Destiny 2 Beta Impressions

Hey Guys, now that I've played the Destiny 2 beta it's time that I share my thoughts. Look, I'm only going to say how I feel about it. I'm sure this isn't representative of the full game, but this still gives us a good idea of what this game is going to be like.

Although I'm not going to go much into it, but Destiny 2 has some damn good-looking environments

As soon as you start up the beta, the game prompts you to choose your class and boot up the campaign after you pick your class. There are some pretty cool moments that the cutscenes show you, but what about the story itself?

From what I could tell, I guess it's a story of getting the light back. Sounds like a traditional storytelling element, but I feel like if the dialogue is done right then the story could be good. Think about The Last of Us. The story really isn't anything special, but the way it was conveyed between the characters is what made the game so memorable.

The only memorable character from what I saw in the campaign would be Cayde. I love that silly son of a bitch! He's a bit reminiscent of Claptrap from Borderlands, but Cayde is actually more of a badass than Claptrap. Everyone else just isn't appealing to me. I understand that the main antagonist is only shown for a few minutes, but he already looks generic. Just because he has a deep voice doesn't mean he's a brilliantly written character. I'm sorry, but I just didn't feel like he was an intimidating or memorable villain.

There was still some cool action provided by the campaign. Destiny 2 could take a Doom route in the sense that the gameplay is a lot stronger than the campaign itself. However, they really should have had a difficulty selection for the beta because I felt that it was way too easy for me. Maybe the inclusion of a hard mode would be great for the campaign.

Okay, what about the multiplayer? Destiny was known for its raids, strikes, and PvP multiplayer, so they've had to improve it, right?

I'm going to be honest with you. If you didn't like Destiny, you're definitely not going to like Destiny 2. Fans of Destiny are going to be divisive over the PvP, but it's fun for what it is. I feel like the time to kill is a little too quick because the health regeneration is way too slow and with certain weapons you could literally take out anyone with a couple of shots.

Honestly, everything feels slow! Why the hell does it take so long for my health to regenerate? Why the hell do I have to wait so long for my Super ability to charge up? Why the hell do I have to wait for my abilities in general to charge up? Is it for balance? I'm cool with it in the PvP, but if I have to deal with this in the raids and campaign then I'm not going to have a good time!

However, you can notice that teams do have to work together because of the nerfs. Want to surely finish someone off? Gang up on someone. Need some protection or want someone else to be targeted, go towards your team.

I already didn't like the grinding in Destiny especially when it was mixed with random loot drops, so how is this supposed to attract new players?

Other than a really big nerf and a campaign, Destiny 2 doesn't feel much different than Destiny. Even if everything was tweaked, what are we supposed to do about the campaign? If that's garbage, then people who didn't like Destiny because of the lack of a story are most likely not going to play Destiny 2. Once again, if you loved Destiny then don't let me stop you buy Destiny 2. It's all just my silly opinion.

I just get the feeling this is more like Destiny 1.5 than Destiny 2.
Till Next Time!!

Xbox Live: Free Games of August 2017- A proper close to the summer...

Hey Guys, I am currently working on my impressions for the Destiny 2 Beta. I'm putting all of my thoughts together in a way to not have people throwing pitchforks at me over my opinions. Anyways, next month's free games for Xbox Live Gold members have been announced and boy was I happy!

Image Provided by Major Nelson's Blog

I'm not sure why a game preview is being made free, but I assume it's because the Xbox team can never really satisfy Xbox One users. How about The Culling? It looks like a fun game and it's around the same price point. Personally, I'm just looking for anything is similar to Battlegrounds because I can't wait for that to come to Xbox One.

I've never played a Trials game before. I watched a lot of YouTube videos about the games and I laughed my ass off over them! Just never got a chance to get around them, so it's great that it's being made free for Xbox One owners!

Bayonetta is an awesome game. I bought a physical copy of the game a few months ago and only played a little bit of it. Why I never got back into it is beyond my comprehension, but I guess it's because of all these multiplayer games that are holding me back. If you're not busy and are looking for an action game, please play this game. It's an awesome beat 'em up style game with a lot of wacky action moments. Just don't play this game around other people. You'll understand why when you play the game yourself.

