Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Xbox Game Pass: My Thoughts

Hey Guys, what do you get if you mix merge Netflix and gaming? Other than PlayStation Now, you get the Xbox Game Pass. What exactly is the Xbox Game Pass, let me explain and give my almost useless opinion to you all.
Image Provided by Major Nelson's Blog



For $9.99 a month, you get access to "100s" of games available for download on your Xbox One and Xbox 360. However, Windows 10 users will not be able to benefit from this program. However, keep in mind that the games available are time limited, so there are new games avaible each month.

If you have any interest in any of the game you play through the service, you can buy it at a 20% discount. Alright, now onto my thoughts.

I have mixed thoughts on this. Even though there are services like GameFly and Redbox that already allow video game rentals, it's convenient and cost-efficient to be going using this serive. Sure, it may suck that they are time-limited, but a month is more than enough time for someone to tell if they will be interested in buying a game.

The major question is: what games will be featured with the service? Will they be those games nobody cares about that Microsoft usually makes free or will they be games from years ago?

I'm surprised that this service is only $9.99, so that's what is making me a bit nervous as to the quality of games that will be featured in the service.
Till Next Time!!

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Update: My Recent Game Pickups #6- Tax Refund Edition

Hey Guys, I promised to have three posts this week, so I'm gonna give it to you guys. I didn't buy as many games as I wanted, but I'm still happy with the purchases that I did made. Well, here's a photo of the games that I did end up buying.
The lack of PS4 games though....



I wanted to buy a couple of more PlayStation 4 games, but I'm surprised by the amount of PlayStation exclusive games that aren't priced at $20 or lower. Additionally, I don't play my PlayStation 4 as much as I want to. I've wanted to play Infamous: Second Son for the longest time, so I got a chance to buy it. However, I literally beat the whole game in just two days. I wanted to the get the Uncharted Collection ever since I got Uncharted 4.

I have no idea what possessed me to even get Dark Souls III. I put in a couple of hours into the game and keep getting my ass kicked. The game is fun, but I literally have no idea how to "git gud".

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was addictive as crack to me. The game is pretty hard, but I think that's what attracted me most to it. I wanted to get XCOM 2 when it was ported to console, but I didn't feel like paying full price for the game.

Mafia III has been on my radar for some time. I haven't got the chance to play it, yet. I heard mixed feelings about the gameplay, but I hear good things about the story.

Currently, I am playing Resident Evil 7. It may be different from past Resident Evil games, but so far the game is pretty fun to play through. I want to take my time with the game, so I'm trying my best to avoid playing other games at the side.

I didn't just buy video games. Here's a little bonus I got....
Yes, Witcher Memorabilia....
I may not be big on collecting POP! figures, but how could I not get these Witcher figures? Seriously, if you are a fan of TheWitcher, you should get these babies. I got these as a bundle on Amazon for about $58, so I would say that they were totally worth it.

I didn't have a shelf to use for these figures, so I decided to just put them in my small collection of PlayStation games. If my PlayStation game collection gets any bigger, then I'm gonna need a new shelf.

That's all for me today. I'm glad that I was able to have three posts for this week. Horizon Zero Dawn is upon us and I plan on getting it in the near-future.
Till Next Time!!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Overwatch Toxicity: My Thoughts

Hey Guys, guess I'm going to be doing a triple post this week. This is a thread that I happened to stumble upon on NeoGaf that is sharing information from a MIC article based from a Reddit thread. Essentially, Reddit user "neutrondamage" has been sharing her online sexual harassment horror stories while playing Overwatch and this sparked a number of Reddit users to share their harassment stories.


I want to mention that this specific Reddit user(neutrondamage) has been playing on competitive. A lot of the users who have experienced harassment have mentioned they've played in competitive mode or haven't mentioned it. Nonetheless, just reading through these horror stories is enough to make you want to lose faith in the Overwatch community.

Should this come as some surprise? This has been going on for a while, but we are now just starting to take it more seriously. Want to know why a lot of people don't use game chat? It's because of toxic adults and teenagers who just want to shit talk other players online.

