Fenix Phyre's Top 5 Games of 2017

So I want to start off this list by first giving the disclosure that not all of these games are games that I've played to completion, as when you tend to play 20-30 games a year finishing ALL of them is an incredible feat that typically doesn't happen.  That being said I have played enough of them to get the general idea behind the game and its effects to a satisfying level for myself to feel I can talk about it in a complete and positive light, even if I'm missing some aspects of the story.  Also while no game is ever disqualified from these prestigious awards I would like to emphasize that I do take things like microtransactions, HD remakes, and general reaction between community and publisher/developer in to account as well (albeit to a much smaller degree than the core game play mechanics). With that lets being with a small section of honorable mentions:

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft, NIS America
Platform: PS4, PS Vita, PC
U.S. Release Date: September 26, 2017

This series holds a well earned place in my heart, and while I'll fully admit to not giving V3 the time it deserves this year, the small time I had with it was magical nonetheless.  Spike Chunsoft has continuously found new ways to keep the game fresh and entertaining through out the entire experience, and V3 is no exception to this rule.  The cast is colorful, the scenery is impressive, and the story is downright bizarre as you try and discover the truth behind the events leading the cast into this new mind numbing killing game.

Nioh
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Koei Techmo, Sony Interactive
Platform: PS4, PC
U.S. Release Date: Feburary 7, 2017

With the surging popularity of Dark Souls a large number of games have released to try and recreate the iconic formula with varrying degrees of success.  Nioh, decided to take the base core of Dark Souls and its stamina and resource management and grueling combat system and rather than mimic it, build on it in its own unique way.  While I personally have never been a Dark Souls player I am in love with Nioh.  The action is fast paced, faster I dare say than Bloodborne, the combat brutal, bosses challenging, and enemies unique.  Enough is built into the game to keep you coming back for more with increasing difficulty and challenging modes being unlocked after completing the game even veterans Souls fans will find the games end post game a difficult challenge suitable for any who want to truly test their steel.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Switch
U.S. Release Date: March 3, 2017

I would be remiss not to point out that the newest Zelda game has done wonders for the Switch as a system.  While the game is far from perfect, I do feel that a large amount of the success of the console can be attributed to this game.  It was a major game to pick as a launch title for the console and one that I feel really turned the tide around for Nintendo in an otherwise bleak looking future.  If not for Zelda and its massive fanbase the Switch would have probably only done half of its very impressive sales numbers this year.  And for that reason I'm giving Breath of the Wild a well deserved honorable mention.

Now that we have the honorable mentions out of the way let us get on to the main course, the reason everyone is here.  The top 5 game released in 2017.

5) South Park: The Fractured But Whole

Developer: Ubisoft San Francisco

Publisher: Ubisoft

Platform: PS4, XB1, PC

U.S. Release Date: October 17, 2017

To many, the South Park series is a childish cartoon that is full of bad jokes, bad language, and kids that any parent would be ashamed of.  To many others, the show is a rare insight into cultural events with a very careful and calculated approach about some of the absurdities of modern culture.  South Park: The Fractured But Whole does all of this and then some, but our topic this time is super hero movies.  The game references the show very heavily (specifically the latest 4-5 seasons) and continues the story the the New Kid, or Dumbass as they are lovingly called, and even presents some kind of eye opening commentary on other subjects, surprisingly including the option for them to be transgender (speaking of which you get some hilarious Mr Mackey scenes if your character is a transgender female of him calling to talk to your parents) which I felt was a HUGE step forward.

The combat system is different this time around swapping the turn based Final Fantasy action for a grid based Fire Emblem inspired experience.  You still have a turn based experience, however you are free to move your team around the board and use your abilities making your positioning a very large part of the game to avoid attacks, buff allies, maximize potential.  Also some nice QoL changes are that your life recovers outside of combat, and that you have no resource pool on abilities, just turn cool downs, and your super bar is shared between your team.  Without giving away too much of the game I can honestly say I highly recommend that everyone play South Park TFBW

4) Super Mario Odyssey

Developer: Nintendo EPD

Publisher: Nintendo

Platform: Switch

U.S. Release Date: October 27, 2017

To say that Nintendo isn't dedicated to their flagship titles would be akin to lying to people, and Super Mario Odyssey is the perfect example of this.  A bold new Mario on a bold new console the game breathes fresh life into a tried a true Mario formula that doesn't seem be any more worse for wear despite its age.  The game focuses around Mario and Peach and their every closing wedding day as Bowser crashes the party and take Peach as his own bride Mario must join forces with his new hat pal Cappy, board the ship known as the Odyssey and get back his betrothed. 

