My E3 2021 Predictions

It's definitely been a long time since I wrote anything. Six years has gone by pretty fast, hasn't it? My perspective on a lot of things has changed. My views have mostly stayed the same, but it's how I saw other people, including myself, that changed. I'm still me, though. It's the only person I know how to be. I can't live a double life. The ones that do are the ones you need to not get near. Anyway, I thought I'd go back to a topic that I'm still ingrained in, which is video games. I guess a lot more people have turned to them, recently; given how the world basically ended and everyone curled into a ball in their attic for a year by decree and tyrannical force. The video game mecca, formerly known as E3, is almost upon us again. I thought it'd be a good time to share some predictions and thoughts about what might be showing up there.

1 - I believe Microsoft's Halo Infinite re-unveiling will be met with mostly positive, but slightly concerned reactions. This really comes down to 343i's writing of campaigns for 4 and 5, and their focus on what Halo is. The love story between the Chief and Cortana hasn't been met kindly, to say the least. While a soft reboot may be occuring, it's possible this plot thread comes back and it won't turn heads in a good way if it does.

2 - Starfield, the next big game from Bethesda, will get a spring 2022 release date. To me, Bethesda is Microsoft's crown jewel right now. While the Chief might be their Mario, like Zelda, Bethesda is their most important tool. They're not an IP, mind you, but Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Starfield; all from Todd Howard and crew? They're the ones that will make Game Pass, Microsoft's key equalizer against Sony, shine.

3 - I don't believe the new Fable will show up. Fable is probably Microsoft's most important IP in terms of telling how the Xbox division is being managed. After years of being run on the bone, they're finally adding meat to it. I do believe it will show up in 2022, however; if not sooner.

4 - Microsoft's second tier IP's, namely Forza, Psychoanuts 2 (which is multiplatform), etc. will be surprising highlights of the show, creating more goodwill for the brand, providing a healthy bump in mindshare going into the fall.

5 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will get a proper name, which I think will be called "Reach of the Wild." In the original, you breathed in the world, but now you will reach out and touch it. Yeah, that's pretty corny, but at least I'm telling why I think it'll be called that. There's also the part about that glowing arm having a key role to that makes me think it'll involve wordplay as well. So when will it release? September 17th, 2021. This might seem soon, but the marketing cycle has been in full on boil mode for a bit too long; it's time to turn up the heat.

6- A new 2D Donkey Kong game will be announced from the EPD Tokyo team, who previously made all 2D and 3D Mario games, as well as Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. If I had to think of a name, it'd be "Donkey Kong Jungle Smash" but I don't think that's really important here. I think it will come out in March 2022 as well, since the Gen 4 Pokemon remakes and Legends Arceus are already taking up November and January slots.

7 - I believe Nintendo will announce a dual-pack remake for Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn called "Radiant Saga," at least in the west. This will likely be a vague 2022 release. I know people think Fire Emblem 4, which was only released in Japan is due for a remake here, but that recently got put on the Japanese SNES online app, which makes me think the next Fire Emblem won't be that.

8 - Nintendo will unveil post-launch plans for Mario Golf Super Rush, including new characters and courses, starting with Donkey Kong and a jungle-themed course as well as a new major update for Animal Crossing New Horizons, which will be The Roost, marking Brewster's return.

9 - I think the next Challenger Pack for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia.  Lloyd is the last remaining Mii costume that hasn't been put into the game, and given the release of a new Tales game this fall, despite it not coming to Nintendo Switch, makes me believe that Lloyd is going to be Bandai Namco's second character.

10 - Other No-Shows: Metroid, 2D or 3D or Trilogy.  I don't believe the rumors.  In fact, I believe the series is highly mis-managed, and hasn't been corrected.  I don't think a new Mario game will show up, whether it be Platformer or Spin-Off.  Mario needs the break after last year.  Sports Story will be absent, as will the rumored Switch revision.

Thank you for reading, and I hope to make more posts in the future.

Mario Party 10 Thoughts

It's been a long time since I've put my thoughts to words, but here we are again. A surprise game, Mario Party 10. This won't be a formal review, as it won't really have a traditional review structure of mine, but it will hopefully give an impression of what I think of the game.

Mario Party 10 has 3 main modes. Bowser Party, the big draw of the game I suppose; 'traditional' Mario Party in the sense that this is the Mario Party Nintendo's adopted since the last one; and amiibo Party, the third main mode that requires you to unlock it each and every time you play, despite having already played it before.

Bowser Party is a bit unfair towards the Bowser Player I think, and while you can re-roll with a chance to get better rolls to catch players, forcing them into Bowser mini-games, it's still not an ideal situation. Against the AI, it's not unexpected for the AI to roll 20 total across 4 players multiple times in a row. Not only that, expect the AI to cheat to magically get knocked-out players back in before a single turn ends. It's frustrating to work so hard in too fast mini-games to KO a player only to have them re-appear no problem a single roll later. And yeah, the Bowser Mini-games are about 10-seconds long, while a couple don't even seem to work properly. It's like 'why bother?'

Mario Party is something that I first enjoyed immensely, but over multiple runs I found myself less satisfied with. I hated that I never had full control of what I was doing, movement wise. I know it's a race-to-the-finish sorta thing now, and it was designed to be faster, but it feels too much like Wii Party/Wii Party U, which I want to say I prefer. At least there you knew what you were up against and it didn't try to fool you into thinking you were in a better position than you actually were. Also, getting rid of Coins for Mini-Game Stars is just the dumbest thing, especially when once all 4 players take a turn, a mini-game doesn't automatically happen. You have to now land on a mini-game space to take part in one. I know this is how Mario Party 9 did this, but it's still not good because now instead of mini-games being the best part of the series, they now feel like chores. I can see why Nintendo changed the formula after Mario Party 8 sucking so bad, but it's not something that needed changing, only refined out of the melting sludge it had become.

Amiibo Party is supposed to be a callback to the original Mario Party formula but it's A LOT more convoluted. You need a Gamepad, 4 Wii Remotes and 4 Amiibo to play. That doesn't sound so bad you say? Well, Wii Remotes are only used for Mini-Games and pointing, while players move around the board by touching their amiibo to the Gamepad. This is also how you pickup and use tokens that are attached to your amiibo. See how complicated that sounds? In Mario Party 8 (and I imagine 9 as well) it's 'here's a Wii Remote, go!' I feel like Nintendo had to make amiibo more of an integral design choice here to justify them making them as opposed to how they work in Smash Bros., but ultimately those were a better solution than what is here. Players are essentially chained to the Gamepad for this mode, and it's tiring. I do like that you can have multiple board pieces make up a board the more you play, as well as being able to change it during the middle of a game, but that still requires constant use.

Another thing I find annoying about this Mario Party is the distinct lack of options. You can't make a board longer. You can't make mini-games longer. You can't even make Amiibo Party games longer. When I imagine Mario Party, I imagine 4-6 friends gathered around a TV with controllers, food and beverages having a night of playtime. With Mario Party 10, I feel like Nintendo has gotten away from that 'players will play endless nights' with a game, but I feel like that's more of a condition of how Nintendo's made games for the past decade than anything.

I don't despise this game or anything. I just feel like the people making it are missing out on why people loved Mario Party to begin with. The lack of online play doesn't help matters any, either.

Animal Crossing: Fixes and Wants

Animal Crossing is a very relaxing series that really only demands from the player what the player wants to put into it. While Wild World expanded the scope of the series with things like new characters and online play, City Folk’s attempt to add the fabled “City” to the series was received a gigantic sigh from its’ audience. Then along came New Leaf which added new items, a new mayoral system and changed how older mechanics worked, specifically special visitors and how certain items are collected. However, the world of Animal Crossing is still not ideal, with many problems old and new plaguing it that need to be addressed for the series to improve, as well as desires from myself that I’d consider a major step forward for the series.


Fixes
Online Play
- Opening/Visiting Towns
Ever since online play was implemented into Wild World, players have had to suffer through the arduous task of having to open their gates, be notified that someone was coming over to visit, the game saving, watching a slow animation of players passing through the gate and then finally regaining control. This process repeats every time a player enters or leaves a town. While New Leaf allowed hosts to end a multiplayer session, having players leave en mass, there’s still a lot left to be desired about the series’ online functionality. There needs to be an option to allow players to start games with their gates open so players can come and go as they please. Saving every time someone enters/leaves a town needs to stop as well. The game should save in the background, and not impede the gameplay of people already in town, as how it is currently dissuades people from playing online.

- Safety from Trolls/Thieves
Another issue that dissuades players from playing online is trolls and thieves. When a player enters your town, they can do anything you can do in your town, including running over flowers, chopping down trees, and taking items that lay freely on the ground. While it’s recommended that you don’t allow these people into your town, you never really know who you can trust or when accidents may happen. To remedy this, visiting players need to be restricted from destroying flowers, chopping down trees and picking up items unless they are in a designated area of some kind. While it may “restrict” some of the fun players can have visiting peoples’ towns, it still allows people to get items from different towns as well as shop, talk to villagers, catch bugs, fish and visit the island. Ultimately, this doesn’t really take away anything from anyone.

Inventory Management
- Tools
Tools are a staple to the Animal Crossing series, as well as to any player’s inventory screen, which is exactly the problem. Tools give you the ability to cut down trees, uproot fossils and gyroids, catch fish and bugs and shoot things out of the air. In New Leaf you are only allotted 16 item slots, and with new tool additions such as the Wet Suit and Megaphone to go along with the Shovel, Net, Fishing Rod, Axe and others, your inventory becomes limited very quickly. As much as 10 inventory slots can be taken up by unique tools overall. Additionally, your Tools aren’t granted protection like some items, which means they can be sold accidentally to Re-Tail and lost forever, which is painful if you accidentally sold a Gold or Silver item. So what’s the solution here? Some items in New Leaf are granted what I call “protection,” meaning that they can’t be sold, traded or let go of, like the Bingo card during the winter months. My suggestion here is that Tools and items like the Bingo card be allotted their own inventory screen so they don’t take up regular inventory space and can’t be lost by accident. They’re staple items, and should be treated differently from regular inventory items.

