#i hear new game plus is a better experience since it's more streamlined

[thelvadams]

enjoying final fantasy xvi but it really needs to pick up the pace

[killscreencinema]

Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Xenoblade Chronicles X, released by Monolith Soft “X”-clusively for the Wii U in 2015, takes place on an alien planet named Mira, where the last remnants of humanity have crash landed after Earth was decimated by a mysterious alien force known as the Ganglion.  The human survivors live on in the form of “mimeosomes”, which are enhanced cyberorganic duplicates, which are being controlled remotely by their real bodies while in stasis in a massive vault known as the Lifehold.

You play as a freshly revived from stasis new recruit in an organization known as BLADE, whose mission statement, besides gathering resources and fending off hostile creatures for the residents of the fledgling city of New Los Angeles, is to find the Lifehold, which was lost during the crash landing, before it runs out of power, killing the rest of humankind in the process.  The only problems is that BLADE is in a race to find the Lifehold against their old pals, the Ganglion, who are committed to finishing the extermination they started.

I normally don’t go into so much detail about a video game story, but goddamn if this one didn’t capture my imagination like no other video game in awhile, especially a J-RPG, with all of their tired tropes.  In fact, while I greatly enjoyed the first game, Xenoblade Chronicles, I found the story to be disappointingly banal, especially from a studio like Monolith, who are known for complex plots since the days of ye olde PlayStation with Xenogears (when the creative team was working under Squaresoft).  I love the idea of humans rebuilding civilization, with their main hub of New Los Angeles having the familiar California architecture juxtaposed against a strange, alien landscape.  I love the idea of these people being trapped in cyber-organic bodies, which if killed, would merely trap their consciousness back in their real bodies in stasis.  What a mind trip it would be for someone close to you to die, but if you’re able to find where their real body is tucked away, you might have a chance to bring them back for realsies!  To the game’s credit, it deeply explores both the negative and positive psychological implications of such an existence, albeit in a melodramatic fashion one comes to expect from most anime (which J-RPGs are basically offshoots of).  The characters are all well-rounded, with Elma, your commanding officer and all around badass bitch, being my favorite.  I even love what Elma says whenever she levels up:

“Strength comes from experience.  That’s true on any planet.”

Meanwhile, whenever my character leveled up she’d exclaim “MY GROWTH SPURT!!!”  Which is... weird.  I guess it’s better than your 13-year-old teammate, Lin, yelling that. 

You’re well-advised to spend most of your time with Elma and Lin, getting them nice and strong.  You can also choose fourth party member from a variety of characters you meet along the way.  The longer you spend time with your team completing missions, the more your affinity grows with them.  One you reach a certain affinity level, it opens a personal side-quest with each respective character, which are worth doing not only to further dive into the story, but for the “fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory”, as Indiana Jones would say.

While I can’t say enough things about the story, the gameplay is just as solid and immersive.  It plays basically just like its spiritual predecessor, for it should be noted at this point that gameplay is the only thing is has in common with the first game as it does not continue the story.  It’s almost like how Mega Man X *kinda* continues the story of the original Mega Man series, but with a darker, more sci-fi tone.  Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 are pure fantasy (with a lil bit of sci-fi), while Xenoblade Chronicles X is sci-fi fantasy all the way.  It’s pretty much the J-RPG version of Mass Effect, but without all the sex.

The battle system is in real-time, with your various special moves set up in slots.  You can unleash them at will, or wait for your comrades to request a specific move, which is optimal as it is one of very few ways to heal your party.  Plus, those special attacks have to recharge, so you don’t want to be stuck with no specials while your party’s HP is in the red, and one of them is begging for a heal.  Aw~kward!  I do like how streamlined it feels as opposed to the kind of turn-based fighting I’m used to in J-RPGs, although it’s always stressful not being able to control the three other party members beyond issuing generic squad orders like “Concentrate your fire” or “assemble with me” or “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” before running from danger like King Arthur and his knights running from that bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

You’ll be using that order a lot by the way as, similarly to the first game, low level enemies cohabit alongside extremely high level enemies all over the world maps.  While most of the time the super strong monsters will ignore your existence, unless you pick a fight or bump into them, others might not have such a chill disposition and will prefer to trample you instead.  Running into an area populated by high-level enemies can feel a lot like when you accidentally wander into a dangerous neighborhood.  There’s nothing like looking for a rare item in a cave only to realize it’s full of enemies twice your level, so you carefully back away like the Homer Simpson meme:

You might think I’m complaining, but I actually really enjoyed this in both games, as it really makes it feel like a truly open world and having to tread softly or risk sudden annihilation from a level 80 tyrant you didn’t know was there makes it feel more like an adventure.  That being said... it can also be incredibly infuriating when you’re flying around in your mech suit, which are called “Skells” in this game, and you innocently bump into a powerful bad guy only for him to promptly blow up your Skells, leaving you with a salvage cost in the MILLIONS.  Yep, that’s when you normally “save scum” by loading up a previous save, but damned if they didn’t make it a pain in the ass what with the obscene loading times and all the fucking menu screens you have to press A through.  While it’s true that players who are savvy about planting mining beacons in the most optimal way to earn money will have more credits than they know how to spend, you will trash your Skells a lot, and that shit adds up, especially when you’re trying to save for more powerful Skells or expensive equipment.