The game boasts a fresh outlook on classic Mario approach by seamlessly blending 3D exploration with 2D platformer (sometimes literally).  With Cappys abilities to allow Mario to take over the body of his enemies you are given new ways to solve puzzles and every thing you do seems to reward you.  Nintendo spent some serious time devoted to level design and thinking it through in this iteration, if you as a player feels that a certain simple task or action should give you a Power Moon then chances are it probably does.  No alley is left unexplored, everything in the game is placed there with meaning, and even the optional bosses and challenges are incredibly fun, even if they are difficult.  It's the perfect pick up and play Mario experience.  Now if only Nintendo could do some sort of achievement system....

3) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Developer: Machine Games

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Platform: PS4, XB1, PC, Switch (2018)

U.S. Release Date: October 27, 2017

So uh, October was kind of a wild month with some really excellent games.  And chief among these was Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, which I'm going to refer to as Wolf 2 from here out.  Wolf 2 sees the return of series front runner and most pissed off Nazi-hunter, BJ Blazkowicz, and oh boy is he mad.  After spending 5 months in a coma, and discovering the Nazis are still on his ass about the whole "killing them" thing, BJ dons the super armor and takes the fight to the Nazis.....in America.  His objective this time is to get all of America as pissed of as he is, and he does a pretty good job of it.

Wolf 2 is just a brutal, if not more so, than its previous entries in the series.  The melee weapon this time around is a hatchet, which is (to no ones surprise) given a large number of over the top brutal Nazi enders in the form of regular and sneaky melee attacks.  Another major QoL change this time around is the classic ability to run and gun with two different weapons.  Want the stopping power of a shotgun but the range of an assault rifle?  Toss on both and let the lead fly as you take it to the Nazis while shoving your boot up their collective assholes.  My biggest complaint about the last game was the distinct lack of decent ranged options during the games stealth sections.  Well fear not, for this time around we are given a weapon upgrade option which includes a silencer for the pistol, making it so you're not exclusively dependent on the games special weapon (the lazerkraftwerk in the last game and dieselkraftwerk in this one).  

Finally I would be woefully remiss if I didn't at least mention that the mere existence of this game pissed off those on the far right and alt-right camps.  It seems the lesson of 70 years ago was never drilled into some of our heads of Nazis being bad so we need to retell it in all its gory detail.  If every other game on this list gets ignored don't skip this one, it is by far the most important game of the year, and not to mention one of the best.

2) Persona 5

Developer: Altus

Publisher: Altus, Atlus USA, Deep Silver

Platform: PS3, PS4

U.S. Release Date: April 4, 2017

Given my love of JRPGs this should come as little surprise to anyone.  The fifth main installment, and first main installment in nine years, in the Persona, Persona 5 takes players on what I can only describe as an LSD fueled journey though the wild, weird, and wacky as you command The Phantom Thieves while they work to steal the hearts of all who are devoid of justice in Tokyo.  The protagonist, whose name changes depending on media (Akira Kurusu in the manga or Ren Amamiya), lives a double life as a mild mannered high school student who must keep his nose down else he find a large amount of legal trouble, and a notorious phantom thief who sets out to other worldly palaces to right the wrongs that have been inflicted upon others in the world.  In standard Persona style others will join you along your adventure and it is up to you to make the most of their involvement.

Fans of the Persona franchise will be familiar with the games robust social link system and time-limiting daily life schedule.  As you race through dungeons to maximize your time in the real world to work on social links, social stats, and improve your character, so too must you pay attention to small details in game else you risk missing out on important opportunities like a rainy day bath, or a potential relationship with one of your social links.  The game focuses heavily on the development of your list of personas and your social links only provide to buff them even further, granting you a bonus when combining a persona of the related arcana in addition to combat bonuses to developing relationships with your allies.  For any long standing JRPG aficionado Persona 5 is a must play as you will get roughly 90 hours out of one playthough, and trust me, you'll want to do more.  

