Just a couple days ago I wrote a piece on how Fallout 76 made enough marginal improvements to be worth your time if you haven’t played it. I also said it was boring. Yet somehow, as the very first story arc of the new game closed, something happened.
I could have stopped, it felt like the particular arc I was following stopped short. Then I explored some more and found some cool new things. Then I found another new quest that I thought was an old quest. Then random quests popped up as I explored.
And then I spent what had to be a solid 1.5hrs fiddling with my gear at a friendly player’s camp. You know, the high level players camps are so nice that I’ve yet to even bother to make my own, it’s actually been easier to just freeload. And they dynamic locations of the camps also makes it easy for me to fast travel to quest markers I’d normally have to hoof it to.
One night I was really steamed and needed to relax.
But did I launch Doom Eternal for the catharsis and murder? No. Did I scour the other wasteland that takes place in Washington DC? No not Fallout 3, I mean the Division 2, but still no.
I fired up Fallout 76 and had a terrible experience. A high level legendary monster killed me twice and at one point had me trapped. The 350+ rounds I unloaded on it reduced his health by… 1/32 if I’m being honest. Then I had scour the land far and wide to find a Tinker Bench because I couldn’t remember where one in particular was at. My freeloading ass went to 3 different user camps, all who had every workshop except a Tinker Bench. .
This took… I think another 3 hours of my life but I was frustrated so I QUIT. For a solid hour and a half and then jumped back on because I was so close to finishing the quest! Then another quest popped up. At some point I literally sent Xbox messages to players offering to sell of my grenades to them.
Then I looked at the curtain in my own room. And then I looked at the clock. It was 6AM. Todd you’ve done it again.
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I’m aware this news is stale as heck, but that doesn’t mean I can’t share my opinion on it. So, I shall opine away. That’s the word, right? Opine? One sec… okay I checked the dictionary and that is correct.
Basically, in case you didn’t know this, China’s internet is very censorious. It will block anything that is inconvenient to those in power. And Winnie the Pooh apparently. Xi Jinping really hates that guy. In fact, it’s actually common knowledge that if someone from China is in any sort of messaging thread, forum, or chat group; you can get their internet instantly shut off by mentioning:
1989 TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTESTS 天安門大屠殺 JUNE FOURTH INCIDENT 六四事件 DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT 八九民運
Shit, now nobody in China can read this rant. Oh well. China cut off or online multiplayer for some of biggest games because unfortunate information about the CCP keeps popping up and they just can’t have that. Animal Crossing is has already been cut on the chopping block, but they plan on more, they are just getting started. They can still play the multiplayer games sure, they’re just playing only against others in their country. Or so I’m led to believe.
This isn’t even a CHINA BAD article. This is actually a GET F*CKED BLIZZARD article. If you dig back a while, publisher Blizzard bent over backwards to appease China when several incidents occurred that made them look really bad. TenCent, a Chinese entertainment company, owns a sizable chunk of Blizzard. So, whenever it came down to them appeasing the company, they would bend the knee every time.
And that’s the crux of this opinion.
Are you f*cking happy now Blizzard? You have shown numerous times that you are completely out of touch with your fan base and tried to make up for it by announcing a bunch of games people are anticipating. Dropping Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 is not gonna make your many controversies go away.
Now, the country you so desperately tried to pander to is about to hurt your bottom line. I guarantee this will have a negative impact on user activity in your games. Now, I know you won’t really FEEL the difference because you’re a soulless organization who sold off their dignity a long time ago. But deep down, after all the epic screw-ups you committed, your day of reckoning has finally arrived. Okay, yeah that was a week ago. This is your week of reckoning!
I implore Blizzard fans, I know you love their games. Gamer boycotts are virtually useless and lead to nothing. Just pay more attention to what they are doing. You always have to vote with your wallet. Decide if that freaking loot box is worth it, considering all they’ve done. Hold off on your pre-orders until you know the game isn’t broken. Because their new games will ship broken. I guarantee it. They cared too much about China, only for China to turn on a dime and stop caring about Blizzard. Nice one. Come @ me in the comments.