Never played any of the Red Faction game. I've heard Red Faction Guerrilla was pretty good and mixed opinions on Red Faction Armageddon. Maybe I'll play it, but it's at least a much better pick compared to last month's games.

Thanks you all for reading! Seriously, play Bayonetta if you haven't already. I'm still upset over the fact that Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive, but maybe in the far future we'll see a port of it on other consoles. Remember to keep an out for my Destiny 2 Beta impressions.
Till Next Time!!

Telltale's Summer Update 2017: My Thoughts

Hey Guys, I know that I'm a day late on this, but I didn't see this until I got home last night. Anyways, this was a surprise as I didn't think they would make any kind of announcement like this for another couple of months or later. I'll have a rundown on what they announced and give you my thoughts on each of them.

Image Provided by YouTube

The Walking Dead is finally coming to a close! Yes, the fourth season will be the last entry in the franchise from Telltale. While I have yet to play the third season myself, I have spoiled the whole season to myself and realized that it was arguably better than the previous seasons. There was some bullshit moments especially for those of you who remember the ending for season 2, but I feel like there was a lot more memorable characters in this season as well as a lot more choices to make compared to previous seasons.

While I might be a bit upset that it's coming to a close, I'd rather have it end where it's at in order to go out with a bang rather than have it get dragged on. Additionally, it would just be more work on their end to get choices to carry over this many seasons.

Never played the Batman Telltale game series, so I really can't commend on it. Doesn't catch my interest, but I guess it's great for fans to know that another season is on the way next month.

What made me really happy was the announcement of the Wolf Among Us Season 2. The Wolf Among Us is one of the most underrated games in recent memory. I don't know a whole lot of people who played it, but the people I met who have played it have nothing but good things to say about it. I really want to read the comics, but I saw that there was 150 issues.

Nonetheless, I'm curious to see what this upcoming season is going to be about. I hope there is a similar concept from the first seasons because I was just a fan of the noir style fable based episodic game. If you haven't played The Wolf Among Us, do yourself a favor and play it.

That's going to do it for me today. Destiny 2's open beta is starting tomorrow and I will give it a try. I know that I said a few years ago I would never talk about Destiny, but I want to at least give the sequel a try.
Till Next Time!!

Ataribox: My Thoughts

Hey Guys, I understand that we don't know much details about Atari's new product, Atairbox, but I still feel inclined to say something about it based on what information was provided.

Image Provided by IGN

It's clear that with the success of the NES Classic Edition that Atari is going to try and cash in on some of the action. Do I care about this? No. Atari is a business after all, so what business wouldn't want to take an opportunity like this to get as much money as possible?

I like the design of this console. While you can easily tell that it's not going to take Atari cartridges, it's probably going to contain Atari classics in a digital format much like the NES Classic. It will support retro classics and "current gaming content". Whatever "current gaming content" means is beyond me. Maybe it'll support ROM files, so you can add more games. It has an SD card slot for a reason, but this is my own speculation.

I guess the real question should be which Atari games will be featured? Will we just get 2600 games? 7800? How about the Atari Jaguar? Besides, this product will be useless if the games are lackluster or unappealing.

We just need to see what else this product could do. However, if it does what I think it does in the sense that you could add more games to it then it's already doing something much better than the NES Classic and the SNES classic.

Would I pick this up? If I feel like it's going to sell like hotcakes or become a rare item, then I would buy one. Otherwise, this is just another retro console being re-released.
Till Next Time!!

NeoGaf Responses #2

Hey Guys, it's been a while since I have done one of these, but I guess now's a time to have a discussion on the things I find interesting.

1) Do you think Anthem will get a downgrade graphically?
Even though Anthem is a damn good looking game, there is no way in hell it's going to look that way by the time it releases. I want the game to look the way it did in that E3 trailer, but remember that this game is being published by EA. The same company other than Ubisoft that is known to either release games too early and to downgrade their graphics.

Additionally, I agree with one of the comments on this post. It's a modern day game, so of course there is going to be downgrade. However, it's still going to be a good looking game especially on Xbox One X and PC.

2) 4k gaming TVs to Target on Prime Day?
The problem with discounted 4k TVs is that they aren't the good ones. All of them are going to output true 4k no matter what anyone says. However, it's the HDR that is going to make you get the most out of a 4k TV. The OP makes a great point that you have to do some research before you buy a 4k TV especially during a sale like Prime Day.