Personally, I've rarely experienced this on Overwatch casual. The competitive mode of Overwatch is where all of the toxic assholes are at. Even though I'm playing on console, there is still a number of people who do still use the in-game voice chat. You're only going to get two kinds of people, one will actually be focused on the game and want to peacefully bring the team together and the other who will criticizes people for not being good with a hero or playing the objective. Hell, some of them will just bring up racial or gender slurs.

I cannot count the amount of times that someone will bring up season rank when they want to argue against you. If you're one of those assholes that actually take the time to look at someone's stats and bitch about them, then you really need to evaluate your life. Not everybody takes the game seriously.

I get it though. People will get mad if they feel like they are on the losing side, but it doesn't mean they have to bitch about it through their mics. They just need to suck it up and take their lose like an adult.

Constructive criticism exists for a reason. Instead of saying something like, "Genji you suck", PROVIDE SOME FUCKING FEEDBACK. It's not that difficult! How the hell is someone going to get better at the game if they have some toxic manchild bitching at them rather than helping them!?

More importantly ,other than just skill, I'm just shocked that grown-fucking adults will make fun of someone based on their gender or race. Why? It's a concept I'll never understand, but assholes like these shouldn't be allowed to even breed. Why should it matter that a woman is playing Overwatch? She's just trying to play the game just like any other man could. Why the hell would you call someone a "nigger" if it has nothing to do with how they're playing the fucking game? People are just stupid.

The Overwatch community was regarded as being kind at one point in time, but it's when competitive mode was introduced that the toxicity level has grown. That's not to say the entire community is toxic. I still like to believe it's a lot friendlier compared to Call of Duty or League of Legends.

Before I wrap up, I want to add a final takeaway. It's okay to trash talk, but there is a certain boundary that shouldn't be crossed when trash talking.
Till Next Time.

Xbox Live: Free Games of March 2017- A better month....

Hey Guys, it's been almost two weeks since I posted anything. Not much was going on and I've been busy with school to be keeping track of anything. I'll do a double post this week as I actually got my tax refund a week ago and picked up a couple of games. Anyways, it's time to get into the free games that will be given to Xbox Live users for March.

Image Provided my Major Nelson's blog

















After months of disappointments, things are looking solid for Xbox in March. Specifically, Xbox One users will be given significantly better games than previous months.

I've heard mixed reactions for Layers of Fear. I like to play horror games, so this might be up my alley whether it's scary or not. It's free, so how can I argue against it?

Evolve. Where do I even begin? Even though I've never played the game, I've heard the fanbase pretty much was DOA. Seriously, I remember this game being on almost Destiny-level hype and by a week the player base was dead. Why this wasn't already free to play on consoles is beyond me, but I guess it doesn't hurt to play the game for myself.

What the hell is Heavy Weapon? Maybe it's good? Maybe it's not? It just doesn't appeal to me, so I'm going to hold my judgement.

I literally can't say enough about Borderlands 2. Why they couldn't make the Xbox One version free doesn't make much sense to me. It's a shame that I played the game already and don't have the time to go back and replay the game from the beginning.

Before I close out, I want to mention that I'm looking forward to Horizon Zero Dawn and reviews came out a week in advanced. It wasn't under my radar, but so far I'm caught up in the hype. I just need to make the time to even play the games I currently have to play Horizon.
Till Next Time!!

Friday, February 10, 2017

Should Retailers Sell Your Games Early?

Hey Guys, before I talk about today's topic I want to mention that I just started the For Honor open beta yesterday. I'm going to have an impressions post on it within the next couple of days or maybe Sunday depending on how long I want to be playing the game.

In addition, I want to talk about Destiny and Call of Duty, but that'll be on a separate post I'll make in the near future. Anyways, let's get to the topic for today. Yes, this is just going to be a wall of text.



I was going through IGN articles and stumbled upon an article that they are reporting on in which some website claims that retailers are discussing with publishers to release physical copies of their games early, so people can get their hands on them earlier. The catch? The games are locked until the game release date.

I'm going to say it like it is, this is one of the most unnecessary ideas that I've ever heard. The website that I linked does a relatively good job of providing the pros and cons of this idea, but it general why in the world do we need this?