Hate reading? The audio version can be found HERE.
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Doom Eternal. Except any bit with the marauders. Screw those guys. But yeah, it’s fun. Beat the game, I’ve been going back through it finding secrets and collectibles. Only problem is I started getting bored of it.
So I checked out Battle Mode. Only recently have I gotten more comfortable with multiplayer games, which is weird because when I was younger I played the hell out of Quake 3 Arena. I used to do Splatoon 2 videos but then the Splatfests stopped. I digress, I didn’t pay any attention to the promo stuff regarding Doom Eternal’s multiplayer, so I had no idea what was in store for me.
It’s kinda cool. Kinda. But there’s only one game type in Battle Mode. One Slayer vs Two Demons. That’s it. You have some decent tutorials on how to play as the demons but you can’t really get a feel for them until you’ve played a few matches.
Problem is… I’m having a hard time finding matches. You can select to play as a Demon or Slayer if you want, sure. But more often than not, if I try to pick what I want to play as, the game will search for a match for about 15 seconds before giving up. Like, really? Can’t just keep searching? I was only able to start when I selected Quickmatch, which randomizes being a Demon or the Slayer.
I prefer to be a support type of character and while that is available, the small intimacy of a 3 person match is a far cry from 64 person Battlefield where I get to be a medic and just heal people who are better at the game than me. So, meh, could be better I guess.
But where’s the rest?
That’s it for Doom? There’s no co-op horde mode? Really? That seems like the most obvious idea, you and other slayers face down an constant onslaught of demons that get harder and harder, until you’re left fighting three marauders, three doom hunters, and a baron of hell with only 3 shotgun shells left, and not enough zombies to refill your ammo, so you all panic and die. Sounds like a blast right? Well, where is it?
Horde mode is not an original game mode by any means. In a world where even Forza Horizon gets its own Battle Royale mode (I’m not even joking), you figure that a horde mode would be the first go-to. Oh god they’re not doing Doom Battle Royale are they? I hope not. Maybe I’m being too picky, it’s just really weird that there’s only one game mode and nothing else. Do they have a roadmap? One second. I stopped to look and see if there’s planned DLC. Looks like there is, but it appears to be single player content.
Welp, that’s fine by me I guess. I’d still like a horde mode though, can we please get it? Do you want a horde mode? Have you had a hard time with matchmaking? Come @ me in the comments.
You know I feel like gamers have been rather apathetic as of late. We finally get Half Life 3 (sortof) and everyone shrugs. We get a “Remake” for the beloved Final Fantasy VII and judging by the comments on my previous post, people have several misgivings about the release (to put it mildly). Now we have the game fixer everyone has been waiting for.
The massive failure of a game, Fallout 76, has finally done the unthinkable. It’s become an actual fallout game with quests, plot, NPCs, you know, Fallout stuff. The brand new “free” WASTELANDERS campaign is available to all owners of Fallout 76.
It has also been re-listed as Fallout 76: Deluxe Edition with the store icon changed to a new Wastelanders icon. The game is back at full price right now @ $60, or so they would make you think. The Wastelanders update is free, this deluxe edition is just giving you all the extra fluff crap you don’t need. Search harder and you’ll find a the vanilla version of Fallout 76 for $40 USD.
Reminder if you own F76 on disc.
The disc is basically just a 520MB license file, the game is all download. At least on Xbox, not sure on the exact numbers for PS4 and PC. Still no announcement of we’ll be getting it on Nintendo Switch (as if!).
I purposely avoided reviews for several reasons. I want to go into this expansion blind, and with a fresh frame of mind as I haven’t touched the game since they did the “Nuclear Winter” mode (which was oddly okayish). I’m sure there are plenty of opinions, hot takes, and reviews pouring into the net as we speak.
So, are you gonna go back to play it? Did you get rid of your copy? Are you no longer interested? Have you seen the reviews? Come @ me in the comments.