The Samsung KS8000 series is arguable the best set of TVs for 4k HDR gaming. However, they are difficult to find. You can go on Ebay to find one of them, but they are either overpriced or faulty is some way shape or form.

I suggest doing your own research to see which TV will satisfy your needs. After doing my research, I'm looking into the Sony XBR49X900E. I'm not a big fan of big TVs for gaming and I know that a big TV will show 4k a lot better, but it suits my needs.

3) What current gen game would you introduce a first time gamer to?
This is a hard question to answer. Why? Because a first time gamer doesn't really have a genre that could keep their attention. You all know how big of a fanboy I am of The Witcher 3, so if the person is into fantasy then it's right up their alley.

If they like cooperative games, then I would say Overwatch.You could have fun with the game on quick play without the toxicity and even when you're on a losing streak you could still have fun.

If they want a story, then they'll have a long list of games. First one to come to mind would be The Last of Us, but even that game is not for everyone due to its violence.

As I said before, it all depends on the person. What's the point of recommending a game that I know they wouldn't be interested in?

4) Series in which you went from rabid fan to having a casual interest. What lost you?
Before you raise your pitchforks, please understand where I come from. I was a mega fan of Resident Evil. Literally, I was all into the lore and characters. However, after the release of Resident Evil 6 I just turned into a casual fan.

In retrospect, Resident Evil 6 wasn't a bad game. It just happened to be the downfall of Resident Evil as a survival horror genre until Resident Evil 7 came along. I love Resident Evil 7, but wouldn't you have loved to see zombies and our beloved characters again? I get that these changes were made in Resident Evil 7 in order to be more terrifying, but I guess it's just a new generation for Resident Evil.

Additionally, I've grown apart from a lot of single player games because of the amount of time I spend on online games nowadays.

5) LTTP: Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection - Is it worth to play?
I was in a similar boat as the OP. I've never played an Uncharted game before I got into Uncharted 4. What a big mistake I made to play Uncharted 4 before the previous games because I wasn't familiar with a lot of the characters in the game.

You don't necessarily need to play the other games to play Uncharted 4 since the plot doesn't revolve around the past games other than a couple of references.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is great for new players and old players alike. I can agree with OP that the first Uncharted game didn't age very well and is weak compared to the later games, but I guess this is a genre that not everyone is going to get into. I can also agree that the climbing sections are linear and simple.

However, nobody can deny that Uncharted's gameplay has remained relatively unchanged, but it more than makes up for it in the story department.

Nonetheless, the collection is probably around $20, so I don't see the problem with picking up a copy today if you want to experience or go back to the story of Nathan Drake. I would definitely say that all PlayStation 4 owners should own a copy of Uncharted 4 and ideally have The Nathan Drake Collection.

Sorry for not posting in a while. I'll post as much content before July comes to a close and am looking forward to the upcoming Fall season of gaming.
Till Next Time!!

Five Nights at Freddy's 6 Canceled: My Thoughts

Hey Guys, remember Five Nights at Freddy's? If not, then I apologize for reminding you of this series. I can't believe this series is almost three years old. It seems like yesterday that everyone on YouTube was posting 20 minute speculation videos and gameplay with them overreacting to the jumpscares.

Image Provided by Five Nights at Freddy's Wiki

Okay, I'm not saying the series is all bad. The story behind the games was actually interesting. It's great to share theories around the game's story. However, did we really need a flood of 20 minute speculation videos? We have forums for a reason, so why try to profit off a fad by making cringe worthy clickbait videos? I'm just glad it's over. Otherwise, we would have more LispyJimmys in the world.

The first game was great. It was a unique idea at the time, but it got old very quickly. The fact that over 4 games followed after it really burned out the franchise's spark.

If you want to know the reason why FnAF 6 was canceled, read the statement here. If you were too lazy to read the statement, all you need to know is that Scott Cawthon is tired of being demanded to be popping out these games. He's not necessarily done with the franchise, but don't expect to see the sixth game to be released anytime soon.

The fanbase consists of 12 year olds, so that explains why he's tired of continuing the main games. Think about it, wouldn't grown adults care about this man's time?

