Wolfenstein: The New Order Review

Wolfenstein The New Order
Developer: Machine Games
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platform: Playstation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC via Steam, Playstation3, Xbox 360
U.S. Release Date: May 20, 2014

Unfortunately the world we live in right now has become rife with a resurgence of KKK, Neo-Nazis, and Patriot Extremist groups that are utilizing similar tactics that the Third Reich did back in the 1930's.  And while I'm sure all of us can agree that these people are universally bad/hated/unwanted we also probably don't know how to handle them because of some of the overwhelming "are you serious" attitudes on social media nowadays.  Well I find it rather ironic that I started to replay though the new Wolfenstein game this summer only for something like Charlottesville to happen only a couple weeks after I was taking my slow progression through it.

But, I don't really want to dive down into the rabbit hole that is above (plus I'll be talking about the reaction on social media to the ad campaign of New Colossus in a future rantology), so I really want to start getting into the meat and potatoes here.  Wolfenstein The New Order is a brutal re imagining of the classic Wolfenstein series in a few bold new ways.  Everything you love about the old games is back, but with the added love and affection of glorious 2014 updated graphics, special kill sequences for melee attacks, and of course Nazis in space.  While the looks and action in this may be a far cry from older Wolfenstein games, the Nazi killing message certainly isn't.  The Nazis are back, and this time BJ Blazkowicz is even more pissed of than before.  Oh, and before we get too far into this thing I want to go ahead and toss in this just for good measure.

******************************SPOILER WARNING *********************************

So, the game starts off in 1946, taking place 3 years after the events of 2009's release.  The Nazi war machine has been developing new technologies with the help of General Deathshead, and they have managed to start to push back against allied forces.  So in steps BJ fucking Blazkowicz, the most badass soldier to ever rip a Nazis face off, and you guessed it, he's still fucking pissed.  During the attack on Deathsheads castle base BJ is mortally wounded when he narrowly escapes an encounter with Deathshead with only one of his fellow soldiers in tow (either Fergus Reid or Private Probst Wyatt III).  His allies are unable to find his body and he ends up in a Nazi run mental institution under the care of Anya Oliwa and her parents.  After nearly 20 years in a vegetative state Blazkowicz is able to get up and start kicking some Nazi teeth in when they come to shut things down.

After capturing an officer and escaping with Anya to her grandparents house they interrogate the officer and BJ discovers his worst fear: the rest of the world has given up and is now under Nazi control.  Angered he hatches a plan to liberate defectors and start his ass kicking campaign all over again.  After releasing the ally you saved Blazkowicz learns of a resistance underneath central Nazi command in Berlin run by Caroline Becker who hatches a plan to steal some stealth choppers and Nazi intel to put them in their place.  During the process Blazkowicz discovers a secret organization known as Da'at Yichud and a scientist known as Set Roth who is being held in a labor camp.  Blazkowicz infiltrates the camp, kills some fucking Naizs, and ruins some ancient Nazi bitches face by crushing it with a giant robot that Roth was forced to create.

After his liberation Roth agrees to give some of Da'at Yichud tech to the resistance to even the tides of war, but they need a U-Boat to operate it, and as it just so happens the U-Boat that Blazkowicz jacks is the flag ship of the entire Nazi U-Boat fleet. Why you ask? BECAUSE HE'S A FUCKING BADASS THAT'S WHY.  Anyrate, this motherfucker isn't just a nuclear sub, no, nothing of the sort.  It's a nuclear sub with a fucking nuclear artillery gun on it, but the problem is they need the codes to launch it, which are on the moon.  So they hit the supply cache and grab a weapon known as the Spindly Torque, or what I call The-Badass-Ball-of-Death-and-Destruction because it is literally that, and set off to get some codes.  On the moon Blazkowicz airlocks some fucking Nazis and shoves a dick down their collective throats, but when he gets back he discovers that Deathshead tries to do some fucking of his own by attacking the resistance base, however this predictably back fires when he kidnaps Anya serving to only piss off Blazkowicz even further.

The end game sequence starts with one pissed off commando, in a gun loaded with one Baddass-Ball-of-Death-and-Destruction, aimed at Deathshead's castle. Over the course of his rampage he lays waste to dozens upon dozens of Nazi.  After reaching Deathshead you're forced to fight one of his newest creations: a robot with your allies brain in it, who you eventually kill at their request.  Finally Deathshead comes to die, in a giant robot, it's a good fight.  Really that's the story, this is one of the better story based FPS games I've played recently and I can say I'm excite for the second one.

*********************************END SPOILERS**********************************

While the game doesn't offer multiplayer (a fact that I personally find very refreshing and enjoyable), it doesn't suffer from a lack of replay ability and content.  From different difficulty modes, to collectibles, to even the original Wolfenstein being in game there is plenty to keep even a seasoned player occupied through the game.  Plus Nazi killing, who doesn't love that?

While I may not have much more to offer than a plot summary and to describe how much I love this game I will say that overall it is simplistic, with lots to do and keep you occupied, also multiple playthroughs will be required along with getting used to dying in some circumstances because you need to learn and adjust to your surroundings, especially on the higher difficulties.  I highly enjoyed it and look forward to the release of New Colossus.  I give Wolfenstein: The New Order 8 severed Nazi scalps, out of 10.

Ghost Recon Wildlands Review

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands
Developer: Ubisoft Paris
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: Playstation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC via Steam
U.S. Release Date: March 7, 2017

Oh what a brave new world this is.  Once upon a Tom Clancy game was nothing more than a name slapped on an overly ambitious video game to garnish a higher number of sales by associating with a famous author.  Now that isn't to say that the games are inherently bad, but let's just say that history hasn't been overly kind to them either.  The series is as marred with shovelware CoD simulators as much as any other as large as it has been with some series getting a new title with as little as a year between them, but that doesn't preclude them from having a few good fully formed turds every once in a while.

While Wildlands may be a polished turd we still need to remind ourselves that at its core is is just that: a turd.  The controls are anything but smooth and honestly it took some serious patching to solidify how helicopters fly (honestly now after 6 months post release do they FINALLY feel flyable without much trouble). But that's not really how I want to focus this review.  Yes, the game has issues, be aware that it controls like a drunk brick, that the menu is unintuitive, that the map is more clustered than someone's gonorrhea splattered genitals, and that honestly the way leveling works really makes me want to throw someone off a cliff.  Be aware of all that, because it is important.

I feel like bothering spoiler tags for this game and this review would be doing it a disservice because the story is so fragmented and all over the place (literally the map is a bunch of different provinces, each with their own story that wraps back into the big one in small little ways) that I'd never be able to fully describe it, so I'll give you the ass wiping version of it and call it good.  More or less the game takes place in Bolivia where a Mexican drug cartel called Santa Blanca and their leader El Sueno (Spanish for The Sueno) has come in to take over the local coca fields and make some sick ass fucking cocaine man.  Now obviously this is a bad thing and the CIA sent in an agent to get the skinny on them before sending in the ghosts to take them out.  Well shit went sideways, he got killed, and an embassy was blown up, so no its time to take this cartel down for good.  You're team (Nomad) is an elite group of special agents called ghosts.  You have to go through and destabilize the cartel operations in order to get to El Sueno.  There also a rebel faction who are freedom fighters for Bolivia too so they throw in their best for you too.

Throughout the game you have to complete a series of provinces to destabilize the cartel and their operations with influence, smuggling, production, and security.  The base game offers 21 of these provinces, and each province is held by a boss or buchon.  In each province you must perform different tasks to lure the buchon out of hiding and either kill or capture them.  These tasks can be airing out their dirty laundry (not literally), destroying coca fields, blowing up stockpiles, or my personal favorite, killing bad guys.  No really, despite the shitty controls the gun play in the game is incredibly fun because you can mark targets for the AI to automatically kill, and you can mark up to 3 at a time.  It's kind of insane.

