Tuesday, October 31, 2017

The Evil Within 2: A Cult Classic?

Hey Guys, I know I'm a couple of weeks late on making this post, but I had to go back and play this game as much as possible to give my opinions in the most genuine way possible without sounding like a complete fanboy of The Evil Within 2. I'm just going to say it how it is, this is easily one of the best survival horror games released in recent years and one of the best games of 2017. I'll try to be as structured as possible when talking about this game.

Image Provided by VG247
















The story in The Evil Within wasn't really memorable, but it had a very interesting concept. In the first game, you're just tossed in without much knowledge and is just an overall confusing plot. I'm not going to spoil what happens in terms of the story, but I will say that you do find out that you're actually in the mind of the antagonist of the game via a machine called STEM that links people's minds together. Honestly, the first game is all about survival and it did its jobs well for what it was.

Think Inception, but this isn't a dream.

The story in The Evil Within 2 feels vastly different compared to the first game as I mentioned back in my impressions post. Not only is this game about survival, but it's about finding your daughter who you thought was dead back in the previous game. I don't believe she was shown in the first game, but it's mentioned she died in a house fire, but I guess she ends up being alive for plot convenience.

For the most part, the story is interesting for what it is. Mobius turns out to be the true villain of the franchise because they were responsible for the creation of the STEM in the first place. I'm not spoiling anything as this is all revealed within the first 10 minutes or so of the game. Regardless, you're in a pretty shitty world that you need to get yourself and your daughter out of. While the story itself may not sound like something original, the characters are a lot more likable this time around and what they go throw compels you to see through the end of their stories.

One of my main complaints from the first game, was the boring main protagonist. What makes a survival horror game feel so tense is the character you play as. Do you honestly feel scared if you're character is something like John Wick? How about the way they react to what they encounter? In the first Evil Within, Sebastian is so non-nonchalant to what's going on around him. It's probably due to the mediocre voice acting, but even if the voice acting was awesome the characters are not exactly well-written.

In The Evil Within 2, it's already established that Sebastian Castellanos is no longer a Detective. As a matter of fact, he's washed up. I personally like how the game introduces him within the first 20 minutes of the game because it shows how the events from the previous game effects him. Not even the first 20 minutes, throughout the whole game you see that there is a evil within Sebastian that continues to haunt him. This is especially shown when he blames himself for losing his daughter as well as the treatment he received after surviving the events of the first game.

Sebastian is more of a character in this game than he was in the original game. He's not memorable by any stretch of the imagination, but the game does a great job at exploring him as a human being. However, to learn more about his backstory you have to go for the collectibles.

The collectibles in this game do serve a purpose. It's worthwhile to collect them because some of them lead you to supplies that you can use to help you in combat as well as exploring Sebastian as a character. You can argue that these collectibles force you to explore in the semi-open world areas such as Chapter 3. I think I spent five hours on Chapter 3 alone just exploring the area without a guide in order to find collectibles and supplies.

The open-world system is okay. Other than the collectibles and supplies, there really isn't much of a purpose to explore these open-world levels. There are side missions, but they only occur whenever you do meet a new character. They reward you with supplies and not much else. For a game like this, I really want them here, but they help with getting ammo and green gel.

Much like the first game, enemies drop green gel that you can use to upgrade Sebastian's physical abilities from shooting to health. Believe me, once you unlock the right abilities you become an unstoppable killing machine. It helps with going back for multiple playthroughs, but does kill the immersion. However, you can't do this on the Classic Mode which I think is a godsend because I think that's the way the game should be played. The limited saves and fight-or-flight mentality help to get you immersed in the survival horror feeling. If you want a real challenge, play this game on the harder difficulties to make it feel like a true survival horror game.

Before I wrap up, I do want to mention how clunky the combat mechanics are at times. Before upgrading your shooting abilities, the weapon sway will ruin your experience if you don't have the best aim. Imagine playing this on classic mode, you're going to want to run more than fight. Don't even try close quarters combat! The camera zooms in way too damn close whenever you take on enemies, so put in some good distance. You do have the option of using either a knife or an axe, but you have to find the axe and the knife doesn't do much damage.

I also mentioned this during my impressions post that Sebastian's movements are too slow. It's one solid reason why you will be discouraged from exploring the open world. I get that it's survival horror and you're supposed to move slow, but not in an open world like setting.