By the way, I don’t want to understate how fucking cool it is that you get a giant mech robot to ride in halfway through the game.  I was already onboard with Xenoblade Chronicle X before that happened, so adding a giant mech robot to the mix is like discovering for the first time how freaking delicious Fritos are in chili.  Like... I love chili, but I had not idea it could be improved THIS much with Fritos!  And just as the initial buzz of getting a Skell starts to wear off, YOU GET A FLIGHT MODULE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO FLY ALL OVER THE MAP WITH IMPUNITY!  Hey, you like chili and Fritos?  Howz about a blow job too?  I mean, you’ll have to listen to an irritatingly catchy J-pop song while you’re getting the blow job, but still awesome!

 Which finally brings us to the music.  Holy shit.  The music is composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who did the music for the anime series Attack on Titan.  There are lots of great tracks for the game... well except for both the day and night themes for NLA, which will get stuck in your head so much you’ll scream into your pillow while trying to sleep at night (meanwhile in your brain you keep hearing, “Uh, yeah, uh, yeah, oh oh oh”).  Even the worst track is forgivable if only because the main theme to game, innocously titled “Theme X”, is one of the most goddamn beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a game in years.  Listen and let the goosebumps wash over you:

It’s obvious I love the game, but there are negatives too.  For one, I didn’t finish the game, because HOLY HELL are the final bosses difficult.  Firstly, any hope that you have of beating them is with your Skells, so should they get wrecked somewhere along the way, there’s no way to bring them back, so you’re SOLAMWF (or “Shit out luck and mighty well fucked” as George Carlin coined).  If you saved before the fight, your heard was in the right place, but guess what?  You’re fucking trapped.  You can’t leave to buy a stronger Skell or level grind.  It’s a goddamn dead end, emphasis on the word “dead”.  Fortunately, being a seasoned RPG player, when Elma asked me not only once, but TWICE, if I was ABSOLUTELY sure I’m ready to enter the Lifehold, I got the subtext and didn’t save once inside.  However, stupidly, I did save after accepting the final mission, which effectively locks out the affinity missions, which can be much less redundant way to level grind than doing the “Basic Missions” (which consists of tasks like fetch quests and monster bounties).  I tried like hell to grind to level 50 and save up enough credits to buy a level 50 Skell (which were the minimum recommendations for evening the odds against the boss), but I still couldn’t beat him. 

So out of frustration and boredom, I rage quit the game and moved on to something that will hopefully be a lot less strenuous... Bloodborne (wah-waaaaaah).  I like Xenoblade enough that I’ll return to it and continue grinding away until I eventually beat it.

So yeah... Xenoblade Chronicles X is pretty fucking great. I would cautiously nominate it as the best RPG you’ll play on the Wii U (below Breath of the Wild of course). 

[curemoonliite]

Caution: Ralph Breaks the Internet Spoilers Ahead

As much as I enjoyed this movie, there was a narrative decision at the end that really bugged me. And so, like any good fanfiction writer, I came up with my own headcanon to explain it!

My fellow WIR fans should consider themselves lucky I don’t write for this particular fandom, as I could spend thousands of words setting it up, but to make a long story short...some game characters receive a few basic “personality templates” when they’re programmed, often based on past characters in their genre type. This is why, for instance, viewers originally saw Ralph as an analogue for Donkey Kong. Their characters are different, but their games and mechanics are similar, so they have a few pre-downloaded characteristics to make them seem like they’re from the same game genre. This works great with most game genres, allowing game designers to streamline their process and provide similar, yet different, experiences to gamers.

However, something went horribly, horribly wrong with the racers. Since they’re relatively new, there are only a few of these preset models to choose from. And I think we all know whose code some of these racers were built with...

A good chunk of them are stable, but by and large, they have a much higher chance of going Turbo than other characters. Not all of the Turbo model racers have bad intentions like the original did, though. Some really do want to take over a game, and they tend to be defeated quicker than their predecessor. But others just want a new experience, one where they might never be unplugged, ever.

Vanellope doesn’t realize it, but she has way more in common with her old enemy than she thinks. Maybe it’s even part of the reason he had been able to beat her so easily. But, in any case, seeing her game get unplugged traumatized her far more than she’d ever let on. That, plus her boredom with her current existence, made her turn to the Internet, a world of danger, but also...comfort.

The people there treat her better than she was treated in her old game. She’s not trapped in some silly little box, she can let loose and let go. Most importantly of all, no one there remembers when she was a weak, defenseless glitch. And then, without realizing it, she starts to understand why King Candy did what he did all too well.

It isn’t until Slaughter Race’s fourth update that she realizes the full magnitude of what she’s done. She tells herself that it was her dream, it was her dream, and it’s supposed to come true.

She tells herself that taking over Sugar Rush had been King Candy’s dream, too. That sometimes, dreams can be wrong. That they aren’t worth it sometimes, when they cloud the best parts of your life and make you take them for granted. Just like that, every last bit of her decision to enter Slaughter Race comes back to her, and this time, she isn’t sure if she can make the right decision. She loves both worlds too much.

“I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.” Ralph takes comfort in these words. These days, Vanellope isn’t so sure that she can. But someday, she’d like to be able to hear them the way he does again.