As I mentioned the gun play is excellent especially with how they give you a different set of options to mix it up with when you're playing with different approaches.  For example I constantly found myself in the eternal debate on whether to parachute into a base, ram through the gates with a truck loaded with C4, take out the guards and stealth in, or guns blazing in a Humvee with a minigun on it.  The awesome thing is that for the most part, the choice is yours everytime.  There's a handful of situations that require the use of stealth, but outside of that go wild, do what you gotta do, and by all means make the cartel suffer.

I doubt it would surprise anyone that turds are offensive to people, and this one is no different.  The entire country of Bolivia was so pissed off that Ubisoft left this nice plopper on their lawn that they actually filed a suite against Ubisoft Paris for "misrepresenting their country", and while I can totally agree with their claim, it is a bit silly.  But, in Ubisofts defense they did use Bolivia as a backdrop for their claim of "[Bolivia's] beautiful vistas, wholesome culture, and lively people" which actually does shine through in the game, and has turned Bolivia into somewhere I have actually added to my top places to visit since this game came out (though I'll fully admit to a desire to do more research before I go).  So whatever the hell Ubisoft did, it worked on me.

The largest overall complaint I have is how unintuitive and hard to use the map and mission selector are.  Some games have really well made UI's but this on is just kinda like here's this really detailed map, and then here's literally all this shit you can do, sort it out, oh and zooming out doesn't help because you never get a summary of activities for a region, just who the boss is and your progress on getting them, and beyond that is a cartel overview. Additionally there are no indicators of what collectibles are underground or above ground so you can spend quite a bit a time searching for one specific item if you don't already know where it's at (I actually spent around 30 minutes trying to get an item that ended up being underground which I never really got because I couldn't find a way down).  Really even if it's just on the mini map this is the kinda shit that needs to be marked or indicated in some way, shape, or form as it caused me a large headache.

Finally the last little bit I want to touch on is DJ Perico, the in game radio host who works as a propaganda agent for the cartel.  He quite enigmatic, fun, funny, and one of the most real characters in a game I've ever met in a while.  He only plays a small role as a buchon in the story, but due to his status as a radio personality he's all over the place in this game.  Really he adds a lot to live up to here, and makes the driving portions a lot more bearable as you get some genuinely funny dialog along the way.

While Wildlands is a turd, it's a fun turd, the kind you play and enjoy your time with despite all the glaring flaws that the game has.  I actually once referred to this game as my guilty pleasure, because to some the idea of fun (which I've talked about before) is so foreign and almost damning that the true purpose of games is all but lost on them.  Though all of that I'd like everyone to remember that.  MY final verdict comes down to seven wet squirts out of ten, I do want to add a turdsterisk to it and say that it's a fun experience even if you don't play it through to completion.

Destiny 2 Review

Destiny 2
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision
Platform: Playstation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC via Battle.Net
U.S. Release Date: September 6, 2017 (PS4, XB1), October 24, 2017 (PC)

By now I have been an overly content owner of a Playstation 4 for a little over 3 years.  My first PS4 was the white Destiny Limited Edition console back in 2014, and this was something I of course lined up at midnight to get, ripped open, and stayed up all night playing.  I was hooked.  I beat the game that day, ran strikes till I was blue in the face, and just kept on going and going until I passed out around 1 am on the 11th.  Destiny has been a game that I have kept near and dear to my heart, not only because it was my first game on the platform, or my first Platinum trophy, but because the world that Bungie had so carefully crafted (even if it was locked behind the grimoire not in game) was something that I fell in love with and wanted every part of.  I was in love, and still am.  So naturally I bucked up, dropped the insane $250 for the Collector's Edition, and lets just say that it is possible to fall in love twice.

So, this entire thing is going to be riddled with spoilers.  Like a ridiculous amount of spoilers, especially considering I'm not even going to bother to post this until after I finish the raid (a little over a week post release).  Does that mean you should stop reading?  I'm not going to tell you not to, but there is a lot of spoilers, and later I'm going to throw on my spinfoil hat and talk about a few theories I have.  Sooooooooo, here we go:

******************************SPOILER WARNING *********************************

For anyone who played the open beta over summer, you'd know very well the setup to the game: Ghaul, a renegade Cabal badass, is here to take the light for himself.  Now, we've dealt with some pretty serious threats before such as Atheon, Time's Confulx, in the Vault of Glass, Crota and Oryx, literal gods of the Hive, Skolas, the Kell of Wolves who sought to reunite the Fallen houses, and even SIVA, the nanotechnology that was the undoing of the legendary Lords of Iron who were the first to bring order to humanity after The Collapse.  But none of those before hand have even come close to accomplishing what Ghaul did.

The opening scene shows Cayde-6 entering into the Vanguards outpost in the Tower, supposedly returning from slacking off somewhere, only to be greeted by Ikora and Zavala indicating that the perimeter seems to have been breached and the sensors are not responding.  And then the Cabal invaded.  Ghaul and his Red Legion seemingly sweep over the city like a plague that we guardians can barely stop as a massive six armed ship approaches the Traveler with his fleet laying waste to the City.  In the meantime, Ghost and our guardian are on our way back from a patrol mission when we are unable to raise the Tower to report in. We arrive to a partially destroyed Tower, where the Vanguard, Shaxx, and Holiday are mounting rescue operations for the citizens who are still alive.  We meet up with Cayde and Shaxx who help us press onwards toward Zavala, who is guarding against the onslaught, and Ikora, who is desperately searching for the Speaker.  When Ikora discovers her failure, she shows us why she is the Warlock Vanguard and proceeds to wreak havoc across the battlefield while you head to meet Holiday for a ride to Ghauls ship to cut off the head of their assault.

Arriving on the ship, in spectacular style I might add, you are tasked with disabling the shields to allow for a bombardment, however things do not go as planned as the Cabal are able to overcome the City's defenses and you are one of the only ones left in the fray.  Intercepted by Ghaul, he reveals his plan of entombing the Traveler to steals its light and cut it off from the Guardians, while spartan kicking you off his ship a la 300 style.  Naturally things don't go his way as you survive.  Desperate to make it to safety you recover Ghost, escape the city and are followed by a Hawk you glimpsed in a vision during your fall (predicting many things, including the enemy of the Traveler) that leads you to safety.  During your journey you come across a human by the name of Hawwthorne, a non-Guardian who lives outside of the city and was relatively unaffected by the attack, she is setting up a gathering point in Europe by the broken shard of the Traveler, her goal not to retake the City, but to build a safe haven that is defensible in case the Cabal come looking.  Helping her to set up her network and draw in other survivors you learn that Zavala is rallying the surviving Guardians on Titan to mount a counterattack, and while Hawthorne is hesitant, she agrees that this is your decision and you must do what you believe in.

Once landing upon Titan you discover the Hive have found their way there as well, and are attempting to summon Oryx's sister Savathun, as well to the system.  So naturally you get to work to foil their plans, and set up the moon for staging operations once again.  Though even with the power online, and some secret Cabal messages decrypted you're not out of the woodwork yet as the Cabal have a super weapon pointed at the sun ready to blow the galaxy apart should their plan fail.  Zavala calls on you to go to Nesus and rescue Cayde and find Ikora.  Arriving on Nesus you find Cayde stuck in a Vex teleportation loop, with a crashed colony ship AI, Failsafe, watching with pleasure as he struggles.He tells you to retrieve the teleporter he was working on, as he feels it will be necessary to get to Ghaul, despite the super weapon.  After some convincing he tells you Ikora is on Io, the last place the Traveler touched, where she frequently meditates.  On Io you discover a way to destabalize the super weapon with the help of a broken down Warmind (given the designation Jys, a possible reference to Charlemanges sword Joyeuse).

With the Vanguard at your back you return to Earth to formulate a plan of attack.  You need to slip up to the weapon, disable it, and escape before the Vanguard launch their assault to take out Ghaul in the city.  Hawthore tells them of a way inside and battle plans are drawn up which include you stealing a high ranking Cabal officers personal vessel, but like everything else that involves Cayde, the plan goes awry and it is up to you to square off against Ghaul in the end.  He is able to seize the power of the light and a fierce battle ensues, ending in Ghaul becoming a massive creature made of light and calling himself a new god.  But just in the nick of time the Traveler wakes up and shows Ghaul whose boss.

