Table Top Racing

Rating: 7.0
Happy Price: 7.99

Gameplay

TTR is an arcade racer that deals with micro cars in all to familiar settings, but with a completely different aspect. What would it be like to race in a sushi bar, bedroom, or garage? Most of the time racing games deal with totally fake places, or super realistic environments, but TTR blends both. It creates a nostalgic experience, but once that fades you're left with the gameplay which can be underwhelming. 

Track Design

The track design is fantastic. The tracks are short which bode well with the car size, in terms of scale they match up nicely. Lap times range between 60-90 seconds and have tons of content in them. Around every corner is an interactive obstacle, powerup, jump, or hairpin turn. When turning, the camera also does this angle shift which adds an element of momentum shift even though you're not in the car. Around the track are hidden coins which yield huge amounts of upgrading currency. Getting these coins require a sharp eye and problem solving since it's not always obvious how to reach them. It mixes a puzzle game into a racing game, but it's not relevant enough of an action to call this a racing puzzle game. The placement of powerups and obstacles was done very well and it's obvious tons of testing was conducted, and a lot of effort was put into the placement of these items. The ideas for the tracks are great as well, as they add familiarity and fantasy to the racing experience. I think everyone has imagined what it would be like to have a real life racetrack in their bedroom.

Racing

The balance of skill and AI is handled well. As you progress from the beginner levels to the advanced, good racing will yield good results and dumb mistakes will cost you in the long run. Nothing is handed to the player, and even though the AI is tough there is a human element to them as well. For example when they jump off a ramp they are vulnerable upon the landing to lose control and fall off the track. Timing these events can give you an advantage when trying to overtake a first place vehicle that clearly has better stats than your car. The AI tends to know when this is going to happen however, and is very quick to press the "reset" button which puts them on the track after about a 1.5 second cooldown. 

It helps that there are many game modes, however the most fun is the core race mode where you do laps and have powerups, and the person that gets 1st place wins the race. There are other modes such as pursuit, cutthroat, time trial, clean races, and drift modes. However being forced to do these during championships can be taxing since I don't really want to race cleanly or do time trials in this setting with these car types. Powerups range from missiles to an acid trail, so they emulate similar functions as Mario Kart but a little more realistic.

Upgrades

As you accumulate coins, you can upgrade your current vehicle or save up for the next class of car. Most of your coins come from winning races, but very small amounts can be earned via using missiles or acid successfully. I found doing these doesn't really matter however, since a race might yield 2,500 coins but finding a gold coin on the track can yield 10,000 coins. Sometimes I would spend the entire race just finding coins without the intention of winning, which takes the challenge out of getting the coin and maintaining position in the race. This effectively breaks the game in my opinion. Once a huge amount of coins are accumulated, you can upgrade your car to the max, win your current championship, and then move on to the next one and repeat the process. There are many things to upgrade however. Things like acceleration, top speed, and handling are relatively cheap things to upgrade. However new tires can cost 20,000-60,000 which is about the cost of a car in the game. They provide passive abilities and probably are only required in the advanced stages.

Where did it fall short?

One thing that bothered me is the game does not support local multiplayer, but it looks like it's designed for a local multiplayer audience. I would never play this game online when I have options like Forza on the table for racing. My girlfriend wanted to play me in this game, but we could not enjoy it together. Another thing was there wasn't a narrative to drive gameplay and keep the player engaged. The game gets a bit repetitive and there isn't a huge car selection, or customization of the vehicles that are owned. This creates a small personal investment and things start to feel flat once all the levels are played. I don't have a real reason to advance or even try to beat the game. The soundtrack is ok at first, but the as the songs repeat they get annoying. The music does not shift to the background, it feels a bit intrusive at times because it demands presence when it probably shouldn't.

Summary

I can see why this game did so well on mobile devices, but it wasn't ready for the console market. You can get away with good raw gameplay on a phone, but a console demands story, multiplayer, and more options for car selection. Track design and the overall concept were good, and I really enjoyed the camera movement when turning. It gave the sense of G's being pulled on the body during tight turns. The unforgiving AI creates a nice challenge as well, and is balanced by the player's ability to turn things around. Racing feels organic which is great, there just isn't much purpose behind the racing.      