It sucks that this game is pretty much under the radar. If you didn't already know, it's not doing so hot sales wise much to my expectations. Anyone who is a fan of survival horror games needs to play The Evil Within 2. It's easily one of the best survival horror games I've ever played and is a significant improvement over the first game.
Till Next Time!!

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

I'm done with Competitive Overwatch

Hey Guys, I wasn't planning on making this post. As a matter of fact, I was just going to keep this on the down low because I don't really talk about Overwatch much. I know I made two posts complaining about the toxicity in the game and a couple of miscellaneous posts about the game, but I've finally had enough.

Goodbye to using my main in a more serious manner...
I consider myself to be a mild mannered person. The only time I will respond to a toxic teammate is when they start believing they are "carrying" and are just overall providing no useful feedback. However, a lot of them LOVE talking over you instead of shutting their mouth up to actually listen. Believe me, there are just times where I just lose my shit if someone is being toxic to me or anyone else on the team.

The whole, "if someone is being toxic just mute them", defense just doesn't work. Do you know how much of a disadvantage you will have if you lose the amount of players in voice chat? I get that they are being an asshole, but most of them will still make call outs(albeit in the most aggressive way possible).

Don't even get me started on toxic players who don't use mics and love to spam "Thanks!" in the chat log. It's especially annoying when they just start throwing because you'll have no idea why they are throwing. A lot of the time they'll throw if you pick their "main" or you pick a hero they don't like. Even if you do make the switch, they probably will still throw.

Whenever I play Competitive, I tend to play D.Va or another tank because I just don't like playing DPS even though I main McCree. Why? If there is a toxic teammate on your team, about 99% of the time they'll blame the DPS for a loss or just their overall performance. It's probably because they wanted to play DPS, but got salty as soon as someone autolocked DPS. I get that it's more satisfying to do the damage, but if you're playing on a Diamond level or above, then you absolutely NEED to learn how to flex. 

I'm making a lot of the same arguments I made in previous posts about me bitching about the toxic players in the game because it's STILL happening. Even with the addition of the report feature on consoles, the toxicity still keeps coming. A lot of the time it's from a smurf account, so there's no point in getting it ban because they'll just make another account and continue being toxic to other people.

With the little time that I have to play this game, I have fun playing this game competitively when nobody is being toxic. If my team lost a game, there was no blame game going on. We just would say "gg" and call it a day. If there was toxic behavior going on in the game, then prepare to get ear raped from your headset.

I can't tolerate it anymore. Therefore, I'm quitting Competitive Overwatch. Season 6 is ending in a few days and I couldn't be happier. I've been thinking about quitting for a long time and now it's going to happen. One part of me is upset because I won't be able to play a match of Quick Play where people actually take the game seriously, but at the same time I won't have to deal with toxic players.

Overwatch is a fun game, but it's the community is just causing the game to implode. If you're planning on starting Overwatch, just be aware of what you are getting yourself into. Goodbye, Comp.
Till Next Time!!

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Update: Singleplayer is Dying

Hey Guys, just wanted to make a quick update post. This isn't going to be formal as usual and just going to be rambling about video game stuff.

Big subject this week and last week is the perception that singleplayer games are just dying and this is being reaffirmed by Rockstar after they've finally revealed the truth about why there wasn't story DLC for Grand Theft Auto V. They said Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Redemption 2 have been taking up most of their time, so they just couldn't focus on single-player content. In reality, they were profiting too much from Grand Theft Auto Online and decided to just either focus on the online portion or just sit around and watch the money come in.

I do agree that there aren't a whole lot of new single player games coming out and the ones coming out tend to have microtransactions. However, 2017 has seen the release of some great single player games such as Nioh, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Persona 5.

I don't think this is something that is going to happen within the next couple of years, but I do feel like it's going to progress very slowly assuming that online battle royal and hero arena games start phasing out. Better yet, it'll end when people stop paying for microtransactions in single-player games.

Before I wrap up, I will be working on another The Evil Within 2 post. I completed the game last Thursday and have a lot to say about the game.
Till Next Time!!