*********************************END SPOILERS**********************************

(mostly)

Whew, that was a fun summary, and believe me I skimmed over a good chunk of it hitting mostly the highlights.  Anyrate one of the biggest stand out features to me for Destiny 2 is the gun play, the first game brought us around two three different weapon slots with different types going in different places for maximum effectiveness in combat.  You had a Primary, Secondary, and Heavy, which while it worked out nicely in PvE, it really overplayed it's hand in PvP, however this new system which replaces Special and Heavy with Energy and Power respectfully fixes a lot of those problems.  The way this works is all Auto Rifles, Scout Rifles, Hand Cannons, Sidearms, Pulse Rifles, and the new Submachine Gun can be either Primary or Energy, with Primary dealing non-elemental damage, and Energy being around for those shielded foes.  This means that you no longer need to deal with people in PvP running around with godly amounts of Sniper Rifle ammo (formerly a Special, now it has been moved to Power weapon), but it makes your PvE games require a bit more foresight.  Beyond just what and how you can carry, each gun feels unique and different from each other, and acquiring the same gun twice isn't going to result in a different gun based on its perks, every gun with the same name has the same perks, so much less farming is required to get quality weapons.  Fighting and shooting is fun, engaging, and you can really tell Bungie nailed their "30 seconds of fun" mantra with this one.

Along with the weapons I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the games armor as well, as each set plays to the class descriptions very well.  Titans, the games beat stick, look much larger and bulkier than in the previous entry, where they didn't feel as large and at times would even come off as being quite slim.  Warlocks almost all wear longer robes now, more reminiscent of a scholar or researcher, while their bonds are very detailed and helmets sleek and streamline.  The Hunters as well have been slimmed down overall to appear more mobile, threatening, and stealthy with their cloaks.  The one complaint that, like many others, have is that the shader system is kind of a crap shoot.  You see shaders are set individually now, and can also be applied to weapons and ships as well as armor, and while that isn't a bad thing, a lot of the better looking shaders are locked behind the games Bright Engrams, which is a form of microtransaction.  Since you can earn these in game, I'm not all that upset, as you earn them rather quickly, but I am a little disappointed that there isn't an alternative way to get them whether that be spending Glimmer (the games currency), or being rewarded through other means it makes the game feel a bit more grindy than I personally feel that it should be.  Either way this issue should be addressed as it would only serve to discourage casual players down the road.

One of my favorite things that Bungie did was redesign the rank up system to better encourage players to play the game, farm activities, and increase the number of rewards that you recieve.  The way it used to work was you needed a sum of 1500 (at the first level) to 2500 (pretty much after level 5) reputation in order to level up, well unfortunately reputation, while it wasn't capped, was slow to earn as you earned between 10-100 per patrol, and around 125 on a Strike mission and Crucible victory (half for a loss), that's not even to mention sub factions which earned at half the rate of Vanguard and Crucible, so while you got it for all activities, it was a MUCH slower gain than your primary sources, and for players like me who almost never did crucible it was laughable.  The new system uses tokens, which can be gained and turned in on any character, so you are no longer locked into receiving rewards by playing that character.  So if you want to gear an alt, grind on a main and redeem on that alt, if you want to kit out your main in raid gear first, turn in all you raid tokens on them and get them all the sweet sweet raid loot.  Overall the system is much more rewarding as you can earn multiple rewards and ranks in a shorter amount of time than you could previously, which will only serve to keep casual players coming back for more and more Destiny.

Bungie, finally offers in game clan support for Destiny 2, and will actually actively reward players for being in a clan.  See now you have a clan banner which levels up over a season (unknown how long this will last) which allows clan members to enjoy increased rewards for playing the game and completing events such as completing public events, decrypting engrams, defeating Cabal, etc.  Plus with an in game interface it makes clans and clan management all the easier for the end user as you don't need to go online, or open the app, or any weird thing like that.

Crucible has also changed, in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse.  All game modes have been converted to 4v4 away from either 3v3 or 6v6, and for competetive and trials the change is welcome and actually an improvement, in quickplay and casual the change really drags on your sanity.  See the biggest changes which affect that are the fact that there in an increase in the time to kill (TTK) for players, which translates to a larger importance being place on team play and team shooting, which while a positive aspect, doesn't help quickplay as it has historically been a place for players to relax and not really care about team play, or moving together, just getting out and doing some PvP.  In casual play you often encounter 3 or 4 stacks who will work together because their preferred game mode is there and they dominate over the other team.

The final two major gameplay changes come in the form of the Nightfall and Raid.  The Nightfall is no longer reset on wipe, but instead you get a respawn ticker of around 25 seconds, and the entire strike is timer based, starting at 11 minutes and working its way to 0, at 0 you are reset to orbit and you must start over.  Some weeks you have a variant option to increase the amount of time you have by performing a certain task, whether that is killing enemies, jumping through vex hoops (literally), killing oracles, or other means.  This makes the strike more forgiving for less experiences players, but still offers the challenge for more experienced ones.  The Raid on the other hand, is Cabal themed like the rest of the base game, but instead of fighting The Red Legion, you are set against Emperor Calus and his Loyalists who seeks to test you to see if you are worth joining him.  One of the biggest things is the fact that the Raid has 4 different wings which must be unlocked through a series of collecting and defending standards from and endless wave of Cabal forces, after you are able to collect and defend all 3 your way to the next challenge is open.  The challenges are genuinely fun and well thought out, even if not obvious at first.  Our team went in blind and only had one or two issues because of some non-obvious mechanics we encountered, overall though we ran into little difficulty and mostly just needed to refocus after getting stressed.  The raid also offeres a second set of loot in the form of underbelly keys, which reward engrams, tokens, and a chance at exotics, each of these chests however either must be found, or is locked behind a door that is protected by "watchers" who must be silently eliminated.  The final large change here is the addition of the guided games feature which allows players to search for a group for Nightfall and Raid activities (even though raid isn't quite out yet), then these allow clans who sign up to PUG (pick up group) players to be rated, and a higher rating means an easier time of getting people in the future.

The final thing that I would be remiss to not mention is the soundtrack.  Honestly when I think of Bungie I always thing of how wonderful their music and composition is.  Really they're one of the stand out companies for it (standing among CD Projekt RED and Bioware), and in Destiny 2 it shows.  The ambiance set is perfect, the highs are accentuated excellently, the lows are disheartening, and everything in between is executed to a T.  I have yet to look it up, but if there is a soundtrack, and I can get my hands on it I'm going to because I can honestly see myself at the gym working out with this music on in the background, it's THAT FUCKING GOOD.

Overall, while the game does have a few flaws, they are largely out spoken by the sheer amount of content to do, the improved drops and loot system, and the expanded and ease of access of lore in game.  Destiny 2 has some large quality of life improvements, genuine and unforced humor, and a fresh new take on the Destiny name.  I'm excited to see where Destiny 2 goes down the road with it's DLC, and I hope you are too.  Destiny 2 gets 9 completely incorrect names for Ghaul, out of 10.

Rantology: The new Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Trailer has 0 chill and it's beautiful

So yesterday Bethesda released a new new gameplay trailer for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, and it is absolutely beautiful.  It's full of Nazi killing, Fascist fighting, and Liberation fueled ass kicking.  Seriously it's almost as if Bethesda you know, paid attention to all of the press after their E3 reveal and were just like "Fuck it, might as well".  Anyrate, check out the new trailer bellow:

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus releases October 27th, 2017 on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.  Be sure to keep your eyes out as I'll be reviewing the game here shortly after launch.

Rantology: I'm actually okay with the micro transactions in Destiny 2

So  we saw the release of Destiny 2, and while my review will be coming after I clear the raid next week, I can tell you that I have enjoyed what I have played so far. Despite how refreshing the game is though, people have already taken to dismissing the game because of micro transactions that are hamfistedly shoved into it via Eve Levante and her Eververse. Now in the original Destiny these offered exclusive rewards (mainly cosmetic save for sparrows that could be used in SRL) and it was understandably upsetting due to it's paygating of content.