Not a Hero

Rating: 7.8

Happy Price: 4.99

Gameplay

A 2d shooter that focuses on quick reactions and a quick trigger finger, this is an unforgivably challenging game. Cover can only be initiated via a slide near an object that is eligible for cover, limiting this game to a few simple mechanics of sliding, cover, and shooting. Occasionally late game there is some planning and strategy involved.

Core Mechanics

I like to think of it as a side scrolling version of Hotline Miami, both games are gory, violent, and unforgiving. The player is basically slide tackling enemies to initiate a quick kill, or utilizing cover when outgunned. However there are many melee oriented enemies that will rush cover and will kill the player in one hit. Unlike Hotline Miami, in this sense I felt very under powered and often times it felt impossible to get out of a sticky situation. Melee enemies don't die with one or two bullets unless it's a shotgun, but shotguns have low ammo capacity. So three melee enemies and you're done in that case. The frustration mounts very quickly over time and there are no checkpoints. One mistake, or a shortcoming of the game can result in a death and the whole level has to restart.

One thing that was very frustrating was when I'd slide tackle an enemy, then go for the execution. When I got to the execution part, a melee enemy would be rushing me. The button for shoot and execution at the same time. So what would occur is the kill animation would take place over me shooting the melee enemy, and I would die. Amid all the chaos going on of slide tackling, cover, shooting, this doesn't happen all the time but is frustrating when it does because you have to start the level from the beginning. This game is harder than Hotline Miami, and does not reward you with doing some impossible or difficult things with checkpoints.

One thing I enjoyed was the character selection. Different levels had different layouts and enemies. The more challenges completed, the higher Bunnylord's approval rating was, which unlocks more characters. That means you could go back to older levels with more powerful characters and fully complete the levels, that way better characters are unlocked for the more difficult stages. It's not really explained anywhere how much challenges are worth towards the approval rating though, so you're not quite sure what will unlock what. It's a guessing game sort of, maybe if I complete all the challenges I'll get a new character? I'd like to know exactly how to get that new character before I invest time in doing it.

Writing

The writing is where this game shines the most. The story of Bunnylord trying to become mayor of a city and his crazy ideas of how to get there are humorous and a great play on modern politics. The group of people he employs to do his dirty work are called the "Bunnylord Fun club" which is just a funny name in itself. The humor is dark and brash, if you're into that kind of thing, you'll love this game. For example "Johnny, sorry about all those Samurai's, I had no idea they had machine guns hidden everywhere, next time i'll scout that better". That is not an actual example, but a poor rendition of what to expect. Essentially the story is Bunnylord hires a bunch of hitmen to kill bad guys, and then Bunnylord has to manipulate the media into making it seem like he did something good. However Bunnylord has to justify all his actions, and the way he does that is clever and funny.

Art

The art style is what drew me to play the game in the first place. The vibrant and bright colors combined with the fluid animations and gory kills creates a nice contrast. It fits together with a psychopathic mayor that kills people for voters. It fits with the whole modern retro gameplay style that I sort of expected, I went in knowing I was going to get a fast paced and difficult shooter before I even started playing. Everything is done cleanly, and there doesn't seem to be any shortcuts taken. This game is a true work of art. 

Soundtrack

It's definitely one of the best soundtracks in any game. Every stage has a modern chiptune that has hints of EDM or rock music. Every time I died, or booted up the game, I was filled with dopamine and serotonin, that's how good the soundtrack is. Devolver also published Hotline Miami which has a legendary soundtrack, and I think this follows a similar recipe for "really hard game, really good soundtrack".

Summary

The art, sound, and writing are top notch. The combat mechanics can be refined a bit more, but for the most part did what I expected and was bug free. The character selection was a highlight, but long frustrating levels without any checkpoints got old after a while. It got to the point where trying to beat the game became a chore, and that is never good.