Hi I’m Chet Harrison and this is my pawn shop. Okay just kidding this a review page. Anyway, I like karting games but our pal Dale Desimone (Zeke) is an expert on these things and can tell us what we’re really dealing with here. Team Sonic Racing is a multi-platform kart racing game smart enough to release before Crash Team Racing pops up and takes over. Is this any good? YES*
*mainly for couch multi and it being multi-platform. It’s better than Mario Kart anyway. ^_-
Everyone has been upset over a particular mission. Nordlys depicts a woman and her mother opposing German troops who are transporting a nuclear compound known as hard water. This event actually took place under several men trying to sabotage the plans. All the complaining about misrepresenting history has made something clear. We now all know what really happened.
You don’t actually need to be a hardcore gamer (or a hard mode gamer) to enjoy Super Mario Party. In fact, the level of skills you have may only affect some minigames, but even then, the board can still f*ck you over. But to play Super Mario Party, all you gotta do is hand off the controller and let them do a practice match before the real deal. Who did I play the game with when I found this out. It’s here in the video.
Every year gamers are treated to a very familiar lineup of games for the holiday season. This year Activision decided to shake things up a bit. First they announced the latest Call of Duty installment from developer Treyarch would arrive without a single player campaign. Then they announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 would be releasing a month earlier than normal. And finally they announced no shooter would exist without a challenge from the money backed behemoth. Watch out Fortnite, Black Ops 4 has a Battle Royale mode. Available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ditches single player for a full multiplayer experience. Does it work?
GRAPHICS: 2/2
Activision still understands blockbuster video games and the fans of said blockbuster video games. They still know how to put the pressure on developers to make sure the games look good. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is confidently the best looking Call of Duty game of all time. It’s especially impressive because the whole game is online. Unlike previous games there are no scripted moments to use super high fidelity cgi on and then revert to in game. Replicating locations and battlefields from previous games in better quality makes the nostalgia feel justified. Seeing all of this big money quality pushed into a battle royale made even more of an impact. Up until now most Battle Royale’s looked like games in development. Black Ops 4 is the first game with a battle royale that looks complete.
STORY:0/2
Doesn’t exist. Get over it. It’s sad but just move on. Seriously though, the lack of a true single player campaign is a bit of a bummer. Instead the team at Treyarch included a set of tutorials that feel like the independent special op missions from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. It’s a fun experience for anyone who gives it a try but it doesn’t really provide any reason for anyone who’s ever played Call of Duty before to dive in. The Zombies mode also provides a little bit of plot for those really in need but it’s of the same quirky variety as past games. Maybe next time they’ll be kind enough to include some true single player content.
AUDIO: 1/2
Sound design has always been a weak point for the Call of Duty franchise. Even with the best voice actors and top notch musicians, sound has always felt like an after thought. Black Ops 4 is an exception to the run with very little to brag about. The lack of a single player campaign makes it so the focus of sound design was about creating ambience in multiplayer maps. That was done extremely well making certain perks all the more useful. It also translated well to the zombies mode allowing for certain areas to feel scary enough to add a new layer to the mode. Now the dark corridors provide a slight intensity. The voice acting was decent in the areas where it made sense. It’s hard to tell how good it was though because zombie mode dialogue has always been cheesy.
GAMEPLAY: 2/2
The Black Ops series has been a major fan favorite in the franchise and with the latest installment it’s super easy to see why. Despite not adding a ton of new mechanics to the game, the team at Treyarch added just enough. Reusing maps from previous games would be awful under most conditions, however in Black Ops 4 it’s great. Not only because of the updated graphics but also because of different weapons, perks, and equipments. Using a fully powered nine-bang has significantly more impact than a standard flash bang. That difference represents entirely new tactics for playing fan favorite maps in 4k. Call of Duty doesn’t sacrifice anything its great at to make space for anything new. Even the battle royale mode feels completely polished and fresh. It’s everything a certain other super serious battle royale wanted to be. Oh, and there are zombies in battle royale.