Personally, I feel like the franchise should have been over a long time ago instead of just being forced out the door. The games are essentially the same in terms of gameplay. Seriously, the over reliance on jumpscares make the game a lot less scarier, so what's the point? I get the fifth one tries something different, but it's still full of jumpscares.

At the end of the day, it's Cawthon's game. It should be up to him if he wants to continue the series or not. Personally, I don't much care for it anymore, but it's wrong for people to be pressuring him to make another one of these games.
Till Next Time!!

Xbox Live: Free Games of July 2017- One of the worst months...

Hey Guys, I know that I shouldn't be expecting much from these free games, but we've actually been having decent games in the past two months. However, I guess that streak has been broken for July. Holy Shit. I don't think I've ever facepalmed harder over free stuff in a long time.

Image Provided by Major Nelson's blog

Xbox One users, as usual, got the short of the end of stick. What the hell Xbox? You know E3 was just a couple of weeks ago? Why not make Wolfenstein, Metro, or even The Evil Within free for this month? There are a lot of options that could have been made, but I guess they decided to piss off members this month. I don't understand why even make these indie games free. At least, I think they're indie because I've never heard of these games before.

Kane & Lynch 2 sucks. Like, really bad. If you want to play it, then go ahead. However, just be warned that you're not going to have a good time with it.

The Lego games are decent, but they usually tend to be the same game with different designs. Maybe this is the only game that is somewhat worth a try if you're into Lego games.

Seriously, this month is a joke compared to PlayStation's free games for July. PlayStation users are getting Until Dawn for God's sakes! That game is actually good and has some pretty good replay value. Don't know about the Game of Thrones game.

I'm now considering canceling my Xbox Live membership and moving to outer space. Maybe in the far future we'll get something decent.
Till Next Time!!

SNES Classic: My Thoughts

Hey Guys, this is something that I'm kind of late on talking about. I saw the announcement on my way to work yesterday, so I wasn't able to talk about it at the time. Anyways, most of knew this was coming due to all the rumors surrounding the SNES Classic. Let me get into my thoughts.

Image Provided by The Verge

I already liked the idea of the NES Classic. It didn't come with a whole lot of games, but the games it came with were great. The portability also made it a great gaming console on the go if you were on a business trip or something like that. It was great to be able to experience childhood memories in an HD port that performed well.

The main issue with it was the amount of units that were produced. Every time that they went up for sale they were already gone. Even if you wanted to go to a midnight release, there was a good chance that the store didn't have enough units to sell anyways.

A good amount of people took this as an opportunity to be a scrapper and sell their NES Classic at outrageously high prices. Shit, to this day people are still doing it.

I have the same opinions on the SNES Classic. However, it's a lot better than the NES Classic. The standout title from the SNES Classic is Star Fox 2. Before you could only play it through ROMS, but now it's getting an official release from Nintendo! Sure, it's not going to age well, but it's a Star Fox game that should be good!

I like the other games featured in the SNES Classic, but I feel like there should be other games included. Some of them being Chrono Trigger and Donkey Kong Country. I've seen a lot of fans wanting Chrono Trigger, but I personally wanted Donkey Kong Country more because it was one of the first games that I've ever played.

This is slightly more expensive than the NES Classic because this comes with an extra controller. It's even improved with the cord size and the game quality. Sure, the SNES Classic has less games, but the games featured are objectively a lot better.

I'm hoping the price tag will prevent people from buying it since it's releasing very close to Broketober. In case you want to know, it's releasing on September 29th for $80. According to Nintendo, there will be a higher stock of SNES Classic systems produced. However, it's still going to sell out just as quickly as the NES Classic.

Guaranteed Nintendo is going to discontinue this within a month after release and then we're on the N64 Classic.
Till Next Time!!

Assassin's Creed Origins: My Thoughts

Hey Guys, I think we all knew that this was coming. Personally, I'd prefer if Ubisoft just left the license alone, but I'll give them a shot at how they can improve the franchise after sales of the games started to decline. After seeing gameplay from Microsoft's E3 conference, I have quite an opinion on the game a lot of you may not expect.

Image Provided by Xbox

At its core, this is pretty much the same gameplay style that Assassin's Creed is known for. However, the combat is something that I am optimistic about. You can tell that it's no longer button mashing and is very reminiscence of another game that I know that stars a professional monster slayer who loves playing cards in his spare time.