- Money/Fruit Stacking
In previous entries, Animal Crossing allowed you to stack money that you accumulated over 99,999 bells in your inventory space up to 99,000 bells per space. New Leaf took this a step further by allowing you to stack fruit so you could carry more. The major missing component here is that these do not stack automatically has to be done so manually, which is a chore and cumbersome to do every time. This needs to be addressed going forward by automatically stacking fruit up to 9 pieces in one slot as well as bells. This would immensely help minimize item management.

Public Works Projects
- Police Station
There are two types of PWP’s. Ones that are received by performing a set of various in-game objectives and those received at random. The ones received from objectives are special ones, such as the Dream Suite, the Reset Center and the second floor of the museum. Like these, the Police Station share the same restriction that they can’t be demolished once built. However, this one can only be received as a random request from a villager. The question is why? It’s the bane of many New Leaf players that haven’t received the request to build this, despite having played for months. It needs to be unlocked in a special way like the Museum’s second floor, the Café, and the Reset Center instead of being rewarded at random.

- Katrina’s Shop
Katrina’s Shop is earned by visiting Katrina’s Tent in the town plaza of your own town 20 times you’re your playable residents. Considering that Special Visitors in New Leaf are not on a strict schedule like in previous games, this is a major pain. It can be months between Katrina visits in your town, delaying how often you can get psychic readings from her. The fastest way for you to get her shop is to visit Katrina 5 times with 4 different playable villagers and the last visit being with your Mayor. The number of required readings needs to be reduced, Katrina needs to be put on a set schedule (like other visitors) or the chances of her visiting goes up once you’ve gotten everything from all special visitors that come on a schedule (Redd, Gracie, Gulliver, etc.)

- Dream Suite
The Dream Suite is unlocked by visiting Isabelle after a few days of playing the game where you find her asleep at her post. This place allows you to visit copies of player’s towns at the exact moment of them being uploaded and updated with the exception of Main Street, in-town shops which are closed, and villagers which still roam freely around town and can interact with them. While the concept of the Dream Suite is nice, and being able to see a large portion of villagers you may have never seen before, the one problem here is the process. Your dream town, which if damaged won’t affect your regular town, is assigned a dream code. Now if you don’t update every couple of days your code can change. But the question is why? The old code still remains, and can still be accessed by players, but can never be updated, nor are they deleted like the game says. This needs to be fixed. When your town is assigned a Dream Code, it needs to stick. It shouldn’t be change, regardless of how often you update your Dream Town. It’s a hassle to change dream codes, it causes confusion for people who want to visit the same town multiple times and it follows the same stigma of friend codes, which are simply unintuitive.

Grass Wear/Animal Tracks
Animal Crossing City Folk added a new mechanic to the series that quickly became a bane to most players, known as Grass Wear or Animal Tracks. This mechanic slowly wore down grass so dirt paths were now present between common paths players and villagers took in each town. In City Folk, the mechanic worked too quickly, making it very easy for towns to become a barren wasteland where no grass was in sight. While New Leaf improved greatly on this mechanic, it’s still nearly impossible to re-grow grass, even in matters where the best player knowledge comes into play. There’s no specific in-game trick, tool or device to allow players to grow or maintain grass levels. The fix here is simple: Get rid of the mechanic entirely or give players a tool to allow them to maintain grass levels. One thing is for certain though, grass wear is not a mechanic many players enjoy and needs fixed.

Tournaments
Every few weeks or so on a Saturday, your town plays host to a Fishing or Bug-Catching Tournament. The rules are just like you think, with limitations some of the time on what can be entered. The big problem here is that there isn’t a scoreboard available for the Tournament. You can only receive your current standing when you talk to the Coordinator, and he’ll vaguely tell if you’re first, second or third. There needs to be some kind of visible scoreboard available at all times to give you an indication of where you stand against other competitors throughout the day.


Wants
Expanded Able Sisters
The Able Sisters throughout the history of Animal Crossing has been the primary place where you purchase clothes. While the series has secondary ways to acquire clothes and City Folk introduced Gracie’s shop in the City, New Leaf brought a lot more purchasable clothes in all forms, in addition to new forms of clothing such as pants, socks and shoes. While Kicks is a place to get Socks and Shoes as well as accessories from Labelle, you’re still severely limited to the amount of shirts/bottoms you can normally obtain from the main Able Sisters shop. While Nookling Junction has been expanded many times, the Able Sisters haven’t. I think it’s a good time for this to happen, allowing you to buy even more Shirts, Dresses and Bottoms than you can normally.

Bigger Town
Animal Crossing has over 300 unique villagers. In New Leaf, at any one time, you can only have 11 (10 villagers and 1 camper) villagers in your town. Players of the series can play day-in, day-out for months and not see a single new character if they don’t play with others or visit other peoples’ towns via the internet in some way. Animal Crossing needs to expand by allowing players to have more villagers, perhaps in the form of districts where more villagers could make residence in each one. Doing so would allow people to meet more villagers and have an expanded view of what the series has to offer to fight off repetition.

Item Bank
Animal Crossing has always been notorious for item collection. It’s also been notorious for having a low amount of inventory space in each game. With the increase of items in New Leaf, as well as ones that can’t be re-purchased, item space became even more premium. One of Nintendo’s recent releases is Pokemon Bank, which allows players to transfer and keep Pokemon from older games and be able to transport them for use in newer games. The concept would be similar for Animal Crossing, but for items and clothes. It can take years for players to obtain a complete Catalog in a single Animal Crossing game let alone multiple versions. Why not allow loyal players to keep their item collection for years to come? It would definitely cut down on some of the monotony of daily window shopping and allow players to concentrate more on their town and villagers.

Statistics
New Leaf introduced the concept of Badges as proof of your accomplishments in-game. One thing that’s missing however is the simple understanding of how close you are to achieving certain goals for them. New Leaf allows you to see the number of people who’ve visited your town, but beyond that, there isn’t much. Luna should be able to tell you how many times you’ve dreamed, Leif should be able to tell you how many weeds you’ve picked, flowers you’ve planted, etc. etc. etc. It may not seem like much, but it will make those seemingly unobtainable goals seem much closer than you think they are, encouraging players to keep going.


Animal Crossing is a great series, and New Leaf is arguably the best entry in the series to date after offering a fresh entry into a series that was getting stale. In order to prevent it from getting stale in the future, these fixes need to occur, and I hope the things I want get added to the series in the future so I can continue coming back to my town for years to come.

Sonic Lost World (Wii U) Review

Sonic the Hedgehog used to be a gaming icon. During the Genesis days, the Blue Hedgehog once competed with Mario as gaming’s #1 icon. Over the course of his history, his allure faded, due to the quality of his games, and his rough transition into the third dimension. Unlike Mario, Sonic didn’t have great success right off the bat in the 3D space. Going on adventures, getting clones and many horrible friends, Sonic’s had it rough until recently. On the momentum of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World hopes to return Sonic to that high point after a long fall. But the question is, if Sonic falls again, how far will he fall this time?

Lost World begins with Sonic and Tails chasing Dr. Eggman, who has captured some critters whom he hopes to turn into Badniks. While trying to save some critters, Sonic and Tails are sent crash-landing on Lost Hex for a brand new adventure. The game has a lot of flash, running at 60 frames per second, a great art style and a good soundtrack; ultimately, this is where the universal praise for Sonic Lost World stops. Lost World starts innocently enough, but gives players a plethora of new mechanics if you’re a veteran, including a run button, a new lock-on attack system and parkour system. The run button allows Sonic to have more precise platforming moments which have been sorely missing from more recent Sonic games. As a consequence of this, Sonic, even while running, is significantly slowed down. This isn’t a bad thing, as it allows players to control Sonic more precisely, even during those high octane moments. Sonic’s lock-on system is by far the difference from past games, and worse for it. In certain moments, you can lock onto and attack multiple enemies at once by holding the attack button. The problem here is that the system is entirely dependent on how far Sonic is away from enemies, and given how the level design lays out these enemies, you will frequently not target all enemies that you wish to target, resulting in your momentum stopping, forcing you to re-attack remaining enemies or scramble to get back on level footing. It’s frustrating considering that a few bosses require this mechanic to work properly, and can too often lead to the in-game time running out, resulting in a death.

Speaking of death, the parkour system featured is half dead. Its’ implementation in the 3D space is a joke, offering nothing more than climbing up a wall or two per level in order to progress. While there are some sections of levels that allow you to move forward by running on walls, these are few and far between, and seem like afterthoughts and in some cases realizations from the developers that the section they designed for them were too hard to finish. It represents an overall problem with the game, that the levels aren’t designed around the game’s mechanics, but vice versa instead. Another issue is that some of the levels aren’t designed with the game’s mechanics in mind at all, but instead shamelessly ripping off better Nintendo platformers Super Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong Country Returns. These homages are poor substitutes, taking ideas from them and implementing them in rushed, overly long, poorly paced levels that will cause you many deaths and baffling moments about how they design their physics engine. The pacing of these levels, in other words, how levels are presented, in a Level-Boss-Level-Boss format, two of each occurring per world. This formula gets old quick and doesn’t deviate from it until the game is done, when afterwards you get access to the Hidden World, which feels like nothing more than a few levels that never even left the beta stage.