FUN: 2/2
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 as a Party game after a long day of work is a hell of a great time. Solo after a long day of work, not quite as enjoyable. Do not misunderstand that statement. Call of Duty is still super fun for all the solo gamers who just like to kick back and play games. However, this time more than ever, the game is designed for people who love the multiplayer experience. The closest thing to a story in the game are the shenanigans taking place in the zombie mode. The zombie menace is an equal threat to all. The ridiculousness of every single chapter makes for a constant stream of fun. The debate on whether Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a good game will go on for ever. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 being a fun game can not be contested.
Call of Duty returns to the forefront of online military warfare. It avoids sending any soldiers to the single player battle where it’s already lost to all the other great titles this year. Precisely aiming its sights at any competition that thinks it stands a chance against the unmatched wallet of Activision. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 delivers everything the core fans of the series expect plus more. Even if thats at the expense of the casuals who just wanted a single player military based story campaign to play through.
The weapon wielding fighting game franchise has returned. Soul Calibur 6, is the latest entry in a fan favorite franchise. Developed and published by Bandai Namco and produced by the internal team Project Soul, Soul Calibur 6 delivers a fighting experience like no other. Released on October 19, 2018 , Soul Calibur 6 is determined to reignite the flame of the fighters’ soul.
GRAPHICS: 2/2
If there is anything that Bandai Namco has locked down over the years creating fighting games, it is visuals. Soulcalibur 6 looks incredibly amazing. The greatest display of it’s visual prowess is undeniably found within the super powerful character creation. Allowing the creation of iconic characters from all walks of life. This much power could be terrifying but in this case it’s amazing. The possibilities are endless and every single asset used looks just as high quality as the original characters in the game. Frame-rates are incredibly smooth and consistent and load times are nearly non-existent. Even the terrible idea to use visual novel style cutscenes to move the story along, look fantastic. Soulcalibur 6 is magnificent to look at in action.
STORY: 2/2
How does a long standing franchise with a plot involving a war between good and evil keep things fresh? Simple, reboot. Soulcalibur 6 has easily one of the best reboot concepts since Mortal Kombat 9. (Remember that reboot, it was amazing.) Soul Calibur 6 brings fans back to the roots of the story. Much like Bandai Namco’s other super series, Tekken, the story of Soul Calibur is experience through the eyes of every playable character in the game. Each character experiences a different perspective of this world threatening plot. Unlike past games in the series, however, it appears the development team decided to make every story official canon. This makes some of the endings a little lack luster on their own but, as part of the bigger picture, every piece of the puzzle fits perfectly.
AUDIO: 1/2
The music composed for this game is stellar. It does an incredible job of boosting adrenaline with its heavy orchestration. Every stage has a theme song that plays to the uniqueness of the stage. These subtle design choices are amazing and the menu sounds are just present enough to be interesting. Where Soul Calibur 6 continues to excel is in character creation. Even the voices available to the created hero feel exciting and fresh in a weird way. Maybe these are the normal grunts and theres nothing special about them at all but for whatever reason in this game they felt great.
GAMEPLAY: 1/2
Much like it’s spiritual brother, Tekken, Soul Calibur 6 is a very technical game. With a roster of nearly 30 characters, before including created characters, there’s a gameplay style for every gamer. The return of Critical Edge, the one button super move, was extremely welcomed. As was the brand new introduction of Reversal Edge, a new type of guard that can lead to auto blocking any attack. Guard Impact and Soul Charge also returned making some classic mechanics feel fresh and updated. There wasn’t anything groundbreaking or incredibly surprising but the gameplay was always fluid and smooth.
FUN: 2/2
Fighting games are one of the last standing same room multiplayer experiences left in gaming. A good fighting game can be hours of fun for a group of gamers. A great fighting game offers months of fun for a single player and groups of gamers. Soul Calibur 6 is absolutely on the high side of great fighting games. Even if everything else about this game was sub par, the freedom of the character creation is outrageous. Individual story lines for every character adds hours of semi-adventurous fun. Seriously, A quick Google search will show how much fun people are having playing Soul Calibur 6.