Monday, October 16, 2017

The Evil Within 2 Impressions

Hey Guys, it's been three since the release of The Evil Within 2. I did get the game on the first day of release, but I didn't get a chance to actually play until Saturday. I still haven't finished the game and as of writing this I'm on Chapter 9. What do I think of the game so far? Remember, this is just my impressions and not a full on review of the game. I may or may not release a review of the game. It all just depends on how much time I have.

This is a screenshot I took from the Xbox One version of the game. I think this is miles more beautiful compared to the first game.


If you've played The Evil Within, you'll notice that there is just an immediate shift in tone when you first start up the game. The first game started you off as a Detective simply working on a case without knowing what he was getting himself into while the second is about the same detective(now an ex) who is on a mission to save his daughter knowing what he's getting into.

The Evil Within is undoubtedly a survival horror video game. Sure, the difficulty of the game will effect your experience, but for the most part you had to be careful about how much ammo you used and what abilities you unlock to help you get through the story. This game is pretty difficult once you start playing on higher difficulties because resources are a lot more scarce and you're pretty much forced to use stealth in this game to conserve whatever supplies you want.

The Evil Within 2 is still a survival horror video game, but it plays differently compared to the first game. What major difference is the semi-open world.

Personally, I feel like the semi-open world is going to be divisive among players. I like it because it pretty much forces you to explore the area to find both supplies and collectibles. In my opinion, it's worthwhile to go for the collectibles because not only do they provide backstories, but some of them actually provide set pieces or more supplies that you need to survive.

However, due to Sebastian's slow movement speed you might be turned off from exploring the open world. I get that you're supposed to be moving slow in survival horror games, but this movement is unnecessarily slow given the size of the environment around you. Remember Resident Evil 4? You moved slow, but you could sprint for faster movement without a stamina bar! I feel like the stamina bar hinders exploration because you could only sprint for so long and it's barely faster than the standard movement.

In all honesty, the controls aren't the best especially when it comes to close quarters combat because the moment you aim down the camera zooms in a bit too close to you for you to miss an enemy that is in your face. Why I can't shoot from the hip is beyond me, but I guess it's done like that for the survival horror feeling.

I'm trying to avoid wording this like a review, so bear with me. All I can say that gameplay wise the game isn't too different from the original The Evil Within. With the implementation of open world elements they did take some risks. I don't really want to talk about side missions because there aren't a whole lot in the game, but just know that it's worthwhile to complete them in order to keep getting supplies.

While I'm playing on medium difficulty at the moment, I can say that The Evil Within 2 is slightly easier than the original because of the crafting system. You can upgrade your weapons, craft ammo, and even craft healing supplies!

So far, I'm liking the game. The story is nothing special, but I still find it to be interesting. Just don't expect to see award winning voice acting or memorable characters. If you played the original game, I say try this game out some time. Maybe I'll give a full fledged review of the game if I either absolutely love the game or just have second thoughts on it.
Till Next Time!!

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Will The Evil Within 2 fail Financially?

Hey Guys, I was browsing NeoGaf and stumbled upon an article that I found to be interesting. Instead of making a post responding to multiple threads on NeoGaf like I usually do, I decided that I want to talk about this topic in depth because I'm very interested in The Evil Within.

Image Provided by Bethesda
















Okay, I understand what the OP was trying to get to when he mentioned that back in 2014 The Evil Within was released into a market where we didn't have a Japanese Survival horror game available in October. Additionally, he mentioned that the game was hyped up way ahead of its launch due to its artwork, "slow cross gen period" and the developers behind it.

I personally became hyped up for the game when I heard the director of Resident Evil 4 was working on The Evil Within. I don't believe there was a gameplay trailer until E3, but that is what solidified my hype for the game. At that time, people who were really into Resident Evil were hyped for this game due to the disappointment of Resident Evil 6 for not going back to its survival horror roots.

The OP was right about there not being enough promotion to The Evil Within 2. I don't even think I seen one commercial on live TV promoting the game while the first game has plenty of commercials for the game-at least when I was watching AMC. Additionally, Resident Evil 7 released this year! Who wouldn't want to buy that game over The Evil Withing 2? Promotion is going to be the killing blow for this horror sequel since the only sources promoting the game's release are gaming outlets and a couple of retail stores!

