Well, this is one of my favorite Zelda games as it's actually a sequel to Majora's Mask. However, the Game-cube and Wii port has not aged well because of the aged graphics of the Nintendo Gamecube and the insanity that is the Wii's controls where one thing everyone wants to forget. Nintendo has also re-released Wind Waker HD and it ended up as a great port of a classic. However, can the same be said about Twilight Princess HD? The answer: Maybe, but only if one missed out.
Twilight Princess takes place after Majora's Mask, as country boy Link helps heard goats on the farmstead as an erran boy. While preparing to deliver a gift to Zelda, he gets ambushed and the children get kidnapped as well as Link's love interest who ISN'T Zelda. In fact, he dreamed of her in one sequence in the game. Link is one chick magnet, for better or worst. This was built as a different, dark Zelda game just as or even close to Majora's Mask. Personally, it may be close to Majora's Mask but it's not as dark because of the theme of duality. Majora's Mask is a based off Africa's designed metaphor about grief and death, so it will always be the darkest Zelda. I will not spoil more of the game from here on out, but link dose have this wolf forum which is known as Wolf Link.
Gameplay-wise, the mechanics did remain the same for both better and worst partly because many of the old glitches still exist as the game is not a remaster, that and the fact Nintendo themselves think glitches are fun. Sadly in this cases, they are what causes some issues which should have been ironed out. The worst case happens is the ice level as not only the evil that is slide puzzles happens, but a bug with the mid-boss, which is focused on distance combat, had that one bad screw up : He just would NOT attack! The problem was that the play would have to go up too close for it to attack for his weak spot to open up. The sad thing is the dungeons lay-outs has to be one of the best for Zelda games, but it gets messed up by small mistakes like this one. It's pure laziness in these respects.While they did add short-cuts like in Wind Waker HD, it it NOT a true game changer as these are optional and not noticeable in retrospects. Why was the Wii U game-pad made again?
While the gameplay dose stay in tact, sadly the frame rate dose drop from sixty frames to even choppy twenty or less in some busy areas! This is noticeable in areas like Farron Woods as this problem was NOT fix from the past ports of the game. There's also some areas in the game where they have a lot on monsters can also cause a lag as well, like being crammed in an elevator with sumos during a sporting event! Maybe getting this game as a digital download would fix this mess or adding an instal feature to help the load can fix this issue, but this is one fix that Nintendo really needs to work on.
Wolf Link is one of the main mechanics which is used to hunt Poes for their souls, get to areas that link cannot go to normally, dig up treasures, and using his new wolf skills to become a blood-hound, using it on key-story parts of the game. However, wolf link dose lose it's use to those who want to finish the game. There is a new Wolf Link's challenge which give you something that was really needed within the game: the biggest wallet since the way to get the other wallets suck. It is very challenging, as Wolf Link faces enemies that only link can easily accustom to. This would have been better if Wolf link have items and upgrades as well. It's not like he can use link's swords or shields as demonstrated, but with human link is much more useful that Wolf Link.
The world map may not be huge as OoT but it dose not have the long travels of the Wind Waker, as later on Wolf Link can teleport from warp points that opens up after beating up dark beast. While back tracking is very bad, as it is a flaw. It was because of the limitations of memory space for both the GameCube and the Wii Port, so this is why the game is shaped that way. The game will force ones to back-track into sections once visited, as Link is able to access places he wasn't able to go before...Which is dumb because he could have visited these areas but Link couldn't because the plot demands it!
In the end, this is a good Zelda game, but this game can easily date itself too easily because of it's flaws. For those who missed out and needs a game for the Wii U to help buy time for the next Zelda game, this is an option. However, those who played this game for either the GameCube or the Wii won't feel left out, even with the added social features. While it's it is FAR from a bad game, getting this game might not be for every Zelda fan. I personally had fun replaying the game, but prepare just in case your nastolga glasses start to crack, shatter, and explode. That tends to happen to some nerds....
Friday, April 8, 2016
Friday, January 22, 2016
Telltale games: The game! As in all of them.
Now that I am back from Christmas break, it's time to start the new years off by preparing for the new year: a brand-new audio chair, a gaming mouse, a few steam sale games, a future home to look forward to, and...The Sims 4. Whelp, time to review that later. As for now, there's a review that I have been putting off for quite sometime and that's how everything telltale has ever made.
First off, the story is a mixed bag within the telltale line up. While the games the company made where good, especially The Wolf Among us, the company should at least focus on one game at a time. However, the is biggest weakness of Telltale is that they try to multi-task. While it's good for normal games, episodic games tend to be rushed since they used the same system since Tales of Monkey Island in the last generation.
Fans and critics noticed this while season two of The Walking Dead, while it wasn't awful, it suffered from bad writing as most of the team was busy with The Wolf Among Us. When they pushed the finally of The Fables game, the ending didn't really have an impact because the focus was switched to The Walking Dead season two. While the story did get better in Season two, it didn't step up as much as the first. There was a similar issue with King of Thrones and Tales of Borderlands, as production where split-up there as well.
Since the company been using the same system, that means the animations are dated and stiff. While it's not as bland as Ubi-soft's Assassin's Creed series, telltale haven't updated their system since the Devil's Playhouse, the third season of the Sam and Max telltale game series. Of late, The Odd Gentlemen has stole the spotlight with their King's Quest reboot, as their animation is much more fluid than that of telltale's past and a few of their current games. Now would be the best time to use the spare time to update their systems, but knowing that the company is now working on a Batman licensed game, they probably wont have the time as they're finishing the mine-craft story series.