The more I played Lost World, the more I ended up hating it. It devolves into a formula is repetitious, frustrating and plain un-fun, which haunted many of the past 3D Sonic games. The inconsistencies in its controls, mechanics and level design are not something to be admired, but abhorred. While Sonic the Hedgehog from 2006/07 was a horrible game from beginning to end, Lost World started bright and hopeful, and ended up a terrible mess. The cycle from its’ unveiling to its release mirrors the game, and in that sense, a new Sonic Cycle is born.

Score: 2.5 out of 10
+ Excellent Soundtrack
+ CG graphical magic
+The game runs extremely smooth
- Inconsistent Homing Ability
- Level Design not built around the mechanics
- The epitome of what a rushed game is

Animal Crossing New Leaf Review

The newest title in Nintendo’s daily village simulation series is here in the form of Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS. The game, while similar to its predecessors introduces a lot of new features to give the series a much needed shot in the arm, even though its’ not quite as strong a dose as it needs to be to completely modernize the franchise. But through and through, New Leaf offers something old and new players alike to enjoy.

The main difference between this and previous entries is that the first player to start a game in a town is the new mayor for your town. This allows you to customize your town with various projects such as where bridges are built, what to build/upgrade, and giving Mr. Resetti his job back. You’re also allowed to change how you play the game, like if your town is up late at night, wealthy or beautiful. It’s a much welcome change of pace, especially to those of us who would like to play Animal Crossing after a long day of work, but can’t do anything because shops are closed and neighbors are asleep. Giving the player control of what to build livens up the pace of the game to make it feel more alive. While it can get frustrating sometimes to wait for new projects to arise, when they do, it’s exciting to have something new to look forward to in the game, and makes you want to earn bells faster to accommodate those new arrivals.

Speaking of bells, you’ll need a lot of them to complete these projects in a timely manner, but the game accommodates this by providing you even more ways to earn bells. The famous money rock now produces an extra bag for you to earn, a second shop allows you to sell various items to your neighbors more easily, you can earn 5,000 bells a day by updating your town through the dream suite, and last but not least, is the return of the island, which can earn you upwards of 100,000 bells per visit. Keep in mind that you will have to unlock this privilege however. In addition to spending bells on projects for your town, in tradition you can upgrade your house beyond what is necessary. You can build up to a total of six rooms and expand each room three times. This will be very time consuming since you can only do a single house upgrade per day and the maximum upgrades will cost nearly 600,000 bells a piece. Another new feature here is being able to upgrade the outside of your house, including your fence, mailbox, door, roof, siding, etc. These also count as house upgrades so they do get in the way of your standard upgrades on a day to day basis, but cost significantly less to do.

Another significant change here is special visitors, whereas in games prior you could have up to two special visitors per day, one in the morning and one in the evening. This has changed to a meager one per day, but in addition to that, they no longer appear in a set order with the exception of Joan, who still appears only on Sunday mornings. This gives players more time to talk to a special visitor, but it does slow the game down a bit, which is a theme for this game. A problem that arises from this is that while a visitor may only appear once per week as always, they are less likely to appear since only one of them can appear per day. In order to remedy most of these situations is the ability to visit other players’ towns, either locally or via the internet. This can help you get a fortune read from Katrina or a piece of artwork from Redd’s Gallery, or help you sell turnips at Re-Tail, a new shop, for ridiculous profit. While you don’t have an in-game friend code like previous iterations, you can register a few best friends via your in-game menu to see when they come online, which helps you coordinate playing with friends.

You can also play with random players online on the Island, which features several island tours for you to play. They take no more than 10 minutes each, in which you earn medals, which you can trade in for various goods at the island shop. This is a good way to play with people on the island so your personal island isn’t messed with by people you don’t know. Unfortunately, that’s where the changes to online end. The process is still painstakingly slow, taking up to a minute to enter and leave a town once it tells you that you’re connected. It’s frustrating that Nintendo can’t speed up this process after three iterations having online connectivity.

There is a more passive way to visit peoples’ towns this time in the form of the Dream Suite, an unlockable shop that allows players to enter the dream versions of towns. Unfortunately you can’t bring back any items with you, nor does anything you do affect the town you visit. It’s ultimately a nice way to get ideas about your own town and potentially get new designs, if the town owner allows it. By uploading your own town, you get bells daily as well. Along your every day chores is your inventory system, which, while being slightly revamped, is still the weakest part of the game and the most damaging. While you can now stack fruit, it doesn’t do so automatically. This goes the same for money, which isn’t automatically put into your Bells pocket. In addition to this, the game has more equipment items in the form of a megaphone, which allows you to call out for villagers walking around, and a wetsuit, which allows you to swim in the ocean and dive for sea creatures. While these are nice features, they complicate the problem with item management. Each piece of equipment takes up an inventory slot, and you will constantly have to juggle your inventory to make space for the items you want or need to carry. It’s tedious and honestly shocking that this hasn’t been remedied in some way over the course of the series’ history.

Animal Crossing New Leaf feels like the first true sequel in the series’ history. While previous entries have added new elements, they never really felt engaging enough to say ‘this is brand new’ to anyone. It’s definitely a lot more enjoyable than previous games, and at the time of this review being written, there’s still a handful of things I haven’t gotten to try out, including the game’s Street Pass functionality, as well a couple of the game’s stores, which will surely add more time to any players’ 3DS. While it may not be the end all be all the series needed, it’s definitely a much needed shot in the arm to get people excited about it again.

Score: 9/10
+ Lots of new things to do this time around
+ There are a lot more ways to earn money
+ A lot of nice, notable little touches that give this a bit of extra charm
- Inventory Management is an even bigger problem this time around
- Getting Project Recommendations is random and a chore
- Visiting/Inviting people is still a tedious process

New Super Luigi U Review

New Super Luigi U is a downloadable content expansion for New Super Mario Bros. U, where all of the original levels have been remixed into harder versions of themselves. While New Super Luigi U retains most of the original’s charms, like the story and 4-player cooperative play, it deviates itself by having less control over your player, which is what Luigi is notable for, to provide a more challenging experience. While difficulty has always been called lackluster in Mario, it mostly makes up for it in terms of its charm and level design. The challenge presented here, while greater, does not necessarily mean its’ for the better overall.

All levels in New Super Luigi sport 100 second time limit, in addition to the changed mechanics do provide a higher level of difficulty than in previous New Super Mario Bros. games. It makes most of the levels feel like they’re designed around a certain flow premise, where you’re focused to constantly move forward. They feel like levels from Donkey Kong Country Returns if you tried to speed run them and get all of the Star Coins in a single run. It’s very rewarding to accomplish everything in one go, especially when you master them. There are unfortunately a handful of levels that go against this premise, and are uniformly terrible. These levels generally feel mashed together in four or five different ways that cause frustration and anxiety beyond the point that they should. In one level, a simple Star Coin can become the bane of your existence while in another level it’s simply not designed for you to be doing what you’re doing, making it seemingly impossible to reach a stage’s end without being hit. It makes all of the good the rest of the game does feel worthless as some of the game’s toughest levels are in reality poorly executed death traps that reek of laziness.

Laziness is another thing that rears its’ ugly head in New Super Luigi U in multiple ways. The introduction is the exact same as the original, except Mario is missing from the scene and Nabbit follows you as your adventure begins. While it’s a minor complaint, the fact that none of the bosses are changed from the original is. For a game that remixes every level, the fact that the bosses are not changed at all is a deathblow to any hope that the experience within could be any better than the original.

Overall, New Super Luigi U, while worthy of the $20 price tag, is a disappointment. While some levels shine brilliantly, others are broken just as badly. Combined with some laziness, Luigi is once again relegated to a sideshow rather than the center stage.

Score: 7/10
+ Nice sense of flow in most stages
+ Good sense of challenge in most levels
- Some stages are abhorrent in quality
- Finding some secret levels is complete trial and error without a guide
- Re-used Boss Fights

Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon Review

The original Luigi’s Mansion is one of those games that ended up being just an interesting concept. While the gameplay still remains fine, it’s ultimately simple and relatively short. It may have some replay value, but it’s not really rewarding to play again. The sequel, developed by Next Level Games looks to build on that original concept and make a better experience.

The story here is simple; the dark moon has been destroyed, causing all of the ghosts in the world to go crazy. It’s now up to the mighty Luigi to restore the power of the dark moon to turn the ghosts back to normal. Your main goal is to receive a piece of the dark moon from each of the game’s five mansions, which have varying themes. The first mansion being your standard haunted house and it sets up a good tone and atmosphere for the game. The lighting is great, along with the game’s animations, which help sell that the game has some polish to it. The game does have a few framerate problems, sometimes hitting 60 and other times getting in the single digits. It’s fine for the most part, but it is a noticeable issue at parts.

Another notable issue is that the game does get frustrating in some places, leaving you wandering around levels aimlessly with no clue at what you need to do. The same goes for a couple of bosses later on that might take you hours, but fortunately for this review, were handled with ease. Beyond the game not giving you many clues and a few unforgiving boss fights, the game gives you a few upgrades to make the game proceed smoother, including upgrades to your Dark Light and Poltergust’s power. It’s a nice progression path that exemplifies the game’s good pacing. While the controls might feel better if there was an option to use the Circle Pad Pro, they do what they need to do well enough and aren’t frustrating or hand-cramping.

A new addition to this installment is multiplayer, both local and online in the form of the Scarescraper, which allows you to play with up to three other players as you traverse up to 25 floors in ghost hunting fun. Levels are randomized, and the money you earn also carries over with you to single player, which is a welcome feature. It’s something that if you want to continue playing is the mode you’ll want to go back to, since going for missing collectibles, Boos and 3-star ranks in single player is an ordeal not many will find the urge to do.

