The Game Preview

Tag: Featured

  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Review

    Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Review

    Available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC (Reviewed on Xbox One X)

    Introduction

    When I first jumped into my playthrough of Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, I was genuinely excited. I personally never had the opportunity to play the original back when it released in 2012, but I had a very few select couple of friends who did. Back then, especially with one friend in particular, I was told that it was an incredible RPG that could go toe-to-toe with the likes of world-renowned titles such as Skyrim. Being only a kid, I took their word for it but still never spent the money to try it out for myself. Over the following years, I started to believe I may have missed out on something truly special. With a game that was designed by Ken Rolston (Oblivion), with art created by Todd McFarlane, and a story penned by R.A. Salvatore, how could it not be spectacular? Well, after all of this lost time I finally caved and pre-ordered Re-Reckoning, hoping this enhanced, remastered version would have made the long wait worthwhile. It is worth mentioning, however, that we did receive a review copy as well courtesy of THQ Nordic, but it arrived later than my own personal copy which is what this review will based off of. So, was fate kind and bestowed a title of the ages upon me? Or is KoA just an average, run of the mill RPG experience?

    Image Credit: Valve/Steam

    Narrative

    Story and lore are by far the most important components of a role-playing game in my opinion, so I feel it should be discussed first. Don’t worry about any spoilers though, as you won’t find any here. When you first awaken from death and are thrusted into the war against the evil Tuatha, the story that is presented to you is initially intriguing. The exposition of the seemingly deep lore and world is done well, and did captivate me with compelling backstory and characters; but those feelings were fleeting. As I progressed through the game, I lost interest in all of this over time as it failed to keep me enthralled all the way through. By the conclusion, I ended up not caring all that much about the world and found it to be mostly unremarkable and not that memorable. I wasn’t encouraged to find out more about the world and its lore-filled mysteries either, as most of those details are behind quick one to two sentence conversations with generic NPCs you’ll find in any RPG (whose dialogue was boring enough to the point where I would just read the subtitles quickly and not let them finish talking). The main questline is by far the best storyline in the title, but I’d say objectively it’s just okay; nothing exceptional. However, choice is a complete illusion throughout the main quest, which is extremely counter-intuitive considering the premise of your character. Without delving into spoilers, the entire world of Amalur and its inhabitants are governed by the laws of fate, with all destinies being predetermined at birth. When your character rises from the dead at the beginning of the game, you quickly find out that you are immune to the cycle of fate, and that you have the power to turn the tide of the war and restore peace to Amalur in the face of a generic villain with generic world-conquering goals. Unfortunately, that’s all for show, as the main questline’s events are set in stone from start to finish. The only thing you can alter is the dialogue spoken, even with a maxed out persuasion skill which I had (and soon realized was a waste of all of my leveling). There are certain choices presented to the player that actually do make a difference in the way events play out, yet these choices are reserved only for the faction side questlines, and usually only pop up at the end of said questlines with just two possible paths to pursue. There are multiple factions throughout the game, five by my count, yet I only found one of them (The House of Ballads) to be unique. The rest were, like many other narrative aspects of this game, generic; to the point where I could draw similarities with other RPG faction questlines left and right. If these faction quests were more fleshed out and possibly a little longer, they could have easily become the best narrative component of the game, seeing as how your choices actually have an effect here. Besides the main quest and factions, there are plenty of standard side quests as well: but they are just as numerous as they are bland. They usually consist of uncompelling fetch quests used to fill up the game world and justify the existence of certain NPC’s, but nothing more. To be candid, these side quests felt as if they belonged in an MMORPG. Overall, I expected a much more in depth plot with varied choice and multiple, sprawling outcomes typical of a single-player RPG, but I was disappointed in what I found instead.

    Image Credit: Valve/Steam

    Gameplay and Atmosphere

    If I had to sum up the gameplay of Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning in one word, it would have to be “average”. At first, combat is easy to grasp and fun with varied animations, move sets, and executions; but becomes extremely basic and overly repetitive very early on. Most of the time you’ll just be mashing X, Square, or Left MB to do your standard attack, as the damage of your special abilities (even when fully upgraded) is negligible. Additionally, while although rarely, sometimes attacks won’t even register: seemingly phasing through your enemy combatants. Furthermore, you will be ganked (outnumbered by opposing enemies) all of the time in combat, and it can be difficult to get attacks in since every time you take a hit you get stun locked, which can be stacked if you continue to get hit while stun locked. Assuming you’re proficient at timing your dodges and blocks, however, it still doesn’t matter; since there are some enemy attacks that are both unblockable and undodgeable, leading to cheap forced damage and our first example of artificial difficulty in KoA. Outside of clashing blades, the rest of the gameplay doesn’t seem to fair much better either. The game is open world, yet this has to be one of if not the most linear open world game I have ever played. There are large areas spread throughout the land of Amalur, but there are specific pathways connecting area to area that you must travel through in order to gain access to them. Even after unlocking fast travel locations, you’ll be retreading the same ground quite often: expect a lot of running around. The locales of the different regions are diverse enough from each other, but there isn’t much variation whatsoever when it comes to areas within those regions. This is most noticeable when it comes to areas such as dungeons or caves, as most of these look identical and definitely copy and paste some assets, leading to these locations becoming chores after about five hours in. The world in general, though, feels empty and desolate. It doesn’t feel lived in, with most open spaces filled with nothing but repetitive enemies of varying color pallets, with NPC’s relegated to towns only. It’s incredibly rare to find NPC’s outside of a settlement in the wild, I believe I only found two throughout my playthrough. Speaking of NPC’s, sometimes you will have one or two follow you for the duration of a quest, acting as a temporary companion of sorts. This is a curse more-so than a blessing, however, as they follow way too close to the player. This leads to frustration when you’re attempting to loot items and the NPC’s dialogue options repeatedly open up instead. These follower NPC’s also seek enemy engagements that the player may be trying to avoid/sneak past, which also leads to anger. If you do manage to pick up your loot, you’ll be immediately greeted with yet another annoyance. Inventory space, even though upgradeable, is extremely limited. Although most egregious in the early game, this problem will latch onto the player for the duration of their entire playthrough; requiring constant management and providing an insanely irritating gameplay loop. Before we discuss atmosphere, I did want to mention that the lockpicking in the title is inconsistent, and possibly broken to say the least. For one example, lockpicks used on average difficulty chests break just as easily as they would on hard difficulty chests, sometimes even easier. Another thing I would like to mention is that there is a massive artificial difficulty spike at the second to last main quest, which forced me to reload a save and do monotonous side activities to level up my character. There was no gradual progression of difficulty, in fact I was wiping the floor with everything prior to this, but the difficulty just jumps insanely high for no natural reason. This was clearly instituted to pad out the game’s length, a development strategy that I’m firmly against. However, it could also be due to the game being ridiculously easy outside of cheap ganks, as I only died once on Normal difficulty (which was due to my own idiocy, as I tried to grab loot out from under some man-eating, two-shotting plants). Despite all of these criticisms, one thing the title radiates with is passion, with a glorious art style and ambient music as the backdrop. They mesh together beautifully, and compliment each other swimmingly. It sets a wonderful sense of fantastical atmosphere, and even though visually dated is still a treat to look at and listen to throughout the player’s journey. The atmosphere is further bolstered by unique and interesting character models, whether they are enemies or non-hostile NPC’s: undoubtedly courtesy of Todd McFarlane. The gameplay does indeed have many faults, but it isn’t downright terrible; and the engaging atmosphere makes it a bit more worthwhile to deal with.