The biggest problem however is that the choices in their games of late have no real bearings or changes nothing big in the end. While adventure titles often have multiple endings, or in this case, have choices that impact the rest of the game, the choices in games didn't matter. For example, in the walking dead season one, the player has a choice to save one character or the other, knowing the character will help out down the line though different outcomes. However, that part of the story can easily be forgotten and has no real impact within the story and the characters are often killed off later within the series; so no matter what one dose, both the characters are boned and can never really be saved! This hurts replay value and makes the choices lob-sided as it really doesn't matter as life goes normally as nothing changes and everything stays the same.
Now how would they fix it? Get a new system while making future games. Tempt the companies involved to update to a new system because they would make a profit. To be perfectly honest, why did they remove the original point-and-click for the PC version? It was for the counsel ports of the games, yes, but most people prefer that timeless mechanic of the classic Point-and-click controls on our PCs. Even the remaster of Grim Fandango has that benefit of the new interface that still have the point-and-click system while still having the controller support that is not too intrusive. This reboot is a good example of good mixed controls.
While telltale in the past have developed good games in their resume of games, telltale games do need to step it up in the current age of adventure games. While not all their games are terrible, past games like Jurassic Park is an examples of how telltale games could fail in today's market. Their latest game with Tales of the borderlands has to be their recent decent game, so take a look into that game. Have a Happy New Year!
First off, the story is a mixed bag within the telltale line up. While the games the company made where good, especially The Wolf Among us, the company should at least focus on one game at a time. However, the is biggest weakness of Telltale is that they try to multi-task. While it's good for normal games, episodic games tend to be rushed since they used the same system since Tales of Monkey Island in the last generation.
Fans and critics noticed this while season two of The Walking Dead, while it wasn't awful, it suffered from bad writing as most of the team was busy with The Wolf Among Us. When they pushed the finally of The Fables game, the ending didn't really have an impact because the focus was switched to The Walking Dead season two. While the story did get better in Season two, it didn't step up as much as the first. There was a similar issue with King of Thrones and Tales of Borderlands, as production where split-up there as well.
Since the company been using the same system, that means the animations are dated and stiff. While it's not as bland as Ubi-soft's Assassin's Creed series, telltale haven't updated their system since the Devil's Playhouse, the third season of the Sam and Max telltale game series. Of late, The Odd Gentlemen has stole the spotlight with their King's Quest reboot, as their animation is much more fluid than that of telltale's past and a few of their current games. Now would be the best time to use the spare time to update their systems, but knowing that the company is now working on a Batman licensed game, they probably wont have the time as they're finishing the mine-craft story series.
The biggest problem however is that the choices in their games of late have no real bearings or changes nothing big in the end. While adventure titles often have multiple endings, or in this case, have choices that impact the rest of the game, the choices in games didn't matter. For example, in the walking dead season one, the player has a choice to save one character or the other, knowing the character will help out down the line though different outcomes. However, that part of the story can easily be forgotten and has no real impact within the story and the characters are often killed off later within the series; so no matter what one dose, both the characters are boned and can never really be saved! This hurts replay value and makes the choices lob-sided as it really doesn't matter as life goes normally as nothing changes and everything stays the same.
Now how would they fix it? Get a new system while making future games. Tempt the companies involved to update to a new system because they would make a profit. To be perfectly honest, why did they remove the original point-and-click for the PC version? It was for the counsel ports of the games, yes, but most people prefer that timeless mechanic of the classic Point-and-click controls on our PCs. Even the remaster of Grim Fandango has that benefit of the new interface that still have the point-and-click system while still having the controller support that is not too intrusive. This reboot is a good example of good mixed controls.
While telltale in the past have developed good games in their resume of games, telltale games do need to step it up in the current age of adventure games. While not all their games are terrible, past games like Jurassic Park is an examples of how telltale games could fail in today's market. Their latest game with Tales of the borderlands has to be their recent decent game, so take a look into that game. Have a Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Beastly Bash: Fallout 4: War Never Changes, but the places do
Just to prepare for Fallout 4, I replayed Fallout 3 though Fallout: a tale of two wastelands as the original game did not age well as the RPG elements, game crashes, game bugs that crashes the game or run, and out-dated mechanics. Thankfully, mods help extended the life of old games and adds more replay value. However, the system is still dated, meaning even modded the game still crashes occasionally as the games where made on a buggy engine.
The player stars as the vault dweller who was frozen in time just as the nukes landed just outside his home. He (or she, even tho the male is heavily advertised at the start of the game) wakes up two hundred years to a war-scared Boston harbor, which is now over-ran with raider, super mutants, and new enemies know as the synths, A cyborg race inspired by modern Science fiction novels. The player must find their lost child, as Shawn was kidnapped by the institute while murdering your better half! Oh, it's on!
Game-play wise, it's basically fallout next-gen as it was intended, but more streamlined so the shooting mechanics and SPECIAL attributes. I personally welcome the change, as it doesn't require the annoying number system while it prevents players to become over-powered early on. For example, in Fallout 3, I was able to be over-powered as stealth was broken as balls as the perks and the stealth-suits and Stealth-boys kill the difficulty of the game. While the Stealth-boy might return later as DLC, stealth-boys have been nerfed to the point that the player use them just to escape. However, skills like Gun-nut and Science have been boosted as they can be used to make adjustments to your weapons in crafting, making silencers to your shotgun to even using the skills to make your settlements.