[definitelynotplanetfall]

cw4 apprehensions etc

Need to expend today’s mental energy non-politically so I can’t understand tonight’s debate enough to get angry, so I may as well talk about This

Something seems permanently off to me about Creeper World 4. The demo assuaged a bit of my fear, and the performance running through proton is pretty terrible so it’s not like getting into mapmaking or anything of the sort would be feasible anyway, and that’s not even taking into account how awkward negotiating a return from the mostly-voluntary exile would be. (I mean for one thing I’m not going to apologize.)

But something about it seems deeply... closed to permutation? Not in the same way that a game like Outer Wilds is closed to permutation in the service of creating a single, coherent, resonant artistic experience, but more like... it has a level editor, but to some extent I can’t see the point of the level editor.

I’m having a hard time putting this sense into words, especially since at least some of it is down to a combination of “the formula is kind of mined out and the additions are less mechanically interesting than stuff that was achieved with CRPL even before all the APIs were in the game” and “the way CW3 did things was mostly good and change is scaaaaary.” These affect my personal inclination to play the game, but don’t really constitute criticisms of game 4 on its own terms.

I think to some extent the problems are inseparable from the “the formula is mined out” thing, though. There’s a fine line between “streamlining a clunky system” and “sanding the nuance off” that people are often too hasty to accuse games of crossing, but in some places it feels like CW4 is doing that. We-the-public haven’t had a chance to play around with the ERN portal yet but that’s my prime example, and if the requisite APIs exist you’d better believe someone is nuking that shit and reimplementing the forge, because the forge was a solid mechanic and already simple enough!

The factory and resource systems feel kind of... shoehorned in? I described my impressions of them in a conversation as “hitting the sour spot of both too simple and too complex.” There are three extra resources processed by the big fancy Factory unit and they are just... there for some reason. The non-anticreeper ones are required for important stuff so the game makes you engage with the system, but there’s nothing really there to engage with, the raw materials just have slightly different methods of extraction and they’re used for few enough things that economy is barely a concern.

I feel kinda extra-petty-salty about this because the resources are literally called Bluite, Redon, and Greenar and seem to have no... flavor? Like e.g. Redon is used to create anti-air missiles and spatial rifts. Why? What are the properties of this substance? Why do missiles require refined Redon but mortar shells can be fabricated from pure energy? Meanwhile my unfinishable CRPL-heavy thing also had three new resources and they were, like, the primordial superclass of matter energy and time, red circuits, and epistemology.

and speaking of that... the closed-to-permutation thing applies here as well, because there’s now official custom friendly unit support, which is great! The reason my unfinishable thing was unfinishable was the fact that I had to reimplement base-game features for custom friendly units, and since CRPL is slower than C# this cratered performance.

But also, the build menu is tiny! Which means the complex economy is out, nevermind having the full vanilla unit roster plus ~40 more. Which is, I recognize, a very out there and ludicrous and selfish thing to want, but. The promised extensibility is there, just with a seemingly arbitrary low ceiling.

And that’s just the parts I can articulate clearly! There’s a sort of... dreariness in the design that it’s hard to describe but is palpable verging on suffocating. For example the switch to 3D LoS calculations. CW3′s idea of how line of sight works is kind of silly but it’s also “gamey” in what feels like a positive way. It hands you some rules and you can accomplish some nonsense within them that can make you feel like a tactical genius, like when you pull off something in a turn-based game that wouldn’t be possible in real-time-with-pause. Whereas only allowing things that are geometrically possible makes the correct moves feel obvious and already-there-waiting-to-be-looked-at if that makes any sense? I guess my general preference of 2D gameplay over 3D is getting in the way here somewhat but it feels analogous to, say, CDDA getting rid of magic universal liquid batteries that vanish from existence when drained. And I guess the game would look weird if projectiles could go through the ground so I guess this is me saying the change to 3D is/will be harmful to the overall quality of the game. And it feels bad to say that because I did specifically send a message to Virgil saying the demo was good and managed to persuade me that the 3D wasn’t a gimmick. But I can’t really think of an argument in favor of 3D other than “The Graphics Must Always Improve And 3D Has Been Decreed Better,” and my calling it “good“ was probably mostly in terms of “better than particle fleet.”

So that’s my disorganized and cop-out filled thoughts about the flaws in a game that hasn’t even released yet. I never said I had much daily mental energy to begin with, or that it was particularly well ordered, just that I needed to get rid of it. Why did you read this, anyway?

Anyway time to hear some TV host say “Mr. Biden, people have accused you of wanting to shut down the orphan dismemberment factory” and Biden will say that’s a damn lie come on man you know I just I I I just wanna make sure they have antibiotics. I never said anything about shutting them down, I never even said anesthetics like this guy (gestures wrong direction) says I do, I’m not stupid I know we can’t afford that but this is america, okay, those kids should be able to buy antivirus

[cathrynstreich]

RISMedia Adds Longtime Venture Capitalist, Trend-Spotter Joel Block as ‘Expert in Residence’ to Contributor Team

Real Estate Syndication, Hedge-Fund Leader to Offer C-Level, Broker/Owner Real Estate Execs Business Insights on Finance, Growth, Disruption, Entrepreneurship, and More to Help Increase Revenue Streams RISMedia is pleased to announce its newest partnership with Wall Street insider and prognosticator Joel G. Block, founder of the private equity firm Bullseye Capital, which utilizes his deep knowledge of finance and trend-spotting to acquire and highly profit  from real estate assets across the nation.