Destiny 2 however seems to have learned from past mistakes as the prestige system now awards guardians with these premium rewards for obtaining higher levels so even the cosmetic aspects to them can be acquired without spending a dime. This includes the controversial new shaders (which are consumed upon changing even though they are applied per item now), and exotic ships and sparrows. I'm....okay with this. I've never had an issue of a system like this that offers cosmetic options to come outside of a paid manner, it adds a level of "one more" to it to keep players playing, and not stay stagnant. I know some will argue against this, but honestly I don't have an issue, its an overall positive addition to a game that will only encourage me to play even more.

Rantology: What BioWare did to Mass Effect Andromeda and why you should care.

So, over the weekend BioWare issued an update that they will no longer be supporting single player updates.  This news comes after they have fixed the majority of bugs and glitches in the single player game which includes the facial animations (full disclosure this is not something I personally experienced to the degree that most people claim it to be), and the Hainly Abrams thing which I have previously addressed.  I did write a, as of  yet, unposted review of Andromeda, but I may get around to doing that later this week (btw I gave the game a solid 8/10).  That being said, considering the game is a little under 6 months old at this point I'm going to assume that everyone has finished it and I will be discussing spoilers in this post, but incase that's not enough....

********************************SPOILER ALERT*********************************

Now, with that out of the way one of the biggest things that this hits is from a story perspctive, see for those of you who have completed the story, you'll know that the 5th Ark (the Quarians and other minor species like Drell, Hanar, Elcor, additional Volus, Krogan, and Batarians has arriaved in Andromeda, but is at a currently undisclosed location due to issues, presumably from the Scourge that plagues the Andromeda system, and their pathfinder is dealing with the issue.  Now this brings forward the question of their fate, and the fate of their ark on the surface, but bellow that it makes us wonder if there are additional threats, or if the Scourge isn't what it appears to be and something is controlling it, and what the interest in the Quarian Ark is specifically.  Furthermore, in a post credits scene, a kett known as the Primus, who served as the Archons second in command, is observing Meridian, letting us know that we haven't defeated the kett, especially since we know the Archon was considered a rogue threat who stepped out of line in Andromeda to pursue Remnant technology, as we know the kett only seem to be able to absorb biological material, and not synthetic (possible resurgence of the Geth to fight back at them?)  Finally, the third major question left unanswered is the Remnant, who made them, what their purpose is outside of teraforming, is the AI on H-047c related to them in any fashion?  And while a few smaller questions are left unanswered (specifically in regards to the Angara and Krogan) they are nowhere as near as important to the above, at least in my mind.

While story questions are all important, we also need to realize what this can mean for Mass Effect as a whole.  While Andromeda was never release with a specific plan for the series in mind and meant to be fluid, I doubt anyone ever meant for it to be abandoned, especially considering we have been without a Mass Effect game for going on 5 years prior to its release.Yes, we still have other BioWare games like Dragon Age 4 to look forward to, but they just don't fill the void left in our hearts. Why is this happening?  Well from best I can tell it is because of the overwhelming negative feedback focusing on the glitches in terms of facial animations and dialogue, which while I won't say didn't exist, but were never as large of a part of the game as people (mostly those who hadn't touched the game in my experience) would have you believe.  See, when something like this happens on a lesser known series, or a game that is widely regarded as a cherished title by the masses, it doesn't get the amount of negative attention that a game like Mass Effect would with its rampant fanbase of overzealous players.  For example, Dark Souls has a large number of glitches in their invasion PvP system, ones that will actually break the game and make it impossible to have a fair and balanced game, but the response from the internet is one of disbelief and cries for it to be fixed, not widespread criticism, where Andromeda was laughed at relentlessly for a small glitch that didn't break the game, and by most accounts was less than 1% of the overall experience.  Now I'm not saying they both don't need to be fixed, and say what you will for modern release it now, patch it later culture, but the fact that it is an option to be able to fix it is a good them.  But we can also look to the response from the communities for the efforts to fix their glitches.  From Software spent a large chunk of time investigating and banning players who exploited this glitch, and as of the time of this writing I'm not aware of any patches to fix this issue, only to be met with overall praise from the community for such a proactive approach, while Andromeda was met with disdain and criticism for taking less than 3 months to almost completely eliminate the problem, which I need remind you didn't render entire aspects of the game almost unplayable.

This brings me to my last point of why you should really care.  Andromeda has set a prescendence, and not the one they were hoping to.  What this proves is that with enough complaints, trolling, rampant meme sharing, and overall shitty attitudes to what really was a solid game, you can effectively bury it and a franchise, because when you complain to an extent and harass a developer you are attacking their heart and soul.  Many developers hold these games close to their hearts, as they can be working on them for close to 70-80 hours a week for over 2 years.  These games are their children, their babies.  They care about them and want to see them grow just as much as we do, but the sheer amount of harassment that Andromeda received, especially from people who never played the game (you know who you are), was too much.  This will only serve to tell people that they can keep doing this to other games and series that they either don't like or have some sort of issue they don't like and it is dangerous. Things like this can lead someone to depression, which is a very serious issue, and while I'm not saying we should ignore issues in our games, we should raise those concerns, but we should do them in a constructive way.  Positive feedback is much more beneficial than negative, think of the last time both has happened and what the outcome was for you?  Now apply that same to these games and their devs, and keep in mind that these games are their passion.

We all love video games, there is no question about that, but the thing is how we address them matters so much more.  The issue surrounding Andromeda is a difficult one, but I believe that we need to learn from it so we call all grow, both the community and devs.  See you next time.

Rantology: Having Fun

So the other day I caught myself turning on my XBox One for the first time since I had moved back in April, and while I admit it did take me a shameful amount of time to turn it back on and play it again, I don't regret me decision.  See, I've actually been keeping plenty busy on my other consoles lately, with Mario Kart 8 coming out on switch, Destiny starting their Age of Triumph celebrations (of which I still need to finish off my record book), and other assorted titles filling out the rest of my time with a sprinkling of WoW just to keep me in check.  Now, that's not to say that I regret my decision to have not turned on my console, but I feel I have neglected it for too long.  That being said I loaded up some Halo 5: Guardians, and just dived into my favorite new game mode Warzone Firefight.

Now Warzone Firefight launched sometime last summer, and while I was fully aware of its release, I was too busy playing other games at the time, I don't remember what games, but it was something I kinda wrote off as something I'd get to later, Well now that later has arrived and dear god I don't know what took me so long.  The game mode is absolutely brilliant in all the right ways, the usage of REQs, the team based goal oriented combat, in fact the only negative thing I can say about it is that respawn timers can get too long late in the game, but even that is offset by the weapons you've unlocked to that point.  However, as much fun as I was having I felt dirty for enjoying my time with the game.  I felt like I was somehow degrading myself for playing a game so many fans disliked, a game that was criticized for the removal of local coop so it could achieve a smooth 60 fps, and I will fully admit I was one of those dissenters at first, yet, as the Halo nutjob I am, went out and purchased Halo 5 at launch and at least gave it a shot, and while I like the direction the story went, despite some of its previous misgivings in Halo 4.  As dirty as I felt though, I just didn't care because at my core I was actually having fun.

See that's something that I feel like people have lost sight on in recent years, especially when it comes to gaming.  We all want this huge awesome new IP to launch with open world, and crafting, and all these other things to give us freedom in our worlds because a handful of games did it well and we're constantly under the illusion that that is where success lays, but I've come to disagree with that and instead I put forth a new idea: instead of chasing the heels of previous success, or criticizing something for every graphical misgiving, or a person for their taste, let's just all have fun.  It's really not that difficult of a concept to embrace, all you need to do is if you see someone enjoying something you don't, just ignore it, let it go.  Don't tell them you hate it, don't tell them why it's bad, don't criticize it for what it is or isn't, let them enjoy something.