Okay, you can even argue that the combat is similar to Dark Souls. No longer will a group of guys try to fight you one-on-one. They're going to attack you at the same time to make sure you're dead. I guess they're trying to go in Assassin's Creed Unity's direction in terms of making the game more difficult. Assassin's Creed Syndicate was way too easy despite enemy difficulty being based on what level you are.

Do I even have to mention the visuals? This easily has to be one of the best looking games shown at E3. I am a bit disappointed that I haven't experienced the gameplay in 4K with HDR. Seriously, the environment just looks so alive especially with wildlife just doing their own business.

There are two major issues that I have with this game that I do want to talk about: the story and the open-world environment.

If you haven't noticed in recent years, the story for Assassin's Creed hasn't been strong. Some people like the story and others hate it. Personally, I haven't found them to be interesting since Assassin's Creed III. The future story got fucked up so bad that it just seems to get worse every time it "progresses". Seriously, does anyone even remember the story from the previous games? Honestly, I feel like they need focus their attention to the future timeline since it used to be interesting at one point in time!

Personally, I thought Assassin's Creed IV had a solid story in the past timeline; otherwise, it was the first game that saw the decline in quality in the future timeline. However, I would be happy if Origins has a solid past story and shit future story rather than a shit past story and shit future story.

This is an Ubisoft game. Do we really trust them with an open-world game nowadays? I can already see this being similar to Ghost Recon: Wildlands. A huge open world with not much to do. You're probably going to end up doing the same activities that were featured in Assassin's Creed IV. Hell, the eagle mechanic looks like something from Far Cry Primal if you think about it.

One way I feel like they can avoid an empty open-world is to add an ass load of interesting side quests. Yes, that's the second time I referenced The Witcher 3 in one post. However, I'm being dead serious. At least that can justify having a world as large at this one.

I really don't want this game to be bad. I desperately want it to rejuvenate the franchise, but I just can't trust Ubisoft to make it work. After all, they are the reason why most of their open-world games end up being criticized.
Till Next Time!!

Why Sony's E3 was Underwhelming

Hey Guys, guess we're going to talk about Sony's E3 conference. I've been on PlayStation for six months now because I want in on that Sony exclusive orgy. Before anything was said, I was really looking forward to seeing more of Death Stranding as well as The Last of Us Part II.

Image Provided by Nerd Much?

When it was announced that Death Stranding wouldn't appear at E3, I was pretty upset. I don't if it's because I'm still butthurt about Silent Hills being canceled, but Death Stranding could be that one piece of victory that Kojima could have if Death Stranding is a hit. However, we still have no idea what the hell that game is all about. For God's sake, even Kojima's team couldn't understand it when he first explained it.

I was also upset about there being no Last of Us Part II. It's been some time since we've seen the trailer for the game's announcement. Personally, I feel like development should have been nearly completed when it was announced, so we could get the game a lot earlier.

What made Sony's E3 most underwhelming was the fact that we didn't get anything particularly new. What I mean by that is the fact that we just seen more of the new God War, Days Gone, Uncharted, Horizon: Zero Dawn DLC, and a Shadow of the Colossus remaster for the PS4.

Sure, we got a lot of announcements for the PSVR, but how many have actually bought that thing? It costs just as much as a PS4 Pro, why buy the PSVR if you can just pay for an upgraded PS4?

Before you raise your pitchforks, just know this is my own silly opinion. I'm not interested in the new Spider-Man game. There was a trend that most Spider-Man games after Spider-Man 2 are usually bad. Additionally, I'm not big on Superhero games based on comics. Judge me if you want, but that's because I was raised on comics.

We even seen Call of Duty: WW2 and Destiny 2 during the conference, but those aren't exclusive games. Remember, I already made a vow to never talk about Destiny on this blog again after the disappointment I felt after playing the game. Maybe I'll rent Destiny 2, but I'm on edge about it.

Before I wrap up, I forgot to mention Detroit. Say what you want about David Cage, but I actually liked Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls. I'm looking forward to the game, but I'm not sure if I'm 100% going to get it day one.

As I said before, E3 itself was disappointing this year. Nintendo won E3 because their games are gold most of the time.
Till Next Time!!