As our expert in residence, Joel will lift the veil from the mysterious hedge fund and venture capital worlds to give Power Brokers the inside track in their own businesses. Understanding how the money business works at the highest levels of the economy can only empower real estate entrepreneurs, and Joel will be offering these rare glimpses here in this insightful series for RISMedia readers.

By sharing these closely-held insights, usually guarded by an untouchable class of professional investors, the objective of this series is to level the playing field and make the complex simple. Content will be delivered on multiple platforms to subscribers who will be able to engage directly with Joel as he shares the tricks of the trade from getting big things done in the best, smartest and fastest manner, to optimizing your company’s value through sales, profits and people.

Joel is not a competitor of any real estate broker or investor. He is their client.

Since selling his publishing company to a Fortune 500, Joel keynotes conferences worldwide, sharing Wall Street insights that enhance stakeholder value by delivering growth strategies and the inside track on money, success and significance to business executives and their teams. A principal in over 30-plus syndicated real estate or entrepreneurial transactions in addition to advising on dozens more, Joel is a nationally recognized expert in private placements, Reg D offerings, operating agreements, deal structure, tax strategy and capital-raising approaches with both accredited and non-accredited investors. He is regularly called on by attorneys and courts of law as an expert in matters of financing and real estate.

His mission is to help leaders succeed in business so they can live the American dream and then continue the cycle of prosperity by paying success and mentorship forward.

In the following Q&A, our readers can get to know a little more about Joel and the insights he’ll bring to our readership.

RISMedia: What should real estate broker/owners know about your experience in the investment side of the industry, and how it will benefit their businesses?

Joel Block: The main thing I want brokers to understand is that I don’t compete with them—I’m a customer. My experience is with securing large-scale real estate investments and leveraging assets throughout the nation. Within such deals are many opportunities for brokers to play a profitable role on the transactional side of the equation—but they have to know what is going on behind the curtain in order to optimize how they play the game.

Additionally, there are numerous takeaways from my experience in the venture capital world that translate into real estate, particularly dealing with all the disruption going on in the industry today. For brokers, the chief benefit will be the ability to stop being on the defense and start going on the offensive.

RISMedia: How are the Silicon Valley and Wall Street scenes relevant to real estate businesses outside of those markets? 

JB: From a profitability standpoint, there are no better business models than those of Big Money and Big Innovation. Often, the two meet for mutual benefit and that convergence is currently playing out in the real estate industry. Institutional money from Wall Street is driving markets from the industrial Midwest down through the rural Southland and everywhere in between, but getting in on the action requires connections and a depth of understanding that’s fairly uncommon. Meanwhile, technology is being adopted rapidly to redefine traditional brokerage models, which can be strengthened through adopting some of the startup mindsets whether your company is in San Jose or San Antonio. Often it comes down to leveraging the Wall Street and Silicon Valley mindsets to be a savvy negotiator and power seller. 

RISMedia: What are some of the disruptive trends occurring in the industry now that brokers need to be aware of? How can they get ahead of them?

JB: AI, automation and consolidation to name a few. These trends are already well underway and are only going to continue to proliferate—at an even faster pace than we have seen so far. Since so much of it is based on increasing efficiencies and cutting real estate professionals out of the process, it’s critical to remember that buyers and sellers are people—even if they are representing institutions. They can be educated and influenced by money. One of the best ways to keep your company disruption-proof is prove your ability to make buyers and sellers more money than they would otherwise save without one. However, there will not be broker-less transactions, but the broker is changing from people to computers, and from traditional real estate companies to technology companies who are more nimble.

At the same time, technological progress can’t be ignored. Brokers need to embrace technology and be technological leaders if they’re to not just survive, but thrive, by thinking about what the future will look like. Armed with strategic insights, they will better-positioned for gaining valuable listings, advertising effectively, recruiting the best and brightest agents, streamlining the back office and possibly prepping for a profitable exit. 

RISMedia: Can you share some examples of innovative ways brokers can start thinking differently about profit, leadership, innovation and sales?

JB: One of the most common challenges people share with me is that they’re essentially victims of their own success. Often a company that has scaled well in the past becomes stoic, making it difficult to change course when a new trajectory is needed the most.

The key is to ask yourself: If you didn’t have all the baggage of legacy expenses and legacy thinking—like you were a startup—what would you do? Then draw a line from where you are to where you want to go. Maybe you have to buy a company or start a new division to pursue this path, but draw a map and follow it with confidence. That kind of thinking changes the way companies see themselves. Forget about all the reasons why you can’t. Part of my goal is to help brokers get out of their own way. 

RISMedia: What can we look forward to in your next column? 

JB: Well, let’s ask the readers! What do you want to know? I’ve touched on a few themes here, but there is so much more to dive into. The best way for this series to work is to treat it as a dialogue rather than a monologue. I am excited to hear your questions and ideas. Please take a look at my personal website, joelblock.com, and feel free to send an email to joel@bullseyecap.com so we can connect and collaborate.Brokers and real estate leaders, what business insights do you want more information on? Watch this space for upcoming videos and analysis from Joel. Feel free to comment below, or reach out to Joel via his website, his email or our feedback email at online@rismedia.com.