Oddly enough this isn't the first time I've found myself in this situation either, with many releases over the last couple of years I've found myself either having to defend my interest in the game, justify why I would ever play such a thing, or I've just felt ashamed for playing something that I am genuinely having fun playing simply because the gaming community as a whole dislikes it for whatever reason.  A couple of very recent examples are Mass Effect Andromeda and Ghost Recon Wildlands.  It would be no small secret to the people who know me that I am a HUGE Mass Effect fan, I have art on my walls, clothing in my drawers, hell I even splurged on the $130 Pathfinder backpack, $100 DieCast Nomad ND1, and I'm currently in the middle of purchasing the FigPins.  Needless to say, I LOVE Mass Effect, it's wonderful and I practically disappeared when Andromeda came out this year, starting the game a mere week and a half before I moved, whilst packing mind you.  I loved the game, and had a ton of fun playing it, and while there were things I was looking forward to that weren't there, such as dynamic outposts, being able to land on dozens of worlds, and a larger selection of romantic options.  All those put aside I still enjoyed the game, and had hours of fun playing it despite having to defend my interest in the game due to its glitches and facial animations, both issues that in my playthrough were a maximum of  maybe 30 minutes in a 50 hour experience.

I felt assaulted and wronged because how dare I have fun when a few people put videos on YouTube for reddit and other meta sites to laugh at and criticize the game for it. How dare I enjoy something that let down their expectations, people who didn't play the game and had no interest in it in the first place.  How dare I have fun.  How dare I enjoy myself.  The same issue revolves around Ghost Recon Wildlands.  The reviews came out for it and were less than positive, the game was repetitive, the open world felt like it made the player travel vast amounts for no real reason, and the narrative is too shallow, but I found myself in the same place, having fun.  I've enjoyed my time with Ghost Recon, I love taking down bases, getting into firefights driving around Bolivia, flying up as high as I can and parachuting back down to Earth.  I'm loving every minute of it and I've actually been putting off completing it because I don't want it to be over.

Yet it was in a PSN group chat that I realized I shouldn't feel bad for enjoying something, if its fun then why should I care what people say about it? Lately we've all been obsessing over review scores and graphical improvement, and making sure that everything is tippy toppy to the point that anything but the very best isn't good enough.  People complained about Arkham Knight's graphical and game play issues, but I still had fun, I may have been frustrated at points, but I enjoyed the ride through the game.  People complained about Destiny and it's lack of story content and it's MMO-esque approach to gameplay, yet here we are almost 3 years later with the sequel getting ready to release and new players are joining every day, something must be keeping those players coming back. Another much criticized game over its lifetime is World of Warcraft, being one of the largest games of all time leading up to the 2010 release of Cataclysm that rebuilt the world from the ground up and saw many players straight up leave the game after being so invested for so long, other games stepped in place to acquire some of it's player base like Rift, SWtOR, Guild Wars 2, and more recently Final Fantasy XIV.  Yet many remained loyal to the game for a myriad of reasons, even throughout the Warlords of Draenor expansion, which some refer to as "The Dark Days of WoW".  Yet still, the rush of getting new equipment, enjoyment of friends, and conquering bosses still remained fun to players to world over, these players didn't leave because they were still enjoying themselves in one way or another.

Now none of this is to say we should be happy and content with whatever the industry hands us and just "be grateful we're getting games", but we certainly shouldn't talk down on someone who enjoys something.  As a long time fan of the Koei's Warrior franchise I know very well what a double sided dose of criticism looks like.  It takes a certain sense of mindless grinding to get any sort of real enjoyment out of those games, but that doesn't mean it's impossible, in fact sometimes a mindless grind is exactly what I need to destress after a long day, I find it relaxing and fun, so what.  We all got into this insane hobby around the central idea that games and gaming is fun.  No one started off day one out of the gate as being the best and min maxing every character to be the mathematical best at whatever, we all have our own unique playstyles, and our own unique approaches to everything, so why should our enjoyment be any different. Gaming takes all types, some like graphics, some like stories, some like mechanics, some like to min max and feel powerful, some are just tournament players who dedicate everything they have to being the best at their game, and that's all okay.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that we need to stop getting into petty arguments and judging each other.  We need to sit down and just appreciate gaming a bit more, appreciate gaming for what it is, something we have fun with.  Not everything needs to be an artistic masterpiece, not everything needs to appeal to everything, glitches happen, and someone is going to disagree with you about Ubisofts Spiderman game on PS4, but who cares.  What really matters is that you're having fun, and if you see someone enjoying something you don't like here's a little piece of advice: don't attack them for it (unless of course that thing is discriminatory in any way that is), they're people like you. Let people have fun.

Rantology: Let's talk about this whole Hainly Abrams thing.

It's finally here, Mass Effect Andromeda, the game that I've been waiting and drooling for ever since Mass Effect 3 ended and the online community had died down after the PS4 and XB1 had launched.  Full of all of its fame and glory, the series first title on the next generation of consoles is exciting, fresh, and.....oh shit BioWare went and done fucked up didn't they?  Great, now we have an elephant in the room for my favorite video game franchise, and it's not exactly a well behaved one at that.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about you've either been living under a rock, not phased by Mass Effect Andromeda coming out, or just not paying attention to about any sort of game journalism at all, I'm a little jealous of all of you in a different form, because this has become quite tiresome honestly.

So, backstory for those of you who don't know a recently published Polygon article broke down and discussed three example of transgender characters in three different recent AAA titles.  Now normally this is something I'd just put aside and continue playing my game, but I feel like this time around it's worth bringing up as a point of discussion as the industry continues to grow and evolve into something greater.  While the main focus of this will be breaking down Mass Effect Andromeda and Hainly Abrams, I will be touching on Horizon and Zelda as well just for posterity.

Hainly Abrams is a character that you, Ryder/Pathfinder, encounter rather early into the the new Mass Effect game on Eos after you establish the first settlement there.  Her role is minor at best, being the chief researcher on the base she has a handful of lines of dialogue, and a couple of small go here do that quests too.  So she's a VERY small character in the entire game, which literally has multiple planets and dozen of characters that are like her.  Now, and here comes my favorite phrase, THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, that doesn't mean that BioWare expressed her in a positive manner.

She feels like she was added a checkbox character, who does little to draw you in a build a better connection with, and is simply there as a "hey, we have a transgender character" kind of thing, which, if done in a careful manner, isn't necessarily a bad thing, showing their audience that inclusiveness is key and everyone is welcome.  However Hainly just had to get it out there right away for the sake of getting it out there.  To clarify this is done by a common question in the game that everybody asks each other "Why did you come to Andromeda."  Her answer was simple, even if jarringly insensitive to the transgender community, simply saying she wanted to come so she could be who she was, and not stuck in a lab being tortured by people dead-naming her, and while this isn't her exact dialogue you get the idea.

This could have come from any number of different reasons on BioWare's end, maybe an intern brought it up and some slack jawed writer threw her in because they felt it was a good idea and didn't put too much thought into.  But that doesn't excuse the lack of effort that went into her expose, and personally I'd rather they just kind have left it out all together, or bring it up in a different manner, like by maybe making the transgender character part of your crew and something you learn about over the course of the game as you become more and more connected with them they eventually come to confide in Ryder about this to help them solve a personal issue, which could be a number of things that I'm not even going to speculate.  That would be an infinitely better way to handle this issue instead of just blurting it out there for all to see.

Now, this wouldn't be a Rantology if I didn't at least offer a bit of a different perspective on it, and while I'm doing this I would like to remind people who do read this that I'm not trying to be insensitive, unfriendly, or unsupportive of transgender individuals, but I'm simply trying to make some sort of bizarre sense of , if there is some sort, the deeper purpose here (though my money is on just some junior level writer didn't do their homework).  This is surprising, to say the least, especially from the same company that is responsible for Krem who is not only one of the best representations of how to appropriately handle a transgender character, but also respect their boundaries as well.

You see with Krem it's not a one and done conversation with him to learn about his past, he slowly confides in you as you and Iron Bull grow closer over the course of the game, and a lot of the conversation is more focused around him finding people to accept him and not caring about people who don't.  When the inquisitor asks Iron Bull about this his response is actually really simple: Krem is a man and deserves to be treated like the man he is.  It's not such a matter of the inquisitor trying to learn of Krem's past, and Krem doesn't just go out and instantly tell you his story, in fact the only reason you learn it is by asking Iron Bull of his past, and by extension, the Chargers.  Krem is a rare shining light for diverse characters in an industry widely populated by sex symbols, innuendos, chain mail bikinis, and genuine misunderstanding about the representations of sex, gender, and identity in both workplace and expression.