None of that though even begins to approach the games amazing soundtrack, stunning visuals, and absolutely charming cast of characters, each a diverse and unique as the designs of their persona.  Altus took their time on this one and the love and hand crafting that went into it speaks every minute that you play it.  Numerous people on online message boards have actually given it large amounts of praise because of how accurate they were in depicting certain areas of Tokyo saying that they took their time and studied the city to bring it to life in game.  With all the love and attention Person 5 received from Atlus lets just say that this is a game I will be talking about for years to come.

1) Horizon Zero Dawn

Developer: Guerrilla Games

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Platform: PS4

U.S. Release Date: Febuary 28, 2017

My game of the year award goes to a game that I have been keeping my eyes on ever since it was first announced at E3 2015.  Its a game that I feel reminds us why we play games, that tells a beautiful story with a positive message that doesn't get too preachy.  It's a game that allows and encourages us to look at games as more than just an interactive experience and push forward ideas of what we can do with this medium.  Of course I'm talking about Horizon Zero Dawn.  In an age where the majority of AAA titles are focusing on how their games can get the most from their consumer Horizon Zero Dawn focuses on how it can give the consumer the most.  With a truly impressive 40 hour storyline and a new game plus mode available for completionists HZD.

HZD focuses on the story of Aloy, a young woman who was cast out at birth of her Nora because no mother would claim her.  As she grows with the help of a fellow outcast named Rost she aspires to be welcomed in the Nora so she can have a community she has never known.  When it comes time to complete the trials into adulthood and be accepted back into the tribe the Nora are attacked and it is up to Aloy to track down the attackers and discover why.  Over the course of her journey she discovers that she has a greater destiny and role to play in all of this and must overcome treacherous obstacles, discover the truth of what happened to the ancient ones and their cities, and find out why machines now rule the planet.

Of course those of us that have played the game though know that HZD is not only a game with a truly unique storyline, but it is also one of possibilities.  A feature of the game that I've long held in high regard is how fun the combat is, and how engaging the game can be in its diversity of approaches.  You can approach almost any fight in any number of ways, and different weapons add to the fun.  Every person is different and will use different approaches.  A good example of this is I'm a fan of traps, trip wires, and rope casters, while my roommate enjoyed slings a good bit.  We each had a different approach to the same obstacles and found our own niche in doing so. 

The most important part of HZD though, is that it's just plain fun.  No strings attached.  The game is beautiful, the music is moving, the art is something out of this world.  Anyone who skipped this one would be remiss to not pick it up at some point to enjoy it.  And thats why I'm naming Horizon Zero Dawn as my 2017 game of the year.

As with every year however there are some titles I unfortunately don't get a chance to play, I may have them sitting on my shelf, or maybe I never got around to buying them, but regardless these are games that I consider my misses of the year.  Games that looked genuinely good and worthwhile, but unfortunately never got into my schedule.  For 2017 the misses were:

•  Nier Automata
• .hack//G.U. Last Recode
• Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
• Tales of Berseria
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Puyo Puyo Tetris
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (though this is kind of in a special category as to why)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2

I know it may seem like a long list, but when you consider I played 30-40 games this year, work a full time job, AND cosplay and go to conventions the fact the list is so small is rather impressive if I may say so myself.

That's it for 2017.  Here's to hoping that 2018 is another great year in gaming.  Have fun everyone!

In regards to recent times

I would like to take a minute to apologize for being so quiet lately, however life has been hectic the last month as I have been working 2 jobs and somehow managed to still find a little time to devote time to a couple of recent releases, and most importantly spending time with friends, family, and my fur babies (seriously they're precious). But with that being said I am planning on doing a best of 2017 post here in the next few days so be on the look out for that, and while I must regrettably say that I haven't played everything I wanted to, I have played some stellar titles and will include a small list of some of the games I personally feel I did an injustice to by not making time for them.  Until then I wish everyone the warmest holiday spirits and that you were/are able to spend time with family and loved ones.