Andrew King is a contributing editor to RISMedia.

The post RISMedia Adds Longtime Venture Capitalist, Trend-Spotter Joel Block as ‘Expert in Residence’ to Contributor Team appeared first on RISMedia.

RISMedia Adds Longtime Venture Capitalist, Trend-Spotter Joel Block as ‘Expert in Residence’ to Contributor Team published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

[dallysreviews]

Destiny 1.5? Or is it really a genuine 2? (9-22-17)

So, it’s been a little over 2 weeks since this game came out, and scores have started to pour out this week, and I finally want to give what I think about the experience, but first, some back story. First and foremost, I love Destiny. Seriously. Like...I spent 2,000 hours on the original and it’s expansions. So am I a little biased? Sure. However, when the base game for Destiny came out back in September of 2014, I liked it, but I hated it. I hated it so much that after the sixth Legendary Engram that turned to an Uncommon, I threw my controller and stopped playing altogether til the figured their shit out. No joke. I didn’t start playing again til LATE December/early January, after they fixed the broken Cryptarch and more content had come out. With each update, and with each Expansion, the game got much better. If I had to rate the first game out of 10, I’d give it a 6/10. The repetitive strikes, empty worlds, and loot being near impossible to obtain, I totally felt that was being generous. The music is iconic, and the art design was fantastic, but so much was just...lacking other than the gunplay, just like so many others had said back than.  Over the course of the Expansions that came out, it gradually increased in rating for me. This isn’t about “Should you support a game that cuts up it’s games and resells it to you” because honestly, that’s a convo we can have later. After more stories, better direction, and TONS of loot, I’d say the final product is worth an 8/10.  So now moving forward to earlier this month, Destiny 2 comes out and the question comes up, do I like it? Well, no. I truly love it actually.  Now once again, I’m slightly biased, sure, but hear me out. A lot of people have asked me, as well as MANY others, why they couldn’t just do this as a “massive update”? Now for me, I’d say with AS much as they changed, I don’t think it would take just ONE update, but the bigger issue is would people have noticed it? Seriously? Having a brand new game, gives the team a new foundation to start on entirely. The first game and it’s infinite problems really stemmed from 2 things. The lack of direction when they blew the project up a year out from launch, and the fact that they had the previous generation consoles tied to it as well. It’s EVIDENT playing this game, that the first was very hamstrung by the previous consoles. Hell, even Rise of Iron showcased this a bit, but my God it was eye opening. So what didn’t I like? That is a MUCH easier list, and something that I feel does need to be explored, because many have brought some REALLY good points out on it. First off, Microtransactions. They suck, we can all agree with this. But Jim Fucking Sterling Son brought up a good point in his review earlier this week. They almost feel predatory. Something I wasn’t able to sum up, but once I heard it, I was in total agreement on. I too have a very addictive nature. Both my parents are alcoholics, and thankfully I haven’t had that issue at all. But I’ve noticed I tend to love to gamble myself, something I’ve tried to stay away from, but as Jim pointed out, when you take your Bright Engrams, to someone that SELLS them for REAL money, it’s almost sleazy. So I guess if it was an honest mistake, than I feel Bungie will rectify it. If they don’t...well shame on you guys. I know you guys can do better. The fact that Shaders can only be used once doesn’t bother me, as much as you than selling them does. Being able to put them on ANYTHING, guns, ships, sparrows, individual pieces of armor, is fucking brilliant, but than to sell them as once use items? Yikes. However, you can earn them, and I have hundreds at this point, no joke. So yes, you can earn a ton of them, but when there are “particular” ones that are hard to obtain, and you sell them, it’s just exploiting people’s natures, as well as their fucking patience and it should be called out. Next thing I don’t care for? Lack of space battles dammit. I know, we were never promised them at all, so really I blame Angry Joe for this one (I’m kidding, don’t attack me please), but something, something brand new in the series would have elevated this game to higher heights IMO. The new things added, and the things seriously improved on, are all welcome additions, but nothing seriously innovative that I feel would have actually brought a few more people over to D2.  The last part, was really the first couple of missions. I don’t believe this is TOO spoilerish, but after you lose your powers, you get them back...like 2-3 missions after you lose them, and I wish you didn’t. I wish we would have played a couple of more missions without our powers, really felt the struggle and focused on the JUST the gunplay like the Halo days. It’s a little thing, but it would have gone a long way in my honest opinion.  So that’s REALLY it for the serious negative. It would have been nice to get an extra strike, or maybe a whole other Raid, but D2 fixed a huge issue in the base Destiny game from 3 years ago. The amount of activities you can do is breathtaking. Lost Sectors, Adventures, Quest Lines, Missions, Public Events that you can turn to Heroic versions with more loot and harder enemies, and Flashpoints all can give you the sweet, sweet loot to level up your character. With the number of different activities you can do, I didn’t feel like I was getting bored or the grind became “too much”. I mean, I was so busy doing the above mentioned, that I have rarely even went into strikes, except to complete the quest line to unlock Nightfall’s, which this game brings back! Plus Cayde’s Stashes, the Raid, Trials of the Nine! There is something you can focus on for each day of the week and avoid every feeling the repeat of it all for a LONG time, or at least that’s how I feel. Once again, I’m 292 with one character at the time of this writing, and 280 with another, and not once did I feel the tired, repeating feeling I EVER felt with D1. That deserves praise from me. Someone like me who put 2,000 hours into the first one, should be one of the first to FEEL this. Plus they have other new activities on the near horizon like Faction Rally’s and the Iron Banner, and I can’t wait.  