Bit Blaster XL

Rating: 8.4

Happy Price: 1.99

Gameplay

Bit Blaster does a great job at finding the perfect balance of "easy to pick up, hard to master". The player's gun is always on auto fire, there is ammo to keep track of, and the velocity is fast or faster (if boost is used). It's action packed, and aside from the goal of getting a high score there is the goal of unlocking better ships. 

Enemies consist of primitively shaped asteroids (circles) that will get larger as the game goes on. Then there are floating nukes, ships that shoot, and melee ships. It's chaotic but the simple and vibrant colors on the black background create this cool neon light show. As simple as this game appears, there is more depth to it than meets the eye. There are a number of powerups that each player may individually enjoy. Therefore, you can hoard ammo and keep one powerup the entire playthrough if you wanted. Powerups also replenish ammo, but you are forced to shoot with that bullet. For example, if I had 100 ammo for my homing missiles and ran it down to zero, I could get the light saber powerup but it would only replenish to 35 ammo. When that happens, you will be forced to keep getting powerups. One thing I did not enjoy was the bouncy ball ammo was close to the same color as the enemy projectiles. Imagine 50 red balls bouncing around the screen until it hits an enemy, all the while the enemy shoots the same color at you. It can be difficult to decipher.

Progression

Most of the time in the 2D top down survival genre, there isn't much progression that happens outside of the game session. My favorite part of this game was unlocking new ships. There are special coins that seem to randomly generate when destroying asteroids or enemy ships. These seem to be more frequent the longer the player survives. Each ship costs more than the previous unlocked, so you can use the new ship to unlock a better ship. For me, this is what really sealed in the addiction. The gameplay is fun, but winning the high score really isn't all that important to me. Unlocking the ships and having a sense of accomplishment was more important, and is what kept me coming back. Each ship has a high score attached to it, so I learned that I played best with a slow ship, with a slow fire rate, but high shields. Someone else might like the fast ship with less shields and a higher fire rate.

Summary

Great addition to the Steam library. For .99 it doesn't get much better than this. You can play to the great chiptune included by default, or disable it and have your spotify open and just chill to this simple yet addicting game. The mobile version of this was not as fun playing in portrait mode. The long turn radius on a portrait screen did not feel right. On a landscape monitor however, it felt great.

Just Cause 3

Rating: 8.7

Happy Price: 49.99

Gameplay

Just Cause 3 is an action packed 3rd person shooter that uses unrealistic concepts to create the "extreme" feel, opposed to a game like GTAV which has a more simulation type of feel. The player has access to countless vehicles, explosives, and weapons to destroy bases in a variety of ways.  Access to this arsenal is easy with the Rebel Drop mechanic that allows a cargo plane to drop off whatever the player needs. Missions are regularly repetitive, so creating your own fun with the variety of weapons will determine how fun of a game this is for you on a personal level.

Vehicles

There are over 80 accessible vehicles including cars, boats, planes, helicopters, tanks, and utility vehicles. During my 40 hour experience I spent a lot of time in helicopters, they had the ability to rapidly shoot heavy missiles which would obliterate bases in a relatively short amount of time. The only real defense against a helicopter is a SAM anti air weapon, but those can be avoided or even hacked prior to taking down a base. Because there wasn't any real reason to use a boat in a situation, or a tank in another, taking down bases was not as fun as it probably could have been. The typical course of events for me went destroy as much stuff as possible with a helicopter until it blew up, then finish it up with a tank. After that, do everything on foot, and repeat. So even though I had 80 accessible vehicles, I tended to only use three or four consistently. There was no real reason to use a valuable rebel drop for a Volkswagen Beetle or a slow city bus, unless I decided it would be fun to try and take down a base in a bus. Let's make one thing clear, driving around in tanks and helicopters is fun, and this game gives the platform to do that as much as you'd like.