Rantology: Talking about Microtransactions

So one of the biggest things in the game industry right now is the trend for companies to want to rip ever last dime you have from your wallet and give you seemingly little in return.  Whether it be different amount for different editions of the game, a plethora of cosmetic items and virtual currency bought with real money for in game items and rewards, or the loot box system that started coming under fire last year when the game launched.  However, some of these are more insidious than others because they don't offer the player a guaranteed product that they can judge to be worth their money.  Now the debate of whether this is gambling or not I will try to avoid, as it has been covered, beaten, and then covered again over the years (full disclosure it is textbook gambling and if you don't think so please go fuck off).  No what I want to do is talk about the cost of games, the ethics of such a thing and why it's dangerous, even if you can afford it.

The Cost of Games

Full disclosure I have bought loot boxes in the past.  Do I regret my decision?  Not necessarily.  Am I adding to the problem?  Absolutely.  But that's the first part of the problem, admitting there is one and knowing when you are being part of it.  Loot boxes are a problem, micro-transactions are a problem.  I have added to that problem.  I fully admit that and I'm not going to beat around the bush with it.  What really needs to be addressed here is the value behind this as a service.  What does that mean?  Simply put at what point in time does a product stop being valuable to the consumer?  This is one of the most researched topics in human history as companies want to maximize their profits and their sales.  Lets use cereal as an example.  If I am a large cereal company like Kelloggs and I am selling boxes of oh so delicious Frosted Flakes to my customers, I need to make sure that I give enough product at the right price to both make money, and yet still have it affordable enough to make a profit from. Meaning if I were to charge $10 a box I would have a huge profit margin, but I probably wont sell a lot of boxes due to not many consumers seeing the value in my product.  Thus I'd need to sacrifice my profit margin for sales to earn more money overall.  This is pretty simple economics so far.

But how does all of this apply to the games industry?  Well simply put the industry has agreed upon a price of $60 retail for a game, and while this price will vary in countries because of exchange rates (except Australia because you cheeky fuckers are weird) this is generally the agreed upon price.  While that seems a fair price to pay, publishers will argue otherwise, claiming that they don't make all the money off of the sale and while they technically do make most of it and are recovering some losses from their earlier contracts (basically the cost they pay the developer, console and brand licensing, and the costs to advertise the game are all paid up at front while the profits and retailer portion is actually earned at the cash register).  So if we take a game with a $100 Million budget (and assuming a retailer rater of 15%) they would need to sell roughly 2 Million copies to make their money back on that project, over that to start making money.  However with the advent of digital distribution a player buying a digital copy of the game off their platforms distribution service will effectively cut out the 15% retail cut giving that to the publisher, thus making them more money (which is why we've seen a huge push for digital sales in recent years).

Publishers will say that every game should need to make its money back on its own, and while that is a statement I can understandably agree with, that is not the reality.  See far too many games exist for this kind of a market to effectively exist (saying that roughly 1 million copies need be sold for every $50 Million in costs) especially considering even your lightly played games still have the expectation of being of a certain quality (sorry I don't like clipping Janice!!)  When you break this down you must realize that there is a minimum amount  that is needed for that quality to be achieved.  These costs come in the form paying developers, artists, voice actors, musicians, and all the other staff at a development studio to make the game (who typically don't see a dime after the game is launched based on the games success unlike other forms of entertainment media), and staff at the publisher, and console companies too. So it's understandable why they cost so much, but the publisher obviously wants a return on their investment.

Now lets go back to our Kelloggs example above for this next part.  Say I have a not significant amount of customers wanting a new type of cereal, like Bran Flakes for example.  Obviously this isn't going to be a large seller, but the demand for this product is big enough that the costs wont be too absurd to make it, so it would make sense for us as a company to make this and sell this.  Now I may end up losing some money on it occasionally but it makes people happy and it gets the Kelloggs name out there driving more sales of my other brands so I'm okay with it especially considering I have my guaranteed Frosted Flakes to pick up the slack on an off month for it.  This same idea applies to the game industry.  For every game like Madden that makes EA a TON of money, ten games like Dead Space exist to fill a more niche roll in the market for a specific type of game and to ultimately make my consumers happy so I get a better rep.  Yea, Dead Space may not have been a super huge block buster hit, but it does have a cult following of die hard fans who will gladly buy more games in the series because it gives them what they want.  It may even lose money here and there, but the good rep with your consumer base pays off more than well enough.  This is a fact that is lost on these more digital entertainment companies because they're seen as a premium product and believe they're above the rules for other companies.  The no longer respect their Bran Flakes.