Overall, Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon is a fun, lengthy but ultimately forgettable experience. There’s not much in the way of memorable music or enemies, but the animations and multiplayer are worth experiencing. It’s a nice entry into the series and hopefully Nintendo will build on it in the future, hopefully with a bit more personality.

Overall Score: 8 out of 10
+ Animations
+ Multiplayer
+ Good Pacing
- Some frustrating puzzles
- Enemies are forgettable
- Framerate problems

Tomb Raider Review

Tomb Raider is a reboot wherein Lara Croft and her friends are marooned from a shipwreck and must make it out alive. Tomb Raider is not your traditional Tomb Raider game, wherein the game is mostly akin to Uncharted in terms of combat, platforming and puzzle solving. In addition, the game is an origin story of the character wherein she’s not a sarcastic, wise-cracking superstar, but a girl fresh out of college looking to make her mark on the world. While many fans were worried about this new endeavor, ultimately, fortunately, it’s a solid title with many strong elements, albeit not new or in the heart of what makes the series what it was known for.

Tomb Raider doesn’t exactly start off on the right foot, both in terms of the story being depicted and how it was executed. The first 10 minutes of the game are hilariously awful, wherein Lara Croft goes from daring acrobat, jumping across 20 foot gaps with the greatest of ease to having fears of crossing a log over a towering waterfall and back again. This sort of early inconsistency is a problem in terms of the story’s foundation, making it look rocky and therefore hard to get into the story for later, more pivotal moments. While these things do happen later on, it’s not as jarring or as it is early on.

A strong point that the game does set early on though is its’ atmosphere, which is really in line with a deserted island might look like. The game’s graphics are no slouch either, displaying some very impressive cinematic set-pieces and vistas along the way. The game also has very good weather effects, ranging from wind to snow to rain. Lara also has various animations for these, like holding her arms in front of her to push herself against the wind and grabbing both of her arms in the snow. They’re nice little touches that show that Lara isn’t immune to the elements. A problem graphically, however, is Lara’s face, which is terrible, especially compared to what is on the box art, the opening cutscene and various pieces of pre-release media. It doesn’t well, and it’s something that doesn’t look right no matter how many times you see it.

Another problem with Lara is her voice actress, which is sub-par. Her performance brings down the rest of the cast, since her tone is inconsistent and in some places loses her accent, making you wonder if Lara is actually British or not. It’s disappointing when this happens, especially when voice is heavily relied upon for the story and collectibles you pick up through the game. Diaries and notes give you insight into the island’s history as well as Lara and her friends. They’re nice touches, but they do interrupt the flow of the gameplay since they bring the back to a screeching halt. Most of these are voiced well, but a few lack the energy and passion that most have, and takes you out of the experience as a result.

One of the bigger gripes with the game is its’ narrative, which is sloppy and lazy. The biggest complaint is Lara Croft’s handling, wherein she goes from defenseless and uncertain to a psychopath. It’s not a good character arc to have a character go from having issues with killing animals and wondering how it was so easy to kill someone to eventually wishing death upon every enemy she comes across. As someone who was never really a fan of Lara Croft, I can’t say what was depicted is any better than before. Lara, as a character is the only one to have a defining arc, while everyone else is a stereotype. Lara may impress some people, but it’s only because there’s nothing near comparable. Lara does everything, and that’s consistent throughout. She is the star, a black star at that, and everything takes a back seat to it, including the game’s poor story and villain, which are forgettable. The message the narrative sends is misguided, and is based entirely on the game’s combat.

What Lara did to become a survivor, is what is depicted in the game’s combat. Lara is given a bow, and along the way picks up some guns and a pickaxe. The highlights are definitely the bow, which gets several upgrades as well as the tomahawk for close-quarters combat. The combat scenarios are tiring overall since the game focuses too much on it. This makes the combat feel less rewarding, since firefights can go on for 10 minutes at a time. The game does have an excellent passive cover system, which puts Lara into cover without the need for a button, which frees up the controller for dodging/rolling. The game could’ve solved its’ combat woes by balancing it with more puzzle solving, Platforming and tomb raiding, of which there is little of. These are extremely simple, and considering they’re a core foundation of the series, it’s disheartening to see them put in the background as something that’s viewed as a throwaway part of the game.

Instead the game places emphasis on the narrative and other modern game tropes like quick time events, slow-walking and passive interaction sections; all of these are terrible and the game would be better without them. The game would also be better if it didn’t have multiplayer tacked-on, although while it doesn’t “change the way you’ll play Tomb Raider forever” it doesn’t take away from the single player experience. Tomb Raider has a lot of polish. It’s a decent reboot the series and while some things are not great, by subtracting some things and putting more emphasis on others, the series might be able to flourish again.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

+ Good Visual Design
+ Good Combat Mechanics
+ The multiplayer doesn’t detract from the game
+ More than the sum of its parts
- A lack of soul (Platforming, Puzzles, Tombs are throwaway)
- Narrative is misguided, forgettable
- Bad Character Arc for Lara Croft
- Bad Combat Scenarios

The Accessibility of Fighters

Growing up during the age of the Super Nintendo brought me into the fighting game genre. The popularity of games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat attracted a lot of attention, especially when those games were brought to home consoles. People may remember the controversy surrounding Mortal Kombat for fatalities and the lack of blood on the SNES version, but for me being a kid who didn't know any better, I just sat there and played the CPU on ever-increasing difficulties to improve my skills. Over time I drifted apart from fighting games and the scene. I played Super Smash Bros., but that really wasn't the same. What brought me back was Street Fighter IV and the hype surrounding it. A few years later and here we are, at the end of another generation where it seems history is repeating itself.

Throughout the PS1/PS2 era, fighting games became a lot harder, becoming more technique-based and frame precise. They required a lot more skill and thus, the genre fell out of favor until the return of Street Fighter IV. When it revived the genre, fight sticks, tournaments and online video streams became popular ways to engage ones' self in the culture that is the fighting game. But what made these games popular again? A lot of hype and dumbing down the difficulty that made them inaccessible in the first place, which is the point of this article. Today I'll be looking at the accessibility of certain fighting games based on five criteria:

- How good the training/trials mode is
- How punishing is the AI on the lowest difficulty
- How clear the directions in the game are
- How easy is it to make inputs for combo strings?
- How easy is it for new players to get better?

For clarity's sake, I will be using the most recent release of a mainline series, so that means I will not be looking at Street Fighter X Tekken. Let's get started, shall we?

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2013
#1 - Training Mode: 2.5/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 4/5
#3 - Directions: 1.5/5
#4 - Combos Strings: 3/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 4/5

The AI in Street Fighter IV series has by and large been consistent. It offers varying degrees of challenge that do improve your play, but the game can get a bit overbearing on some of the harder difficulty levels, as well as being a bit too forgiving on easier ones. Combo strings are somewhat forgiving except for the more trickier combos, but the game does a good job at balancing efforts so you don't necessarily need to use them. A major problem this game has is its' training mode and the directions it gives the player. There's very little of it. While it may tell you a button prompt string, it never tells you to get in stances needed to perform certain moves, nor does it make it easy to find out. While Street Fighter IV does a lot right, and is the preferable pick-up fighting game for anyone, it does a lot wrong to try and get new players good.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
#1 - Training Mode: 4/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 3/5
#3 - Directions: 3/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 2/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 3.5/5

Virtua Fighter 5 excels at its' training mode, which not only asks you to perform certain moves, but allows you to see them in action and understand where certain inputs are needed. While it may be hard to execute these moves, it is a major step above every other fighter out there in terms of trying to get the player to understand frame data. A problem the game has comes from its' AI, which is somewhat punishing, and makes it harder for new players to feel like they're getting any better. Street Fighter IV has the same problem, where AI on the same difficulty can range from a joke to murderous. It's discouraging that there isn't a solid balance between characters and makes it harder for players to know if they're getting better at it or not.

Dead or Alive 5
#1 - Training Mode: 4/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 2/5
#3 - Directions: 3/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 4.5/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 3.5/5

A lot of DOA5's increase in skill comes from the AI, or the luck of the draw. The AI here has 2 distinct movesets: Almost nothing at all or Magic. By magic I mean the AI reads your button inputs from time to time and counters every single move you have. The game does this on every single difficulty, and only gets worse the tougher you make the AI. Other than that, the game is extremely accessible with it being a 4 button game, or 2 if you just want to attack. The game's training mode is very basic, but it is very encouraging since you only need to perform moves to do them, not hit your opponent. Although the game could be a bit more clear on directions as it is confusing at times to know what inputs are which for combos, but once you get combos, they're easy to pull off. More importantly, the more you play, you do seem to get better, even though the AI does get in your way randomly at times, which makes it rather frustrating. If you're looking to get into 3D fighting games, this is probably your best bet.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2
#1 - Training Mode: 1.5/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 1.5/5
#3 - Directions: 1/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 1.5/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 1.5/5

TTT2 is not for the weak at heart. While it tries to ease people into it through it's Combot Training mode, it's poorly implemented. Directions are given out while you're active, meaning it's very easy to miss directions that you can't read over again, until you lose at least. You read correctly, you can lose in the tutorial of this, which is roughly 3 hours in length assuming you don't lose. The AI is also another one of those 'MAGIC' systems where the AI will read your inputs from time to time, but it's worse here since the game will prevent you from recovering more. The fact that TTT2's combat is extremely stiff, meaning it's hard to pull off combos and enjoy it, it's a hard sell to anyone who's looking to get into a 3D fighting game. It's for experts only, and it doesn't really seem to understand that it does a poor job of getting people into it.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
#1 - Training Mode: 2.5/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 3.5/5
#3 - Directions: 3.5/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 4.5/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 3/5