Story

The narrative is similar to previous iterations of the series. You play Rico Rodriguez and are a borderline rebel superhero causing millions of dollars in government damage and initiating a revolution. This time around the evil dictator has developed a nuclear weapon infused with Bavarium that is more powerful than your standard nuke, which is suppose to make this small island into a superpower. Taking down this dictator will not only save the world, but also the oppressed people of Medici. As unrealistic a plot this is, the writing itself does not lend itself to this being a real scenario either. Rico Rodriguez as a character is far too casual and cocky to make it feel like anything is really at stake. He carries an attitude of "this will be easy, nothing bad will happen" which does not create much tension. To add, finishing up a main campaign mission does not end with an upgrade or access to new upgrades. This is all done outside of the main campaign. Doing main campaign missions seemed to be more of a chore, as I'd prefer to have a reward after doing something difficult like taking down a large military base to unlock a better helicopter

Weapons

Having 80 vehicles, I expected to have a much larger range of weaponry at my disposal. There are only a couple variations of pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, LMG, and heavy weapon. With 40 hours of gameplay, I wanted more. The assault rifles had four distinct and predictable types of specs. There was the fast shooting low damage, slow shooting high damage, 3 shot burst, and one shot burst rifle. I felt very constrained having only able to pick one main weapon, one sidearm, then a heavy. With as much variety, I want to flip between shotguns, assault rifles, LMG's, and heavy weaponry quickly. This element of only being able to hold two weapons contradicts the cartoony nature of the game. At times I felt very under-powered using even the most powerful assault rifle. Multiple head-shots to enemies or unloading an entire clip for them to die.  Whenever I was outside of a vehicle, I typically would parachute around throwing grenades and using my heavy weapon, until I could hijack a vehicle. Most of the time is spent using the grapple hook escaping gunfire and running for your life, which isn't really too fun. 

Progression

The flow goes as follows, liberate a base, then get access to a variety of challenges to obtain "gears". Gears are the currency to upgrade Rico. These challenges include: car races, boat races, plane races, shooting ranges, skydiving, and few others. This was the most fun part of the game. Liberating a base, then your favorite type of challenge is unlocked. There are leaderboards attached, and you get to compete against friends all the while working to upgrade yourself. Doing well in car races allows for upgrades to be unlocked for said type of vehicle. Doing so does not necessarily feel like you are progressing in the game, but makes things feel more convenient. For example, instead of grenades doing more damage, you get upgrades like "can hold more grenades". Having more grenades that do more damage doesn't really help me that much, I just don't have to find a resupply point as often. If you really wanted to, the entire game can be beaten without upgrading yourself. The game can likely be finished in 15 hours, but it would take hard work to do so. Because I spent time doing the challenges, I didn't have to constantly resupply myself with valuable ammo to keep my reign of havoc going. Spending hours doing challenges only to have a max heavy ammo be increased from 5 to 11 did not seem justified. For some reason though, I had fun doing the challenges and wanted my experience to be more convenient. Having double turbo in my helicopters made navigating the 400 square mile space much faster.

 Art

When creating assets for a space the size of Rhode Island, I think shortcuts are expected. However they are not easily pointed out. Surprisingly the terrain always had purpose. There were flat areas that were cleared of foliage, then areas that were heavy with foliage, but all of these locations made sense and had a great flow. Enemy outposts and bases are placed in strategic locations that are surrounded by canyons with small entry points. Then randomly there will be ruins from some ancient South American civilization. It's fun riding around in a plane or helicopter and seeing these ruin sites, and then hopping down to check them out. Turns out doing this will add a collectible most of the time, which is a nice reward for exploring your curiosity.

The color palette was very bold and uplifting which played nicely into the feel of the game. Vehicles and weapons are very detailed with fine details like different axel behavior in an indy car from the rest of the other cars in the game. Explosions are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game, too many on screen can cause frame rate issues, but most of the time it was in extreme cases of blowing up five gasoline storage containers or something along those lines. The main characters had unique attributes like burned faces or scars, and the facial expressions during cut scenes we're very good, some of the best I've seen in a video game. The expressions reflected each characters personality beautifully and was the best part of the campaign. 