Oh right, the settlements! When you start the game, you meet The Minute Men, the small army of the game. The players can optionally make settlements that has benefits such as running shops, farming food for those with iron stomachs, providing shelters and giving them jobs, and recruit settlements to join The Minute Men. While it is tatted on to the game, it dose help give experience bonus while it dose seem like a time-sink. They also provide reoccurring missions that can help level your characters, but that tends to lead to tedious grinding and you're better off doing other side quest, even though they can give you weapons on the side.
While on the field, the players can also face special enemies from rad-roaches to raiders that can drop a special weapon or special armor pieces that the player can mod later. However, they can be very annoying as they tend to mutate, a way to pad out a simple fight and making them into boss characters. Be prepared with at least one heavy weapon, as they tend to appear when you least expect it. Seems luck was heavily boosted in this game, as having your luck on one makes it challenging. Just beware the death-claws, as they're still the deadliest in the series!
However, while I personally didn't mind the changes, there are some flaws with this game that can break the experience. For one, they gutted the karma system for a like and dislike system with the fractions system. And yes, the Brotherhood is back but it's not the one from fallout 3 but instead from New Vegas. Which begs the question, where has all the cowboys gone? It differently reestablish the gray of war where no one is truly evil, but not everyone is good, but to those it means being evil is pointless. I don't mind as I'm not entirely a genocide player, especially since Under-Tale shows how scary that is! This game dose the "more is less" approach, which can either improve or hinder a game. Oh, and it doesn't shag-shame you for sleeping with everyone and takes the Saints Row 4 approach. Post-Apocalypse anyways.
Another problem that the conversation has been dubbed down thanks to the voice acting, which is another hit-or-miss problem with the game. Only four conversation choices which no matter which you choose doesn't really matter and lays no real impact. Sure, speech dose help getting more info or at least give you an alternative option, but there needs to be more. It also doesn't help that your partner's AI can be terrible for stealth gameplay, block doorways and hallways, and tend to get you shot more than often. Thankfully, there's perk for that called Lone Wanderer that boost the player while they're alone.
If this isn't the game for the players that are in mind, I would recommend getting Wasteland 2, as it is based off the original Fallout series, but if one want a first-person shooter that is fun, this is one's game. This game might be literately be Skyrim with guns, this game is at least better optimized than the previous games before it. It's more next-gen fallout, just better streamlined and miles-may-vary type of game. Try it before you bye, and if liked, get it and finish it. Otherwise, Wasteland 2!
The player stars as the vault dweller who was frozen in time just as the nukes landed just outside his home. He (or she, even tho the male is heavily advertised at the start of the game) wakes up two hundred years to a war-scared Boston harbor, which is now over-ran with raider, super mutants, and new enemies know as the synths, A cyborg race inspired by modern Science fiction novels. The player must find their lost child, as Shawn was kidnapped by the institute while murdering your better half! Oh, it's on!
Game-play wise, it's basically fallout next-gen as it was intended, but more streamlined so the shooting mechanics and SPECIAL attributes. I personally welcome the change, as it doesn't require the annoying number system while it prevents players to become over-powered early on. For example, in Fallout 3, I was able to be over-powered as stealth was broken as balls as the perks and the stealth-suits and Stealth-boys kill the difficulty of the game. While the Stealth-boy might return later as DLC, stealth-boys have been nerfed to the point that the player use them just to escape. However, skills like Gun-nut and Science have been boosted as they can be used to make adjustments to your weapons in crafting, making silencers to your shotgun to even using the skills to make your settlements.
Oh right, the settlements! When you start the game, you meet The Minute Men, the small army of the game. The players can optionally make settlements that has benefits such as running shops, farming food for those with iron stomachs, providing shelters and giving them jobs, and recruit settlements to join The Minute Men. While it is tatted on to the game, it dose help give experience bonus while it dose seem like a time-sink. They also provide reoccurring missions that can help level your characters, but that tends to lead to tedious grinding and you're better off doing other side quest, even though they can give you weapons on the side.
While on the field, the players can also face special enemies from rad-roaches to raiders that can drop a special weapon or special armor pieces that the player can mod later. However, they can be very annoying as they tend to mutate, a way to pad out a simple fight and making them into boss characters. Be prepared with at least one heavy weapon, as they tend to appear when you least expect it. Seems luck was heavily boosted in this game, as having your luck on one makes it challenging. Just beware the death-claws, as they're still the deadliest in the series!
However, while I personally didn't mind the changes, there are some flaws with this game that can break the experience. For one, they gutted the karma system for a like and dislike system with the fractions system. And yes, the Brotherhood is back but it's not the one from fallout 3 but instead from New Vegas. Which begs the question, where has all the cowboys gone? It differently reestablish the gray of war where no one is truly evil, but not everyone is good, but to those it means being evil is pointless. I don't mind as I'm not entirely a genocide player, especially since Under-Tale shows how scary that is! This game dose the "more is less" approach, which can either improve or hinder a game. Oh, and it doesn't shag-shame you for sleeping with everyone and takes the Saints Row 4 approach. Post-Apocalypse anyways.
Another problem that the conversation has been dubbed down thanks to the voice acting, which is another hit-or-miss problem with the game. Only four conversation choices which no matter which you choose doesn't really matter and lays no real impact. Sure, speech dose help getting more info or at least give you an alternative option, but there needs to be more. It also doesn't help that your partner's AI can be terrible for stealth gameplay, block doorways and hallways, and tend to get you shot more than often. Thankfully, there's perk for that called Lone Wanderer that boost the player while they're alone.