    Image Credit: Valve/Steam

    Content

    At an asking price of $39.99 USD, the content on offer within Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is proportionate to the cost, that is only if you find the title enjoyable enough to continuously play it. I completed my playthrough at level 23 after 18 hours of gameplay, though for completionists it could take roughly upwards of 40 hours (personally, I don’t believe the game warrants a 100% playthrough, but to each their own I suppose). Additionally, all armor DLC and both story expansions are included as well, which provides approximately 5-15 hours of additional content depending on your playstyle and speed.

    Performance and Glitches

    In terms of performance, the game runs buttery smooth for the most part, however I did experience around three instances of frame drops throughout my playthrough. When it comes to the topic of glitches, though, I experienced a massive amount. They’re mostly minor, but combined they become an enraging irritant. The glitches and bugs I encountered in Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning are as follows:

    • Dialogue with no sound
    • Dialogue with overtly loud sound
    • Dialogue in general is quiet compared to other audio for seemingly no reason
    • Dialogue can be heard from far away if a voice line has yet to be finished and the player leaves the area
    • Audio glitch upon game start-up where all sound is absurdly loud and staticky, genuinely hurting my ears momentarily
    • Infrequent but noticeable screen-tearing
    • Several instances where player character’s lower body is invisible upon loading a save-game
    • Forced a very easy lock with a 100% success rate due to skill and lock pick still broke, the chest remained locked
    • Two instances where the game black-screened and crashed to Xbox dashboard (once during the final boss of the main quest)
    Image Credit: Valve/Steam

    Conclusion

    To be blunt, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning was not the game I expected it to be at all. With the creative powerhouse that was responsible for it when it was originally developed by Big Huge Games, I thought that when KAIKO remastered it I was in for a treat. Sure there were some compelling aspects of the game, particularly the atmosphere, but the story and gameplay provided offer nothing out of the status-quo for RPG’s. On top of the myriad of poor design choices and rampant glitches, the boring and bland world of Amalur was a major detraction from my enjoyment of the title as well. KoA clearly had passion behind it, but that means nothing without the proper ambition. I wanted so much more from Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Recknoning, but I was unfortunately let down by a slightly above average experience in a world beaming with untapped potential.

    Final Score: 6.5/10

    Image Credit: Valve/Steam
  • The Suicide of Rachel Foster Review

    The Suicide of Rachel Foster Review

    Thank you to Daedalic Entertainment for providing a review copy for the Xbox One.

    “Coming back to the family hotel after years, a young woman finds herself trapped with the ghosts from her past and an old cellular telephone as the only way to unveil a terrible truth.” If you were left intrigued by that synopsis, do not go into this game with the expectation that its going to be an action packed horror game. On top of that, don’t be alarmed by the name, the game doesn’t dive that deep into the theme suicide. It is mentioned a few times but the game focuses much more on the mystery around her disappearance. The Suicide of Rachel Foster is just a walking simulator, but that isn’t a bad thing because its a good walking simulator.

    Gameplay

    Walking simulators have always been a weird guilty pleasure of mine. Sure, the game-play loop of just walking may be incredibly repetitive but the strong narratives and interesting environments always come on top for me. Games like Life is Strange and Until Dawn nail this while also finding ways to keep the game-play interesting. The best way for me to describe The Suicide of Rachel Foster would be if Gone Home and Firewatch had a baby. Remember the walkie-talkie in Firewatch? The Suicide of Rachel Foster has a very similar mechanic, just this time it is with a cell phone. You can talk about objects you see in the hotel over this phone which is the main way the game tells its story. You can also interact with objects in-game by picking them up but they usually lack details and they never seem to have the same level of interactivity that a game like Resident Evil 7 does. There isn’t any point in general to interact with objects that don’t have a phone symbol next to them. There are a few tools that you get throughout your play-through including the phone, a map, a crank flashlight, and a few other objects that I won’t spoil.