I chuckled a bit when he mentioned Sins of the Father Curse. This actually made a lot of sense. Titantfall and Watch Dogs weren't bad games, but they ultimately ended up as some of the most disappointing games at the time. While I never played Watch Dogs 2, I can say that Titanfall 2 is a significant improvement over the first game and easily one of the best games of 2016. However, it was wiped out due to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1 demolishing the gaming market. I even forgot to mention the other games that came out in October which even include the Skyrim remaster!

Another thing I feel like should  be mentioned was the fact The Evil Within released on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. See where I am getting at? Since it was available on so many consoles, it's able to have a much bigger audience, so the fact that The Evil Within 2 will only be available on three platforms means that sales are going to take a hit.

Going back to the Sins of the Father Curse, I wouldn't say that The Evil Within was a bad game. I agree with the author that it's flawed, but I never really encountered the problems the OP listed. My main issue with the game is the main protagonist not really having much of a personality.

I don't believe that the game is going to be a complete commercial failure, but I do feel like it's not going to exactly match its predecessor's sales on day one. Based on early impressions of the game, The Evil Within 2 is an improvement over the first game. I know I'm getting it through Amazon on Friday, so I'm personally excited for the game.

If I'm wrong about the game not being a commercial failure, then I can definitely see it becoming a cult classic much like Titanfall 2.
Till Next Time!!

Sunday, October 8, 2017

In Retrospect: Mafia III

Hey Guys, it's been a full year since the release of Mafia III! It feels like yesterday since this game first game out. I remember being hyped up for this game as I was a fan of the previous game in the series. I didn't get a chance to play the game until March of this year, so I won't be complaining about the bugs and glitches that occurred within the first month the game released.

Just so you know, I'm playing on the Xbox One version of the game. It may look good from the screenshot, but until you see the game from a TV you'll notice it's not exactly the best to look at.

















Most of you might not agree with my opinion of the game, but I'm just going to say it. I don't think Mafia III is a great game. Why? I have just two major complaints on the game and I'll go into detail on them.

The gameplay in this game is just derivative and monotonous. All those critical reviews that you may have saw from reviewers, other players, and your favorite YouTubers could have all mentioned just how repetitive the missions are in this game. It's as if the developers of the game couldn't get the game design right. You end up doing the same activities over and over just to progress through the story.

Let me demonstrate. I'll even label the steps and it's essentially all the missions in a nutshell.
  1. The game instructs you to talk to an NPC.(One of your underbosses, their partners, etc...)
  2. Said NPC tells you their problem that you need to take care of. (Kill someone, rob something from someone, rescue someone, etc...)
  3. You go to drive over to the location to take care of the problem. (Mind you there is no fast travel in the game, so expect to be doing a lot of driving)
  4. You take care of the problem and have to drive back to tell the NPC that you took care of the problem and get paid.
  5. Assign district/racket to an underboss depending if the mission demands you to do so.
  6. Depending on the type of mission, you get a cutscene.
  7. Repeat steps for next mission
What went wrong with the mission structure? Did these guys get lazy halfway through the development of the game or was it all just an afterthought?

Okay, the previous game had the same issue in terms of repetitive gameplay. However, you didn't have to keep on doing the same tasks to capture areas of a map in order to unlock the next cutscene. Every mission you did progressed through the story. It made the game feel shorter, but the story was good and made you want to push through the game in order to finish it.

This brings me to my other main criticism of the game: the open-world. New Bordeaux is a great setting for the game especially in 196 due to racial segregation and Vietnam effecting American culture at the time. However, there isn't much to do in the world.

All you're doing is driving around completing story missions and not really doing much of anything else. There are collectibles, but they don't necessarily add anything important to the game. Sure, there are optional missions, but they are pretty much the same as doing the story missions in terms of the activities. Sure, you can race in the game, but why do that if you're spending a good chunk of the game driving to your next objective anyways?

Don't get me wrong, you could still have fun with the game by doing stupid actions that aren't relevant to the missions. Much like GTA, you could have a standoff with the cops in the game if you'd like. However, a neat part of the game is that depending on what part of the map you're on the cops will either come quickly or slowly. It's not really encouraged to take part in these activities since you can die pretty easily in this game if you're not careful due to the amount of damage you could take in the game.

I talked about what was wrong with the game, but does it make it a bad game? No. The story and characters are possibly the strongest part of the game.

You could tell that a lot of effort has been put into the story and voice acting. Holy shit. Just look at the cutscenes for the game and you'll know what I mean. The cinematics are just graphically impressive and the lip syncing is on point. I wish the game looked exactly like the cinematics, but I guess we can't all get what we want.