If this isn't the game for the players that are in mind, I would recommend getting Wasteland 2, as it is based off the original Fallout series, but if one want a first-person shooter that is fun, this is one's game. This game might be literately be Skyrim with guns, this game is at least better optimized than the previous games before it. It's more next-gen fallout, just better streamlined and miles-may-vary type of game. Try it before you bye, and if liked, get it and finish it. Otherwise, Wasteland 2!
Beastly Bash: WORST GAMES of 2015~!
These games reminds me that the game industry really needs a lobotomy when it comes to crappy main-line titles that have hit this year. As the rules goes, no easy targets, which means Mario Party 10 wont be on the list since I personally felt like they been garbage since the Nintendo Wii days. No, these games has to be made by the mad men behind the corporate commanders who only exist the milk the cash cows, or in this case, to oil out the whiles in the world. No offence to the good game devs that remember that fun's the main focus of the industry, it's just the Xbox launch really brings the evils running about. And now the worst games of 2015!~
1) Alone in the Dark: Illumination
Ever since the "re-imagination" of the series within the dying age that was the Xbox 360, Atari has really butcher the series that invented the survivor-horror series which Resident Evil sorta copied from if Sweet Home didn't existed. The game is a buggy, unfinished mess, as it tries to cash in on the franchise where Resident Evil 6 fails in comparison. However, we all know how that ended up. They might as well bury the game as it is like the ET buried within the Sahara desert.
2) Hatred
Trust me that using controversy just to sell a game is one thing, but trying to sell a repetitive third-person shooter is another. Pushing the controversy aside as it's a way to help boost their sells, the game gets really boring very fast. While some say that it's this generation of Postal, even postal is more colorful than Hatred, as Postal Dude's personality helps breaks the ice of the gameplay as his banter helps absorb the players. If I needed to kick a buch of balls, I'll stuck with Saints Row 2 and 4; Thank you very much!
3) Star Wars: Battle-Front
While the games are either bad on a Technic level or a moral level, this is so wrong on a personal level to those who love the Star Wars franchise. This is a cash-grab from your favorite game business villeins EA Games while Dice handles the gameplay. This is the same issue that have ran the Spider-man games to the ground as Dice has been worn down on the franchise. A ten Dollar pay-to-win weapon, no real single player, four maps, and a ton of DLC content on its way. On a personal note, I would rather recommend the new Star-Wars movie that is coming out this mouth. Seems EA is not EA without the worst company of the year reward. I hope you guys missed it since Ubisoft won that last year, because bugs and yearly tittles...
4) Tony Halk's Pro Skater 5
There's a reason Tony hawk dyed down after the skate-board craze after the play-station days. Back then, this series as well as Underground was very popular, that is until Underground 2 released with mixed reviews and the series went down from there. This game is a buggy piece of sadness, eating away what little was good about the franchise, as if there was anything else left. Ugly graphics, bad settings, and uninspired music and so many technique issues. While it's not Tony Hawk's Ride, this is not a skating game. At least Actionvision worked with Platinum games with Transformers, so check that out instead? Still, Actionvison ladies and gentlemen...
5) The Devil's Third
This is a game that everyone forgot, and personally, it's a good idea too as this was at the last E3 stream on Twitch.tv! As I watch the frame-rate chug during the demo last year, I knew that this would be on the worst games list to the point that Nintendo stopped advertising the train wreck of a game. How did they turn the action-combat bad here? Repetitive melee combat, cliches out from some bad action flick, bad visuals and sound effects, and in the end comes as underwhelming experience! There is online multiplayer, but that is the worst part of the game as it is full of micro-transactions! Pay-to-win by buying power-ups as it milks the whales of their money. At least they did fix the frame-rate issues? No, it's still a mess...
6) Cartoon Fighters
Really? Someone is trying to resell M.U.G.A.N. on green-light and the game wasn't originally his? What kind of scams are people running these day!? For those who don't know, Mugan is a free fighting game where programmers make their custom fighters and install it into the game to compete into other competitors. There has been some creative to lewd characters on that game, but now some scam-artist is trying to pass it off as a fighting game not made by him. I seen some cratice stuff mugan as dose as making A great DBZ fighting system that even the original Street fighter dev couldn't manage when they tried. However, this is not how you mugan! I would have got the dev himself release the game with a workshop feature to add-on fighters. perfect timing since of STeam Link was released this year, so I'm calling you out, MUGAN devs! Make THIS FTP game happen! Otherwise, screw green-light...
Well, this year have gone and passed. Year's revolutions where at least almost met and Christmas is coming soon! I'm going off for the rest of the year until January to prepare as the holidays can cause a man to go crazy at this time of year. Until then Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Years and at least have a designated driver when you head out with your family.
1) Alone in the Dark: Illumination
Ever since the "re-imagination" of the series within the dying age that was the Xbox 360, Atari has really butcher the series that invented the survivor-horror series which Resident Evil sorta copied from if Sweet Home didn't existed. The game is a buggy, unfinished mess, as it tries to cash in on the franchise where Resident Evil 6 fails in comparison. However, we all know how that ended up. They might as well bury the game as it is like the ET buried within the Sahara desert.
2) Hatred
Trust me that using controversy just to sell a game is one thing, but trying to sell a repetitive third-person shooter is another. Pushing the controversy aside as it's a way to help boost their sells, the game gets really boring very fast. While some say that it's this generation of Postal, even postal is more colorful than Hatred, as Postal Dude's personality helps breaks the ice of the gameplay as his banter helps absorb the players. If I needed to kick a buch of balls, I'll stuck with Saints Row 2 and 4; Thank you very much!