Speaking of IB, we have to talk about Crucible. It’s fantastic. Ditching it’s 3v3 and 6v6 for a straight up 4v4 via Halo works, and it works really well. Five modes crammed into 2 different styles of gameplay. You want to sit back and just have fun? Quickplay is for you. You like sweating bullets? Competitive is for you. All the gamemodes work just fine, with Deathmatch, Supremacy, Control, Survival, and Countdown being apart of the rotation. I look forward to the day they give me back my RIFT! The one game mode I dominated more than anything else, period. Anywho, moving right along, we get into the loadouts. At first, I believed the new loadouts to mainly focus on PVP, but now, I realize they really help balance out PVE as well. With mods you get to change certain perks, damage types, etc. to compliment your play style. Oh yeah, we get mods. As you level up more, you’ll get to do more with them, and they go in both your armor and your guns. Mods are really cool with giving you little bonuses like “Solar Melees charge faster” or “Power Weapons handle faster” so on and so forth. It opens up a huge realm of possibility for future ones made if they continue down this avenue.  Well Steven, what about the gear? Tell us about the loot we can earn! Is it worth it? Yes! And no.  What do I mean by that? Well the mods basically replace the “experience” you use to have to pump into each piece of armor/weapon to unlock certain perks. You no longer have pump hours unlocking everything on the weapons/piece of gear in mention. This also gets rid of the whole “Getting a perfect roll” thing that made people like myself who are perfectionists who would grind endlessly for a God roll item. However, it makes it also so every item is the same. Everything comes the same, and everything comes unlocked right off the bat. It’s both a positive and a negative. After 2 weeks, I’ve come to love it, because it makes testing an item so much easier when I’m just trying to figure out a mod, and that’s it. However, it’s quite obvious this take some of the depth from the overall experience of the first. But to “handcraft” new weapons and armor makes it easier for them as a whole if they don’t have 30 variations of said item, and it all makes sense to sort of streamline it. Plus it’s nice to not be facing 30 versions of a particular gun like let’s say...Imago Loop with Explosive rounds and Firefly every fucking match.  There are LOADS of different guns, gun types having Grenade Launchers and SMG’s make their debuts, and nearly a dozen different outfits to dress your Guardian up in. If I remember straight, 18 Exotic weapons, and nearly a dozen Exotic armor pieces for each class. Some return from D1, I think it’s two guns, and a least 2 armor pieces for each class. But most of it’s new, some of it’s weird, and some of it’s bloody awesome. Two words, Tractor. Cannon.  So with changes to how we can get loot, and the loot we can get, what about the worlds? Are they as barren as they were in D1? No. With Lost Sectors and hidden chests around every corner, and a FREAKING map to check it all out with, there is a TON to do in every world. I’d say the most “empty” is Titan, but it is on a rig system, above basically a giant planet made of nothing but water...so it makes sense. But the EDZ and Nessus are full to the brim with these things, and can we take a minute and appreciate that Bungie took what we would have called “Loot Caves” in the first game, opened them up, and made it a sprawling cave in which you explore for loot rather than just kill spawning enemies coming out of it. It’s both brilliant and a nice little jab at ones “roots” per say, showing what they learned about the mistakes along the way.  So the last thing I’ll touch on is the story. Now some have PRAISED it, saying it’s AMAZING, and some have said it’s “Ho Hum, go check out Witcher 3 scrub” and I have to say, I literally fall in between the two. I feel the story gets a lot right, but also misses a few opportunities to really push itself into next level story telling. But to play Devil’s Advocate here, I feel they did the right thing by giving us something fun, understandable, and more lighthearted to flesh out the fantastic group of characters they have. Obviously the fan favorite is Cayde-6. I don't think anyone has an argument on that one. Zavala gets more of a human touch and look at, as well as the other Vanguard leader Ikora. Adding to the cast is the solid Sloane, the bipolar Failsafe, sassy back and forth between Hawthorne(Bae) and Devrim Kay, and the brooding/snobby Asher Mir. All are welcome into the universe here, and I can’t think of any one of them I’d take away from the series. Each character has a back story that can be fleshed out in side missions and side quests. Also, each one acts as a vendor that you can give “tokens” to the respective leader of the respected area to get gear and weapons from. Each one takes around...30 tokens to unlock an engram? Which sounds like a fuckton, but really is super easy to obtain since you get daily challenges on each planet, activity, and crucible variant that will net you two for fairly easy tasks. Not to mention you get one for completing matches of Crucible, one for opening chests planet side, and one for completing Lost Sectors and Public Events. It wouldn’t even take you an hour to get one engram if you focused on one area.  But anyways, the story, to me, is a strong point. No, not because like I said before, treads new ground. No, it’s because it focuses on it’s great cast, while expanding it further out, and laying a MUCH better foundation to build upon than the sandy lot that Destiny’s first game had. Cutscenes show us more of the rest of the cast, plus gives us deep moments with it’s main villain Dominus Ghaul, aka Gary. Ghaul is a good villain here, who feels like he is owed the Light, the force that gives the Guardians their powers. After you learn more about his backstory, and what he’s been through, you begin to understand just why he feels that way. If he wasn’t Hell bent on killing everyone, maybe he’d be cool to have a drink with. Between him and Oryx, I’d say Oryx is the more interesting, but Ghaul is the most human, whether he realizes it or not.  So I could go on an on about this game, but I think I’ll cut it off here and give my final rating for the game.  My final rating is...an 8/10. I’d also DEFINTELY recommend putting this game on your shelf, and if you do, hit me up on Xbox, clan “House of Spider” is looking for some new blood!  If it wasn’t for the MT and the fact that we get our powers so quickly, we might as well not lost them, I’d rate the game a little higher, but for me, it stays level with the ending of Destiny because even though the overhauled quite a bit, it doesn’t innovate enough to push it past those two solid negatives for me. However, it has a base that with a couple of expansions, some live events (Which looks to be coming!), and a few updates, could evolve into that 9 or even 10 by the end, it just depends on what Bungie wants to do, and hopefully now that they established a little good will, now they can focus on going balls to the wall with future content and releases. But to me, without a doubt, this game is a sequel, but I think it’s safe to say, we want to see even more next time. You gave us a solid story, now give us one that blows us all away. Ball is in your court Bungie.  I’ll see you guys soon, I think I’m going to try and do a review on Wolfenstein: The New Order as well as it’s Expansion “Old Blood” before the release of “The New Colossus” next month, so keep an eye out for that, and I also want to maybe touch on a horror game or two for the spirit of Halloween! So until next everyone, have a great and safe weekend, and I’ll see you guys real soon!

