Allegedly, Rage 2 was an endangered game until Avalanche Studios “rescued” it. I’m not sure that is truly the case. The shooting in the game is still the ultra-satisfying and fast paced action you expect from id software. It’s just too bad there’s this whole map and plot that get in the way of your enjoyment. How so?
GRAPHICS: 1/2
If you like sand, you’re gonna love 80% of this game. There are spots that aren’t sand, and they actually don’t look as good.
There’s no designated aesthetic for Rage. It has been, and always will be, a combination of other similar games smashed together.
The draw distance on the map is dismal, and that’s on the Xbox One X version. And don’t get me started on their FOV slider.
Some games make you stop and stare in awe at the land before you. In Rage 2, I couldn’t ignore the scenery fast enough.
At least there was nothing distinctly terrible about the visuals?
STORY/IMMERSION: 0/2
I don’t always skip cut scenes on a first playthrough. But when I do, it’s usually another id software game. Like Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, I regularly bypassed the plot out of sheer boredom.
The plot is too hard to follow anyway, the game expects you to just know stuff about the lore of Rage, which is something nobody has.
Did I even need a reason to shoot baddies? The game could have just said “here’s the bad guys, shoot them” and I would have had a blast.
But the game is so serious and the ridiculous action is at odds with the serious plot.
The plot also seems considerably unfinished, like it’s one third of a Far Cry game. And just like Ubisoft, they were keen to just litter the map with different stuff to do that earned you points towards being given story missions. One of which was a real slog.
This game was finished during a 3-night rental. Well, 4 nights total but I didn’t play it one night. I had to sort of force myself to plow through it.
AUDIO: 1/2
Soundtrack sounds like it’s on autopilot. And even worse, there were times where it became grueling. Because occasionally the action music won’t shut off and continues looping.
I’m trying REALLY hard to remember any song in this game and I just can’t. I distinctly remember the Mutant Bash TV song being OK. But that’s because it was comical.
The guns and explosions are satisfactory. You can certainly feel the impact when you pull the trigger.
Voice acting isn’t bad. Not that I know that much since I skipped half the cut scenes. It’s whatever. It did the job bare minimum.
When you pick up items of any kind you hear the same exact “pow” noise every time. You also get a chime when you upgrade but there are many upgrades where there’s no sound at all. Really removes the “ooomphf” from leveling up your sh*t.
The sound FX are like a poor imitation of Titanfall 2‘s BOMBASTIC level up and weapon sounds.
GAMEPLAY: 2/2
Despite the open world feeling like more of a nuisance than a gameplay feature, it does leave a lot of areas to go to. And in all those areas are baddies and you get to shoot them. This game is at its best when you are shooting the baddies.
But seriously, id software has first person shooter mechanics down pat. It seems like Avalanche just used the exact same structure they did in their “Mad Max” adaptation, but let id do all the fine tuning.
The powers are fun, and while the challenge dramatically change, it’s not bogged down by any RPG elements. Each location just has a challenge rating, from 1-10, and I appreciate that you can just walk on in to a high difficulty area and still win if you’re good enough.
There are probably cooler guns, yet I spent the majority of the game with a heavily upgraded version of the starter weapon, the ranger assault rifle. And it never got old. Especially when upgraded to high capacity and faster fire rate. Why aim when you can shoot more bullets?
FUN: 2/2
When this game is a shooter, it’s a great shooter. When this game is an open world sandbox, it’s a boring commute between combat sections. I almost would have preferred to just have a loading screen to teleport me to all the missions.
You know what really breaks immersion though? Having a pause menu that stutters and lags when you go from category to category.
Also the HUD disappears if you press the “Xbox” button. I had to do this frequently because I was capturing footage.
Despite all the complaints above, the actual combat just makes up for it in so many ways. It’s similar to Destiny in a way. They got themselves a great shooter that feels well polished, looks good, but lacks in story and creativity.