    Credit: Daedalic Entertainment

    Narrative

    The game starts off with the protagonist, Nicole, flipping through the pages of an old letter from her deceased mother. This letter gives backstory as to why Nicole is going back to the old family hotel and how Rachel Foster is connected to her. A major snowstorm ends up trapping you at the hotel, causing you to be stuck there. You receive a phone call from Irving, who says he is a FEMA agent. Even though you are “alone” in this giant hotel, you have Irving to keep you company over the phone. As your time in the hotel gets longer, things start to get creepier. I won’t go into detail due to spoilers but this game never turns into a horror game. However, things do get very creepy in a way that reminds me to how I felt when I explored the house in Gone Home. You may get anxious at times but don’t expect Jack Baker to start chasing you around the hotel. As you start to solve the mystery of Rachel’s death, more twists occur causing you to rethink everything you thought that you knew about the characters.

    Visuals

    The initial art style definitely takes inspiration from Firewatch. Unfortunately, it is only the initial art syle. The Suicide of Rachel Foster uses a hideous depth of field blurring setting that can not be turned off. Its essentially causes stuff to completely blur in the background to make what is closer to you stay clear. The only game that I can think of that did something similar to this was Grounded. There is also major head bobbing that can not be turned off. I felt sick for the first half an hour of my play-through. I eventually got used to it but it is definitely something that brought the review score down. Animations are also fairly limited. When you do an important interaction, the game usually zooms the camera in really close outside of the first person perspective. You can see what Nicole is interacting with but you can never see more then her arms.

    Credit: Daedalic Entertainment

    Glitches

    I am happy to say that I didn’t have that many glitches during my play-through. The only problem that I can remember was that my head would occasionally bob up and down really quick when squeezing through a small door/vent.

    Conclusion

    After about three hours with The Suicide of Rachel Foster, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Obviously keep in mind that I am someone who enjoys walking simulators, but it is one of the better ones that I have played. Of course it has its flaws, but the positives of the narrative outshine those. If you are someone who has enjoyed playing walking simulators in the past, then I recommend paying the $19.99. If you have never played a walking simulator before, maybe write this down on your wish-list and wait until it is on sale.

    Final Score: 8/10

  • Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning: First Impressions

    Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning: First Impressions

    When the original Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning released on February 7th, 2012, it quickly and unfortunately faded into obscurity. At the time, regardless of how many chose to play it, the game was generally loved by all of those who gave the title a fair shake. Over time, the title developed a cult following and a loyal one at that, eagerly awaiting more from the hidden gem. Fast forward to the present day, however, and their wishes have been granted. Developed by Kaiko and published by THQ Nordic, Big Huge Games’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is back. Re-branded and remastered as Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, this version of the original game bundled with all previous DLC content has been enhanced for the current console generation and PC. For now all I can give are my initial impressions of the title, since I haven’t had adequate time to pen a review; as our review copy arrived later than expected and I had to purchase the game for myself. However, a full review will be out very soon and posted over this coming weekend. Without further delay, let’s see how my first three and a half hours adventuring across Amalur played out.

    Image Credit: Valve/Steam

    Story, Gameplay, and Visuals

    Firstly, I’d like to establish that this is my first time playing through Kingdoms of Amalur, so the narrative and lore (obviously along with all other aspects of the title) are completely new to my eyes. That being said (and without detailing any spoilers), the story immediately intrigued me and as I played through the opening of the game I found the narrative and lore to be increasingly compelling. The characters you’re introduced to provide meaningful exposition, and the conflict/world you’re thrusted into delivers a sense of urgency that personally made me invested in the title almost instantaneously (undoubtedly due to the writing of R.A. Salvatore). Upon completing this opening sequence, the world of Amalur and all of its Kingdoms await you. This is an open-world title in essence, however it has to be one of the most linear open worlds I’ve ever played through. While not entirely a negative aspect, I feel it does the game a massive disservice. Most of the gameworld is filled with large, open areas to journey through; but said open areas are connected by linear, compact connecting pathways. Unlike titles such as Skyrim or The Witcher 3 where you can travel from locale to locale in any manner/path that you choose, KoA doesn’t provide that extent of freedom for exploration. As a result, you’ll be retreading the same ground quite often. However, this isn’t as terrible as it sounds since the game world’s art style and ambient soundtrack is the backdrop for your questing, and oh is it beautiful. Sure it’s nowhere near photo-realism, but it isn’t trying to be whatsoever. It works wondrously for the fantasy setting, and to be candid I love it. Of course while out in the wilds, however, you will eventually come across something or someone that wants to kill you mercilessly. There are plenty of weapons/magical abilities at your disposal to engage in some fun yet easy to grasp combat, but it is incredibly simplistic. Most of the time (if your main weapon is of the melee variety) you will just be mashing x/square until your enemy is no more. Unfortunately, this can turn frustrating as there is a rare occurrence where an attack will do no damage whatsoever, seemingly phasing through enemy combatants. This, combined with enemies constantly stun locking the player with every hit while being ganked, is abhorrent. After defeating your adversaries, most will drop gold, weapons/armor, or some other form of loot. This, unfortunately, leads to two extremely irritating issues I have with the title. First off, if you have an AI companion following you, they stick to you like glue and as a result you will be constantly entering dialogue with them while you’re just trying to grab a dang sword. Additionally, once you successfully loot said item, you’ll be lucky if you can even keep it. Although upgradeable, inventory space is very limited and will require constant management in the early game. Luckily, though, KoA runs smoothly despite all of these complaints; I have yet to experience even a single frame drop.