[rate-out-of-10]

MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA REVIEW

Since the Mass Effect series is one of my all-time favorite game series, I almost have to get my thoughts out on Andromeda. This game is a bit of a departure from the original series, taking us to the galaxy of (you guessed it) Andromeda. We leave the Milky Way in search for a new home amongst new stars and planets. Mass Effect: Andromeda is a loaded game, filled with content, so I will do my best to stick to all the pertinent information.

SPOILERS AHEAD. This review is based off my experiences with the game on the Xbox One.

We say goodbye to all of our adventures in the Milky Way, to Shepard, to our companions, to the fight with the Reapers, all of it; we meet our new human character, named Ryder, and whole new array of companions and crew mates, and other people/aliens. I will say that after the likes of Shepard and the Normandy crew, Andromeda does an admirable job with the follow up, but they just aren’t quite up to standard. And while I grew to adore some, most of the characters tend to fall flat. Drack, a krogan, grew on me very quickly the more I played with him, and I did fall into the Peebee trap, that cute ass asari, she’s just so infectious. Others like Cora and Vetra felt a little streamlined. I didn’t not like them, in fact I can say that by the end I did indeed like them, but there was a good while where I didn’t feel a good connection with them. But there is one companion that I did not enjoy at all: Liam Kosta. He was annoying, flat, boring to every degree, and I did not enjoy playing with him alongside of me at all. He delivers some of the most horrendous lines in the entire game. Our last companion, Jaal, is of the new species we find in Andromeda, an angara, and he felt cool in some places, and others a bit off (but only at first). Of course, by the end I felt for him and especially on his loyalty mission I really liked him. I was really hoping to get my twin, Sarah Ryder as a companion at some point. But of course, instead of killing her at the beginning, they chose the next worse thing: put her into a coma for most of the game. While you get to play as Sarah for a small section, which was short but sweet, and she helps you at the very end, I hope to see her as a companion in some future DLC. Andromeda features a wide array of new characters, and misses the mark with a few key ones. Our main villain, The Archon, of the new kett species, was a complete generic trope. The guy that believes he’s on some holy quest, he’s saving people, when in fact he’s just a psychopath hell-bent on killing everything that isn’t him. I was supremely disappointed in the lack of a boss-battle with him, as well. Where was it? The final section was just some drawn out wave combat as I disable some terminals, and then he dies. An absolute disappointment, especially when there are some pretty exciting bosses in the game, such as the Architects. Now, the game excels in certain categories, such as the loyalty missions for each character. I felt as though I really got to know my squad mates, and I helped them through whatever it was they were dealing with (except Liam’s. I did not enjoy him at all, I cannot express that enough). But the game tends to drop the ball in its essential story-telling. The main quest line had its ups and downs, but all together felt a little shallow. I was mostly interested in locating the other lost arks, and how they fit into the main story was very exciting and interesting, however the struggle with the kett and their exaltation, however horrifying it was, didn’t have too much pull on me. I was excited to craft new relationships and explore and do some amazing things, and I definitely did, I just wish that the main story had some stake in those feelings. In the original trilogy, I’d be torn between what to do, because I was so involved with all of it, but here I had almost no issue shelving the main quest in favor of my loyalty missions, or exploring the viable planets. I had no problem not playing the main story, until I had to, and I think that’s a problem. The main storyline isn’t strictly speaking bad, in fact it gets to be very cool towards the end with a lot of promise and spectacular moments, but it isn’t as enthralling all around as I would’ve hoped. And with the main story focusing on the evils of this new species, the kett, I was surprised that we only meet one other intelligent species native to Andromeda, the angara. Most of the other alien life is primitive and hostile. What made the likes of the Milky Way great was that humanity stumbled upon a huge galactic community of various species from the Milky Way, but in Andromeda there’s only two, and they’ve just been warring with each other for a hundred years, since before we got there? I wish we could’ve seen more, perhaps allied ourselves with another one, it could have raised the stakes a bit higher in the main story. As interesting as the angara were, this was a bit of a let-down.