As stated earlier, this game was finished during a rental. By the time I finished, I had not done many of the side quests and locations to clear. If I had more time, I might be inclined to do them. But, it’s just not a $60 experience. That campaign is short and there are plenty of elements that keep Rage 2 away from greatness.
Hello friends, Chet here. What you are witnessing is one of the absolute best games Bethesda has ever made. This game single-handedly shows of the true depths that the developer and publisher can reach. This is an absolute game changer, both literally and metaphorically. Because it changed the Fallout games, and as a game changed the whole world! It’s so good, that we had to give you a whole ELEVEN reasons as to why this game was so good, because 10 just wasn’t enough. In fact it’s so good we are not even going to review it. Check out why it’s great over here!
In case the blunt sarcasm wasn’t enough, it shouldn’t have to be pointed out that this video is SATIRE.
The release of Bethesda’s Fallout 76 has been nothing short of a complete disaster.
Terrible reviews (even from games media).
Abysmal user scores everywhere.
Old glitches that were never fixed.
Disconnection issues.
Uninspired gameplay.
Tedium, very little to do.
Ridiculously easy to cheat.
Canvas bag changed to cheap garbage.
Annoying map and compass layout.
And accidentally doxx’ing their own customers due to a hiccup in their pre-orders for the Power Armer Edition. Ouch. The UK sales figures are showing a huge drop in sales, a whole 80% or more down from Fallout 4. It’s not a good month for Bethesda. It must be an even worse week for Todd Howard. At least as of now, they are fixing the issue with the cheap bags and getting people what they bought.
I’m trying my hardest to play this game and enjoy it, but it is so fundamentally flawed, it’s hard to work up the nerve to carry on. This game doesn’t feel like an actual product. It’s at best either an early alpha. It feels more like someone tried to mod a survival game with Fallout elements. But this combo doesn’t stick so well. It’s… bad. You know it’s bad. We know it’s bad. Everyone knows it’s bad. Except for the concurrent user base who are still playing it. They can force their fun in all they want, it’s still not going to make it any better.
So, that’s a bad review, right?
0/2 GRAPHICS – Why does this game look and run so terribly even on the One X?
0/2 STORY – There is no story. What about player progression incentives? Nope. There is none of that either.
1/2 AUDIO – The new soundtrack is surprisingly soothing. But there’s nothing special about anything else.
0/2 GAMEPLAY – Realtime VATS. The inability to pause or be safe anywhere whatsoever.
0/2 FUN – It’s not. It’s really not. I can’t “MAKE” it fun either. Nobody is playing.
If you wanted a number, there’s your number.
SCORE: 1/10
But that’s not a real review. And that’s no way to go about it. So, no, that score doesn’t actually count, and we will review the game eventually. We are going to wait and see if Bethesda can fix this. Why? Because it’s possible. There’s been plenty of games that failed when they started and turned out great later on. We all remember the backlash Hello Games got when they released No Mans Sky. A lot of the features they said would be in there were absent. They didn’t say much about this.
Instead they put themselves back to work. Now we have a No Man’s Sky that has a lot more to do and suits many different playstyles. The same could be said of Destiny 1 & 2. Same for Final Fantasy XIV. Even Bethesda themselves had this with the original release of Elder Scrolls Online. Each one was pretty short and dry on content, but expansions greatly improved upon them. The same could be said of a large number of indie survival games.
That’s the boat we are in right now. Bethesda, your game is broken. Fix it. We’ll get back to you when you do.
Sizzle reel greatly featured the dev teams, it was very personable and charming.
Then another reel full of VIOLENT VIDEO GAMING ACTION.
Pete Hines came out, talked about their games of 2017, then mentioned they were the top-ranked publisher on Metacritic.
Then he made fun of Wal-Mart Canada for leaking their game.
Then Andrew WK happened so they could properly introduce Rage 2.
Everyone seemed to be excited about Rage 2, saying RAGE IS BACK.