We live in the 21st century! People could pre-order their games digitally and pre-download it, so they could boot it up the day it comes out. They are already locked out of the game since it hasn't released yet.

Literally, I don't see anyone going to the story to buy a physical copy of their game early and going home to just have it laying around. People can just simply use their controllers to pre-order whatever game they want and have it ready to download.

I imagine people who only buy physical copies of their games and don't have the time to be picking up their games during store hours due to work or whatever would be happy about this, but that's still a small number of people that this idea would actually benefit.

If any of you can see the good in this, please try to convince me otherwise. Hell, I'm sure none of you would be buying your games this early knowing you can't even play it.
Till Next Time!!

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Ghost Recon: Wildlands Closed Beta Impressions

Hey Guys, after spending a good chunk of my weekend binge playing Ghost Recon while also getting my taxes done, it's time to finally give my impressions of the closed beta. Before I say anything, I must mention that I played the Xbox One version of the game.
Even though this is on Xbox One, it's still a good looking game...


















If you haven't noticed, this is a good looking game. I literally spent a good 10 minutes just looking around when I first got into the game. When Ubisoft said this is one of the biggest games they have ever created, they really meant it. Even though this is just a beta, there is quite a bit of land for you to explore and interact with. I'll get into the bad later.

Digressing from the visuals, you will be amazed by the character creator. This is a major improvement from The Division. As a matter of fact, The Division should have had a similar character creation tool. The actual facial configuration is minimal, but the clothing options are just amazing! Everything from jackets to backpacks, you can create a unique looking character. I was genuinely surprised by the amount of clothing customization, so A+ to you Ubisoft for actually taking feedback from The Division.

The graphics and the customization are easily the strongest points of the game. However, everything else is just hit or miss. I'll talk about my thoughts on the story as well as the gameplay.

I'm not going to lie, I couldn't pay attention to the cutscenes. The dialogue didn't feel normal as everyone talks as if they were disinterested and the lip synchronization just feels off. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who experiences this.

The story isn't anything special based on what we got. Seriously, this is something that has been done before by different video games.

The gameplay is reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid V in the sense that you are able to choose stealth or go full assault. However, this is a game that relies on going through sub-missions that are virtually the same in order to unlock main story missions.The design just feels so cheap that way. While it makes sense in game why you have to go through these sub-missions in order to gain information of how to progress to the story, more effort could have been done to the variety of types of missions.

My last point that I want to make about the game is the co-op. Is it good? Yes, this is game is best played in four player co-op. You can have a great time playing with a couple of friends, so if you can avoid it try not to play this game alone as it's a total letdown to do so.

Overall, the game is enjoyable, but it's not a game for everybody. Imagine The Division, but it's slightly better. Otherwise, this game doesn't do anything that we have never seen before. Because this is a beta, I imagine that some of the problems I address will be fixed. Honestly, if the game had a more compelling story as well as an improvement to the gameplay, then it would be a great game.
Till Next Time!!

Friday, February 3, 2017

Update: Ghost Recon: Wildlands Closed Beta

Hey Guys, I wanted to make a post on the first day of the month, but I just didn't have the time to. I thought it would be a good idea to make a quick update post about what to expect within the upcoming week. First off, I got this in my e-mail today.
I got extremely lucky to even get access...

If you received this in your e-mail, then make sure you click on the link to access your Beta key because the beta code was not included in the e-mail itself. For Xbox One users, I logged into Ubisoft Club using my Xbox profile and downloaded the key from there. If you want access to the beta, let me know as I can only invite three other people to the beta.

I'm going to be playing this game all day tomorrow and a good chunk of my Sunday to have my impressions out early next week. I wish I could start playing today, but I have to work late tonight. Hopefully, I'll have my impressions up on or before Wednesday.

If you didn't already know, this game is supposed to have the biggest map that Ubisoft created and am sure that not all of it will be accessible in the beta.

Before I go, I wanted to add that Nioh is coming out Tuesday and early reviews are looking good so far. I would pick up, but I want to get Resident Evil 7 before anything else.
Till Next Time!!