The pain, oh the pain feels so good! Hello folks Brandon here being unusually masochistic this month with Dark Souls 3. I adore the Souls games, but unlike some of you badass gamers out there I can only ever get half way. Basically I wish I was just better at the games. The idea of the Dark Souls 3 is intriguing to me. Challenging gameplay with a hidden story and death that actually has meaning. Almost three weeks I’ve been at this sucker and I’ve barely scratched the surface of it, but time continues to go on and so do the new games so this review is basically the first third of the game. (I killed the first Lord of Cinder) The games story from my understanding is that these Lords of Cinder don’t want to relight the flame of the world so your job is to go in and kill them. I think so you can relight the world I am not a hundred percent. Seriously you paste the game together by talking to people so if you are paying attention to literally everything around you then you can make up your story so that is what I did. My story is about Jerry the mercenary potter. He was looking for the nearest convenience store when suddenly these naughty Cinder Lords said his mom was a fat cheeky divvy. Not knowing what it meant (whether good or bad) Jerry decided that he would kill these Lords and use their ashes to make a wonderful pot for his defiantly none cheeky or divvy mother. That was my story what is yours you made up while playing this game? The game looks beautiful, and for those of you who are unfamiliar with Dark Souls being able to see a place in the distance and knowing, “at some point I’m going to die there” is marvelous. A weird issue I have is the preset faces all look like the bastard offspring of Gollum. They all are horrific looking so say if you wanted to make a cool adventurer you are going to half to spend some time in the character creation. The soundtrack during the boss fights as always are epic. You really feel like each boss encounter is one to be remember. In in most games the badass audio only kicks in towards the end, but Dark Souls each boss is the final boss in some way. The gameplay is so unique you can honestly say it plays like a Souls game. For those who don’t know Souls games they are a RPG’s with no forgiveness…well some. There is so much to this game the basics are you get souls for killing your enemies and if you die you go back to the spawn point which is a bonfire. When you die or rest at a new/same bonfire ever enemy (excluding bosses) comes back to life so you will have to fight them again. If you die all the souls you had dropped, and if you die without picking them up you lose them. The souls are money/experience so you really don’t want to lose them. Since Dark Souls can be played a number of different ways I will only be talking about how my character was being played. I picked a class called mercenary he is one of seven classes I think. I played the game as a sword and shield fighter with light on the shield. The shields in this game are only really good for parrying (which is a pain in the ass) or blocking projectiles. My main skills were all close range of course with my focus being on evading. I will admit I ran a lot through this game. If I didn’t have to fight an enemy there is a good chance I didn’t. This could be a hindrance, but fuck is it less frustrating to deal with. I had some help from an online co-op partner on the first Lord of Cinder, and I must say if you have an issue with a boss call some help. Some people are fucking monsters in this game. I am more of a scared…potter (sticking with that joke) I met some allies throughout the story which is nice but they usually fuck right off after you say hi. The game is so long I am only 12 hours into it and barely scratched the surface so those who don’t get many games keep that in mind. Overall the game is fantastic with no bugs that I saw and gameplay that can sometimes be a pain, but in the end is super satisfying when you do what you thought impossible. I recommend those who know this game series to go buy it I enjoy it more than Dark Souls 1 and 2. It is the best in the series which is rare for the third game to be. I give this a 4.5 out of 5. With the caveat that you know this game is going to bat you around for a bit until you get used to the world. It has a learning curve so if you aren’t into spending sometime of getting your ass kicked then maybe skip this game, or rent to see if maybe this is a good fit for you. I end this with a simple request. Tell me your experience with this game good or bad I love a good gaming story of failure or conquer. Also whether or not you enjoyed it.