UMVC3 has the same problem SSF4 has, in that the game gives you very little direction on how to get better or perform some of the most basic moves. While you can succeed without them, you'll quickly come to realize that these mechanics are things you learned by random chance instead of careful understanding of the mechanics. The AI is mostly fair, and is heavily dependent on your skill, but since the game is very lenient with combo strings, it's a nice time to be had by all, especially given its' flashy nature. I can't recommend this higher than SSF4, but if you understand that game well enough, this is a fair enough compliment to it to help you understand both better.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
#1 - Training Mode: 1/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 5/5
#3 - Directions: 2.5/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 4/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 5/5

I know people will instantly discredit me by bringing this up, but hear me out. The key that makes Brawl stand out here, even if you don't like it or don't consider Smash Bros. to be a fighting game series, is that the game clearly defines AI difficulty, and because of it you can feel yourself getting better at the game, allowing you to increase the challenge at your leisure through basic play. It also never feels like the AI is performing moves you yourself can't, which is something a lot of other fighters do. While there is a sandbox type training mode, it's mostly throwaway. The same goes for directions, while simple, the game simply doesn't make it easy for you to find out where these directions are in-game. At least with other fighting games, you at least understand how to perform a punch, a kick, a fireball, etc. Brawl, and the series as a whole doesn't do that, so it is something they could improve upon. If you're looking to get into fighting games, this is a good starting point, but perhaps not the starting point one would technically look for since it's not as skill dependent as most.

While there are a lot of fighting game fans out there, there are a lot of ways for that group of people to increase. Fighting games have done a lot to try and cater to new players, but there is still a ways to go before it can be something a lot bigger than it currently is right now. Hopefully series like Tekken take note and follow before there is no one else to play it. As it stands, fighting games are popular, and will only get popular if they become more accessible to those interested in playing, but may not know how to play.

If you would like me to look at another fighting game that I may have missed, please post a comment below and I'll see if I can check it out.

PS4: Fourward

After months of speculation, Sony has unveiled the Playstation 4...sort of. While Sony unveiled a few games, partners, system features and tech, they never showed the box. While unimportant at this stage of the game, it was one of a few questions raised going through the show and afterwards. Some have been answered, others not so much. So let's run down the list of important features and announcements, shall we?


The Name: Playstation 4
While may proclaim that "Four" in Japanese is close to the meaning of "death" Sony threw caution to the wind of this fake myth by calling it the Playstation 4 or PS4 for short. I applaud Sony for keeping it simple and avoiding naming confusion like the Xbox 360 and Wii U.

The Dualshock 4
The leaks provided by Destructoid and later Kotaku were true, the Dualshock 4 will have a Move light on top of it, concave triggers, a larger d-pad, a touch-pad, wider handles, a headphone jack, a speaker and share/options buttons (replacing the Start/Select buttons). Overall I prefer the look of the prototype as it was more basic and had a Vita-like d-pad. The Move light looks like something out of Tron, so it sticks out in an unnatural way. The sticks look fine and the pad keeps its' traditional face buttons. It looks like it'd make a great replacement for 360 controllers on PC as well.

The Hardware
The PS4 will surprisingly have 8gb of GDDR5 ram, up from the rumored 4gb. This is a huge change since it not only matches Microsoft in terms of ram amount, but destroys them at the same time in terms of speed; Microsoft is rumored to have 8gb of GDDR3 ram, which is much slower. The CPU will be x86 based and the GPU will support 1.84 TFLOPS, up from the rumored 1.8. However the CPU will only have 8 cores from the rumored 12, showing a significant change in focus from the PS3, which is in-line with PC specs today in terms of design philosophy. It's a nice step up in power from PS3 and should be a lot easier to develop for, but this does come with a price.

No Backwards Compatibility
While not unexpected, it was announced that PS4 won't support PS3/PS2/PS1 games natively, but instead will be rolled in phases through Gaikai. With that, you will be able to stream older digital titles you buy instead of having native compatibility/support for these titles. It's a bad idea all around as streaming technology is nowhere near where it needs to be to work, especially for graphically intensive games. For older titles, it makes no sense to not have local support and is a slap in the face to long-time Playstation fans, especially when the system is more than capable of emulation PS1 and PS2 games locally.

Share
One of the buttons on the Dualshock 4 is "Share," which is a new PS4 feature to the hardware. The system will constantly record the last 10 minutes of gameplay for you, so you can upload screenshots and videos to various sites directly from your console. It's also possible for your friends to jump in from across PSN and help you out in spots that you get stuck in. These all sound like good ideas, but the implementation of it seems perplexing and very pie in the sky. They sound like ideas of local play but implemented through the internet, something that's novel for some things. But ultimately it seems like it could cause privacy issues as well as alienate many single-player gamers, especially since PS4 comes with its' own camera.

Not Kinect
During the Presentation, a new look Eyetoy was seen in Presentations and looks to be part of the final package. It features 2 cameras on a long bar that will keep track of your controller. It remains to be seen if you can be the controller or not, but it shows that Sony is up to its' old tricks again when it comes to "innovation" by using what others have and claim it as their own. For what purposes will it be used remains to be seen but it is disheartening to see.

Used Games
After the conference, it was confirmed to Eurogamer that PS4 will play used games. A truly positive note for once.

The Games
For the most part, the games were steps up from current generation consoles. I don't believe they were jumps people were expecting, but things like Killzone Shadow Fall, Infamous Second Son and Square Enix's laughable retread of the Luminous Engine were disappointing. The only bright spot was Capcom's internal engine tech demo of a game called "Deep Down" which seemed similar to Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. It's questionable if it was a target render or real time, but it was still the only thing worth watching as Watch Dogs, Ubisoft's initial gateway drug into Next Gen floundered with screen tearing and framerate drops. At least Sony teamed up with Blizzard for Diablo 3 on PS3 and PS4, right? Right? For the most important part of the show, nothing showed me why this platform is worth buying on Day 1, especially since my older games will have to be rebought if I want to play them.


Overall - 6 out of 10
Sony's conference was a lot of fluff. While it all sounded nice in theory, there wasn't much real world execution seen. I remain skeptical of next gen even more so than before. While developers have been given more power and tools to work with, it seems once again, before last gen, that not many are going to use these tools for anything other than pretty graphics. The cost of entry to PS4 remains a question, as well as the cost of the services they are proposing. If they are high, Sony may fail once again and be forced to bow out from a race that they were formally called "King."

Console Gaming's Troubles are about to get Worse

Console gaming has a lot of problems associated with it nowadays. "Cinematic experiences." "Mainstream gaming." "DLC," "Online Passes," "appeal to newcomers," and more. A lot of problems exist because of the DS and Wii, and the notion that there was a large portion of people out there that want to play games, but didn't because nothing appealed to them. Their success led Microsoft and Sony to adopt their own method of motion control gaming, Kinect and Move respectively. While Move is now nowhere to be seen, Kinect seems like it's about to get a new pair of glasses with Microsoft's next generation console. But don't worry, Sony might be coming along for the ride too.

A lot of the dangers that I described can really be bundled into one core problem with game design. Games nowadays are designed for one playthrough. You buy it, you enjoy it, you sell it back to Gamestop for the next game. Essentially, it's a beverage. You get one, open it, take a few minutes to enjoy and then you're done. A few hours later you get another one. There's very little staying power with games nowadays and publishers see that as a problem. So they like to add things like downloadable content to games so you'll keep it a little while longer in the hopes that you won't sell it until the price of it becomes negligible or you buy the DLC and keep it. Another thing is online passes, which is something EA created and others adopted in 2009 or so to prevent people who bought games used from playing games online without paying a $10 fee. If you bought the game new you got a code. This was done to entice people who look at used game prices compared to new ones and go with the latter. Until then, used games were sold at $5 cheaper than normal, but with a $10 online pass that'd make it more expensive. But used game retailers just lowered the price of these games an additional $10-$15 so the fight over $5 came back to square one. While retailers were offering less money to people for used games after that, margins stayed consistent for these retailers.

But why am I describing to you a basic business scenario that occurs multiple times a day? Because it appears that this business practice is being threatened with the upcoming generation of consoles, outside of the Wii U mind you. While games today have no staying power, publishers have constantly wanted gamers to keep their games forever, even though the problem is simple: Their games may not be worth keeping. I'm not saying all developers are bad, but some developers have problems understanding what's wrong with their games and thus blame others for poor sales results. Right now, sales of the Wii U hardware and software are poor. Why? There's no key software driving Nintendo fans and hardcore gamers to buy the system and the third party software that is there are mostly late ports that run on par or worse than what other versions offer, in addition to being more expense on Wii U. That's not really a recipe for success. But why customers for these results? Why punish them by discontinuing support when the effort put forth was not good enough to begin with? This isn't just a Wii U problem, but an industry-wide epidemic that has gone on for too long.

Unfortunately, it looks like this will lead to the industry's downfall. Rumors are circulating that next generation consoles will prevent used games from being played on them. Additionally, games on them may always require an online connection to play games on them. And finally, these systems will not be backwards compatible with current generation hardware and games. These changes to the landscape of gaming look only to limit an already shrinking marketplace. This generation has seen a tremendous growth in the number of people who play games. But at the same time it has seen a growth in anti-consumer behavior by both developers and publishers that have driven these consumers away. If any or all of what is listed above come true, the hardcore gamers of today will leave and thus the industry will fail once again.

