TheYeti
BACKER
In this spin-off of the main series from an entirely different game studio, somehow Telltale tells a better Borderlands story than any of the other Borderlands games do. This is one of my favorite Telltale games and is a fantastic entry in the Borderlands universe.
2020
The best $60 beta test I've ever played...
Marvel's Avengers is incredibly interesting in that what's there is great, but boy howdy could this game have used an extra sox months to a year in the oven.
SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN
The single player campaign is easily the highlight of this game. It's shorter than I would've liked it to be, but it was good. Kamala Khan is one of my favorite protagonists in years and she is the perfect character to introduce the player to this new Marvel universe. We are playing through her initiation into the Avengers as she gets the whole gang back together. So any time you, the player, want to nerd about something, Kamala is right there with you. She's unfortunately under-utilized in the second half as focus shifts away from her to the less-interesting "We're the world-famous Avengers!" story. Still, I thought the story was great overall.
COMBAT & GAMEPLAY
The combat system in the game is great. It initially comes across like a bit of a mindless button-masher, but the combat does flesh out with the added depth of the hero skill trees. You're still not going to get Arkham combat, but what's there is fun. They manage to make each of the 6 heroes feel unique, while still remaining common enough to be able to easily swap between them. I'm excited for them to expand the roster in the future.
MULTIPLAYER & ENDGAME
The multiplayer and "games as a service" potion of the game that you're supposed to enjoy after finishing the campaign is where Marvel's Avengers ultimately falls flat. Instead of learning from the success of Destiny and failures of Anthem, it seems like they were determined to blaze their own path ignoring all the lessons of other "lifestyle" games. Ultimately it fails in the same ways Anthem did and Destiny has a couple times before evolving into the game it is today.
The loot grind is completely meaningless, and there's honestly no real end-game content worth doing. You can run the same 4 villain sectors over and over again with horribly stale boss fights, or you can fight through the same interior environment over and over again in Hives. I've never played a game with this level of recycled content before that has the audacity to treat each thing like it's "new".
The monetization in the game is pretty bad. Probably the worst I've seen in an online game in recent memories. It's one thing to charge $20 for a skin on a hero in a paid game, it's another thing for that skin to just be a recolor of a skin you already have. I guess the one good thing about the cosmetics being garbage is I'm not tempted to spend any money.
BUGS AND OVERSIGHT GALORE
I could write an essay and the number of bugs in the game, and the number bizarre oversights that exist from a game design perspective, but there's no point. There are dozens and dozens of reddit threads on everything from reset character progression and broken trophies, to inaccessible doors and incompetent AI.
The shipped state of this game was completely unacceptable. It was broken, incomplete, and sometimes unplayable. There was a whole week I couldn't progress the story because of a bug. Two months later and I still don't have my Platinum trophy because I have 2 bugged trophies.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The silver lining of all of this is that Crystal Dynamics seem to be pretty dedicated to fixing bugs, listening to player feedback, and improving the game as much as possible. The question is - is it too late? DLC dates have slipped, the player base is dwindling, and there's still no roadmap in sight.
I really do wish the best for the future of this game. The bones of a great game are there, they just need to build around them more. We're getting new playable heroes, new villains, and new story content in the future all for free. I'd love to see a world where they do a massive content update in a year that breathes new life into this game. I'll come back every few months to check out the new content, but it's hard to recommend this game in the current state it's in.
Marvel's Avengers is incredibly interesting in that what's there is great, but boy howdy could this game have used an extra sox months to a year in the oven.
SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN
The single player campaign is easily the highlight of this game. It's shorter than I would've liked it to be, but it was good. Kamala Khan is one of my favorite protagonists in years and she is the perfect character to introduce the player to this new Marvel universe. We are playing through her initiation into the Avengers as she gets the whole gang back together. So any time you, the player, want to nerd about something, Kamala is right there with you. She's unfortunately under-utilized in the second half as focus shifts away from her to the less-interesting "We're the world-famous Avengers!" story. Still, I thought the story was great overall.
COMBAT & GAMEPLAY
The combat system in the game is great. It initially comes across like a bit of a mindless button-masher, but the combat does flesh out with the added depth of the hero skill trees. You're still not going to get Arkham combat, but what's there is fun. They manage to make each of the 6 heroes feel unique, while still remaining common enough to be able to easily swap between them. I'm excited for them to expand the roster in the future.