Then they didn’t know what to say and got stuck.
Rage 2
This trailer gave us a bit of story.
Then we got a gameplay trailer so good you have to see it for your self.
Elder Scrolls Legends
It’s a card game with a very good trailer that showed very little game footage.
But everyone claimed you would just love it.
Elder Scrolls Online
A dev from the game came on to talk about Summerset for too long.
Then they spoiler all of ESO in case you planned on playing it.
After spoiling the game they showed you some of the things in you’ll see in Summerset.
Doom Eternal
A trailer came on revealing Doom Eternal.
And it turned out to be an announcement for an announcement, as they’d say more at Quake Con. And that was it.
Quake Champions
A dev from Quake Champions came to talk about Quake Champions and how good Quake Champions was and how everyone loved Quake Champions and that they should continue to enjoy Quake Champions.
They showed a trailer with new characters like it was a hero shooter.
It is also currently free to try from June 10-17.
Prey Mooncrash
New DLC for Prey was released, featuring new play modes.
It also had a new simulation where each play is unique.
And a multiplayer mode 1v4 where 4 players get to be mimics and hide as objects from the players.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
This was revealed by two devs who talked too long about the game.
Then we got a 2D trailer that featured some plot and a two women protagonist team.
Prey Typhon Hunt & Wolfenstein Cyber Pilot
Pete came back to talk about these two games and showed nothing.
Todd Howard
It’s Todd Howard, everyone!
He’s been with Bethesda for 25 years.
We learned the history of E3.
He made fun of everyone!
Skyrim
Watch it.
Fallout 76
We were treated to seeing the same trailer.
And then we saw the first few moments of the game.
After, Todd Howard revealed that the only people you interact with are “other humans”
He explained the game in more detail, in that it’s more like a drop-in, drop-out squad-based shooter, but you can also play solo.
Turns out you can build wherever you want, making the game more like Fortnite than any MMO.
The crafty Vault-Tec videos explained how the mechanics work.
The game also has… RECREATIONAL NUKES.
Then the BETA gets announced and Todd Howard admits that Bethesda has buggy games.
Todd Howard reveals the collectors’ edition that comes with a map that “glows in the fucking dark”, along with action figures, and a working Brotherhood of Steel Helmet.
Release date slated for November 14, 2018.
Also, Fallout Shelter is coming to PS4 and Switch.
Elder Scrolls Blade
Todd Howard also showed off this game designed for iPhone.
You can play the game with a controller or play it vertically, one-handed.
Todd Howard also calls everyone “degenerates”.
It’s a full Elder Scrolls experience available for Free that will be made available on multiple platforms and plans to have a complete cross-platform play, but currently just Android and iPhone.
Starfield
A teaser featuring the name of the game was revealed.
Elder Scrolls VI
A teaser featuring the name of the game was revealed.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, is a stand-alone expansion pack to the well received Dishonored series. It is a first person stealth action title with focus on a play-it-your-way approach to gameplay. It was developed by Arkane Studios and published by Betheseda Softworks. Originally scheduled to be an expansion pack similar to the Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches of the first game, DotO was instead given a physical release and retailed for $29.99. As its own story, it was designed to be the end of the Dishonored franchise. The question is, did the game deserve to be a stand-alone title, or should it have remained tied to Dishonored 2 as DLC?
GRAPHICS: 1/2
It’s not that the graphics are bad or anything, but simply nothing really comes to mind that stands out, especially in terms of the “wow” factor. The maps contained in the game include an underground boxing ring, an upper-class city area, a bank, a museum, and a mining site. None of them look particularly great. Some locations have a few good details thrown in, but they are also bland overall. This goes doubly so for the “Royal Conservatory”. This is a map that was re-used from the previous game, only it’s covered up in random junk and debris assets all over. And on top of that, it makes the original map look worse by having tan construction tarps lying all over the place. They successfully made a good-looking map look boring, congratulations. Bonus negative points for not making “The Void” look particularly interesting in the final moments of the game.