Used games are big part of the economy in the games industry. They drive people to trade in games they no longer desire to play towards the purchase of newer games. Publishers are not too keen on used games sales. By implementing policies like Day 1/on-disc DLC and online passes, it inconveniences the consumer, as well angers them that content was potentially cut from the game's initial release. Gamestop was recently quoted as saying as many as 60% of consumers would refuse to buy a game console that didn't allow for used games to be played on them. It may not happen, and while I don't like used games, a game preventing used games to be played on it means that console will not come into my place of residence. Even though used games is a huge discussion openly, it's not the most pressing issue, always online connectivity most certainly is.

While we live in an ever-connected society, the internet is ever fickle. It's not consistent or commonplace as water or electricity. It will be over time, but now is not the time. What's being proposed with an always-online connection is simple, in order to keep playing the game you want to play, your internet must always be up. If it wobbles, lags or falters, your game becomes instantly unplayable. This is a policy that Ubisoft adopted for PC games for roughly 18 months before dropping it due to complaints and the fact that hackers got around it very easily. This is a huge problem and it's ultimately not something that will be discussed when someone goes to buy one of these machines in the future. The idea that a game can instantly become worthless because your internet doesn't work or because their servers are taken down is insulting. EA takes down their sports games' servers every 3-4 years, depending on popularity. This basically makes every EA game going forward potentially worthless and its' worrysome. Another example: What if Original Xbox games required you to be online in order to play them? Right now, if that were true, those games would be 100% unplayable in any capacity since Microsoft pulled the plug on the original Xbox Live service. Who's to say it won't happen again?

Considering that these systems won't be compatible with current generation games, it makes it even more likely that this will happen. Considering that Nintendo offers backwards compatibility with Wii games, their Virtual Console games, their DS and DSiWare games, a company that isn't quite up to par in terms of online standards believes in such a practice when Sony and Microsoft don't is maddening. Why? Because iOS allows for backwards compatibility. So does Android. If you bought a game or App on an earlier version of that software, it works on newer devices. How can Microsoft and Sony take such a step back when it's becoming commonplace and not a rarity? Digital Goods are being tied to the consumer, not the hardware. If Microsoft and Sony try to take away these goods from consumers going forward it will only put them in more of a hole. And it will leave everyone in the industry wondering 'how did this happen?'

The answer is simple: You bit the hand that fed you. They don't feed you anymore. They saw your petulant attitude and let you starve. "It was for their own good" they said, and they were right. The console market is shrinking, and the games industry is in danger of collapsing. Big budget games are dying and for the past 3 years software sales have plummeted. So why do industry big wigs think this is going to continue? It's not. And ultimately, that's when gaming dies once again. Because like most dinosaurs, the answer is simple: Adapt or Die. No one is truly adapting to the marketplace. They're only dying.

DmC Devil May Cry Review

When DmC Devil May Cry was announced at GamesCom in 2010, many fans believed it would be the death of their beloved franchise. While they viewed Devil May Cry 4 in somewhat of a mixed light, it provided the combat and difficulty necessities they desired in a DMC game. Given that Ninja Theory’s expertise was in storytelling and not combat, this left a lot to wonder if the development team could provide a deep combat system to entice players to coming back to a party where they were told they were unwelcome.

The good news is that DmC’s strongest feature is in its’ core combat mechanics. While it’s not as deep as previous Devil May Cry games, it’s fun and engaging. Switching from Rebellion to your Angel or Demon weapon on the fly makes it thrilling to beat enemies up to get your style meter up. While the Style Meter has been adjusted to make it easier for newer players to rank better than they’re actually doing, it doesn’t really take away from the game’s enjoyment unless you miss the older scoring system. You’ll also miss a lock-on button. While some Capcom testers have said that lock-on is neither needed nor missed, that is factually false. Instead, the gameplay relies on having two buttons dedicated to dodge, with no differences between them. The lack of lock-on is baffling, and in later fights leads to severe issues with camera and targeting enemies you don’t want to hit or can’t hit due to having the wrong weapon out.

However, what hurts the combat is that there are certain enemies in the game that require you to use an Angel or Demon weapon against them to kill them. This hurts the game’s pacing, and it shows an uneven design. Whereas you can kill most Demon enemies quickly, Angel enemies are tedious and a chore to fight, sometimes taking minutes to down one of them. Outside of these quirks, the game’s challenge is minimal, even on Nephilim, the game’s default Hard Mode. Enemies are slow, dumb and dealt with mostly by force. The game’s checkpoints upon death are also user friendly, having you start back at the beginning of the fight you last died on with full health. It’s nice that it caters to the casual player so much, and gets you back into the action quickly.

The game has several pacing issues outside of combat as well. Some levels, while beautifully designed and aesthetically interesting, can range anywhere from five to 25 minutes. It’s uneven, and bizarre that a level can last two minutes while the next one is over 30. The game’s first mission has you going through a Demon Carnival and a Mansion, which are excellent designed and paced. One of the better looking levels has Dante going through rounds of fights in a demon world version of a nightclub. It’s a brilliant level, with excellent visuals and music along with some interesting fights. But, like the rest of the game, what comes after is astonishingly bad. Boss fights in DmC are truly a low point for the series. While some are visually interesting, ultimately the fights are dull, simple and feel out of place. Some regular enemies in the game pose a more significant threat to you than any of the game’s boss fights, including the game’s anti-climactic boss fight, which comes out of nowhere from a narrative perspective.

Speaking of, the game’s story is genuinely dreadful. While the game starts out with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek nature, it quickly turns to being super serious and never lets up. The problem is it’s not cute, it’s not clever, it’s not edgy and it’s not good. Some of the moments in the story are absolutely repulsive and should not be applauded by anyone. It just gets in the way of what you’re trying to do, play the game. The characters and scenarios in the game are also poorly written. There’s very little motivation to hate certain characters and while you’re supposed to applaud the heroes, more often than not the game gives you moments where you will shake your head at their actions. It’s juvenile and gives the sense that it’s better than it actually is.

The fundamental gameplay of DmC is strong; it has a good user interface as excites you when you expand your arsenal. It will anger and depress you through its’ poor focus on characters and story interaction all while getting in the way of you enjoying the game. It may be worth your time, but for how long and how much is entirely up to you. It’s got a lot of negativity surrounding it, and not from fan backlash.


Score: 7 out of 10
+ Good Combat
+ Nice Visuals
- Poor Story and Characters
- No Challenge
- 30fps on Consoles

NFL 2012 NFC Wild Card Round Analysis

With one half of my analysis already complete, it's time to look at the NFC side of the playoff tree. One matchup is a divisional rivalry while the other is a playoff matchup that seems to show up pretty often as of late.

#6 - Minnesota Vikings @ #3 - Green Bay Packers
Saturday, January 5th, 8:00pm EST
While the Packers are two years removed from their last Super Bowl, Aaron Rodgers has become the quiet talk of the league for best quarterback. He's led the team to a 9-2 record down the stretch, and is one of the best players in football. The only problem is that he hasn't won a home playoff game, despite winning 3 on the road. He's ultimately the one that has to play well if the Packers have any hope of winning. The Green Bay defense has not been kind over the past two seasons, especially last year when they got humiliated by the Giants at home in the divisional round of the Playoffs. It also doesn't help that the Packers have allowed 400+ rushing yards to Adrian Peterson this year, who is facing them again on Saturday. But the Packers have the home field advantage here and the Vikings quarterback is ultimately a suit, someone who really shouldn't be in the League anyway. Despite the Packers not taking him seriously on Sunday, rest assured they will see him as a threat this Saturday.

The Vikings are led by Adrian Peterson, who 12 months ago broke the two major bones in his leg, and was expected to miss this entire season due to that injury. But he's come back in stride to lead the NFL in rushing yards, and got his team to the playoffs almost all by himself. Why you ask? Like I mentioned before, Christian Ponder, the Vikings QB, is pretty bad. He's unreliable, mistake prone and plays poorly under pressure. The Vikings defense is good, but they ultimately flounder on the road, particularly in cold weather. It's not impossible for the Vikings to win this Saturday, as they've played the Packers well for the past 4-5 seasons. But in order to win this time around, they'll have to get a perfect game out of their defense, an average game out of Ponder and a great game out of Peterson in order to do it.

Prediction: Green Bay - 20, Minnesota - 10


#5 - Seattle Seahawks @ #4 - Washington Redskins
Sunday, January 6th, 4:30pm EST
The Washington Redskins are the team everyone loves to pile on when the chips are down. In no large part thanks to their owner, his offseason moves, and the way the team has found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, the Washington Redskins for the last decade have embodied Washington sports teams like no other. They couldn't catch a break, even if they tried. But this year, they got two. Robert Griffin III and Alfred Morris. While RG3 was drafted #2 in the NFL draft after the Redskins traded two draft picks for him, the Redskins drafted Morris out of Florida Atlantic in the sixth round. The results for Washington, while starting out slow and Redskins-esque, has flourished over the the past seven weeks, where the team hasn't lost. The Redskins have closed games out when they should have. They made plays on both sides of the ball when it was necessary and they caught breaks. But in the back of everyone's minds is 'can they keep this up?' Even in my mind, where the worst is always at the top, I can't help but think good things right now.

The Seattle Seahawks are the talk of the NFL, at least if you listen to the news. Russel Wilson is a media darling, and their defense is stout. Having scored 40+ points in 3 consecutive weeks, including a game over division rival San Francisco, the Seahawks are a buzz like no other. It partially started due to the replacement referees' help during Week 3 against the Packers, but since then they have some legitimate wins. But those wins, particularly over New England and San Francisco were at home, where they were undefeated. On the road, Seattle is 3-5, a place where they have struggled for a long time. Considering their jekyl and hyde type play for home and away games, I question whether or not Seattle will play well going from Seattle to Washington, with a rookie QB, against a team that many are overlooking, despite having the longest winning streak in the league. While Seattle and Washington have played in the playoffs the last two times the Redskins have made it, those games were in Seattle, and they were close. Even though there's different personnel now, certain teams know how to play each other for years, and I think this one is no different.