    Image Credit: Valve/Steam

    Glitches and Technical Issues

    There aren’t many bugs in KoA, as I’ve only been able to identify two thus far. The first, and mostly insignificant glitch of the pair, is some infrequent screen tearing. Throughout my near four hours played, I’ve only suffered through it twice. However, there are an immense amount of audio issues to the point where it’s egregious, and I’d argue almost completely busted. The following are the audio glitches I’ve already struggled through myself:

    • Dialogue with no sound
    • Dialogue with overtly loud sound
    • Dialogue in general is quiet compared to other audio for seemingly no reason
    • Dialogue can be heard from far away if a voice line has yet to be finished and the player leaves the area
    • Audio glitch upon game start-up where all sound is absurdly loud and staticky, genuinely hurting my ears momentarily

    Full Review Coming this Weekend

    Image Credit: Valve/Steam

  • Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Review

    Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Review

    Thank you to Activision for providing a review copy. (Reviewed on PS4 Pro)

    Introduction

    When I first launched Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 for the first time, I was near immediately launched into pure serenity. Seeing that title screen again set to that classic soundtrack, I already knew that this was going to be everything that I wanted it to be. Sure I may have been partially blinded by nostalgia, but that didn’t last long whatsoever. As I went through the tutorials to re-familiarize myself with the controls and then went on to play through the parks, I was met with an impeccable game. Of course I had to take playing all of the Tony Hawk games growing up into consideration in the interest of remaining objective, but even if I didn’t play said titles my opinion of this release would remain the same. THPS1+2 is a masterfully executed recreation of the two hit classics, and quite possibly the most faithful remake I’ve ever played.

    Credit: Tony Hawk Game

    Graphics and Visuals

    When I made my 2020 return to the iconic School in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, my jaw nearly dropped. While the graphics aren’t up to the level of the highest-budget triple A titles made today, they have no reason to be. Especially for a $40 title which contains two games from the PS2 era remade from the ground up, the graphics on display are beautiful. Just about everything has been improved visually in every way possible, you name it. Lighting, shadows, water effects, textures, frame rate, visual fidelity; the improvements are incredibly vast and just as numerous. Vicarious Visions clearly paid close attention to what made the originals stunning back in the day, and simply brought that back and greatly enhanced those aspects for the modern age.

    Credit: Tony Hawk Game

    Gameplay and Content

    I’ll start this section by letting the purists out there know that if you’ve played the originals, it’s nearly identical. To make it explicitly clear for any newcomers, however, that is an amazing thing and nowhere near being considered a con. The game/skating mechanics are solid and work near flawlessly majority of the time. Additionally, and as I mentioned previously, there are very intuitive tutorials as well to hone said mechanics and practice to your heart’s content. Whether you’re stuck on a park challenge or just need a quick refresher, the tutorials are genuinely useful. However, these mechanics mean nothing without using them to perform insane tricks, which I’m happy to report there are a massive amount of. It’s never been more fun to learn, master, and build custom creative combos out of the near countless amount of moves available. If you ever encounter any frustrating obstacles you just can’t seem to get past, however, Vicarious Visions has you covered for that as well with Game Mods. Game Mods are completely optional features toggled from a sub-menu on the main menu that make the game much easier for newcomers, and although I personally didn’t utilize them they are a welcome addition. For me, the challenge is a massive, necessary part of the experience. The feeling and drive the game instills of wanting to improve my ability and increase my high scores provides an immense amount of replay value; finally landing a trick or a crazy combo I was struggling to pull off is unbelievably satisfying. Speaking of replay value, though, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is filled to the absolute brim with it. There is a staggering amount of content: the nine parks from THPS1 along with the eight parks from THPS2 with all of their collective challenges beautifully remade, the endlessly replayable free skate mode, multiplayer modes to chill and skate with your friends, create a park which already has active creators, over seven-hundred career challenges to grind out across all modes, and a bunch of cosmetic customization options to boot. There are frankly a ton of customization options for your skater’s clothing and board, and that’s on top of the twenty-two pro skaters to play as along with the four custom “create your own” skater slots provided to you. All of said cosmetics are, thankfully, earned exclusively in-game through gameplay progression: no micro-transactions in sight! With everything this package has on offer, there will never be enough downtime to invoke boredom.

    Credit: Tony Hawk Game

    Glitches and Technical Issues

    Not all is perfect in paradise however, though to be fair it nearly is. In my time with Tony Haw’s Pro Skater 1+2, I experienced a few clipping issues with my skater’s character model but they were nothing major or remotely game-breaking. Additionally, at times my skater could feel a bit stiff to control as well, but the issue wasn’t consistent enough to be a large detraction. Furthermore, the controls would sometimes be unresponsive at moments when dealing with multiple rapid inputs which lead to frustration, however it wasn’t a common occurrence. Overall, these complaints are only minor and I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if they were patched in the future.

    Credit: Tony Hawk Game

    Conclusion

    Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is downright one of the best remakes I have ever played, if not the current best. The games still retained their identities after all these years and it is blatantly apparent, although given a significant visual upgrade. The gameplay is still as smooth and intuitive as it ever was, with near endless replay-ability to enjoy said gameplay however much you want. That’s on top of all of the customization options to unlock, so you always feel like you are constantly making progress. There are a few minor technical bugs, but they’re just that: minor and mostly insignificant. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is back in full force, and I sincerely hope Vicarious Visions is already planning their next installment for the revitalized franchise we all know and love.