Speaking to the genuine misunderstanding, two other games that are mentioned in the article, and I honestly feel that the author misunderstood both of them.  In Breath of the Wild Link is tasked with entering Gerudo Village, but there is an issue, they only allow in men stating that "This is a town of vai, not voe are allowed".  In order to remedy this you hear a rumor of a man who managed to sneak in to the town and find two individuals looking for him, one outside the town says he travels between the town and previous outpost, and when you find the man looking for him he is confused as to his location but hints the Gerudo at the market talking of a Hylian vai, you later find him on the roof of the market where he insists you use female pronouns and if you do will offer to sell you an outfit, and after purchasing it and equipping it the wind picks up and flashes his beard.

Now, some of you may be wondering why I'm using "he/him", well simply put it's because this character isn't a progressive stance that some have claimed him to be, not he is instead a joke by Nintendo at the notion of transgender individuals by taking a the bathroom example, a Conservative favorite, to its most extreme, or a pervert dressing as a women to get a peek at an all women town.  His insistence on female pronouns only exists to further his guise and continue to be allowed into Gerudo Village.  People have tried to convince me it is a joke at the Gerudos for being unable to identify the difference between genders in other cultures, but this is proven wrong as both the chief and her bodyguard recognize Link as male.  See all of this was most likely done to reflect upon Japans strict principles of gender roles and stereotypes and the overwhelming backlash to the reaction to the reduction of a female link in Breath of the Wild.  This was a major punch-down by Nintendo, and quite honestly something it feels like is overlooked in many eyes because of 1) it gives you "sexy Link", and 2) Zelda is released so infrequently people are willing to overlook these things and give Nintendo/Zelda a pass.

See as much as people want to give Nintendo and Zelda a pass on something like this for a variety of reasons including what I have argued before of Zelda being a "golden game" (can do no wrong), but the truth is often much darker, and while I can only speculate intentions, knowing the culture and companies history gives me a very good idea.  Similarly Horizon Zero Dawn seemed to receive some flak from the article for reasons that I just can't tell?  Honestly I'm having a tough time really understanding trying to understand the point the author took here in her article.  Part of me wants to say she didn't like it but then she goes on to say that Janeva was a significant character in the game and an overall positive for trans inclusion, though didn't like the social norms imposed on the character.

While all of this is understandable frustrating I think the takeaway, from Aloy's perspective at least, is that this is a completely new situation and she has never encountered someone like him before, so her instincts were to refer to him as her.  This seems so appalling to us because our society has overcome these hurdles already and we have a level of social acceptance in the matter.  We know to respect someones gender identity and expression, Aloy doesn't.  Despite the game taking place in the future she has no idea about even the first thing to think in a situation like this.  In our society we completely understand what is and isn't appropriate because we've had these discussions, we've sat down and talked about what is and isn't alright, Aloy hasn't.  Aloy, in all honesty, has been too busy fighting for her right to live and exist her entire life to be able to stop and think about it, and while part of me really wants to sit down and really hammer and nail it into Guerilla about how they approached this topic in Horizon and how they could have been more sensitive about it...I just can't.

I totally understand why this is the case, effectively they're living in a world where everyday is a literal fight to survive the machines and struggles of dealing with the fallout from the older empire.  None of it is easy, and this is such a rare occurrence because of the perceived social implications in their society and I think that's what Guerilla was trying to get at.  The fact that we didn't just arrive at this point of acceptance overnight, and at our core we still have instincts and urges and it's our social doctrine that really overcomes them.  I'm not trying to say that people who are transgender aren't natural or aren't validated, but instead we all have base perceptions about the world around us that, because of our social advancements, can subconsciously control.  So while Aloy doesn't exactly stand on the pinnacle of how to treat transgender individuals, she's not meant to.

Janeva on the other hand is exactly what the industry needs right now though, yes he is surrounded by a strict set of social doctrine that dictates how men and women act, but at the same point in time he is just as, if not more, capable than any other man in the Carja army.  He rose through the ranks with skill and determination set out to show the world he is who he says he is.  While he is surrounded by an air that doesn't explicitly state he is transgender, the connotations and subtext is there, and to add to it he states that he is a soldier, even going so far as saying "No woman can wear Carja armor".  He stands firm to his identity and his loyalty to the Carja, because honestly he could have just as easily just been like, well fuck it, I'm not going to deal with this, and peaced out.

Really what should we take from all of this?  Well honestly its that the gaming industry still has a REALLY long way to go when it comes to being able to appropriately handle gender identity and gender representation.  Additionally we need to be able to take a more objective look and understand intentions of these topics, because quite frankly things are getting either lost in translation or outright forgiven due to the series or media its in.  Mass Effect handled it wrong, Zelda handled it wrong, Horizon handled it...differently, it's hard to say, and Dragon Age did fantastic.  I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers, but I sure as hell can hopefully provide an insightful look onto some of the most recent bits of social commentary on these games.  Till next time.

Dragon Age Inquisition Review

Okay, so I'm REALLY late to the party on this one, considering the game came out in 2014, but I finally got a copy again and snagged the DLC as well, so I feel ready to review this.  Plus, as I said earlier it won't always be new games that I review right away (though I am hoping to be able to get out a Horizon: Zero Dawn vs Zelda Breath of the Wild review next week, so fingers crossed on that one).  One of the big things to know about me is I am a HUGE Bioware fan.  I LOVE Mass Effect, KOTOR, and Dragon Age.  These games are often filled with charming characters, deep stories and universes, and side quests that are sometimes more interesting than the main quest line (which despite what others might say is never a bad thing if you can be drawn into a game and actually enjoy all of its content).  So when Dragon Age Inquisition came out I was undoubtedly excited.

Being completely honest I didn't particularly enjoy the game at first, it was such a huge offset of the first two games that I had a hard time getting into it.  I begrudgingly forced my way through around 20 hours of it before eventually letting it fall by the wayside while I was playing other games and keeping myself busy with other hobbies.  Then in August of 2015 some part of me got the itch to pick the game up again and continue my righteous march to save Thedas once more.

Now, I'm not going to attach my usual spoiler warning tags to this one because I'm not even going to attempt to try and summarize the monster that was my 150 hour campaign play through into a plot summary outside this (all of this happens at literally the begining of the game btw):  After everything in the first two games, the war between the mages and templars comes to a pinnacle and the Chantry has to step in and call a Conclave to begin negotiations to end hostilities at The Temple of Sacred Ashes.  Divine Victoria is killed when an explosion occurs that your character is the only survivor of granting you a mark on your hand allowing you to control and affect the veil (a magical barrier between the physical and dream world).  You must reestablish the Inquisition to find out who is behind this attack and the massive fade rift that now looms over The Temple of Sacred Ashes.  That's it.  That's all your getting.  Everything else story wise you're on your own for.

One of the things that really stands out to me, and has historically stood out to me is the quality of music that Dragon Age games have, and Inquisition not only lives up to its predecessors, but makes them seem like they were just a child playing on a keyboard.  Seriously, everything fits the game, and while some of it may seem off at first, once you start to get more into an area it really builds upon the ambiance of it.  And its not just the music, but even the sounds have a way of making this game come alive.  One of the things you can do is click the right thumb stick you can scan for nearby items and the sound it makes when found just gives you a good feeling.

The other big part I'd like to hit here is Bioware and their near consistent attention to character details in the game.  This is one of their strongest aspects, and inquisition really shows it.  Not only do you get to interact with series staples like Leliana, but you get introduced to new characters like Iron Bull and Dorian (who make the most adorable couple btw).  Now, I personally wont say I enjoyed every character, but that doesn't mean they aren't all charming in their own ways, and their loyalty missions will leave you wanting more, much more (looking at you Iron Bull).  I'm also hoping that they will make a comeback in the next entry just because some of them I feel would fit well into the setting.