3) Star Wars: Battle-Front
While the games are either bad on a Technic level or a moral level, this is so wrong on a personal level to those who love the Star Wars franchise. This is a cash-grab from your favorite game business villeins EA Games while Dice handles the gameplay. This is the same issue that have ran the Spider-man games to the ground as Dice has been worn down on the franchise. A ten Dollar pay-to-win weapon, no real single player, four maps, and a ton of DLC content on its way. On a personal note, I would rather recommend the new Star-Wars movie that is coming out this mouth. Seems EA is not EA without the worst company of the year reward. I hope you guys missed it since Ubisoft won that last year, because bugs and yearly tittles...
4) Tony Halk's Pro Skater 5
There's a reason Tony hawk dyed down after the skate-board craze after the play-station days. Back then, this series as well as Underground was very popular, that is until Underground 2 released with mixed reviews and the series went down from there. This game is a buggy piece of sadness, eating away what little was good about the franchise, as if there was anything else left. Ugly graphics, bad settings, and uninspired music and so many technique issues. While it's not Tony Hawk's Ride, this is not a skating game. At least Actionvision worked with Platinum games with Transformers, so check that out instead? Still, Actionvison ladies and gentlemen...
5) The Devil's Third
This is a game that everyone forgot, and personally, it's a good idea too as this was at the last E3 stream on Twitch.tv! As I watch the frame-rate chug during the demo last year, I knew that this would be on the worst games list to the point that Nintendo stopped advertising the train wreck of a game. How did they turn the action-combat bad here? Repetitive melee combat, cliches out from some bad action flick, bad visuals and sound effects, and in the end comes as underwhelming experience! There is online multiplayer, but that is the worst part of the game as it is full of micro-transactions! Pay-to-win by buying power-ups as it milks the whales of their money. At least they did fix the frame-rate issues? No, it's still a mess...
6) Cartoon Fighters
Really? Someone is trying to resell M.U.G.A.N. on green-light and the game wasn't originally his? What kind of scams are people running these day!? For those who don't know, Mugan is a free fighting game where programmers make their custom fighters and install it into the game to compete into other competitors. There has been some creative to lewd characters on that game, but now some scam-artist is trying to pass it off as a fighting game not made by him. I seen some cratice stuff mugan as dose as making A great DBZ fighting system that even the original Street fighter dev couldn't manage when they tried. However, this is not how you mugan! I would have got the dev himself release the game with a workshop feature to add-on fighters. perfect timing since of STeam Link was released this year, so I'm calling you out, MUGAN devs! Make THIS FTP game happen! Otherwise, screw green-light...
Well, this year have gone and passed. Year's revolutions where at least almost met and Christmas is coming soon! I'm going off for the rest of the year until January to prepare as the holidays can cause a man to go crazy at this time of year. Until then Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Years and at least have a designated driver when you head out with your family.
Friday, November 27, 2015
Beastly Bash: Disappointing Games 2015
While this year had the biggest games that I've hit the digital shelfs, not counting the thousands of cheap green-light games, there has been some disappointing games that have came out this year. Some of these are on a personal level, but don't worry, none of these are shovelwere or easy targets, as that would be too easy as a choice. These are the disappointing games of 2015, plus at least one inde game!
!) Armagrogg
This one is personal as I am a fan of Doug Tennaple's past works from Earthworm Jim to even it's spiritual successor Neverhood. The biggest problem of this game is that it lost it's core audience as much as Broken Age did, as it tried too hard to catch past audience as well as it's modern audience. Even after fixing many of the bugs, it feels like they didn't have the programing know-how and felt like the game is incomplete. While it tries to be for both type of gamers, the puzzles end up being mixed and even pissed of a major of backers for their refund. I'm sorry, Tennaple. I hope you'll forgive me.
2) Mortal Kombat X
Mortal Combat 9 was a great remake AND reboot that helped bring newcomers and old fans together to break skulls and pull of fatalities; even pulling off ideas that even Marvel vs Capcom fails to advance on. Sadly, Mortal Kombat X stepped all that down as many of the hit features are removed for Downloadable content. Want to play as Goro, who is ON THE DISK? Five bucks! There's a reason WB's marketing is getting a lot of slack for their business decisions. It also didn't help that they porked the PC port like they did with Mortal Kombat 9, which is a reason PC gamers hate High Voltage studios.
3) Mad Max (The game)
Sandbox, the sandbox game. No seriously, the game personally over-did the sandbox portion of the game to the point that it over-burdens the story part of the game. It wasn't a bad game, mind you, it just dose the sandbox too well to the point of being mundane. Graphics wise, it did the nicely programed MGSV magnifier to help the game run. However, as I would put it, there's too much sand, not enough box for me personally as an experience. It doesn't help that they are competing with games like Batman and Fallout 4, as even those game's mechanics where built around it's open world.
4) Halo 5
I personally gave up on the Halo series after three as I have moved away from the Xbox counsel gaming ever since the XBone has a disappointing release with the many things that gaming should never have invented. While the online portion is somewhat untouched from Halo 4, the story as absolute "Meh" at the best of times and bad at the worst of times. Personally, I wouldn't touch this game with an eight foot pole if it wasn't part of my job. Why did I make it part of my job? So I know what and what not to do when I make an inde-title. Running a series to the ground is one of them.
5) Battle Field: Hardlines
While most cop-based games that are usually third-person sand box games, shooters, or even point-and-click games, this game is merely a shooter dressed as a cop game. This game is so basic and out-of-logic that all the past shooter games blend in like a Martynne and you end up with a below-average experience. While games like Splatoon try it's best to mix up it's gameplay like how in hardline you could arrest perps, there was no reason to do so as it seems pointless as it just gives you lethal upgrades. There's a reason I don't review shooters anymore!