The ill advised ethics of micro-transactions in the digital age

As many of us know and will agree to micro-transactions and loot boxes are largely disliked, but they are still be driven by out ever increasing "want it now" mentality.  Why play the game and spend time earning things if you can just pay a little extra and get it right now?  That hat that looks nice, well either 3 hours of gameplay, or hey, toss me $5 and I'll just give it to you!  This is the problem, companies don't consider the alternative besides what they will gain from it.  As someone who has worked selling games some people decide to not buy a game simply because there are micro-transactions in the game.  The cost of entry is already $60, why should they be forced to suffer through a game hallmarking the extra money they can chose to spend simply because a publisher wants to make more money on top of that?

The problem with this is if I'm paying a cost of entry of $60 already, which is a lot, I should not be pressured into giving you more money.  If you want to make more money simply charge more money for the product at the register.  I'd personally be okay paying $5-$10 more per title if it meant I wouldn't get rimjobbed with micro-transactions all day while playing my games.  Because I'll fully admit, they are tempting, they're designed to be so.  The system is made such that it is supposed to be tempting, so the temptation is an additional price, and if I'm not paying anything to get in then I'll gladly deal with the temptation and will actually more than likely to slide a few dollars to the game if I genuinely enjoy it.

Recent events *cough* Battlefront 2 *cough* have really encouraged i'll used ethics by not only time-gating but also pay-gating characters and having an almost 0 skill barrier behind it but instead hey, give EA $100 and you can be almost the deadliest thing on the planet thanks to it.  Which is a shame because I was looking forward for this game.  While I do want to keep talking about Battlefront 2 and Star Wars as a whole that will probably be a separate post.

The long and short of the ethics here is that there are no ethics for them in a $60+ retail game, even if it is cosmetic in nature only.  The cost of entry has already been achieved, if you feel that this isn't enough, simply charge more.

Why micro-transactions are dangerous

Now as we have seen with preorders and season passes and I can cry wolf about slippery slopes all day the fact is that this isn't even the worst part.  No the worst part is in the future we're probably going to see parts of the game split up and served to us on a silver platter for premium prices, because lets face it, companies want to nickle and dime us for every last dollar we have.  See that really cool Halo game?  Well if you want to play certain pieces of it only you can, but surprise surprise buying it piece wise will be more expensive in the long run, and even if you bundle them you may be lucky to get it for the same price.  Imagine paying $30 each for campaign, competitive, and cooperative multiplayer, and then this being touted as a good thing because players can get and pay only $30* for the games, but the real cost could be up to $90.  For an example of this look at what is currently happening with games like Hitman where they're breaking the story up into pieces.  And while other franchises have been doing this thank god they don't have the audacity to charge over $60 and are reasonably priced experiences.

Honestly the real slippery slope is what will publishers think up next to try and shoehorn as much money out of people as they can because they can.  The issues are what comes next, what comes after, how do we protect ourselves as consumers from this bullshit, because it is bullshit.  I know I, for one, will be boycotting Battlefront 2 because of this weeks revelations, at least until it's only a $20 game or I can get a cheap copy preowned (because fuck EA and fuck money going into their pockets because they don't deserve that shit ever).  Join me in pledging to not buy lootboxes, not to give in to the pressure that they represent, and not to give into the micro-transaction shit anymore to show that we wont make them profitable.

Really if you give even a fraction of a shit about the games you play and the quality of your experience you need to not buy these horrible misguided mistakes that we have been forced to endure.  Vote with your wallets, don't make these profitable, show that they're a waste of money as they wont make money for the developer.  Till next time folks.

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.