    Score: 9/10

    Credit: Tony Hawk Game

  • Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: What We Want and What We Don’t

    Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: What We Want and What We Don’t

    The Call of Duty Black Ops series has been the subject of both critical acclaim and fan outrage in the past, leaving a track record that is inconsistent to say the least. It is generally agreed upon that the first Black Ops and its sequel, Black Ops 2, were the pinnacle releases of the series and that the following entries, numbers three and four, were, well, extremely lackluster. Some, like myself, would go as far as to say that they were just genuinely bad games; bearing very little resemblance to the Black Ops of yore and struggling to captivate audiences with changes no one asked for while stumbling every step of the way (ex. far future setting, BO3’s story using ‘it was all a dream’ cop out, BO4 not even having a campaign, Overwatch hero-like operators and abilities, etc.). Suffice to say, what Black Ops was praised for from 2010-2012 had seemingly disappeared indefinitely from the series. However, that may have all changed on August 26th of this year, when Treyarch revealed their next iteration of the Black Ops franchise: Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. With what appears to be a return to form for the series, this direct sequel to Black Ops 1 is looking to bring back the players from that golden age. A grand comeback is not certain, though, as there are many concerns being circulated about this title and Treyarch’s uneven track record. There are a lot of mechanics and elements that should be reintroduced with this entry, and just as many that should be left behind and forgotten; if not more so.

    Want: A Compelling Story that holds no punches

    Many were taken aback with the “gritty realism” that the recently rebooted Modern Warfare displayed, including many “critics”, but to be honest it was pretty tame with all things considered. Anything that was incredibly graphic was censored, and what was supposed to be shocking was relatively weak compared to the brutality of Black Ops 1’s torture, napalm, and communist slaughter filled escapade throughout Cuba, Vietnam, and the U.S.S.R. With Black Ops Cold War, I’d like to see a strong continuation of that, if not an increased amount of staggering moments. With choices altering the story and multiple endings confirmed, it seems that there may be some thin lines you can choose to cross in BOCW; a hopeful sign for veteran Black Ops players everywhere. Treyarch, this isn’t rated E for Everyone, so don’t hold back. The Cold War was brutal, so make it brutal. Know your history, show us what you got.

    Don’t Want: A Flat Protagonist

    In Black Ops Cold War’s campaign, the player will be creating their own main protagonist to fight alongside series icons such as Sgt. Frank Woods, Cpt. Alex Mason, and their C.I.A handler Jason Hudson. This might appeal to some who’d wish to further immerse themselves in the shoes of their player character, but it could very well lead to narrative problems as well. Without a solid lead character, such as Alex Mason in BO1 and his son David and BO2, I fear we may not receive the same caliber of storytelling. Playing as and getting to know these characters created a strong bond between the COD community and the Masons, and continuing the story as someone new might be off-putting. Especially considering that the main protagonist may not even have a name (like in BO3 when you were just called ‘player’, real creative Treyarch), I don’t see how I’ll be able to relate to them. Additionally, if said created protagonist wasn’t to be voiced, that would be another massive step backwards as well, as both Alex and David provided extensive, informative narrative commentary while fighting/playing as them. This is a massive gamble, Treyarch, and I hope it pays off. Please don’t botch it, make it memorable in a positive way (unlike the entirety of BO3’s disjointed mess of a campaign).

    Want: Dolphin Dive over Slide

    This is a minor detail in the grand scheme but I feel it’s worth mentioning. Please bring the Dolphin Dive back to Black Ops, every other FPS nowadays already has sliding ;its generic and overused beyond belief (also, newsflash, you shouldn’t be able to slide all over the place like a salamander with full kit! This isn’t Titanfall). Plus, dolphin diving is just more fun in my opinion and isn’t as easy to abuse in MP as sliding. Bring us back to the good old days.

    Don’t Want: Overly complicated Zombies

    Now I may be in the minority on this, but I feel that BO2 had struck the perfect balance between easter-egg lore hunting and classic wave-based survival fun. With, BO3 and subsequently BO4, however, the former firmly overtook the latter. With a massive amount of new mechanics introduced with each new release and map within them, the simplicity of zombies was muddied and lost. Yes, of course I want easter-eggs and of course I don’t want them to be easy to achieve. However, the entirety of the mode should not focus on that one singular aspect. What made zombies successful in the first place in WAW was incredibly fun, wave-based survival with your friends. There were no easter-eggs, and they weren’t needed. It was just good fun. As I said previously, though, BO2 took that fun and didn’t lose a bit of it, while also having an intriguing storyline and vaguely complicated easter-eggs to boot. Regain that balance, Treyarch, and zombies will return as the titan it once was.

    Want: The Definitive Story of Viktor Reznov

    What happened to Tricky Vik? Did he die in Vorkuta, like Hudson claims to Mason in ‘Revelations’ of BO1? Sure, all the signs would seemingly point in that direction. But Treyarch has a habit of being cheeky, and that was made very apparent by the ending of the BO2 mission ‘Old Wounds’. If you recall, the US and Chinese forces were betrayed and left to die by the Mujaheddin after the interrogation and subsequent execution of Kravchenko. Mason and his allies were buried up to their heads in the dunes of Afghanistan, with no rescue expected. But who comes and pulls Mason free, riding gallantly on horseback? Captain Viktor Reznov. If it were truly him, it would make sense for him to be there, considering Kravchenko was his only betrayer left breathing and he would want his revenge completed. Whatever the truth may be, I need to know it. It’s been eight years Treyarch and the question must be answered: what really happened to Viktor Reznov?

