlike 'King One-shot', the end of expansion boss deals enough damage for it to feel formidable without feeling like one mistake puts you out of the fight. It's a long fight as well, testing your endurance and health management as well as combat skill. Plus the weapon I got from the fight is enchanting, a lovely animated weapon with interesting attacks that make me want to specialize my character simply to use it better.

All in all I think it continues the tradition of Dark Souls DLC being stronger than large portions of the main game. Although rather short if you can afford to grab this expansion, I urge you to. A stunning world with a jaw dropping final boss that is worth the steep asking price alone.