6) Evolve
I played this when it was in beta and as soon as I played it, I knew it would end to be a horrible running simulator. From the same dev teams as Left 4 Dead one and two, they tried to make a game just as fun. However, this ends up being the most repetitive game that I have ever played more than even most Zombie sandbox games that have hit the market that has hit the shelfs. Not only that, but they try to resell cosmetics and recolored guns that anyone than the art-team could do. It was a mess for both human and monster players and I'm not sure if the game is even still up as it was. The sad thing is that games like The Devil's Bluff did this idea better than the Tripple A devs of this game. Keep away from this game!
!) Armagrogg
This one is personal as I am a fan of Doug Tennaple's past works from Earthworm Jim to even it's spiritual successor Neverhood. The biggest problem of this game is that it lost it's core audience as much as Broken Age did, as it tried too hard to catch past audience as well as it's modern audience. Even after fixing many of the bugs, it feels like they didn't have the programing know-how and felt like the game is incomplete. While it tries to be for both type of gamers, the puzzles end up being mixed and even pissed of a major of backers for their refund. I'm sorry, Tennaple. I hope you'll forgive me.
2) Mortal Kombat X
Mortal Combat 9 was a great remake AND reboot that helped bring newcomers and old fans together to break skulls and pull of fatalities; even pulling off ideas that even Marvel vs Capcom fails to advance on. Sadly, Mortal Kombat X stepped all that down as many of the hit features are removed for Downloadable content. Want to play as Goro, who is ON THE DISK? Five bucks! There's a reason WB's marketing is getting a lot of slack for their business decisions. It also didn't help that they porked the PC port like they did with Mortal Kombat 9, which is a reason PC gamers hate High Voltage studios.
3) Mad Max (The game)
Sandbox, the sandbox game. No seriously, the game personally over-did the sandbox portion of the game to the point that it over-burdens the story part of the game. It wasn't a bad game, mind you, it just dose the sandbox too well to the point of being mundane. Graphics wise, it did the nicely programed MGSV magnifier to help the game run. However, as I would put it, there's too much sand, not enough box for me personally as an experience. It doesn't help that they are competing with games like Batman and Fallout 4, as even those game's mechanics where built around it's open world.
4) Halo 5
I personally gave up on the Halo series after three as I have moved away from the Xbox counsel gaming ever since the XBone has a disappointing release with the many things that gaming should never have invented. While the online portion is somewhat untouched from Halo 4, the story as absolute "Meh" at the best of times and bad at the worst of times. Personally, I wouldn't touch this game with an eight foot pole if it wasn't part of my job. Why did I make it part of my job? So I know what and what not to do when I make an inde-title. Running a series to the ground is one of them.
5) Battle Field: Hardlines
While most cop-based games that are usually third-person sand box games, shooters, or even point-and-click games, this game is merely a shooter dressed as a cop game. This game is so basic and out-of-logic that all the past shooter games blend in like a Martynne and you end up with a below-average experience. While games like Splatoon try it's best to mix up it's gameplay like how in hardline you could arrest perps, there was no reason to do so as it seems pointless as it just gives you lethal upgrades. There's a reason I don't review shooters anymore!
6) Evolve
I played this when it was in beta and as soon as I played it, I knew it would end to be a horrible running simulator. From the same dev teams as Left 4 Dead one and two, they tried to make a game just as fun. However, this ends up being the most repetitive game that I have ever played more than even most Zombie sandbox games that have hit the market that has hit the shelfs. Not only that, but they try to resell cosmetics and recolored guns that anyone than the art-team could do. It was a mess for both human and monster players and I'm not sure if the game is even still up as it was. The sad thing is that games like The Devil's Bluff did this idea better than the Tripple A devs of this game. Keep away from this game!
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Games of the Year: 2015
Well, its that time again to see which games are the best of this year. You know what that means: idiots fighting over numbers with other idiots about which games are the best and CoD fanboys fighting with MW. You know what, I'm not going to put numbers on them, instead I'm going to just list them in letters just to add confusion. Please note that ONE of the games I actually got for free when I updated my computer as a promotion by Nvidia, and yes, that counts as well since I got this game for free. These are usually games that I have played or have on a review account to help as not all critics can afford to review most games.
A) Undertale
This short, inde-RPG game that was made by Toby Fox, an Odd-ball EarthBound fan who worked on rom-hacks and is known for that one awesome song Megolavina. Common, folks! He left that songs in most of his works to show that he has worked on the game before. Except for that Concatenation game; that didn't count as it was borrowed with Fox's permission. That song is not really a spoiler. A game that remembered your actions as you replay the game over and over again. This gets an honorable mention because it did something that most RPGs don't usually do by playing on almost all RPG tropes with the endings sticking onto the players. Also, ten US dollars! That's about what I pay for lunch!! Get it, because the demo actually sucks becasue the intro is harder than the main game.
B) Batman: Arkham Knight
While I do agree that the plot is disappointing, the bat-tank is tacked-on, and the completion bonus is not worth it, I would still recommend the game as it ends the game of the trilogy. However, the PC port is still broken as of today, so I would have to recommend the Playstation 4 version as it seems to be built for that system. It would be lower on the list since WB tends to porked their ports, which happened before with games like Mortal Kombat 9. Run it on PC if your dare. However, the plot-twist in the opening of the game what redeemed the game to me, even though it was false advertisement on WB's end.
C) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
This is the game I got for free while updating my computer so I can work on my other PC game reviews and is probably the BEST looking out of the series. However, it's also has the WORST story of the franchise and is probably the last good game from Konami as Kojima has officially left as of 2015. The best part of the game is its gameplay, as it's sandbox stealth at it's best while it stays challenging with three different endings, but a sad plot-twist at the end. While Snake Eatter will always be the best with the Solid Snake remake for the GameCube behind it, this is not a bad game; Just yet another game where the completion bonus SUCKS!
E) Fallout 4
I know I am going to get slack for this game, but this is the most optimized Bethesda Game that I have played ever. I have just finished the game and it is such a doozy. Without spoiling much, the player star as a survivor of Vault 111 out to find your lost child as he was taken as a baby. The player must then escape and decide which path to go upon to survive the wasteland. While some found that a gray plot and moral lines may have hurt it's viewpoint and disappoint some looking at the game, I found that it dose more from doing less. Besides, looking back at Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the two games did NOT age well as both games are littered with far worse issues than Fallout 4. At least the Wounderer's not a child killer. No, seriously; he/she can do that in uncensored versions of Fallout 1 and was even an unused perk!~
F) Super Mario Maker
It was either this game or Splatoon. While Splatoon was a fun, it then had power-issues where some weapons are too over-powered and quickly faded away as well as it's hype. However, with check-points just added on for free in the latest update, this is a great game to play with your friends. Make from the noob-friendly levels to teach players about a gimmick to something that even evil itself would not even publish, like the meat-boy levels! This is a game for both casual and hard-core gamers. I just wouldn't recommend it to children, as they tend to break all sorts of games.
G) Just Cause 3
With the ever new ways to travel via flying suit, new ways to use your tethers, updated bomb with a new booster, and new weapons like the multi-launcher, the readers understands why I added this game to my list. This time, however, it's personal for Scorpio as the game takes place in his home country, meaning he has no reason to hold back anymore. He sets out to save his own country from a dictator who has Scorpio's loved ones under his boot. However, the story missions is not the main focus as causing mayhem will help get income called chaos, which you can use to buy planes, cars, and all sorts of goods to help cause chaos to help liberate his country. I would like to talk more about the game, but S-E embargos are usually too strict.
Which numbers they belong to is up to the viewers, as I personally feel these are my top games of this year. Hopefully, there wasn't as much disappointing games as there was last year, but there are some games that where very disappointing. So Next time, the six most disappointing games of 2015!
A) Undertale
This short, inde-RPG game that was made by Toby Fox, an Odd-ball EarthBound fan who worked on rom-hacks and is known for that one awesome song Megolavina. Common, folks! He left that songs in most of his works to show that he has worked on the game before. Except for that Concatenation game; that didn't count as it was borrowed with Fox's permission. That song is not really a spoiler. A game that remembered your actions as you replay the game over and over again. This gets an honorable mention because it did something that most RPGs don't usually do by playing on almost all RPG tropes with the endings sticking onto the players. Also, ten US dollars! That's about what I pay for lunch!! Get it, because the demo actually sucks becasue the intro is harder than the main game.
B) Batman: Arkham Knight
While I do agree that the plot is disappointing, the bat-tank is tacked-on, and the completion bonus is not worth it, I would still recommend the game as it ends the game of the trilogy. However, the PC port is still broken as of today, so I would have to recommend the Playstation 4 version as it seems to be built for that system. It would be lower on the list since WB tends to porked their ports, which happened before with games like Mortal Kombat 9. Run it on PC if your dare. However, the plot-twist in the opening of the game what redeemed the game to me, even though it was false advertisement on WB's end.
C) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
This is the game I got for free while updating my computer so I can work on my other PC game reviews and is probably the BEST looking out of the series. However, it's also has the WORST story of the franchise and is probably the last good game from Konami as Kojima has officially left as of 2015. The best part of the game is its gameplay, as it's sandbox stealth at it's best while it stays challenging with three different endings, but a sad plot-twist at the end. While Snake Eatter will always be the best with the Solid Snake remake for the GameCube behind it, this is not a bad game; Just yet another game where the completion bonus SUCKS!
E) Fallout 4
I know I am going to get slack for this game, but this is the most optimized Bethesda Game that I have played ever. I have just finished the game and it is such a doozy. Without spoiling much, the player star as a survivor of Vault 111 out to find your lost child as he was taken as a baby. The player must then escape and decide which path to go upon to survive the wasteland. While some found that a gray plot and moral lines may have hurt it's viewpoint and disappoint some looking at the game, I found that it dose more from doing less. Besides, looking back at Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the two games did NOT age well as both games are littered with far worse issues than Fallout 4. At least the Wounderer's not a child killer. No, seriously; he/she can do that in uncensored versions of Fallout 1 and was even an unused perk!~
F) Super Mario Maker
It was either this game or Splatoon. While Splatoon was a fun, it then had power-issues where some weapons are too over-powered and quickly faded away as well as it's hype. However, with check-points just added on for free in the latest update, this is a great game to play with your friends. Make from the noob-friendly levels to teach players about a gimmick to something that even evil itself would not even publish, like the meat-boy levels! This is a game for both casual and hard-core gamers. I just wouldn't recommend it to children, as they tend to break all sorts of games.