Summary

The first 10 hours or so are very addicting, but it tends to get repetitive after that point. It took many play sessions to complete the game, as I would play for about one hour and then get bored. It's every easy to pick up and put down, and I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. After about 24 hours of not playing, I'd get the urge to blow some stuff up, but then it goes away, and the process repeated itself for about a month. There are many good games out there, but if you need something that isn't going to conflict with your social life, this game is for you. 

Star Wars: Battlefront

Rating: 7.3

Happy Price: 29.99

Gameplay

A first or third person shooter that plays entirely online and is PvP or PvE. There are a variety of game modes that focus on: heroes, vehicles, traditional deathmatch, and all three of these combined. Despite the characters, weapons, and environment at your disposal it is a very underwhelming experience.

Level Design

The maps are huge and open. Cover is sparsely placed which makes it extremely difficult to get anything done. Far too often does a player spawn, with nothing but an open area ahead, and then shot by an opposing player without having a chance to defend themselves. It is frustrating when trying to head to an objective without a safe path to get there. The player should have the choice of sprinting out in the open to get somewhere fast, or taking the smarter approach by utilizing cover. This choice is not available unless playing on smaller maps designed for 8v8 or 6v6. Navigating through the different levels feels very desolate and is not immersive. This would be ok if vehicles were readily available at all times creating a place that allows for free flowing vehicle warfare. Unfortunately vehicles are a rare occurrence that are acquired via tokens placed in the battlefield. The maps should have been designed for vehicles or players on foot. It seemed all of them had vehicles and aerial battles in mind. Unfortunately that rarely happens. So there are these huge maps designed for vehicles that have a bunch of players sprinting around on foot. It does not tie together and the maps just are not fun.

Game Modes

At the time of this review there are ten different multiplayer PvP game modes. I tried to get into all of them, tried as hard as I could to find the fun in them, but did not have any success. The two that stand out were fighter squadron and hero hunt. Fighter squadron is the dogfight game mode with X-wings and Tie fighters. It is a fun mode for a limited amount of time, but in my opinion is the most immersive. It would have been even better if all players were locked in first person mode. If one player is in third person and the other in first person, the player using third person view has an advantage. Sometimes too much choice is bad. Heroes vs Villains is my favorite, but feels different when in a party or with random people. It is a 6v6 match that has 3 players on each side using a hero from either the Rebel Alliance or Imperials. It's round based, so everyone gets a turn to play as a hero. It is very engaging and requires the most strategy of any game mode. Maps are small, full of cover, and allow for teamwork.

Progression

The progression system is terrible. It is very strange when you achieve a score of 4,396 but then at the end of the game the score gets rolled down, right before your eyes, to a measly 440 experience. Why was I given the points in the first place? It makes no sense to give the player 10% of their score to be the exp earned for that round. What can you do with those points? You can buy different heads. I'm not kidding, for 1,000 exp you can buy a white guy, with a grey beard and black hair. It's predefined, you can't just purchase an asset like a hairstyle or a different color uniform. Weapons are very expensive and none of them seem to be better than any other. They have fixed stats across all weapons. What I mean is the Shotgun weapon will have a damage rating of 80. Then range = 6.67, rate of fire = 6.67, accuracy = 6.67. Then the blaster will have damage = 30, range = 30, accuracy = 20, rate of fire = 20. Another blaster will have those same stats but mixed around. Nothing feels more powerful than another, which doesn't make you excited about progressing. 

Art

When it comes to the models, they are very well done. Extremely detailed across the board when talking about the ships, vehicles, and character models. Everything feels authentic and true to the movies. It's one of the aspects of the game that makes it worth playing and really gives you a drive to continue to play. The problem is, artwork in games isn't suppose to do that. It's suppose to support gameplay, but not drive it.  I had a problem with the textures of the ground at times, where they felt flat and not up to next gen standards. Also animations of the blasters, there were none. I would want some sort of bolt action recoil on my blaster that makes it feel like I'm actually shooting a gun.