Prediction: Washington - 23, Seattle - 13


That's it for my predictions this week. Have a good wild card weekend!

My 2012 Top Ten Games of the Year

In a year full of disappointing games, there were bound to be a few good ones here and there. When I started the year, my Top Ten list was a lot different than what it turned out to be. So, for your viewing entertainment, I present my Top Ten Games of the year, but since this year was full of disappointment, I'd like to start off with my Disappointment of the Year...


2012 Disappointment of The Year: Assassin's Creed 3
There really hasn't been a game more recent in my mind that is more disappointing than Assassin's Creed 3. The sheer hype and build-up for it was off the charts. The setting was bold and fresh. It caught the eyes of many, but it ultimately turned out to be not only a mess at a technical level, but emotionally as well. Even though it's the end of Desmond Miles' story, a character I cared nothing for, Assassin's Creed 3 barely tries to make you blink at eye at his plight. Instead of caring about heroes, I walked away caring more about a villain, which isn't something I can say was truly intentional. Assassin's Creed 3 has now tipped the series towards the mediocre scale after two straight down titles. Assassin's Creed needs a break, or will be assassinated itself.


And now, for my Top Ten Games of the Year...

#10 - Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC)
A sequel to the great original finally arrived and delivered on most of what it promised. Even though the Single Player campaign was nothing more than a shell of what was promised, Sonic Racing Transformed still delivers to be an excellent kart racer, despite being murderously difficult in the most unexpected and head-scratching of ways.

#9 - Crashmo (3DS)
While an unexpected sequel, Crashmo doesn't disappoint at any level other than itself being more of a concept that captured the hearts and minds of many early 3DS adopters. Crashmo expands and evolves the concept that Pushmo originally laid forth, but doesn't stop being clever until long after you've given up.

#8 - Forza Horizon (360)
While I have no love for the Forza franchise, picking this one up cheap was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It is one of the best racing games made this generation, offering a variety of challenge and allows the game to be set to your level and not vice versa. It's what Need for Speed Hot Pursuit should've been two years ago, and smokes what Most Wanted provided this year. If you're looking for a great racing game, pick this one up if you have a 360.

#7 - New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U)
A series that has two similar releases in the same year is either good news or bad news. While I can say they were both good, New Super Mario Bros. 2 falls well short of what New Super Mario Bros. U offers, both in terms of level design, but from a challenging standpoint as well. While New Super Mario Bros. 2 provided a coin gimmick that neutered the game's challenge, New Super Mario Bros. U not only provides excellent in-game challenge, but separate, out of the box challenges to keep you playing for hours on end. While there's no real reward at the end, getting there is more exciting than maxing out a couple of score counters.

#6 - Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
A revival of Kid Icarus is something people have wanted for a long time. Given Sakurai's track record of jam-packing games with content, along with several other marketing ploys like AR cards and stands, Kid Icarus Uprising is a gem for the 3DS. It's got great design, good controls, great music. But the thing that is the cherry on top is the game's story, which Sakurai also wrote. It's got a lot of charm that you won't find anywhere else, and for that reason above all, it's worth playing. Not to mention the multiplayer, the loot system, etc.

#5 - Nintendo Land (Wii U)
What do you get when put 12 Nintendo franchises into a mini-game collection? The best mini-game collection ever, that's what. Nintendo Land is more of a psychological profile than straight-up mini-game collection. It's an attack on the senses of non-gamers to buy Nintendo franchises outside of Mario, Zelda and Pokemon. While some obviously won't capitalize on this (Balloon Trip, Octopus Dance), it's a wonder if other franchises (Metroid, Pikmin) will or not. As itself, Nintendo Land is a reason to pick-up the Wii U. While not as universally easy to understand as Wii Sports, it gets you to learn the controller, which is what Wii Sports did.

#4 - Halo 4 (360)
Considering the last couple of Halo releases have been adept disappointments, Halo 4 is a nice rebound for the series that prides itself on multiplayer and having stories that are told horribly. Halo 4's multiplayer is a step above anything Bungie has done since Halo 3. While it's not quite as good, the story serves its' purpose well. While it's still not a fan favorite of mine, the multiplayer is enough to have me playing it, which is enough for it to be on this list.

#3 - Resident Evil: revelations (3DS)
Revelations is the best Resident Evil game to be released since Resident Evil 4. It's a shame since at the time of its' release, Capcom decided to devote time and marketing dollars towards the newly unveiled Resident Evil 6 and upcoming Operation Raccoon City instead of Revelations, which is heads and shoulders and knees above them both. A polished, survival-horror Resident Evil game with optional cooperative play is something that every RE fan has wanted for a long time, and finally got. It's a shame Capcom decided to shun this one.

#2 - Journey (PS3)
Journey is an interesting game. While a linear experience that takes around 90 minutes to complete, it's really something that needs to be played to be understood. The cooperative aspect is the major highlight of the game. If you don't have it, you're missing a significant portion of what makes Journey what it is. While you can replay multiple times, I feel once is more than enough to understand it's special. But it does and will lose some of its' luster over time.

#1 - Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
This is what you get when you evolve Final Fantasy XII, streamline the combat mechanics and dumb down the story a bit. It's an evolution to that formula in every regard and is better because of it. While the game is very involved, if it were more involved, it'd undoubtedly be better. Xenoblade Chronicles is the best JRPG released this generation by a country. It will make you want to play JRPG's again. That's why it's my game of the year. It's the game that made JRPG's relevant again, and it's not from Square Enix, who has seemingly lost their way.


That's it for my 2012 game of the year list. I hope you enjoyed it and have a Happy New Year!

Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge Review

Team Ninja has come a long way from Itagaki’s departure after Ninja Gaiden 2. After helping destroy the Metroid franchise, Team Ninja did a wonderful job duplicating those results with Ninja Gaiden 3. After some kind of revelation after saying they’d ignore fans and after its’ reception went on to blame them, Team Ninja seems like they’re trying to play make-up with Razor’s Edge, the “Sigma” version of Ninja Gaiden 3. Considering how bad Ninja Gaiden 3 was, Razor’s Edge is a significant improvement, but what does that really say about its’ quality? Not much.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Razor’s Edge if you’ve played the original is the distinct lack of henchmen begging for Ryu to spare their inane lives. It’s a welcome change because it removes what had no business being in the game to begin with. Now Ryu’s story is simple: Your arm has been cursed, and you lost your Dragon Sword. Whatever semblance of emotion that’s supposed to be tied to it from the original is gone. While the story tries to maintain Ninja Gaiden’s long-standing history of ridiculousness, it ultimately tries dressing it up, which results in gamers wondering why anyone would want a video game story ever again.

Weapon Upgrading assumes you have to do everything. By the end, you’ll have nowhere near enough Karma to upgrade everything in your arsenal. It shows a complete lack of balance for the overall combat system, which is in itself mashy and tiresome. While the combat matches that seen in the original Ninja Gaiden 2 for Xbox 360, it doesn’t fix the inherent balancing problems that exists with that speed. For example, because the game’s speed is so frantic, the game’s framerate is less than optimal, causing not only a drop in frames, but inputs as well, which will lead to some untimely and frustrating deaths. While this is mostly on Ryu’s side, Ayane’s side really makes it clear that the game is balanced, which will put you in a few situations where you’ll have to get lucky to in order to pass or spend a great deal of time on in order to figure out a fight’s gimmick.

While Razor’s Edge can be seen as improvement, it’s simply window dressing. There’s blood, decapitations, faster combat, tests of valor, collectibles, weapon upgrades, etc. But it doesn’t fix the problems that existed with the last two original Ninja Gaiden games, offering the worst of both worlds. It’s a frustrating experience that you can’t hope to master, but will instead be left whimpering like a Ninja Dog.


Score: 6 out of 10
+ Improved Combat from the original
+ Decapitation is nice
+ Tests of Valor are rewarding to find
- When you die, you usually don’t understand why you die
- Some graphical head-scratchers
- Story is complete garbage

Halo 4 Review

When Halo: Combat Evolved first arrived on the scene, it was the sole reason to buy an Xbox. It modernized the first person controls on a gaming console with its’ dual analog setup. Its’ original developer, Bungie, now gone from the series saw some serious wear from the series with the last couple of titles. While Halo 3: ODST had a great campaign, it was rather short and not worthy of the full price Microsoft made it. Halo Reach, while heralded, was hated by many fans due to some of the creations in its’ multiplayer, along with its’ laughable campaign. But in their stead comes 343 studios, a Microsoft created development for the sole purpose of making Halo games. Considering it’s their first time, Halo 4 does have some growing pains about it, but it’s ultimately a worthwhile experience.

Halo 4 marks the return of the series’ hero, Master Chief, along with his AI companion, Cortana. After four years of drifting in space, Master Chief is awakened to a rogue Covenant group who boarded the ship on the outskirts of a Forerunner planet. The game doesn’t do a very good job conveying what is actually happening with the story, both present and past. While you can unlock background information via Terminals that can only be accessed via Halo Waypoint, an application, it drives the point home of the game having poor storytelling for its’ main thread. Unfortunately, for the story that’s there, it doesn’t really go that far with it, which makes it even more puzzling. Another plot thread is Cortana’s rampancy, which is really the only thing conveyed well in the game’s story. It makes you wonder why so much effort was put on that part of the story and not the main portion of it. It’s confusing, albeit straightforward. Halo 4 has an alright campaign, but it could’ve been better with some better storytelling.