Sure, the revenge story has been done a million times in different variations, but the actor for Lincoln Clay did a damn good job at showing how much rage was truly behind the character. I like Lincoln Clay as a character and prefer him over Vito from Mafia II. The reason for this is because of how Lincoln Clay doesn't seem to give a shit abut what was going on in American society and is instead focused on his adventure for revenge.

I said it once and I'm going to say it again. This is not a great game, but I would say it's worth a try if you could get past the repetitive gameplay. This is easily one of the best stories told in 2016, but this is a rare case where story over gameplay has harmed a game because this particular gameplay isn't very good.
Till Next Time!!

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Update: Rise of Broketober 2017

Hey Guys, it's a big month for video games and entertainment as a whole. There are literally a lot of games that I would like to get this month that include The Evil Within 2, Wolfenstein 2, and Super Mario Odyssey. Okay, I don't have a Nintendo Switch, but I really want to play Super Mario Odyssey.

This is just an article where I just get to type whatever comes to mind and talk about video games. I don't really have a particular structure as to what I'm going to be talking about, so just know that I'm going to be talking about one game and then move onto the next one. Additionally, people stop PMing about Destiny 2 because I won't be playing that anytime soon.

The Evil Within 2
Okay, The Evil Within 2. It's the month of Halloween, so why on Earth wouldn't you want to play a horror game? To be honest with you, I personally believe that The Evil Within is one of the most underrated horror video games in recent years. The gameplay feels very smooth and is reminiscent of Resident Evil in the survival horror department.

The Evil Within is a game that should be played on Hard because it forces you to think twice about using weapons. Additionally, it makes enemies a lot harder to take down. They were already annoying to take down because you have to burn them to make sure they didn't come back. At least, that's what I remember the game being like. It's been a long time since I have finished the game.

The story itself is also a very cool concept. The main protagonist and antagonist aren't really interesting to me because of the lackluster voice-acting performance of the protagonist and the generic characteristics of the antagonist. I guess you could say that about most of the characters because I felt that more character development should have been added into the game, but it's serviceable for what it is.

Forza Motorsport 7
I'm not much of a fan of racing games, but the Forza series is pretty cool to me. I only played Forza Motorsport 5 and really want to get into the Horizon series.

If you didn't already know, I have the Xbox One X pre-ordered and want to take advantage of its capabilities. Why not see how Forza Motorsport 7 performs? This is a damn good looking game and would look amazing in 4K HDR running at a beautiful 60fps.

I won't be getting this day one. I'm sure it'll go on sale by Black Friday as well as most 4K TVs, so I'll keep an eye out on this game.

Wolfenstein 2
Wolfenstein was a series that wasn't known for its story. The series was the basis of Doom. B.J Blazkowicz was the original character in the first first person shooter game ever created. This man has been kicking ass before Doomguy.

However, Wolfenstein took a new direction when The New Order released. The game actually had a decent story and B.J. Blazkowicz had more of a character to him. The New Order really succeeded in the gameplay department because you could play it full guns blazing or just play it stealthily. The voice acting was also pretty impressive for what it was. If you haven't played The New Order, then please go pick it up.

You need to personally watch gameplay of The New Colossus. For crying out loud, you start the game off killing Nazis in a wheelchair. I don't think I've ever seen a game do that before. Based on early impressions of the game, the characters are being more developed this time around and this game is taking place on American soil!

I'm a fan of Red Dawn and this game in particular is giving me that Red Dawn vibe, so I'm excited to see what this game has to offer in terms of story.

Final Ramblings
I'm considering getting a Nintendo Switch, but come holiday season it's going to be extremely hard to find. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey are system sellers on their own, so it sucks I don't have the console to play them on.

Some other games I would like to get include Persona 5, The Sims 4, and Call of Duty: WW2. I didn't include them on this "list" since they aren't releasing in October. Well, Persona 5 and Nioh have been out I just didn't have the time to play them.

I'm looking forward to playing a lot of these games, but it's going to be tough trying to budget them. I'm going to try to get The Evil Within 2 this month. Also, I'm still working on that In Retrospect post. I'm sorry for the wait, so I'll do my best to have a double post this week to make up for that.
Till Next Time!!