The animations shine when using a hero though. Playing as Darth Vader and doing a force choke is extremely rewarding. The rebel scum will float in the air holding their necks, and its a great feeling. Light saber melee action and laser deflection was done to a tee and is my favorite thing to do. Its what EA focused on during marketing, and is likely what drove anyone that bought the game to purchase it. Unfortunately those moments are rare and don't happen quite enough to keep me playing.

Sound

The strongest aspect of the game is the sound design. When Darth Vader enters the battlefield, you get the classic Imperial theme and the whole game knows that Vader is here. It is also announced on your personal radio "Vader has entered the battlefield". The same thing happens when Luke Skywalker or Han Solo enters. The whole field heres the Star Wars theme and the imperials broadcast it over their radio. The constant sound of laser blasters and ships flying overhead create an experience that feels authentic. It helps that EA has licensed the soundtrack from the original films so the team had a ton to work with. Playing the game reminds the player of the joy of watching the movies, subconsciously bringing back moments that brought great joy. Unfortunately the rest of the world doesn't support it. 

Summary

Despite the good art and great sound, the level design and progression system don't create a fun game. Its a desolate experience that is not addicting nor immersive. It's one of those games you can play for about 8 hours, work all the nostalgia out, and then put down. With all the other great games that came out in 2015, I can't justify purchasing it. Waiting for the price drop on an online game has a negative impact on gameplay, so when it comes down to it, I wouldn't buy this game. However, I'm having hard time putting it up for sale or trading it in.

Fallout 4

Rating: 9.1
Happy Price: 59.99


Gameplay

Fallout 4 combines the first person shooter, RPG, crafting, and open world genres into one package. In addition to that there is a focus on handling each situation in a unique fashion, which makes violence an option in most cases. The player is often presented with critical decisions at certain points of the game which will determine the ending, making every person's playthrough unique to one another.

Shooting

In previous iterations of Fallout, shooting guns always lacked the punch other first person shooter games had. They fixed it in Fallout 4 adding hit markers and more physical feedback to the player. An example is shooting a super mutant charging, each blast with a shotgun will cause the super mutant to be knocked back for a split second. It's a very rewarding feeling when a super mutant is holding a melee weapon and the player targets the legs with a shotgun. As the legs start to wear down the super mutant can't charge as fast, and eventually his legs will get blown off after a few shots. Less powerful enemies like Ghouls can be taken care of with a few shots to the leg with pistols and have the same effect. This allow the player to handle enemies different ways with different weapons. One thing I learned though, is taking out the legs on any enemy will usually have a good effect. There are some robots however, that will self destruct when that happens creating a nuclear explosion, so watch out! Below is some gameplay footage of me running around with an explosive shotgun, a very fun weapon.

Crafting

Adding crafting and base building was a great feature to add in the Fallout series. In previous iterations it never felt like anywhere was truly "Home". The player now has the option to make home anywhere. It can be an island paradise or a heavily fortified castle ruin. The player can live alone, or invite a bunch of settlers to create a small town. Crafting is expanded beyond just structures for settlers and yourself. Weapons and armor can also be crafted. The degree of depth to which weapons and armor can be crafted is dependent on how skill points are allocated. Melee weapons, laser weapons, ballistic weapons, and armor all have separate builds. This makes the player choose how they want to play the game, it's an important decision because upgrading certain types of weapons has a large impact on your success. However grinding can always make up for a regrettable decision.

Crafting homes and structures however, can be a painful experience. Items like floors, roofs, and walls usually lineup relatively well. There is a class of items called prefabs though, and these usually don't line up well with one another. An example is making the "Large Shack" prefab which essentially builds a two story shack with a couple rooms. Adding a staircase or wall to this structure gets annoying, and it doesn't seem like adding on to these structures was an intended use of the crafting mechanic.