Halo 4’s campaign also continues the tradition of semi-open areas for firefights. While there’s a good mix of small and large areas, which look amazing by the way with its’ gorgeous backdrops that will make you wonder how a console is doing this, on some of the higher difficulties firefights become a major issue of stop and go. At certain points the game will become a puzzle in terms of you figuring out how to pass them, due in part to the game’s poor AI. It’s frustrating to know that a single shot can ruin four or five minutes of progress because the game failed to load a checkpoint. The new enemies in the game, the Prometheans, aren’t all that fun to fight either. They essentially have Flood like numbers, but require the amount of bullets it usually takes to kill a Covenant Elite. You’ll constantly be scrambling for new guns and ammo, leaving you defenseless. While you can appreciate the variety the game is trying to promote, running out of ammo is often the line between progress and reload, a very harsh mistress indeed. What’s also harsh is the loss of firefight in favor of a new cooperative mode, Spartan Ops.

Spartan Ops is a short, mission-based, 5 chapters per week for 10 weeks mode. In this mode, players go throughout an area and kill all the enemies until the end with a cutscene start and finish. Ultimately it’s a short, filler mode that serves little purpose other than to keep people interested in the game for more than a week or two because of other shooters on the market. It’s not an equal substitute for Firefight, but it does an okay job to fill the gap if you get bored, or want more experience than what you’ll get from multiplayer. Halo 4’s multiplayer is a bit more Call of Duty like than Halo Reach. While there aren’t class loadouts for each playlist, you get points to unlock weapons, abilities and armor pieces. While armor pieces are automatic unlocks for various milestones such as getting to Spartan Rank 5, at each level you get 1-2 points to spend how you see fit on Weapons, Grenades or abilities. It’s an adequate system since it promotes choice to peoples’ play styles. What’s not right about it is how the game decides to show you what you can unlock. Instead of laying out everything from the outset, getting kills, gaining levels, and more allow you see what is ahead of you. It’s not tempting anyone to choose variety over a preferred style of play that makes them have a good time. It’s not a fundamental problem, but it’s enough to be a noticeable problem.

Halo 4 does a lot right. It’s graphically impressive, it sounds and controls beautifully. It does a few things wrong as well, most of which are inexcusable. But for the most part, despite its’ flaws, it’s probably the most fun you’ll have with an online shooter this year. That, in and of itself, is why is succeeds.

Score: 8.5 out of 10
+ Looks Amazing
+ Great Multiplayer
+ Good interaction between Master Chief and Cortana

- Terrible Storytelling
- Spartan Ops is disappointing
- Unlock System tedious, cumbersome past weapons

Assassin's Creed III Review

When Assassin’s Creed III was announced to take place in the American Revolution, there was a lot of excitement and concern about the direction the series could. The excitement being centered around, of course, that American History would be the focal point. The concern would be how much will the game sacrifice from the Assassin’s Creed series mechanics to make it functional and proper. While I can tell you that there were no sacrifices made, with the exception of all the bad mechanics introduced in Revelations, last year’s entry, the game re-introduces a lot of the negative elements from the first game to make you wonder if the Assassin’s Creed series has been good or bad for the most part.

The first thing you’ll notice about Assassin’s Creed III is the amazing atmosphere and visual presentation. It has just the right amount of detail to not look like it’s going overboard on realism while keeping itself in line with the rest of the series’ art design. It’s a testament to the new engine that has been created for this game that such fidelity was achieved. But with a new engine comes problems, as framerate drops and screen tearing are somewhat prominent. The game ranges between 15 and 60 fps, although it hangs around 30 for most of the game. The game is also incredibly buggy, akin to the original Assassin’s Creed. Sometimes the game will force you to reload checkpoints because something didn’t trigger. It’s ultimately frustrating to see the game have these bugs because they do ruin the experience. While you may be reliving history through a computer in a video game that they say ‘this is kind of buggy, don’t worry about it,’ you do end up worrying about it since it presents itself time and again. It’s also more prominent because of the slower than usual pacing.

Combat has never been a strong suit of Assassin’s Creed, and this game follows that trend in spades. While the combat is easier than ever before, it is also extremely slow and obnoxious at times. You’ll be waiting a lot longer to counter enemies, which in some cases is the only way to kill enemies. It really drives home the game’s slow, tedious nature that is seen in other areas of the game. There’s too much build up without enough payoff to keep you motivated for very long unless you are an absolute diehard fan of the series. The game’s tutorial takes 5-6 hours to get going, but it takes about that same length for the game to reach its’ proper conclusion. It feels as though something major was cut along the way, but I can’t put my finger on it. While the game has plenty of side missions and the usual Assassin’s Creed fare, the areas created by the end are still unfamiliar to you, which is a shame since the other Assassin’s Creed games made sure you knew where everything was by day’s end. The only outright shining example of excellence in this game is the ship combat, which is both simple and complex to make sure anyone can enjoy it thoroughly. But that’s just a small portion of the game, but there are still gripes that make up the same portion, if not more of the game.

Chases sequences are a prime example of this. They are terribly designed, and some can go on forever if you don’t know what you’re doing. This really drives home the point that the game doesn’t properly convey things to you. It feels like a game manual would help with these grievances but some publishers have done away with them to save money, even though developers act like they’re still there. If you fail some of these missions, I hope you didn’t waste any items along the way, because you won’t regain them if you reload a checkpoint. It’s appalling that this type of punishment exists in a game like this, and it makes you feel helpless and demoralized to know your one good weapon is gone forever because of a simple failure or glitch. And that’s really what Assassin’s Creed III feels like, a glitch; something that shouldn’t exist because of its’ series history.

While Assassin’s Creed III has a lot going for it, but the expansive nature about it makes it feel unfocused and unpolished. It feels like the series’ yearly iterative cycle has finally caught up with like Revelations was alluding to last year. Instead of falling on the side of 2 and Brotherhood, 3 fell on the side of bad with the original and Revelations. Assassin’s Creed III may delight some fans, but it will disgust and bore the majority of them, just like so many saw it before the series’ inception.

Score: 6.5 out of 10
+ Great Atmosphere
+ Great Soundtrack
+ Haythem Kenway, that dapper fiend

- Extremely Glitchy
- Too much like Forest Gump, where Connor is everywhere, doing everything
- The story has a terrible ending

Borderlands 2 Review

Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed and brave Borderlands, which was one of only a few games which stood its’ ground to Modern Warfare 2. By focusing on cooperative play with a loot system and RPG mechanics, the cel-shaded shooter found a place among many gamers to garner downloadable content and a highly desired sequel. While Borderlands 2 has brought a welcome number of changes, it’s also brought something undesired, which is something most gamers won’t really know how to describe.

Borderlands 2 takes place five years after the original, wherein Handsome Jack wants to enter the Vault for mysterious reasons, and you, whom he tried to kill, wants revenge. In order to do that, you’ll need better guns than what you start out with. The game’s major hook is the loot system, where you kill enemies to get more and better guns. While the game progresses you’ll want to go from White to Green to Blue to Purple and finally to Orange to get the best weapons. However, you’ll constantly be checking your guns to see if a White gun outclasses your Orange one. It feels somewhat archaic and not all that thought out in the end. Borderlands 2 also expands on its’ level design, with the number of areas being easily quadrupled.

Every area in Borderlands 2 is enormous, but there’s very little density. Most areas are dead, forcing you to struggle with the terrible driving mechanics a lot of the time. Like the first game you’re going from place to place to achieve your goals. These areas would be better served by either being shrunk or not existing at all. It feels like Gearbox tried to pad the game’s length in ways that really weren’t necessary since the game already has enough content. In the end this hurts replay value since an average playthrough will be 40-50 hours instead of 25-30. Since Gearbox wants to promote people playing through the game multiple times with different classes, stretching out the game’s length is a misstep because it’s harder to replay it at that length. There’s more padding here, which comes down to how the game handles difficulty and its’ general gameplay.

Enemies in Borderlands 2 scale to your difficulty, averaging between two levels below to one level above your current level. People refer to this as “treadmill difficulty” which is something you see in Skyrim, as well as the original Borderlands, but it was contained to Mad Moxxi’s Underdome. This is done instead of creating a proper difficulty curve and scenario for every instance. It feels lazy and cheap to do so, and offers no better rewards. While the game promotes you being a badass, nothing is badass about wasting time on the same fight for a few hours.

Borderlands 2 introduces a Badass Rating system, wherein you earn tokens that you can spend on stat bonuses, such as increased weapon damage, reduced recoil, and more health. It does a good job getting you to play the game in different ways, but the rewards feel like a drop in the bucket some of the time. Even though you get bonuses to help, the game still feels uneven in terms of gameplay. Sometimes you’ll consistently miss shots at point blank range against a frozen enemy and fumble with the controls when enemies are in close proximity. If you manage to get through it all though, the game does have some great writing.

Borderlands 2 has a somewhat dark humor to its’ story, with characters that have a lot of personality and life to them. Gearbox has done an exceptional job at bringing the characters and world of Pandora to life. You’ll also be able to enjoy this world with other people easier due to the improved network options. Instead of having to start a game online and hope others join, you can just switch your current game to be open to everyone or no one. It’s nice to see such vast improvements in these two areas of the game, disheartening to see other areas get glossed over or take a step back.

In the end, Borderlands 2 is a step back from Borderlands in a lot of ways while taking a major leap forward with the universe that was created. If you want more Borderlands, it’s recommended to buy the downloadable content for the original or simply start a new character. Borderlands 2 will leave you feeling empty and disheartened, which is sad considering the game seems to have so much heart.

Overall Score: 6 out of 10

+ Good Writing
+ Good Art Style
+ Lots of Areas to Explore

- Treadmill Difficulty
- Music is Unmemorable
- Has Unnecessary Padding