STORY: 0/2
Protagonist Billie Lurk has just finished ferrying either Emily or Corvo around at the end of the previous game. Now that she has some free time, she’s ready to seek out her old mentor, Daud, because… reasons. Then when you save Daud, he insists that they should kill the in-universe god character “The Outsider” because… reasons. Minor spoilers, (ignore the following italics) but it’s very clear that Daud has grown old and is likely to die, he even says so. So… he dies, off screen after a mission. That’s when Billie decides that she’s going to finish off his quest to kill the Outsider. Fair enough. But later on, you suddenly discover at breakneck pace that maybe the Outsider was innocent and you can choose to not kill him instead by doing some other things because… reasons. Then you get a two minute ‘cutscene’ (I’m being generous, it’s a bunch of still images) for completing the game. Then that’s it, that’s the entire franchise’s big ending, just a pat on the back. “Extreme letdown” is putting it mildly.
AUDIO: 1/2
Rosario Dawson’s performance as the emotionless assassin Billie Lurk is as good as it can get for a rather lackluster script. Michael Madson, meanwhile, is off doing his trademark sad old man voice for Daud, and delivers a lot of humanity to the character. The soundtrack is very bitter and depressing, and I understand it’s supposed to be that way, but that doesn’t change that the music is boring. I’m not kidding when I say that the game’s best music is in the pause screen. As for SFX, a lot of the sound in the game was just okay, but nothing came off in a satisfying way, and this included slow-mo finishing moves.
GAMEPLAY: 2/2
So many fixes to the Dishonored formula were made in this expansion. The abilities you are given don’t have any upgrades, which really streamlined the game since you don’t have to run about searching for runes. Instead of holding a heart that shows stuff to find, you get a ghost-vision ability called “foresight” that will let you find things and tag items ahead of you and beyond walls. This made hunting down the bone charms more organic and less of a chore. The game also introduced new elements, like “Contracts” that allow the player to spend more time in the map fulfilling mini-quests instead of hunting for powerups. It’s more story focused and is at times a great way of world building for a series that’s about to end. Plus, (originally patched in to Dishonored 2 post-release) the addition of mission selection and having a customized difficulty menu allows you to tune the game to the exact experience you want while playing. If future games were to use this feature, that’d be great but again, this is the final game. Allegedly.
FUN: 1/2
The amount of entertainment I got from this game was a rollercoaster of ups and downs. The starting mission was mediocre. The second and third missions use one really well-designed map which at first, I praised to high heaven as being the antithesis to open world gaming. But my enthusiasm began to wear off as I had to sneak past the same guards at the same gate and area literally 5-7 times, which really tried my patience in the end. The interior of the bank was interesting but didn’t feel all that rewarding, but the multiple approaches to robbing the vault were just fine. You get a powered-up sword for the final two missions after the bank, so better late than never? As mentioned above, the proceeding map was the one reused from the prior game and wasn’t that great looking. HOWEVER, it was an absolute blast. Why? One of the contracts in that mission instructs you to literally KILL EVERYONE except for one character, and I gladly obliged. This briefly turned the game into a fast-paced Assassins Creed in which I tactically assassinated everyone or shot them dead with the my newly acquired, overpowered dart launcher. And then the final mission is a snooze fest filled with overpowered NPCs. Way to kill the mood, game.
It is blatantly obvious that Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was intended to be nothing more than DLC for Dishonored 2. For some reason, it was decided that this was going to be a thirty dollar game with its own disc, and that was a mistake. This game isn’t worth that amount, maybe 20 at best. There are other games that cost less and are far better experiences. With the relative shortness of the title and lack of any interesting story or plot, it has a lot of nerve trying to pass itself off as a standalone game. I don’t know who was responsible for this decision, so I’m just going to blame parent company Zenimax for trying to squeeze more money out a franchise that didn’t need to be milked.