Building settlements is a large part of the game, since your main goal is to retake the commonwealth from Super Mutants and Raiders. To do that, resources are needed. What used to be deemed as "junk" in previous Fallout games now carry properties that are needed to create important things like turrets and water pumps. Never have I been so excited to take TV dinner trays (aluminum) or desk fans (screws, oil) so I can add to my resource pool. I would often find myself debating which junk I should take when I was carrying too much weight. Do I grab this desk fan or this legendary 10mm pistol? Meh, I have enough pistols, better grab the fan.

The Open World

The Main storyline is optional, which makes this open world the best one in gaming. I spent hours roaming the wasteland finding my own things to do and dealing with side quests. The game starts the player in the north west corner of the map. It becomes obvious after some time that the further south you go, the harder enemies get. I racked in tons of XP by discovering hundreds of locations, raiding them, and returning back home to deposit all the junk and weapons I've acquired. I discovered all the factions and did those side missions too, making my decision on which one I identified with most. By the time I actually decided to do the main mission, I had the best weapons and armor, and full companionship with four different people. I was obsessed with finding places and going inside them, to see what stories they had to tell. Every location had something going on. Seeing two people playing chess in skeletons, a skeleton in the stall with some Jet, or the remains of two people in bed together. These little things had me asking, "what will I find next?". Every location had a purpose and I personally appreciate the effort in creating a detailed world of this scale. Below is a place called Libertalia, a town created out of floating ships with a legendary Raider at the top of the half sunk freight ship.

  

Bugs

I wish I could rate this game a 10. I think it deserves it, but there are too many instances were buggy behavior would make things take much longer than they should have. There are two notable bugs that occurred during large missions. One of them required me to board a vertibird for the brotherhood of steel. The vertibird would never show up, but I kept thinking I did something incorrectly. It took me about 45 mins of running around before I went online and found out a bunch of other people had the same issue. The other was building this object for the MAIN STORY. You will know what I'm talking about when you get there. In total, I probably lost about 5 hours because of bugs. One because I got stuck while in power armor and had done a bunch of stuff, but did not quicksave. I got so angry I had to stop playing, and returned the next day because I lost about 45 minutes of time that I had to redo.

Art

Fallout has never pushed the edge on graphics, and this installment has improved since the last, but is still underwhelming. I must say the lighting and environment usually look amazing, but characters are lackluster. Ghouls and Super mutants look flat and plasticy (not a word), instead of organic. Maybe it is the radiation causing the skin to appear more like leather and it's intended, but it seemed like I wasn't running a Xbox One game on full settings. There is a significant improvement when it came to voice animations and facial expressions during dialogue. Considering previous games did not have this, it was a pleasant surprise this feature was added

.

During combat was when the art really shined. The weapons firing, explosions going off, and limbs flying everywhere was a real treat. Firing a Fat Man is one of the most fun things to do because of the mushroom cloud that appears afterwards, rewarding the player for using a precious mini-nuke. Another rewarding action is using a single shot rifle in V.A.T.S and having a 64% chance to headshot, but when it hits the targets head flies off and blood flies eveywhere with the rest of the body in a ragdoll state. These touches give Fallout 4 its character as an ultra violent game fused with dark humor that appeals to the slightly deranged hardcore gamer.

Summary

I think it takes a certain person to enjoy the Fallout games. The fan base is devout, and it does not appeal to everyone which is a shame. Despite the bugs, this is probably the most fun game I've played this year. I could not wait to get home from work to play, which gave me a feeling I haven't had since I was a child. The game is that good and addicting. I put 87 hours into my playthrough, but I can easily put in more. I'm currently debating on starting a new game with a focus on Melee and heavy armor, just to see what that is like. This game is a must buy and is too fun to pass up.

The Witcher 3

Rating: 9.2

Happy Price: 59.99

Gameplay

40 hours into The Witcher, and it feels like I haven't even put a dent into the game, yet I've done so much. This is both the beauty and flaw of the game. The amount of content in the game is endless, but the universe isn't compelling enough to stay inside it for players like me who are interested in many types of games. The Witcher 3 is that pretty girl everyone has a crush on, and you yourself can see she is pretty, but don't feel that attraction toward her.