MULTIPLAYER & ENDGAME
The multiplayer and "games as a service" potion of the game that you're supposed to enjoy after finishing the campaign is where Marvel's Avengers ultimately falls flat. Instead of learning from the success of Destiny and failures of Anthem, it seems like they were determined to blaze their own path ignoring all the lessons of other "lifestyle" games. Ultimately it fails in the same ways Anthem did and Destiny has a couple times before evolving into the game it is today.
The loot grind is completely meaningless, and there's honestly no real end-game content worth doing. You can run the same 4 villain sectors over and over again with horribly stale boss fights, or you can fight through the same interior environment over and over again in Hives. I've never played a game with this level of recycled content before that has the audacity to treat each thing like it's "new".
The monetization in the game is pretty bad. Probably the worst I've seen in an online game in recent memories. It's one thing to charge $20 for a skin on a hero in a paid game, it's another thing for that skin to just be a recolor of a skin you already have. I guess the one good thing about the cosmetics being garbage is I'm not tempted to spend any money.
BUGS AND OVERSIGHT GALORE
I could write an essay and the number of bugs in the game, and the number bizarre oversights that exist from a game design perspective, but there's no point. There are dozens and dozens of reddit threads on everything from reset character progression and broken trophies, to inaccessible doors and incompetent AI.
The shipped state of this game was completely unacceptable. It was broken, incomplete, and sometimes unplayable. There was a whole week I couldn't progress the story because of a bug. Two months later and I still don't have my Platinum trophy because I have 2 bugged trophies.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The silver lining of all of this is that Crystal Dynamics seem to be pretty dedicated to fixing bugs, listening to player feedback, and improving the game as much as possible. The question is - is it too late? DLC dates have slipped, the player base is dwindling, and there's still no roadmap in sight.
I really do wish the best for the future of this game. The bones of a great game are there, they just need to build around them more. We're getting new playable heroes, new villains, and new story content in the future all for free. I'd love to see a world where they do a massive content update in a year that breathes new life into this game. I'll come back every few months to check out the new content, but it's hard to recommend this game in the current state it's in.
Hands-down the best story in any video game. Very few games have made me emotional, and Red Dead 2 made me cry. One of the best open worlds in all of video games. It's a world that feels genuinely alive. I wanted to disappear into this world and there were some times that I did. There was a full one-week period in real life where I just lived in the wilderness and hunted. It was glorious.
The place this game galls apart for me is actually controlling the game. Red Dead 2 plays like a game from 20 years ago. I think the game controls like absolute shit. There is a noticeable, measurable latency when doing pretty simple tasks like jumping on a horse. The aiming feels terrible. And its use of context-sensitive button resulted in me accidentally stealing items or shooting people more times than I could count. Between the context buttons,, the horrible controls, and NPCs inexplicably walking in front of your horse in town, I committed a heinous amount of accidental crimes in this game - murder by gun, murder by horse trampling, assault, theft... you name it. This all wouldn't be terrible if any minor crime didn't result in you becoming wanted in a rather large portion of the map that could then up getting in the way of doing quests.
I loved the story, the characters, and this world so damn much; I just wish actually playing this video game was more fun and not so tedious.
The place this game galls apart for me is actually controlling the game. Red Dead 2 plays like a game from 20 years ago. I think the game controls like absolute shit. There is a noticeable, measurable latency when doing pretty simple tasks like jumping on a horse. The aiming feels terrible. And its use of context-sensitive button resulted in me accidentally stealing items or shooting people more times than I could count. Between the context buttons,, the horrible controls, and NPCs inexplicably walking in front of your horse in town, I committed a heinous amount of accidental crimes in this game - murder by gun, murder by horse trampling, assault, theft... you name it. This all wouldn't be terrible if any minor crime didn't result in you becoming wanted in a rather large portion of the map that could then up getting in the way of doing quests.
I loved the story, the characters, and this world so damn much; I just wish actually playing this video game was more fun and not so tedious.
Sometimes I'll remember that not only did Telltale do a Game of Thrones game in which several stars from the show inexplicably show up in, but that I played all of it for whatever reason. This game suffers pretty severely from the "you're playing this really important character that knows everyone but for some reason no one ever talks about you in the main story" thing that many prequels suffer from. A pretty pointless game that is one of Telltale's weakest and adds nothing of value to the Game of Thrones universe.
Disclaimer: These are my brief thoughts based on my memory of playing this 7 years ago:
Disclaimer: These are my brief thoughts based on my memory of playing this 7 years ago:
This update finally finishes the game's story and gives you the ability to actually roll credits. It's a cute, if not a little weird, ending I guess. Dreamlight Valley finally feels "complete" enough from a content perspective for a 1.0 release whenever that happens. Despite that, the game is still pretty buggy and certainly needs some work before a final release.