And of course it wouldn't be a Dragon Age game without customization and  replay ability built into its core.  From the 3 base classes, to the 9 specializations you can play the game multiple times and never have the same experience, and what adds even more to it is that you can take an already established character and switch their fighting style mid game to make them more adaptable to whatever the situation is at hand, for example I did this with my inquisitor (who was a rogue) because my in-your-face dagger style wasn't cutting it so I went to a bow build and started making my enemies regret every adult decision they ever made (and trust me, they had much to confess).  Other fun builds are the Knight Enchanter mage build, and pretty much anything that is also an Alchemist Rogue.

Finally, the last big thing here is the multiplayer.  Bioware took a page out of Mass Effect 3's book for this one, took an already great base formula and somehow made it better.  It's harder forsure, but the nice thing too is that difficulty is nothing that can't be overcome with just a bit of teamwork.  Pretty much the multiplayer takes place in a randomly generated dungeon with 5 different "zones", each offering a different challenge.  Different enemy factions, and random bonus rooms help to mix things up.  Yet again you are limited to healing items like in Mass Effect, but the progression based system really makes it feel like you are actually accomplishing a mission, rather than deploying to a hot spot, and running after collecting some data.  Overall it's very well done and something I hope than Andromeda can play on in the next few weeks when it launches.

Overall if you like the Dragon Age series so far you're going to love Inquisition, and while it isn't a perfect game, it is one that I feel does a good job at offering a lot of content for not a whole lot of price (maybe $40 for the game of the year edition with all DLC).  It does mix things up a bit, and doesn't seem like a Dragon Age game at fist, but after the first couple of hours you get pulled right back in again.  That is why I'm giving Dragon Age Inquisition eight and a half High Dragons, out of ten.

Rantology: That Kotaku GameStop Article

Okay. sooooooo yea, journalism, not just mainstream but games as well, has a really nasty habit of not doing their research and sensationalizing things.  Specifically I'm talking about a recently published article on Kotaku about GameStop's Circle of Life.  What I want to do here is discuss a few critical things in this article, and bring to light a few facts that were conveniently left out, or not communicated.  First though, I make transparency in what I do a point of personal pride, so with that in mind I'm going to be transparent, and as I've stated before, I am employed by GameStop on a part time basis.  I'm not a manger, I'm not in charge of a store, or a district, simply a Game Adviser.  Now along with that, there is a document I signed called the "Social Media Posting Guidelines" that more or less state that I cannot post about upcoming promotions, company "secrets", inventory, and other things of that ilk.  I'm probably going to be going against that, but the truth is way more important in this issue than that piece of shit corporate sellout document in this case.

Okay, I'm going to leave images out of this as much as I can, since this is kind of a brass tax issue.  I'm also going to quote the Kotaku article directly and offer my insights and personal experience about this.  So if this isn't that funny, I apologize, but I feel this is one of the few times I need to be somewhat serious and address an issue head on.

The article starts off like this: "They may simply be lying to you, fueled by a new program that discourages GameStop salespeople from selling unopened copies of video games.

The program, called “Circle of Life,” gives each GameStop store different percentage quotas for 1) pre-orders; 2) reward card subscriptions; 3) used game sales; and 4) game trade-ins."  The fact is that is simply not true.  Circle of Life is a sales technique that has been used by GameStop for years.  The idea is that the PRO card is the center of it all and drives everything else, it further goes on to say when you buy a new game you want to pre-order it to make sure you have a guaranteed copy you can get when it releases, then when your done playing that game you are welcome to trade it back to us and apply the money you get towards another game, if it's preowned all the better for us, and we encourage you to keep pre-ordering games to keep you coming back.  More or less trades drive value, which drives sales.  It's not a new sales program, and neither are the metrics behind it.  They're just now what we're focusing our numbers on.

"Each of these quotas is based on the store’s total transactions. Pre-orders and reward cards subscriptions are based on the number of transactions, while used game sales and trade-ins are based on the total dollar value of transactions. If a store’s quota for used game sales is 30%, and the store sells $1,000 worth of merchandise, GameStop expects at least $300 of that merchandise to be pre-owned."  Wrong.  This isn't true at all either.  In fact it's so untrue it could be called an Alternative Fact.  These numbers are derived from qualifying sales.  If an item CAN be sold as preowned, then it will ping the numbers, but if its a t-shirt, yea that's not happening.  Same with the PRO card.  If you have a PRO card attached to an order already it wont hurt your PRO numbers, same if the card would offer no value to the transaction.  I've done the numbers, looked at the statistics, and personally performed the experiments on all of this.

"In other words, according to salespeople speaking to Kotaku and elsewhere on the internet, GameStop is incentivizing employees to stop people from buying new games and hardware. " Again, this is simply not true, we're not incentivized to do shit.  We don't see extra money, we don't see less.  Yea, they'd like for us to hit these goals, and it makes us look A LOT better if we do, but as far as I've been made aware there has been absolutely no communication from leadership saying we need to stop selling new product.  What this is, however, is a case of shitty employees and managers seeing this, trying to get their numbers up, and telling people this.  If you trust your local store then continue to go there and utilize them as a resource, but I can assure you, the "official policy" isn't to lie to customers.

"“We are telling people we don’t have new systems in stock so we won’t take a $300 or $400 dollar hit on our pre-owned numbers,” one GameStop employee told me in an e-mail, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to press. “This is company wide and in discussions with my peers it is a common practice. We also tell customers we don’t have copies of new games in stock when they are on sale—for example, Watch Dogs 2 is currently $29.99 new and $54.99 pre-owned. We just tell them we don’t have the new one in stock and shuffle them out the door.”"  Again, see above.  This is an example of one shitty person in the GameStop hierarchy making it shitty for everyone else, not the company as a whole.

"GameStop staff have told me that corporate managers are monitoring both stores and individual employees, asking everyone to get a COL score of at least 75% by hitting at least three of their four quotas. If a store is hitting their COL targets but one salesperson is not, that salesperson may face punishment or even lose their job, according to company employees." While some of this is true, the fact remains that its not in the official policy that we can be fired over this.  If it was, we would have signed a form to acknowledge the policy changes as is federally mandated by US law.

Really the take away here is that the people who were talking to Kotaku either made a lot of this up, are really shitty people, or have really shitty people directly above them.  Yes the CoL is a thing, no it doesn't mean we're out to get you.  Yes PRO and preowned make up a HUGE portion of our profits, no that doesn't mean everyone is going to try and push you on all of it and make you do the 20 questions dance.  Yes its important for us to hit our goals, but its no more important than you and your job, and even if we do face punishment up to including termination we still have a right to fight back and ask why.  This is all just another one of those desperate stupid post holiday policy changes every store does to make its final quarter look a little better than it actually is and end on a high note.  Why is it so aggressive then?  Well 2016 sucked, and surprisingly enough it sucked for games too.  not much major came out and even the yearly heavy hitters didn't do well, but 2017 is looking to change that.

I could go into this more and talk about how we used to push the warranties and season passes super hard and were judged off them as well, but I'm not, I've said my piece.  I hope you found this insightful and somewhat useful in trying to get a better grasp of this situation.

The Division Review

The Division, like many things in life, is an acquired taste, and not something that is meant for the masses.  With a sometimes difficult to understand and convoluted storyline, and glitchy gameplay it is no wonder that the game hasn't exactly received the welcoming reviews that Ubisoft was hoping for in March when the game launched, and believe me, I was there on the front lines.  I picked the game up on day one and was still somewhat unemployed when it launched.  To be honest, while I did enjoy the game, I found it frustrating the say the least.  Leveling was fun, even if it wasn't the most expedited of experiences, though I do have to give the game credit as it offered plenty of side quests to do between major story related missions, many of which revealed the events of the outbreak of "Green Poison" or "Dollar Flu", which is the disease that causes widespread chaos in New York City.

Since The Division is a game that is primarily focused on online play, and since I recently have replayed through the main storyline and have been taking a second look at end game content I will be doing a then vs now review of the game.  This should help people decide if getting into the game roughly 8 months after release is worth it at all.