Pacing

The Witcher 3 struggles most with pacing. True open world games like this will struggle with pacing due to the nature of the world being open. However I can't deny it is frustrating yet fun to run into some strange monster that is 7 levels ahead of you while exploring. There is an "oh shit" moment where you essentially run for your life when that happens, and then you find yourself surrounded by a pack of low level wolves that will provide some raw meat to stock up your health. The player can go from overwhelmed to underwhelmed in a matter of 20 seconds. 

This also happens when trying to get through the main story. It seems that to progress through the story, you have to do many side quests to level up, but at times there are no side quests available at your level. This forces the player to enter these dead moments where they have to figure out what to do on their own. Like search out a bandit camp just to level up a bit. Witcher contracts are sporadic, you can enter a pub and talk to the locals, only to be offered a witcher contract for level 24 players when you're at level 16. The difference of 8 levels is enormous and that witcher contract has to wait. Leveling up can take hours so that contract will sit in the queue for days on end.

Combat

Combat has to be approached as a true professional, just as the game states. Health does not regenerate automatically, and the player has to stock up on food items to replenish health. The cost of losing health is great. Approaching enemy types like low level bandits can usually end up in an awesome fight of heads being chopped off and bodies chopped in half, but they can easily go south and leave the player depleted of resources if not careful. The player has to constantly be aware of their position and try to isolate enemies when taking on multiple enemies at once. The mix of magic powers and the power of the sword will always help with this.

Approaching Witcher contracts is different. The player will typically be presented with one enemy, and will have to actually READ the game's codex to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, like a true professional. Not taking the time to read will cause an indefinite struggle. Enemies in witcher contracts will be powerful, have unique abilities, and different rhythms to their attacks than other enemies. This creates an environment where the player has to learn quickly how to defeat this enemy, and it may not apply to anything else for the rest of the game. The best part about Witcher contracts is the large EXP gained and the money acquired after.

Gwent

Gwent is the card game that many merchants play in this world. It is a simple game but is one of the most fun things to do in the game. Anyone that sells things usually plays, and when they are beat the player can acquire their powerful cards. There are instances when beating a player in gwent will result in some other reward, like a favor or discount on an item. I found myself searching for merchants selling Gwent cards so I could build up my deck and compete in tournaments or win side quests related to Gwent. It's setup similar to magic the gathering where you have 4 deck types. In the beginning of the game you will be asked which starter deck you want, and then naturally build out that. If resources are plentiful, you can build out another deck but it's costly.

Art

Environment/Level Design

The environment is huge but the regions have character. When navigating the world via horseback, your start to recognize areas and have a sense of where you are in the world. When I hit a certain swampy spot with toxic gas, I know to expect drowners soon and am on high alert. As large as the world is, there are spots all over the place that seem to tell a story. Something has happened here, and you can imagine what it was. There might be an abandoned house with a diary entry there, so you go from thinking of what happened to discovering what happened. This happens all over the world, and can even end up as a side quest. The fine details of the placement of trees in the forest or bedrooms in houses is appreciated, and makes each place feel unique. 

Characters

There are some fierce beasts, elegant phantoms, and everything in between. The design of these characters takes you back to when games were full of imagination and character. You get the full creative stimulation that the character designer wished to invoke in the player. There are familiar interpretations of enemies such as golems or ghouls, and then completely original ones like drowners. Each character has a strength and weakness, and the player has to approach each character differently based on how the skill tree is built out. Have a strong fire attack, sure approach this enemy with confidence. If lacking fire skills, stay away from certain ones. The attention to detail is appreciated and the sense of passion to create something from ones imagination is felt through gameplay.

Conclusion

This is a superb game, but its not for everyone. I wouldn't buy it if swords, magic and horses are not your thing. If they are, and you enjoy a challenging game, then you can easily spend 100+ hours in this world. The depth is endless, and can sometimes be overwhelming. It comes down to how invested you are in the game and how much time you have to play and commit to it.