War_Horse

I feel like I need to say something on Dynasty Warriors 9, with Jim Sterling making not one, not two but three pointless videos on the damn thing and giving a false representation of the game along with some bandwagon haters. I'm gonna start off by saying and fully admitting that this game is a big technical mess. Honestly, most of the glitches have been hilarious in some fashion and I got some enjoyment out of them as you would from Skyrim's. Other ones, however, involve the graphics completely flipping out and damn near making it unplayable. And yes the framerate is bad. I find myself able to forgive a lot this aside the bits where I have to restart the game over the graphics flipping because, in a way, it gives it some charm, but more importantly; it doesn't hamper the gameplay much at all. Another problem I have actually had to do with Lianshi, one of my favorite characters in the series, using these stupid f***ing hoop-claw things. If you didn't know, she used to use a crossbow and it was cool and fun and unique(at least when she was introduced). So I do agree with people on this aspect of changing people's weapons for no damn reason being really stupid. I will also half agree that the gameplay isn't as good as past entries but I don't think it's complete ass either like most do. I still have quite a lot of fun with it. So far it probably seems I have no reason to rant with mostly agreeing with these negatives. Thing is though; I actually have positives. Completely serious: I like the open world and the stuff you can do in it. Requests are basic side quest nonsense that rewards materials and money and experiences. There is a reason to do them at least since the materials can be used to craft items and weapons notably accessories that can help with various things and gems to make aspects of your weapon better. It's basic but it works and there's a reason and can be worthwhile. Now the main quest will have, basically, side objectives to tackle around the map and accomplishing them can influence how the main battle plays out. It's by no means needed and doesn't always add much but it's fun because I like employing tactics even if games don't do much with them. To focus on the open world aspect more specifically; I'm going to start off by saying I normally hate open world games. The only ones I've really enjoyed are the Assassin's Creed games. I like this one because of some of what I said above but also because exploring seems more worth it to me. Finding cities and camps often benefit you and your forces if you're in a battle and often times you can find some materials or items to collect. Again, nothing amazing, but far from 'complete ****'. You can also find houses to buy and decorate. I'm not far enough in to have used them much, but just the option is pretty cool to me. Sidenote on hunting, since Jim harped on it for two videos: I never gave a **** about hunting in games, I hate hunting on principle and I always avoid it in all games. It being trash is fine with me, I even welcome it. F*ck hunting in games, I hate doing it and being forced into it by some. I never even got the achievements for hunting in games like Fable II(kill a rabbit) and Black Flag(kill an Orca). This game I can just avoid those quests since some of the materials you get out of it can just be had from rewards. Also, traveling is perfectly fine in this. I've had zero issues with my horse, so I don't know what Jim's big problem with it is. Using auto-run is just stupid on principle because it takes forever anyway. and fast travel is as convenient and optional as it should be, so whatever. Again, I think most are just mindless haters are just full of **** on this game. Anyways, all-in-all: The game is a mess but I'm still having a lot of fun. I'd say it's way better than DW8, which I thought was just extremely boring and barebones as all hell. Going from here I definitely want the old combat back in DW10 and for the love of god they better give people their weapons back. Whether it should stay open world or not? I'm not sure. I think I'd like them to just refine the old formula and focus more on an engine that can finally realize some of the previous games' ambitions of scale. I think DW10 should be a return to form. I'm enjoying this game but I enjoyed past entries a lot more... except for DW6 and 8. DW3-5 were better and DW7 is still the best one yet. DW2, meh, good start I guess. Most of this was spurred by Jim's videos but I've also seen a few other people jumping on the hate train and just **** on the graphics without having played it or anything, like, okay, just stop. I usually agree with Jim, including on most DW stuff but this time I was actually getting pissed off. He really seemed to just be talking out his ass about some of the problems he brought up like the combat and open world is "****, there's a load to do, it's actually kind of obnoxious at times.

Pre-ordered this kind of on a whim a few months ago and it just came out yesterday. Got to playing it today and ended up being quite pleased with the decision. It's the first game in a long time where I could sit down for hours on end and be entertained the whole time. It doesn't start out as much but within a couple hours you get several cute critters to command and sort into decks that you can switch between on the fly, side quests, stat building activities for you line up so you can buy upgrades for your character, an upgradable hub/base where characters you meet and even critters(yes, they talk and it's cute) you collect lounge around for you to talk with and the occasional personal quest and you can equip items to yourself and each monster for various stats and effects. Combat is pretty cool with holding R1 and a face button controlling and summoning your party while the rest of the time you fight with light and heavy attacks and a special move that uses meter. It pretty basic early on but eventually you can swap weapons mid combo and get some more moves. Also depending on your deck(your party of critters) compositions you get access to one of several demon forms with their own twists which is pretty cool. The story gets interesting with things leading up to dark choice with a bit of suspense so far. The characters are pretty much all likable and have humorous dialogue, with the main character being the best of them. It is hub based with zones you explore and the quests do a pretty good job of making the most of re-running some areas and unlocking new ones. I know this is a long ramble but I just brought up stuff as I thought about it rather than sit down and organize some formal review. TL;DR: Game is a pretty fun action/adventure/RPG and recommend checking it out some time.