G) Just Cause 3
With the ever new ways to travel via flying suit, new ways to use your tethers, updated bomb with a new booster, and new weapons like the multi-launcher, the readers understands why I added this game to my list. This time, however, it's personal for Scorpio as the game takes place in his home country, meaning he has no reason to hold back anymore. He sets out to save his own country from a dictator who has Scorpio's loved ones under his boot. However, the story missions is not the main focus as causing mayhem will help get income called chaos, which you can use to buy planes, cars, and all sorts of goods to help cause chaos to help liberate his country. I would like to talk more about the game, but S-E embargos are usually too strict.
Which numbers they belong to is up to the viewers, as I personally feel these are my top games of this year. Hopefully, there wasn't as much disappointing games as there was last year, but there are some games that where very disappointing. So Next time, the six most disappointing games of 2015!
Friday, November 6, 2015
Beastly Byte: Undertale! A game where no one has to die (...oR NoT...)
Well, we all know this was coming since it a game that was reviewed by EVERY media outlet, as it was a inde-game inspired by Earthbound, Thohou or any bullet-hell shooter, and even Wario-Ware. I know people compare it with Cave-Story because it happens underground, but I don't personally see it since most of the music here is SNES based. And while some people dislike this game as it's fan-base can over-hype things at times, Alla Five Nights at Fready's, even not a fan of Thohou need to look at. Created by the creator Toby Fox of Earthbound Rom-hacks and co-developer of Home-Struck as his signature metal song is in all three of the series.
So how is the game? Dose it compare to Earthbound than the other tribute games like OFF and Lisa?
Positive:
+ Interactions with enemies and characters, which influence the plot and endings of the story
+ Passive game designed that excels as an challenging experience, or you can do the normal RPG route
+ The game remembers what you do in past run-though, causing creative fourth-wall breaks
+ Funny and lovable characters, which makes players invested in the story
+ Great enemy designs, requiring players to think on their feet
+ SNES Music mixed with real-music counterparts, which is very catchy; sticking on the player's head for a long time
+ Game humor plays on RPG tropes, which help to the longevity of the game
+ A surprising Plot-twist which sticks with the player even after the game ends
+ Hidden secrets which includes two creepy back-stories, Easter eggs, references, and more
However, even a perfect game has a few nick-picks, as even a clean man or woman can get skin infections no matter how hard they try to wash it's skin. ew...
Negatives:
- The main character (Chara Frisk, as you find out later) tends to be the least interesting character because of it's pale skin.
- While it's cool that Toby Fox made it thought limitations of game-maker, the one-save system tend to be annoying since for lets plays and reviews, you have to modify the save-files delete the file to start again
- The biggest flaw is that genocide run is painfully less challenging than I though. On one hand, it makes the player realize how evil it is, but on the other hand, there's only two new bad-ass boss fights.
- Genocide also ruins a pacifist run on a new game, as the game remembers your past actions. Do genocide last!
Final thoughts:
This is a game that everyone needs to experience! Just like Earthbound, the characters are very charismatic, funny, and the player just want to get to know the characters individually. And in some points, it dose better results for not only being ten dollars (or the equivalent) and can last from five to ten hours - a perfect length for that cost. This game can be also considered best inde-game of this year hands down from me, but if you, the players, can wait until the hype dies down, that would be a safe bet to avoid spoilers. I would also recommend playing blind so the experience is full and rewarding...
...OR PuNiSHing...hehehehehe-MWhahahaha....hA...ha...
...I need to get Orta out of my blood stream...
...Then go for a pacifist route, but go for a genocide run if you dare, but I personally don't recommend it....
...Meanwhile...I need to rest....
...
So how is the game? Dose it compare to Earthbound than the other tribute games like OFF and Lisa?
Positive:
+ Interactions with enemies and characters, which influence the plot and endings of the story
+ Passive game designed that excels as an challenging experience, or you can do the normal RPG route
+ The game remembers what you do in past run-though, causing creative fourth-wall breaks
+ Funny and lovable characters, which makes players invested in the story
+ Great enemy designs, requiring players to think on their feet
+ SNES Music mixed with real-music counterparts, which is very catchy; sticking on the player's head for a long time
+ Game humor plays on RPG tropes, which help to the longevity of the game
+ A surprising Plot-twist which sticks with the player even after the game ends
+ Hidden secrets which includes two creepy back-stories, Easter eggs, references, and more
However, even a perfect game has a few nick-picks, as even a clean man or woman can get skin infections no matter how hard they try to wash it's skin. ew...
Negatives:
- The main character (Chara Frisk, as you find out later) tends to be the least interesting character because of it's pale skin.
- While it's cool that Toby Fox made it thought limitations of game-maker, the one-save system tend to be annoying since for lets plays and reviews, you have to modify the save-files delete the file to start again
- The biggest flaw is that genocide run is painfully less challenging than I though. On one hand, it makes the player realize how evil it is, but on the other hand, there's only two new bad-ass boss fights.
- Genocide also ruins a pacifist run on a new game, as the game remembers your past actions. Do genocide last!
Final thoughts:
This is a game that everyone needs to experience! Just like Earthbound, the characters are very charismatic, funny, and the player just want to get to know the characters individually. And in some points, it dose better results for not only being ten dollars (or the equivalent) and can last from five to ten hours - a perfect length for that cost. This game can be also considered best inde-game of this year hands down from me, but if you, the players, can wait until the hype dies down, that would be a safe bet to avoid spoilers. I would also recommend playing blind so the experience is full and rewarding...
...OR PuNiSHing...hehehehehe-MWhahahaha....hA...ha...
...I need to get Orta out of my blood stream...
...Then go for a pacifist route, but go for a genocide run if you dare, but I personally don't recommend it....
...Meanwhile...I need to rest....
...
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