    Don’t Want: Revisionist History

    Treyarch, you claim for us to know our history, but do you even know the facts for yourself? My confidence in you was bolstered by playing clips of the extremely wise Yuri Bezmenov in your trailer, a Soviet defector who shined a light on many of their unsavory deeds and tactics, mainly subversion. This made me start to believe a historically accurate campaign was all but assured, one that would show just how evil the U.S.S.R was along with the devastation and millions of deaths Communism brings every time it’s put into place. However, my faith has been shaken a great deal because you cowardly censored the trailer to appease China and the CCP. You cut out footage of Tienanmen Square, and for what? To sell more copies? Mao’s China killed a minimum of eighty million people during his reign, with who knows how many after. Their government today is actively stripping the liberties of Hong Kong and committing a genocide against the Uighur Muslims, yet you continue to appease them and their ludicrous demands. Tienanmen Square happened, deal with it. To tell us to know our history yet already censor crucial historical footage before the trailer is even out for a week is pathetic. Maybe it’s Activision, maybe it’s Treyarch, maybe it’s both. Regardless, whoever is responsible should prioritize morals over profit for once and grow a backbone. If this is the kind of antics they’re pulling before the game is even out, how do we know that the campaign won’t be riddled with revisionist history? I don’t necessarily mind if you take a light liberty with historical fact here or there for the sake of a dramatic narrative, but don’t try to deceive your player-base by pretending major historical events didn’t happen or lie about anything else of that magnitude. You managed to achieve that in BO1 and BO2, and I’m sincerely hoping that will continue to be the case with Cold War. In fact, I imagine it will, but censoring just the trailer to appease communist Chinese censors is deeply concerning.

  • Madden 21 Review

    Madden 21 Review

    Thank you to Electronic Arts for providing the early review copy.

    Earlier in the week, I posted my first impressions on Madden 21. For the most part, things were mixed. It had the enjoyable game play that you know and love from Madden but there wasn’t much innovation from previous games and there were a few bugs. I stayed fairly light on my first impressions article, so today I will be going into much deeper detail on the strengths and weaknesses of Madden 21.

    Game Modes:

    The Yard is Madden’s newest game mode which introduces 6v6 backyard style football. The Yard is a ton of fun. My first couple games on The Yard took place at F.O.B Field and I had no problems there. It is completely what you would expect from backyard football. It is fast paced, trick plays are common and most rules go completely out the window. However, the mode broke on me after I unlocked the second field. Players went invisible and the ball couldn’t be hiked. You can see what I mean in the video below. Thankfully, this bug was quickly patched as noted in the most recent patch notes.

    But seriously, The Yard is a ton of fun. I haven’t even gotten the opportunity to play it with my friends but here is a taste of what I was able to do with the AI teammates.

    Face of The Franchise: Rise to Fame starts out with a ton of a promise but its quality unfortunately fades as the game continues. High School and College play out similar to how all of Longshot did in Madden 18 and 19 but things change after that. I am going to show a video of how conversations are handled earlier on in the game in case you never played Longshot. After that I will have another video showing how conversations are handled once you are drafted. It is clear that they had to decide whether they wanted to give you the option to pick any team in the NFL or force you to play for a set team which would stick to a more cookie cutter story. Having coaches and players for every NFL team record dialogue would be very expensive and time consuming. Unfortunately, the switch from voiced characters to text boxes takes some time to get used to. You do have your character narrating your journey but it isn’t enough in my opinion. I really wish they forced you onto a set team similar to Longshot because the story is not worth caring about once you join the NFL.

    On top of this, the story isn’t that great prior to the NFL Draft. The writing choices for what happens on signing day is unrealistic and it just feel odd. The story also doesn’t adapt to how you perform in the actual games. For example, in my first college game, our offense scored 70 points but then the coach says that he can’t decide on who the starter should be and that they will run a two QB offense which will be dependent on the opponent. In the very next scene, Rich Eisen mocks the QB situation saying that neither one is good enough considering the fact that the coach can’t make a decision between them. However, playing in a USC uniform felt really nice. It is a great reminder that we all want NCAA to return back into the world of video games. As I said earlier, the quality really drops once you get drafted. I got selected by the Chicago Bears and had my first chance to start in a NFL game after Mitchell Trubisky got injured. I ended up winning and went to a press conference scene where I answered some basic questions (with no voiced dialogue besides a narration). At the end, they asked me which player I thought was more valuable to the team. My options were Allen Robinson (who was the player I selected to be my mentor) and Khalil Mack. In 2019, Allen Robinson had close to 100 catches and over 1000 yards but anyone who follows football knows how much of a monster Khalil Mack is. So obviously I selected Khalil Mack. Instantly after that press conference, I got a notification saying that Allen Robinson has been traded away because management agreed that Khalil Mack was more valuable. A fourth round rookie who just finished playing his first game accidentally convinced his team to trade away their best receiver because he said that one of the best players in the league was more valuable than a top 15 receiver. Allen Robinson then texts you getting mad at you, like your character said something wrong. Look at their contracts and tell me who is more valuable. After your second game, a sports commentator mocks you by saying that your character isn’t playing as well as a certain other character that I won’t name for spoiler reasons. This scene just doesn’t make any sense in my play through considering both games were that I played in were blow out wins. The only way this can have some logic is if the other player had an MVP caliber season (trust me, he didn’t). In my second season of the NFL, Allen Robinson reaches out to our character on social media saying that he would love to be able to play with us one day. We get the option to pick between two players and he ends up back on our team the next day. Allen Robinson proceeds to ask for help learning the playbook saying that he is struggling learning all the new plays even though he knew them all under a year ago. Its obvious that Madden isn’t able to detect that he was on the team. I know some people disliked Longshot because they felt like their wasn’t enough weight to your actions but I would prefer a fleshed out story that makes sense rather then what we got here.

    Franchise, Superstar Knock Out, and Ultimate Team don’t have any major changes unfortunately. Electronic Arts came out and recently said that Madden 21 post launch and Madden 22 will have a lot of new stuff for franchise after fans were outraged (as they should be) over the lack of new content between previous entries of Madden. Ultimate Team has ability caps, which adds a new layer of customization to your team. Superstar Knock Out plays similar to how it did in Madden 20 and is a lot of fun.

    Graphics:

    You can judge for your self based off the videos on this post, but I didn’t see any major enhancements over Madden 20. I am curious as to how the next-generation upgrades will look. If you want to read about how to get the next-generation version for free, click here.