Mass Effect: Andromeda makes a huge departure from the combat we’re used to playing in the series and offers a more versatile way to play. The combat itself, with your jump and dash abilities, feels so smooth. A major tune-up for the series, this was a great step in the right direction. Also, the class profiles, and access to every skill, was awesome. I very much enjoyed this new system. I didn’t feel bogged down or restricted, I could legitimately craft my Ryder in any way I wanted, and equip him with the abilities and skills necessary per scenario. It added a nicer piece of strategy to the game, and that’s always welcome. The game also looks as phenomenal as it feels in many places. Many environments are breathtaking; whether it’s the lush forest on Havarl, or the snowy mountains on Voeld, or the remains of the destroyed planet H-047c, or the springs of Kadara. I loved exploring each one and bringing up their viabilities to 100%. I felt so accomplished after activating the monoliths upon solving an alien Sudoku puzzle, activating the terraforming vaults, and settling outposts. And it wasn’t a high-maintenance thing at all, and I really appreciate that. Some games with aspects such as these sometimes go over board and make it a chore, but it’s fast and satisfying here. The galaxy map exploration has some cool things to offer as well, and some not so much. Its visuals are gorgeous, I will say, I very much like the point of view being the tip of the Tempest as you fly through the galaxy, but it isn’t so rewarding. Most planets you visit don’t offer anything other than a quick paragraph of info about the planet and some meaningless lore, others some XP and research points, and then the occasional salvage and loot. But exploring every system to 100% isn’t as rewarding as I wanted it to be. It’s not a necessity either, so that’s good because it is very much a skippable, tedious part of the game. The game’s research and crafting system is simple and cool to use as well, although I wish the OS was simple too. It can be a bit encumber-some and a real task to navigate, but you can get some really great gear out of taking the time to explore and find the elements and materials you need (or just purchase them). But trust me, you’ll get tired of the scanner real quick. Now, some other technical aspects were sore. The facial animations (of course), while I didn’t have any major glitches or problems during my 60 hour playthrough (thank god), they were still stiff and plain. However, it’s not something I take away from the game too much, plus future updates are fixing the issues. The voice acting is where I get most annoyed. Some characters just sound uncomfortable and some are lame. There were many deliveries that were cheesy or awkward, some were just painful to hear, even a few from my Ryder made me go, “oh my god stop.” One thing that players will notice as a departure from the original trilogy is the absence of Renegade/Paragon, it was swapped out with (I think?) a more dynamic approach to your Ryder character. Now in conversations, you choose between responses that fall under four categories: Emotional, Casual, Logical, and Professional. It was an interesting change from what we knew, however it doesn’t change the game or how I play all too much, it seems. You can read a nice psych profile written by the Tempest’s doctor, Lexi, based on your choices, but that’s about it. One thing that kept me coming back to the original trilogy was choosing different Renegade/Paragon options, it felt like they changed your relationships with other characters, it seemed like it would make a difference, but this new dialogue/action set up doesn’t have that same effect. There weren’t many major choices in the game that felt heavy either, none that drastically changed how the story would play out. Of course on my next playthrough I’ll be choosing the opposites of what I chose this first time, but if they don’t change my experience enough, I don’t see much reason to keep coming back to the game. I’ll wind up going back to the trilogy first before Andromeda, if that’s the case. Andromeda doesn’t have as high of a re-playability value as the trilogy.

One thing I didn’t touch on was the multiplayer, and that’s because it’s essentially recycled from Mass Effect 3. Wave-based, horde combat scenarios mixed with a few objectives, and then extraction. The combat in Andromdeda is great enough to where it’s fun to be in, but not for too long because I despise the leveling system. I don’t like the pre-set character abilities. I feel as though they could’ve kept it simple: let us choose what race we want, apply the skills we want to those races, and with each race they have a special ability that makes them unique. Almost like a create-a-class system from the Call of Duty games, but with your different characters/races. It should be progression based with the gear as well, not this loot box system with in-game currency that’s plaguing video games now. Acquiring better armor and weapons should be organic and correlative to how much I’m playing and how well I’m doing, not how much money I’m willing to spend. It takes the immersion right out of the game. It’s lazy. And that’s all I’m going to say on multiplayer. My final rating for Mass Effect: Andromeda is:

7.75/10. Not exactly what I was waiting for, but I’m glad I have it.

Andromeda has a ton to offer and for all intents and purposes, it’s a really good game, but there are quite a few shortcomings that hold it back from true greatness, especially as a follow up to one of the greatest game series’ to have ever come out. It excels with its planet exploration, its visuals, its combat, its loyalty missions, and dynamic class system. However the lackluster main story, which leaves many questions left unanswered, and a generic villain, copy & paste lazy multiplayer, some trivial voice acting, and its small scale choice system leads the game astray. I definitely think it’s worth getting for fans of the series, as well as those who enjoy sci-fi/fantasy games, and open-world exploration games. But the real greatness of the Mass Effect universe still lies within its original trilogy (for now anyway).