0 Comments
There is a movie based on a beloved franchise, and we can play the movie tie in game which is also a remake? God I feel like I need a flow chart to keep up with this nonsense. Hello everyone Brandon here again to talk to you all about Ratchet and Clank by Insomniac Games (they are the original creators). This is basically a reboot of the series and they realize that with them frequently making jokes saying “see you in the next reboot”. My only issue is there was really no need for a reboot because the series didn’t have a convoluted story or wasn’t getting tiresome like Resident Evil. I see these games sort of like Final Fantasy; except the series is based on two characters. The stories don’t really interject at all they could’ve just done a new adventure. The story is another origin story. Ratchet wants to be a Galactic Ranger, and Clank is a run-away faulty war bot. These two team up for a reason I’m not a 100% why, but they do and end up joining the Galactic Rangers. They must stop Dr. Nefarious from destroying planets with his planet harvesting weapon. It has no surprise twist this is a very fun light hearted story that just leaves you feeling like a kid afterwards. The story has an interesting twist with the whole thing being narrated by Captain Quark who is in prison for reasons that are obvious, but I’ll refrain from saying. He is such a great character and occasionally if you are dicking around he will mention how Ratchet hated boxes with a fiery passion. If you want to see the movie I’d suggest seeing it before you play the game because this game to my knowledge follows the exact plot of the movie. Just with less talking and more ass kicking. The game looks beautiful and the characters all looks as they do except one. Dr. Nefarious isn’t half as cool as he looked in the original games. Instead of being some robot brain alien thing he is just an alien. This is a minor complaint it just didn’t make sense to keep everyone the same except him. Yet I don’t remember what he looked like in the original Ratchet and Clank so this may be spot on. The gameplay is something I missed and never thought I missed. 3D platformers are such a thing of the past and that is a damn shame. This game brought back the nostalgia of Ratchet and Clank while keeping it updated for this generation. What I mean is in the original you had to have so many bolts to continue. This means you have to go back to each map and be the bolt master. (Poor Pokémon joke) In this version you don’t need to do that at all and the maps are so linear you can easily 100% the game. The game is way easier than the original as well. The enemies are easier, and you can take more hits if you die. They introduce different mechanics as well. We get a stealth mission, some poor squirrelly flying sections and new funny deadly weapons. The weapons are amazing mixing old fan favorites with new bizarre ones. My fan favorite was Mr. Zurkon who is helpful against small enemies and talks shit the whole time. A new awesome one is this big ball that has an area attack that if leveled up is fucking powerful. The gameplay has a very light RPG element and not violent at all so it is great for kids. The game is only 7-8 hours long with one mechanic I never understood with that being the trading cards they’ve added. They are supposed to give you a boost, but I never noticed nor did I care if I collected a whole set. Overall the game is fun to play with a funny light hearted story. With this coming out at the same time as Dark Souls 3 it is nice to have a relaxing game to just wipe away all frustrations. If you have kids I say buy this game for them and watch them melt away hours. If you are a fan of the series this game holds up super well and will give you nostalgia kick like no other so buy. Last if you never played a Ratchet and Clank game I recommend that you rent this. If you end up liking it this is a short enough game to blow through a weekend and have a wonderful weekend doing it. I give this game a 4.5 out of 5. I take off of the flying, dumb ass card collecting and the fact they changed one character into a less cool version of the original. Do you want to time travel, but don’t want to be a teenage girl? Remedy thought of that and boy howdy do they have a solution for you. Quantum Break is that solution. Hello gaming folks Brandon here with a game I had no interest in, yet ended up really enjoying. To the point I can say this is one Xbox One exclusive that one MUST own. I shall get into this video game/TV hybrid of a game now. The story is all about time travel. You play Jack Joyce or as I referred to him as the entire game as Iceman. You develop time manipulation abilities after an accident that occurred in a science lab. Okay I’m really not selling the story let me just say it has some predictable moments in it but the story is very entertaining. The gaming sections that is. So you get to choose where they story goes while playing as Petyr Baelish. After you do so the game will cut into a 20 minute episode of a TV show about the side characters. This is where the game falls a little bit for me. While the choice you make does matter the outcome is still the same very Telltale in that way. Unlike Telltale this little nitpick actually fits in the story, but it makes one wonder why give you an option in the first place? The sad part about the TV show is that it feels like it should be on the CW. The actors are all these pretty late 20’s people who are all very smug in some way. You follow generic white protagonist who is trying to save his wife from the whole time collapsing on itself thing. There are only four episodes that occur which isn’t a huge deal and I honestly feel like this was a good idea that opened the game’s story a little bit. It also gave the villains more personality, and mystery over being just the bad guys. I do see people outright hating this game with the statement, “I paid for a game not a TV show”. As we know you can never please everyone. I enjoyed this story immensely and if you hated Life is Strange like me maybe check this story out it is way less teenage hipster like. The game looks beautiful, the characters truly look like their respected actors. It kind of make you laugh at the character model of actors in PS2 movie games. The freezing in time is such a great look with everything frozen in the air it creates an awe. The voice acting is wonderful I don’t think anyone does a bad performance in this, well Sean Ashmore has some cheesed up lines, but I can’t tell if that is his fault or the script he was given. The game is a third person action game with a cover mechanic. The saving grace for the game is time manipulation powers. You can freeze time, create a bubble shield, and run fast through time to punch the shit out of some soldier. The Monarch villains (I couldn’t help but to think of The Venture Bros every time they say Monarch) vary throughout the game every act they will introduce a new baddy keeping the game fresh. The game short enough to never get boring or repetitive. It is about a 8-9 hour game. The bad parts of the game are few but leave a smear on it. The final boss fight is just annoying and almost made me rage quit. This is a personal preference of mine being that I hate fighting bosses while goons are trying to kill me. The second which is a big one is the game is buggy. I had enemies freeze on me to the point I only could kill them with a takedown. I had the game lock up on me twice, and the frame rate dipped on me a couple of times. Overall the game is super fun with a super hero feel without all that hero jazz. The main character may be a mass killing maniac with a one track mind, but he is still likeable as shit. The gameplay is fun and interesting mixing Gears of War with Infamous. The bugs are few but glaring, yet they may be fixed later on. Last the show that is skippable isn’t the best but it has quite a bit of character development for the villains. I give this game a 4/5. I high recommend you buy this and hold it over the heads of your Sony friends, and let your PC friends tell you how much better it is on PC because it is what they do. Until next time friends, or next Space? |
Bloody ScreenThis is our area for older game reviews. Enjoy and comment. Archives
February 2017
Categories |