2001
From hanging out with the villagers to collecting a bunch of arcade cabinets and making a cool gaming basement, Animal Crossing was truly a special game that I have a lot of great memories of. Crazy how so many staples in the series were present even in the first game, and how many things the first game had that the new ones don't.
2002
Listen I know this isn't very good but I enjoyed it as a kid! Star Fox (one of my favorite games from the N64) plus dinosaurs! Sounds good to me!
2016
I played this because I am a massive Tron fan.
I did not finish it because the game is not particularly good.
Disclaimer: These are my brief thoughts based on my memory of playing this 7 years ago:
I did not finish it because the game is not particularly good.
Disclaimer: These are my brief thoughts based on my memory of playing this 7 years ago:
This review contains spoilers
A very good Assassin's Creed game. No more. No less...
As a fan of the franchise, I really enjoyed my time with AC Origins. It is a very good Assassin's Creed game. One of the best Assassin's Creed games, in fact. But that's sort of all it is - a very good Assassin's Creed game that follows the same formula as past games through-and-through. It is a very by-the-books open world checklist Ubisoft game. Which wouldn't be an issue if it didn't come out the same year as games like Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn which are a lot more than just run-of-the-mill open world games.
Firstly, credit where credit is due, the world designers of this game did a phenomenal job of bringing Egypt to life. The world is gorgeous. Every single time I did a sync point, I stopped to enjoy the view. Once again, the Ubisoft team has done a tremendous job with another historical setting.
That said, it's weird to have a world this large, beautifully designed, and full of stuff feel this empty and lifeless. The collectibles to find, the boring side quests to do, the locations to complete - none of these add any actual depth to the world or make me want to explore it.
In contrast, games like Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 do a tremendous job of making their worlds feel lived in.They're worlds you want to explore, find every little thing, and interact with every NPC. Even Breath of the Wild, a game in which the story very much took the back seat, created a world that made me want to explore it.
I was excited to hear they had done away with collectibles as it meant less to grind, but that's not really the case. In place of collectibles like flags, feathers, or animus fragments, we have locations. So many locations. Some of them are as simple as killing a single creature. Others require you to spend a good 10 minutes clearing out an entire military base (and there are a TON of those).
STORY:
When it comes to story in Assassin's Creed games, I'm pretty biased. I was one of those guys who actually cared about the modern-day stuff, and was bummed when they basically took it out after AC3. I cared about the lore. I cared about more than just the historical setting. So, for me, learning about the origins of the Brotherhood in this game was very cool.
SPOILER WARNING
That said, boy did they really drop the ball on telling the story that actually mattered - Aya's. From the very beginning when you meet Aya in Alexandria and see the base she has created there, it creates intrigue for her. I kept hoping I'd get to do a mission as her. So when I finally got to do one, I was actually angry that it was a naval mission. They then spend the entire game teasing you with Aya only to let you play her for a single mission at the end of the game and then one more as the epilogue.
And then, as the final icing on the cake, you learn that Aya is actually the founder of the Hidden Ones. She is the mentor. She is the legendary Amunet. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Bayek, but why in the world did we play the entire game as the husband to the legendary assassin Amunet??? What an absolute joke. What a missed opportunity.
NOTE: I wrote all of the above thoughts after finishing the base game before any of the Ubisoft news hit.
DLC:
The Hidden Ones DLC was short and sweet. It gave more background into how they expanded the brotherhood and how they further defined the creed. Plus we get more of Amunet which is simultaneously cool and frustrating.
The Curse of the Pharaohs was cool but really overstayed its welcome. After spending as much time as I did with the base game, I really didn't need that much more to explore and things to do. The story was forgettable and uninteresting.
As a fan of the franchise, I really enjoyed my time with AC Origins. It is a very good Assassin's Creed game. One of the best Assassin's Creed games, in fact. But that's sort of all it is - a very good Assassin's Creed game that follows the same formula as past games through-and-through. It is a very by-the-books open world checklist Ubisoft game. Which wouldn't be an issue if it didn't come out the same year as games like Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn which are a lot more than just run-of-the-mill open world games.
Firstly, credit where credit is due, the world designers of this game did a phenomenal job of bringing Egypt to life. The world is gorgeous. Every single time I did a sync point, I stopped to enjoy the view. Once again, the Ubisoft team has done a tremendous job with another historical setting.