Now, I'm no stranger to online based shooters, hell I play Destiny on a somewhat consistent basis, and even stuck with it through some of its darker days where people decided to bitch and moan about some of the more "unfair" concepts that they just didn't understand, like loot tables, or RNG, or poor matchmaking (though to be fair a lot of this still happens, and I still write the majority of them off as entitled fuck-wits whose parents never told them no as a child).  So The Division is a game that is right up my alley, and oh boy, what a way to throw a game at me.

******************************SPOILER WARNING *********************************

The Division takes place in a shattered derelict shell of Manhattan after an outbreak of a man-made variation of Smallpox released on Black Friday refereed to in game as "The Dollar Flu" or "Green Poison", society has effectively run down and gangs, glued together militant groups, and a for-hire militia have taken charge of the city.  You play as a member of the Strategic Homeland Division (S.H.D.) sent in during the "second wave", or after the first group of agents failed to get the situation under control.  What is the S.H.D.?  Short version is they're government sleeper agents living among the populace who, once activated, more or less have operational control and independence to do whatthefuckever they like.  Needless to say this power is abused by some.

The game starts you off on the opposite side of the Hudson River from Manhattan where you are tasked with gaining control of the local rioters to allow the Joint Task Force (J.T.F.) to sweep in and hold the neighborhood and the attached helicopter pad.  After cleaning up the Neighborhood and local police station you meet up with fellow Division Agent Faye Lau and the rest of the second wave and take a ride over to Manhattan, but your Osprey Gunship transport is hit with a Javelin missle during takeoff killing everyone except Faye and yourself.  Faye is pretty fucked up, but you get out with minor injuries and meetup at and reclaim the James A. Farley Post Office.  Once secured you set about the city completing objectives and recruiting allies to discover not only the events of Black Friday and the cause and source of the virus, but also the events that transpired to cause the second wave of agents needing to be sent into New York. 

Using your connections you enlist the aid of Dr. Jessica Kandel who stayed behind to work on a cure to the virus.  Dr. Kandel enlists your aid to track down the orchestrator of the virus, a biologist by the name of Gordon Amherst, and obtain his research notes to discover why he did what he did.  Captain Roy Benitez is the second to join your cause, after rescuing him from a group of rioters attempting to mount an escape via the collapsed Lincoln Tunnel he sets you to work to shut down the various militia groups around the city, most notably "The Cleaners" led by Joe Ferro, a group of public works employees who stayed behind to burn out the virus using napalm, "The Rikers" led by Larae Barrett, escaped inmates from Rikers Island who have taken to lawless streets of Manhattan to fuel their revenge against a system that left them to die when the virus broke out, and "The Last Man Battalion" led by Charles Bliss, a paramilitary group hired by Wall Street executives to protect their financial assets that went rogue after being abandoned by their employers they now set out to create a new world order in the midst of the chaos.  The final member of the band is a former member of the LMB known as Paul Rhodes.  Rhodes, an engineer and general conspiracy theorist, is in charge of restoring critical infrastructure (power, water, gas, communications, etc...) to the good citizens of New York, and while he is working with the JTF, he doesn't exactly like the idea of it.

Over the course of the game you discover that Amherst wasn't alone, an internationally acclaimed virologist Vitraly Tchernenko was in contact with Amherst helping to answer questions about how to "theoretically" breed the prefect virus and what the ideal situation would look like.  Before this, during an investigation into a first wave Division agent transponder Rhodes discovered you discover that a select few members of the First Wave went rogue, lead by Aaron Keener (aka "Vanguard") who discovered Amherst work and decided he was right to let society fall and that humanity needs a culling of the population in order to maintain order and save the planet.  Working with the LMB they get to Tchernenko first to discover where Amherst manufactured the first.  Minutes after discovery Keener and other rogue first wave agents leave the United Nations building and use the now disgraced LMB as a decoy to get to Amherst gene printer and take it to an undisclosed place in "The Dark Zone" and continue to prefect Amherst work and release the virus around the globe.

*********************************END SPOILERS**********************************

Most of the setting of the game outside of the story is obtained via collectibles that are scattered throughout the map that will give you insight into what happened to the first wave agents and other citizens of Manhattan.  These collectibles are locked behind clearing all the missions out of different neighborhoods, unless you search for them the hard way.  Completing these side missions will reward XP and currency and either base resources to upgrade your base of operations to unlock new skills, perks, and passives, or gear and equipment blueprints used in crafting.  Each wing of your base has a different resource: Medical, Tech, and Security, and corresponds to a different skill tree, leveling all of them is important, but which one you select first is crucial early game as it could lead to a higher chance of survival in more difficult missions.

The game does offer a decent matchmaking system that is hop in and hop out that you can start from the world map, a mission location, or even from a terminal at your base of operations.  The game is good about allowing freedom of movement between party members in case one person doesn't have a mission unlocked or needs to fast travel to assist another one for a mission or encounter.  

As far as end game content there are 2 pieces given at launch called "The Dark Zone" or and endgame PvPvE area in which agents can form groups to hunt down NPCs or other players for high quality loot that must then be extracted so it can be purged of viral disease as The Dark Zone is the place that was hit hardest with the virus.  Players are also notified when other players go "Rogue", or when they agrees another player" so there is some risk in starting combat with other players and you aren't able to just sit there an kill people unnoticed.  Finally when you extract your spoils from The Dark Zone you signal a helicopter to come and get them out for you, well at launch once you attached your gear you could leave and were still guaranteed you could get loot so a lot of solo players would rush in, attach their loot, and rush out seeing as they couldn't handle the mobs that would inevitably come in to investigate the agents flare.  This has been changed and you are now able to "cut off" other players loot from the extraction helicopter, so you must stay and protect it from the NPCs and the other nearby players who are notified of the extraction happening.  The second piece is called "Incursions" which are basically high end missions that have some special mechanics, but most extremely tough enemies in high numbers.

Now, to the new stuff that has been released since the game came out, we get it in 2 major content updates, the first is called "Underground", and the second is called ":Survival".

Underground is a Diablo-esque random dungeon generation match-made multiplayer mode for The Division, and one of my favorite updates so far.  You are tasked with exploring the underbelly of New York to weed out the remnants of the different factions that threaten the city.  The dungeons are fun and rewarding and allow you to add modifiers to make them longer, add difficulty modifiers such as only being able to use one skill at a time, or slowly losing health through the duration of the mission.  Overall I thoroughly enjoy the challenge and cooperative elements they bring to the table.

Survival is a match-made multiplayer scenario in which the agent learns of a vaccine to the virus being located in The Dark Zone with an impending snow storm on the way you gear up to retrieve the vials and bring them back, but you must race against the clock as you become infected with the disease when your helicopter crashes and you are stuck in Manhattan and must fight and gather your way to the vials.  Other players are present in the map, a total of 24 participate in a match, and you must compete against them for loot as each loot box only opens up for a single player making resources limited.  You must craft and gather better gear, weapons, and even skills in order to survive against the mobs that wander the area.  After reaching The Dark Zone and gathering the vials you are set to extract and must fight off special Division agent killers known as Hunters who use Division tech against you.  This mode can be played in both PvE and PvP modes, with PvP offering higher rewards (which is the right way to do it imho, not gimp a PvE player, but rewarding a PvP player).  While I really do enjoy this mode it has early scaling issues, and can be quite difficult if you don't know the map very well, though these issues will correct themselves once you get a better grasp on the map and manage to pull through roughly the first 15-20 minutes to start getting better weapons.  Oh I forgot to mention cosmetic items actually have an effect in this mode providing much needed warmth for your player.

With the updates to the base game I would be remiss if I said the game hasn't improved and gotten at least a bit more fun, and while I enjoyed the game from the start I enjoy it a fair bit more now that getting better gear isn't nearly as time consuming as it once was, nor is it nearly as daunting with all the new modes to offer brand new goodies around every corner.  While the game isn't perfect, I do recognize the changes and appreciate them for what they are.  Overall I give The Division 8.5 Sealed Chaches, out of 10.

I played Tom Clancy's The Division on Playstation 4 which I bought the Gold Edition of the game that has the season pass included.