    Gameplay:

    Game play in the normal modes feel slightly slower then Madden 20 and I like that. There are some updates to Skill Stick which adds another level to the game play. The new skill stick allows for more fluid movement when you are in the open field. Pass rushers now have a budget of how many moves can be performed before running out of stamina. The changes to pass rushing will definitely take some time to get used to but it is a much better system compared to the button smashing that we are all used to. Tackling and the AI have both also seen solid improvements according to the change log. Unfortunately, it is pretty hard for me to tell how much better the tackling has been since it has been some time since I have played Madden 20.

    Bugs:

    I unfortunately ran into my fair share of bugs and technical issues but I was playing on an early build of the game and most of the issues have been fixed. 2020 has been a crazy year for developers with everyone having to work from home, so some issues are expected.

    My biggest issue was the bug on The Yard that caused players to become invisible but that was patched during the 8/25 update as mentioned earlier. I had choppy FPS (frames per second) during Face of the Franchise on the home high school field. However, this issue went away once I got to the State Championship game. My screen froze after completing my first Face of the Franchise NFL game. I still heard music but I had to restart my game to continue playing. There was also a text bug that can be seen in the photo that I posted above containing Allen Robinson.

    Audio:

    The soundtrack and the in-game audio from on the field is great. Unfortunately, everything about the audio isn’t perfect. There is one glaring issue that hasn’t been addressed. The announcers are dreadful. I have no problems with Brandon Gaudin or Charles Davis. It is just the amount of stuff they say that shouldn’t be said during a game. I understand this is a minor issue but it is still something that needs to be discussed. In an exhibition preseason game, I was up around 40 points. I threw another touchdown with minutes left in the final quarter and the announcer says something along the lines of how he hates to say it but that he thinks that the touchdown will just about end things. It was very obvious that a third string quarterback was not about to score over 40 points in the final two minutes of a preseason game. Early in my Face of the Franchise play through, I already had scored two touchdowns in a high school game. During the 4th quarter, I completed a screen pass that went for a first down and the announcer said “QB2 erupts for his first big play of the game. He decided to run and picked up the first down.” In a later game, I threw a ten yard slant that got broken up. The announcer goes “He tried to go long on first down but all it results in is a long walk back to the huddle.” The final thing I wrote about in my notes about the announcers was the fact that at one point, they reacted negatively to my QB kneeling with a minute left in the game. For some reason, they saw it as a run for negative one yards and congratulated the defense rather than seeing it as a game clinching play. I understand that these are very minor things that you hear while playing, think about for a few seconds, and then continue playing but someone still needs to talk about it. This has been one of my pet peeves with Madden for years and the AI really needs to be updated for the announcers.

    Final Thoughts:

    In the grand scheme of everything, this is a Madden game. For fans of the series who love playing online, there is nothing here that should convince you not to buy this game. If you know you are going to play it all year long, go buy yourself a copy because the game is a lot of fun. If you are someone who only likes to play franchise, I would recommend waiting for a sale or just waiting for Madden 22 because there aren’t really any changes in that department. If you just want to play some football to scratch that itch and know you will stop playing after a month or two, I defiantly recommend checking out EA Play Pro. You are essentially renting Madden 21 (and a ton of other great games). Madden 21 isn’t a step down from Madden 20 but with The Yard being the only new bright spot, it isn’t really enough to push the score to anything higher then what it was during previous years.

    Final Score: 6/10

  • Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Beta Date Leaked

    Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Beta Date Leaked

    Update 2: We have published what we want and don’t want to see in Cold War. Click HERE to give it a read and to share your own opinions.

    Update: In case you missed it, click HERE to see game play of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War that leaked about a month ago.

    Yesterday, we finally got the reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War which will be a direct sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops. At the end of the trailer, it was revealed that the game would be releasing on November 13th for the current generation systems and at a later date for the next generation consoles. On top of that, the beta was announced as a timed exclusive to PlayStation (something we are familiar with). The only detail that was missing was when the beta would be happening.

    During previous years, the beta would take place during August/September but we knew things were going to be different this year considering how long Activision took to announce the game. Fortunately for us, it appears Activision has slipped up and leaked the date early.

    Thanks to CODTracker, we now know that the beta will be coming to PlayStation users on October 8th. Activision messed up by having this text show up on the Arabic version of the Modern Warfare store.

  • Madden 21 First Impressions

    Madden 21 First Impressions

    Thank you to Electronic Arts for providing the early review copy.

    As a huge National Football League fan, I was really hoping that this years Madden would be as good as possible since so much about the regular season is still up in the air. Please note that my final scored review where I will be able to go more in detail will be posted on Friday, August 28th at 12:01 AM ET when the embargo lifts.

    Game Modes:

    The Yard is Madden’s newest game mode which introduces 6v6 backyard style football. The Yard is a ton of fun…when it is working. Obviously keep in mind that I am playing on an early access version of the game, so there is a good chance that this and any other bugs that I mention will be patched by the time you start playing. My first couple games on The Yard took place at F.O.B Field and I had no problems there. It is completely what you would expect from backyard football. It is fast paced, trick plays are common and most rules go completely out the window. However, the mode broke on me after I unlocked the second field. Players went invisible and the ball couldn’t be hiked. You can see what I mean in the video below.

    Face of The Franchise: Rise to Fame starts out with a ton of a promise but its quality fades as the game continues. High School and College play out similar to how all of Longshot did in Madden 18 and 19. I am going to show a video of how conversations are handled earlier on in the game in case you never played Longshot. After that I will have another video showing how conversations are handled once you are drafted. I am only on the first year in the NFL on it, so hopefully it improves as I continue playing but I honestly doubt it will. I understand why they did it this way but I wish they didn’t. I will have a deep dive into the positives and negatives of Face of The Franchise: Rise to Fame in my full review.