Probably one of the most underwhelming entries in a big name franchise since Dragon Age II, though not nearly as fun or interesting. Some say or think this is just Civ V in the future and on a different planet. No, not really. This is quite different than Civ V. It plays like a Civ game, but certainly doesn't FEEL like a Civ game. First off; you don't really pick a civ/figurehead/crest or anything to sort of identify or rally behind. You pick like a general perk represnted by a little generic symbol and then you proceed to pick three more little perks. One effects like your focus on something, like culture, growth, etc. Another one is like an early game bonus, like reveal coastlines, or have a wider area to choose from when you drop your city, then you pretty much just get a second start up perk, like start with a tech or building. So it feels like they tried to add more customization, but none if it is that good or interesting and you lose a lot the style and personality or whatever. you feel more like some faceless organization trying to settle on a **** planet than a ruler trying to bring prominence to a civilization through domination, high culture, massive expansions or whatever you feel like. As a result a lot of us(me and about 7 other friends I played with) had no real goals or aspirations to do much of anything other than find some crashed satellites and **** None of us cared what we did or what happened "I'm losing, how am I losing?" "I'm winning, how am I winning?" "Do I care?" "No, but get the **** away from my resource pod." Oh yeah, there's quests now. Not like the city-state quests. But quests that get you little perks. Like, kinda cool concept, but no one gives a ****. Oh and let me tell you... about the super awesome planet EVERY match takes place on. Okay, there's a bunch of aliens that can kick your ass. You won't be able to scratch a siege worm until near mid or late game. On the plus side, they're not always hostile. Like I had a swarm of aliens outside my area who didn't give a **** about me. Thing is that some of them do care. But really the thing that really **** is the ****ing miasma every-****ing-where. This **** damages any and all your units if you end a turn on a space with it... and this **** is ****ing everywhere. You can be blocked off by nothing but miasma and alien swarms, or in my case once, city-states settling too close to me. because now you approve who comes near you for different bonuses. kinda cool... except they can prevent you from expanding in areas. One time I couldn't go south at all and my north was aliens and my west was a huge canyon that I couldn't cross. Tech has a sort of cool new approach to it, but at the same time, is a lot more tedious to actually get what you want or need. Instead of a bracket, it's more like a web that branches out in several directions. Each direction has another several techs that each open up about two other sort of sub techs with more stuff. Honestly... it's just the tech bracket if someone **** it on the ground and all the pieces were strewn about into little categories. The principle's the freaking same, as it should be, but why make it like this? Really, it doesn't feel like Civ at all and I actually wonder why they try to pass it as a Civ game other than to use brand recognition. You're not building a country/empire or anything. You're some faceless bland organization with no detailed history or national pride associated with it, try to start a colony on a new **** ass planet that wants nothing but for you to not progress anywhere or actually accomplish anything. Which is really kind of fine by you since there's no incentive to try and build up anything. There's no history to make, there's no territory really worth taking, the map doesn't even make making **** colored blob much of a thing. There's no real incentive other than to further progress some generic sci-fi tech for a weird generic symbol thing and a bland ass person(I guess, you hardly see them anyway) that represents you. Just nothing distinguishes you and there isn't much to do to change that and to shape a world with your ideologies and stuff. Overall, it introduces some 'interesting' spins on some systems as well as a few completely new ideas. But overall the entire package it's delivered in is bland and uninspiring. The biggest challenge of this game aside keeping your units alive in the toxic environment is mustering the initiative to want to even do anything to keep playing.

Apparently we live in an age were creating a chain reaction of singularities that **** soldiers in is considered "generic". Not to mention crystallizing and **** enemies or repelling bullets with a shield. I don't know about you, but pulling these things off and seeing in action makes me giddy every time I see these events and others happen. I don't recall any generic shooters where you do any of these things, let alone have some witty dialogue and some Tomb Raider-esque climbing sections. The story isn't anything award winning, but it does have it's twists and manages to be at least a bit interesting. Since this is an Insomniac game, I was playing it more for the gameplay and weapons, both of which are done very well. With the aforementioned abilities as well as cloaking, healing beacons and a crossbow that incinerates and pins enemies to walls. The co-op in this makes it one of the funnest co-op games I've played. Aside from the campaign, there's a Horde-like mode, where you fight waves of enemies while simultaneously completing an objective. Nothing fancy, but it is pretty fun and gives you more to do. The few gripes I do have with the game is the ally AI, which can either be just as helpful as having a friend play or be frustratingly stupid. Sometimes Dalton will provide ample cover for you in a firefight, other times he'll run ahead of everyone with his shield and trigger enemies for everyone else to deal with. More minor complaints include a very forgettable soundtrack with only a song or two standing out in a play sessions and the main menu being the blandest thing. Going through some of the more negative reviews, they mostly seem to be just EA haters or pissed Sony fans that hate that Insomniac is making a game for other systems. All I know is that I don't get all the "generic" complaints. If you actually play the game and level your abilities, or even better yet, play with a friend or two... or even three, it's really a pretty fun game. Personally I've gone through the game with just one other friend and we were having a blast throughout and really didn't see this 'generic'-ness everyone was ranting about.