That said, it's weird to have a world this large, beautifully designed, and full of stuff feel this empty and lifeless. The collectibles to find, the boring side quests to do, the locations to complete - none of these add any actual depth to the world or make me want to explore it.
In contrast, games like Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 do a tremendous job of making their worlds feel lived in.They're worlds you want to explore, find every little thing, and interact with every NPC. Even Breath of the Wild, a game in which the story very much took the back seat, created a world that made me want to explore it.
I was excited to hear they had done away with collectibles as it meant less to grind, but that's not really the case. In place of collectibles like flags, feathers, or animus fragments, we have locations. So many locations. Some of them are as simple as killing a single creature. Others require you to spend a good 10 minutes clearing out an entire military base (and there are a TON of those).
STORY:
When it comes to story in Assassin's Creed games, I'm pretty biased. I was one of those guys who actually cared about the modern-day stuff, and was bummed when they basically took it out after AC3. I cared about the lore. I cared about more than just the historical setting. So, for me, learning about the origins of the Brotherhood in this game was very cool.
SPOILER WARNING
That said, boy did they really drop the ball on telling the story that actually mattered - Aya's. From the very beginning when you meet Aya in Alexandria and see the base she has created there, it creates intrigue for her. I kept hoping I'd get to do a mission as her. So when I finally got to do one, I was actually angry that it was a naval mission. They then spend the entire game teasing you with Aya only to let you play her for a single mission at the end of the game and then one more as the epilogue.
And then, as the final icing on the cake, you learn that Aya is actually the founder of the Hidden Ones. She is the mentor. She is the legendary Amunet. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Bayek, but why in the world did we play the entire game as the husband to the legendary assassin Amunet??? What an absolute joke. What a missed opportunity.
NOTE: I wrote all of the above thoughts after finishing the base game before any of the Ubisoft news hit.
DLC:
The Hidden Ones DLC was short and sweet. It gave more background into how they expanded the brotherhood and how they further defined the creed. Plus we get more of Amunet which is simultaneously cool and frustrating.
The Curse of the Pharaohs was cool but really overstayed its welcome. After spending as much time as I did with the base game, I really didn't need that much more to explore and things to do. The story was forgettable and uninteresting.
2017
A great but finnicky couch co-op puzzle game with some inconsistent puzzle quality.
Some puzzles are real thinkers that make you put your minds together and figure out how to work your way through it.
Some require you to move in slow motion with absolute precision through the entire level or else a laser will move just the wrong way and kill you.
Those levels feel less like puzzles and more like tests of patience and are often made more difficult by the finicky nature of the movement.
A cube-based puzzler is good in theory but more often than not you just end up getting your cube’s edges stuck on the environment and get flung into space or fall off the map.
Some puzzles are real thinkers that make you put your minds together and figure out how to work your way through it.
Some require you to move in slow motion with absolute precision through the entire level or else a laser will move just the wrong way and kill you.
Those levels feel less like puzzles and more like tests of patience and are often made more difficult by the finicky nature of the movement.
A cube-based puzzler is good in theory but more often than not you just end up getting your cube’s edges stuck on the environment and get flung into space or fall off the map.
29 of my 30 hours with the 360 port of CS:GO were all on Gun Game.
2010
Less a game more than it is a collection of arcade games in a space you can decorate. Kind of a neat idea I guess
2019
I can't comment on single-player, but playing this 4-player couch co-op was an absolute blast. Perfectly strikes the balance between requiring teamwork and encouraging silly goofing around.
2019
I understand that the main hook of this game is creation and playing through user-created levels, but I wish the game was better at incentivizing you to engage with that loop. For me, just playing other peoples' creations is not enough of a reason to just play the game endlessly. I often found it too difficult to find thoughtful levels that were well-designed 2D Mario levels as opposed to just "Look how CRAAAZY this level is!!!". This game also really thrived on the Wii U thanks to the dual-screen setup and stylus that made creation easy. Sadly, that doesn't translate as well to a single-screen where you can't rely on the user playing in handheld mode.
After I finished the extremely underwhelming story mode, I made a couple levels for fun, and engaged a bit with the player-created courses before getting burned out and putting the game down for good.
After I finished the extremely underwhelming story mode, I made a couple levels for fun, and engaged a bit with the player-created courses before getting burned out and putting the game down for good.
2012
I tried this game during a Comic-Con demo before it came out and thought it was neat enough that I ended up buying it. About 30 minutes into playing the final game I realized the the game is basically just another barely-functioning Kinect tech demo.