Although the previous entry wasn’t a disaster for the series, it was not without its flaws. And those flaws were strongly addressed with the release of Soul Calibur 6. Load times minimized, graphics still top notch, character creation returned and made even better, it’s really amazing. Most notable of all is the slight reboot to the story. Long time fans will find the story has been rebooted and become much cleaner and interesting. Overall better told. Soul Calibur 6 is a must have for any fighting game fan and a great recommendation for anyone else.
On the core, the game is still the essential battlefield experience. Chet is a relative newcomer to the series, he’s just not a hardcore fan. He may be missing something by not being a regular user. But, the rash of recent backlash and hate left him surprised. Now he feels like because the expectations were set so low, he liked it. That said, EA isn’t off the hook quite yet!
Grid Autosport is a game originally released back in 2014 and is one of the many games finding itself ported onto the Switch. This will be the first serious racing sim game to grace the console. Grid Autosport isn’t exactly Forza material but it does have a lot of racing types from a wide range or racing disciplines from V8 Supercars to Formula A. It features 22 racing locations from all around the world. These include a lot of real-world tracks, a couple of fictitious tacks, and several street racing setups. There’s 103 cars total, but its yet to be announced if there will be more additions for the Switch version. They should. After all, it’s been enough time, you figure they could add in at least a couple of bonuses while they were porting it, right? Either way, as more hardcore racing simulator is severly need on the Switch platform, and hopefully Grid Autosport will be enough to fill that empty space Here’s the trailer.
With Grid Autosport announced for Nintendo Switch, we can hopefully look forward to even more racing games to fill up the empty desert that is its racing catalog. Last year we got Gear.Club Unlimited, and now a sequel is coming out in a matter of days. This new iteration of the formerly mobile phone racer comes with a new focus of 3 racing types. That’s asphalt, icy, and dirt. It is definitely far more on the side of being an arcade game, but a decent arcade game nonetheless. Especially since it features rewinding. That feature is almost an absolute must in modern racing games. In an old age where the moment you make one mistake and lose the entire race, new games decided that they will help you forgo this trouble with rewinding. It’s not going to guarantee you a win every time, but it helps to keep you from a bad losing streak. GCU2 will feature four player same screen co-op, a rarity in this age of games. Here’s the trailer as well.
Hooowooooowwwww! How about that. Some good racing games for the Switch! Gear.Club Unlimited 2 is out RIGHT NOW for full retail @ $59.99 on digital, meanwhile the physical release is surprisingly cheaper at $49.99. Meanwhile, Grid Autosport has a tentative “Coming 2019” release as of right now and will likely be the same price.
The past week or so, we were faced with some really good games. Like Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee. And probably Warriors Orochi 4, I guess. But you know what wasn’t great? Fallout 76 and Battlefield V, two big ticket games. Both were set to make a splash in the crazy release season that is November. But neither could achieve what the wanted. Fallout 76 was vastly undercut by it’s monotony and lack of direction. Battlefield V was just the same Battlefield as always with a new coat of paint. BFV also had it’s critics for its inaccurate portrayal of WW2 by people on the internet, but that’s the internet. Everybody hates everything on the internet. Besides that, both games got major BETA playtests from regular users. This is honestly a good step, allowing the actual PLAYERS some advanced look at the game instead of some journalist who intends to write a giant think piece. Both of these games have a huge focus on multiplayer. Fallout 76 is the first major multiplayer game for Bethesda and Battlefield V is a multiplayer game with a campaign tacked on. Only their campaign was even shorter AND less interesting.
Either way, we haven’t finished enough of either to give you a consensus. But… if you are absolutely dying to play an online shooter game, we have something interesting for you. We are going to compare the games using our review system. But instead of the score, we are going to say which game did it better! Let’s start, shall we?