    Franchise, Superstar Knock Out, and Ultimate Team don’t have any major changes unfortunately. Electronic Arts came out and recently said that Madden 21 post launch and Madden 22 will have a lot of new stuff for franchise after fans were outraged (as they should be) over the lack of new content between previous entries of Madden. Ultimate Team has ability caps, which adds a new layer of customization to your team. Superstar Knock Out plays similar to how it did in Madden 20 and is a lot of fun.

    Graphics:

    You can judge for your self based off the videos on this post, but I didn’t see any major enhancements. I am curious as to how the next-generation upgrades will look. If you want to read about how to get the next-generation version for free, click here.

    Gameplay:

    Gameplay in the normal modes feel slightly slower then Madden 20 and I like that. There are some updates to Skill Stick which I will talk about more in the full review. The changes to pass rushing will defiantly take some time to get used to but it is a much better system compared to button smashing. Tackling and the AI have both also seen solid improvements.

    Bugs:

    I unfortunately ran into my fair share of bugs and technical issues. As I mentioned earlier, there is a pretty good chance that these will be patched out by the time you play it, so I wouldn’t reach to much into it. On top of that, 2020 has been a crazy year for developers with everyone having to work from home.

    I will go more in detail about the bugs I ran into in my full review but in the two days that I have been playing, I have ran into four bugs. The only major bug was the one that took place during The Yard which I talked about earlier.

    Audio:

    The soundtrack and the in-game audio from the field is great. Unfortunately, everything about the audio isn’t perfect. There is one glaring issue that hasn’t been addressed. The announcers are dreadful. I have no problems with Brandon Gaudin or Charles Davis. It is just the amount of stuff they say that shouldn’t be said during a game. I will dive deeper into this in my full review but an announcer calling a completion a rushing attempt breaks the immersion.

    Overall First Impressions

    It is Madden. If you liked the previous games, you are going to enjoy this one. If you disliked the previous games, there probably isn’t anything here that is going to convince you to change your opinion.

  • Mortal Shell: First Impressions

    Mortal Shell: First Impressions

    Thank you to Cold Symmetry and Playstack for providing an early access copy.

    Mortal Shell is a new souls-like title that recently just released this past week on the 18th of August. Unfortunately due to technical issues out of my control (issues not caused by the game of discussion), I haven’t been able to play much of it at all. Because of this and in the interest of fairness, I won’t be penning a full review, more so my initial impressions of what the game has on offer. However, the short period of time I’ve spent with Mortal Shell can be accurately summarized with two words: grossly incandescent.

    Credit: Mortal Shell Game

    Mortal Shell, in my opinion, shines greater and brighter than all the previous Souls-like games I’ve played that haven’t been directly developed by FromSoftware themselves. I believe this is because of the clear love for Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls that the developers have proudly expressed, along with it being blatantly apparent inside the game itself. The dark and dreary atmosphere, the cryptic lore dished out through incredibly well-acted NPC’s and item descriptions, the heavy and weighted combat; everything, even down to the minutest detail such as loading screens, screams “Souls!”. Imitation in this manner is not to be frowned upon, since when done with this level of respect for the source material it is the most sincere form of flattery. However, Mortal Shell is very much its own game with unique concepts not present in Soulsborne. The main aspect of the game which separates it from the rest of the pack would have to be the shell and harden systems. Instead of wearing and swapping armor sets, your character possesses the shells of long-deceased warriors that they stumble across during their journey. These different shells have distinct characteristics that allow for multiple styles of play, along with altering the player’s appearance. With all of these shells, however, you are granted the ability to harden. When activated, this will negate the damage of the next attack you are struck with as long as you maintain the stationary stance. Although, if timed properly, this can also stagger an enemy and open them up for a good ol’ stab. Managing this mechanic and using it to your advantage in combat is fun and often rewarding, catapulting Mortal Shell into a category above prior Souls-likes who failed to innovate in a similar fashion.

    Credit: Mortal Shell Game

    While I haven’t spent much time with Mortal Shell, that won’t stop me whatsoever from recommending it. For $30, you get a visually stunning game for the price along with gameplay that has effectively set the new standard for future Souls-like titles. I can’t wait to jump back into my PC playthrough, and I am anxiously anticipating the physical release for the title as well on October 2nd to being my platinum trophy journey. But, until then, stick around TGP for everything Soulsborne and Souls-like alike.

    Credit: Mortal Shell Game
  • EA Access/Play Coming to Game Pass

    EA Access/Play Coming to Game Pass

    Time for a good ole conspiracy theory.

    Earlier in the week, insider Jeff Grubb started teasing that there would be another big reason to get game pass coming soon. I, of course, had to respond to him asking if Cyberpunk 2077 was coming to game pass (I know CD Projekt Red said it wasn’t like two months ago) and he responded saying it wouldn’t be a game.

    Now he tweeted the following:

    Someone responded with the following:

    Ready = ea

    Play = play

    Combined = EA PLAY

    Normally, I would say this is a major reach but Jeff Grubb and Timdog (the person who started the thread saying news is coming soon) both liked the tweet. On top of this, Jeff was a guest on the podcast SpawnWave and confirmed that these were his expectations.

    We know Xbox and EA have always had a pretty solid relationship. Xbox and EA gave a free month of EA Access (Now EA Play) to all Game Pass Ultimate users back in November. Considering the fact that EA Play is only $30 for a year so I feel like it could be fit into Game Pass Ultimate. EA would benefit from this by getting financial compensation from Microsoft as well as gaining additional subscribers for EA Play Pro which is the higher tier version that gives access to their AAA games on launch day.