Graphics
Battlefield V is flat out gorgeous, with heavily detailed maps and great lighting that really set the mood for a lot of maps. There are some glitches but it works for the most part. The smoke grenades set up some serious smoke particle FX. And the detail of the character faces is surprisingly detailed for a game that doesn’t have too much focus on what the player looks like. Fallout 76 looks… exactly like it did several years ago. Fallout 3 and New Vegas never looked that great. Fallout 4 didn’t look that great. Fallout 76? It’s markedly improved, sure. But does it look great? No way, it looks as trashy as its level design and full of all sorts of ugly textures. Several of the ugly textures have taken more than 20 seconds to pop in. Yikes.
Victor: Battlefield V
Story
Battlefield V is one of the many, many, many, many iterations of World War II presented in game form. Somehow, it managed to make history even more boring, despite trying to spice things up with some creative historical fiction. What you get here is a mere 3 stories, as opposed to 5 in the previous entry. It’s really hard to feel anything for these characters because you spend such a small amount of time with them. It ends up being boring. Fallout 76 is boredom incarnate. Using the gaming worlds least interesting way of telling stories, any thing plot related in the game is played out in VERY LENGTHY audio logs. They can’t be paused or fast forwarded. If you interact with your pip-boy and click the wrong thing, the tape will stop and you have to start it over. Other than that, you only other window into the events of the game are logs written on terminal screens. In old Fallout games, this was done for lore. In 76, they are main story points. Super lame. All the same, when it comes down to brass tacks, it would seems that Fallout 76 still has a better overall story. Having a ton of lore is better than a bog-standard WW2 plot.
Victor: Fallout 76
Audio
Battlefield V has all the standard sounds you’re used to hearing. The audio was on autopilot in this regard. Every single gun sounds like it did in every other game. You will not in any way be inspired by the sound design of the weapons, nor will you be interested in the orchestral OST. It’s there because it’s supposed to be there, not because it wants to do something engaging. Fallout 76 surprisingly has a decent OST going for it. The ambient music that plays while you’re wandering the world is noticeably better then previous versions. It’s actually notable and really adds to the mood of the game being very lonely and desolate. And if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, there’s always the old sock-hop records to keep things going. The fantasy weapons also have wonderful unique sounds.
Victor: Fallout 76
Gameplay
In Fallout 76, you are bombarded with nonstop activity. The game is always online, so that means no pause menu. If you want to look at the map, it’s realtime. If you need to sort your junk on your Pip-Boy, that is also real time. There is nowhere safe to be when you play this game. You absolutely will be bombarded by enemies at any and all opportunities, with very little time to rest and get a bearing on things. In Battlefield V, the campaign is atrocious. But the multi-player is on point. It weird, the game is so much better in multi than single. It makes you wish the they skipped the campaign, instead of Black Ops. Anyway, the game is direct and lets you “play it your way”, which is very important. Divided into four classes, you can spawn is as a specialist in Assault, Medic, Recon, and Support. Don’t let the names fool you, all of them are combat roles. It’s what you do with them that matters. Either way, BFV manages to be a great shooter while Fallout 76 stays wonky as ever.
Victor: Battlefield V
Fun
To put it simply, there’s an easy dichotomy here. Fallout 76 has a “make your own fun” approach to game design. If you want to have any fun, you want to team up and do fun stuff together with your friends. Otherwise it’s a drag. Battlefield is good at grouping you with interesting colleagues that you help out during the many combat modes. Even if you aren’t on voice chat, the game finds a way to make you feel connected with your squad. It’s admirable that it manages to gel so well with random strangers. Meeting random strangers in Fallout 76 are few and far between. They are also as underwhelming as ever.
Victor: Battlefield V
It is clear that the winner is Battlefield V with a victory spread of 3-2. We haven’t heard too much of the game in the blogosphere of gaming. But this may be because the game just… is fine. It’s not spectacular. It’s just fine. Despite early complaints, the bottom line is that BFV is a better experience than Fallout 76. If you need a brand new game to satisfy your itch for fast paced, online, multiplayer shooter action, you could do worse than picking up the latest Battlefield. Me? I got so bored during the campaign that I jumped into multi. I never do that. Not until this iteration. How surprising!
